Wow I haven’t posted in quite some time… good thing I don’t consider myself a blogger! 

So the point to this post is just as the title suggests – I am interested in purchasing domains that you own, that you aren’t using or plan to let expire.  I know I’ve certainly had plenty of domains that I bought for whatever reason and never used, and they just expired and went away.  If I could have recouped even a portion of my original costs before the time was up, I’d have been interested.

Now I’m offering you exactly that.  If you have any domains you want to get rid of – in particular domains with any monetizable keywords in them, I’d like to make you an offer on them.  I will potentially pay as much as $1 per month remaining on the domain if I really think I can make the domain work for my purposes.  Less desirable/monetizable domains will of course be offered less.  I’m particularly interested in bulk purchases of portfolios, so whether you have 1 domain or a thousand… if they aren’t doing anything for you or you plan to let them expire, let’s talk!

Primarily interested in .com, .net, .org, and .info but may consider other TLDs.

JVC

Sometimes I hear from people who have achieved fantastic results by applying something I’ve told them about.  I wish it happened more often, because frankly it makes my day (or week, or month, or sometimes even year)!

A few months back I promoted a course on being an Amazon seller, called Amazon Money Machine.  I’ve always thought that being an affiliate for Amazon really sucks for a number of reasons, but I hadn’t considered being a *seller* since all I thought that meant was dropshipping.

Well it turns out there was a lot more to it than that, and one of my customers thought it resonated with him, so he checked the course out on my recommendation.  He also immediately took “massive action” and started applying everything he learned in a huge way.

Now a few months later, he has a thriving business as a seller of various electronics accessories.  In fact, his first “test product” ended up doing so well, it’s become a core part of his new business and he’s earning hundreds of dollars per day just from this one product alone, plus he has his own original line of products coming out any day now.

So what’s this got to do with you?  Well nothing possibly… unless you plan on getting an iPhone 5.  See, we were talking and he told me that he has had a set of screen protectors manufactured for him in China, and he’s looking to make a splash on Amazon.  Part of that formula is selling as many as possible, as quickly as possible.  So he’s offered to give me a huge discount coupon code that anyone can use to buy a pack of four (4) screen protectors for just $2.50 instead of the normal $7.97!  It says they are 3 to a pack but he’s going to include an extra one for you at no additional charge.

Personally I didn’t order an iPhone 5 but only because I’m waiting to hear that it’s been jailbroken… but once that happens, I’ll almost certainly be upgrading and that will mean it’s time for some screen protectors for my phone as well as my better half’s.

Anyway, if you’d like to use a discount code for iPhone 5 screen protectors on Amazon.com, here’s all you have to do:

First, add the product to your cart of course!

Next, when you check out, look for something that says “Gift Cards & Promotional Codes”.  In that field, enter “VANCLUTE” and the price should drop.  There’s no limit on how many packs you can buy, so load up now for holiday gifts, stocking stuffers, etc.  At about $0.60 per protector, it’s too good a deal to not pick up a few as spares (I know from experience it’s damn easy to screw the things up when installing them!)

This promotion ends at midnight Friday night 9/21/12 though I’m not sure what timezone that’s in.  Grab ‘em while you can get ‘em cheap!  And if you have any stories to share with me about your experience as an Amazon seller, I’d love to hear from you!

JVC

This is a great, short article that was shared in a private mastermind group I’m a member of.  I thought it was tremendous so I’m sharing it here as well.

An excerpt:

EDIT: And on the heels of that, came this additional fantastic little gem!

I’m a bit of a home theater and audio/video hobbyist.  I used to be a “pro” in that I made my living in the professional video post production industry (as well as the hardware/software industry that supported that world), but have left that existence behind long ago for greener pastures.

I’ve never lost my appreciation for being able to enjoy media in my own home.  I’m not a big fan of going out unless it’s a truly once-in-a-lifetime experience, and I’d rather set my home up in the most comfortable and flexible way possible so that I can enjoy movies, TV shows, internet content, or anything else I want, any time I want, from wherever I want.

The internet explosion over the last decade has obviously been instrumental in this, and TiVo was one of the first “smart” devices I ever bought for my home (outside of various computers of course).  It was a truly mind-blowing experience, that first series-1 unit.  Suddenly, I was no longer a slave to TV scheduling, or trying to record stuff on VHS tapes (or even DVDRs – yes, I even have a tabletop DVD recorder) so that I could watch stuff when I actually had time in my life.  I’ve been a raving TiVo fanboy ever since, having turned countless people onto the brilliance that is the TiVo.  Especially back before the word “DVR” was even in the common vocabulary.

Now of course, we have devices like the iPhone and iPad, and TiVo has done a decent job of jumping onto that ship before it sailed completely away.  Their iPad app is pretty damn useful… doesn’t do everything I would want it to, but it’s pretty close.  And in typical TiVo fashion, it’s simple enough to use that even my better half, who is not the techie in the household, has no trouble using it on her own iDevices.

So when I noticed a couple hours ago that there was an update to the TiVo app on my iPad, I thought – cool!  They’re still adding stuff!

I promptly installed the update, launched it, and was greeted with a dialog stating:

It then promptly quit after about 5 seconds.

Can you say – WTF!??!?!?!

You see, like many more advanced users of technology, I like to get the absolute most out of every device that I buy.  Sometimes, that means modifying the device to allow me to do things that either were never intended, or were deliberately prevented from being used for whatever reason.

Most anyone who hasn’t been living under a rock the past few years, knows that this has been absolutely positively declared as legal for the owner of the device to do.  So what the hell is TiVo trying to pull here??

Do they not understand that in the world of home theater technology and DVRs, the most advanced customers generally either build their own HTPCs (Home Theater PC), or use a TiVo?  It’s been my experience that those who use cable-company-issued “DVRs” are the least sophisticated users, and are not ones who will want to push the envelope of what their technology can do.

Don’t get me wrong, I totally understand the notion of not supporting the software on a jailbroken device.  After all, that’s how Skype handles it.  They tell you they only support the app on unmodified iOS devices, and then let you use the software at your own risk.  This is as it should be.  But for TiVo to step in and police its users – especially when it’s exactly the most advanced customers who will use the app in the first place and thus, probably have a jailbroken device – is a huge mistake IMO.

If I have spent $500 to $800 on a device then I am the owner of that device and am free to do whatever I could possibly want to do with it, under the knowledge that doing so may void my warranty or get me in legal trouble if it was something illegal (which again, jailbreaking is not).  If I then want to run a free piece of software on said device, then it is not that software’s place to decide that I am not allowed to run it simply because of said modifications (since we all know that jailbreaking does not in any way interfere with the functionality of the TiVo app).

Jailbreaking is perfectly legal regardless of the fact that some people choose to do illegal things with their newfound functionality.  TiVo’s behavior here, is like saying that because cars that go fast are often used as getaway vehicles in robberies, the new car you bought will restrict itself to the speed limit at all times.  Or that because bullets are often used to cause harm, you should be allowed to purchase any gun you like, but ammunition won’t work in it.

I even contacted TiVo support about this via live chat, and was told by the representative that he believed this was “unintentional”.  Of course that’s absurd, since as a software developer myself I am all too aware that someone had to develop some code to detect that status of the operating system, display the dialog if a jailbreak was detected, and then quit the app.  There is absolutely, positively, no possible way this was an error, mistake, or unintended consequence of some other aspect of the update.

It’s this sort of behavior that makes me not want to use a company’s products.  But the fact is that I do love my TiVos.  They are the nerve center of my household media entertainment system, and by adding several free open source projects (PyTivoX, kmttg, handbrake) to a spare computer I had laying around, I’m able to watch any content, from anywhere, on either of the large screen TVs in the house.  I’m also able to pull content off the TiVos for use on my iPad or iPhone when I’m on the road, or can even simply stream any content from our home network via any device, from anywhere in the world… again, all for free, and the TiVos are an important part of this media ecosystem.

But what do YOU think?  Personally right now… I have a very bad taste in my mouth, especially since there is no easy way for the average user to downgrade an app, once they have updated it.  Good thing I’m not an average user!

Jonathan

For all you Mac users out there, I just found this deal that is way WAY too good to pass up.  I already own Parallels Desktop but I can get this entire bundle just for the price it would be for me to upgrade alone.  And I already paid $99 just for ScreenFlow by itself years ago, and it’s SO superior to Camtasia I can’t even begin to tell you.

Grab this bundle, looks like it’s only good for 5 more days as of this post…

Enjoy!

JVC

EDIT:  AdBeat has a YouTube channel loaded with great information on how to make use of the platform.  Well worth watching!

UPDATE:  The webinar was really great, and there is a replay posted here.  The special offer Mike made available, and my bonus of 3 months’ Skype access to me, are only good until Midnight Pacific Time, Sunday June 10, 2012.  If the webinar resonates with you, jump on this deal straight away!  Email a copy of your order receipt to me at jonathan@tooltrainer.com when you’re ready to collect your bonus!

A few years back it seemed we were constantly bombarded with examples of people earning 4 figures, 5 figures, even 6 figures per day as affiliates.

Of course when the dust settled, a lot of those examples turned out to have been doing highly unethical, even illegal things like flogs, fake celebrity endorsements, shady rebills, etc. Some affiliates even got sued for huge amounts of money and more recently the fallout has put some of the biggest CPA networks in the industry, out of business (including one that I did a good amount of business with at one time!)

So now that it’s 2012 and the FTC has made (and continues to make) its mark on the affiliate/performance marketing industries, is there anybody left who is actually making “big” money, without resorting to blatantly breaking the law?

And maybe more importantly – if they ARE out there, what makes them different? Why are they doing so well when most affiliates aren’t making squat?

It so happens that I know one guy who has, this year, still made huge amounts of money as an affiliate.

He’s made more in one day than most Americans earn in a year.

So is he a super genius?

A world-class mad computer scientist?

Does he know something that you don’t?

I can answer with certainty that last item and say without a doubt – YES HE DOES.

His name is Mike Colella, and you may have heard of his AdBeat service. It’s a competitive intelligence tool that, in the right hands, gives you an absolutely ridiculous unfair advantage.

I’ve known Mike since before AdBeat existed at all, and in fact some of our earliest conversations had to do with getting it created in the first place.

Now several years later, AdBeat has come a LONG way from what he had developed originally just for his own use (and boy did he USE IT!). Systems like AdBeat get better the longer they can collect data, and now that it’s been running a good long while it’s better than ever.

Mike is still using it himself and told me about some of his results from this year, and they absolutely blew my mind. He’s moved beyond basic PPC and into media buying (which you might have noticed is how ALL the “big money” players seem to earn their paychecks) and uses AdBeat to tell him exactly what to promote, how to promote it, and where to promote it.

It really does seem almost unfair but… it’s really just smart use of publicly available data. AdBeat collects the data 24/7, then shows it to you in a way that you can use to make money with your own campaigns.

I really want to hear more about what Mike’s doing, so I’ve set aside 2 hours on Thursday June 7th to let him talk, and for me (and you) to ask him questions.

This promises to be an amazing discussion, and I’m really psyched to get him to lay out exactly how he’s using AdBeat today to bring in 5-figure/day paychecks. Join us and bring your thinking cap so you can ask him all your questions, he’s promised to be available for Q&A after he gives a presentation.

Make sure you register, and I really hope you can make it! One thing to keep in mind – what Mike does with AdBeat is not for the faint of heart/wallet. To make $10,000 you can expect to spend between $5,000 and $8,000 and to do that every day, is not something a lot of people would be comfortable with (even if they had the capital to do it).

But everyone’s goals are different, so whether you want to be earning $300 per day, or $30,000 per day, you need to have better intelligence than your competition and that’s where Mike comes in.

I can’t wait!

JVC

I swear I have some of the smartest, most innovative people as my customers.  You gals & guys are always keeping me on my toes and getting my mental wheels spinning with possibilities.

One such person is Mark Olson.  He recently told me about some new things he was testing to get traffic, and the sorts of results he was getting.  After he shared with me a story about how he launched his teenage daughter to the top of a massively competitive niche in no time at all (and that she’s STILL THERE today), I got very intrigued.

And now, Mark is making a bold claim.  Specifically that Google is the WRONG place to be looking for traffic.

WTF?  Well if that’s so, then what’s the RIGHT place supposed to be??

Ironically, it’s still Google… sortof.  But it’s a completely different game and goes by new rules.

Mark & I chatted for about 45 minutes and you can listen in on the conversation:

Alternatively if you don’t have time for/interest in the webinar and just want to know Mark’s secrets, you can pick up his insanely cheap course and get started!

Enjoy!

JVC

Why the overly-dramatic title? Well quite frankly… because I believe it’s true. And here’s why…

BRIEF VERSION:

I’m helping promote a new course on being an Amazon seller (not an affiliate).  I like it a lot and I think you might too.  If you buy it through this page you’ll get to choose from some pretty awesome bonuses.

FULL VERSION:

When you’re an affiliate, you’re being paid for bringing leads and customers, to someone else’s business. That’s all fine & good when you’re being well paid for what you do. But the fact is – you carry all the risk, and receive only SOME of the reward.

If the product you’re promoting is discontinued, or they change their landing page, or the company disappears, or Google looks sideways at you, or any one of a myriad of other things happens – your income will go to zero overnight.  (believe me – I’ve experienced every single one of these things and more)

And what do you have to show for it other than a bit of short-term cash?

Unfortunately the answer is… not much! You didn’t build a list, you don’t have customers to sell other products to, and you’re out in the cold and starting over with some other product or service to promote.

Now please don’t misunderstand me – I’m a big big FAN of affiliate marketing, both as a product owner and as an affiliate! I believe strongly that being an affiliate is probably the absolute fastest way to learn a ton of valuable skills you will need, when trying to make your living online.

But I’ve said for quite some time to many of my customers, that they need to focus on not having to be an affiliate. I’m all for affiliate marketing being a part of your overall income strategy, but it absolutely shouldn’t be your only method! I strongly advise creating your own products or services, or otherwise figuring out how to *control* a product so that you can reap all of the rewards rather than just a portion.

Now that’s easy to say… but creating a product can be a LOT of work! Trust me on this one.   That’s not the only option though, there are other approaches such as outsourcing, dropshipping, public domain material, JVs, and more. But even if you’re able to figure those parts out, what about getting an audience for your product? You’re back to the usual affiliate game of fighting over PPC, SEO, or other forms of traffic in a desperate attempt to get noticed and get sales.

Frankly… it’s not nearly as easy as it sounds at first! Still, I’ve seen some friends make a lot of money doing dropshipping and others make a ton of money by outsourcing basically every single aspect of their online business.

OK so where am I going with this? I just got done explaining why it was a bad idea to be an affiliate, so now I’m going to promote something as an affiliate. Isn’t that a contradiction?

No not at all… I said it’s a bad idea to be only an affiliate.  But the real long-term strength in affiliate marketing is in using it to augment your other business.  In fact there are even situations where you can get the best of both worlds – being an affiliate for your own product!

Possibly the largest single way to do that, is to understand selling on Amazon.  I’m not talking about being an affiliate for Amazon and collecting a tiny little commission.  I’m talking about being the product seller, and keeping as much as 85% of the revenue (or even more if you’re clever enough to be your own affiliate!  )

And that’s where the Amazon Money Machine enters the picture.  It’s a new course being launched today, that goes into outrageous detail about how exactly to source products (or get them created), get them placed into Amazon, promote them to the top of the listings on Amazon, and even get Amazon to handle all the fulfillment, customer service, financial transactions, refunds, chargebacks – the whole nine yards!

You don’t even need to have a website or do any paid advertising of your own because Amazon does it all for you.

You’ll probably be hearing about it from everyone and their brother today, but stay with me because I have something totally unique to offer you.

I found out about this product and the fact that it was launching totally by accident, but I liked their message so much that I asked to be invited as a JV.  I don’t promote a lot of launches (in fact almost none) but this resonated so well with me, I just had to check it out.

I was given access to the course a few hours ago and have been devouring it as fast as my mind can absorb it, in order to make sure it meets my personal standards for promoting.

And frankly – I think there’s some great stuff here.  To break it down, here are the things I like most about this course so far (not really in any specific order):

1. It’s quite deep.  There is a HUGE number of videos that go into a lot of detail about exactly how to implement these strategies, and cover everything from how to sign up as a seller (not the same as being an affiliate), to how to get a Kindle book written for you, to how to source products for Amazon fulfillment, to private label & dropshipping, to strategies for completely dominating the Google rankings for high-value and high-dollar keywords, and a whole lot more.
2. It’s well organized and presented.  The Author, Matt Clark, does a pretty good job of articulating everything.  He’s not a super-smooth trained presenter, but he’s easy to listen to and speaks clearly.  The videos are organized in fairly logical sections, and it’s easy to jump around to what interests you if you’re a non-linear thinker.
3. The strategies are pretty wicked smart.  I’ve gotten some big ideas from what I’ve seen so far, and I’m not even 1/4 through the material yet.
4. It will require real effort and work to reap the rewards.  At first glance this may seem strange – I like something because it’s going to take hard work??  But yes I do, because that’s a barrier to entry.  In my experience, most people aren’t willing to do the work required to succeed with something like this.  So the fact that this requires time and effort, is an advantage for those who will do what’s required.  Due to the nature of the whole process, you can’t even get paid anything for at least 60 days when you start – so this is not “overnight easy money” by any stretch.  But I do see it as sustainable long-term income fairly quickly.
5. Matt is using these very techniques right now, today.  These are not worn-out techniques that he used last year and stopped working.  He shows some of his live Amazon accounts from as recently as 2 weeks ago.

Now all that being said, what don’t I like about it?

1. Almost all the videos are in .ogg format.  No big deal except that Enounce MySpeed doesn’t seem to support that format, so I can’t play the videos at faster-than-normal speeds.  I’m having to download them completely first in order to do that (thank goodness I have a REALLY fast net connection).
2. The Amazon Money Finder Software is an Adobe Air Application.  This is really a personal preference, but I just don’t care for Air apps.  I don’t like the way they look & feel, I don’t like the way they install… just not an Air fan.  Also the software isn’t available to me yet so I only got to watch the videos about it.  Drag.  =(  I just got access to the software but need to go through the videos still to learn how to make the most of it.
3. There is no number 3.  (What can I say, there isn’t much to dislike!)

OK so, let me cut to the chase at last.  I’m an affiliate for AMM (duh) and so I’m going to offer a bonus for those who purchase through this page.  This is a fairly high-ticket product, and so I want to really earn my commission.  To that end…

If you purchase Amazon Money Machine through this web page and send me a copy of your purchase receipt, you’ll get to choose one of the following from me:

• A full lifetime license to my WPGen and LPGen dynamic landing page generation systems ($399 value)
• 2 months membership in my Skype personal coaching program (starting when you’re ready), so you can get my help with anything right when you need it ($398 value and not publicly available)
• 1 hour private phone consultation at your convenience ($500 value)

Additionally, all buyers through this page will get a full license to my newest upcoming product, WP SneakyLinks ($??? value… just you wait & see )

And on that note, I want to share a few words of caution.  This is not a small course, nor is it something you’re going to devour and implement in a weekend.  There’s a lot of material to absorb and most of the techniques are probably pretty foreign, since they’re so different from what most of us have focused on for years.  Also as mentioned above, you’ll have a bare minimum of 60 days before you’ll see any income even if you started today.

This course is for people who want to be more than just an affiliate, and are going to truly dedicate themselves, their time, and their resources to implementing and executing an Amazon selling business.  If you’re going to buy this and then a month later have moved onto the next shiny object – please just plain don’t buy it in the first place.  I think there is tremendous potential in this (so much so that I’m going to ask my better half to check it out) but it’s going to require a serious commitment and total focus.  This has a very real potential to become an extremely lucrative, very hands-off business, but it won’t start out that way.

So for those who can heed the above and put in the time & effort, I look forward to sending you your bonuses!  Just please remember to send me your purchase receipt after you place your order.

EDIT: Helps to know where to reach me doesn’t it!? support@tooltrainer.com

And on that note, it’s past 2am for me so it’s time to begin winding down.

Make great things happen!! 

Jonathan

Seriously – Do No Evil???  Well how’s this for being evil to Adwords advertisers!!!

Google has made “improvements” to Exact match and Phrase match to make them fuzzy. That means that when you advertise on a keyword, you’ll now be automatically advertising on misspellings, plurals, and any other form of the word.

Sounds kind of subtle, right? No big deal, maybe it *is* an improvement. No, it’s a pretty F*%king big deal that’s going to screw a lot of advertisers, and I’ll tell you why.

…source…

So if you use Adwords, prepare to get financially raped without recourse.  I suggest you go opt out of this lovely new “feature” right quick!!!

JVC

I’d love to be revealing that I have a new awesome viral promotion plugin for WordPress.

Fact is, I’ve had one in mind for quite some time, and even started on development of some of its features last year.

But as so often happens, other things came along and got in the way, and it hasn’t really progressed terribly far.

Well… I guess I shouldn’t be at all surprised that the old saying “you snooze, you lose” has proven to be true.

Welly Mulia and his team – the ones behind ProfitsTheme and Premium List Magnet – have just finished a new very slick viral promotion plugin that they’ll be launching in a little less than 24 hours from this post.

At first glance, it looks like it’s “just another squeeze page plugin”, and in fact looks very similar to his existing Premium List Magnet plugin. But scratch a little deeper and it’s clear just how different this new plugin actually is.

It’s sortof a combination of a squeeze page generator, Facebook optin manager, and viral rewards system all rolled into one. All in all, very slick and looks to be another fine product from Welly and crew.

During the launch he’s offering it at a pretty huge discount too, so if it resonates with you, grab it while it’s cheap.

Check out the demo video and see if it’s something you might be able to use in your business. I’m guessing for most of us that answer will be an easy “yes!”

JVC