It seems to me that blogs are becoming more and more the norm when it comes to setting up a niche based website. The problem with using a blog is that, unless you invest some time in configuring the right template, layout and settings, you offer the visitor far too many choices.

Just look at this blog.. there are lots of navigation links, there are links to other sites in the sidebars and almost every post contains an external link.

Blogs are great for building relationships with your readers, they are an excellent branding tool and they will certainly help to build your credibility as an expert within your chosen niche.

However, the blog was not designed as a selling platform.

Perhaps we have become too lazy, or maybe we've come to be far too reliant upon the blog as our tool of choice when setting up new sites?

If you want to sell a free ezine subscription, if you want to sell a free report or if you want to sell an ebook.. then you need to provide your visitor with a much more linear path to follow than offered by the blog.

So, the next time you want to offer your visitor with an offer you'd prefer that they don't refuse please consider the Minisite.

The minisite is designed to sell. When the reader lands on your site, you need to grab their attention with a benefit rich headline, you should draw them into your sales copy with a story, make them curious, build their interest and then persuade them that your offer matches their desire. Finally, close the deal.. tell them exactly what you want them to do!

Your Minisite can include a squeeze page, a simple sales page or a combination of the two. If you want to increase your sales revenue you might consider adding a One-Time-Offer.

It's easy to set up a minisite these days, there are lots of graphic designers who will create a minisite for you, you can use one of the many minisite templates that are available or you can do it yourself with the Minisite Kit which contains all the elements you could possibly need to build your own minisite.

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Sometimes spam makes me do the strangest things.. like call the idiots:

Scothosts - Spammers I guess my enquiry was too technical.. she hung up on me!

The part that pushed the idiot buttun:

We offer both Windows and Linux packages backed by 24/7 telephone support and unprecedented powerful junk email filtering.

Would you ever consider using a hosting provider that spams and doesn't train their customer service staff?

Nope, me neither!

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So, You Want To..

* Grab A Top Position In The Search Engines
* Drive Targetted Traffic To Your Sites
* Boost Your Link Popularity
* Increase The Value Of Your Sites
* Lift Your Page Rank

It's always seemed so obvious that I suspect many people just can't see it..

The more links that point to your site, the more opportunities there are for people to click them!

Search engine spiders love to follow links, when those links point to your site they treat them as a vote. The more of those votes you have, the better your sites will rank in the results pages.

That's why I submit all my sites to my own list of directories. It's a list that I've recently updated and it contains a total of 839 directory sites ranging from PR1 to PR9. The vast majority (592) are PR2 and PR3 sites but at the end of the day a link is a link!

So, what's the deal then?

Simple really, you and only 29 other people can own a copy of my list of directories for a mere $14.98 and you can use it to submit your own sites or, if you're really smart, you can provide it to your virtual assistant and get them to do the grunt work.

When prompted, enter coupon code "silver" to claim your 25% blog reader discount..

Simply click here to continue..

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I was watching "Jimmy Carr Live" on TV tonight and a member of the audience shared an advert from her local indian restaurant..

Try One Of Our Curries - You'll Never Get Better

Apologies to Paul Myers for rearranging a subject line from today's issue of Talkbiz News one of my favourite Internet Marketing newsletters.

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Improving the way that I communicate the benefits of each product that I recommend has probably been the one of the top factors that has contributed to me making six figures as an affiliate marketer.

If you know how to pre-sell, you will almost certainly make more money than the affiliates who simply copy and paste the copy provided by the merchant.

Pre-selling requires more effort than merely copying and pasting, but it will set you apart from your competitors and put you in a strong position in your niche market.

Effective pre-selling doesn't just result in more sales, it helps to position you as an expert in the market place. People will come to you for your opinion, you'll be seen as an authority and will gain much more influence.

Pre-selling is about positioning yourself in the right place and at the right time in the purchasing process. If you want to increase your affiliate income, build your credibility in the marketplace and gain the reputation as an authority.. improve your pre-selling skills.

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I'm upgrading the site and apologise for any weirdness!

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I'm sure the "stole" bit is a complete exaggeration, but I have to admit being pretty annoyed when I saw Matt's newly launched Product Calendar site. You see, I had the same idea some time ago, I even discussed it with one of my coders but I had too many other ideas to follow it through.

So, all credit to Matt, he's done a great job and I wish him every success with Product Calendar. When you see how Matt has used Wordpress to manage the site, I'm sure you'll be as impressed as I am!

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I've known Robert Plank for quite a while, despite the fact that he's only 24 years old. He's one of those weird people who speek geek (He's a PHP expert) and he's created a couple of scripts for me.

I've also bought quite a few of his products.. one of which made me over $3,000 in clear profit!

Anyway, as it's his birthday I thought it would be nice to encourage a few people to post a comment on his blog. While you are there, take a good look around, for a geek he talks a lot of sense!  

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I had a brief look through my portfolio this morning and there are a few domains and websites that it's time to let go.

One problem that many people suffer from is becoming too emotionally involved in their business. I'm not suggesting that there's anything wrong with being passionate about your products, your services and your customers. The difficulty comes from making business decisions based on emotions rather than on logic.

This is especially true when your business performance drops. When you are too emotionally involved it becomes much harder to make tough decisions. That's why I work closely with my accountant, she can provide me with an objective view based on facts and data. She isn't emotionally involved in my business.

I strongly advise you to take time out from time to time and take a look at your business. If you are a Star Treck fan, consider what Mr Spock would say about your business - what is the logical view?

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Just what are we supposed to spend our time on these days?

There seem to be more and more ways of spending time and I'm not so sure that they are all productive.

For example, I see lots of people spending hours and hours on the Warrior Forum, Twitter, MySpace, Facebook, Youtube and many other popular sites.

The problem is the amount of time that these sites can suck out of your day. Forums are great places to network, to get quick answers to questions, to build your credibility as an expert in your chosen field and to pay back to your community by helping others. Twitter is another great tool for networking and to keep your followers up to date with your latest progress and news. Social networking sites can provide you with the opportunity to network with like minded people and to build your online brand. Youtube and other video hosting sites can be a great source of traffic and also has excellent networking potential.

Do you find yourself being sucked into these sites?

It's easy to forget the reason we are online is to generate a profit!

Before you visit your favourite sites, set yourself an objective.. market research, networking, solving a problem, seeking a JV partner, catching up with the latest news. Decide how much time you are willing to spend and stick to your plan.

It's amazing how much more successful we become when we take control of our time.

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