I am in deep with Facebook, I have bought at least 4 facebook courses and have watch hours of free videos and webinars in the last few weeks I have seen experts recommend such different things it is amazing

• Expert 1 – Use only images with cleavage in because they get most clicks (and he showed % to back it up)
• Expert 2 – Only use images that are relevant because people will click but not like

So who is right.. Well I think they both are but in different ways, if you are in a niche aimed broadly at men then the cleavage will get more clicks and the chances are you will get likes as long as it is broad targeting.

But if you are in a specialist niche, which is aimed at women, then you may well want to look at something other than a cleavage shot.

• Expert 1 -Keeps talking about cheap clicks
• Expert 2 – Says that profit matters and not the cheap clicks

Expert 1 is right for his cause, he wants to sell a product about Facebook marketing and cheap clicks get attention. It plays on peoples fear of dropping money into a black hole.
Expert 2 is right from a real world business point of view. If I am leading people into a funnel of products which gives each one a value of $5 in the first 6 weeks and each like/lead costs me $1 then it is worth me spending the dollar bills all day long.

The issue here is that people get drawn in by the idea of getting lots of cheap clicks/likes and have no idea what to do with them once they get them. Everyone says promote Amazon but you need to sell a good amount of Amazon products to make it worthwhile. The law of large numbers does work though, if you get enough likes you should be able to sell just about anything.

Think about what you are going to sell them before you start a page (I dropped $50 by messing up this one thing).. The fall back is always Amazon but is that the most profitable way to do it? Could you sell them your own product? or buy a PLR Product and sell them that?

CPA Offers – I saw someone talking about how they made $5k from their Facebook page with dating offers. But he laid out $450 to build the page and the list before mailing. Nice return, but you need to have the money to invest and that can take some guts.

Balance
In the end I had to find a balance between watching and reading from experts and getting in and trying.  It is a lot cheaper to just read and learn, but when you have some dollars on the line you do start to think clearly..lol

Until the point where you get some skin in the game it is all theory. I am just reading a sci fi book called Rally Cry and one of the things they say in there is that every plan is perfect until you encounter the enemy. I feel the same about working online. All the talk of 1c/2c clicks and building lists of thousands is great… But if you do nothing but read then you will never truly understand what you are doing.

It Costs
Yes running FB ads costs, so does buying a domain name, so does buying content, so does having a banner made. If you want to profit you have to be willing to put some money in. If you do not want to put money in, dont expect to get money out.

Final Facebook Thoughts 

• Don’t spend your rent money (I never put more than $10 a day in and often stop when I have spent $2 or $5 and evaluate)
• Have an idea of how to monetize before you start
• Get a week or more worth of posts ready before you start ads to get likes
• Remember people like to laugh
• They don’t like essays and link outs
• Change your images often
• Test, track and think
• No “Expert” is right in every instance

http://ctrsamurai.com/ - Tool I use to help my images get noticed (huge part of the “secret” )

Let me know how you are doing with FB.. Tried and given up, never tried or somewhere inbetween?

I think a lot of it is fear, and that I totally understand . I mean no one wants to lose money and if you don’t know anything about them (and let them run rampant) obviously you can lose some money. In this easy to follow FREE report I ….

• HOW to set up your first ad
• I talk about Targeting
• I show you images that get clickthroughs
• I talk about knowing your market
• I share some tips and ideas

I really have set it out in a format that you can easily follow, I screen shot the whole process and have shared each stop..

Paul, How Do I Get This Awesome Report?… Once you share this post on , Facebook, Twitter , Google Plus or even Linkedin, The links not just to the report but to a discount for my new plugin will be revealed…

Simply share this page on one of the social platforms listed below and then you can download the report AND get a substantial discount on my new plugin – WP Social Blackout. Instead of paying $27 for the multisite license you can pay just $9.95.

I know just how much social signals matter so what better way to get some social love than by offering a awesome introduction to Facebook Ads.

In March we did a Squidoo challenge (Aprils one is Facebook)

Of course as soon as we decided on Squidoo they decided to throw a spanner in the works.

-Stopped all lens transfers

-Started changing what they wanted to see in a lens

-Started to scan and then lock lenses

They Killed My Plans
The idea I had for April was to build some lenses and sell them on, just to then be able to do a report on selling lenses. Squidoo killed this business , mainly because people were buying and selling such low quality lenses.  But it didn’t just affect people who spun content and created awful pages of drivel (which earned them money) , it affected well respected people who had staff to build the pages for them.

For me it once again proved you should never rely on one income stream.

Tell Me What You Want
This causes so many arguments in the real world it is unreal. Well Squidoo did it as well! “Make them more personal”, How do i make a site about cameras that I have never seen more personal unless I make up stuff and how does that help the reader any more than the spun crap that people complain about. I still haven’t worked out what they really want and nor have a lot of other people.

Are You Scanning Me Or Not
They started to scan sites and give you warnings with 7 days to fix it. I got 3 warnings and I added some content to them all and they got approved again really fast. Cool

Then suddenly a few days later some more got flagged.. ok do I fix these or do I wait for more and then do them all

The not knowing if they had finished with the scanning was making people just stop doing anything. Some people told me they are still doing nothing a month later, including not building new lenses, because they do not know whether their account is all clear or if they have just not been scanned.

Squidoo Hate Thin Lenses – But That is How To Make Money
I hear “real” writers spouting off about how the thin sales lenses should all be removed and the lensmasters should be boiled in oil (ok maybe some didn’t quite say that). I can almost guarantee that the thin lenses make more money for Squidoo than 99% of the “real” “Well written” lenses that people produce.

“We write for the joy of it”. What a load of cow dung, servers cost money, support costs money, employees cost money. Squidoo has to make money and to do that they need to have pages that not only rank but rank for words where the ads pay. Our crappy sales lenses pay for your beautifully crafted stream of consciousness lenses or ones with 20 photos of your garden which rank highly in squidoo because your high level friends voted for it.

Tier Payments Encourage Spam
As someone who used to have an automated system for building 1000′s of blogger blogs in a day I can say that the tier payments are perfect for spammers! The payment for tier 3 is awful, something like 30c for each lens.

If I am creating them manually, one or two a day then it sucks to only get to tier 3. If I am using computers and creating 10/20/100 a day then 30c a month for each one for the next year is ok.

Doing Them Right Takes Time and Expertise
One of the Income Igniter members who joined in the March Challenge did it right - http://www.squidoo.com/lensmasters/Paul_Hill_SEO - his lenses are in depth and are on subjects close to his heart. Golf, running and his kids pets. I imagine they took him some time to produce, they definitely were not a fast job.

They Lost Their Rankings
From what I can tell is all this was brought on because Google slapped them and they lost rankings. That means less traffic and that means less income for them. So after that happens they decide to try and make everyone create better lenses in the theory that it will help their ranking in Google. Which will bring more traffic and thus more money.

They may be right, but I think a big part of the problem is the million and one ads they have all over the page. Is a lens a better user experience than a normal webpage?

As an end user if you see one in the serps do you click on it looking for the info you need?

What is The ROI
I really do love web 2.0 sites, I add some content, they earn some money hopefully, I earn some money or get traffic from the link or get some link value passed alone. But if Squidoo have lost their rankings, are paying out nothing in their tiers and the links are all nofollow (which I actually am ok with as we need them in our link profile) well I think it may well not be worth the effort of doing a hugely indepth page..

Which of course brings us back to the thin pages that you slap up and hope..

In Conclusion
Don’t build a business around someone elses platform
Wait for the Squidoo storm to calm down a bit
Decide what you want to achieve there and then try and decide if the work you have to put in will be worth it..

Onwards and Upwards
If you never try something new you won’t know whether it works, but when you find it works, dont assume it will work forever

April Challenge
Aprils Challenge in Income Igniter is all about Facebook. We talk about ads, researching markets and even show you how to make a Facebook timeline cover

I think it really holds true for Internet marketing.

Don’t say you are an Internet Marketer, or “working online”, or even a “Digital publisher” if all you do is read a couple of forums and buy every $7 WSO that is emailed to you.

Either Pee = Do Something …
or
Get Off The Pot = Stop pretending and instead spend your time playing video games, or talking to your family (ok that’s a bit radical but it is an idea).

Making some money online isn’t hard really..

• Go sell some stuff on eBay , and after the 16th April they have no listing fees so no sale =no cost,
• Provide a service.. Can you make awesome slide show videos, write about a subject with first hand knowledge, Set up WordPress blindfolded
• Buy things on clearance at local stores and sell them on Amazon
• Find wannabee writers and help them put their books on kindle
• Create products to sell
• Build sites that get ranked and make sales of other peoples products
• Create Facebook pages for local business
• Social marketing for local business

I think I have covered most things I do there – You can find my products listed at http://www.paulstools.com/ - I like the idea of diversifying my income streams. Because some of them will be great before Christmas and some will be good in the run up to the summer.

If you do not have any skills , learn some. If you want to be a mechanic, a nurse, a stone mason or a gardener you have to learn the skills you need. Internet marketing is just the same but most people don’t bother doing it. Buying a course of video marketing isn’t enough. You have to actually break it open, sit down and watch it..Then Put It In Action.

And Stick With It!

A good friend of mine Rob from the UK - is seeing success with his latest system, because he got his head down and did the work. I always know when another friend of mine is working on something big – this time it is called CashHacks - because he is never on Skype. he is heads down and working his new idea. They stop reading forums, they do not buy any new products (not even mine) , they work.

• Don’t try and do everything
• Do one thing at a time and do it until you can do it well (and profitability)

No Shame No Blame
I will admit I was quite glad to get away from full time IM for a year. I went back to work (admittedly doing SEO and Social stuff) and it showed me how lucky we are. There is no shame in realizing that you aren’t going to do anything real, it is a lot of work and a lot of pressure.

I hope you stay around, but if you do then please commit to making it real. Finish that book, start that service, make that product.

As always share your thoughts below please

Looking for micro niches can make you go blind

Back before the Panda and Penguin I was the same as most people, find a micro niche where I could buy the exact match domain, slap up a page of content and throw some amazon products on the back end and make money from amazon and adsense while I did something else. Throw some automated exact anchor text links and go to the beach.

Most of my sites got killed in the updates, not all of them but most of them.  And to be honest I was PO’d at Google, not sure why as I had a pretty good idea they were displeased with this kind of site building but I just rode the wave a bit to long and got splated on the beach with my shorts in a twist.

I took more than a few months away from niche sites, I let domain names die (50+) I did keep some that do ok with Bing and Yahoo traffic , I used a few choice words when describing Google and basically moaned and did other things.

But I want to get back at it, I want my Adsense income back, I want to have it as an extra income stream again..I want new sites to build lists from and sell products into.

What I Look For In A Niche In 2013
The things I look for in a niche have changed dramatically, I do not start looking around my home for items to just bang into Market Samurai and hope to find  a longtail word pop up. I ask myself questions..

• Do I ever see articles on the niche in the newspapers or magazines we have in the house?
• Can I explain what it is to my mum and have her understand (and not be embarressed)?
• Can I build a list in it?
• Are there products to sell in the niche (not just on Amazon)?
• Could I do a Facebook page and have people actually sign up?
• Can I face reading about the niche?

Things I DO NOT worry about

• Exact Match Domain names being available
• Being able to rank instantly with no work (which always meant it was a tiny niche)
• Getting it built in a day

I used to have a site on head lice, and it did ok because people who have head lice want them gone. If they have to buy something from Amazon, or a short report on how to remove them using all natural items they will. It is a pain point and they want it fixed.

The issue with that niche was that whenever  I started researching it I ended up itchy as can be and uncomfortable, so I stopped researching. So no new content, no new link building, it just died. I also had a site on man boobs, Gynecomastia, and it paid really well.. I just cringed every time I did research for it and I gave up on it.

I had sites on all kinds of home bits and bobs which I either had never bought in real life or couldn’t tell you a thing about even if I did own them.

The Big 3 Markets

Health
Wealth
Love

Those are the 3 things that affect all of us.
We want to fall in love, have a relationship and procreate .
We want to have money, money to live comfortably and take care of ourselves and our loved ones
We want to be healthy, live long and comfortably

I could start posting a image of Maslow’s hierarchy of need  but I think you get the picture.

Niche it Down
Health is not a niche it is a huge market. I like to find a smaller part of the market so I can get traction a lot easier. I just picked up a Sunday magazine from one of the papers and it had an article in it all about heart health for men over 50.

Health = Market
Mens Health = niche
Health for men over 50 = Sub niche ..They have credit cards and income normally so they can buy stuff..

There are a lot more articles and news items aimed at the men’s health market than there are aimed at “white under counter dishwashers”. This means two things, one is that there is enough interest in the market for national publications to write about and that you have an easy source of content to read and rewrite.

It Isn’t 2012 Any More
No matter how much we wish we could slap up a quick site with one page of content, have it make money almost instantly, forget about it and move onto the next one we can’t. You need to look for niches where you can add content easily, where you can build a list and where you can sell them more than one thing.

Embrace the new reality and build fewer but better sites, you will be glad you did.

What do You do to pick a niche? Do you have niches you avoid? Comment below and let me know your thoughts on niches in 2013

Here is a link to the product Fast Implementation System

Once on the inside you will be able to walk through the process of not only researching for a product but how to make it, sell it and allow the customer to download it. We have a Facebook group dedicated to helping you produce a product.

Fast Implementation System is all about removing any barriers you may have to producing a product. We have modules on research, on making the product, on what payment and delivery platform to use.

We include information on sales pages and even show you some ways to find affiliates that you may not have thought of. Having your own products is how you build your business, each product is an asset which pays you regularly and you can sell easily if need be.

I have products which still sell years after they were produced, neither the Panda or the Penguin affected them. Can you say the same?

If not, well now is the time to think about it and join the Fast Implementation System

I have been busy working on Iggy….Who or what is Iggy?

Well Iggy is the name that myself and Mark Thompson call our new forum http://incomeigniter.com/

I have known Mark for many years, nearly 8 years we worked it out at the other day, and he asked me to join him in the rebranding and relaunch of his WordPress Goldmine forum.

 The forum has moved so far beyond where it started with just WordPress and covers just about everything there is to

be covered in Internet marketing. We want to carry on expanding it to cover..well everything people want I suppose..

Sites Killed By The Panda?
We are running experiments with a couple of sites to see if we can get them back.

Looking for New Income Streams?
We talk about online and offline income streams, Sharing ideas for quick cash, offline and online income.

Setting Up A Real Business
Rather than just covering affiliate sites we are going to cover everything it takes. Including delivering products after purchase. We want to use our real world experience of what works (and what doesn’t) to help you get a real business running. Everything from list building to product creation is discussed.

No Trolls
I think this is one of the most important things about the forum. Life is tough enough with out some snarky dipstick coming and throwing verbal poop at you when you ask a question. We don’t have it and won’t allow it

So that is where I have been the last few weeks but now I am back and working on some new things I want to share over the next few weeks so watch out!

Let me start off by saying I got a review copy of the product so I am not blindly promoting this. I have actually sat and read it, why? Well because I know it is something I need to work on.

I imagine every one of us has started a website based on keyword research, got traffic and sold nothing. I know I have and I refuse to believe I am the only one. This is why we need to find out if the market has Profit in it not just traffic.  I have a wedding site which gets traffic but people just do not buy, and I have tried many products on there. The issue is (as I found out) the brides are spending so much on the wedding they do not want to buy info guides.

The Profit Mind Reader by Ed Akehurst will help me not pick any dodo niches in the future.

Profit Mind Reader Chapters Include:-

Chapter 1: The Fundamentals Of Market Research
Chapter 2: Buyer Behavior
Chapter 3: Size Of The Market Or Niche
Chapter 4: The Marketability Of An Idea
Chapter 5: Social Media For Market Research
Chapter 6: Free Web Analytics Tools
Chapter 7: YouTube Research Primer
Chapter 8: Magazines Reveal Secrets
Chapter 9: Define Your Competition
Resources
Conclusion

Ed shows you how to use freely available resources to determine if the market you want to go into has buyers in it.  As I have found, traffic is not enough you need people with spending habits.

This is not your usual get rich quick guide, it gives you solid info on what to look for before you spend time or money on any affiliate site, product creation or book creation.

If you want to build sites that make money rather than just get traffic I think this is a great ebook.

http://www.thenewbiehelper.com/profit-mind-reader This link will take you to the sales page when ready.

So I thought I would show you a simple piece of software that I use to make videos. This is a great animoto alternative , More Info Below Video

The site is http://www.onetruemedia.com/ and I find them really easy to make.

Images
I use Kozzi (you get $10 in free image credits) and I use Morgue File for photos and such. If you are making a video of a product make sure to mix up images, so not just of the product but messages as well and people using the product (or a similar one) if you can.

To create messages over the top of images I use my Meme Samurai program

If the idea is to move people from the video page to the product page dont make the video long, no one wants to sit through 3 minutes of pics of your dishwasher. Make the video 30 seconds long and tell people what you want them to do.

Would you like videos on making videos of your desktop, or powerpoint type presentations, or … Well let me know in the comments

There are always ways to get programs made, images done and you can pay for a sales page.. Although my highest converting offers are often just a video, a guarantee and a button..

Anyway here is a video I recorded as I can’t type much more today..

Let me know your product creation thoughts in the comments below