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iid_SeptemberNEW_iid_0611 31/08/2011 14:01 Page 1
Contact: [email protected]
Issue date: September 2011
INSIDE: How to Get Your Website Top of
Google’s Ranking in 24hrs or Less, Earn
£162,000 a Year From Local Business
Marketing PLUS the Lowdown on
Kindle Publishing Success
Inside this issue:
Product Review: Kindle Special
Which of These 3 Kindle Training
Courses Could Really Help You
Make Money From the eReader
Revolution? ...............................2
Blueprint: Viral Video
Traffic Generation
Use the Power of Viral Video
Marketing and Get a Top Google
Ranking in 24hrs or less! ..........6
Business Blueprint: Local
Marketing
Help Save Your Local Businesses
and You Could Pocket £162,000
Dear Fellow Online Entrepreneur,
Welcome to the September issue of IID.
We are kicking off this month’s issue with a Kindle special in which
our resident reviewer, Dan Thorley, takes a look at the top three Kindle
products available on the market today.
This is a really hot topic right now – and one you’ve all been asking for
more on – so I hope you enjoy it, and, as ever, do get in touch with your
feedback/experiences or topic requests via
[email protected]
Next up we have another cracking blueprint from Rob Cornish which
proves you don’t need to be an SEO wizard to get your website featured
on the coveted page one of Google.
And after that we have two very different online marketing
opportunities both of which are bang on the money when it comes to the
current upsurge in the popularity of location-based selling and creative
“guerrilla” projects.
It’s a lot to get through, so let’s get stuck in.
Enjoy the issue and do feel free to email me your thoughts and
suggestions for future issues at [email protected]
Best regards,
Per Year ...................................10
Internet Marketing Strategies
Beat the Recession With These
Guerrilla Internet Marketing
Nick Laight
Editor-in-chief
Internet Income Detective
Tactics ......................................12
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iid_SeptemberNEW_iid_0611 31/08/2011 14:01 Page 2
bit of digging to find out whether they really are worth
your money…
Product Review: Kindle Special
Which of These 3 Kindle
Training Courses Could
Really Help You Make
Money From the
eReader Revolution?
Product 1:
The Kindle Cash Machine:
http://kindlecashmachine.com
The first Kindle course we
are going to review is called The
Kindle Cash Machine. It’s a
downloadable guide that teaches
you how to publish and make a
profit on the Amazon Kindle
Platform.
B
ooks are an important part of our life. Not only do
they give us information and entertain us, but they
also provide us with a certain amount of comfort
(especially if you happen to be spending the next 30
minutes of your life on the Northern Line with your
face three inches away from someone’s armpit).
The 69-page PDF takes you through everything
from making an eBook, to publishing and marketing it
and, finally, how to earn money from it.
But books can be very heavy and you can’t carry
them all with you at all times…
Here is a summary of the concepts outlined in the
course:
However, with the advancement of technology
today, eBooks and eReaders have changed how we
read. Now we can carry as many books as we like
wherever we go and read them whenever we want, a
fact that a number of Internet marketers have been
quick to take advantage of.
• Getting your book published fast and how to do it
step by step
How?
• Become a coveted Amazon.com featured author
and create a new income stream for yourself
• Learn what Amazon Kindle is and why it’s the
biggest publishing breakthrough in a long time
• How to market your book utilizing Amazon.com
and what kind of sales you can expect
Well, the Kindle not only
provides a new method of
consuming content, but also
provides an exciting
opportunity for anyone
wanting to publish their work
at no cost and earn money
from it.
• Pull in more business by telling your prospects
that you have a new book available on
Amazon.com
• How to get your eBook to become a hot item on
Amazon
Sounds interesting, especially to authors who want
to make money from writing. The purpose of this
course is to help struggling/newbie writers who are
searching for readers, or people who have tried to
publish an eBook before but did not have any success
with it.
Anyone with an Amazon account can now publish a
Kindle eBook.
Unsurprisingly, in the wake of the rise in the
popularity of the Kindle have come a number of
products claiming to teach anyone how to make a lot
of money through publishing eBooks on the Amazon
Kindle store.
The Kindle Cash Machine aims to help individuals
achieve their dreams of writing a book and becoming a
published author with all the associated respect and
notoriety. In fact, if you have an eBook ready to
publish, you can literally have it done overnight. Don’t
get me wrong, this is not a simple “point and click”
Given that this is such a hot topic – and at the
behest of a number of IID readers – we’ve picked three
of the top-selling Kindle courses out there and done a
It is my intention to be as accurate in fact, detail and comment as possible. However, the publishers and their representatives cannot be held
responsible for any error in detail, accuracy or judgement whatsoever. Internet Income Detective is sold on this understanding. ISSN: 17558131 All subscription correspondence to: Internet Income Detective, Subscription Office, Unit 1, Hainault Works, Hainault Road, Little
Heath, Romford, RM6 5SS.Tel: 0208 597 0181 Fax: 0208 597 4040. Registered office: Canonbury Publishing Ltd. Curzon House, 24 High
Street, Banstead, Surrey, SM7 2LJ. Registered in England No. 4765425 Vat Reg No. 811 5700 64
© Copyright Internet Income Detective 2011
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iid_SeptemberNEW_iid_0611 31/08/2011 14:01 Page 3
system, but it is a system that provides a lot of step-bystep instruction, from choosing a topic to write about,
to formatting and publishing your work on the Amazon
Kindle.
really have been included in Chapter Two).
The latter chapters talk about how to make more
money with your eBook on Amazon and a
recommendation to publish the same eBook to another
well-known self-publishing service. For more tips and
other strategies, you will need to watch the bonus
videos to see the step-by-step processes on how to get
each phase done.
So let’s get to the meat of the system by discussing
each chapter, a total of seven chapters in all.
Chapter One talks about the use of Kindle, its
advantages and some of its important features.
Overall, I think The Kindle Cash Machine is a
useful guide for publishing on the Amazon Kindle and
for those who want to test the waters of eBook
publishing. If you are a newbie and don’t know where
to start, this course will guide you through the basics
and help you choose the most profitable topic to write
about. It does cover everything up to and including
promoting your work – although not always in great
detail.
This chapter is all about writing an eBook and
includes tips on searching for a profitable topic to write
about; if you currently struggle to find “hot topics”,
this course gives you tools and tips on where and how
to find them. It also guides you through setting up an
account with Amazon.
Once your eBook is ready to publish, Chapter Two
takes you through how to organize it to make it look
appealing on the Kindle screen.
Contact:
Basically, you’ll learn how to format your eBook
for publication; you’ll learn how to organize your
eBook information so that you can quickly upload it
using the Digital Text Platform and some dos and
don’ts when it comes to writing an eBook. There is a
video to accompany this chapter that covers how to use
the Digital Text Platform.
The Kindle Cash Machine
By Bryan D. Toder
Price: $37 (around £30 including VAT)
Website: http://kindlecashmachine.com
Product 2:
Kindle Profits Exposed
http://kindleprofitsexposed.com
Today’s second Kindle product is Kindle Profits
Exposed by James Jones. In some ways it’s pretty
much the same as the The Kindle Cash Machine but
rather than focusing on teaching you how to find a
profitable subject to write about, Kindle Profits
Exposed focuses on how to generate profits from
public domain books, PLR content and eBooks.
Note: “Kindle Digital Text Platform” is now called
“Kindle Direct publishing.”
Chapter Three discusses copyright, trademarks, how
to price your eBook and how to get paid. An eBook is
considered as intellectual property so you need to
protect yourself and your work. The tips and advice
that are mentioned here are really helpful.
As you would expect you will be using free content
available on the Internet and so don’t have to worry
about writing your own material, making this a
supposedly easier and quicker route to making money
from Kindle.
Then comes the most important part: Chapter Four
covers information on how to market your eBook
through various Internet marketing strategies,
particularly social media marketing.
The hype on the website says you don’t need to
have your own website, there is no need for traffic or
an autoresponder, and you can set up and earn a profit
within 10-15 minutes. To an extent this is true because
Amazon will provide all that for free.
This is where Internet marketing comes into the
picture as you look to boost your profits. Rather
disappointingly however, this chapter only really gives
us a summary of the steps needed to promote your
Kindle eBook alongside tips on how to upload your
eBook to the Digital Text Platform (which should
The course starts by explaining how you can
leverage one of the Internet’s existing eCommerce sites
(which is of course Amazon) by selling digital content
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iid_SeptemberNEW_iid_0611 31/08/2011 14:01 Page 4
identical eBook!
to the growing number of Kindle users. It goes on to
explain what a Kindle is, its features and what kind of
content to load in your Kindle store. It also promises to
provide a business opportunity that can help you make
money without a website and without having to write
your own work before explaining how to use public
domain books, PLR books and eBooks.
This course includes a bonus video about how to
earn even more money from publishing free content
but I believe there is something missing even here, and
that “something” is how to promote your product.
Putting your work on Amazon and just leaving it
doesn’t guarantee that you’ll make any money. Yes,
Amazon will be the one in charge of selling your
product, but remember, there are over 950,000 eBooks
listed in the Kindle Store which Amazon is also
selling.
This course details how to find public domain
books using Google Books
(http://books.google.com/books), PLR content and
other free content which you can use as your own work
to publish through your Amazon Kindle store. There
are detailed step-by-step instructions on how to get this
done and additional information on where you can find
other free content to use too.
There is a small section included in the course
which shows you how to add keywords to make your
product searchable, however, this is only briefly
covered – I guess this is the part that you need to do by
yourself, but to do so you need to understand how
Internet marketing works in the first place.
If you have an eBook ready to publish, then it’s
time for you to list your Kindle eBook for sale on
Amazon using the Digital Text Platform. You will need
to enter all the details about your book (i.e. title,
author, image). Then you need to decide the price for
the product. You won’t get lost in this phase as there is
a detailed explanation in both the video and the PDF
on how to upload your eBook.
Finally, PLR content and public domain books will
indeed make you money but they won’t give you
satisfaction as a writer because they are not really
yours. Also, if this content does make you money, it
won’t be that much as the chances of a duplicate
product existing is very high and will negatively affect
your selling price.
And that’s pretty much it.
Yes, this course will show you how to find free
content to upload... there is a lot of public domain and
PLR content available out there and it’s as easy to set
up as filling out a form and uploading. However, there
are some problems regarding the use of free content...
Contact:
Firstly, PLR eBooks may not be your best option.
Obviously, PLR content is not unique because a lot of
people may be using the same content, which raises the
issue of duplication.
Website: http://kindleprofitsexposed.com
Kindle Profits Exposed
By James Jones
Price: $49.99 (around £40 including VAT)
Product 3:
Kindle Nook Unleashed
http://kindlenookunleashed.com
You could of course edit or rewrite the material, but
that would take time and effort. Duplicate content can
reduce the value of the work and your credibility may
also be affected. Nevertheless, there have been some
great successes with PLR content, for instance, the hit
“The Secret” came from the public domain.
Our final Kindle product
is called Kindle Nook
Unleashed. It is written by
Keith Currens and Atif
Othman and is composed of
a set of seven step-by-step
videos that walk you
through publishing eBooks
on the Kindle and Nook
platforms.
Secondly, while it’s true that you don’t need to have
a website to start with (because you will be taking
advantage of Amazon which will generate sales for you
on autopilot) and whilst you may also gain access to
millions of products to sell through public domains,
because it’s free content there is a possibility that a lot
of other like-minded people may have already
published the same content in the Kindle store before
you. Naturally, you don’t want to be competing on the
same platform with people who have a practically
The course starts by showing you how to locate
good PLR content from sources like eBay and Google
Search, as well as the types of books that you should
be uploading to your Kindle store. Which is helpful
because you need to make sure you have profitable
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iid_SeptemberNEW_iid_0611 31/08/2011 14:01 Page 5
content to upload!
Publishing eBooks to the Kindle Store is relatively
easy, but what I like about the course is that it makes it
even easier by providing you with:
The next two videos demonstrate how to organize
and format your content before publishing. These parts
cover how to set up your title, how to make the cover
of your book, how to set the author name and how to
find suitable keywords for your content to make it
searchable by search engines.
• Advice on the best tools to use
• Help choosing the most profitable topic to write
about
• How to promote your eBook using the most
effective Internet marketing strategies
The next video reveals how to publish your work
with Kindle Direct Publishing, as well as suggesting
other online book publishers you may want to publish
it with.
The Kindle Cash Machine guides new authors
through each step and you’ll be learning the marketing
secrets integral to selling more copies of your book.
Unlike the two other courses, which recommend only
the use of PLR content, you will ultimately have a
unique product that people are searching for because
you’ll be creating content based on current “hot
topics”.
After publishing, the next video explains how you
can promote your work through www.fiverr.com. If
you haven’t heard of fiverr yet, it is a place where
people can offer or request services for $5.
This product also includes 40 PLR eBooks to get
you set up right away as well as training on how to
make those books unique, and a resource guide,
making it ideal for anyone who wants to take
advantage of the flourishing eBook market.
Also, I like the way this course emphasizes the
importance of marketing your eBook as this is the key
to making money. Although Amazon is an incredibly
popular eCommerce site, you’ll still need to market
your product to drive people to your Amazon store.
Like any piece of content online, you need to get the
word out about it. So after uploading your eBook to
the Kindle Store, The Kindle Cash Machine will guide
you on what to do with it next and how you can
maximise your profit.
One good thing about this product is that the
materials are presented in both video and audio
formats, and you can choose how to use the system.
All instructions are laid out in an easy-to-follow
layout. It’s very newbie-friendly and every step or tool
is explained as to why it should be done or used in a
particular way.
Actually, all three courses are pretty much the
same – the only difference being the type of content
they suggest.
Like Kindle Profits Exposed, Kindle Nook
Unleashed only suggests you use PLR content, which I
think is disappointing. The number one concern here is
the uniqueness (or not) of the content. Even if you
rewrite the content, it can still be less appealing to
readers and a more competitive niche within which to
operate.
If you want to publish an eBook instantly, you can
resort to using PLR content, but I doubt if that will
really make you a lot of money. Some people actually
believe using PLR content can give you a bad
reputation. That’s perhaps taking things a bit far, but
one thing that should concern you is this: PLR content
is often poorly written and it takes time to edit – a lot
of time if we are talking books. So, just remember –
not all shortcuts are beneficial!
Contact:
Kindle Nook Unleashed
The verdict
If you are looking to make a lot of money, then you
should stick with original content. If you can’t think of
a subject to write about, then use PLR content to help
you generate an idea. What’s more important is that
you know how to market your product and make more
people aware of your Amazon store.
Out of these three Kindle courses, I personally think
the best is The Kindle Cash Machine. This course not
only provides opportunities to authors looking to
publish their own work, but also to anyone who may
have been dreaming of becoming a writer.
Publishing an eBook can help build your business
brand online and it can add to your credibility as an
online marketer. More people will become aware of
you and relate you to that topic, building your
please turn over
By Keith Currens and Atif Othman
Price: $37 (around £30 including VAT)
Website: http://kindlenookunleashed.com
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iid_SeptemberNEW_iid_0611 31/08/2011 14:01 Page 6
A great example of the latter are the videos made by
Peter Oakley, an 84-year-old pensioner from Leicester
under the YouTube pseudonym “geriatric1927”. You
can check out his content here:
http://www.youtube.com/user/geriatric1927.
reputation, not only as a respected Internet marketer,
but also as a credible online entrepreneur.
Publishing one eBook alone is unlikely to make you
a lot of money but you can add it to your marketing
efforts to boost your online presence. If this is your
aim, don’t be too concerned about making a lot of
money with your eBooks, rather focus on building
quality content that your readers will deem beneficial
to them and you will, in the long run, reap the success
brought about by your hard work.
However, the BIG problem with viral marketing as
a traffic strategy is that it is incredibly difficult to
manufacture content that will go viral.
The process is very hit-and-miss and we could even
say that viral content happens essentially by chance.
STOP PRESS! The research team at IID are
currently testing a new angle on the Kindle
Publishing opportunity. It avoids all the issues of
PLR duplication and looks like it really could be an
easy way for anyone to start earning a recurring
income. Look out for updates in your regular IID
eLetter!
A great way around this is to “piggyback” existing
viral content. This way we remove a great deal of the
hit-and-miss nature of viral marketing and concentrate
on factors which are directly under our control.
Video marketing
If you’ve ever tried to gain higher rankings in the
search engines (aka Search Engine Optimisation or
SEO) in order to generate traffic, then you’ll know that
the process can be extremely time intensive and often
takes months to become effective.
Blueprint: Viral Video Traffic Generation
Use the Power of Viral
Video Marketing and
Get a Top Google
Ranking in 24hrs or less!
In my view, traditional SEO is getting harder by the
day… the number of websites in existence has
exploded in the last two to three years thanks, in part,
to the proliferation of “Web 2.0” properties such as
blogs, Squidoo Lenses and HubPages which have
made it incredibly easy for anyone to get their own
web property.
By Rob Cornish
I
’d like to share a strategy that can get you on to the
first page of Google within 24hours and generate
significant amounts of traffic to your website.
But the double whammy is that Google continues to
favour “authority” sites with each of its infamous
algorithm updates.
This method is actually a synergy of viral marketing
and video marketing techniques, so let’s start by
looking at each of these components separately...
However, these issues are largely confined to
content in text format such as articles and blog posts
for which the competition is becoming increasingly
fierce.
Viral marketing
Viral marketing is basically about “word of mouth”.
A great solution to this competition problem is to
turn to videos, which are much easier to rank in the
search engines.
People see great content and use communication
methods such as email, Facebook or Twitter to pass it
along to their friends, colleagues and contacts. If the
content is good enough then those people pass it on too
and an iterative process begins which becomes
explosive!
The viral-video synergy
By “piggybacking” video marketing with viral
marketing we get the following benefits:
The exciting thing about viral marketing is that it
works not only for multi-million pound advertising
campaigns such as the “Cadbury’s Gorilla” TV advert
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnzFRV1LwIo)
but also for ordinary people (like you and me!)
creating content at home.
1. Siphon off traffic from existing viral videos
2. Videos are easy and quick to make
3. Compared to text articles we can rank much higher
in Google in a shorter amount of time
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iid_SeptemberNEW_iid_0611 31/08/2011 14:01 Page 7
highly recommend it. You can try it out for free here:
http://www.techsmith.com/camtasia.
Ranking videos on the first page of
Google within 24 hours
Alternatively, try one of the free alternatives such as
authorSTREAM (http://www.authorstream.com) or
Screencast-o-Matic (http://www.screencast-omatic.com).
To introduce the complete strategy, let’s take a look
at a method I’ve used to create and rank a video on the
first page of Google within 24 hours.
Step 1: Find a long-tail key phrase in
your niche
Step 4: Upload to YouTube
If you don’t already have a YouTube account then
you can sign up for free in just a few seconds. It is
very easy to get started and upload a video.
Long-tail key phrases are Google search terms that
only receive a small number of searches per day.
Whilst you will never receive a ton of traffic from
targeting these long-tail key phrases, you can gain
small amounts of passive traffic on an ongoing basis.
This can really add up over time and so it’s well worth
considering for the small amount of work necessary to
do this.
Step 5: Add some music
I should point out that YouTube strongly
disapproves of using copyrighted music on videos. In
fact, it has an extremely clever “listening” algorithm
that scans your videos automatically after you upload
them!
Also, the competition for long-tail key phrases tends
to be much lower than for high-volume key phrases.
What is more, the competition is even less than usual if
you make videos as opposed to text articles!
For this reason, don’t be tempted to use music by
your favourite band as the chances are YouTube will
disallow your video.
So this first step involves using a tool such as
Wordtracker (http://www.wordtracker.com) or the
Google Keyword Tool
(https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExt
ernal) to find search terms in your niche that have
search volumes between 500 and 1,500 searches per
month.
Instead, you can use YouTube’s inbuilt AudioSwap
feature to add a royalty-free soundtrack to your video.
Step 6: Optimise the video
It is critical to get this step right otherwise you’ll
likely end up on page 57 of Google rather than page 1!
There are five things that you should do at this
stage:
Step 2: Create a slide presentation
Here you need to create a small number of slides
(five to ten is fine) which contain some relevant and
helpful content that is related to the search term you
have chosen to target.
1. Ensure that the long-tail key phrase you’re targeting
is in the title of the video (preferably at the
beginning).
2. Place a link to your website (or whatever location
you want to send traffic to) in the first line of the
description. This will ensure that the link is still
visible and clickable when the video plays without
the viewer having to expand the “Show More”
section that is displayed below your YouTube video.
To do this you can use Microsoft PowerPoint,
Keynote (for the Mac) or free presentation software
(just search Google for this). Go to http://sxc.hu to
grab some royalty free images to make your slideshow
more attractive.
Also, brand your slides with the web address of the
site you want to send traffic to. Simply add the URL as
a footer on each slide and include a call to action on
the last slide in the series encouraging people to pay
your site a visit.
3. Fill out the description field with at least 400 words
of text relating to the topic of the video.
You might be surprised at this recommendation as
most YouTube videos have relatively short
descriptions. However, I have a marketing contact that
personally tested this and he has found that longer
descriptions lead to better optimisation and ultimately,
better Google rankings.
please turn over
Step 3: Turn your presentation
into a video
You can do this very easily using screencast
software such as Camtasia. I personally use this and I
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iid_SeptemberNEW_iid_0611 31/08/2011 14:01 Page 8
To make this step faster you could repurpose some
of the text that you used for your presentation slides
and use it directly in the description field.
Viral video piggybacking
As we mentioned earlier, creating your own viral
content is a very haphazard business so leveraging the
power of existing viral content – or piggybacking as
we shall call it – is a much safer bet.
After writing the main description include a section
at the bottom which starts with, “This video is also
about:” followed by a list of five to ten closely related
key phrases. You can find suitable ideas for this from
the Goole Keyword Tool.
To do this with YouTube we first need to find
existing videos that have gone viral. This can be done
in a number of ways:
A niche I’ve been recently investigating is raw food
so using this as an example, our main key phrase could
be “raw food recipe” which according to the Google
Keyword Tool, receives around 1,000 exact searches
per month:
1. YouTube Charts
(http://www.youtube.com/charts)
This service gives you a list of videos that have
received the highest number of views in a particular
category over a specified period of time. This is a great
provision from YouTube and one that is self-fulfilling
in the sense that once a video makes it onto these lists
the chances are it will receive even more views in the
future!
2. Viral Video Chart
(http://viralvideochart.unrulymedia.com)
According to owner Unruly Media, this is the
World’s largest and most comprehensive database of
online videos. It provides a similar list to YouTube
charts except that videos are ranked by the amount of
activity on Facebook and Twitter. Given the increasing
popularity of these social networks and the fact that
this chart is used by the likes of The Guardian,
TVGuide and Sky, it makes a great deal of sense to
pay close attention to high ranking videos on this site.
Looking down
the list gives us
plenty of related
keywords to insert
into the description
field of our YouTube
Video:
4. Select the correct category for your video and
choose “Allow comments automatically”.
Comments are an important factor in how videos are
ranked both inside YouTube itself and in Google
search returns, and doing this will ensure that all
comments get posted immediately below the video.
3. YouTube Trends
(http://youtube-trends.blogspot.com)
This blog is a nice complement to the previous two
services mentioned above as it includes commentary
on the videos covered – excellent for generating ideas
and identifying themes that are trending well in the
online video world.
Step 7: That’s it!
In my case, the steps above were enough to get my
video on the first page of Google within 24 hours.
After identifying a video relevant to your niche, the
next step is to post a video response. You can do this
by clicking in the Comments box below the video and
then selecting “Create a video response”:
However, depending upon the key phrase you
select, the number of existing YouTube videos
dedicated to your topic and the specific competition
level, results will obviously be different. For example,
you might find yourself catapulted to number one
immediately or disappointingly relegated to page
2 or 3.
Then select the video from your account that you’d
like to respond with.
For this reason, we are now going to look at more
tactics which will give you greater control over the
outcome of this method plus some additional ideas for
“piggybacking” existing viral videos...
Obviously, your video needs to be relevant to the
topic of the one that you’re responding to. You can
create your video following the steps we discussed
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properties but very rarely to their videos hosted on
services like YouTube. This fact alone makes it almost
a no-brainer to create a small number of backlinks so
that you can stand above the rest in SEO terms.
previously or alternatively use a webcam to record a
response.
If you decide upon the second option then don’t
think that you need to spend a lot of time creating an
extensive response; some of the best responses are just
a few seconds long where the person says what they
like about the original video and adds a couple of
thoughts of their own.
Some quick-and-easy ways of building links to your
videos are:
• Blog commenting
• Submitting articles to article directories
If you want to take a look at some examples of
YouTube video responses then go to Google and type
in:
• Creating a Web 2.0 property such as Squidoo or
HubPages
• Posting on Twitter or Facebook
site:youtube.com “This video is a response to”
<Name Of Your Niche>
• Posting links on social bookmarking sites like
StumbleUpon or Delicious
At the bottom of the video you’ll find a link marked
as “This video is a response to” and then the link to the
original video.
Even if you build just one link it will be worth it
since no one else ever seems to bother!
3. Syndicate your video
Piggybacking SEO
So far we have focused exclusively on YouTube
since it is “the daddy” when it comes to video hosting.
Also, Google owns it and therefore it likes to rank
YouTube videos well in its search engine results pages.
When creating a video response to a viral video you
can follow the tips we discussed previously about the
description and links. However, there are some
additional things that you can do which will
significantly increase your chances of ranking well in
Google and YouTube and maximising the traffic you
get back to your own website.
However, there are many other video hosting sites
out there, Vimeo, Yahoo! Video, etc. You can submit
your video to them manually or use a partially
automated solution.
1. Emulate the title and tags from the
viral video
A full discussion of the latter would mean us going
off on a bit of a tangent in this article, but if you would
like to know more then I would suggest checking out
Tube Mogul, Traffic Geyser or simply searching
Google for “video syndication”.
When it comes to the title, you don’t have to copy it
exactly but try to include the main phrases and
keywords that are included. For example, if it is
entitled “Yoga For Beginners – A Simple Guide” then
you will want to include “Yoga For Beginners” in your
title too. If you like you can use the Google Keyword
Tool in order to find out popular search phrases but
just using your common sense and intuition is
absolutely fine.
4. Use fiverr.com
If you haven’t ever visited fiverr.com then please do
so immediately! It is unbelievable (and quite scary in
some cases) what people are willing to do for $5...
When it comes to improving the rankings of your
video, fiverr.com can be a useful resource. There are gigs
(the name given to jobs) where people will add views,
comments, likes and shares to your videos. YouTube and
Google take into account all of these in its rankings so
this is a great option that you might like to consider.
Next, go to the viral video and click on the “Show
More” section below it. There you will find a list of
tags. Copy these exactly into your own video.
Emulating the title and tags like this will vastly
increase your chances of appearing in the
“Suggestions” list that appears in the right-hand
sidebar of YouTube when people are watching the
original viral video. Another great way of gaining
popularity and traffic!
I’ve used fiverr.com several times myself and
although I haven’t been “stung” yet (touch wood!), my
only recommendation is to be careful to ensure that
you select a provider with a decent amount of positive
feedback.
please turn over
2. Build some backlinks
Many marketers build backlinks to their other web
9
iid_SeptemberNEW_iid_0611 31/08/2011 14:01 Page 10
It’s a wrap!
to put you in the picture.
If you’ve never made an online video before then
my advice is to overcome your apprehensions and just
do it! You don’t need to spend a great deal of money
on equipment and as I showed you earlier in the article
you can even get on the first page of Google by just
converting a slide presentation and adding some simple
music.
In February I was out treating my Dad to a paraffin
heater for his cold box (something to do with
gardening, I believe!) We visited a large well-known
garden centre because I’d seen the exact model he
wanted there.
As we were leaving in the car I asked him had he
been to X Nursery, which he replied, “No”.
Good luck with your viral-video traffic generation!
It was only a small detour on our way home but he
didn’t realise this nursery existed... and not many other
casual visitors do either.
Rob Cornish offers FREE
step-by-step video training in his
Kick-Start Profits programme.
To sign up and receive a
complimentary copy of Rob’s
book “101 Profitable Niches
Analyzed – And How To Profit
From Them”, please visit:
http://www.KickStartProfits.Com
I’ll explain...
Picture this: it’s the second week in February, it’s
freezing cold, who in their right mind is going to be
visiting a garden centre? Actually, this place is an
industrial nursery that supplies other garden centres as
well as the public.
So, there’s my Dad and I casually wandering
around when “Big Dave” approaches us.
Business Blueprint: Local Marketing
“Looking for anything in particular guys?” asks Big
Dave.
Help Save Your Local
Businesses and You
Could Pocket £162,000
Per Year
“No mate, I’ve just brought my Dad to show him
all the stuff you’ve got here. He’s been living around
here for 40 years and didn’t even know you existed!”
“If I had a pound for everyone that said they didn’t
know we were here... I’d be close to retirement now!”
exclaims Big Dave.
By Neil Travers
N
ow more than ever small local businesses need
marketing help and support to drive more traffic
and generate more leads. The pressure facing business
owners today is immense with the cost of doing
business continually rising and the disposable income
of customers declining.
“Really?” I said, “Apart from the brown road sign
that you have what other marketing do you do?”
“We’ve got a website, but it’s c##p really. We don’t
really do anything else. Just rely on word of mouth.”
And that’s how the conversation started. Simple
introduction by him to say hello, I asked questions
based on something he said.
This year I’ve signed up a lot of local businesses to
provide their marketing both on and offline.
To cut the story short, I didn’t sign him up there and
then. I gave him a few little ideas and he said “You
know your stuff, don’t you. Can we have a sit down to
talk about this more?”
Each business operates in a different field, good if
you don’t want to limit your exposure to any one
industry!
How did I win these clients?
I said, “Listen, give me your web address so I can
take a look, no promises but if we sit down it’s going
to cost you money. Money well spent though as you’ll
get more footfall, more leads and have more money
ringing through the till. Guaranteed.”
Well I simply can’t help myself sometimes. I ask
lots of questions of people, particularly to business
owners and try to understand their pain.
Earlier this year I signed up a large industrial
nursery and garden centre to do their online marketing
but, before I tell you how, let me tell you a quick story
My new client Big Dave is pretty typical of most
local businesses. Their pain is generally universal:
10
iid_SeptemberNEW_iid_0611 31/08/2011 14:01 Page 11
“Footfall is down!” “Business is tough!” “No one is
buying!”
Look, if you only served 10 clients per month at the
basic £300 per month level, that’s £3,000 turnover.
These aren’t excuses; it’s simply that most business
owners are good at doing one thing – their thing. What
they’re not good at is marketing.
The monthly running cost associated with this,
assuming you do a level of outsourcing, is
approximately £500 and that’s erring on the high side.
Direct response marketing, whether that’s online or
offline is a valuable discipline and if you’ve been
involved in the Internet marketing arena for a while
you will have sufficient knowledge to explore
providing a service to local businesses... a service you
can charge for.
Now imagine if you have tiered levels of service at
say £500pm, £750, £1,000 and £1,500. Our biggest
client pays us over £1,500 per month.
It won’t take many clients to build up a nice little
amount each month!
And the benefits don’t stop there.
Your charging structure is based on what you plan
to provide and also the value proposition that you can
build in your pitch.
As you build up your client base you are also
creating a very valuable asset for yourself.
Our basic level of marketing support starts at £300
+ VAT per month and rises as the level of support and
‘done for them’ marketing increases.
There are businesses out there that are always on
the lookout for profitable AND cash-generating
businesses to invest in or buy outright. Plus, businesses
that have recurring income are very appealing.
There are a wide variety of services you can
provide including:
For example, say you spent the next 12 months
building up your business and you sign up three new
clients (on average a month – and that’s on the low side),
then you’ll have 36 clients at the end of 12 months.
• Local SEO
• Blogging
• Content
From the pricing structure above, the average
amount they pay is £500 per month. Some will be
more and others less, but we’ll average out at £500 per
month.
• Link Building
• Email Marketing
• Web Design
• Web Redesign
Your monthly income could be 36 x £500 =
£18,000 per month or £216,000 per year. If we take
your costs out at 25% (on the high side) then your net
profit before taxes would be around £162,000.
• Social Media
• Pay Per Click
• Forum/Blog Marketing
Not bad.
And more!
However, you could sell this business to another
firm for a multiple of the net profit. These multiples
vary, however I do have a recent example from a
friend of mine who did just this and got six times
annual profit.
There are two ways that you can provide this type
of service:
Get to know their business and do all of the
marketing for them; what I mean by this is create and
write all the content, sales literature and design
graphics...
Therefore in this example you could sell your
business for £972,000.
Or, outsource some tasks, which will eat into your
pricing but lessens the burden on you.
As long as you’re organised and work to a schedule
for each client, this is a business that can run like
clockwork and is a win-win for all involved.
Remember, these numbers are hypothetical but the
process and outcome isn’t. You may only get three
times earnings giving you £486,000; that’s still a nice
chunk of change” to walk away with and enjoy
yourself with while you think up your next project!
You leverage the knowledge that you’ve developed
over the years and your client sees the benefit of this in
more leads, higher footfall and ringing tills!
This is a very lucrative and enjoyable business
model.
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11
iid_SeptemberNEW_iid_0611 31/08/2011 14:01 Page 12
Neil Travers
tactics can’t still be employed. The objective is to
capture the customer’s imagination not shock them.
There are ways for all businesses to utilize guerrilla
tactics, it is all a question of risk tolerance, stepping
outside of one’s comfort zone and doing something
that hasn’t been done before.
Internet Marketing Review
Want more help and information selling to local
businesses? Why not take us for a two-month test
drive?
Visit:
www.internetmarketingreview.com/2months
But if “edgy” or “pushing the boundaries” is your
thing, a guerrilla campaign is often the only way to
implement a subversive, ironic or viral campaign. And
bearing in mind that today’s consumers will gravitate
toward campaigns that ooze original and emotive
content – word of mouth has a big role to play – it’s a
hugely effective way to get you noticed, and quickly.
Internet Marketing Strategies
Beat the Recession With
These Guerrilla Internet
Marketing Tactics
So what is guerrilla marketing?
Guerrilla marketing as a concept was introduced in
1984 by author Jay Conrad Levinson, and over the last
25 years the popularity and methods of guerrilla
marketing have grown rapidly. One of the main
reasons that guerrilla marketing has become so
successful among small business owners is the
emergence of the Internet and the means to circulate
ideas and concepts quickly and cheaply.
I
n tough economic times we try to save money
wherever we can. In business, and for small
businesses especially, this often means cutting back on
marketing or, worse still, abandoning it altogether. But
history shows that failing to market during a recession
can be particularly bad for business long term.
When marketing stops, sales inevitably decrease
creating even greater cash woes, but it’s the failure to
maintain a strong company profile that has the most
negative effect. If a business is seen to be floundering
or “off the radar” even long-standing customers lose
confidence and head elsewhere, and when the recovery
finally arrives that’s when the problems really start.
While difficult to define exactly, guerrilla marketing
is ostensibly any promotion that seeks conventional
goals while using unconventional methods. Its aim is to
promote a product, business or idea as ingeniously as
one can. A guerrilla campaign should be:
• Unconventional
So it’s important to market at all times. During a
recession the aim is not to cut back but to modify your
marketing plan reflecting the changing economic
conditions. Professional marketers are always looking
for unique and clever ways to connect with the
customer and when times are tough and budgets
slashed, traditional mainstream methods play second
fiddle to more unconventional, guerrilla tactics.
• Unexpected
• Evocative
• Unique
• Memorable
• Interactive
• Disruptive
• Truthful
Guerrilla marketing was made for small business
owners as it doesn’t necessarily require a big budget. If
you’re really smart it hardly requires a budget at all –
especially with an online campaign.
If successful they can generate a great deal of
attention largely because of their inventive and often
subversive nature.
Online vs offline
What it does require, however, is time, imagination,
flexibility and a willingness to take a little risk. The
aim is to get noticed, to set your business apart from
the competition and earn a reputation for being
creative, fun or different.
It should be noted that guerrilla marketing is
generally more controversial offline than online. The
Internet, by and large, is a hugely tolerant democracy
where pretty much anything goes. It takes imagination
and skill to grab the attention of the global community.
Okay, that might not be at all appropriate for certain
industries or their clientele; financial services, law and
insurance, for example, but that doesn’t mean guerrilla
Towns and cities, however, are governed by all
manner of laws and social conventions. Add to the mix
12
iid_SeptemberNEW_iid_0611 31/08/2011 14:01 Page 13
Arguably the most important aspect of any
successful online guerrilla campaign is staying one step
ahead of the public. As consumers become wise to ad
agency efforts, marketers have to figure out how to
snare us from unexpected angles. With no stars, or
script and a budget of just £30,000, University of
Central Florida Film School friends Daniel Myrick and
Eduardo Sánchez successfully blurred the line between
reality and fiction.
the sensibilities of the easily offended and an offline
guerrilla marketing campaign can very quickly become
newsworthy.
Take fly posting; illegal advertising displayed on
public or private property without the owner’s consent.
It’s the simplest form of offline guerrilla marketing
there is. Imagine the reaction of a small local
community to a campaign of posters, say, from a
pressure group highlighting animal cruelty with very
graphic images. An identical campaign simply posted
online is unlikely to cause similar discord. However, if
the pressure group were to video the angry reactions of
the local community, then embed it onto video sharing
and social networking platforms then the impact would
be significantly increased.
Unable to afford advertising for their venture
Sánchez set about creating an apparently legitimate
account of the Blair Witch by building a website
dedicated to the mystery. The so-called Witch was a
fictitious, woods-based ghoul who’d been murdering
Maryland residents for the last century. His aim was to
make the accounts so real that by the time the film
came out the legend was already established, talked
about openly and, most importantly, believed. Sure
enough, through word of email, chat rooms and forums
(this was pre the social networking phenomenon), it
was quickly seized upon by gullible spook-seekers
everywhere and before long the legend – or urban
legend – was born.
On a much larger scale, do you remember
Benetton’s controversial ads which used shocking
images? The deathbed scene of a man dying, an image
of a bloodied T-shirt ridden with bullet holes from a
soldier killed in the Bosnian War. Now it could be
argued that Benetton’s ads were unnecessarily
gratuitous, but the campaign caused great debate and
was regularly featured in the national news and press.
Benetton, of course, always claimed their campaigns
were less about advertising and more about making
political statements on sensitive issues!
The film came out with the tagline: “In October
1994, three student filmmakers disappeared in the
woods near Burkittsville, Maryland, while shooting a
documentary. A year later, their footage was found.”
More “shockvertising” than guerrilla marketing, the
campaign nonetheless utilised many guerrilla tactics,
but had it – like our fly posting example above –
simply been presented online would they have been as
divisive? Maybe consumers have become more cynical
to advertising and immune to shock tactics but the
point remains, even the most dramatic images can be
underwhelming online, which is why seeing them
presented in an offline context can have a greater
impact.
Audiences were expected to believe that the shaky,
low-quality videotape of the terrified kids running
around in the woods was an edited-down version of
real recovered footage.
Although it was a highly inventive way of making a
film, it was hardly a classic and was chock full of
holes, but it didn’t seem to matter. Audiences loved it,
and believing they were watching a genuine, terrible
event, told their friends, who in turn told theirs. At that
point, the “I’ve got to see for myself” factor took over,
and Blair Witch dominated at the box office. Pretty
soon, thousands of people were scared of the Blair
Witch.
So when creating a deliberately provocative
campaign set up the stunt offline first. Photograph or
record it, then circulate every which way you can
online.
Guerrilla marketing, incidentally, isn’t viral
marketing it’s more strategic and direct, appealing
more to local and regional markets rather than a global
one. Its aim is to surprise or ambush the consumer’s
attention and create an immediate response. A viral
campaign, especially a successful one, is difficult to
control or monitor.
Even when the actors who played the “film
students” started showing up (alive) doing interviews
many people refused to believe the Blair Witch wasn’t
real! Considered the most effective horror hoax ever,
and without doubt the most ingenious online guerrilla
campaign there has ever been, the film grossed £150
million worldwide.
A much less controversial but hugely successful
online guerrilla campaign was for 1999 film The
Blair Witch Project.
http://www.blairwitch.com
13
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iid_SeptemberNEW_iid_0611 31/08/2011 14:01 Page 14
• Thinking time – Analysis, ideas and creativity.
Coming up with a great concept invariably means
throwing out a dozen good ideas first. Don’t settle
for your first idea however good it may seem.
Better it. Then better it again. Remember, your
ultimate goal is to get attention and make a
positive connection with your customers. You are
more likely to achieve this if your concept is
original, so do a little research and make certain
your idea hasn’t been done before.
Guerrilla marketing is not
traditional marketing
Its provocative content often precludes the use of
Guerrilla marketing in mainstream media such as print
and TV where advertising standards have to be adhered
to. Guerrilla marketing is a cheap system of
promotions that relies on time, energy and imagination.
Typically, campaigns are unexpected and ideally
interactive. The objective is to create a unique,
engaging and thought-provoking concept that generates
a short-lived buzz.
• Initiative – The ability to want to do something,
and the ability and inclination to get it done. This
is key, without a budget it’s all down to you.
Ensure you care enough to put in the hours.
A few things you shouldn’t do
It’s easy to shock people, much harder to surprise
them in a positive way. So make it a priority never to
intentionally upset, offend, scare or provoke your
customers. Your goal should be to implement a
campaign that they will embrace, enjoy and share with
friends.
Try not to think of guerrilla marketing as a simple
publicity stunt as this will limit your horizons and the
potential impact. Yes, your idea will make the
consumer stop, think, laugh and tell their friends, but it
has to inspire them sufficiently to take additional steps,
so make certain there is a call to action which benefits
your business.
Don’t be contrived or too bland, either. The main
thing is to be true to yourself and your business. If you
stand by what you create, have tested it on a small
circle of friends and they approve too, you’re much
more likely to drive it forward and get results. And
besides, you don’t want to end up in court.
Here are a couple of great examples, simple, funny
and very cheap.
Getting started
Marketing plans can be written on the back of an
envelope or run to several hundred pages. The guerrilla
rule of thumb is to lean toward the brief side, but with
enough meat that it can be used as a guiding tool along
your marketing journey. A good guide will provide
plenty of information for you to develop the initiatives,
actions, follow-up, accountability and measurement to
run your business effectively and, in this case, your
marketing.
“Need a new BBQ?”
To create an effective plan you need three basic
things:
• Information – What are you promoting, who are
your customers? As silly as it sounds, this is one
of the most common mistakes when it comes to
marketing, guerrilla or otherwise. You cannot
come up with a great concept if you do not know
what you are promoting or whom you are
promoting to. Find out your prospects’ pain points.
In other words, what do they really lack, miss or
have problems with in relation to what you do.
Use that in your tactics. People immediately
notice solutions to their problems.
“Free Air Guitar”
In addition to a couple of props, tagline and lots of
imagination, the creators found their inspiration on
their doorstep. The ads are immediate, relevant and
local.
14
iid_SeptemberNEW_iid_0611 31/08/2011 14:01 Page 15
Photographing and posting them online gives them
longevity, people see the images and feel compelled to
share. The company develops a reputation for humour
and originality showing a human side – one of the
most overlooked but essential components in today’s
highly competitive online marketplace.
your customers. Make them smile, show a human side.
A clever tactic is the “mouseover” – when you scroll
over one image to reveal another. It’s used to good effect
on this website. Simply roll over the team’s photos:
You can do the same. Wherever you live will have
instantly recognizable landmarks and features,
monuments, street signs, urban art, statues and
sculptures.
Running a competition
http://www.storm-consultancy.com/Team
Hosting an online competition on your website is a
very simple tactic. The prize? Your products and
services. It’s interactive, fun and generates free
publicity with very little or no investment. Make sure
you alert the business section in your local newspaper
to help generate traffic. Get a photo of you and the
winner(s) then email it to the paper to get even more
free press coverage.
Find inventive ways of incorporating them into
your advertising. Use an appropriate and clever strap
line. For example, a crumbling statue, or bust of a local
dignitary might be used for beauty treatments, skin
products, self-help or restoration. Pop on a hat or a pair
of sunglasses, wrap a scarf or a towel around it and the
options increase.
Offer other freebies
If feasible, offer visitors a free sample or two of
your products and services. You might also think about
upping the ante and offering them something they
wouldn’t dream of ignoring – a free appraisal of their
website, a short consultancy, an eBook of tips.
Remember, this is a successful guerrilla tactic only if
there are no terms and conditions attached to the free
offers.!The aim is to create goodwill and a reputation
for being an honest person to do business with. It also
gives the impression that one can afford to be generous.
Here’s another great guerrilla example implemented
offline but circulated online. Not only is it, as claimed
by the makers, one of the “greenest” ads ever made, it’s
got to be one of the most cost-effective and clever too:
http://tinyurl.com/3mea9f8
Guerrilla tactics can be easily
implemented into your online presence
Always use strong, original images throughout your
website. Too many web designers use bland stock
photos that do nothing to enhance a company’s
personality. Make them relevant, it’s much better to use
less-than-perfect shots that are genuine and show what
you are about than generic studio set-ups.
Test drive
One novel approach for online businesses is to let
your customers take you on a “test drive”. Not
everyone wants to commit right away, especially if
money is tight, so offer some incentives. This needn’t
be a free service, offer several price plans depending
on what you’re offering and how deep the prospect
would like you to dip into the project. And if they
decide to go ahead and work with you, deduct the test
drive fee from the overall project price.
Or better still, use video. In a world where people’s
attention spans are getting shorter clicking “play” is so
much easier than reading text. Make certain your
videos are short, entertaining, educational or
inspirational and over time you will start to notice the
attention you or your business is getting.
Copy Groupon
About us
http://www.groupon.co.uk
One of the most visited but neglected pages on a
company website is the About Us page – your
opportunity to show prospective clients who you are. It
doesn’t matter what your business is; customers
generally don’t care where you studied or how clever
you are. Your home page and testimonials have already
reassured them you know what you’re doing. What they
do care about, however, is you; who are you? Are you
someone they could connect with, do business with?
This is a great page to employ guerrilla tactics. Surprise
Groupon is a website that offers discounts on
products or services. The consumer has so many hours
before the offer expires. If a certain number of people
sign up for the offer, then the deal is on. Why not set
up something similar on your own website? For
example, offer a product or a service with an
appropriate discount on a first-come-first-served basis.
Keep it simple, just a few lines in a box accompanied
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15
iid_SeptemberNEW_iid_0611 31/08/2011 14:01 Page 16
by a fun image or short video, and make the offer
available for a month. Email your client list with some
tantalizing copy and a link, and encourage them to tell
their friends and colleagues. Remember, the deal is
only on if enough people subscribe so it’s in their
interest to alert others. Keep people posted and update
the web page accordingly.
Editor-in-Chief Recommends
“Create Your Own
High Profit Website
from Scratch in Just
2 Hours Flat”
Forum participation and guest blogging
This might not sound like the most exciting tactic,
but if you’re creative with copy, funny and original it
can work wonders. Be involved with as many forums
as you can and, without being too overt, find inventive
ways to share your URL.
L
Invite other (good) writers to guest spot on your
website in exchange for you writing on theirs. Make
sure their business is somehow relevant to your own.
This is about collaboration not competition, and in
hosting a wide range of views and thoughts about your
industry you gain a reputation for being at the centre of
things. People will stop by your website first if they’re
looking for topical, pertinent information.
You don’t need to know html; in fact, you don’t
need any technical skills whatsoever. And you don’t –
contrary to what many “web designers” would have
you believe – need to spend a lot of money
ike many people, you may be labouring under the
misapprehension that creating a website is
difficult… but the truth is ANYONE can create a
website.
For less than a fiver a month you’ll have access
to a simple tool that could make you hundreds of
pounds a week!
You’ll find all the details in the insert enclosed with
this issue or online at:
Making your website the home page
This is a highly localised form of guerrilla
marketing but very effective. Strike a deal with
Internet cafes to make your website the home page on
all their computers. You will no doubt need to make a
small payment for this to happen, but when anyone
opens the web browser it’s your website that opens.
And visit your local library, college computer room,
wherever there are computers available for public use
and set your website as the default browser home page.
Just try not to get into a fight with the librarian.
http://www.canonburypublishing.com/webbuilder
Your Brilliant Website is a simple, step-by-step
manual that will guide you through every single second
of getting your own site set up on a new domain with
your own online shop.
A shop, I may add, that requires no selling on your
part, no fulfilment of products and no complex
payment systems.
And once you see how easy it is, why stop at one
site? Why not have two, three or even more sites and
create multiple income streams?
Cheap and tongue-in-cheek, online guerrilla
marketing is advertising with a smile. The successful
campaigns usually grab attention through inventive or
subversive means before revealing their true purpose.
They distinguish themselves by being so clever that
even once the bait is revealed there’s no negative outcry.
I can’t speak for us both, but I don’t want – or need
– to get hung up on the whys and wherefores of getting
a practical project up and running…
I just want to know how to do it, as quickly and
effectively as possible.
Marketing is essential at any time but especially
when money is tight and the customer is trying that
little bit harder to find the best possible deal. Instead of
slashing one’s marketing budget small businesses must
employ clever cost-effective strategies to hold on to
their customers. Online guerrilla marketing may just
hold the key.
This manual reveals just that… and more.
For more information see the enclosed insert or visit
http://www.canonburypublishing.com/webbuilder
now.
Kind regards,
Nick Laight
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