Michael Cheney, one of the most-respected names in Internet marketing, and the man behind the 6-Figure launches of AdSense Videos and 11 Days To List Profits, has unveiled a new video product titled “Michael’s Traffic Videos”. His new package promises to show you how to get boost web traffic (the holy grail of any webpreneur) and comes with 100,000 instant ad credits and a tailored Fast-Track To Traffic Action Plan.

He allowed us to post this interview and offer you a free 40-page E-book on traffic that Michael has written to help you avoid the Top 20 Traffic Disasters. In the interview below, the Adsense expert explains how, just like everything else on the Internet traffic changes very quickly. So, the methods of getting traffic change all the time and that’s where webmasters who don’t keep up with the trends get “caught out”.

Here’s the rest of the interview.

What do you mean by “caught out”?

Well people fall into the trap of thinking that just because they know one or two traffic generation methods that they are some sort of traffic master. In reality just because you know how to start a pay per click campaign or a little bit about search engines doesn’t make you anywhere near a traffic expert. I’m trying to spread the word that there is a massive array of traffic tactics that most people aren’t even aware of, let alone using or mastering.

Can you give us some examples?

Sure. Offline for example. You might immediately think that getting traffic is a purely online activity but the truth of the matter is that there are lots of things you can be doing offline to get people into your website. And it’s usually these sorts of areas that are being under-utilized and therefore there is less competition for that traffic as well.

So by offline you mean advertising offline?

Not necessarily. That is one method, yes, but I’m thinking of more creative ways to get people into your website. It all comes down to the fact that having asked people on my list it came as no surprise that most people want to know about free rather than paid traffic sources. I’ve had to become an expert in free ways of getting traffic in my time online.

What do you mean - I thought you were running a successful online business with lots of cash flow?

I am. But it’s not always been this way. When I first started out in 1995 I had nothing. No money to play with. Just my own initiative and imagination.

So are you saying you’re against paying for traffic online?

No. No I’m not saying that at all. What I’m saying is that, especially when you first start out, you always want to focus on the free methods. You get the traffic in for free, make some sales and then you can reinvest some of that money into paid methods of getting traffic. This speeds up the process.

So what particular offline methods are you referring to - can you give us some examples?

There’s one tactic I used that costs nothing to implement, is relatively quick and ended up getting me thousands and thousands of targeted visitors into my websites. When I’ve shared this tactic with other marketers at seminars they’ve started laughing and slapping their foreheads when they saw how easy it was. They were also embarrassed that they had failed to use this tactic. It was quite amusing.

So are you going to tell us what this method is?

No! (laughs) It’s in my course! I truly believe in rewarding those people that are most eager to learn so instead of giving away all my traffic tactics in interviews like this I’ve put some of them in an E-Book I’ve written. It is free though if people want to get it.

So how can people get hold of it?

It’s called “How To Avoid The Top 20 Traffic Disasters” and you can get it by going to Michael’s Traffic Videos - you’ll see it mentioned on that page.

What’s in it?

Well I really wanted to raise the bar on a free E-Book so I spent a lot of time creating it. It’s 40 pages long and stuffed with juicy content on what NOT to do when it comes to traffic. As far as I’m concerned too many people out there tell you what you should do but not what you shouldn’t do. That’s where this E-Book comes in.

So, if you’re serious about getting more traffic into your website (and if you’re reading this blog, you are!) you should go to Michael’s Traffic Videos and get that free E-Book.

Happy New Year, folks! I’m back from Goa and I’ll soon be posting some photos of my vacation on my Goa Beach site. This time I just visited my family so that my daughter could meet her cousins and be pampered by all my aunts. Also pigged out on Goan food so much that I HAD to make a New Year’s resolution to join the gym and work off all the holiday pounds.

I came back to this nice, insightful article by Rohit Bhargava of Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide, in which he take a stab at predicting the Top 7 Marketing Trends for 2007. I’ve paraphrased his points to reflect my own take on these predictions.

1. Corporates become more human: We’ll continue to see more “corporate bloggers” and more touch points for customers to interact with the true personality of a brand. Social media will play a bigger part in overall marketing strategy of corporates. The launch of sites like Sunsilk Gang Of Girls by HLL, clearly targeting their female audience, is evidence that the trend is even catching on in India in a big way.

2. Marketing with Widgets: Offering a free tool or widget has bcome an accepted marketing technique for marketers looking to offer a quick introduction to their service, or those seeking to create an online connection with customers.

3. SEO Is Dead! Long Live SMO!: It’s official, people. SEO is dead! Even hard-core black-hat SEOs now admit that their SEO practices are earning diminishing returns, and that SEO must evolve into what is being described as Social Media Optimization. SMO involves building traffic through blogs, tagging, social bookmarking and creating buzz online, moving far beyond linking strategy and smart SEO into the marketing mainstream. Hooks to allow site visitors to easily share and bookmark content may become more commonplace than those ubiquitous “email a friend” links, notes Bhargava.

4. AutoTagging and AutoSorting: In 2007, we will see more solutions like this that offer autotagging, autosorting and the next extension of this technology … auto recommendations, where new content of any format can be recommended and people can find new content more easily.

5. Social Bookmarking or Human Filtered Search: The exponential increase in the amount of content online, thanks to blogs and video sharing sites will continue to lead online users to search beyond the algorithm for new ways of finding information. Social bookmarking involves people sorting content on the web, creating their own groupings and sharing that with others.

6. Contentcasting via RSS feed: Contentcasting, spurred on by the now ubiquitous use of RSS, and the growing number of online users that have taken to RSS feeds in a big way. This includes videoblogs, audio podcasts, and frequently updated content in any area of the site - from a blog to a newsroom.

7. Online Identity Shifting: Having and sharing your identity online is hot right now. The appeal of sharing our lives with those we care about - through blogs, photos, videos, podcasts - will continue to represent a force in driving more people towards social media.

Within these online representations of self, brands and products will continue to play a large role. People will talk about products they like and don’t like - they will share brand experiences, and they will even become brand ambassadors for products and services that they care about. In this world where individual lives are shared online, there will be huge oopportunities for marketers in 2007, concludes Bhargava. I concur.

Tags: online marketing; seo; search engine optimization; blog; blogging; social-media; web 2.0; podcasting; public relations; social media optimization; tags; tagging; folksonomy; RSS

Methinks the easiest way to build a list nowadays is to write up a report and name it “The Death Of”, followed by whatever-it-is they’re talking about.

A while ago, it was Scott Boulch’s Death of Adsense report and now Mike Filsame’s written a new report titled, The Death Of Internet Marketing. Yawwwn!! I can just see another one on it’s way titled “The Death of Google Adwords.”

So what do I think about the latest report? Well, though well-written, you’ll find it says little that’s new. Especially if you’ve been keeping your ear to the ground and are aware of the changes that have been taking place online. And you don’t do that by confining your reading to newsletters from your favourite IM gurus.

No, you gotta read the mainstream marketing newsletters, like Marketing Vox, IAB Smartbrief, and if you live in India, Agencyfaqs and Aloo Techie. These are essential reading for smart internet marketers.

So what does the latest report state that we already know?

1. Internet marketing is saturated

Yeah, duh-uh!! I mean, aren’t we just soooo sick of getting the same old mails from all the lists we’re subscribed to? Too many gurus, too many products, too many JVs, too few clickthroughs. Little surprise then that I’ve unsubscribed from most of them. And opted out of doing JVs altogether.

2. The NICHE is where the money is

And that’s supposed to be news? At least he gives due credit to the book that started it, The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More, in which Chris Anderson revealed how “countless niches” are market opportunities for those who cast a wide net and de-emphasize the search for blockbusters. As I said in a previous post, the reason I got out of the IM niche is that I prefer to work in a few good niches that I’m passionate about, creating a great resource around that niche. I hope you have the good sense to do the same.

3. Web 2.0 is the new internet

User-generated content created by online communities (blogs, wikis, social networks, forums) is crucial for a business to grow online . These websites pull in loads of repeat traffic through unique content and viral marketing. YouTube is the most cited example. (While you’re there check out the video my brother made of my 2-year old nephew, Shane, banging away on his Dad’s drum kit. Ain’t he adorable?!)

Few people have the vision to understand how important it is to create an online community around you or your business. I hope you’re not one of them. I recommended this strategy to a client of mine almost a year ago, advising him to create a social networking site around his niche. We started with great enthusiasm but other priorities killed the initiative.

However, I did end up learning a lot about how social networks function and got the opportunity to test out some scripts. If you do want to start your own social networking site, the software I recommend is the AlstraSoft E-Friends online social networking software. It’s one of the best scripts I’ve tried. Of course, you’ll need a programmer to customise it for your site. And don’t start another “me-too” network. Try something new. Create a community around a niche no one has discovered.

As for me, I’ve spent the better part of the last six months nurturing a lively community of single women on the Ryze business nework, since I didn’t have the time or resources to start my own networking site. I’ve also started a blogging portal where I share revenue with bloggers whose blogs I help promote. I also share my take on spiritual and relationship issues with readers on my Soul Kadee blog.

And you know what? I LOVE what I do! Because it allows me to help people in so many ways. And for me, being of service is what my life is all about.

Going back to Mike’s report, he does go on to give some good ideas for creating businesses that will generate loyalty with customers and affiliates, as well as some important tips for keeping your business out of trouble with the authorities. And since the Death Of Internet Marketing report is free, I suggest you read it (and help Mike build his list while you’re at it ;-), of course).

Tags: the long tail, web 2.0, user generated content, Online Community, YouTube

If you’ve been following my posts for any length of time, you’ll know that I never run with the pack. If everyone is running in one direction, I promptly pull up my socks and run in the opposite direction.

But there’s more to it than being an individualist. Over the years, I’ve realised that whenever a technique or a method is overused, you can bet it’ll lose its edge very soon.

Why? Because every other “make money online” scam artist will soon catch on and start plugging it to the heavens.

I stopped touting the hottest new marketing craze online when I realised that the key to making an honest living on the internet was not by telling other people how to make money.

It’s by getting into a few good niches that you’re passionate about and creating a great resource (read, content-rich website that pulls loads of repeat traffic) around that niche.

I’ve seen that when you create something of use to others and promote it well, you’ll get more traffic (and goodwill) than you ever expected. I like to think of it as creating good karma.

My own favourite niches are spirituality, self-improvement, relationships and women’s issues. So that’s what I focus on nowadays, rather than the “making money” stuff.

Another reason I got out of that market is that the internet is constantly changing. New technologies become yesterday’s news so fast it’s enough to make a marketing veteran dizzy.

A year ago, everyone was jumping on the blog and ping bandwagon. And now the “gurus” have (finally) caught on to the fact that social networks are the hottest “new” marketing craze. I’ll be writing more on that trend soon.

The biggest victim of this ever-changing scenario is Googe’s Adsense program. A while ago, Adsense was the favourite income source of publishers all over the web.

What no one will tell you however, is that Adsense incomes have been falling all over the web because of recent changes that Google made.

But you won’t find many people talking about that trend. Oh no!

After all, however would they sell all their page-generators, article mashers, PLR products and Adsense courses, if everyone realised that the dream of owning an “Adsense empire” has become more elusive than ever.

But a guy named Scott Boulch has just released a report that I believe will bring back something that is seriously lacking in the internet marketing world - common sense.

He reveals why Adsense is now just the icing on the cake as far as income is concerned. The real cake is… But wait. It wouldn’t be fair to reveal that just yet…

So check out his autopsy report on the death of Adsense here.

Internet marketers, be warned! There’s a rash of new products catering to (lazy!) Adsense publishers who want to beat Google’s duplicate content filters.

They claim to provide unique content for you either with public private label rights content or by generating hybrid articles using article creator software. Here’s why these are a very bad idea.

1. Search Engines Can Detect And Filter Hybrid Content

If you want to believe marketers touting Public Private Label Rights (PLR) and rehashed articles as the way to beat Google’s duplicate content filters, do so at your own risk.

According to Chris Knight, of the EzineArticles.com article directory, even software like the EzineArticles.com CASM (Content Association Sequence Matching) system can detect exact complex sentence matches in PLR articles.

Search engines like Google are even smarter. They use more than one way of identifying duplicate content, including methods of dating to identify the page on which the original content first appeared.

So if you think these “unique” article creation tools can beat search engines like Google in the cut-and-paste content game, think again. The best way to beat the duplicate content filters is to create unique content.

2. Article Creators Violate Fair Use Guidelines

There’s no doubt that it’s unethical to steal sentences from other articles, rewrite them and call them your own. Chris Knight also warns against marketers who claim that you can take and steal any exact match sentence from any author under fair use doctrine.

It’s the equivalent of taking bits and parts of other people’s songs, remixing them and releasing them under your own name. The word for it is plagiarism and it applies as much to written content as it does to music.

If you publish hybrid content created from another author’s articles you could be guilty of plagiarism too.

3. PLR Articles Will Kill Your Brand

Building your brand through article marketing involves creating trust by sharing original ideas and content.

If you’re caught using plagiarised content on your own site or submitting it to article directories, you’ll end up destroying the trust you built between you and your target audience.

If you do use PLR articles for your Adsense site, use common sense and don’t submit them to article directories as your own, even with modifications.

And if you really want to go about it the right way, check out Chris’ Article Production Strategies Seminar and learn how to leverage article syndication to grow your adsense sales and traffic.

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Priya Shah is a partner in the search engine marketing firm, SEO & More and writes an online marketing blog. Visit Article Writing Tips for more article marketing strategies.

This article may be reprinted as long as the resource box is left intact and all links are hyperlinked.

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* The words Blog and Podcast entered the lexicon and generated reams of pixel space and column inches.

* Bloggers were named People of the Year got book deals and got dooced.

* RSS became the new email - at least to those who understood what it meant.

* Google took over the world and became another Microsoft.

* Adsense spawned millionaires and click fraud.

* Yahoo and MSN launched their own search engines and gave Google some much-needed competition.

* Spam websites and splogs became a menace - and just as rapidly dropped out of sight.

* Broadband, Multimedia, Rich Media, Behavioural Targeting and Wikis came into their own and will be around through 2006 and beyond.

Personally for me, 2005 has been a year of momentous change - loss, grief, peace, success. I’ve been through it all.

I’ve grown as a person in ways that only life and experience teaches.

I’ve learnt a lot about happiness and love.

I’ve learnt to value what matters most.

I found peace and contentment in unexpected places.

And learned that they were within my reach all the time.

As 2005 draws to a close, and I get back to the task of running an SEO and online PR firm, I thought I would pen a few lines for you wonderful people.

Read them on the New Year Greeting card we designed.

And now for my final article of 2005. Feel free to reprint it on your blog or newsletter.

Its happening! The engines, namely Google, are striking back at sploggers and their malevolent creations, the splogs. Marketing Vox quotes a report by MediaPost that Google has taken measures to impede those attempting to use its Blogger service to create and maintain fake blogs.

Jason Goldman, product manager for Blogger, acknowledged on Blogger’s official corporate blog that the company had been targeted by what he called a “spamalanche.” Search engines, blog search engines and net advertisers are now working together to eliminate the economic incentive for splogs by identifying them at their source - by domain - and not indexing them.

Can CAPTCHA Stop The Spamalanche?

The “CAPTCHA” test is a method by which automated programs that post or create blogs can be foiled–where the user is asked to type in a sequence of letters from a line that people can read, but computers can’t decipher. Blogger is currently working on ways to reduce false positives and ensure that once a blog with word verification has been established as legitimate, the blogger will no longer need to solve the CAPTCHA.

Why Create Splogs In The First Place?

Splogs generally fall into one of two categories, notes Mediapost:

Link farms, which pack hundreds or even thousands of blogs with gibberish or recycled content, and contain multiple links to a particular Web site, which allow them to game Google’s PageRank algorithm, creating artificially high organic search rankings; and spam blogs that simply recycle content with AdSense or other advertising on them in the hopes of making money from errant users clicking on the ads.

Splogs most often get their content by scraping - the process of sending an electronic copying bot to take everything it sees, recreating it on an unlimited number of instant documents, writes Jim Hedger. Literally millions of instant sites have sprung up over the past twelve months, most of which are free-hosted Blogs, containing content scraped out from the original sites.

Why Splogs Are Evil

An article by the Wall Street Journal notes that the splogs also are a big source of frustration for several search-engine start-ups that focus on blog searches, such as IceRocket.com LLC, Technorati Inc. and Feedster Inc.

Jim Hedger makes some excellent points about how splogs are a menace to genuine bloggers.

Splog fraud is a big problem for Google and a growing concern for the other major search advertising providers such as Yahoo Search Marketing, and MSN. It is also a problem for others working on the Internet. The way content is taken from one site and replicated to dozens of others can cause no end to technical and financial issues for honest webmasters.

Duplication of content can have an adverse effect on the search engine placement of all documents containing the similar items. Imagine losing your placements because someone else took the material you laboured over. Fortunately, Google’s historic record of documents is fairly good at weeding through which source first displayed specific content.

Search engines have several other reasons to be concerned about splogs. As many of them are created using the free-blog software offered and hosted by most of the major search engines, the proliferation of so many splogs consumes a lot of resources.

They also gum up search results with sites not actually relevant to search engine users. Lastly, they devalue the legitimate uses of blogs as communications and marketing tools, which might lead future blog readers or users away from the growing blogosphere.

Pete Blackshaw, chief marketing officer of Intelliseek, a firm that monitors and searches blog content, said that spam blogs make it harder to convince companies to blog, and spam blogs are giving them a really easy out: ‘why would I want to deal with this?’

What Can You Do ABout Splogs?

Its not just the engines that are fighting back. There are a few knights in shining armour out there, like Frank Gruber, a blogger in Chicago who became frustrated while encountering splogs in search engines, recently launched a site called SplogReporter.

SplogReporter lets anyone submit the Web address of a suspected splog and has created an index to rate how “spammy” a blog is, and is building a database of splogs. Gruber says he may share the data with blog search engines.

Google engineer, Matt Cutts, blogged about how to report spam to Google. Use his tips to report spam and do your part in cleaning up the blogosphere.

And Finally…

I first wrote about spam-blogs in March 2005, and recommended that instead of using blogs for spam, marketers must focus on building content-rich sites and getting high-value links to them.

Don’t restrict yourself to just the SEO benefits of blogging. Appreciate the value that blogs can add to your marketing and public relations strategy and use them the way they were meant to be used - as cutting-edge and “cool” tools for communicating with your target audience.

This review has been deleted due to numerous complaints received about the software, lack of support and refunds.

Thank you for visiting.

Joel Comm, author of the Adsense Secrets ebook, posted this nice article I wish I’d read before this happened to me.

My fault was that I saw the unusual activity in my Adsense account but didn’t report the clicks to Google because I couldn’t figure out where they were coming from. I just assumed they were just normal fluctuations that one experiences as traffic fluctuates.

I learned my lesson but really can’t imagine what sick pleasure people get out of defrauding someone else’s Adsense account. Ah well, there’s no sense in crying over spilt milk.

But do take Joel’s tips seriously and learn from my mistake if you happen to spot invalid clicks on your account - Report Them ASAP!

< --start article-->

Is Someone Defrauding Your AdSense Account?

by Joel Comm

There are lots of different strategies that you can use to skyrocket your AdSense income. Repeatedly clicking on your ads isn’t one of them. That’s the sort of thing that Google take a pretty strong line on - and rightly so. It’s just plain dumb and Google have a strong punishment for it: they can ban you for life.

That punishment’s not unreasonable when someone’s deliberately trying to con Google’s advertisers. But it does leave a golden opportunity for anyone who wants to sabotage someone else’s income. If you’re making a lot of money using AdSense - and you’ve also made an enemy or two - there’s nothing to stop someone coming to your site, clicking your ads a couple of dozen times and wiping out your income.

Sound scary? It should. Once you get banned, that’s it. It’s very difficult to persuade Google to let you back in.

That’s why when it comes to protecting your AdSense income, it pays to be proactive. In my book, Google AdSense Secrets, I talk a great deal about the importance of checking your stats and tracking your results. I explain what you should be looking for when you want to increase your revenues.

But you should also be looking to making sure that no one is trying to deliberately land you in trouble. If you see in your logs that your site received a stream of clicks in a short time - and from the same IP address - don’t wait for Google to get in touch. (Their letter won’t be pleasant). Drop them a line right away, telling them that you’ve spotted some suspicious clicks on your site and ask them to investigate. You shouldn’t be surprised if they write back and tell you that those clicks won’t be counted towards your revenues but at least you’ll still have your account and you’ll still be earning.

It’s pretty rare for someone to go out of their way to cause problems for AdSense users. Most of the people you meet on AdSense forums and other places online are good, decent folk who only want to help. But it is worth remembering that your site is vulnerable. Just as you install anti-virus software to protect your computer so you should take action to protect your AdSense revenue. Track your stats closely and move first if you spot something suspicious.

< --end article-->

Here’s where you can pick up some more Google Adsense tips.

Many web marketers are using free-reprint articles to earn nice income from Google AdSense by building content sites including articles and other quality content websites.

I just bought a copy of a new script called Article Directory Pro (ADP) and am in the process of installing it on my website.

Article Directory Pro is a powerful web site news and article content management system, created to speed up your activity of adding news, articles, press releases and any other type of content to your web site as easy and convenient as possible.

The user administration system allows you to authorize trusted writers to help you update and manage your website. Give them permission to add, edit, and manage any part of the content management system directly from the editors admin area.

Article Directory Pro comes with the built in Google AdSense feature that will add your Adsense code to every page of your article directory.

So actually, other people will submit articles to your directory and you can have a growing database of 1000’s of original quality content witch will pull search engine traffic and grow your Google Adsense Revenue.

With Article Directory Pro, you can start your own article directory submission website in a matter of a few minutes.