It’s been a while since I’ve written on this blog as I’ve given priority to my web strategy Singapore blog and my other businesses. But today I’d like to get something of my chest.

I recently attended an internet congress here in Singapore. It was the first live seminar I have ever attended a live seminar and I was pretty astonished. Unfortunately, not in such a positive way.

There were several speakers there. All of them claiming to be successful internet marketeers; all very wealthy. Of course. You know what? I believe them too. The way they get wealthy is by selling their outrageously expensive packages to all the poor souls that believe them.

Each presenter basically had the same story line.

• I was poor, up to no good, loser.
• And then!!! I discovered the Internet and became rich in no time.
• Do you know why it is so important to be rich? So you can look after your sick child when you need to.
• And with the Internet it is soooooo easy to get rich.
• You earn thousands within months.
• All you have to do is to follow my program which has all these SECRETS that will  tell you exactly how to do this.
• Here is my wonderful program that is worth $20,000 but you will get it for $3000.
• But you need to get it now, within the next 10 minutes, and if you do I’ll give you 2 bonuses. After that the opportunity and your chance to get rich will be lost forever.

Seriously, every presentation was the same. They could bring it well, of course. Each of these presentations had a smooth talk and seducing smile and the whole presentation was built up in such a way that it would convince you to make the purchase.

Some of them had convincing proof of all their revenue. Some more convincing than others. However, they fail to say that it has taken them 10 years to get that kind of revenue which they mainly get from all their buddies and Joint Venture Partners who are also smooth talkers and writers and manage to sell even more get rich quick programs.

Contradictions

I thought it was interesting that all the programs they were selling would all contradict one another. One would say to definitely go for affiliate marketing, while the other would tell you not to waste your time on that and go for a real product of your own. Yet another, would tell you not to bother too much with the internet marketing online and instead focus on becoming an SEO consultant. Of course you never need to have ANY internet skills or know how to build a website.

I must have been the only one to notice this because many of the programs sold like hot cakes. This is despite the fact that many of the participants were former students of an internet marketing course and yet only 1 (out of 200) had achieved some kind of result that they were able to share.

So how did they earn their money?

The main reason why the speakers claim to be so wealthy is because they go to these seminars around the year and sell these programs to all those poor souls. Most of them will not make a penny online and will have spent far too much money believing in the dream.

The whole congress has been an interesting experience for me though and I’ve learned a few lessons:

• I will never be a part of those Internet Gurus because I could never claim that making money online is easy.
• I can’t make money online the “traditional’ way with a lot of “hypnotic” copywriting and the rags to richness story because it goes against everything I believe in.
• Instead I’ve decided to focus again on my honest advice on how to create a successful business online.
• When time permits, I will even continue educating people on how they can earn money online. It’s important that people learn the truth; that the only way this can be achieved is by honest work, dedication and focus. A great idea would help as well.

I’m wondering though, how I can convince others to work with someone like me. People seem only to believe the outrageously confident (rich!) sales people that promise them the earth. When they realise that they deliver nothing it’s already too late.

Truth of the matter remains that yes, you can be successful online. But it requires hard work, dedication, focus and knowledge. Yes, you can learn a lot from a good coach, but find someone that shares real information, that doesn’t promise you thousands of dollars in one month, that stresses the importance on knowledge of keyword research and SEO and that can provide you real revenue results other than revenues from seminars, books etc teaching others how to be successful online.

All the information you need is right here on the Internet and most of it can be found for free.

Meanwhile let me know what you think? Did you have good or bad experiences with “gurus” and life seminars?

One of the services that many of my customers appreciated a lot when I was still conducting my business from Australia were my web training sessions. I taught customers how to create their own website or update their existing website. However, due to me moving overseas I have tended to focus more on web strategy and publishing and my web training sessions came to an end.

However, now that I am offering my Pronta CMS website creation system to a worldwide audience I have been looking for ways to start my web training sessions again. And I believe I have found the perfect tool to conduct them.

Introducing Dim Dim. Dim Dim is video conferencing software that is free to install and use. It is an easy to use browser based tool that will allow you to show your presentations, chat, talk and provide computer training!

Let’s look at some of the features:

No need to install anything

You don’t have to install any software. Everything is done online and you can even recodrd your meetings (very useful for repeating your lesson if you stuck).

Dim Dim makes it easy to share documents

Upload any PPT, PDF, or PPTX file on your hard drive and it is quickly converted to a Flash file. You then present your document using the built in laser pointer, annotation and zoom tools. Files are deleted after the meeting to prevent files getting lost.

Screen sharing

A feature essential for computer web training is that I can share whatever I am doing on my screen with you. You can even zoom in on what I’m doing. In the near future trainees will also be able to request control of your mouse and keyboard.

Share a whiteboard

With one click, you start sharing a collaborative, multi-page whiteboard. Everyone can add to it enabling you to easily share and record ideas.

Share Audio (Microphones)

You will be albe to share yoour computer microphones or alternatively your phone.

Share Video (Webcams)

With personal computer web training it is important to see eachother and DimDim also allows you to share your webcam.

Record Your Events

A very important feature is that you can record your sessions. When used for training it will be ideal to go over your lesson more than once to make sure that you understood everything. And if you have used DimDim for you seminar you can use your recording to spread the message to oter interested parties.

Send Public & Private Messages

Public and private message can be sent throughout the conversation.

Webinar Widgets & Reports

Simple widgets are created that you can use to promote your web seminar. You can share the webinar widget on any website or via FaceBook or Twitter and anyone can register for your event just by entering their email address.

Use it to get your online web training or as part of your web strategy

I think that this tool can be really useful for customers of my content management system Pronta CMS. This system has proven to be popular and people from all over the world have signed up for it. Although this system is very easy to use you may still like someone to show you how things are done. With Dim Dim you can actually follow me as I edit your wbsite on my computer screen and you can ask questions at any time.

For businesses it can be part of your web strategy. Use DimDim to conduct meetings, conduct seminars for interest groups or interact with your customers. If you make a recording of your seminar or presentation you will then be able to publish it on the net which can promote your products and services to wider worldwide audience.

Have a go with it and let me know what you think by leaving your comments below. Of course if you are interested in some personal web training then drop me a note!

Today I will give you a special treat! I managed to chat with Jay Piecha, alias Suite J, who has been a successful internet marketeer and website flipper for years. (For those who don’t know: website flipping is creating a complete website, including content, and selling it for a profit.) Here is what he had to say:

I really appreciate you taking some time in your business schedule to answer some questions!  Could you give our readers a short introduction about yourself?

No problem, it’s my pleasure.
My name is Jason Piecha. I’m a designer, a marketer, a blogger, and a coffee addict all rolled into one. I try to use all those attributes to my advantage online. My friends call me Jay, but many people online started to call me “Suite J” once I had started blogging on SuiteJ.com, so I just went along with it. It’s actually the name of my business, but I’m cool with whatever people call me as long as it’s not ***hole.

Some people also affectionately refer to me as “Big Head”, which I assume originated from the caricature of me that I use in all my online profiles, but I can’t remember exactly how that started. I guess if you’re a guy, it’s better than being called “Little Head”. I’ve been working full time online since 1999, but not always in Internet Marketing. I had an eBay business, worked as a freelancer designer, and also had a decent network of adult affiliate sites for 3 or 4 years. The past year or so has been a lot of website flipping, niche site building, as well as spending a lot of time networking and learning aspects of Internet Marketing that were unfamiliar to me.

I got to know you through your site suitej.com and I noticed that it is still not back up and running. When will it be back?

Ah! I’m glad you asked! I thought I may have lost every visitor! Good to know there’s at least one left! It’ll be back live and running on a regular basis sometime in June. I was forced to put it on the backburner for a while for two reasons.

Number one, I was deep into planning out more money making strategies to expand my business and that required my full attention.

Number two, my blog ended up going in a direction that I didn’t intend it to. I never meant to have a “make money online” blog, and I got to a point where I was overthinking what to post about.  I’ll still be blogging about business and will provide a lot of helpful posts, but I also want to let loose, be myself, and open up more about entrepreneurship, and online business in general. Basically, it’ll be broader, which I know goes against “blogging rules, niches, and seo”, but I don’t really care about that stuff for SuiteJ.com. I just want to express myself and network there without thinking about whether or not my latest post title will rank for organic search traffic. Know what I mean? It’s my home online. I want to be able to kick off my shoes.

I really look forward to see what you have come up with!  Back to Internet Marketing. Why did you decide to have a career online?

I’ve always hated working for someone. I’m not kidding. I felt that way since my first job as a dishwasher at 13 years old and the animosity only grew worse with every crappy job I had after that. I honestly feel that some people have the entrepreneurial spirit built into their DNA and I am one of them. I had played in bands a lot as a kid, and took it very seriously. In 1997, I was a wannabe rock star living in Toronto, and moved out of the city to get away from the scene I was in to do something different because I was tired of thet life I was living. At the time, eBay intrigued me as I was always into antiques and collectibles, having grown up in a big house packed full of it. It also seemed like it would be a lot better than working as a bicycle courier on the streets of downtown Toronto in the snow. I bought a computer, spent many sleepless nights scouring the net, and just jumped right in. Within about a month of having an Internet connection, I was buying and selling collectibles and selling them on eBay and newsgroups for profit. I guess when I saw that profit was indeed possible, that’s when I decided that I would pursue more online endeavors.

So how exactly did you get started in Internet Marketing?

It’s actually a long story, but I’ll try and give you the short version. I had eventually built the eBay business up to a point where I was getting regular sales daily. I wanted to expand by selling products on my own website,
but I didn’t really want to pay someone to build it. So, I bought a few html books instead and took a stab web design myself.
I seemed to catch on quick, and built a cheesy site with ugly animations to sell my collectibles.
Around the same time, I happened to meet a graphic designer who bought a ton of Star Wars collectibles from me, but he didn’t have enough to pay for everything he wanted. So, I traded him what I had in exchange for some software, design books, and a little help getting started with Photoshop.
After that, I began to do web and graphic design for people in addition to the eBay business. Design eventually turned into a full time gig for a while, and I quit eBay for a while and worked exclusively as a designer.
A good friend of mine since high school happened to be in the adult industry, and the basic networking naturally led me to doing some designs for adult companies. The pay was much better from the adult guys too, so I couldn’t say no. (*laughs*)
Eventually I started to meet people who made a living by promoting adult sites as an affiliate and made a lot more money than I did. It seemed like a no-brainer for me to go that direction as opposed to designing the sites for a one time fee. So, I built a network of my own. In the beginning, I had small successes quickly by trading design work for traffic from established companies. I highly recommend the barter system!
Just before you saw me begin to appear everywhere as “Suite J” in 2008, I had sold my adult network and “cashed out” of the adult industry to go exclusively mainstream Internet Marketing.  It was kinda like starting over with a slight advantage of having a few skills that crossed over.

How long did it take you to get some kind of success and what were the most important things you did to get success?

Well, that depends on what you mean by success. Everyone has a different perspective on what success is. Personally, if I can feed my family and live comfortably running my own business from home, I consider myself successful. In the past, I’ve washed dishes, worked on a farm, and been broke enough to not eat for a few days straight, so I don’t take anything for granted.  Does that mean I’m satisfied now? NEVER! (*laughs*)
It’s hard to answer this one, because I have been doing “something” online for so long. I can tell you that since I’ve sold the adult business though, I’ve taken a big pay cut! (*laughs*). It didn’t take me long to make the transition of making sales with a few niche sites in mainstream. I’ve also had decent success with website flipping, but as you may have seen me chat about in my blog, I’m still trying to get to another level in mainstream Internet Marketing. I do feel like I have the tools and the skills now though, so we’ll see what happens. Cross your fingers for me.

Definitely, keep us updated in your blog. I’m looking for some more advice. What would you say are the top 5 most important things to do if you want to get started with Internet Marketing?

Five?? (*laughs*).
Let’s see.

First, network your butt off. Find people who have had some success already and ask them for help. The best way to go about that is to offer them help in return. You don’t need to have special skills. Just say you’re willing to help them do whatever you can in exchange for their help.

Take action. I know you’ve seen that everywhere but that’s because it’s true, and nobody does it for some reason. I’ve been guilty of that on some levels myself, so I’m not preaching, but refrain from self-sabatoge. Don’t make excuses. Just do something. You’ll be surprised what happens.

Realize that it’s a waste of money buying every Internet Marketing product known to man, especially if you haven’t made any money yet. There is enough free info online to get you started. If you combine that free knowledge with networking and taking action, you’ll make money. Period.

Be helpful.

Be humble.

What kind of learning should you do first when you want to get into IM?

Learn to treat everything you do with a business mindset first. It’s not a lottery ticket or an easy button. It takes hard work at first. It will get easier, but there’s no way around the initial leg work. Anyone who tells you different either has a sales page they’re about to send you to or a free opt-in with an upsell.

What areas of IM are you specializing in and what % does each contribute to your overall yearly income from IM?

Website flipping and niche sites are about 50-40% right now, with 10% being a few odd things mixed in here and there. That will change though, so ask me again in October. (*laughs*)

What would an average day look like? For example, how much time is spent each day on seo, website creation, product creation, article writing etc.

That’s changed a great deal very recently for me. I’ve just hired an employee to do a lot of my tasks like articles,  seo, and link building for me on a weekly basis. I’m planning to build a small team of Suite Clones so that I can work on the areas of my business that I’m best at.  I’ve been hiring freelancers on a contract basis for a while now as well, so some of my time is spent managing my business in general. Website creation is still a big part of my day right now, because I flip a lot of new sites weekly and I’m working on longer term flips as well. I also regularly build niche sites to keep. I outsource almost all of my writing now unless it’s for my own blog, but sometimes I just quickly write up something if I need it right away.  Product creation is something on the horizon which I will write myself if it’s sold under my name.

What are you working on right now?

Aside from this interview? Well, like I said, there’s always flips and niche keepers in the works. But, I’m also working on SuiteJ.com right now, and a website flipping blog that will be different than most the others that have come and gone.
I have my sights set on creating membership sites and laser-focused affiliate promotions for this summer as well.

I remember reading in your blog that you set yourself a goal of $150 k this year. How are going with that?

(*Laughs*) You know what’s great about that post? I had so many people contact me personally via email and Skype that wanted to connect with me after it was posted and I think it’s because I was open, honest, and gave people a better idea of where I’m at in this business. A lot of my readers were unaware of my past and didn’t realize that I’ve already had some success online. The response I got definitely made me want to be more transparent and connect with my readers on a more personal level, which I will try and do when the blog’s back up.

Oh, yeah, back to the question. See how I tipped toed around that one? (*laughs*)

I’m not gonna bullshit you, I’m definitely behind, but you’ll have to read my blog in order to hear about my excuses. (*laughs*).  I won’t count myself out just yet though, because having goals is what keeps me motivated to sit in front of the computer screen for 12 hours straight.

Thank you for being so open today. Is there any question you think I should have asked or is there something else you want to share with our readers?

I think you should have asked me about my tattoos, my M&Ms fascination, and my addiction to coffee. But, we could do that next time.

Thank you so much JAY! It has been great talking to you. Find Jay at Suitej.com

Now you may have read my previous posts What is Internet Marketing and How to make money from my website and would really like to try this Internet Marketing thing. But how to get started? This is the next post in a series of How to get started with Internet Marketing which is now called the Newby Course. I will try and ‘walk’ you through the whole process.

First steps

There are a few different ways to approach this. You can just register the first domain that comes into your head, get a quick free website and off you go. Sometimes I have this tendency to jump right in when I have a great idea. Although this can be good sometimes, it is usually better to do research and plan for your new online marketing business.

Start your research

Find a topic you are passionate about

Start by thinking about what your passions are. What do you know a lot about? Start with just a piece of paper. You can also create a mind map and visualize all your ideas. If you like to get more inspiration for possible subject areas then there are several online research tools that you can use.

Googles Zeitgeist lets you check which topics are HOT at the moment.

Lycos Top 50 also lets you review the latest trends and you may also like to try Yahoo Buzz and Ebay Pulse which is a good place to start looking at sub niches. Just look at what sub categories are very popular here.

One relative newcomer as a research tool is Google Trends.

You can also investigate how many magazines there are on your niche by going to http://www.magazines.com . After that visit a magazine shop and look at the advertisements. Who is advertising and how many advertisers are there in your niche.

There are quite a few other sites that you use and a lot of them are explained in a Free report on finding a niche that I’m giving away.  All you need to is fill in the below form and I will send you the link to this free report.

Which products and services could you sell in that niche?

This is an important step because in some niche people don’t buy products. So find out if people spend money in your niche.

When you have zeroed in on about 5 topics, think about which products or services you could sell in that area or niche as it is called in internet marketing terms. Also think about which companies could possibly advertise on your site. This is an important step because in some niche people don’t buy products. So find out if people spend money in your niche.

As mentioned check the magazines and check how many digital products are being sold in your niche at Clickbank.

What is the competition doing?

Continue your research with a look at the competition. How many people are already operating in that area? One easy way to test that is to type the words into Google that someone would type in if they wanted to find your site. How many results come up? If you use Firefox, another great tool to use is the SEO book toolbar. It gives you lots of information about how many visitors your competition gets and many research tools. It is free to download at SEO Book.

Choose your niche

After your research, weigh up all the pros and cons of each particular niche and start thinking about a business name. Next time we will talk about how to get a domain name and website. Don’t miss a post and subcribe.

How do I make money online? That would probably be the number one question I get asked so I have listed some of the most popular ways to generate profit:

1. Affliate Marketing

As an affiliate you get paid for selling other people’s products and services. You identify which products and services you want to sell and then get your own affliate links. Whenever someone clicks those links and then goes on to buy something you get a percentage of the purchase price. This method is very suitable for very targeted “niche” websites.

Some popular affiliate networks:

• Commission Junction
• ClickBank
• Azoogle Ads
• Link Share

2. Pay per click ads

You can place Adsense ads on your website provided by Google or other networks. Whenever someone clicks on one of your ads you get paid. Naturally the more people visit your site the more likely you will profit from this method.

Some popular PPC advertising networks:

• Google Adsense
• Yahoo! Publisher Network (YPN)
• BidVertiser

3. Ads and banners

If you have a popular website you can also sell ad space on your site. You can go directly to companies and set your own prices, but most will require a good number of visitors to your site.

4. CPM Advertising

With these you don’t get paid for the number of clicks but the number of impressions (or page views) of the ads.  CPM stands for Cost per Mille, and it refers to the cost for 1,000 impressions. This method could work well for websites with a lot of (quick) visitors

Some popular CPM advertising networks:

• Casale Media
• Burst Media
• Value Click
• Advertising.com

5. Monetization Widgets

These are little snippets of code that are easy to implement on WordPress and other blogs. They can include ppc links, text links or affiliate links.

Some examples:

• WidgetBucks
• ScratchBack
• SmartLinks

6. RSS Feed Ads

As more and more people get used to subscribing to their favourite blogs through RSS these ads become increasingly more popular.

By far the most popular service is feedburner (recently bought by Google)

7. Pay for premium content

You can have a premium portion of your website,  for example a forum, that is only accessible to paid members. As this is usually charged on a subscription basis this can become a nice little earner.

8. Added services

Many blogs try to leverage their populariy by adding extra services to their blogs, like a market place (sitepoint) or a job board (problogger).

9. Sell your website

There are lots of lively market places where you can sell you website, for example at sitepoint.com. You can create a brand new website in a particular niche or you can grow and market your site and sell it for a premium.

10. Donations

If you provide a lot of quality content but are not really interested in adding lots of affiliates links or other ads you can add a “Donate” button on your website. Many people will appreciate that you don’t have ads and may contribute.

As this blog is about internet marketing and how to create websites for profit I thought I should start with the basics. It is a question I am often asked.

What exactly is Internet Marketing?

Essentially it is the marketing (promoting, selling) of goods and services online. This can be anything from books, ebooks, courses, radios, software, yoga mats etc. To market online you will use various skills like technical skills (website creation and development), creative (design, ideas generation), advertising and sales. As an internet marketer you will try to provide your customers with a product they need at a particular time.

Why use the Internet?

The internet is an excellent place to market your products and services. More and more people are using the internet to buy what they need. The Internet is always open and you can work on your marketing activities any time you want. On top of that you can choose to sell products on just about any topic. So you can choose something you love to talk about and market and connect with people with the same interest.

Advanatages and disadvantages

Advanatages

Like anything Internet Marketing has its pros and cons. Here is a quick summary:

• A huge advantage of doing business on the internet is that there are no entry barriers. If you have some time on your hands you can start right away. This is of course also a disadvantage as there will be a lot of competition.
• Low start up costs.
• Marketing online is very affordable and it allows you to track what works and what doesn’t. This gives you a lot more control than traditional marketing.
• Internet marketing allows you to communicate very directly with your target customers. You can connect with them through social networking sites, your blog, twitter etc.
• You can choose whenever you want to work and what you wear!
• You can target any market in the world
• You can create systems that once setup and promote kind of take care of themselves.

Disadvantages

• Internet marketing is not necessarily easy. It still requires a lot of work, creativity in finding the right product or niche and determination in promoting this product. But if you can find a way to create good online assets you can literally make money while you sleep.
• You will need to get a website and therefore learn some technical skills. You may want to outsource a lot of the technical stuff later but it’s still better to have a basic understanding.
• Because of the low entry barriers there will be quite a lot of competition so it will be your task to be either smarter or more focussed on your niche

So what does it involve?

In Internet marketing you can expect to get busy with the following tasks:

• Creating a website and writing a Blog: a great way to attract traffic and an audience
• Article Marketing
: writing lots of articles for both your own site and other sites
• E‐mail Marketing
: building a subscriber opt-in list is a great way to keep reminding potential customers about you
• Search Engine Optimation: get listed at page one for your targeted keywords and receive lots of (free) visitors
• Advertising: pay per click ads, banners, pop up ads
• Social Media marketing: Using sites like Twitter, You Tube, Squiddo to attract visitors
• Forum Marketing: helping out in online forums can help you sell your products and services

On this site we will explore all of these topics in greater detail. I will share my endouvours in Internet Marketing and will tell you what works and what doesn’t. I hope you will take this journey with me. You can do so easily by subscribing to this blog.

Here you will learn how you too can create a website and start to earn money online. These are just some of the things that you will learn here:

• How to setup a website
• How to customize a website
• How to monetize it
• How to build up a newsletter subscriber list
• How to market your website
• How to do SEO
• How to use social media
• And lots more…..

Stay tune as we start filling this site with content!