Over the years I have gained a wealth of experience on the Internet but never brought it all together so now is the time to put that right so I can start helping others who have been in the same situation.

My new mentor is in the process of setting up a monthly membership site that will have some live training and a forum for all members to communicate and help each other. I am waiting for the launch date to be announced and the monthly charge before making the final decision to go down this route.

I will probably keep this blog domain and add new content about my progress plus any other items of interest I can pass on. I will have to change the WordPress Theme but may retain the header graphic just as it is or have a minor change depending on the cost.

One important item needed for the course is an autoresponder so I have re-joind Aweber after a 4 month break but this time taken their monthly subscription at $19 which gives the first months subscription at just $1.

I have heard so much about hacking and lost records recently that I have now added the WP-Lockup Plugin to my blog and to all future WordPress sites. See a previous post where I went into more detail about WP-Lockup.

As an extra precaution I am starting to backup important information on Cloud Hosting but finding it not as easy as first thought. I managed to get a good deal at JustCloud for storing 250MB but finding it extremely slow. They were quick to start offering upgrades as soon as I had signed up and one upgrade was for increasing backup speed. It starts getting expensive with all the extra so I have not taken up the offer(s) but have to decide what to do next to overcome the problem if doing regular backups and decide what files or folders to backup.

I have a lot of jobs to do around the house and garden at the moment so have decided to give them top priority and complete them before the training starts probably at the end of next week.

If I start this new monthly membership course I will name the mentor and log my progress through each stage.

Mike
 

I was just about to start searching on the Internet when an offer came through from Marc Milburn for a report titled "Membership Site Mastery" which did not have a price tag but a donation starting from $1 could be made to access the download page. I do not normally go for these offers but in this case I purchased for $5.

The report has just been launched on the Warrior Forum for a set price of $5 so I was on the mark with my donation. With this offer there is an up-sell at $27.

I have found this report very helpful as it describes the many alternatives available  for each aspect of building a membership site, and these include:

Choosing a Membership Model.
Software - Script or WordPress.
Essential Features such as using an Autoresponder.
Launching the site.

- and many more, but as this is only a report it does not give any step by step detailed instructions to walk you through building an actual site. This is what I need most to get me on the right track but I am told there are none available or not easy to find. It does seem that most marketers want you to join their monthly membership site where this information will then be available.

The original donation launch was obviously a trial for setting the price for the WSO and obtaining testimonials but for $5 it is well worth making the purchase. This however is only of any use to people who have not started a membership site, and need to know where to gather the required information.

Mike

I am putting this site together with the help of a program called Membership Mechanics 2.0 by Peter Garety. The offer has been closed on the Warrior Forum but will be made available again on Clickbank during March.

The videos and mindmaps are very well presented but I think they could be hard to follow by a complete newbie.

Peter has gone away from what he calls the old style paid monthly membership sites and now recommends building Fixed Term (paid) or Specific Purpose (free/paid) sites.

The tutorials are only for building the site (using WordPress) and does not include information for adding content and how to attract members, that is left for the user to work out to suit their specific needs.

Overall it is a great product for building the structure of the site but for anyone putting together their first membership site it comes to an abrupt end with still a lot of work to do before going live.

My Membership Site is installed but waiting for content to be added before going live.

Mike

I now have two websites uploaded promoting Amazon products with the second starting to get visits from the search engines but it is not ranking on any pages yet.

Before moving on to the third site I am going to spend more time on SEO as the site I submitted to only ranked me as 48 out 100 and I need to be up in the 90's.

The other way to improve the site is to go for a more specialised review theme so I am checking out "Pro Review Theme" which costs $67 for using on unlimited sites for personal use. With all the features I am sure this will go a long way to improve my rankings and could be a good investment.

I am gradually getting back into my product creation but have decided for my first attempt I can only do it by using PLR otherwise it will never get off the ground and I can use it to build experience.

My first project will be about website traffic so I have a lot of research to do to put my own mark on the PLR document that I purchased.  This is a good subject to start on as I am learning as I go and can put it into practice for all the websites I am creating and trying to get ranked for on Google.

Once the product is created I will have to look at promoting it so will continue on the mentor courses that I started some time ago.

Whilst doing all this I am working through a course I purchased from Lee McIntyre called Internet Automation Plan which is very informative and giving me that extra energy and drive to keep moving forward. The course is 12 months old and is going to be taken off the market but Lee has offered it for only $5 for a limited time and it is great value and not out of date.

This course is a series of webinars that were recorded and so far I have viewed three which have gone into great detail about the pros and cons of continuity programmes. This is not something I am doing at the moment but there is a lot in there that is building my confidence to move forward and get something completed, and then build on it.

That's enough to keep me busy for a while.

Hosting services normally have extra hosting space available on their servers and to increase their sales they offer various packages. When this happens, they offer hosting bundles to resellers who can sell the service alone or as a bundle including additional services such as website programming or design to increase the perceived value of their services.

This process benefits both the original hosting service and the reseller as it saves the original hosting service time because they would prefer to sell hosting to larger groups of people, not individuals. The reseller sells to individuals along with other services they need.

Additionally, the original hosting service is getting some additional return on the money they are charging the reseller for the use of their servers.

There are many options when looking for a hosting plan. Some Web customers are looking for a shared hosting plan that will let them put multiple domains online. They could be webmasters or web designers with several sites online or just a business that wants to separate their different brands. They would probably need a dedicated server or multiple hosting accounts and are the perfect customer for the original hosting service which is usually more focused on bulk accounts and not individual clients.

Customers with smaller needs can find the perfect solution with a reseller that would be more responsive to questions and simpler needs. The benefit to the customer here would be cheaper hosting fees on shared hosting accounts. This is perfect for startup businesses, even if they have more than one website to put online.

Customers these days expect to have a good relationship with the people they do business with either offline or online and the days of anonymous sellers with no personal contact is over. Entrepreneurs offering reseller hosting services are paying attention to building relationships and eventually trust, and are the successful resellers online.

There are downsides to operating a reseller account that can cause you headaches you haven’t thought of yet and can actually ruin your business. If there is a problem at the company you are selling hosting with, you are the one in the firing line and the one your customers will send untold numbers of emails to.

The truth is you are not actually responsible for problems like downtime on the servers at the original hosting services but will be the target of your customer’s wrath. Another truth is that you have no control over what happens at the hosting company you are using for your business. If they do not make a phone number public, you don't have a way to contact them either when their servers are down.

Before signing up with a hosting company first check there reputation by visiting related forums and ask about the company’s service. You will soon find out if there have been any problems. Ask the hosting company for a list of references and check them. If you do not get a list of happy customers, find another hosting company.

The question to ask on the forums or to the hosting company is how often they went down and how fast they got back up again. All servers will go down once in a while. There are many factors such as bad weather, floods, lightning strikes or many other reasons that can make the servers go down which are beyond the control of the provider.

The real consideration is how fast they get back online and if they let their customers and resellers know what is happening and the expected return to service. Hosts with one support option, like filling out endless support tickets and leave you waiting for a canned answer, will not do your business any good.

Check your options carefully, like actual bandwidth, enough space, quick support by email or ticket system and whether or not they answer their phones. You are hanging your business on the reliability of their business. Choose carefully.

********************************************************

I transferred over to D9 Hosting more than a year ago and have never had a problem. They are quick to provide help and give plenty of notice when the server will be down for maintenance. This is normally for a very short period.

Mike

This obviously has effected my optin box which was in the side column but I am now trying out Mail Chimp and will install an alternative box during this week.

Mail Chimp is free for up to 2,000 subscribers and 12,000 email sends which is more than enough to get started but hope it is reliable and gets the emails through when the time comes.

Security
I have been worried for some time about the security of my WordPress run Amazon sites as many of the established sites have been reported to have been hacked and the earnings diverted to other accounts.

For peace of mind I have purchased and installed on one of my sites a plugin called WP Lockup.  This is an easy to install plugin but the downside for many could be the extra time taken to access the website dashboard for maintenance due to the level of security.

WP Lockup has four levels of security including masking the /wp-admin, Google Captcha, extra username/password stage plus re-naming the database code so it is extremely important to keep an accurate record of all the information as not all of it is retrievable if lost.

An email is sent if five attempts are made to hack your site.

WP Lockup is not something you see whilst working but hope it is working in the background to beat 99% of the hackers. A single licence is included with the basic offer but I opted for the developers licence allowing for up to 100 sites, which should keep me going for a long time.

The following video shows how to install WP Lockup and also clearly explains all the features much better than I have done above.

I am not sure about the cost as this was a Warrior Special (WSO) and for developers licence I paid $27 but it was possible to purchase for single or 10 installations.

Mike

The last few weeks have been a busy period both with family and making modifications to business plans for the start of 2012

* Motivation

I have read a few books recently to help my motivation and now have renewed determination to continue with a much more positive attitude.  I do believe that having negative thoughts can only lead to failure and it is most important to never give up as success can, and hopefully will be, just around the corner.

* Sorting Out My New and Old Purchases

I think my main task during the first few weeks of 2012 will be to take stock of my past purchases of Software / Programs and decide which are going to be useful for me to fit into my business plans.  This will probably give me a shock when I see the amount wasted on a lot of useless material.

On the positive side I have built up a vast amount of very useful programs and information which can be put to good use.

* Working on "The Buyer Code"

I am not having much success with the software and theme that was provided with "The Buyer Code" and now looking at purchasing a new theme such as "Wordpress Review Theme". 

My problems are with the CSS editing where the drop down menu options stop working for some unknown reason so I am not able to work on changing the Header Graphics and Text Style and Size.  Most of the problems could be solved manually but I am not advanced enough to work that out.

What should have been a simple installation using the software provided has been more of a major problem wasting a lot of time trying to get the same results by doing manual installations. It appears that I am the only one with this problem so it must be due to some of my computer settings.

I had hoped to have had my first site completed by the start of 2012 but will now have to wait until my Theme problem is solved or maybe after all this time I should abandon this program and look for an alternative.

* My Luck could be changing for the better

At last my luck seems to be changing as two items I thought were lost have now come back to life.

Camtasia studio 3
A number of years ago I obtained a free copy of Camtasia Studio 3 from Techsmith but lost it due to a hard drive crash.  I could not find the acceptance email and code so could not get another copy.

Recently I was searching one of my external drives and found all the required information and now it is up and running. I am looking forward to making use of Camtasia and even though it is an old copy it is still very powerful.

SiteSales.com
The next good news was that a site where I bought lifetime membership, but thought it had gone down, has now come back to life.

In July this year I joined SiteSales.com which is described as a Platform to build and manage websites. This was a special limited offer for testing the product before launch which started off very well but contact with the developer was lost and the program was not upgraded as promised.

This now appears to be on go again with new webinars and promised upgrades but no indication of a launch date.  Before it can be offered as a monthly subscription site it will need some improvement as it will be competing with the recently launched Autobuildit which has a starting price of $47 per month for one site up to $97 per month for unlimited sites.

My investment was $497 for life time membership including building unlimited sites and when launched it could be in the region of $67 to $97 a month depending on number of sites to build. A final price has not been announced.

On that basis I have a bargain as long as the development continues and the program is launched to cover future development costs.   

It looks like I have a busy time in front of me but must keep focused on one project at a time.

Best Wishes for 2012

Mike

I still have the intention of creating my own product but for the moment I am concentrating on building websites to promote Amazon products for commission payment through their Associates programme.

Throughout the year I have noticed an increase in the amount of promotions for products on building Amazon sites so decided to give it a try even though I failed at my first attempt two years ago.

There are many different ways to go about building these sites so I purchased a few up to date tutorials and decided to start off with one called The Buyer Code by Rob Walker, Craig Kaye and Mike Auton.  This is very similar to a product I have already purchased called Info Product Killer (IPK) by Craig Kaye but there are more in depth video tutorials in this package.

The whole idea is to build a quality multi page site for a single product or a range of related products and fully optimise it to rate high on the first page of Google for a specific search name / title.

My first task has been to find a popular hot selling product with a minimum value of £80, at least five ratings having no lower than 4 stars, whilst at the same time not having too much competition on Google. One problem is that Craig Kaye and many other established marketers already have multiple sites running which makes it difficult finding suitable products / domain names and also competing against them.

I am convinced there is still a possibility of making a substantial income from this method and will continue adding content to my site over the holiday period and follow instructions on ways to help it climb in Googles rankings.

This method does not work overnight and can take up to 3 months to show results so during that time I will attempt to build a few sites.

It is not difficult building the sites once you get to know what is required and how to find the required information.  If you are creative then you can also work on the header area and add some relevant graphics.

Other products on this subject are:

Proven Income Method by Jan Roos
Azon Spy by Mark Thompson
Amazon Treasure Chest by Colleen Slater
Rapid Profit Formula by Matt Carter

They all show their own way of building sites for making Amazon commissions and  great information can be gained from all of them.

If this attempt fails using The Buyer Code method I will have a go using the Proven Income Method by Jan Roos which concentrates more on product reviews and shows how to outsource most of the hard work if you can afford it.

Below you can download a free 4 page report about The Buyer Code

Click Here - Your PDF is ready for download

When this happens to people, they usually end up throwing their arms up in frustration, giving up and never returning to the product again. That means lots of wasted time, effort… and cash!

So is Michael Cheney's new program, My Millionaire Mentor 2011, one of these types of programs? Nope - not in my opinion. You get a bunch of support so there is no reason to get overwhelmed with all the information… and I might add - there is quite a bit of quality information given to you in Michael's easy to follow videos.

There are many other reasons why you would want to check out My Millionaire Mentor (MMM) and here are just 5 of them…

1. It's Proven

Michael provides all of his money making methods, which he calls "Cash Catchers", that he personally used to make Millions of dollars online.

2. It's What People Want

Michael asked his 100,000+ list to help him out with his MMM program to find out exactly what they wanted and what the most common problems were. With this information, his list ended up influencing the content of the program.

3. Shows How To Deal With Overwhelm

Not only does My Millionaire Mentor show you the exact same technique Michael uses to make money online but the program also helps you deal with the things that keep you from becoming successful. Michael provides personal mentoring videos that show you how to overcome procrastination, how to deal with overwhelm, how to motivate yourself and time management tips.

4. All The Support You Need

You get direct access to Michael's Internet Marketing experts that work him full time. So if you get stuck on anything… all you have to do is ask!

5. Super Low Price

When you see all of the information that is included in the "My Millionaire Mentor" members area, you will wonder why he didn't put a higher price tag on this program. In fact, I think that Michael may have made a mistake by putting such a low price. I think that some people will see the price and decide not to invest because there must be something wrong with it. There is no way that you can get all that is promised for such a low price.

Well, don't kid yourself. My Millionaire Mentor is all of that and more. If you are looking for a program with proven money making techniques along with all the support that you need to keep you from getting overwhelmed and eventually giving up… then this is the program for you. You will not be disappointed! Click here to see it in action.

Have a look,

Mike

I have decided that one priority this year is to see Dave Nicholson’s Coaching Programme through to the end even though I am only half way through and all the other original starters have probably finished and have products to show for it.

After seeing the quality of some of the completed products it puts my effort to shame but the content will be usable to a number of people who are less experienced than myself and it will be offered for free with no upsell, but not sure whether to include some affiliate links for certain recommended products/programmes.

To save cost on graphics for my ebook I decided to have a go at doing them myself using a programme called RealDraw Pro (30 days free trial, then $55 to purchase) and a set of training videos that I purchased from another source for $27.  After going through the videos twice I was ready to give it a try and found it very easy and addictive. The only problem is that the programme will only do hard back covers and not the thin soft back type with a curve at the top.

The book is not complete but I will show the cover as it stands at the moment.  I could make many improvements by working more on the graphics and  text but for the moment it is going to remain as shown.

A few months ago I decided that I was going to change Autoresponders so cancelled with Aweber but then found that the one I was going to change to was no longer available.  It was not a major problem but I had to make some quick changes to my online sites including this blog.  At the moment I am testing out a programme called Infinite Responder which installs on my hosting and does not have any separate monthly charges which is a good cost saving.  It is obviously not as powerful as Aweber but seems to be adequate as a starter.  I need to spend more time testing before deciding to stay with it or start looking for something more established.

That’s it for today.

Mike