Last week was a busy, busy week.  I got nothin’ done.

It started out pretty poorly with the death of my poor car.  After 11 years it done up and died. Fortunately, it managed to make it as far as the driveway before it expired. So I had to replace it in a hurry. Even more fortunately, I picked up a used version for a reasonable price.

Then on the weekend it got really busy. And in many ways much better.

You see my sister got married on Saturday  …. and we had a great time at the wedding.

It took place outside on the shores of Lake Ontario with the sailboats peaking through behind the wedding party.

And then came the party. For the first time in almost ten years I got a chance to dance with my wife. And I got the chance to dance with my daughter for the first time. The pain was well worth it!

So to celebrate I’ve got a “contest” for everyone.

Are you having problems finishing your book? Is writing your information product turning out to be more difficult than you thought?

A coaching session might just be the solution!

We’re going to give away five 20 minute coaching sessions with Glen or Paul. Each session is a $200 value but five lucky people will get one for FREE!!

Just go here and sign up  ….
20 Minute Coaching Session Giveaway

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Hi Folks

There’s a “new” SEO traffic technique out there that involves making comments to blogs for the sole purpose of getting backlinks (i.e. Google will raise your page rank based on the number of links to your site).

Now, I don’t mind the occasional link or two from my site — especially if it is a related to information product (aka learning content product) creation such as eBooks and Webinars and Seminars and Podcasts and Videos etc. etc. etc.. Even more so if you are in the marketing side — which I’m trying to stay out of. Hell, I’ll even promote my competition — content creation, SEO and web design.

Unfortunately, lately the level of spamming has gotten out of control …

The final straw came when a spammer decided to write negative comments and question my knowledge of writing. At my age and with my experience I bloody well better know what I’m talking about! And if information seems to come out of thin air, trust me every cc of that air has been earned.

So … I still welcome comments …  I love comments … and I promise any comments you leave are read (even if I don’t reply). Any suggestions for articles or courses will be considered (and keep looking at the blog ’cause they’ll probably end up as an article at least!)

However, I’m forced to:

• remove all URLs from your name (so no more free ride)
• remove all URLs from posts (unless they are relevant and earned)!
• require registration of people commenting.

Sorry, but a few bad eggs ruin it for everyone.

P.S.

I’m still focused on the course which I’m hoping to do in one mass next week. So blog articles will return … hopefully in two weeks!

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The first of the webinars is done.  I’d like to say without a hitch but …

At least everyone who attended enjoyed the seminar.

Next seminar is the first of the home study course itself …

Developing your niche strategy …

When … don’t know yet … next week sometime….

Pre-register for the free webinar here.

Benefits?

1. Minimum 24 hours notice of the webinar
2. Minimum 2 hours advance chance to register
3. Some special bonuses that I’m still tossing around.

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The first webinar of my product recording will be this afternoon….

For more information about the product as a whole check the last blog post….

For more information about the webinar itself … go check out my Free Webinar Pre-Registration page.

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Somehow I don’t feel like trying to come up with blog ideas for writing. Guess the article writing has gotten to me. So for the next little while I’ll talk about building an ebiz instead.

Anyhow … hope everyone had a great Easter weekend … even if you don’t celebrate it directly.

This article marketing is driving me to distraction. One week the incoming traffic goes through the roof. The next the traffic goes through the floor. And it doesn’t seem to matter what is happening that week. It also seems that a lot of people who read articles don’t work for a living.

The other issue I’m running into is that EzineArticles.com is really erratic is approving my articles. I can submit a set of articles and have half of the approved within a couple of hours but the next set wait for two days.

But at least the process is bringing me traffic.

This week I get to see if adding a new category increases  (or decreases ) my traffic. I’ll let you know as soon as it becomes clear.

…. P.S. ….. Don’t forget that Friday I’m hoping to make an announcement so check back and see what it is!

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Frank Kern stuck this up on his blog … and you’ve got to see it!

It looks like Google has finally done something great for the little guy. But it might just be more important than just that. You see one of advantages that the big guys have is that they can use more than just the internet to advertise. The Shopping Channel, Late Night TV, all of these are used by the real big guys to sell their products. By combining the media they create a stronger brand and a better level of sales than they could using just one media. It’s called synergy!

The problem has always been that you have to be really big to afford to compete in the traditional media. That’s why the internet was and is such a game changer.  It allowed the little guy to compete.

This just might change things yet again. By making TV advertising accessible to the small guy, that synergy is available no matter what size you are.

And that just might level the playing field yet again!

FYI $1.30/name is only slightly more than the standard internet value of $1/name. If you’re value per opt-in is higher then you might find this a useful technique.

We shall have to see.

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Okay … last two posts I talked about the trials and tribulations of  article marketing and the issues surrounding censorship.

This one, I’m going to talk about the amount of work involved and some good news.  And I’ll give you a hint of some good news to come shortly.

Okay so, Sean Mize has been getting me building traffic by writing short articles. Which is not something I’m particularly good at. So from that point of view alone it’s been good for me. (As you may have noticed, I’m better around the 700 word limit than I am at keeping these posts to 400 words. (Actually most of these have been 2000 + words split into 3 or 4 articles so I take half of it back   )

Unfortunately, I’m also really slow at it and writing 25 of these suckers has been taking me on the order of 5 hrs a day for just the articles & posting them (plus emails, plus job hunt plus blog plus changes to the site). But they’ve been so successful that I’m reluctant to back off on them — plus I’m really close to 100 articles. (This week barring any problems).

However, if I’m to keep up with the coaching, I need to revise my e-mails and also create some more products to sell.

Plus I want to create some products that are focused on information product creation rather than just on writing books. And the webpages to support them of course!

The good news is that Paul is finally back from Spain and Ohio and set up in his new home office. So if things come together with him, by Friday I’ll be able to make an announcement about some new products — and it’ll be great news for you my loyal reader! (Thank Sean).

So if you are interested … signup to your right (blog’s left). Either with the general mailing list or the coaching list and I’ll send you an email to let you know first thing. Or come back Friday and with luck you’ll find a big announcement!

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Okay, as I said last post (yesterday???) I blame Sean Mize for my having to pull my posts from this week and next. (You can check out Sean at Internet Success Secrets or his new Internet Marketing Training website).

You see he’s been helping me with my traffic problems. And since his technique involves article marketing (marketing with articles not selling them), he’s had me wearing my poor little fingers to the nubbin. I usually write an article a day but he’s got me cranking out 25-30 a week.  .:ouch:

Anyway I had a great week last week and cranked out a whole mess load. In that mess were five articles on (the subject which shall not be named).

Turns out I did a bad,bad. They don’t like (the subject which shall not be named). Which I can respect. It’s questionable legally, it degrades the writing craft and it’s a cheat to both your customers and you. Cool. I understand that. Hopefully anyone who’s been around Internet Marketing for more than six months does too. However, it is a common, frequently used technique. And it does have its uses. And it is possible to write a balanced article about it. (Yes, that means it will be slightly negative article but it can be balanced).

Unfortunately, their opinion is that if it’s not negative about (the subject which shall not be named).: then it shouldn’t be published. Cool. I can understand that. I can appreciate that they don’t want to support the practice. So I yanked the articles and wrote ten or so different articles to replace them. Not good but I’m a big boy. I’ll survive. I’ll just use them elsewhere.

Like my blog.

OOPSSSS …   My very bad …

Seems that they are intending to wipe the world of any reference to (the subject which shall not be named).: .  They held all of my articles !!!   Everything I wrote on Friday, Saturday and Sunday got rejected!

Anyway I had to make a choice — concede to censorship or lose my article market. Did I say that I’ve already had a 259% increase and I’m heading for 400% (actually as of 5:30 today I’m at 290% with 5 days to go).

Now I may be a Celt but I’m not totally nuts … now you know why those posts are not there anymore! Now I have to figure out what to do with them. Anyone out there want a set of posts on (the subject which shall not be named). ?

On the good side, there’s lots of news on building an ebiz for me to share. Including the return of Paul (YAY!!!! ) and a really important video.  All of which will show up next week along with the good news that Sean has forced me to give you.

So have a great weekend and come back next Monday ….

P.S.

I forgot to mention that — just to T me off even more — Sean just published an article on (the subject which shall not be named).: on that self-same article publisher. And he got away with it!!! :Grrrr: 

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Have you noticed that I’ve pulled one of my articles? (Actually I had to pull a whole series going off into next week )

I blame it all on Sean Mize….

Who is Sean Mize and why is he to blame?

He’s the guy what’s solving my traffic problems … and making me go blind in the process.

Okay, let me explain. You see I’ve had this site up for roughly six months now. And frankly I’ve had a real hard time driving traffic to it. So I finally decided that I needed help. Coaching help!

Yup, here I am … a coach and professional trainer and I need a coach.  Talk about an ego buster.

Anyway I picked Sean because:

• He didn’t make unreasonable promises
• He was quite clear about the amount of work (he still lied )
• He had a clear solution to my traffic problem
• He had only started in the last two years and had still succeeded.

AND …. (drum roll please)

• He did the coaching himself…. (you’d be surprised how many gurus hire a company out of Denver to do the actual coaching).

Unfortunately, Sean uses Article Marketing to drive traffic.  So I’ve been going nuts for the last few weeks writing articles and articles ….

And as you know by now … I write SLOW … (I may share a name with a certain cowboy star, and even meet him on the level, but I talk closer to a Jimmy Stewart … and I write about the same speed).

And I guess I’m going to be going nuts for the next few weeks ’cause guess what? It works!

Somehow though I need to get some other work done (did I mention he lied about how many hours of homework he gives ??? ). But it’s actually working which means I can forgive him for underguessing the number of hours needed.

BTW, working means my monthly traffic has increased 258% over the most I could get on my own. And I still haven’t finished March yet. My guess is that it will be closer to 400% by the end of the month… if I can keep up the workload   and if EzineArticles.com doesn’t bounce my articles the way they have lately.

Anyway, if you want to check out Sean try his Internet Success Secrets website or his new Internet Marketing Training website.

It’s been awhile since I updated everyone on the trials and tribulations of an internet oldie so I’m going to replace the missing articles for the next two weeks with a somewhat elongated update. Besides my explanation of the yanking … and some more information on what Sean’s got me doing (good news for you folks) … and lots of other headaches … there’s been some neat new things happening in the internet world that you need to know if you haven’t hear of them already. <gasp, gasp,gasp> I gotta lose the run-on sentences!

Anyway it’s almost 2Am and 500 words so I’ll do my next installment on Friday.

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“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.”

- Lewis Carroll

Now that we’ve determined what information products means — sort of. We can go on to discussing what is learning content … besides the base for a company name. (Yeah, I know we’re LearningCreators not LearningContenters but this is all going to make sense in time).

So what is Learning Content? First of all it is an information product. More specifically it is a (re)casting of information for the purposes of transferring knowledge. Wee … academia here I come ….

Take a course … it can be delivered by a live seminar, or by DVD or by an audio-only format. But the core information — the course — remains the same. It can even be recreated as a book or an eBook. Now when the course has been repurposed from live to DVD to audio it may be exactly the same course. However, it may have been redone (and probably should have been). But it still remains the same course.  Later it may be written down as an article, white paper or book. Despite this the content remains the same.

That’s learning content! It is the course itself — irrespective of the format or media the course is delivered in.

Now of course, things are never as simple as they seem. While the information remains constant for all media and the learning content (the course) remains almost the same, in real life, the actual course may change to make better use of the properties of the media. For this discussion, however, I’m going to presume they remain constant.

That’s why many marketers suggest repurposing your training materials (sell a live training, video record it then sell as a DVD, convert to audio and sell as a CD, the transpose it into a written product and sell or give that away).  If we ignore the effects of the media properties, the learning content remains the same for all products.

Of course, in real life, for quality reasons, we do not want to ignore those media properties.

S0 to restate, learning content is the content of the course ignoring the media the course is delivered in. Whether the course is delivered by video, live seminar or mp3 or even by book, the learning content remains the same.

How does Learning Content relate to Information Products? Learning content is the creation side of anything to do with training. Therefore items like coaching, Books & eBooks, Seminars & Courses all use learning content. Or more correctly, disseminate learning content. On the other hand, consulting, software, data analysis, databases etc. — which are not related to training – are not related to Learning Content.

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