This is the first video from my new info product that I am releasing very soon. The product is called “Red Hot MiniSites With WordPress”, and teaches you step-by-step how to build a mini-site using WordPress.

In this video course, I brazenly upgrade one of my websites live on the fly to WordPress and then converting the default blog format over to a static website. Although I make it very clear in my videos that you should never do a major upgrade of your website straight off the webserver (this is stuff you should do offline), I do it here to demonstrate how easy it is to quickly create powerful, SEO friendly, and professional websites using WordPress.

The reason for upgrading PlayKillerGuitar.com in my video series is because you can use these same techniques to build your site from scratch, but I also wanted to have existing website owners looking for a better way to improve & manage their websites to see how easy it is to convert over as well.

In the past, if you wanted to build your own website without having to become an HTML guru, you had to rely on expensive website creation software and endure the learning curve of using it. WordPress makes this brain dead simple.

It’s just a matter of knowing the right techniques for using WordPress to make a static website instead of for blogging. I also take you well beyond the basics to put your website over the top.

Also, if you happen to be into website flipping or creating websites for clients, this course will give you the power to knock out high value websites in no time flat. Of course, we all know how much Google loves WordPress sites as well.

More details coming soon…

If you’ve created a digital product such as an e-book, video, audio or even software, you know what a great feeling of accomplishment it is to complete it and share it with the world.

Okay, now when I say “share”, I’m not talking about sticking it out on some torrent site, I’m talkin’ making it available to your customers at a fair price.

After all, It’s not likely that you got into the game of internet business to be a non-profit organization.

Most anyone whose ‘been around the block’ in the world of the internet are familiar with all the websites out there hosting links to free software, e-books and everything else that’s been pilfered, or eh “shared” for all to get their mits onto.

So how do we as product creators protect our creations that we’ve poured our heart and soul into? Well firstly, there’s always going to be somebody sharing some of your stuff no matter how hard you try.

In fact, if you take it too personally, you’ll spend all your time obsessing and not enough time creating & selling. Those people weren’t going to buy from you anyway, and the more honest ones will usually buy your product if its useful to them.

With that said, we want to keep product theft down to an absolute minimum. Here are a few Do’s & Don’ts for protecting your products.

DON’T:

Use a robots.txt file to point to your directory.

One common mistake beginners usually make is to specify their unprotected download folder in the robots.txt file hoping to avoid having their download page listed in the search engines. This is the first place an experienced file thief will look.

Using obvious names for your directories & thank-you pages

Creating directory names like ‘download’ are a dead give-away. So is naming your thank-you page ‘thankyou.html’. Naming the download file after your product name is pretty dumb too. These things make it super easy to have your stuff found.

Stick your product inside an empty folder without an index page.

This makes it pretty simple to do a Google search for an intitle text for “Index.Of” on your website and get a hit. Put an index.html (or .php) in the folder that is either blank, or redirecting the visitor back to your main URL.

Include your filename or product name in your download link

Another give away for hackers. A simple inurl search can expose your download link.

DO:

Use a third party protection software

For my products, I use DLGuard (Download Guard). DLGuard is an excellent way to protect your digital products from would be thieves. You can limit your downloads as well. I have mine setup for 72 hours normally. DLGuard works as a membership site module as well. This is top notch software & I highly recommend it.

Use a hosted solution such as e-junkie

E-Junkie is an excellent digital delivery system for your digital downloads. This is a great alternative to self-hosting your own solution, and you can get started right now at a mere $5 a month!

Password protect your download folder

You can password protect your download folder or make it forbidden from being viewed. An easy way to do make it not viewable is to CHMOD the folder to 751 using your FTP client. You can password protect your folders as well by using .htaccess & .htpassword. If you’re a little tech savvy and want to try this, you can see the tutorial here.

Email the download as an attachment

Another free alternative is to simply email the download as an attachment to your customer. You should note however, that email is not the most reliable way to deliver a product. Your email may not get delivered for a number of reasons (inbox full, flagged as spam, etc), and you could have some freaked out customers with a bad first impression of your products.

If you haven’t implemented any of these or other security measures for protecting your info products, you could be losing a lot of revenue. Don’t leave your products sitting on the virtual shelf with a sign on them crying “Steal Me!!!”

Take measures now to protect your products. It only takes a minimal effort or expense which will pay for itself over and over again. It’s one of the single best investments you can make in your business.

Everyone who has ever journeyed into the unknown in a quest to achieve something is going to encounter many obstacles along the way.  That’s just a fact of life.  Without these obstacles, there would be no learning experiences to evolve from.  That would be a pretty boring way to live life when you think about it.

I remember when I was getting started in internet business, my personal brick wall was analysis paralysis.  I was so overwhelmed with information from trying to absorb it all at once, that I would just find myself endlessly looping through the forums, checking out software and pretty much accomplishing nothing for hours & days on end.

I knew that I needed to start somewhere, but by reading the posts by pseudo experts in the forums, surfing from site to site, looking at other products, etc I was really a busy guy.  So busy, in fact that I almost had myself convinced that I was actually accomplishing something.

In reality, what I was really accomplishing was nothing.  I could justify my use of time because I was “busy”.  The bottom line however, was that my bank account was still an internet virgin.  Other than picking up nuggets of info here and there, I completely wasted nearly 6 months of my life circling around in a sort of holding pattern.

I had finally reached the point where I was getting disgusted with myself and decided to take stock of myself.  What were my real goals?  Ultimately, it was freedom that I was after, but what was stopping me from getting started?  Was it the fear of failure because of the humoring chuckles I would get when telling someone that I was going to make money online?

Maybe it’s just because I needed to keep looking until I figured out what the magic secret to online succes was.  Surely succeding online only belongs to the enlightened few that have stumbled across this “secret”, right?  Nah, the so-called ‘gurus’ didn’t know squat about this stuff when starting out either.  So what was it.  What was different about them?

Well, after stepping back and reflecting a little something hit me like a wet towel across the face.

These guys just took action, grabbed their online business by the seat of the pants and went for it.  This wasn’t simply a hobby for them, it was a business!  I suddenly realized that the real reason I was spinning my wheels was simply a lack of focus!

I had to decide on ONE thing to do, and then FOCUS on it and nothing else.  This is the single most important step to getting started.  Whether affiliate marketing is your thing, or creating an info product about something, or whatever.  Don’t get caught in the opportunity chasing trap.  Decide what you want and stick with it until you make money.

In my case, I decided to make guitar tutorials as my first endeavor.  Every evening after work I dedicated my time to creating a series of videos and eventually completed them.  I kept my focus, and followed through to completion.

That was around January, 2006.  I had worked a couple months on that first tutorial, partially because of inexperience, & partially because it was a software application with embedded video & guitar tablature.

I am still making a passive income off of those tutorials to this day.  Work once, get paid forever.  It’s a great concept.  If you keep repeating this concept, you can easily visualize how this will lead to freedom.

So what’s your brick wall?  If you take a little time to sit back and confront your wall, you are likely to discover that your brick wall is not a brick wall at all.  Instead, it’s simply a door waiting for you to take the action to open it.

The ten commandments in the Hebrew bible is something that if followed, can certainly help promote harmony in our lives and in the lives of others.  It can be considered a basic road map of principles on which to live our life.  Life doesn’t come with an owners manual, so often times we learn the laws of cause and effect the hard way.

Stick your finger in the fire and you get burned.  Guidelines for our lives can help us avoid some of those un-pleasantries by heeding the advice given by others.  The learned ones who have been down that path and have made the mistakes so you don’t have to.

Well now, I give to you the Ten Commandments of Internet Business.  There was no trip to the mountain top with a burning bush.   No golden tablets zapped out by a divine presence. Just something to help guide and keep you on the right hand path.

1. You Shall Take Action

Action is the key to everything. If there were ever a magic formula, it could be summed up in one word, ‘action’. Poverty is merely the visible manifestation of inaction.

2. Diversify Your Income Streams

Never depend on one source of income. Once you have a stable source of income such as from your own product, diversify into other markets. Also, add affiliate income for digital & physical products, as well as CPA to your repertoire.

3. Diversify Your Traffic Sources

Never depend solely on one source of traffic. SEO is great, but then you’re at the mercy of the Search Engines. Same with PPC (Pay Per Click). Add other strategies as well (Blogs, forums, articles, E-Zine advertising, banner ads, CPM, etc.).

4. Forsake Not Your Customers

Supporting your customers is one of the single most important elements of your business. If customer service gets to be too much of a bother for you, just start ignoring them. They’ll all go away eventually. Oh, and so will your income.

5. You Shall Not Offer Junk Content

The quality of your content directly reflects the quality of your products or service. Going that extra mile for good quality content will pay for itself forever. If your site is full of scraped, auto-rewritten content, then your visitor will immediately pick up on it and go elsewhere.

6. You Shall Not Enslave Yourself

Define your goals before you go into business. Is it more freedom that you want? If so, don’t get caught in the enslavement trap by trading your own skills for money. You’ll find yourself working 15 hour days for a paltry income. Outsource the work. Collectively, you can get thousands of hours of work accomplished in a week instead of just 60+ and killing yourself to boot. Leverage & scale = profit and more profit!

7. You Shall Not Bear False Info to Your Visitors

Never mis-lead your visitors with hyped up information, false promises and fake testimonials. This kind of stuff will catch up to you fast, and will ruin the one thing that you can’t fix… your reputation.

8. You Shall Not Spam

This one should be obvious. Not only is e-mail spamming illegal, it can get complaints filed against you that can get your domain suspended. Also, spamming the forums & blogs accomplishes little more than pissing people off.

9. Honor Your Mentor

If you have a mentor or marketing coach, listen to what they have to say and carryout their advice. You may sometimes think that they are wrong about some strategies, because they don’t fit comfortably into your perception of how your business should work. Just remember that he/she has already been to the mountain and back, and you are still the grasshopper preparing for the journey.

10. You Are Commanded To Prosper

Sometimes it seems that society has made ‘rich’ a dirty word. It’s OK to be wealthy. Don’t settle for a mediocre existence. Think big! Don’t limit your ambitions to making just enough to pay your bills with a little left over at the end of the day. Be set for life. Our cup was not meant to be empty, or simply to be filled. It is meant to be continuously running over with all the prosperity, joy and good health that the universe has to offer.

Don’t miss out on the wonderful things that surround us in life. Follow these guidelines for your Internet business, and success will be yours for the taking.

I was chatting with a friend a while ago about different aspects of running an internet business. I asked him if he was ever going to create any products of his own or just keep doing the affiliate marketing thing. He stunned me when he said that he had already written a couple e-books and was working on a how-to video. I asked him where his sales page was so that I could check them out, after all I was quite impressed that he already had two products. I didn’t know that he even had one! Then came the reply that explained why I didn’t know about them. He never released them. When I asked him why, his reply was that he didn’t think that they were probably good enough to actually sell to the public and that he would like to tweak them up someday.

Huh? After sending me copies of his work I was really astonished that he had never released them! The information was excellent and the e-books were very professionally done. Without trying to sound like that I thought he was crazy, I asked “are you freakin’ nuts? Why would you let these sit around like this?” Here he’s got two and soon to be three streams of income just sitting on the virtual shelf collecting dust.

I can’t help but to wonder, is he a rare exception or is this more common than I think? How about you? Have you started on a product and never finished it, or finished and not released it? I find this astounding. Why would one go to the trouble of making a product and not release it? Putting your product out there for the world to partake of, I suppose can be a scary thought to some. Before I released the AmazingCloaker , I recall thinking in the back of my mind “what if no one likes it?” “Suppose my refunds are 90 or 100%?” Sure, those can be intimidating thoughts, but I think everyone wonders whether their product is going to be well received or not.

The way I see it, if you never try to sell your product, you have already turned it into a loser. It’s like creating gold bars straight out of thin air, and then stashing them away vowing never to use them for life. Even if your product was more like copper coins rather than gold, coin is still coin, so to speak.

Don’t waste your talent or your time because of anxiety over how people will react to your product. If you put a sincere effort into your product which is useful to someone, you have a good product. Some people won’t like your product and will promptly ask for a refund, that’s just a fact. The majority will love it and you will begin getting great feedback out there from your customers. That is also a fact.

If you happen to be in this same boat, now is the time to get past this and get your product out there. Just creating products does not an internet business make. Selling and promoting them does. You took action to run with it, now complete it by taking ball over the goal line and making that touchdown.

The AmazingCloaker 4 is finally fully rolled.  As a result of all the time I’ve put into getting this product upgraded, I’ve neglected my writing a bit.  Even my queued postings ran out.   This was way more work than I expected, but no regrets because I know that the AmazingCloaker is well worth the effort.

I have already picked up a review from Richard Lee on the first official day of AC4′s release.  Thanks Richard!  Check out his blog and see for yourself what Richard has to say about the AmazingCloaker4.  This guy knows his stuff and has great products!

Now that bulk of the work is complete, I can finally kick back and get back to regular blog postings again.  I say "bulk" because I still need to complete a few remaining videos, but that’s a piece of cake compared to the challenges of coding.   Nonetheless, I am now officially out from under the rock and back into the land of the living.

Don’t let the time that I put into this give you the wrong impression about product creation.  Information products are much easier to create and you don’t have to be a wirehead to do it.  If you haven’t yet created a product or are thinking about it, I would strongly recommend that you take action today and get yourself into the game of internet business.

Many people in my experience who bring up the subject of Internet Business, or "Internet Marketing" as commonly referred to by the forum junkies, seem to always have a reason that they are in the same boat now as they were a year ago.  A common response is "I've been trying to do internet marketing for the past year, but I just haven't gotten anywhere yet."  Oh? Trying?  Why are you trying?  Trying is not going to make you successful!  DOING is the only way.   I can sit in front of my computer and TRY to turn it on, or I can actually DO IT by reaching over, pushing the power button and turning on the computer.  The first is Non-Action (trying), The second is ACTION (doing). 

One reason people use the "trying" excuse is from being short on funds.  So you say, "I'd like to create a product, but I don't have the funds to buy the software that I need to do it."  Sorry, that's just another lame excuse.  Did you know that you can get all the software that you need to make an info product for free?  It's true & I'm not referring to the pirated stuff either, it's all open source, and they will empower you to declare your freedom.  That is, if you're ready to drop the excuses.  Here are some of the goodies out there:

Camstudio

One of the best types of information products to create is video products.  Customers see the best value in video products.  You can allow your customer to peak over your shoulder while you take them step by step through a procedure.  For example, I created an internet business blogging course using Camstasia, a paid equivalent with with some fancy, but not essential features.  With CamStudio, you can create your product from start to finish and within hours have your own product ready to sell to the public.  I've used Camstudio in other projects and it performs exceptionally well.

Audacity

If audio based information products or audio books is your bag, you should check out Audacity.  This is an audio editing suite where, like Camstudio, you can create an audio product from start to finish and have your own info product ready to go before you know it.   There's a ton of audio formats available including those for streaming and podcasting!

Open Office

If eBooks are your thing, or if you simply want a great alternative to the expensive Microsoft Office suite, Open Office is the way to go!  I frequently use Open Office myself and love it.  Frankly, I'm amazed that such a quality product is free!  You can do everything (and more) with Open Office that you can do with the Microsoft version.  Plus, if you are using the Word Processor to create your eBook, you can export it to a .PDF file when you're finished!  No need for shelling out 600+ bucks for Adobe Acrobat!

Gimp - PhotoShop Alternative

 If you're looking for an image manipulating program, this is a great one.  This is the same open source software that I used to create the header graphic on my blog tutorial info page.  In my course, there are three videos stepping you though using Gimp to create the header.  If PhotoShop and other image software are too pricey for your budget right now, Gimp is a great alternative.  This software has many photoshop like features and will enable you to create professional looking graphics, headers, banners and more.

Ok, now that I've eliminated the excuses for not having the money to buy the stuff that you need to make an info product, you know what the next 3 steps are:

1. take action

2. take action

3. take action!

Everyone who has created or sold a product has to to deal with refunds.  No matter how great your products are, you’re gonna get them, it’s just another fact of life.  When I first started making digital products, I used to take it personally to a small degree.  I say a small degree because logic has always dictated that this is a normal variable in doing business.  Yet, human nature may dictate otherwise, at least in the beginning anyway. You can’t help but to wonder in the back of your mind what was wrong.  Did my product suck?  Was it over priced?  Maybe I’m too much of an amateur and it’s showing through.  Maybe they’re just gaming me to get a free product.  All kinds of things will go through your mind if you dwell on it.

Fortunately for me, refunds are few and far between.  Maybe that’s because I only have 4 digital products offered to the public so far or maybe its because I’m a stickler for quality.  Whatever the reason, I’m certainly not complaining.  Normally, a refunder will give a reason when requesting one.  That’s OK because it can help me to determine if there’s something that I can improve upon.  If they refuse support & insist on a refund shortly after purchase, most likely they’re just ripping you off.

I wrote a script that I use to blacklist refunders from future purchases & specials.  It works great.  So why the script?  Sour grapes?  No, strictly business.  Many refunders are habitual and not the quality customer that you want to keep.  You’re better off filtering them out from future purchases.  The only customers that count are the people that actually USE and appreciate your products.  Those are the quality people that take their business seriously.  Those of you who buy my products and / or who simply enjoy & follow my blog are what I care about.

Don’t let it get you down if you create a digital product & end up with a refund or two right in your first week.  It’s going to happen at some point & unless you intentionally created a shabby product, the refund has absolutely nothing to do with you.  Just write it off.  The percentages are ALWAYS going to work in your favor anyway!  Your CURRENT customers are the ones that count.  Be there for them if they have a problem with your product.  A little communication goes a long way.  They’ll thank you for it and will be back again the next time you have a product that they can use.

Ok, if refunds are scaring you from making your first product, get over it.  No more excuses.  Get busy and make 2008 the year that you took control of your freedom!

Many times I have been asked by people "which is better, affiliate marketing or creating your own product and marketing it yourself?"  I suppose that a lot of that depends on what type of goals you have and the business model that appeals most to you.  Some people are drawn to affiliate marketing because of the "set it and forget it" mentality. 

Affiliate marketing can be appealing in the sense that you get paid a commission just for recommending a product.  The visitor clicks on your affiliate link and a cookie is then set which allows the affiliate to receive a commission if the visitor happens to purchase the product.  If your websites draw a decent amount of traffic, you can make a pretty sizable income without the hassles of customer support, dealing with refunds, shipping and other headaches.  Serious affiliate marketers pull in a comfortable living with income that is quite passive.  Using a method of capturing email addresses to build a list for promoting  products and offering useful information is important.  They also have essential tools in their arsenal for product & keyword researching, PPC (pay per click), and link protection (also known as url cloaking).  My product, the AmazingCloaker is one such url cloaker.  The AmazingCloaker has an added feature of embedding a cookie into your web page to simulate a click through which will asure that you will still receive your commission in case some hairball bypasses your affiliate link.

On the down side, affiliate marketing can be a tough game to master.  Getting traffic to your website is a big one.  Blogging is a great way to attract traffic and promote your product without spending a fortune.   The trade off is that you have to constantly come up with fresh content to make it work.  Pay per click (PPC) such as Google AdWords, Yahoo Search Marketing, MSN, etc can be a viable way of drawing a ton of traffic and still turning a profit if you know what you're doing.  If you don't, you can blow a lot of cash right out the window.  Finding the right products to promote can also be a challenge.  Affiliate marketing isn't the effortless lazy man's way to make money that the so called "gurus" will have you believe.  It takes time, effort and dedication to make it work, just as with any business.

My personal favorite is Product Creation.  I believe that if you truly want to "make it" in the internet business world, creating your own products is the key.  Creating a product should only take a few hours (or a couple of weeks if you're into eBook writing) to create.  Once your product is created, you simply create a sales page and you're in business.  Of course having an established blog and/or network of websites to promote your products is an excellent advantage.  If you don't, then it should become a part of your business plan.

Having your own product will allow you to offer an affiliate program in which you can build an army of affiliates who will be more than happy to promote your product.  It should be a quality product that offers value to your customers, of course.  Once you release your first product, just rinse & repeat.

Now the down sides of product creation.  By marketing your own products, you have to offer support for your product, deal with refunds, etc.  In my experience, creating a product with a high quality standard reduces the refund rate significantly.  Even with the highest quality and best documentation, the refunders and time vampires are unavoidable.  Its just a fact of life.

So which is better?  In my opinion, creating your own digital product is much easier and more profitable.  With a little effort in the beginning, your products will continue to produce income over and over again.  Some people prefer getting their feet wet with affiliate marketing and then evolving into their own product creation.   Whichever route you go, just remember that taking action and sticking with it will guarantee results.  Stay focused and stick with it.  Success will follow.

As I promised a couple days ago, I now have a review ready of Richard Lee's Blog Content Roadmap.  If I was only given three letters in which to describe Richard Lee's product, I could only put it two ways: Wow! & Bam!  This is just the ticket I was looking for.  It's not often when you buy an info product that you can walk away in the end feeling excited and ready to apply what you've learned!  In my experience, most info products make me feel short changed.  Some products have even gone as far as causing my body to physically contort straight into an anti-gasm!  Is that a word? Oh well.   

Richard, this product is fantastic!  It's worth well above your asking price of 50 bucks.   There is absolutely no fluff in these videos.  This is a straight up, get down to business pure meat & potatoes gold mine of information!  The videos are very well articulated and Richard doesn't miss a beat.

The main video is called the Blog Content Roadmap video.  The first subject in the video covers why we should post daily as opposed to occasionally or just a couple times a week.  This is a topic that is debated quite often by some of the forum junkies.  The reasons given by Richard for posting daily are spot on in my opinion.  In fact they are undeniable!  It's as simple as that.  Richard lists quite a few reasons as well.  some of which I never really considered before.

Next, Richard delves into the mechanics of writing.  The first mechanic, getting down to writing your blog, points out something that you should absolutely NOT do!  It also happens to be something that I've been guilty of in the first degree every day!  At this early point, I already knew that I was on to something good!  Other sections of writing mechanics includes a system for capturing ideas, creating an idea incubator and what he calls the "bullpen" where the best ideas are ready to be brought out.  By this time I was already formulating ideas in my head for optimizing my blogging.

The next area covered is "The System".  Richard Lee includes a .pdf file containing the same system that he uses himself for creating content on his blog.  This is a nice addition.  His system is mapped out so that you can adopt it directly to your own blog, or simply use it as a guide for creating your own system which is more tailored to your particular subject matter.  In fact, the system is designed to encourage this. 

In the next part of the video, he gives pointers on discovering your own formulas for creating great content for your blog.  I was impressed with his methods for creating great content.  Although creating great content is very good, it's not going to get you very far if you can't keep it going on a regular basis.  This is where Richard Lee really delivers on an already great system.  By the end of this video you have all the info you need to start blogging quality posts every day.  Richard also maps out a challenge at the end.  He has a task list mapped out for you to follow for each day for six days.  If you take him up on the challenge and follow the list, I'm convinced that you will succeed.  I'm going to take the challenge starting today.  Simply repeat the steps in the system every week and you just can't lose.  Don't just take my word for it.  Stick around this blog and see if you don't see regular and (hopefully) quality posts every day!

As an added bonus, the roadmap is rounded off with another video which shows you a free tool that's available for getting ton's of content ideas sent directly to your email every day or once a week! What an obviously cool idea!  

I'd like to offer some cons about the Blog Content Roadmap to give some balance to this review, but I honestly can't think of any.  I'm a thoroughly satisfied customer.  That's kinda strange, because I'm pretty good at identifying the flaws in a product.  If Richard ever releases this into a physical product, I think it would be useful if the video's were also in a DVD format for more flexibility.  

After viewing the videos, I can honestly say that I have a new sense of empowerment.  I no longer feel that I'm a slave to starring at a white screen with a bad case of writer's block hoping that maybe tomorrow will be a better day.

If you're serious about taking your blog to the max, then you owe it to yourself and to your readers to get the Blog Content Roadmap today!  By the way, there are no affiliate links in this post.  My recommendation is based purely on the merits of the product itself.  On what I've seen here, I have a feeling that I'm going to be a fan of Richard's products for a long time to come!