Yellow Dog Ventures

A couple months ago I became aware of a really cool video creating service on the web. It’s called Animoto.

The way the system works is you feed them a bunch of pictures/images along with some music and they create a video with a mixture of the pictures and a variety of special effects. The result is very cool and can look quite professional.

I’ll show you a sample video if you keep reading and click the “continue reading” part below. Then you’ll be able to see the video.

At the time I first heard of Animoto, I decided to create videos as a method of promotion for all of my websites. I even did some research into how I could imbed an automatic redirect to my site at the end of the video, since this isn’t a feature with Animoto yet. That’s still on my list of projects, and now I’m glad I haven’t put more work into it so far.

Here’s my initial video that I pulled together for a practice run using Animoto:

This is, of course, Yellow Dog herself. I know it’s rough, but you get the idea.

Today I learned of a tutorial on how to best use Animoto, which includes ideas for gathering the resources I’ll need. I find that it is much better use of my time and patience if I follow a tutorial rather than trying to figure out how to use new programs on my own. I can’t wait to get started.

The tutorial is here if you’re interested.

My plan is to start creating HubPages for feeder links to my sites and I’ll add the videos to these pages.

I’m also planning a bunch more social marketing. Jack Humphrey was a guest speaker at the “16 Steps to Success” webinar today, talking about web 2.0. It was excellent. Jack clearly knows web 2.0. He laid a foundation for where to get started utilizing some core sites and emphasized being a person first, to build a following, and then being a marketer flows from that. It was very valuable. Only 1 class left.

That’s all for now. Thanks for visiting.

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A few days ago I mentioned that I noticed a couple trends happening in my marketing ventures lately. Actually they seem diametrically opposed (is that the right way to use that term?). The first is the forced continuity by marketers selling their products. The second is the free training being offered by a number of very successful marketers.

The first seems incredibly greedy while the second is incredibly generous. And I get to benefit.

I’ve been participating in the “16 Steps to Success” training by Sam Clark in conjunction with Jack Humphrey and the Authority Site Center. It’s really excellent. I am amazed at all the work Sam is putting into this. This course is a series of 16 live webinars detailing the steps to creating a successful authority site and a successful business overall. We just have a couple classes left after this week.

My understanding of what an authority site is has certainly changed over the course of this class. I’ve learned an authority site is not just a big site full of content. A successful authority site these days is created by someone who is or becomes an expert in the niche, does in depth research to get in tune with exactly what is happening within that niche currently on the web, and then provides the content that people are looking for, and does this consistently and persistently. This course has covered in depth how to do all of that.

Another training program that I was “lucky” enough to get into is the “Black Ink Project” provided by Jeremy Palmer. He is a master at affiliate marketing and has created a number of products that teach his methods. This time he is offering live classes that cover his affiliate marketing methods. The agenda looks intense and comprehensive. I know next to nothing about super affiliate marketing, so I’m really excited about this. I learn so much better from live instruction than I do from an ebook.

Finally, a third opportunity is being offered by Jeff Johnson. His focuses on SEO blog software and how to best use it to bring search engine traffic to your blog. Jeff is going to provide a webinar or two to show how to get the most out of the software. I crave learning about both SEO and getting traffic, and blogs are my thing these days, so I’m thrilled. The software and the training are both being offered free.

It’s an abundance and I’m really grateful. Great thanks you all you generous people…

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There seem to be two trends I am encountering often lately in my marketing ventures.

First is the “forced continuity” tagged on to product purchases. It’s quite the rage and many customers are pretty rageful about it.

This involves a marketer selling a product from a sales page and then attaching an ongoing newsletter or membership program that the purchaser is likely to be unaware of. Most of the time, the language on the sales or order page that describes the continuity program is veiled in weird language or made to sound like something else or is altogether non-existant.

A recent example is Joel Comm’s Adsense Secrets v4.0. He was selling the ebook for around $10, which is a steal for the quality of information he offered. Lots of people jumped on the opportunity. What they didn’t realize was that in the bonus section, Joel was offering a free month subscription to his hardcopy newsletter, and they would ultimately have to cancel or be charged $30 a month automatically.

I was alerted to this arrangement before I even visited the sales page and I chose to make a purchase anyway. I wanted the book and I knew I could cancel the subscription and Joel’s people would honor it. (Joel might send too many emails, but he is honorable. I really trust that.)

Apparently that is not true of all marketers. I’m reading that many fail to cancel their customers’ subscriptions when they request to be let out. Not cool and a huge hassle for the buyer.

After an uproar, Joel has revised his offer and has now made the newsletter subscription an optional addition to purchasing his book. I may have been tempted to change the price of the book if I changed the terms, but Joel didn’t. The ebook is a steal. At least I’m enjoying it.

Two other programs interested me recently that also turned out to have membership fees attached ongoing but did not mention this part on the sales page. At least I couldn’t find it anywhere. These two programs are Players With Money and 4MinutesMoney.

I did invest in PWM and learned of the membership from the Clickbank receipt. I was shocked and felt duped. Now I have to decide whether to continue with the program ongoing or not. It looks fabulous, but it’s a monthly fee I was not counting on and don’t think I want.

What I’ve learned, hopefully, is to go over sales pages with a fine tooth comb before deciding to purchase, and then go over the order page with an even finer tooth comb. Take nothing for granted.

Another option is to quit buying products, but that’s no fun. I want to learn everything I can about affiliate marketing, site building, adsense publishing, and you name it. I enjoy the learning process tremendously.

Enough about that…and I’ll save the second trend for tomorrow (or sometime soon).

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I feel like I’m flying. I have so much mapped out that I want to implement, my productivity has never been higher.

If you’ve read any previous posts, you know I’ve been working on some WordPress blogs. I’ve moved into the promotion phase on a number of them. Time to build backlinks!

I’ve already “stumbled” each blog on StumbleUpon. As expected, I got a bunch of traffic fairly quickly and then that ended. There were just a few adsense clicks too. StumbleUpon was true to its reputation of offering a quick flash of traffic and very little clicking. That’s okay. I have a link (I think!)

Getting set up on 3WayLinks.net was next. I really like the concept and it’s all laid out well — just submit your websites and it automatically builds backlinks for you. Ran into a roadblock with the content on one of my blogs. 3WL declined to accept the blog into its network, claiming it is not “family friendly.”

That’s a head scratcher. The theme of the blog is marriage, specifically promoting a clickbank product. The articles focus on “saving my marriage” with love, respect, and good communication within the relationship. How is that not family friendly? There appears to be no recourse. I must admit it bugs me.

While I’d recommend 3WayLinks, I know it will take me places, but if you decide to sign up understand ahead of time that there is some interesting censorship on which websites are acceptable and which are not. My “psychic” themed site was refused several months ago on the grounds that the content is religious. I had an easier time understanding that one.

I have a gardening themed blog in my master plans, too. It’s a little ahead of schedule, but I get to be a beta tester for a gardening datafeed store created by Dave Wooding. He appears to be a pretty talented programmer. Dave has installed the initial layout and is now in the process of refining the look and functionality of the store as feedback comes in. You can check out an example at davewooding.com/garden.

This is fun. Have a good one!

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So, what’s the best way to handle it when you join a membership and then the creator does not deliver as promised?

The easy answer is just to say “quit,” but that’s not how I want this to turn out. I purchased a wso on the Warrior Forum a short time ago that promised 2 rewritten sales letters a month for some popular Clickbank products. Along with this are some graphics and an autoresponder series designed to encourage the reader to purchase the ebooks.

The quality of the product is excellent and the copywriting is outstanding. I am extremely please with it. The problem is that the product creator is now behind on delivering the monthly packages and is non-responsive with email or the forum. This person is a pretty well known and respected marketer, so I am quite surprised.

But, since I got in at the beginning, I got a great price, and I love the product, I plan to hang in there for awhile and hope he straightens things out. I have a number of ideas for marketing these products and see the membership as a good long term investment. I will keep my fingers crossed.

I don’t want to get all cynical here, but it’s not the first time a big name marketer has not followed through on what was promised and it probably won’t be the last. I’m definitely learning who to respect among these folks and who is promoting garbage. I guess that’s a good place to be and I guess I’m officially not a newbie anymore.

As a side note, someone who I respect a lot is Eric Giguere, who I have mentioned before. He writes the “Unofficial AdSense Blog” and he digs a little deeper in sharing tips and insider info about adsense and more. Highly recommended.

Enough for now. Have a good one!

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