Basic Online Training

ONLINE BASIC TRAINING

by Lynn Fowler

• Module 1: Preparation
• Module 2: Tools
• Module 3: Setup
• Module 4: Autoresponder
• Module 5: Traffic Exchanges
• Module 6: Safelists
• Module 7: Optimism
• Module 8: Classifieds, Text Exchanges, Viral Builders
• Module 9: Branding
• Module 10: Long Term Traffic
• Module 11: Niche Marketing

This Guide is adopted for All In One Profits

Module 1: Preparation

Before we get started, I want to talk a little about attitude. It is very important that, right from the start, you think about this as a business. This is not something you are doing just to have fun and waste a bit of time. Your aim is to make money. Your mindset will play a huge part in determining how successful or otherwise you are.

Firstly, you need to determine to take full responsibility for your own actions and their consequences. No-one else is responsible for your success or failure. When you take responsibility for your life, you take control over your life. This system will give you a lot of help on your way to online success, but it will not do it for you. Neither I nor anyone else can make your business successful, only you can.

Secondly, you need to set your mind into "business" mode.

If you were starting an offline business, you would first want to do a "SWOT Analysis." Divide a sheet of paper into quarters, headed "strengths" "weaknesses" "opportunities" and "threats." The strengths will include the abilities you already have as you start out - your computer skills and internet knowledge, any marketing experience you may have. (You actually don't need great computer skills to work this system. If you can copy and paste, handle basic word processing, and send an email, you can do it. Everything else will be explained step by step along the way.) It will also include your ability to follow instructions, your positive attitude (which, if you don't already have, you are going to cultivate) and the fact that this system takes you step by step through all you need to know and do, and that the cost in money and time is relatively small. The weaknesses might include areas where you are lacking in knowledge, and maybe a lack of finance or time. Opportunities will include the fact that internet usage is continuing to grow at a remarkable pace around the world, and also the fact that in the present world economic climate many people are looking for a way to earn money other than a job or traditional business. Threats may include things like family opposition. These are all just suggestions, feel free to enlarge upon them.

The idea is for you to be confident that the Strengths and Opportunities outweigh the Weaknesses and Threats. If, when you look at your SWOT Analysis, you are not absolutely confident that is the case, then quit right now. Far better for you not to get started, than to start and not feel within yourself that you have a good chance of success. I'm not talking about certainty - the nature of life is that there are very few things about which we can be certain, and success in business (or any other endeavour) is definitely not one of them. However, you do need to be able to start out saying in your heart, "Yes! I can do this!"

If you don't already use it, I strongly suggest you go to OpenOffice.org and download the office suite. It is free, and works much like MSOffice (in fact, you can open MSOffice documents in OpenOffice, and save documents made in OpenOffice in MSOffice formats) but has some neat extra features that you will find very handy later.

Set up a new folder on your computer, and label it "MyInternetBusiness" or something similar. Now set up an OpenOffice spreadsheet and label it "Accounts" and file it in your business folder. In it, have one sheet for Income and one for Expenses, and be sure to record everything you spend on your internet business, and everything you receive from it, at the time when you spend or receive it. Also buy yourself a cheap expanding file, and print out each receipt and file it as you go. (Believe me, you will thank me when tax time comes round!)

Next, start a new text document and label it "Goals." Take some time to think about what you want from this business. Be specific. Don't just say "make lots of money." Do you want to be able to give up your day job? Write it down, and the amount that you will need to be receiving from the business before you can do that.

Lynn Fowler

Do you want to buy a house or pay off the mortgage on your existing home? Write it in your goals, along with specific amounts.

Do you want to be able to take regular overseas holidays? Write it down, with amounts.

You get the picture. Whatever things you want to be able to do as a result of building an online business, write it in your goals, and be as specific as possible.

Next, write down the emotional benefit that these things will give you. Is it freedom? Security? Satisfaction? Write it down, and be as descriptive as possible.

Save your Goals document in your business folder, and read it at least twice (preferably three times) a day. The idea here is to keep you focused. Have you ever noticed when you are driving down the highway that if you start looking at something out in a paddock off to the side of the road, you are likely to begin steering toward it? Life works the same way. To reach a goal, we need to keep focused on where we are going.

(Incidentally, I heard once of a survey that was done of millionaires and billionaires. The people who did the survey were trying to find out what made the difference, what gave someone that extra edge to take his/her business to the higher level. They found only one difference between the mindset of millionaires and that of billionaires: the millionaires red their goals on the average of twice a day, the billionaires three times!)

Next, start a new text document and label it "Business Plan." If you were starting a bricks-and-mortar offline business, you would need to have a business plan before you begin. An online business is no different.

Ask yourself three very important questions (and be realistic about your answers):

1. How much money can you afford to invest into the business each month BEFORE you start getting a return. This will include the fees for the programs you join, the paid resources you choose to use, and some extra for paid advertising (this system works mostly with free advertising, but sometimes you may want to put in a bit extra.) Remember, this needs to be the amount you can afford to "lose" each month till the business gets going. By establishing this now, you will be saving yourself the pressure of thinking "I'm spending money and I need to get it back fast!" You will get it back once the business is going, but allowing it to become a pressure factor will set you up to make unwise decisions in the hope of breaking even more quickly. You will also be setting a limit for yourself so that when you see those tempting "One Time Offers" (and you will see heaps of them!) you will be able to say either, "Yes, I can afford that" or "No, not in my budget right now."

2. How much time 
can you spare each day (or at least each week day) to put into your business? I would suggest that you allow a minimum of two to three hours a day. You can probably do it in one hour, but it will take much longer to get things rolling. Also, the first couple of weeks when you are setting things up will probably take longer, depending on how much experience with computers and the internet you have. (If necessary, you can spread the set-up time over a longer period than will be suggested in your instructions.) Having determined how much time you can spare, commit to putting that time into the business each day, no matter what happens. If you have a family, make it clear to them that this is "business time" not "play with the dog time" or "put out the trash time" or "help with the homework time" - do all those things OUTSIDE of "business time."

Here's an idea regarding the "time" factor: you will need to check with a tax accountant about the rules where you are, but in some countries you can employ a teenage son or daughter in your business and write his/her wages off as a business expense. At the same time, he/she does not pay tax as long as the amount is under the threshold. So, if you have a teen hanging around, put him/her to work doing some of the routine stuff for your business. You get both a tax break and a time break, and son or daughter gets some extra pocket money - a real win/win.

Lynn Fowler

3. How long are you prepared to work on the business before breaking even? (Just in case you are a total business "newbie", "break even point" is the point at which your income from the business equals your expenses.) I would suggest you allow yourself at least six months. As in question 1, this will take the pressure off you and help you to avoid the unwise decisions that might result. Of course, you will be working to break even long before then - in fact I would hope to see it within the first month - but by allowing yourself a longer time frame you are cutting yourself some slack and allowing yourself to concentrate on promoting the business rather that worrying about the business.

Just as a follow on from that, you need to commit to "sticking with it." As you go through this program using the various free advertising tools, you will find yourself presented with all kinds of plans and opportunities. Some of them will seem very interesting and enticing, but don't allow yourself to be distracted by them. Later on we will diversify a bit, but it is important to concentrate on getting the core programs running well first. Think of it this way: imagine you are starting an offline business - let's say, a butcher shop. You get started, then a week later you look down the road and see that the fruit shop has a lively trade. You give up on the butcher shop, and go and open a fruit shop instead. You last a little while in that, but then you see the baker down the road is pulling in customers, so you sell up and buy a bakery. After a while, you see a cafe doing well, so you sell the bakery and buy a cafe (obviously, you have lots of money :0) ) ...

Would anyone ever do that? Of course not! And if anyone was foolish enough to try it, would he make any money? No, to be successful you have to keep doing the thing you set out to do in the first place.

If you were setting up a business plan for an offline business, you would include a section on marketing. This system will cover all that for you, so all you need to do here is commit to "stick to the plan!"

You also need to decide your business structure. In most cases, this will be "sole trader" - in other words, you are doing the business by yourself. However, if you are married or in a relationship, you might want to operate as a "partnership." If this is the case, you will need to get legal advice about setting up that structure in the area where you live, and what tax and other advantages there might be in doing so.

You also need to decide whether you want to do business in your own name, or apply for a Business Name. The rules concerning this will be different in each country, so you will need to check with your own authorities. However, as a general rule you can do business in your own name without any need to register, but if you add anything to it you need to register a Business Name. For instance, I can (and do) carry on business as simply Lynn Fowler without registering the name, but if I wanted to do business under the name of, say, Lynn Fowler Enterprises, I would need to register it.

Also check if any business registration (other than a Business Name) is needed in your own country. For example, I live in Australia, and to operate a business here you need to have an ABN (Australian Business Number.) Applying for it (or any registration that might be applicable in your own country) will further cement in your thinking the fact that you are IN BUSINESS!

Your business plan is not a "set in concrete" document, but a guide to where you are going that will develop with you and your business. File it in your business folder. It is a good idea to also copy the SWOT Analysis that you did earlier into your business folder.

Finally for today, either buy yourself a cheap diary or set up one on your computer. (I just about live on my 'puter, but for "to dos" I find there is nothing like a good old fashioned paper and pen.) As you go through the system, you will find that you need to do things on various days, and it will be much easier to keep them sorted and avoid becoming overwhelmed if you have it written down.

Take a deep breath and take some time to digest all that I have said in this introduction. Tomorrow, we start your business!If you haven’t signed up to All In One Profits you should do so now.

Lynn Fowler

Module 2: Tools

In this module we are going to set up some tools to help you with your business.

First, head over to gmail.com and create two accounts, one for mail and one for list. I suggest that you include the words "mail" and "list" in the account names, to make it easy for you to know which is which - for instance, my accounts are "chookysmail" and "chookyslist." Why Gmail? First, it is less likely to filter out the emails that you want than other email programs (although is does sometimes throw things into the "spam" folder, so if you are waiting for a confirmation email for something and it doesn't come, it is a good idea to check there.) Second, because it is permanent. Yes, you have an email address through your ISP - but if you move house our change ISP, you will lose it, which means updating all your programs (and in some cases, if you don't have the email you signed up with, this is impossible to do.) Also, Gmail does not limit the amount of mail you can receive in a given time - something that will happen through the email accounts supplied by most ISPs. BTW, even if you already have a Gmail account, I would still suggest that you set up these two new ones, so that you can keep things to do with this program separate from the rest of your mail. I'll explain the reason for the "mail" and "list" accounts later.

Next, if you don't already use Firefox as your browser, I would strongly suggest that you install it. It is much more user-friendly than IE, and has some features that will help you. You can get it for free at Firefox

Now create a new spreadsheet in OpenOffice and label it "Programs." File it in your business folder.

In your "Programs" spreadsheet you are going to set up a number of sheets. By default, you have three, but it is easy to add more. First of all, on the first sheet that comes up, go to "Format/Sheet/Rename" and change the name of the sheet to "Main." Now on the top line, enter the headings "Program Name" "User Name" "Password" "Email" "Referral URL" "Coaked URL" (I'll explain this last one later) "Splash Page" and "Cloaked Splash." You might also want to add "Comments."

Add the initial details for the income programs you have joined to the main sheet.

You can widen the columns to fit your headings by clicking on the line between them in the top bar (where it says a, b, c etc) and dragging it across. You can also make the headings bold by clicking on the number at the side of the row and clicking the "B" for bold.

Do the same on the next two sheets (you can navigate to them by clicking the links at the bottom of the page) and label them "TEs Daily" and "TEs Day 1" respectively, then add the same headings. Now you are going to need to add extra sheets. Go to "Insert/Sheet" and when the pop-up box appears select "after the current sheet" and label it "TEs Day 2". Set up the same headings on that sheet, then add more sheets labeled "TEs Day 3" "TEs Day 4" with the same headings. Later you can add more sheets for extra TE groups.

Now add three more sheets, with the labels "Safe Lists" "Text Ads" and "Other Programs" and the same headings.

I strongly suggest that as you go through and join the various programs (don't worry, they are mostly free and the few that aren't are optional) you use the same username and password where possible, but there are a few that won't allow you to choose for yourself, and by having all the information at your fingertips in this way you are going to save yourself a lot of headaches. (Believe me - been there, done that :-) ) (NOTE: It is wise to use different passwords for each of the programs in which you have a financial investment.)

Go to the member page for each of the income programs that you joined and find your referral URL. Paste both these URLs into your traffic spreadsheet on the "Main" sheet, along with the other details for the programs.

Lynn Fowler

_________________________________________________________

Module 3: Setup

In this module we are going to set up your web site. This is quite a long post, so take your time to read it carefully and if necessary come back several times.

To set up your web site, we are going to use a WordPress platform. This allows you to
set up your site without knowing anything about HTML, CSS, Javascript, PHP, or
any other initials you can think of. It is very easy to install, and I am going to walk
you through the whole process.

(There are two versions of WordPress. Wordpress.com is a free blogging site. This is not what we are using. We will be using the WordPress software, but installed on your own site.)

Firstly, if you haven't already set up your AIOP account, you need to do that now. Go to the “Income Programs” section of the Downline Builder and join from the link there. After you have joined, don't forget to add your own referral id to the Downline Builder.

Now head on over to GoDaddy to get a domain name. You will first need to set up an account with them. Once you have done that and logged in, type the domain name of your choice into the box where it says "search for a new domain" to see if that name is available.

HINT 1: Always go for a .com domain, not .co, .net, .org or any of the zillion other
possibilities that are around now. People automatically type .com, and if you have
one of the others and someone else has or gets the .com, there is a good chance they
will end up with at least part of your traffic.

HINT 2: We are going to use your site for two things: to promote your online business, and to promote affiliate products in a niche of your choice. We will do this by creating two separate sub-domains on your site. Therefore your domain name needs to be something generic. You could use your own name, or you could use a made up name. For instance, on my main hosting account (which has been running for a long time now) I have the domain name “brijmark.com”, which is made up by combining the first three letters of the names of my two sons and the first initials of their wives. The beauty of doing this is that, when you set up your subdomains, you can name them exactly what you want, and not worry that you will not be able to secure a name that relates to your chosen niche. For instance, if your domain name is “frednerk.com” and you decide you want to promote products in the weight loss niche (one where it is very difficult to get a relevant domain name) you would simply name your subdomain “weightloss.frednerk.com” and reap the SEO benefits.

Lynn Fowler

Once you have seen that your chosen domain name is available, click "Continue to Registration." Click "no thanks" to all the extras they want to offer you, choose whether you want to register your domain for 1 year or more (the default is 5 years, you will need to select other times from the drop down box.) Proceed through the remaining pages without selecting any of the extras, then proceed to the checkout and pay for your domain. You do not need to do anything else with it just yet.

Now, log in to your AIOP account, and click on “Products” then on “Click here to request your hosting account.” Once you have submitted your information, you will see something that says, “Set your nameservers to:” You then have to head back to GoDaddy. Log in and click on "My Account." Then click on "Domains." On the screen that comes up, you will see the name of your domain, and beside it a button that says "launch." Click that button.

From the row of icons across the top of the list of your domains, click the one that
says "Nameservers" and from the drop-down menu choose "Set Nameservers" Check
the line that says "I have specific nameservers for my domains" and copy and paste
the two nameservers from your email into the boxes. Click OK.

It normally takes up to 24 hours for the nameservers to connect with your account. Wait a little while, then try to log in to your cpanel - http://yourdomain.com/cpanel (of course replacing “yourdomain” with your actual domain name.) Your login and password will be the same as your AIOP account.

Once you are in cpanel, scroll down to where it says “subdomains.” Click on this, and enter the name you want for your subdomain, then click “create.” For now we are just going to concentrate on the internet marketing side (we'll get back to affiliate promotions later) so choose a subdomain name that relates to the IM niche.

Now open Arachnophilia and choose New/PHP file. Enter this text:

<?php header ("Location: http://yoursubdomain.yourdomain.com");?>

replacing “yoursubdomain” and “yourdomain” with the actual names of your subdomain and domain. VERY IMPORTANT: Make sure there is no blank space between this line of text and the top of the page. Save this file to your desktop as “index.php”. Now, in your cpanel, go to Legacy File Manager (you could also use File Manager, but I find the Legacy File Manager easier.) Choose “web root” and click “go.” Click “upload files” and use the browse function to find the index.php file you just created, then click “upload.” Now, when anyone goes to your domain name, they will be automatically redirected to your new subdomain.

Setting up Wordpress
Now in cpanel, scroll down to almost the bottom and find Fantastico Deluxe.
In the side panel you will see a whole range of scripts you can install. Choose
WordPress, and click on "New Installation." On the installation screen, choose your new subdomain in the "install in directory" box.

Choose an admin user name (something other than "admin," because that is way too
easy for potential hackers to guess) and password, and an admin nickname
(something different from the admin user name.) Click "Install WordPress" and it's
done! You can now log out of your cpanel.

If you type your subdomain and domain name into your browser's address bar at this point, you will see a standard WordPress blog with a post that says "Hello World!" Now we are going to change that into a web site that is distinctly yours. To log in to the back office of your blog, go to yoursubdomain.yourdomain.com/wp-login.php (replacing “your subdomain” and "yourdomain" with the actual names you have chosen.) Log in with the admin user name and password you chose when setting up your WordPress (NOT the ones from your AIOP or cpanel, unless you have chosen to use the same ones.)

Lynn Fowler

The first thing you want to do is to change the appearance of your site. Go to
"Appearance" in the left hand column and click on "Themes" and then "Install
Themes." Once you have installed your chosen theme, be sure to activate it by clicking the "activate" button.

Next, you need to install some plugins. Plugins are like mini-programs that enhance
the functionality of your WP Blog. Here is the list that I use on all my blogs:

All in One Bookmarking Button - This puts a small button at the bottom of your
posts that your readers can use to add your site to the various social bookmarking
sites.
Auto Excerpt - An essential. With this installed, the only place where the full content of your posts appears on your site is on the individual post page. Everywhere else it is
an excerpt with a "read more" link. This avoids the problem of Google penalizing you
because you have the same content on several pages of your site.
Easy Contact Forms - Not quite as easy as they say :0) but well worth the effort to
give your readers a means of contacting you. Read the directions carefully and you
will not have any problems.
Google XML Sitemaps - Another essential to help you get listed in the search
engines.
Meta SEO Pack - Yet another essential for search engine listings.
One Click Close Comments - This one is optional, depending on whether you
decide that you want comments or not. Personally, I have found that allowing
comments is an open invitation for spammers, and results in an incredible amount of
work dealing with them. As a result, I do not allow comments on any of my sites, and
this nifty little plugin takes care of them with one click. An alternative to this is Disable Comments.
Print Friendly and PDF - Again optional, depending on the type of site you want. If
you are providing content that people might want to be able to keep and access when
they are not on your site, this puts on each post a little button that they can click for a
printable page.
WordPress Ping Optimizer - Another essential. Without it, WP will "ping" search
engines and other sites every time you edit a post - which, if you are working on
something to try to get it right, may result in multiple pings in a very short space of
time, and could get you banned from the search engines.
WP Database Manager - As someone who once had a site crash and was not able to
restore it because I didn't have a backup database, let me assure you that you need
this one.
WP Spam Free - If you do decide to allow comments on your site, this is a must have. It will not keep all spam away, but it will limit it considerably.
NextScripts: Social Networks Auto-Poster - This will automatically post your content to other sites such as Facebook and Twitter.
OK, so now you have a list of plugins and you are probably thinking "What on earth do I do with them?" In the left-hand menu of your WP Back Office, you will see a button named "Plugins" and when you click it you will see "add new." Type each of the names above into the search box, and when you find the correct one from the list
that comes up, click "install." Once it is installed, it will ask you if you want to activate it, and yes, you do. Go back to the plugin installer and do the same for each of the plugins listed above. (NOTE: Sometimes plugins become redundant and disappear. If you can't find the ones listed, look for something that does the same job.)

Now, before you do anything else, go to "Settings" and "WP Ping Optimizer." Copy and paste the following list into the text box, and check both "enable pinging" and "limit excessive pinging",

and save your settings.

Lynn Fowler

http://rpc.pingomatic.com/
http://api.moreover.com/ping
http://api.my.yahoo.com/rss/ping
http://blogsearch.google.com/ping/RPC2
http://ping.bitacoras.com
http://ping.feedburner.com
http://ping.syndic8.com/xmlrpc.php
http://rpc.blogrolling.com/pinger/
http://rpc.icerocket.com:10080/
http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping
http://rpc.weblogs.com/RPC2
http://topicexchange.com/RPC2
http://www.blogdigger.com/RPC2
http://www.blogoole.com/ping/
http://www.popdex.com/addsite.php
http://www.wasalive.com/ping/
http://www.weblogues.com/RPC/
http://blogping.unidatum.com/RPC2/

Next we are going to create two pages, one that will be your welcome page, and one the page where your blog posts are listed. First go to "Pages" and "All Pages" and delete the default page that is there. Then click "Add New" and give your welcome page a title - it could be "Welcome" or "Home" or something similar. At this stage
don't worry about adding content to it, we will get back to that later. Just type in the title and click "publish." Now do the same for your "posts" page - it could be called "Blog" or "Posts" or "Articles" - again, just enter the title and click "publish."

Now, in the left hand menu, click on "Posts" and then "Categories." Add a new category that is relevant to what your site is about, but in a general way. We are going to use this as your default category instead of the "uncategorized" (which does nothing to help you with the search engines.)

If you want you can also go to "Links" and "Categories" and create a new link category to be your default instead of "blogroll" (which always reminds me of something that belongs in the bathroom - if you are not an Aussie you might not get that, but be nice and smile anyway :0) )

Now go down to "Settings" at the bottom of the left hand menu. We are going to work through these one by one.

General:

Enter the site name and tagline as you want it to appear on your header. The site name may or may not be the same as your domain name, but it should contain your main keyword. E.G, on my workathomewithchooky.com site, the site name is simply Work at Home, and the tag line is Home Business News and Info - that way I have managed to squeeze in two of my main keywords, "work at home" and "home business."

Unless you want people to register on your site, leave the "anyone can register" box unchecked.

Set your time zone and date and time formats, and save your changes.

Lynn Fowler

Writing:

Set your default categories for posts and links to the ones you just created. Change the mail server to mail.(yourdomain).com, replacing (yourdomain) with your actual domain name. Choose a random set of numbers, letters and symbols for the user name and password (do not copy the ones they suggest.) You are not going to be
using these, and you don't want anyone else to be using them, so make them as long and complicated as you possibly can to prevent anyone from guessing them. Leave everything else as it is and save your changes.

Reading:
Click "a static page" and choose the names of your welcome and post pages.
I suggest leaving the number of posts at 10, and changing syndication feeds to 3 items and summary. Save your changes.

Discussion:
If you don't want to allow comments on your site, uncheck the box beside "Allow people to post comments on new articles."
If you do want to allow comments, check the settings you want to use and save your settings.
Media:
There is really no need to change any of these settings.
Privacy:Again, no need to change anything unless you want to hide your site from searchengines.
Permalinks:
Check "custom" and insert: /%category%/%postname%/
Save changes
Auto Excerpt:
Insert the text you want your visitors to click to read more. Simply "read more" works fine! Save changes.
Print Friendly and PDF:
Choose the button style you want, and where you want it on your page. I find the right hand side before the content works best. Save Changes.
WP Ping Optimizer:
You have already done this one.
NextScripts Social Network Poster:
This is a little daunting at first, but the plugin walks you through step by step.
WP XLM Sitemap:
This pretty much takes care of itself.
Underneath the main settings button you should see a separate button for the MetaSEO Pack.
Title Rewriting:
Make sure that the "rewrite title" box is checked. As long as it is checked, you can pretty much leave everything else on that page as it is.
Meta Keywords:If there are any keywords that you would like to apply to every post and page of your site, add them here. Save changes.
Pretty much everything else in the MetaSEO Pack can stay on the default settings. Below the MetaSEO Pack button you will see the button for the Database. The only thing you need to do here is go to DB Options and be sure that the email address is the one where you want to receive your backup files, and that the frequency is what
you want. (If you only plan to update your site once a week, then you don't need to backup the database any more frequently than that. If you plan to add new content every day, you might want to backup at least every couple of days.)

Lynn Fowler

Now go back to Plugins and click Easy Contact Forms on the dropdown list. Read the instructions very carefully to set up your contact form. If you right click on the name of your site in the black bar at the top of the page, and select "open in new tab," you will be able to see what your page looks like. If the contact form is not right, go back and make the necessary changes, then go to the other tab and refresh the page to see
the changes.

Next, go to Appearance and Widgets. This is where you put things in your side bars and, if you have a theme that allows it, at the top and bottom of your pages. First remove the default widgets by clicking on them and dragging them to the inactive widgets area.

Now think about how you want your site to look. If you have picked up my free themes and are using one of them, they are designed to use a vertical menu, so you will want to drag the vertical menu widget into the first sidebar area. If you have a different theme, your pages might be displayed as tabs across the top of your site, in
which case you might not want a vertical menu as well. A "recent posts" widget is a good idea, in either your left or right sidebar. You might also want to include "categories" "archives" and "links" widgets. If you have more than one blog, you might want to add the rss feed from your other blog to get some cross-pollination.
If you have a theme that allows a top widget area, this is a good place to display something that you want your visitors to see no matter what page they are on. So, if your site was promoting your offline business, it might be a good place to list your specials, or if you are promoting an online business to place a banner for that
business. If your site is more general, you might want to sign up for an account with either Google Adsense or Clickbank and place their ads in that space. Whatever you do, just be sure that you check that the ads you place there actually fit in the space available. Few things can make your site look more unprofessional than bits that
break out of their boundaries!
Also, don't overdo it with the ads. Remember, the only way you are going to get people to click on your ads is if they are actually reading your pages. If your site looks like one big advertising catalog, the readers will click away very quickly.
If you are interested in free traffic to your site, go to LeadsLeap and sign up (it's free.) Once you have confirmed your membership, you can grab the
code for their widget and put it on your site. Just use a text widget in one of the sidebars and copy and paste the code.

The great thing about widgets is that they will appear on every page of your site. So,for example, if you had an offline business and wanted to feature your weekly specials, you don't have to change every page of your site, you just have to edit the widget!

Adding Content
Once you have your widgets set up and are happy with the general appearance of your site, you are ready to begin adding content.
With a blog, there are two main ways you can add content: as pages, or as posts. A page is static - it is always available for your viewers to read, and will show up in the menu. Posts, on the other hand, slide down on the main post page as you add new ones, and eventually slip back onto other pages. They are still on the net, and if your site is indexed in the search engines, will still be able to be found, but for someone coming directly to your site they take a little more digging.
There is nothing that says that you MUST have posts on a WP site. You could choose to have a more static site with just pages. In that case you would simply not add post related widgets to your side bar. For the moment, however, we will assume that you are adding both posts and pages. Think first about your welcome page.

Lynn Fowler

What do you want people to know about you and your business? What photos can you add to make it more appealing? Plan your page first, then go to Pages/ All Pages and find yourwelcome page. Click edit, and unless you want to use HTML make sure that you are in the visual editor.

This works exactly like any word processing program. You can align text to left right or center, you can make it bold or italic, you can change sizes and colors. To add an image, click on the little media icon. Once you have entered all your content, click publish. (If you can't find some of the editing tools, click on the little icon at the end of the row that looks like a lot of little boxes, and it will open up another row of tools.)

Be sure to go to your site and check that it looks the way you want. If it doesn't, go back and edit your page till it is right.

Now think about what other pages you would like to have on your site. You might want to have a page that talks about yourself and your internet experience. You should also have pages with the legal stuff like privacy policy
and terms of service. It is a good idea to have a "Contact" page where you have your contact form and also your physical address for anyone who wants to contact you by snail mail.

Once you have all your pages set up, you can start to think about posts. You can use posts to:

1. Provide great information that will have your visitors wanting to come back again and again.

2. Announce specials.

3. Run contests.

Since this first blog is going to be promoting your online business, you will want to post business-related information. You can do reviews of the products or programs you are using, or just post general internet marketing content. If you don't know what to post, do a Google search for “PLR articles” - you will find literally thousands available. Rewrite them a little to put them into your own words before you post them.

Another source of content is article directories such as EzineArticles.com. If you use articles from these directories, you must also include the author's resource box, and you may not alter the articles in any way. However, you can make them unique by adding a small comment at the top, such as “I found this great article by ... about ... What do you think about his comments on ...?” Then paste in the article.

Don't think your posts must be all just words. Use some images - remember the adage about a picture painting a thousand words! You can also embed relevant YouTube videos.

Think about how often you want to post. There is no point in getting a rush of enthusiasm at the start and putting up ten posts a day for a week, then doing nothing for a month. Whether you decide to post every day, every week or every couple of weeks, try to be consistent.

Adding posts to your blog is basically the same procedure as adding pages, except that with posts you need to choose a category. If you are going to be away for a while, you can also use the date feature to post in the future.

That's it! Happy blogging!

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

Lynn Fowler

Module 4: Autoresponder

In this module we are going to set up your autoresponder.

Log in to your AIOP account, and click on Autoresponder. The first thing you need to do is set up a campaign. Click “Campaigns” and enter your campaign id, campaign name and email address. We are going to use this autoresponder to promote your HelpingEachOther2Succeed system, so I suggest you make the id and name for the campaign “YourAIOPid”AIOP (or course replacing “YourAIOPid” with your actual AIOP id.) Click submit.

Next you need to add content to your autoresponder. Click on Autoresponders, then on “Edit Autoresponders.” I suggest you use “html enhanced” as your message type.

Now, in the promotional area of your AIOP account you will find a series of autoresponder messages formatted to work with the AIOP autoresponder. Copy and paste the first one into the first message area, and the subject into the subject line.

You will need to add a signature, and to meet legal requirements this must contain your address and a statement to the effect that you have a material relationship with products and programs that may be mentioned in your emails, and will receive compensation in cash or kind should the reader choose to buy or sign up through links in your emails. I suggest you set this up in a text document and save it in your business folder on your computer, and copy and paste it into each email.

Leave the first message of your autoresponder series set to go out at an interval of “0” days - in other words, it will go out as soon as your subscriber confirms his/her subscription.

Set the other messages up in the same way, spacing them 3-4 days apart. Note that this autoresponder measures days from the beginning of the series, rather than from the previous email. So if you want messages to go out 3 days apart, you would set them for day 3, day 6 and so on.

Next you need to create a signup form. You will use this in two places - on your web site, and in your squeeze pages. In your autoresponder account, click on Home, and scroll right down till you see “HTML Form.” Choose any fields you want to add to your form as well as the standard “Name” and “Email.” (HINT: The more fields you include, the less likely people are to sign up. I would suggest at most you include “Country,” but unless you would really like to know where your subscribers are coming from, don't even include that.)

In the “Return url” field, put your AIOP referral link. (NOTE: it has to be the full URL - including http://)
To choose the colors you want for your form, go to http://www.w3schools.com/tags/ref_colorpicker.asp

There you will be able to select the colors you want, and get the hex code, which you can then paste into your form maker. When you have finished, click “generate form.” It will give you the html code for your form, which you can then copy and paste into your web site. (HINT: the best way to do this is to use a text widget in the sidebar. Log in to your WordPress back office and go to Appearance/Widgets. Drag a text widget into the sidebar of your choice, and paste the form code into the widget. Check that you are happy with the placement by viewing your site. If you are not, you can always drag the widget to a different position.)

Next we are going to create a splash/squeeze page. You could just use the splash pages in your AIOP promotional area, but there are a couple of reasons why that is really not the best idea.

Lynn Fowler

Firstly, lots of other people are likely to be using those splash pages - and when people have seen the same page over and over, they tend to become blind to it. Secondly, by creating a squeeze page with your autoresponder form on it, you have a chance to follow up prospects. It is a proven fact that most people need several exposures to a product or program before they buy or sign up. Your autoresponder ensures that those exposures come from you, not from someone else. Thirdly, by collecting your prospects' email addresses you are able to build a relationship with them, to help them with good content and to introduce them to other programs and products that might interest them.

So, in your AIOP members area, click on Splash Builder. Give your splash page a name - it doesn't really matter what, it is just for your own reference. Choose “Picture Squeeze Page” and click “Update Template.” Click “Go Back to edit page.” Enter a title, description and keywords, and choose a background color (use the color picker you used previously to get the hex code.) If you would like to have a picture as the background, click “Change Picture” and select a category from the drop-down menu, then a picture from those offered. Update the template and go back to edit. You can also do this for the body background.

Next grab the html code for your autoresponder form and paste it into the AR Code area. Do not change anything!! Next choose a picture for your header, update the template and go back to edit.

Now enter a heading, sub heading and a list of benefits they will receive by joining the program. See the sample splash page to get an idea - but don't just copy it! These sections can be edited just as you would with any standard word processor. Update the template and scroll down to see your page. If you are not happy with it, keep working on it until you are. Once you are pleased with it, go back to “Splash pages” and you will see your page listed with the link beside it.

One final step. Go to your AIOP Tracker (or any tracker you want to use) . Enter your link for your squeeze page into the tracking link builder, and grab the URL it produces. You are going to use this for your TE surfing.

Now you are ready to start promoting.

______________________________________________________

Module 5: Traffic Exchanges

Today we are going to get down to the business of promoting your business through Traffic Exchanges. If you are not familiar with them, Traffic Exchanges (or TEs) are sites where you can have your website shown to other people in return for looking at theirs.

The reason that we are beginning with Traffic Exchanges is simply that they are a quick, easy and effective way to get visitors to your site. In fact, many of you will have found the All In One Profits web page through a Traffic Exchange - a testimony to their effectiveness! Next we will move on to other methods of generating short term traffic, and later to ways to develop long term, ongoing traffic to your site, but for now TEs are the quickest way to get your business launched.

Before we get started, you need to think about how you are going to schedule your TE browsing. In total you are going to be joining around 80 TEs - I know that sounds overwhelming, but don't worry, we are going to break it down into chunks. You don't have to join every TE in the downline builder, but I do suggest you join as many as possible. There are 4 that you will be using every day, and the rest will be divided into groups that you will surf together with those 4. We are going to be using these 4 every day because the first one allows you to build a temporary mailing list, which grows the more you surf; the other 3 are linked together, and often also linked to other TEs, so that you get extra credits (sometimes as much as 100% extra) by surfing them together.

Lynn Fowler

Now, before you decide how to divide up the remaining sites, you need to decide how many days a week you can give to surfing. I suggest you try for a minimum of 5 and a maximum of 6 (you need one day a week off to give time to your family and other things.) However, sometimes 5 days might not work with your schedule, and you would prefer to do a bit extra time for 4 days a week. That's fine, but I would suggest you try not to go below that. These remaining TEs can be spread over a 2 to 3 week cycle. For instance, if you are planning on surfing five days a week and want to do a two week cycle (a total of ten days,) you will have some days with 7 and some days with 8. Five days with a three week cycle (total fifteen days) will give you 5 sites most days, 6 on a couple. Four days on a three week cycle (total twelve days) will give you some days with 6 and some with 7.

When you have decided how many days you want in your cycle, open Firefox. Go to the Bookmarks menu and create a new folder. You do this by right-clicking anywhere in the dropdown box and selecting "New Folder." Label it "Traffic Exchanges." Then within that folder create subfolders - right-click on your "Traffic Exchanges" folder then select "New Folder" - and label them "Daily" "Day 1" "Day 2" etc, up to the number of days you have decided. You will bookmark your TEs in these folders as you join them.

Now go to your Programs spreadsheet and create new sheets for the number of days in your TE cycle, using the same headings as for your other sheets.

To join the TEs, go to your Downline Builder and click on the "Programs" link in the blue bar at the top of the page. Each program has a link for you to click to join the program. After you have joined, don't forget to go back to your Downline Builder back office and click on the "Update Programs" link to enter your referral id for that program, so that those you refer will be joining through your link. (It is MUCH easier if you do this one at a time, as you join each program.)

Here's a few things you need to know about TEs before we start. We are going to surf these exchanges in groups, and you will have them all open in the same browser in different tabs (assuming you took my advice and installed Firefox!) Firefox allows you to move between tabs using the keyboard shortcut Control+Tab, which means that you can use your left hand to shift tabs and your right hand to click where needed. If you are left handed, you can use the keyboard shortcut Control+PageDown, and operate the mouse with your left hand. Alternatively, you can go to "Tools" in your Firefox toolbar, then to "Add-ons" and "Get Add-ons" and search for Tab Mix Plus. After you have installed this plug-in and restarted your browser, your tools menu will show "Tab Mix Plus Options". Click on "Tab Features." I find that configuring it to rotate every 6 seconds works well on my computer, but you might need to play with it a little to find the best option for you. Once you have this configured, pressing F8 will cause your browser to automatically move from one tab to the next after the time you have set. If you want to stop at a page, just press F8 again to stop the rotation. (I absolutely love this plug-in - it makes surfing TEs sooooo much easier!)

I strongly suggest that you surf with the sound turned off - unfortunately many people promote pages that have sound that starts automatically, and you really don't want to have 4 or 5 people talking at once through your computer! ;-) Actually, I use my surfing time as motivation time - I have a small mp3 player onto which I have loaded some affirmations, and I listen to it while I am surfing.

Most TEs work by showing you a picture and asking you to click on the matching picture, after the time for viewing the site is up. A few have words you have to click, and one occasionally throws up simple sums. Some can be a little tricky at first to figure out, but once you get the hang of it, it's really easy.

Lynn Fowler

As you surf through the sites, don't let yourself be distracted. If you see something that interests you and you want to follow up, right click anywhere in the frame, and select "this frame"/ "bookmark this frame" and get on with surfing. That way you can come back and check it out after you finish surfing. (But remember what we said at the beginning about keeping your focus.) If you come to a window where the surf bar has not loaded or the countdown has not finished, just move on to the next tab and catch that one on the next round. If you come to one where the countdown has finished but the page is not showing, click to go on anyway.

Be careful as you go through to look out for competitions run by the TEs, or bonus opportunities. Most of the TEs have these, and they serve both to give you extra points and to check that you are not cheating.

As you join each TE, you will need to give an email address, and to click the link in a verification email before your membership becomes active. Use your "mail" address for most of them, but some of the TEs you will be joining also have mailing lists incorporated in them. For these, I suggest you use your "list" address to sign up, and make a note in your spreadsheet that they include mailing lists.

When you join each TE, you will be asked to add a site. This is where you add the HeaderLinks link for your squeeze page. Some ask during the sign-up process, others you do it after you have signed up and confirmed your email address. For a few you have to surf some sites before you can add yours.

I have not had any problem using cloaked links in TEs, but if you do have any difficulty, simply use the normal URL for your squeeze page.

Once you have done this and your site is active, in most cases you will be able to auto-assign credits. In some cases you can do this on the same page as adding your site, but in others you will need to look for a button that says "Assign Credits" or "Auto-assign." Set your auto-assign to 100%. In the few cases where you are not able to auto-assign, make a note of it in your spreadsheet and be sure to go back after a day's surfing and assign the credits. Also note the ones where you have to surf some sites before you can add yours, and be sure to go back and add your site after you have surfed. (It's a good idea to check in to your member's area regularly anyway, as any bonus credits you pick up will not be auto-assigned, you will have to assign them manually.)

(NOTE: AIOP team members - you have a requirement to send hits to the team page, so you will also need to add the team splash page as one of your sites. Create a tracked link for the Team rotator, and add it along with your squeeze page tracked link.  In this case set the auto assign to 50% each.)

Most sites also allow you to add banners and text ads, some require you to use your surf credits for them, others include them separately. A few let you run banners and texts without credits as long as your sites have credits assigned to them. As you go through adding your sites, also add one or more of the AIOP banners and text ads wherever you can.

To find your affiliate link for the sites, look for "Affiliate Tools" or "Promotion" or something similar.

Also I should warn you that with every site you join you will have to wade through the inevitable "One Time Offer" (unfortunately in some cases a 3 or 4 times offer!) It's annoying, but it's the price you pay for a free service. Just scroll to the bottom of the page and click the "No Thanks" link.

Just one more caution before we start. We are going to be surfing for at least half an hour, five days a week. That takes some bandwidth. If your ISP offers extra "off peak" time, and if it is convenient for you to do so, I suggest you use it. If you don't have around 10Gb of bandwidth available to you, you might need to upgrade your plan with your ISP.

Lynn Fowler

If you are already a member of any of these sites, enter your existing details in your spreadsheet as we go, but be sure to bookmark them in the appropriate folders so that you can surf them together.

You are going to spend the next week setting up your TEs. First, set up the first four. Go to each site and sign up. Once you have confirmed your email address, log in and set up your sites. Grab your referral URL and paste it, along with your other details for that site, into your Traffic spreadsheet. Before you leave the site, bookmark it in your "Daily" folder in "Traffic Exchanges" in your Firefox Bookmarks.

Once you have set these up, go to your "Daily" folder in your bookmarks. As you hover over the folder, you will see a drop-down list of all the sites you have bookmarked there (it should be the four you have just joined.) At the bottom there is a line that says, "Open all in tabs." Click it and, hey presto! you will have all four sites open in different tabs.

Now you need to set up the extra TEs. Work out how many you are going to be using each day, according to the cycle you decided upon earlier, and divide them into groups of that number. As you join each one, note the details in your spreadsheet, and bookmark the site in the appropriate folder in your Firefox bookmarks.

By the way, if you are wondering why we are joining so many TEs, it is so that your ads can get the widest possible exposure. If you only surf one or two TEs, your ads are being shown to the same people over and over. This way they are reaching a much wider audience. Some of the TEs we are joining have been around for ages, and have a huge membership base. Others are just new on the scene, so are working hard to build their membership (fresh eyeballs to see your ads.)

As you join each group of TEs, take a little time to surf through them. And don't forget to add your referral links for the TEs you have joined to the Downline Builder, so that those you refer to AIOP will join them through your links.

One final word on TEs - if you have a little bit of cash to spare, you might consider upgrading in a few. This gives you free credits each month, and also increases the ratio of times your site is shown to the number of sites you view. A few where I have found an upgrade worthwhile are HitsBoosterPro, FastCashAndTraffic (where an upgrade also lets you send email to 2000 every 3 days) and FrogHits (where an upgrade gets your site also rotated in other exchanges.) A word of warning, though - if you do upgrade, or take a paid subscription for monthly hits, check to make sure those hits are actually being received by your site. I took a paid sub with 1 site only to find later that, although the hits were being credited to my account, my sites were only receiving a fraction of them - with the result that I had a huge backlog of hits accumulated. Needless to say, I unsubscribed quickly!

Once you have all your TEs set up, get into a routine of spending at least half an hour on the days you have scheduled for surfing to surf the first 4 plus the group for that day.

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

Lynn Fowler

Module 6: Safelists

Today we are moving on to work with SafeLists.

SafeLists are basically communities of people who have agreed to receive mail from other members and in return are able to send mail to other members. The original ones let you send mail with no obligation to read the mail from others, which meant that people just did a mass delete, and none of the mail got read - which kinda defeated the purpose of the whole thing. The newer and more effective ones require members to actually read and click on a link in the other member's email. It works a bit like a TE - the link opens a page with a timer, and when the timer has counted down you get your credits.

Now, you are going to get a LOT of mail from your SafeLists, so before we get started I want to make sure that you know the best way to handle it all. Remember at the beginning we set up 2 Gmail accounts, one called "mail" and one called "list." Most SafeLists will require you to give both - the "mail" address for admin contact and the "list" address for all the emails you will receive from the list.

Open your Gmail "mail" account now, and open one of the emails that you have received from one of the TEs that you joined. On the top bar you will see a button that says "More." Click on it, then click on "filter messages like these." In the dialogue box, click on "create a filter with this search." In the next dialogue box tick "apply the label" then from the drop-down menu beside it click "create a new label." Make the name of the label the name of the TE. While you are there, check "never send to trash" to whitelist that TE. Tick "also apply the filter to [number] matching conversations." Click "create filter." You will now have the email open, and under the subject line you will see two grey boxes, one that says "inbox" and the other with the name of the filter you just created. If you click on the name of the filter, you will now have all the emails from that TE in one place, making it far easier for you to work through them.

Now, I'm sure that you will be happy to know that you are not expected to read ALL the emails that come from any SafeList. :-) The trick is to find the ones that offer the most credits. This will be different with each SafeList, so just do a little experiment to find which ones are most lucrative. As a general rule, "solo" emails carry more credits than normal ones, and "solo ads to go" carry even more. As you receive mail from each safelist, enter a note in the "Comments" column of your spreadsheet along with the other information, about which kinds of emails from them have the most credits. You will also receive some solo emails in your "mail" address - these are generally worth more than those sent to the "list" address. When you open the email, scroll down to "click here for credit" and click the link. It will open in a new tab. CAUTION: Some lists have their "unsubscribe" link very close under their "credit" link. Be careful that you click the right one. (I have almost unsubscribed myself several times.)

Decide how many emails you want to open from each list each day. Once you have read that many from any given list, go back to the label for that list, click on the square button at the top left side above the email subjects to select all. If there are more than 50 conversations under that label, click to select all conversations (this link will appear at the top over the subject listings) and delete. This will save your inbox from becoming too cluttered. Then pick the next label and work on it. TIP: If you are limited in time, it is better to choose a couple of lists each day and read as much mail as possible from them, rather than just reading a couple of emails from every list. With SafeList mailing, it is definitely a numbers game - the more mail you can send, the better!

One final thing about SafeLists before you join them. Almost all of them will immediately cancel your account if your email bounces due to a full inbox. Most have an option to go on holiday mode, which means that you will not receive mail from them until you go off holiday mode. If you are for any reason not going to be able to attend to your mail for a while, use this option.

Lynn Fowler

The lists that I have chosen are all ones that allow you to email the general list as well as your own downline. If at some future time you decide to expand and join other lists, I would strongly suggest making this a criterion for those you join. Otherwise, you might accumulate thousands of credits but only be able to use them to email two or three people.

So, now go and join each of the SafeLists in the Downline Builder

Next, you need to prepare some messages to send via your SafeLists. I suggest you do this before you send out mail, so that you can have time to think about what you are going to say. Create a new folder in your Business folder, and label it "SafeList Emails." Create your emails as OpenOffice text documents, and save them in this folder.

Here's a few pointers:

1. Headings are important! They can make the difference between your email being opened or not. As you read the emails that come in from your SafeLists, take note of them and copy them to a "swipe file." (It only has to be an OpenOffice text document - you could call it "Headline swipes".) Another tip: Many of the programs have the ability to personalize the header with the recipient's name. If it is available, use it - people love to see their own name, even if they know it has been put there by a computer program. :0) Most marketers do this - but here's one that most marketers DON'T do: also personalize your email with your own name. (From Joe Bloggs ... ) This will help to brand you, and as people get used to you offering them good products, they are more likely to open your mail. (We'll talk more about branding soon.) Some headings NOT to use - they will get you banned from most SafeLists, and even if they don't they will anger the readers and turn them away rather than attract them to your offer:

* Anything that suggests they have received a payment or a signup
* Anything that suggests there is a question about a payment sent by them
* Anything that sounds as though it is coming from the SafeList Admin
* In general, anything that is false or misleading

2. For SafeLists, what you say in the body of the email is not so important, as most people are going to scroll straight to the bottom to get their credit link (that's what you've been doing, isn't it? :0) ) However, some people do still read the actual email, so it's worth making a little bit of effort to pitch your business. When you come to send the mail through the SafeLists, if you have the opportunity to send it in html, use it. (Don't panic - the interface is as easy to use as formatting a regular document in OpenOffice.) Use everything you can to get people's attention. A further tip - try to avoid using the "cut and paste" emails that are included with various programs. Use them as a guide, but edit them so that they are speaking in your own "voice" and saying what is true for you. Make them unique, so that people will not be seeing the same email from hundreds of marketers.

3. For each SafeList, make a note of how often you can post. Get a cheap diary, and each time you post to a SafeList, record ahead the next time you will be able to post. So, if you post to ListA today, and you are allowed to post there every three days, skip ahead three days in your diary and make a note "Post to ListA." Also note which messages you have used with which SafeLists, so that you are not doubling up and sending the same message twice in a row.

Spend this week setting up your SafeLists, and continue to spend at least half an hour each day surfing the TEs. Next we'll look at another method to promote your business.

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

Lynn Fowler

Module 7: Optimism

Today we are taking a break from the work of promoting your business, and we are going to take a little while to look at YOU.

Have you ever wondered why it is that some people who have huge intellectual ability fail miserably in life, while some who are not so gifted succeed gloriously?

Or why some people can take knock after knock after knock, and still get up, dust themselves off, and get on with life - yet others are "down and out for the count" after the smallest challenge?

Or how some people can fix their eyes on a goal and just never give up until they get there, no matter how long it takes?

The answer to all the above lies in one word: attitude.

Dr Martin Seligman has done a great deal of research, and found that one of the main factors that keeps people going through challenges, disappointments and the various disasters that life throws at us is optimism, and that (even for those who are natural pessimists) optimism can be learned in fact Dr Seligman himself confesses to being by nature a pessimist!

Dr Seligman points out three main areas of difference between optimists and pessimists when faced with challenges, failures or opposition.

The first concerns how they see the duration of the problem. The optimist sees it as temporary, the pessimist as permanent.

If an optimist fails an exam, he will say "I failed that exam, but I will do well on the next one."

The pessimist who fails an exam will say "I failed. I'm never going to pass this course."

The second relates to the scope of the problem: the optimist sees it as affecting one are of life only, whilst the pessimist sees it as affecting everything.

The optimist says, "I failed my history exam, but I did well in math." The pessimist says, "I failed. I'm never going to succeed in life."

The third area concerns the cause of the problem. The optimist will look for causes outside of himself, the pessimist always sees himself as to blame.

Optimist: "The exam asked about things that we had not covered in the course." Pessimist: "I'm just no good at history (and I never will be.)"

The good news is that, with a little effort, we can change pessimistic attitudes into optimistic ones. To do it, we have to use our conscious mind to challenge the wrong perceptions and thought patterns that have hidden in our subconscious for many years.

So, you have failed the history exam. The first thought that comes to your mind is "I'm never going to pass this course!" Immediately you recognize it, you say (out loud if possible) "STOP!" (Some people like to wear an elastic band around their wrist and flick it to grab their mind's attention.) Now challenge the assumption - simply tell yourself, "That's not true!" Present your mind with arguments to the contrary: "This was just one exam. I can make it up during the rest of the course."

Maybe your second thought is, "I'm never going to succeed in anything." Again, STOP! Tell yourself this is not true. Tell yourself that this is only one very small area of your life, and that it has absolutely no bearing in the other areas. Even if you flunk this course miserably, you can still have a great life.

Lynn Fowler

If you find yourself thinking, "I'm a failure" or "I'm just hopeless" STOP! Tell yourself this is not true. Remind yourself of areas where you have known success, and where you have ability.

It will seem strange at first, but after a while you will become quite adept at arguing with yourself!

(Now, there is a sense in which taking it personally is good - when it relates to what we have done, rather than what we are. If the guy who failed the history exam had said, "I didn't study hard enough" then he would be taking responsibility for his own actions, which leaves him room to change his actions (i.e., study harder) in the future. But if he just says, "I'm no good at history" or "I'm not academically gifted" or "I'm just plain dumb!" then he is not taking responsibility, but rather blaming the "genetic lottery" that caused him to be as he is. If we are to succeed in any area of life - or, indeed, in life itself - we absolutely MUST be prepared to take responsibility for our own actions and their consequences.)

Why is this important for your business? When it all boils down, we are sales people. We are seeking to "sell" others on the idea of joining our business. In the "real" world, sales people have to deal with refusals all the time. How they handle those refusals will determine their level of success, or whether they give up and walk away after a few months.

As online business people, we don't have the face-to-face rejection that offline sales people do. But there will be days when you have been working hard and seem to see no result. There will be times when your business just does not seem to be growing at the rate you would like it to be. If you approach those times with a pessimistic attitude - that this will go on forever, that it will ruin every part of your life, and that it is all your own fault because you are just hopeless - then you will soon give up and walk away. On the other hand, if you are able to turn your thinking around to see that this is only temporary, that it only affects this little bit of your life, and that whilst there may be areas where you can improve (take responsibility) it is not the result of some fault in your nature, then whilst you may not be dancing in the aisles, you will keep on going.

If you are prone to pessimistic responses, work on changing them to optimistic ones. You will find that not only your business but all your life will improve dramatically.

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

Module 8:

Classifieds, Text Exchanges and Viral Builders

In this very brief module we are going to look at Classifieds, Text Exchanges and Viral Traffic.

Online classifieds work much the same way as classifieds in your local newspaper. They can be a great source of traffic to your web site, if used correctly. Find or create a free report, preferably about making money online (since that is the area in which we are working.) If you Google “Free PLR” you will quickly find something suitable to give away. (If you upgrade to Gold Membership you will receive extra promotional tools each month, some of which will be reports that you can rebrand with your affiliate links and use as giveaways.)

The report should be a pdf file. Upload it to your web site. To do this, log in to your cpanel account (this is your main website back office, not your WordPress back office - the url will be http://yoursite.com/cpanel.) Find the icon that says “File Manager” and click. In the file manager, double click beside “www” and then click on “upload file.” Browse to find the file on your computer and click “upload.” Check by typing “http://yoursite.com/report.pdf” into your browser address bar (replacing “yoursite” with your domain name and “report” with the name of the report) - the report should come up in your browser, or a dialogue box asking whether you want to open or save it.

Lynn Fowler

Set up an autoresponder as you did before, but this time put a link to the report in your first message. You can follow up with the series from AIOP. Now create a squeeze page for the report. Go to the classified sites and place a small ad for your report, giving the link to your squeeze page.

Text Ad Exchanges come in different flavours. Some only have ads to be viewed on site, some have built in safelists. The best thing to do is to sign up and take some time to explore them. You will find a list in the Downline Builder. Don't forget to add your referral links to the Downline Builder as you go.

Viral traffic builders work on a multi level basis. You need to view the sites above you - generally around 6 - then your site gets added at the bottom. As it works its way to the top, on each succeeding level more and more people are viewing your site. This can add up to thousands of views by the time your site gets to the top. That's the good part. The bad part is, each person is only viewing your site once. So, you want to capture their email so that you can present your offer to them several times. Again, the best way to do this is by offering a free report - but this time you want your report to be about some aspect of traffic. After all, that is the only reason most of these viewers are looking at your site at all - they want traffic, and viewing your site is one way for them to get it. So, offer them something that tells them more ways to get traffic. Set up your report, autoresponder and squeeze page as before, but using a traffic report, and use the link for your squeeze page as the link for these viral builders.

Now, go and sign up for all the viral builders in the downline builder. Grab your referral url for each one and paste it into your spread sheet. Once you have joined them all, log in to your AIOP account and click on “Rotator.” Add each of the links into your rotator. Now go and create a splash page (not a squeeze page this time - no autoresponder form) saying something about viral traffic, and link it to your rotator url. Add the url for this splash page to your sites in each of the TEs. (Many TEs will not allow you to use rotators, but they will not stop you from using a splash page that links to a rotator.)

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

Module 9: Branding

In this module I want to talk about branding ... no, I don't mean someone taking to you with a hot iron, but rather the need for potential customers to see you as a real person, not just a faceless, nameless “internet marketer.”

Unless you have been hiding under a sand dune in the middle of the Sahara Desert, I'm sure you have noticed quite a bit on the internet lately about "branding" and "promoting you." The reason that it is being talked about so much is simply that it is very important - in fact, it is probably THE most important thing you will do for your business.

You have probably heard the saying that, "All things being equal, people would rather buy from someone they know and trust. All things not being equal, people would still rather buy from someone they know and trust." Now, with this system we are not directly selling anything, but we are nonetheless asking people to "buy" - to buy the idea that the system will work for them (it will,) to buy into the income opportunities we offer, to buy the idea of working the system and not going off at tangents.

That means that you need to get your name and face out there into the public view as much as possible. When you sign up for a program that allows you to add your photo, do. Put your photo on your splash and squeeze pages. Use your own name (From ...) in the subject lines of your emails, both those to your own list and those you send through SafeLists.

Lynn Fowler

A word about your photo: it should look professional - in other words, not a pic of you at the beach showing off your beautiful bod, or lounging around the house in a track suit, or pulling silly faces. It also should look warm, friendly and inviting - nobody wants to do business with someone who looks like an old grouch!

Another way to establish branding is by joining social networks that are set up specially for internet marketers. You will find a list of them in the downline builder. Each one is a little bit different, so take some time to explore them.

Of course, the absolute most important thing you can do for your “brand” is to make sure you deliver - in fact, over deliver - on all your promises. Even when you are giving away free ebooks, don't give away garbage. Ask yourself whether you would feel this was worthwhile to download - and if you don't, then don't palm it off on other people. In your autoresponder sequences, don't just have sales pitch after sales pitch ... offer good quality content, and a quality freebie here and there. Your readers will love it, and will want to open your mail, rather than unsubscribing or - worse! - just deleting your mail unopened. As in all things, the “Golden Rule” is a good guideline - treat others the way you would like to be treated yourself.

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

Module 10: Long Term Traffic

In this module we are going to look at some ways to build long term traffic to your site. By now you should have some good content on your site, so we can begin to build backlinks. This will do 2 things: firstly, it will bring some real people to your site as they follow the links; and secondly it will help with your position in the search engines ... and of course most people who find any site do so through search engines.

The first thing you need to do is go to Blogger.com and create an account. This will allow you to create as many blogs as you want. So why do you want to create a blog on Blogger when you already have one on your own site? In a word: backlinks. Create a blog with a name that relates to your main site, and put up a first post. It can be as simple as “Welcome to my blog.” Now log in to your own site (your WordPress back office) and activate your social sites poster plugin, and link it to your Blogger blog. Set it to post just an excerpt, not the full post. Now when the search engines go to Blogger and find your blog there, they will also find the link back to your main site. Likewise real people who find your Blogger blog will need to click through to your own site to read the full post.

Next, create a Twitter account, and set your social networks poster to post to it. Take a little time each day to follow people. A good way to do this is to find one leader in your field (in our case making money online) and follow his/her followers. The logic of this is that if they are interested in following one person in that niche, they might be interested in following others in the same niche. Take is slowly ... Twitter will punish you if you follow too many people at once. Follow a dozen a day. If half of them follow you back, within a year you will have over 2000 followers.

Likewise, go to Facebook and create a fan page for your site. Set your social networks poster to update it automatically, and follow a similar strategy of befriending people as with Twitter.

You also need to submit your site to directories. Google “blog directory” and you will find dozens of them. It is time consuming, but if you do a few each night you will soon have lots of links coming back to your site. Just make sure that you keep a record of where you have submitted your links - double dipping can be taken as spamming, and can get you banned.

Lynn Fowler

Next, head over to Squidoo.com. Squidoo is a site that lets you create mini-sites (they call them lenses) about almost any topic. They must be informative, not overly commercial, but they can link back to your site. The idea is to create a series of lenses around a theme, linking them to each other and back to your site.

Two other sites that work in a similar way are Hubpages.com and Xomba.com. You can create “link wheels” with these sites, linking one to another and back to your main site.

Of course, there's the “granddaddy” of link building, article marketing. You write short, informative articles that relate to your topic (nothing “salesy” or they will be rejected) and then you are allowed to include a “resource box” at the bottom, in which you have your name and links to your site. Whole books have been written about article marketing, but really it is pretty intuitive. You don't have to be a literary genius, and your work does not need to qualify for the Pulitzer prize, but you do need to have good spelling and grammar and a reasonable quality of writing.

SocialMonkee is another great tool for link building. At the basic level, you can submit one site a day to 25 quality sites. It takes a little work - you need to “spin” the submission so that there are multiple versions - but the site has a clear explanation of what you need to do.

If you haven't yet tried out our second income program, Staged, go and sign up now. This is a really fun way to promote anything you want to promote, and to get some great links back to your site.

Create some videos and post them to YouTube. No, don't freak out ... you don't have to get in front of a camera and talk (unless you really want to.) Create a simple OpenOffice presentation slide show (works the same as PowerPoint.) If you don't already have it, download CamStudio (similar to Camtasia, but free.) This lets you capture what is happening on your desktop and put it into video format. Play your presentation, capture it with CamStudio, and hey presto! you have a video to put on YouTube. Make sure you have a link to your site at the beginning of the description ... or better yet, to a squeeze page for one of your freebies.

All of these strategies take some time and effort, but the great benefit is that they are “set and forget.” Once you have them in place, they will continue to send both search engines and human visitors to your site for years to come.

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

Module 11: Niche Marketing

Now that you have things set up to promote your HelpingEachOther2Succeed system and through it the other programs you have joined, we are going to look at the other side of your online business, namely Niche Marketing.

The first thing you need to do is to think about what niche you want to target. Now, a lot of people will tell you that this must be an area about which you are passionate. I disagree. For a start, your passion about a subject does not guarantee that it will be a profitable niche. For instance, I am a Christian minister in my offline life, and I am certainly passionate about Christianity and ministry, but I have learned by experience that when it comes to marketing the Christian niche is definitely not a profitable one (salvation is free, and sadly many Christians seem to think that everything else should be, too.) So my Christian efforts online focus on what I can give freely, not on making money. On the other hand, I target several niches in which I have no burning personal interest, but which I know to be profitable.

Lynn Fowler

So, how do you decide what niche to target? What you want to look for is people who have a need and who have money and are willing to spend it to meet that need. For instance, weight loss is a huge niche. People who are overweight really want to find answers, and many of them are willing to spend large amounts of money in seeking those answers. Now, I am not suggesting that everyone target the weight loss niche - but it does serve as a good illustration of the kind of niche you need to look for.

Once you have decided on your niche, log in to your cpanel and set up another subdomain on your account with a name relating to that niche, then set up WordPress on that subdomain just as you did before. Again, you can get content from PLR, article directories or YouTube videos.

Next you need to find some products to promote through your niche blog. Depending on the niche you have chosen, you might be able to find products in your PayGear account - just log in and click on Marketplace to explore what is available. An alternative is to go to ClickBank and sign up for an account. The benefit of ClickBank is that it is the “granddaddy” of affiliate marketing sites, with products for every niche imaginable. The downside is that you need to be getting constant sales with them, because if your account is inactive for a certain period they begin deducting fees from it - believe me, as one who at one time lost over $100 in ClickBank commissions that way, it is NOT something you want to happen!

Other alternatives are sites such as Amazon and Commission Junction that allow you to sell physical products as an affiliate. The commission rate is much lower than it is for digital products, but often the selling price is much higher.

Whatever source you choose for affiliate products, you will need to grab some of the banners or links to add to your site. You might also want to set up a series of autoresponder messages. So, look for programs that offer good affiliate tools. The best way to add banners to your site is to use widgets - place them either in the top widget area (wide banners) or in the side bars - that way they will appear on every page of your site. You can also get plugins that will allow you to rotate several banners on your site so that your visitors are not seeing the same thing all the time.

Once you have your site set up and some content on it, you need to start promoting it so that you can get visitors and start making some sales and commissions.

A word of warning here - Traffic Exchanges, Safelists and Text Exchanges simply will not work for anything other than the Internet Marketing/Make Money Online niche. If you try to use them for anything else you will be wasting your time and effort. What you need to do is to work on the long term traffic strategies, building links to your site both to get live visitors and to build your ranking in the search engines.

Copyright © Lynn Fowler • All rights reserved worldwide

Legal Information: This Basic Training Guide has been created by Lynn Fowler

and adapted for AIOP by the author. It may not be altered or sold for profit.