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Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Rocksmith (Game Only) (PS3) (Video Game) newly tagged "ps3"


The game itself is amazing, even if the menu system is a little less than intuitive. Definitely looking forward to the DLC.

Since this is my second run with Rocksmith, I tried to upgrade guitars at my new location. Still unsure if I purchased a bad cable or a bad guitar, but I was hoping to do better than the stock guitar in the original starter kit. So far nothing registers :-/


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Amazing Spider-Man (Video Game) newly tagged "ps3"



--Story reminds me a lot of the spider-slayer episodes in the 90's cartoon.
If you enjoyed that story arch, you'll enjoy this story.

--Secret costumes - There are different website that will tell you how to unlock most of the costumes. The suits are the best i've seen in the spiderman series.

*Camera Angles -- In addition to the blur effect of the environment while
swinging, the "camera" placement is very tasteful. When you're high up, the
city looks beautiful. There are also a bunch of times where you'll see over the
shoulder camera shots (ala arkham city/asylum). Really makes you feel like
you're seeing everything thru spideys perspective.
--There are brief POV/FPS moments when web-rushing that also looks cool.
Very reminiscant of the metroid prime series.

*Combat system/boss battles/level design -- For the sake of describing the production value, i put all of these in the same category. The free roaming aspect of spiderman 3 and web of shadows was a little under-whelming. I like it a lot better here. People have commented on the lack of population. In the story, a majority of the population is sick, and there are HUGE boss battles that take place in the city; it would make sense for the streets not to be heavily populated. Speaking of which....the boss battles...are epic! I was NOT expecting boss battles like this! I honestly felt like it was gonna be the usually, button mashing, pattern-fighting mechanic BS that the other games have suffered from. Fighting spiderslayers in the streets of manhattan is SO much fun. It feels slightly similar to certain God of War boss battles. The standard combat is very stylized. When ur fighting a group of villains, and build up the combo meter and correctly use your spidersense to dodge and counter certain attacks, its visually pleasing.

--CONS!(thnx for reading this far! :-)
*Inconsistancy!!!!
--Difficulty - Game is way too easy. I had to up the difficulty to the highest setting. Sometimes its still too easy, other times its way too hard. [To give u a sense of my gaming capability, i play most games in normal. I've played devil may cry and arkham asylum in hard; and Ninja Gaiden in easy. (could never play it on normal -_-)]
--Combat - even though the combat is very stylish, its no web of shadows. Before you up the combo meter, its very sluggish. Think of street fighter and constantly button mashing on the Hard Punch button.

--Mechanics - Sometimes you can swing with no buildings around, sometimes you cant. For instance, I can be on top of the highest building and zip-line (or web rush) towards the air!? Vs. jumping off a building, pressing the web swing button and nothing happens until im closer to the ground. Might be for aesthetic purposes (motion blur effect of cars and static objects in the environment passing by you as u swing)
-spider-sense - the spider-sense in Web of shadows and Spiderman 2 while not perfect, were in the right direction. This game took a few steps back from it. In the past games, you can use the spider-sense to scan for bad guys, dodge projectiles and look for items. All of that is gone here. U can only use it to dodge PHYSICAL attacks and as a WARNING for PROJECTILE attacks. You cannot dodge the projectiles. Also,there are certain times during boss battles where the spider-sense wont even activate??

-Lack of Control - The controls for moving spiderman are for the most part fluid; however, there are certain moments where u just loose control. For instance, with arkham city, when going through the vents, you grapple the vent gate, then the controller vibrates. Then u must mash on the button to pull off the gate, while the controller vibrates harder. Here, its similar, but way too automatic. U just press a button, and he quickly shoots his web to the vent gate (or vent screen), zip lines to the gate, pulls it off and enters. ALL that happens after the push of one button. That automatic feeling is very random and also happens with the combat and swinging. ALSO, you have to press the buttons ALL THE WAY DOWN in order for it to register. And its not my controller, this happens with both controllers AND the PS move controllers i have. (Has anyone else experienced this?)

-Dialogue - The acting is great, the story is great, the dialogue however, can get annoying. I wont get into it, it just sounds like bad, melodramatic TV at times.

Condensed Review- This game does feel like the developers started the production of this game while thinking "hey, lets make a spiderman game thats like arkham asylum" I dont think beenox are the best people to make a spiderman game. While the game has its flaws, its still a beautiful game thats loads of fun. I like having the option of continuing the story arch whenever I want or taking a break from the story (if im tired from work) and i might want to swing around, and do quick side missions (taking pics is fun in this game)

Furthermore - Everyone has different tastes. I know people who have hated blockbuster titles like grand theft auto, call of duty and metal gear series. However, i do feel that the popular titles appeal to a much broader audience. This is not one of those games. Even though this game is for a specific crowd, it has enough charm to please most. Its a great game in general, (the best since spiderman 2). So if playing dress-up as spiderman, swinging around a well developed city and having epic boss battles sounds like a good time to you, then this is worth buying.
Thnx for reading
--KennyG


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Assassin's Creed III with Steelbook (Video Game) newly tagged "ps3"


The American Colonies, 1775. It’s a time of civil unrest and political upheaval in the Americas. As a Native American assassin fights to protect his land and his people, he will ignite the flames of a young nation’s revolution.

Assassin’s Creed III takes you back to the American Revolutionary War, but not the one you’ve read about in history books.

As a Native American assassin, eliminate your enemies with guns, bows, tomahawks, and more!
From bustling city streets to the chaotic battlefields, play a critical role in the most legendary events of the American Revolution including the Battle of Bunker Hill and Great Fire of New York.
Experience the truth behind the most gruesome war in history: the American Revolution.
Introducing the Anvil Next game engine, the stunning new technology that will revolutionize gaming with powerful graphics, lifelike animations, immersive combat, and advanced physics.

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Resistance 3 (Video Game) newly tagged "ps3"



** I Do not have MOVE so I was unable to test the MOVE features **

GRAPHICS
When it comes to graphics, Resistance 3 felt a little lacking; especially when compared to other PS3 exclusives. I wouldn't call the graphics "dated", in fact they are pretty good, but there are areas where you can tell some more polishing might of been necessary. Facial animations seem a bit rigid at times, and the environments themselves feel lacking for some reason. I think this had a lot to do with the art style and color pallet the game chose in various areas. Some come across very bland and dry, while others can feel very vibrant and crisp. Overall, graphics is not the strong point of Resistance 3, but still does more than enough to give some visual appeal.
** Due to lack of a 3D TV I was unable to test how good the 3D is for this game **

SOUND/STORY
When it comes to audio I was very impressed. Voice acting was above average, and sound effects were top notch. Weapons sounded great, explosions.. chimera.. it all sounds really good, and helps to immerse you into the gameplay. Story wise I'd say it was okay. Unlike Resistance 1 and 2, where there were some shocking twists and turns of events, Resistance 3 doesn't have that shock factor this time around (in my opinion). Still the game has a solid enough storyline that will keep you very interested as you follow Joseph Capelli 4 years after the events of Resistance 2.

REPLAY/LENGTH
The campaign for Resistance 3 runs around 6-9 hours depending on skill and difficulty. I went through the game in about 7 hours, but I also was playing on Easy. The campaign length feels appropriate plus there are plenty of reasons to revisit the SP campaign. Unlockable cheats can make the game easier/harder depending on which cheats you activate; and there is online/split-screen Co-Op campaign. Adding to the replay value of the game is the MP element, which sadly is scaled down compared to Resistance 2. Despite scaled down map size, the MP element is still fun, although fairly standard to what is out there today. You gain experience and level up the more you play. Gain perks and upgrades which you use to better your play. It feels generic but it can be a lot of fun! Overall there is plenty of replay value here from Co-Op to cheats to Multi-player .

OVERALL 90% (9.0 ... A-)
Overall Resistance 3 is a quality title. It brings the entire package to create an enjoyable title, while satisfying the Resistance fans. The game mechanics feel well polished and focused, as if the developer took the time to note what players liked and didn't like. Some areas of the game took a hit; mainly that the graphics aren't top notch, and the MP is clearly scaled back compared to Resistance 2.

If I were to rate Resistance 2 vs Resistance 3, I would say Resistance 3 is the superior title despite the MP scale back. In fact, Resistance 3 is my favorite of the 3 games to date (with Resistance 2 being my least favorite actually). Resistance 3 is a solid game all around in the end. It is worth the price of admission for Resistance fans and console shooter fans alike, and will keep you entertained for quite some time.


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One Piece Pirate Warriors for PS3 in English [Asia Import] (Video Game) newly tagged "ps3"


Okay first thing you should know is make sure you have an HD TV; if you have a very old TV like mine this game won't play at all, if you don't have an old tv then ignore this. You'll just get an error code, 80028f10 meaning that it can't play the game with the current video input/output. What I had to do was buy a little box called MiniHDMI2AV, basically it just converts your very old tv to HDMI. Of course you'll also have to have a AV wire & a HDMI cable; Just saves you money so you don't have to go out & buy a 300-1000 dollar hdtv. Which everyone kept telling me that's what I'd have to do in order to get this game to work, but you don't haha.

Anyways~ so this game has really nice effects, the game play is amazing & the story is in japanese with english subs (in case if anyone was wondering.) The only let down is some stories (arcs) are taken out... I heard that they'll become DLC downloads but those are just rumors, I'll update if that does happen. So yeah, if you're a One Piece fan than I'd recommend this game. You could probably also download it off of PSN it should be out for North America but only for download.

P.S. There is no gore like how there is in the Anime/Manga.


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How to Get Prepared for a Disaster in 7 Days: The Beginners Guide to Complete Disaster Preparedness and Survival (Kindle Edition) newly tagged "ps3"


7 Days. 7 days is all it will take to get prepared for a disaster. You don’t believe me?
Consider this, it takes just two things to survive a disaster. It takes:

*Knowledge and Know How
*The Right Supplies

You will have both once you are done this book. Disaster preparedness is that simple. In 7 Days you and your family will be able to comfortably survive a disaster with no worry .

With the unbelievable number of disasters occurring each and every week, it is important to be able to get prepared for a disaster quickly . No one knows what tomorrow holds. Tomorrow could have in store a regional blackout, a choking heat wave, a mile-wide tornado, or a ground turning earthquake. You never know.

Emergencies do not announce their arrival. That’s why it’s never too early to get prepared. There is no power in uncertainty. The news loves to make an embarrassing example of the people who were unprepared. Don’t let that be you. Getting prepared is so incredibly easy that there’s no reason not to be prepared.

In 9 easy to read chapters you will:


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PS3 250GB Uncharted 3: Game of the Year Bundle (Video Game) newly tagged "ps3"


The current bundle consisting essentially of the console itself, a physical game, a downloadble game and 30 day Playstation Plus is slightly more expensive than the plain old model console but sells for less than a similar old model bundle - PS3 160GB with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 2 Blu-ray Disc Bundle which is $300 and it adds only a movie and a 30-day Playstation Plus membership.

Q: Can I get the console without the games and pay less?
A: Not at this time. But the console I helped unbox had the Uncharted 3 shrink-wrapped and it should be possible to sell it through Amazon as `new'.

Q: I am ready to order a PS3 but I'm undecided. Should I buy a Slim or a Super Slim?
A: If you would buy Uncharted 3 with the Slim, then you should pick the new model. If not... it's a matter of preference: front loading (Slim) vs. top loading (this model). Buy the Slim if you can't stand `top loading' your discs but buy this model otherwise because of the small improvements (see first answer)

Q: Should I buy this bundle or should I wait for more choices or a price drop?
A: Either or both are likely to happen post Black Friday but if Uncharted 3 is your kind of game this could still be a good buy,

Q: Isn't Sony expected to announce the PS4 soon?
A: It is likely that Sony's next generation console will be launched in 2013. Sony recently committed to support the PS3 at least through 2015.

Q: If I already have a PS3 is this model worth the upgrade?
A: See the answer to the first question. The new model has an additional 90GB of HDD storage when compared to the 160GB Slim.

Q: I am planning to buy my first Sony console? Should I buy the Slim, the Super Slim (this bundle) or wait for the PS4?
A: We bought our first PS3 in 2007 and we paid a lot for it. The reward was us enjoying it for the 2 years between the time of our purchase and Sony announcing some less expensive models. In our case it was well worth it. I would expect the PS3 to remain a viable gaming platform and home entertainment center for at least two more years.

Q: Is the new model compatible with all my existing peripherals: controllers, Move, Eye camera, keyboard, charger?
A: Yes.

Q: Does this model come with HDMI, USB cables?
A: There is a USB cable in the box but you will have to supply your own HDMI if you need one.

Q: What is actually in the box?
A: The console itself, power cord, composite video cable, USB cable, the controller, Uncharted 3 game in a sealed case, DUST 514 voucher and Playstation Plus 30-day membership, User Guide.

Q: Once I buy this bundle, what else will I need to have a fully functional console?
A: You should buy an HDMI cable if you are going to connect your PS3 to an HD TV. You may also want a second controller. A Move bundle (controllers, camera) is highly optional. A charger should be okay but it's not needed because controllers charge through the PS3's USB ports.

Q: If I buy the 250GB model can I upgrade later to a larger size?
A: Yes, Sony will allow you to replace the existing HDD with a compatible 2.5" SATA drive without voiding the warranty. There are dozens of step-by-step guides on YouTube.

Q: Will I have to pay Sony if I wanted to play co-op or multiplayer games?
A: No. The basic PSN access is free. There is the Playstation Plus option that adds some perks such as free trial games, betas and demos and some discounts on downloaded titles but `non-essential' is the key word. I never felt I needed to pay for that service.

Q: Is there a complete list of services currently on the PS3?
A: This is what is available at the time I'm writing this: NFL Sunday Ticket, Hulu Plus, Netflix, YouTube, Vudu HD Movies, Crunchyroll (anime), NHL Gamecenter Live, MLB.tv, XOS College Sports, CinemaNow, Laugh Factory Live (beta), Music Unlimited.

___________________________________________

SLIMS vs. SUPERSLIMS

It's likely that Sony may stop making/selling the existing 160/320GB Slim models and this 250GB and the upcoming 500GB models with their various 'bundles are going to be the only models to choose from in the near future. At the time of my writing this review this 250GB Uncharted 3 Game of the Year bundle is the only 'super slim' configuration available with the 500GB bundle expected to launch in October.

The few hands-on hours I spent with this model convinced me that the new PS3 is a slight improvement over the models it replaces and here are the changes:

- Price - yes, the 250GB Super Slim's bundle costs more than a plain 160GB Slim but it's a bundle - it comes with a physical game and a download voucher in addition to the console. There is a resalable, shrink-wrapped copy of Uncharted 3 inside and you could probably sell it at Amazon for more than the price difference between the bundle and the Slim. It's quite likely that we are going to see an unbundled 250GB configuration for under two hundred dollars during the holiday season.
- Smaller - I believe Sony stated that the new model is 20% lighter than the Slim.
- Larger HDD - the extra 90GB (250GB vs. 160GB) may not sound like a lot but the extra storage is enough room for maybe 30-40 downloaded games or 20-30 DVD-quality movies.
- Burns less electricity - the Super Slim comes with a 190W power supply which is 60W less than the Slim's 250W.
- Fans are more quiet - the smaller model has smaller fans and I could hardly hear them.
- Disc loading - it's changing from the front-loader to a top-loader method. This method guarantees that you'll never end up with a stuck disc but the sliding door can be noisy.
- Finish - the shape is more streamlined but the overall impression if 'cheaper looking' when compared to the Slim or the Classic. I personally don't care because my PS3 lives under the TV and it's not seen.

RATING THIS BUNDLE
I tend to like this new model for the several small improvements over the Slim. Because I don't mind `top loading' and `looks' for a console that's not seen don't matter. I would pick this model over the Slim because of the several small improvements. If this was my first PS3 purchase I would buy one with the knowledge that a new model may be announced one year from now because paying less than a dollar a day for one fine gaming and overall entertaining center is well worth it but that's just my view.

I am going to rate this bundle a four stars, mainly because at the time I'm writing this review and at least for the next few weeks we won't have the freedom to choose between a bundle and a just plain Super Slim for a lower price. Uncharted 3 is a great Sony exclusive and we already own a copy and I'd prefer to buy a copy because I wanted to, not because I have little choice.

--
>> Brush your teeth, it's the law! <<


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Record of Agarest War 2 Limited Edition (Video Game) newly tagged "ps3"


Now, this generation spanning is something that has apparently been a focal point of the entries prior to this one, but as a first-time player, I have to admit that it's absolutely fascinating. Depending on how you interact with the woman you choose as your bride, and how you adjust your statistics through battling, your protagonist's predecessor will change. The sheer notion of a piece of entertainment having such an in-depth feature is definitely a sign that there are some things the interactive medium can do that movies and books will simply never be able to. In fact, I feel that this should have been a primary selling point instead of the cleavage and rear ends of the admittedly attractive ladies in the game.

As far as the gameplay goes, it was a bit of a mixed bag for me. While I play plenty of JRPGs, and a decent amount of the occasional SRPG, I found myself kind of lost when it came to navigating the plethora of statistics, menus, and other things. While the core combat system is actually quite good (an interesting mix of turn-based fighting mixed with the speed, action and control of a hack-and-slash game, coupled with a dual-grid system), the amount of effort it takes to plan out what gear to equip and whatnot is just irksome. It definitely feels like the developers were intending to make the game come across as "deeper" by just adding more hoops to jump through than necessary. The experience as a whole could have benefited from some serious reduction in menu clutter.

What makes up for this, in a way, is the very snazzy way battles are paced. There are three or four different types of maps you will find yourself navigated. One is the standard World Map that you run around on to get from one place to another. While you will still encounter random battles, you also have the option to trigger a battle at any time. When grinding for levels, this is an indispensable feature that other RPGs with random encounters should take note of. Having the ability to sit in one place and grind levels until you feel confident enough to progress is a very empowering feeling. The second type of map you'll be navigating are what you might call this game's "dungeons." Bridging areas of the World Map are smaller maps that are divided into several different zones that you progress through in a board game-like fashion. Each tile you progress to instigates a battle, and you can fight as few or as many times as you like. There are diverging paths that feature treasure and other goodies to claim, as well as tiles that will help you meet requirements on the main town's commission board, which will net you spells, armor, and ingredients required for alchemy and blacksmithing.

Speaking of towns, it houses the third kind of map you'll see. It's a menu that you pick locations on, and then go to them. Pretty straightforward, I know, but it segways into the second major focal point of this game: the dating sim aspect. Now, "Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love" set my standard for what to expect from a dating sim/RPG hybrid, and while this certainly doesn't exceed that experience in my book, due to the fairly limited range of conversation, it does almost match it. What it does beat that game in, however, are the production values. Instead of static images, the lovely ladies (and handsome men, if you're into that) are fully animated, living and breathing, all with unique animation that creates an interesting 2D/3D hybrid. This makes the experience as a whole so much more engaging than many other games that try and touch the SW franchise's signature dating sim/RPG blend. I enjoyed getting to know the cast through the interactions, and despite the aforementioned limited conversational choices, it's a defining feature that sets it apart from imitators.

However, while the overall story arc and character development is exceptional in "RoAW2", I have a serious bone to pick with the dialogue. If you're familiar with the worn cliche many gamers hold about JRPGs, about them having seemingly endless amounts of inane banter that is ultimately redundant, then you know where I'm going with this complaint. To be entirely honest, several lines of conversation in this game have bored me to death, and I like to think that I have a pretty large attention span. But it can't be helped. Characters repeat each other's dialogue, and characters making awkward pauses such as, "Uh-!", "Oh, uh-!" or the infamous "...", happens way too often, frequently occurring multiple times in a row with certain characters. I'm not saying the dialogue is awful, but it's tiresome and wears on the nerves after a while, making the experience seem longer than it is. An "autoplay" option helps alleviate the pain somewhat, but only a bit. The story is good, the characters are great, but the dialogue needed some serious work. Also, the font and styling of the text is formatted in a very odd manner. Things are surrounded by hyphens when they should be either italicized, capitalized, or put into quotations, making the emphasis in some dialogue only understandable when the voice actor actually speaks it. Also worth noting is that there is no English voice track. That doesn't bother me one bit, but some may be deterred by that.

Graphically, the game is quite pretty. What really stands out are the exceptional monster designs. Most of the enemies break free of the typical trappings of fantasy RPGs, and some of them are surprisingly frightful to gaze upon. The environments are nice and varied, and the character art is very crisp and appealing to look at. That same overall sentiment can be echoed for the soundtrack, which is infectious and passable enough to give praise to. Nothing too new, but nothing terrible. Overall, pleasant and helps to whisk you off into the fantasy world of the game, which is sometimes too much to ask some soundtracks for. It's always nice when it does happen, though.

With Square Enix focused on running their two main franchises into the ground, and Atlus branching out into new, more varied territory, it's nice to see Aksys putting out a game that screams niche. But furthermore, it's nice to see that some of these games are quite good, such as this one. While "Record of Agarest War 2" will not change your life, it will entertain and thrill you. Futhermore, it will draw you into its own little world, and with games of this variety, what more can you really ask for? This is a solid little game with plenty of nice imagery, a good story, and memorable characters; in this critic's opinion, it's a great title to spend your Summer downtime working on.

Plot: 8
Gameplay: 8
Graphics: 8
Sound: 8
Overall: 8

P.S.: A couple of notes on the Limited Edition of the game. The artbox it comes in is pretty and well-designed, and is decked out with art that differentiates from that of the cover illustration, so if you're into collecting those like I am, then you'll be pleased to know it will look great on your shelf. Now, the main draw here is definitely the blow-up doll of catgirl Felenne, and trust me, it's every bit as adorable as it looks. What's refreshing is that the plastic used for it isn't the cheap stuff; this thing seems pretty durable, and it's a decent size as well at around 9 inches (10 if you count her cat ears.) As for the hand towel, it has exclusive character art on it, and it is wrapped in a heart-shaped sandwiched between two pictures of Fiona; it reads "A Wonderful Tower Experience." Yeah, nothing sexual about that at all, huh? Speaking of sexual things, there's the art book. Now, I was a little disappointed by the paper quality of the book, because it's really just the same kind of glossy paper used for higher-end instruction manuals. As for the illustrations, well, erm... they'll all pretty dang suggestive. I mean, we're talking borderline softcore pornography, or as fellow anime fans would refer to it as, "ecchi." If you're living with your parents, maybe you shouldn't show this to mom and dad. If you've got a girlfriend, fiance or wife who's easily ruffled, hide this. If you live all by your lonesome, then, well... enjoy yourself, I guess.


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Disney Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two (Video Game) newly tagged "ps3"


This thing takes on Disney with a passion and leaves nothing out.

2) Classic costumes and collectibles- Dressing as Steamboat Willie and running around 2D sepia-toned platform levels feels so old school that I love it. Finding pins to trade and collect… let’s see, when am I going back to Disneyland again??

3) Using paint and thinner is a lot of fun and I love watching things change with me painting or thinning them out. It’s almost mesmerizing to watch. Fun effects, though simplistic they may be.

Here’s why I can’t possibly give it MORE THAN 3 stars:

1) Camera controls- there are times I move towards a wall and the camera flips dramatically on me. Suddenly I’m running off a cliff because the camera won’t turn the way I want it to. Very annoying.

2) The Power of Two?- this game was meant to be played with 2 people multiple times… and that’s its downfall. I’m in my thirties and can get around just fine, but my kid can’t. We play games together and she loves that, usually, but this game… she gives up out of frustration. The challenges are often too simple for me to solve, but too complex for my 5 year old and too flawed for her to get the character to the area she wants it to go. So she gave up and won’t play with me anymore. Now I’m playing alone but can’t get everything I want since I can only do this by myself now. Many hidden challenges and puzzles (the whole reason I wanted this game) can only be solved with two actual players. Sure, Oswald can help as an AI, but there is the next issue…

3) Oswald’s A.I. (Annoying Intelligence)- Oswald runs in my way all the time. He jumps on my head, pushes me off cliffs and platforms, knocks puzzles around when I need them in key areas, and never quite does what I need him to do. He is supposed to help, but I find myself often smacking him out of the way to avoid him causing me more issues. And then he yells at me for it. It gets old, fast…

4) Who is this game for anyway??: This is too nicely designed for a child to appreciate to its fullest. They won’t understand the intricate details of the backgrounds and hidden references. They’ll also get frustrated when Mickey can’t jump high enough or Oswald doesn’t do what he is supposed to. However, the developers didn’t take enough time to fine tune it for an experienced gamer either, thereby causing me to get frustrated when I know what I should be doing, but can’t accomplish it without multiple efforts due to bad programming or design… so I’m not sure who their core audience was in this game… kids or adults… In my opinion, it doesn’t meet either of our needs/wants. The fact that playing with two experienced (most likely teenage to adult) gamers needs to happen will be unlikely in a game with this many flaws for as long as needed.

5) The power of consequence- I love games with consequences. I believe that if I make a decision that is bad, that should affect me throughout the game. The developers believe this too, but they didn’t think it out very well. For instance… the second town you go to, you are supposed to find a way to get to the next area. If you really don’t explore a lot, you’ll find the path really easily. BUT, this game is about removing and painting items in to change your surroundings and find clues and secrets… so right at the beginning of the town I find a secret alleyway through a building (SCORE! I love secrets!) so I take the passageway only to find out that this is an alternate way to my next objective… and that’s a BAD thing I guess because by finding the secret pathway, I’ve made the town get hurt by thinning out certain walls. I didn’t know I was doing a negative consequence until it was too late and someone yells at me. Now, hours later I return to the town and they charge me extra for items since I was a jerk before… though an unintentional one. For a game that encourages secrets and exploration, I shouldn’t feel discouraged for finding and taking one. There was little for me to know that I was going to my next objective but in the wrong way… I’ve had several situations like this as well… For instance I wasn’t supposed to hurt monsters in one area, so Oswald took it upon himself to attack them for me, thereby making a character mad at me. This is a major flaw in the game system and one that discourages me the most from continuing onward. I can’t play things out the way I want to and feel scared of finding secrets now. I always try to play through a game the first time as a nice character if given the option… so far, with really trying to be good, I am about 50/50 on doing things the nice way…

6) A sequel- This IS a sequel. They expect you to know that, and I did… but they played it out like I knew ALL the events that occurred in the first game. Dear game developers: Thanks for releasing this on new consoles… perhaps you should have considered that for some of us, this is our first time around with Mickey since the first one was only released on the Wii?? I still feel lost on certain key plot points… It’s not enough to really ruin it for me, but the events of this game rely heavily upon your knowledge of the first game. You don’t have to know it all, but you won’t get as much out of it as you want… like me.

That being said, is it fun? Yes actually, and if you’re a hardcore nerd like myself it may be worth looking into anyway and dealing with the frustrations, but I wouldn’t pay more than minimum price for this game, whatever you consider that price range to be. Just take what I said into consideration… if you can’t get past the annoyances listed above, you should probably stay away from it. If you are okay and still want to give it a try with a little patience… I still gave it 3 stars. That should say something on its own. But next time, if there is one, I hope they put as much attention into the programming as they did with the designs and nostalgia.

So close to greatness… And yet still so far.


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Thursday, June 6, 2013

Faster Smarter Better University Review


Just a quick update (((THIS IS HUGE!)))
to let you know that our long awaited
FASTER, SMARTER, BETTER UNIVERSITY LAUNCH HAS BEGUN! 


Now, for the first time (however a limited time) you can see our FASTER, SMARTER, BETTER system in action-up close and personal at a Fraction of the price most others would charge for this.

This, is going to make everything else that follows hype and hyperbole - as this is the game changer of this year for you!

Even if you think you already know - you'll find there are faster, smarter and better ways of doing things, which are only being shared here: 

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Click on the link above and watch the short video or kick yourself when you don't understand what everyone will be talking about in the weeks and months to come.

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Facebook Traffic Income Review


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As many people starting out on making money with Facebook it can be hard to get things going.Facebook Traffic Income is a advanced guide to help you make insane money using Facebook.If you are already using Facebook and making money,Facebook Traffic Income will triple your earnings.





Sunday, May 5, 2013

The Logo Creator - Marketing Graphics Made Easy


Logo Creator Software for Mac and Windows

Want to Create a Logo? Terrific!

What if you also need a page header? Or a Facebook Timeline image? ...Or even a blog graphic?


Logos you can create

Monday, April 29, 2013

Kitchen & Housewares


Here's the top products in Kitchen & Housewares that is a must have.


Saturday, April 27, 2013

Azon Annihilation 100% FREE


AZON ANNIHILATION CHECKLIST
o Pick a niche
o Find products to promote
o Turn products into “buyer keywords”
o Complete keyword research for your keywords
o Choose a domain name
o Install WordPress
o Install themes and necessary plugins
o Add content
o Optimize your site for Google
o Create a Facebook page
o Create Facebook ads
o Generate backlinks for Amazon Affiliate site
o Create Squeeze Page
o Set up follow-up sequence in auto responder
o Add opt-in form to your Amazon site and start posting it via Facebook.

MAKING YOUR LIFE EASIER
Before you start, I want to share with you links to two WordPress plugins and an Amazon affiliate WordPress theme – all of which I personally had developed for myself. They will help streamline your site building process and have sites up and running in no time flat!
Azon Insta Review – This is one of the coolest plugins around. It pulls product listings from Amazon and allows you to choose product features, specifications, and descriptions from multiple listings to create a unique Amazon review.
Rapid Response Theme – The slickest looking Amazon affiliate WordPress theme you‟ve ever seen. It boasts a sleek design and powerful options to help you get the most out of your site and start earning commissions in no time.
PowerPress Plugin – Another great plugin that puts all of your WordPress settings on one page and allows you to create pages, posts, categories, and even installs plugins from ONE WordPress page. You can create an entire site in under 10 minutes with this beast.
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INTRODUCTION
Let‟s start with a question…
…Did you know that Amazon is one of the largest marketplaces in the world? Did you also know that it‟s the best way to make money online?
OK… So it was actually two questions. Amazon is a HUGE, multi-billion dollar company. They offer a couple of different options to make money (as an affiliate or by Amazon fulfillment). We are going to focus on making money as an Amazon Affiliate.
Now, if you are thinking “I hope I didn‟t buy another stupid Amazon guide” then you are in luck! This simple 5 step strategy is going to allow you to leverage tons of cheap traffic without worrying about Google. Organic traffic from Google is just an added bonus with this blueprint.
This 5 step process has never been released, so feel lucky that you are one of the first people to read it. Make sure you take action and go make some money while these strategies are fresh.
If you want an overview about Amazon‟s affiliate program and why it‟s the best, check out the video here: Click Here
Also, make sure you sign up for Amazon‟s affiliate program before we start at this URL: Click Here
Support: here
Here’s what we are going to cover in this SIMPLE 5 step process:
Step 1 - Choosing a good niche
Step 2 - Finding products to promote
Step 3 - Creating an Amazon Affiliate Site
Step 4 - Creating a Facebook page
Step 5 - Driving traffic
I am sure many people are dying to know why in the heck we are creating an Amazon affiliate site AND a Facebook page. After all, couldn‟t we just promote Amazon affiliate offers directly to our Facebook page?
Yep, you sure can! I‟ve seen it done before and it can be successful. However, the method I am teaching you leverages the power of Facebook with the potential to gain traffic from Google.
It‟s a win-win situation. The biggest complaint I get from people about building Amazon affiliate sites is how long it takes to start making money. That‟s why most us of are here right?
What you are about to learn will give you loads of traffic in the short-term (and long-term) with Facebook and will also prepare you for long-term success by leveraging the power of Google.
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STEP 1 - PICK A NICHE
This is the easiest step there is, but I am aware that sometimes people can have a hard time with it.
The top priority you want to keep in the back of your mind when doing niche research is that you want to choose an evergreen niche.
An evergreen niche is a niche that has staying power and won‟t likely be going away or having any major shifts in the foreseeable future.
Let‟s take a look at an example of what is NOT an evergreen niche:
What if I built an entire Facebook fan base and Amazon Affiliate site around the product Madden 2013? We may actually do pretty well from around September 2013 to early February 2014. What about after that?
It‟s going to take a hard hit in interest, traffic and sales. They are going to plummet faster than hawk diving for a fish.
Now, let’s take a look at an evergreen niche:
The baby niche is a great evergreen niche. For lack of better explanation, people are going to continue to have children. In fact, we‟ve recently seen some of the highest birth rates in the US since the baby boomers from 1946-1964.
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Let‟s go through a quick checklist to see if this niche has good potential:
 Is this an evergreen niche or at least a niche that will make us a lot of money?*
 Will this niche have products that I can promote to my visitors/fans?
 Does the niche have a large enough target audience?
 Is it viable to build a Facebook Page and Amazon review site in this niche?
*If I have the opportunity to make a lot of money on a non-evergreen niche, I‟ll typically take it. If you have the chance to make a lot of money in a short period of time then it‟s often times worth the risk.
You should be able to answer yes to all four of these questions before you proceed and choose your niche. Let‟s take a look in more detail why these questions are important. We already covered evergreen niches so we‟ll skip that one.
Will this niche have products that I can promote to my visitors/fans?
This is an extremely important criterion to meet. We‟ll go over product research in more detail in step 2.
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No matter how many visitors you get to your review site or likes you get on your Facebook page, if there aren‟t products you can promote then you can‟t make much money.
If I was targeting the baby niche, I would look at what types of products I can promote. There are thousands, so we‟ll just stick with the popular ones:
 Car seats
 Strollers
 Baby swings
 Bouncers
 Diapers
I could go on for hours picking products to promote in the baby niche because there are TONS. You should be able to do the same thing with the niche you choose.
Does the niche have a large enough target audience?
Having a large enough target audience is just as important as having products to promote. Having a small target audience can literally stop you in your tracks. This means little visitors and, consequently, little to no revenue.
Before you choose a niche, you should sit down and plan out who your target audience is. Let‟s continue with the baby niche.
Who are likely to be my target audience? These are the broad criteria:
 Women
 Married
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 Ages 22-35
I plugged these into the Facebook ads manager and I have a broad target audience of 12.8 million Facebook users – granted this is just demographics based on FB users but that‟s fine.
We‟ll get into more detail and getting more precise about demographics in Step 5 – Driving Traffic.
Is it viable to build a Facebook Page and Amazon review site in this niche?
This is the last question we are going to ask ourselves and this is really the question that affects your profitability potential the most.
My buddy Don Wilson answered this question best when he gave an example of the acne niche. It is:
 An evergreen niche
 A niche with a huge target audience
 A niche with tons of products to promote
So, what‟s the big problem then? It is not a social niche. People don‟t want to go on Facebook and talk about their skin issues. They may very well visit an Amazon Affiliate site, but our goal here is to drive traffic from Facebook, so we need people talking about it to make it work.
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If you answered yes to these 4 questions, then great job! We can continue to the next section. If not, don‟t worry. Sometimes it takes a little bit to come up with a niche. Go to the next one and try again.
Trending topics and niches
I recommend both evergreen niches and trending topics. Sometimes they can overlap and you can actually have a trending topic that‟s inside of an evergreen niche. Even better!
What exactly are trending topics you ask?
These are topics that are hot in the Google searches, the news, on Facebook, etc. It‟s essentially what people are talking about.
You can find current trends at Google Trends. My only issue is that they only show one trend per day, so it‟s a little difficult sometimes to find good trending topics to build an Amazon affiliate site and Facebook page around.
Here are a few more good sites for trending topics:
 TrendingTopics.org
 Fox News
 Trends Map
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Why should I choose trending topics?
Great question! There are actually quite a few benefits of choosing trending topics, and I‟ll cover the most important ones:
1. People are talking about it so you know there is traffic to be taken.
2. There is likely less competition in Google for trending topics and products that can be sold to the visitors in trending niches.
3. Paid advertising on Facebook is generally less expensive for trending topics compared to most other “mainstream” topics or niches (i.e. dating).
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STEP 2 – FIND PRODUCTS TO PROMOTE
In this step, we are going to go over product research. The benefit of this is twofold: First, it is going to help us if we want to directly promote Amazon products on our Facebook page. Secondly, it‟s going to help us add relevant pages to our Amazon Affiliate site. Yep, we just killed two birds with one stone.
This step is best done if you put yourself in your visitors‟ shoes… If you were visiting your Facebook fan page or Amazon affiliate site, what types of products would you be interested in?
Let‟s use an example of the niche of twins. I just had twins 8 weeks ago, so this is pretty relevant in my mind right now. What types of products would parents (or expecting parents) of twins be interested in?
1. Car seats
2. Strollers
3. High chairs
4. Bouncers
5. Swings
6. Etc.
I could literally go on for hours listing off the products that are in this niche.
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After you have a nice sized list of products that would sell well to your visitors, it‟s time to go find the products on Amazon.
Here are my typical criteria for choosing a product to promote:
 Price is at least $100
 Rating is at least 3 stars
 At least 10 reviews or 5 really good reviews
This is going to really depend on your niche though. For some niches, you can find thousands of products that meet these criteria (like the baby niche). However, there are some niches that don‟t have a lot to choose from. That‟s okay though because you can still make money if the item isn‟t $100 or more.
I do recommend sticking with the rating of at least 3 stars and 10 reviews or 5 really good reviews. You need to read through the reviews to be able to tell if they are really good or not.
Check out this video on product research: Click Here
Keyword Research
The next step is to do keyword research for our products. Keyword research has changed dramatically from when people used to build micro niche sites with just a few articles and product reviews.
In this case, we want to ensure that the products we chose in the previous section will get enough traffic from Google in the long run. Remember how I
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told you that Facebook traffic will get us short and long term traffic and Google will get us long term traffic?
If you‟re questioning this, let me pose the following question…
What if you have two potential employers…
The first says “We are going to give you $42.83 per hour”
The second says “We are going to give you $42.83 per hour and after 2 months we will give you 20% more”.
Which will you choose?
After you‟ve done all the work of niche and product research, it‟s simple to apply this to both a Facebook page and an Amazon Affiliate site.
Finding Buyer’s Keywords
First, we are going to transform our products into buyer‟s keywords. We need to figure what people would be searching for if they were looking to BUY our products (not just browse our site). This is going to help our Amazon affiliate site and boost our conversions.
The more detailed the keyword the better. For example, if someone types “Car Seats” into Google, they likely are looking to browse car seats and not buy.
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However, if someone types in “Graco Nautilus 3-in-1 car seat”, they likely know exactly what they are looking for.
These buyers keywords are going to be plugged into our meta title and meta description for that particular review page on our Amazon site we create in the next step.
Now go through all your products and turn them into buyer‟s keywords. A good way to help with this is to jump in the Google Keyword Tool and type in your product name. Sometimes it will give you a more specific keyword with a good amount of monthly searches.
Criteria for a good keyword
When we type our buyer‟s keyword into the Google keyword tool (or whatever keyword research software you use), we want to make sure that the exact local monthly searches are 1,000 or greater. We can be a little more lax with this since we are generating traffic from Facebook as well. So, don‟t worry if it‟s a little lower.
The next thing you need to do is install SEO Quake (it‟s free) from SEOQuake.com. This will put a bar under each website in the Google search that shows page rank, backlinks, etc.
You are now going to head to Google.com and type in your search term. With this as well, we don‟t need to be as strict with our
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guidelines because this isn‟t our only traffic method. So find the range that you are comfortable with.
These are the tentative criteria:
 Average page rank under 3
 Backlinks under 100 (or more and not relevant backlinks)
 At least half of the sites not optimized with the keyword in the meta title, meta description, or meta keywords.
Check out the videos where I go into detail about keyword research:
Video 1: Click Here
Video 2: Click Here
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STEP 3 – CREATE AN AMAZON AFFILIATE SITE
Now it‟s time to set up your Amazon affiliate site. Many people already know this process and you can skim through this section if you consider yourself an expert.
I do recommend that you go through this section if you‟ve never read any of my courses on Amazon because these are up to date strategies that work well in 2013.
This section we will cover in videos because it‟s often times easier to follow that way. Here‟s what we will cover and the video links for each section:
 Choosing a domain name: Click Here
 Choosing a host: Click Here
 Setting up WordPress: Click Here
 Installing themes and plugins:
o Video 1
o Video 2
 Adding content:
o Video 1
o Video 2
o Video 3
o Video 4
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 Optimizing your site for Google: Click Here
* If you want my ENTIRE course on building an Amazon affiliate site, you can read it for free here.
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STEP 4 – CREATE A FACEBOOK PAGE
We‟re getting close to banking a ton of money now and we are at the fun part – creating a Facebook page.
The first thing you need to decide is if you want to use your regular Facebook account (if you have one) to create the page. Otherwise you can easily create an entire new Facebook account.
The first thing you need to do is log into the Facebook page you want to create the ad in. All the way at the bottom, you should see “Create a page”.
Next, you‟ll need to decide what type of page you want to create. The choices are:
 Local business or place
 Company, organization, or institution
 Brand or product
 Artist, band, or public figure
 Entertainment
 Cause or community
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I typically choose cause or community because I am building a community.
The next thing you need to do is to enter your Cause or Community name, which will be the name of your Facebook page.
Then you just need to accept the Facebook terms of service and you are ready to rock and roll!
At this point, your Facebook page is technically set up but you just need to add a profile picture and cover. If you don‟t want to do this right away, you can skip these steps. You are going to need to add these before you start getting traffic though, so no time is better than now!
Simply upload from your computer and click save photo
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Next, you need to add a little information about your community. I typically do some sort of call to action like “Click „like‟ if you love Rottweilers” or whatever type of community you are building. This will show up right under your cover and profile picture.
Next, enter your Amazon Affiliate site URL into the bottom box and then click “Save Info”.
If you skipped the profile picture and/or cover image section, now is a great time to add these. Under no circumstances do you want to start getting traffic when your Facebook page isn‟t completely set up.
Post, Post, and Post Some More
The first thing I do when setting up a new Facebook page is to change my start date to the previous year or prior. This makes it look a little more legitimate than saying you just started a few days ago. You should be able to find this as one of the few items on your timeline. Call to Action Your Amazon Affiliate Site URL Goes Here
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Also, when you add your cover photo, it can look a little bit different from the way it shows up at the top of Facebook to how it looks when you post the image.
For this reason, after I upload my cover photo, I typically hide it from the timeline. This just helps you to look a bit more professional.
Next, it‟s time to post some status updates and images. Depending on the niche of your Facebook page, you can post either “cute” pictures, viral images, or a combination of both.
For example, if your niche is Rottweilers, you will likely want to post pictures of cute puppies and good looking Rottweilers.
If your site is about the Samsung Galaxy S4, you may want to post funny memes about iPhone users or why the S4 is so much better than the iPhone.
Here‟s an example of a funny one:
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The funnier, more viral images you post will get shared hundreds or thousands of times depending on your fan base. Just make sure you put yourself in your customers‟ shoes and target the right audience.
The next thing you want to keep in mind is that you don‟t want to post all your images/status updates at once. Facebook has a cool feature (although buggy at times) that will post on the date specified.
Next, just select the year, month, date, and time of when you want the post to be active. If you want to change any of this after you save it, you can visit your admin panel and change the date, time, or delete it altogether.
Here‟s what I recommend – find one day per week that you devote an hour or so to just setting up scheduled posts. Go find all your images, think of your status updates, and set them for the following seven days.
I typically post 2-3 times per day and you‟ll have to find your comfort zone. If you start to see an increase in people un-liking your page or not sharing your images as often, you can alter this accordingly.
Set Date/Time of Post
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STEP 5 – DRIVE TRAFFIC PART I - FACEBOOK
The fifth and final step is to drive traffic to our Facebook page and our Amazon Affiliate site. This is going to do a few things:
 Give us an initial boost of traffic and sales via Facebook
 Provide us with backlinks from Facebook to our Amazon Affiliate site that‟ll be used by thousands of visitors
 Provide us with long-term growth potential via an Amazon Affiliate site.
What‟s the best part of this? Before too long, you will be getting organic (and FREE) traffic from Google along with massive traffic from Facebook. Since we have to do product research anyways, we may as well use the same research for an affiliate site and a Facebook page.
This traffic is going to be easily converted to sales because of your laser targeted niche that we covered in step 1 and your killer product research from step 2. Right? 
Before we start driving traffic, you need to make sure your Facebook page is ready to go with quite a few images posted and status updates (or a combination of the two). You also want to make sure your Amazon affiliate site is set up and ready to rock.
Short-term Traffic Boost Via Facebook
It‟s time to get a massive traffic infusion via the biggest social network there is – Facebook. The first thing we are going to do is build our
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fan base up by generating TONS of likes on our pages. This is done by two main factors:
1. Purchasing Facebook Ads – Don‟t worry. I get Facebook “likes” for a penny or less per like. That means that 500 likes will cost you around 5 bucks. You can‟t even get close to that in genuine likes on Fiverr!
2. Posting Viral Images – Viral images are an absolutely awesome, easy, and FREE way to build the likes on your Facebook page.
We‟re going to do things in this specific order too. First, we are going to build a nice fan base. I wish I could look into my magical 8 ball and give you the number of fans that you‟ll need to start growing at a great pace. However, this is going to depend on your niche AND how much you are willing to spend.
When you look at the fact that in some niches you can get 1 cent or less likes, it‟s pretty easy to spend 20 bucks and get 2,000 likes. If you only want to spent $5 or $10, it‟ll take more time to grow but it‟s still definitely doable.
Facebook Ads
The first thing you are going to do is sign up for the Facebook ads account. You can do this in your settings area after you log in to Facebook. You‟ll have to enter some of your information and a valid credit card number or you can pay out of PayPal.
The next thing you are going to do is to create your first ad. Are you excited? Let’s go!
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First thing you need to do after you get your account approved (should be automatic) is to click on the ad manager. If you don‟t see it on the left side of Facebook, you can click in the settings button in the far top right corner of your screen.
Next, click “Create an Ad”.
Under Pages and Places, you should see your newly created page
Our goal is to get more likes for our Facebook page because we are going to offer products to our visitors. If you were advertising a website, we could enter a URL, and we could also link to a certain page, app, event, etc.
Next, select “Get More Page likes”.
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Next, you‟ll need to enter a headline, text, landing page, and an image for the ad.
Headline
You want your headline to be catchy and entice people to click the like button. If you have a good name for your Facebook page, you can use that a lot of times. You are also only allowed 25 characters so you need to be concise.
If your Facebook page is “I love Dobermans” then you very well could have a headline of “I love Dobermans”. We‟ll get to split testing soon and talk about different headlines.
If your headline isn‟t catchy, people aren‟t going to click Like – simple as that.
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Text
In the text area, you are allowed 90 characters. You need to be concise and, once again, persuasive. You could say something like “Like us if you love Dobermans too!”
Let me take a moment to say I don‟t specifically endorse creating a page about Dobermans. Your target audience may be too low since people who like Dobermans are likely a small group of people.
Landing View
This is the page or app that people will end up on when they click on your ad. For example, they can land on your timeline or a specific photo.
I typically set this to my timeline. Once again, you can split test this to see which one works better for your particular niche.
Image
Image is the small image that will show on your ad. It must be 100px wide x 72px long. There are tons of programs out there that you can use to create these images: Paint (if you have Windows), Jing, Photoshop etc.
For a simple task like this, you really don‟t need a complicated program like Photoshop - although it comes in handy if you end up creating images for your posts later on.
I recommend outlining the image in a red stroke. This makes it stand out from the rest of the ads that are shown above and below yours.
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Check out these Rottweiler images and you‟ll understand what I mean.
vs.
Which one stands out more to you?
Put on your thinking cap!
Now we get to the point that will make or break the success of your ads – the demographics you choose.
The demographics are who you are targeting and there are thousands of different combinations you can choose.
I suggest putting yourself in the shoes of the “typical person” that you expect to visit your Facebook page. Let‟s assume we are targeting people who like Rottweilers. What type of people will we target?
Location
I would start with the United States until I get more data that suggests that different countries should be targeted. For example, Germany is one of the more popular places for Rottweilers because they originated there. However, you don‟t want your ad to target people in Germany and have it written in English.
If you are going to select difference countries, make sure to target English speaking countries (if you are from the US or Canada). For example, you could target Canada since it is an English speaking country, for the most part.
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Age
Ages range from 13 to 64, but you can select “no max” if you want to target all people above your minimum age.
We are going to assume that 13-18 year olds probably don‟t have a lot of money to spend on products we will promote, so I would exclude them. Most people, unless they grow up with them, would get a Rottweiler after they settled down and purchased a house.
I am going to assume that 26 is a good minimum age to target, and I won‟t have a max age so I can target anyone 26 and older.
You‟ll need to figure these out for yourself depending on the niche you choose because they are going to be different for each one.
Gender
Nearly all the people interested in Rottweilers, on Facebook at least, are women. It‟s worth split testing men and women in one ad and just women in another ad to tell for sure though.
There are niches that are predominately man as well – like the niche of handguns. Once again, put yourself in your visitors‟ shoes.
Precise Interests
This is where we get specific. We can target people who are a part of a specific Facebook group that is in our niche. Let‟s use the Rottweiler example again. I can target people with the interest of “Rottweiler” which has an audience of 270,000 (if I select age 26 and older).
Precise interests are based off interests listed in peoples‟ profile, groups they‟ve liked, apps they use, etc.
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Unfortunately not all groups that people have liked will be in this list. So you‟ll need to get creative when thinking of interests. For one of my ads for my Rottweiler page, I targeted people who have an interest in Cesar Milan – the dog whisperer. I split tested this, and it actually was one of my top ads.
Broad categories
These are taken from people‟s timelines and will help you target specific groups of people. For example, you can click Interests>Pets (Dogs) and it will target people with those interests.
Please note that broad categories is an “AND” criterion – meaning that if you target the Precise Interests of Rottweiler and the broad category of Pets (dogs), your target audience will be people who have BOTH interests.
If this limits the demographics you want to target, you can always create more ads and split test, which you should be doing either way.
Connections
99% of the time, you will want to choose to target people who aren‟t connected to your Facebook page. Otherwise, your ads will show for people who already like your page, and this will just end up costing you more money in the long run without much benefit.
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Advanced Targeting Options
Sometimes it‟s helpful to use the advanced targeting options. For example, if you created a page on dating, you would want to only target single people. Simply click “See Advanced Targeting Options” and you can see all of these.
Another example would be if you are targeting people for graduate programs in college. You could target only people who are in college currently and haven‟t graduated.
Campaign Pricing and Schedule
Here is where you can either create a new campaign or use an existing campaign, and you can select which one you are doing at the top right of this box.
Next, select a campaign name or choose an existing one. After that, select your campaign budget per day. This will be your budget for your entire campaign, not individual ads.
Thus, when you create your next ad when you are split testing, you‟ll want to select an existing campaign.
For optimization, since you are trying to get more “likes”, select “Your bid will be optimized to increase engagement with your post”. Then you can review your ad and place your order!
It typically takes 24 hours for your ad to get approved. I‟ve seen them be approved in as little as 12 hours and as long as 48 hours.
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Split Testing
Split testing is extremely important when you purchase any type of ads, and this definitely holds true with Facebook ads. Split testing is when you test different variables to try to obtain the best results.
I find it easiest to write down what I want to split test before I actually do it. Here are some examples of what you want to split test:
 Images on your ad
 Stroke around your image
 Title of your ad
 Text of your ad
 Demographics
Essentially what you do is create different versions of your ad that links to the same page. You create them all in the same campaign and this way you can see which one converts the best.
How many ads do I create?
This is entirely up to you. The more ads you create the better chance you have of finding a big winner. However, if you create too many, then you‟ll have to increase your budget or wait longer to find out which ad performs the best.
This is because if you have a budget of $10 per day and you create 10 ads, you likely won‟t get enough impressions to be able to tell for sure which ad is best. In other words, make sure you only create so many ads that your budget can handle.
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After you find the best performing ad, you can pause the rest of the ads and devote your budget to that ad.
GOING VIRAL
Going viral takes calculated measures for the most part unless you are posting a video of your Rottweilers ballroom dancing with each other or something crazy like that.
Viral images are images that get shared over and over again and gain you FREE fans. These are the best types of fans for your Facebook page because they obviously don‟t cost a dime.
Here‟s a popular layout for a viral image:
Interesting things and cool pieces of art can also quickly become viral like this balloon tank:
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Even irony can be viral!
Viral images should be well planned though. Controversial images can be HUGE when going viral because the more people that share it the better.
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When I say controversial, I mean that your fans or visitors will be on your side even though it‟s a controversial topic. Examples of these can be: the current president, gun laws, pit bulls, etc.
Think about a controversial topic that has to do with your niche and then think about what type of image would have a good chance of going viral.
Not every image is going to get shared, but one image that goes viral can get you thousands of new likes to your Facebook page.
It‟s good to do some testing and figure out what types of images are being shared the most. Make sure you are testing at the same time of the day so you are comparing apples to apples.
Nothing will skew the data more than if you post an image at 2:00 AM in the morning on a Sunday and try to compare it to 6:00 PM on a Wednesday.
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MONETIZING YOUR FACEBOOK PAGE
Monetizing your Facebook page consists of posting links to Amazon products using an affiliate link generated by Amazon. You‟ll need to visit your Amazon Associates account and on the home page you can search for products to promote.
Once you find one, simply click the arrow next to Get Link and select . Lastly, you can add this to your Facebook post.
You obviously don‟t want to just add the affiliate link to your post. I would recommend something like this if you had a Facebook page about Rottweilers:
Add a photo to your post and stroke it with red around the edges:
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Add text to your post:
“Love your Rottweiler?
Then show it with the favorite Rottweiler treats!
Click here ==> http://amzn.to/16G4T4X”
This is pretty simple to do and can be very effective. I recommend stroking the image in red to make it stand out – especially when the background is white but it‟s effective almost all the time.
Your text for your post should be directly related to your niche, your target audience, and your product. Make sure and be persuasive because you only have a small window go grab people‟s attention.
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DRIVE TRAFFIC PART II – BUILD BACKLINKS
The second part of driving traffic is for your Amazon Affiliate site. We are going to start building backlinks to the site while we begin earning sales from promoting products on Facebook.
I use a seven step process to get backlinks to my site and start building organic (most importantly FREE) traffic. Let‟s go over an overview of this process and then we‟ll go into more detail.
1. Get Site Indexed
2. Submit RSS Feed
3. Get Social Bookmarks
4. Build Link Wheel
5. Submit Press Release
6. Build Backlinks to Press Release
7. Video Marketing Campaign
These are the 7 crucial steps to get organic traffic to your site. Sure, without these steps you may be able to get some visitors. The problem is it will be more like a small traffic wave instead of a TRAFFIC TSUNAMI!
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Step 1 – Get Site Indexed
The first step in this whole process is pretty damn simple: Get your site indexed. This will help Google crawl your website and index it so it will show up in the search results.
Prerequisites
Here are some prerequisites and a final checklist to make sure your site is ready to be indexed by Google.
First of all, make sure that your website is set and ready to go. This means that you need to have your unique content posted, no broken links, etc.
You should have an xml sitemap created for your site as well so it is well organized and easy for Google to index.
Your site should also be well-optimized using the techniques I explained in the on-page optimization section. You want the title, description, keywords, etc. all optimized for your selected keyword.
Ready to Go!
Alright, so you have all the little details covered and you are ready to get your site indexed. Here are the final steps:
 Log in to your Google Webmasters account or create a new (FREE) account if you don‟t have one.
 Click “Add a Site”
 Type your full website URL into the Google Sitemap Page and click OK.
 Click Add Sitemap
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 Type in your full sitemap URL (can be found in the plugin if you are using Google XML Sitemap plugin).
 Click “Submit Sitemap” and you are done!
Within a couple days, your site should be indexed in Google. To test this, you can type your URL directly into Google and see if it appears in the search results.
Step 2 – Submit RSS Feed
So, your site is indexed and you are looking to make some big bucks, right? I thought so! Now it‟s time to submit our RSS feed to a few different sites to get our site and its updates out on the web. Submitting your RSS feed is a great second step to do just that.
How the heck do I find my RSS feed?
Simple. Just visit http://www.yoursite.com/feed (Replace yoursite with whatever your URL is).
Here are some of my favorite sites to submit my RSS feed to:
 RSS Submitter
 BULK PING RSS SUBMIT
 950 RSS Submit
Now what?
All three of these sites are free to use. All you have to do is sign up for free accounts at each site and paste your feed URL (noted above) where it asks for it.
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This is a step you won‟t have to repeat unless you want to submit your feed to different sites.
Step 3 – Get Social Bookmarks
There are two methods I prefer for getting social bookmarks and social media backlinks. One is optional and the other is highly recommended. I consider Social Monkee as optional because they recently moved from a free structure to paid. At the time of writing this, they charge $7 for a lifetime membership. It‟s well worth it.
Steps:
1. Sign up for an account at Social Monkee
2. Submit the sites URL to 25 social media sites using this tool
3. Repeat for each new article that is posted on your site
Outsourcing: Buy a gig at fiverr.com and have them submit your site to 100 social media sites. Give them at least 5 URLs and 5 keywords. You do not want to submit one URL to all 100 sites.
FREE ME!
You asked for it! Here is the free method I use to get social media backlinks.
Sites Used:
 https://seesmic.com/
 http://www.linksalpha.com/
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Steps:
1. Create multiple social media accounts and link them together using any of the three sites listed above.
2. Create a short 400 word articles with a link to your site
3. Post to all social media accounts with a push of a button
4. Use a spinning program to create unique versions so you can submit articles to multiple pages of your sites fairly quickly.
5. Repeat this 1-2 times per week
Notes:
Don‟t include links in every single article and also make sure you post articles with links to articles from authority sites. This helps to make it look a bit more natural to our maker (Google).
Outsourcing:
It may be a pain to create all these accounts but you can find people on FIVERR.com that will do this for just 5 bucks. Give them a general idea of your niche and some keywords so they name the properties in a relevant manner and they will also add all those accounts under a new account and verify everything for you, for just 5 bucks! Isn‟t that awesome?
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Step 4 – The Wheels on the Bus Go Round and Round
Another great strategy we use to create powerful backlinks to our Amazon affiliate sites is creating a link wheel that links to our site and then sends hundreds of links to each element of the link wheel so they gain more value and help get the site rank higher. A link wheel for us is a set of 12 or more web 2.0 properties that link to your website while also linking to each other creating a simple pattern. The image above shows graphically what a link wheel looks like. The Wheels on the Bus are Broken? A broken link wheel is where the pattern is random and not all web 2.0 properties link to each other but all of them DO link to your site. We use a number of web 2.0 properties to create the link wheel including Squidoo, Hubpages, Wordpress.com, tumblr.com, blogger.com, scribd.com, slideshare.com, livejournal.com, Vox etc. along with some video sites like Metacafe, Daily Motion, Youtube.com and maybe a handful of good article sites that we mentioned earlier. Here‟s what a broken or also known as OPEN link wheel looks like…
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The key here is to not make the link wheel too obvious to Google, so don‟t follow the same exact linking pattern shown in this image, get creative and ensure you don‟t have any patterns to your link wheels.
You don‟t necessarily need original content for all of them, but instead you can spin your original content to ensure all content is original. If you use a “spinning” program, make sure you use your best judgment and read each article to make sure it flows nicely and is free of any grammatical errors.
Next, for each web property, get some social links and after that we like to use a program like Article Marketing Robot to submit these articles to thousands of article sites. This is software that will streamline your article marketing procedures for you and you‟ll be able to drip feed these articles slowly over time to all these sites – we recommend not doing more than 30 links per day to any site.
We recommend 30 because not all the sites will accept your articles and hence there will be an acceptance rate of about 50% which is fine. Keep in mind also that you don‟t want to link directly to your main site from these mass submitted articles – all the link value is passed to the web properties which become stronger and pass more value to the main site.
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All the links built this way have the ability to last a long time and you can continue creating more every few months to maintain your killer rankings.
Step 5 – Submit Press Release
Press releases are a fantastic way to gain massive amounts of authority in the eyes of Google, along with other search engines, and also to receive backlinks from high PR sites. I highly recommend that you take a look at this article before you even think about writing and submitting a press release. Read this article.
Press releases aren‟t like any typical article that you‟ve written. Without the knowledge on how you need to write them, your press release will likely either get rejected or not benefit you at all.
The other option is to hire someone for $5 on fiverr.com or a similar site to write a press release for you. Many times, the same person or other people will also submit it for you to 10-20 press release sites. However, if you don‟t have the money to spend on this, here‟s a list of the top 10 free press release distribution sites that can get you hundreds of backlinks.
Sites used:
 http://www.free-press-release.com/
 http://www.newswiretoday.com/
 http://www.1888pressrelease.com/
 http://www.i-newswire.com/
 http://www.sbwire.com/
 http://free-press-release-center.info/
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 http://www.prlog.org/
 http://www.widepr.com/
 http://pressreleasepoint.com/
 http://openpr.com/
Steps:
1. Sign up for any of the sites above that you choose. You can sign up for a few and see if there is one that you like better than the others.
2. Write a press release (view article above if you need help writing it) around 500 words or more.
3. Submit it through the site(s) you choose.
4. Repeat monthly
Outsourcing:
As mentioned, you can find a gig on Fiverr.com from someone that will write and submit your press release to any of the sites listed above. This is a fast and easy way to get a press release out.
Step 5 – Press Releases – Part Deux
Yep, that‟s right – I did it… I added a second part to press releases because I believe this is an extremely important part of submitting a press release – building backlinks to your press release. Most people don‟t do this and they definitely pay for it.
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Remember step 4 where we talked about building link wheels? We want to use this same exact strategy except for our press release URL instead of our site URL.
Press releases typically don‟t stay in Google rankings for very long. For this reason, it‟s beneficial to build backlinks to the press release to get it to stay in Google longer. The longer it stays in Google, the better it is for our site that the press release is linking to.
Essentially what you need to do is return to step 4 and build a link wheel for your press release URL after it‟s submitted and active. Link wheels and broken link wheels are both a great avenue to explore. The more backlinks you build to your press release the more authority it gains.
When your press release gains more authority, it also causes the backlinks that lead directly to your site to gain authority as well. The more authority and credibility that the backlinking sites have, the better off your main site will be.
Let‟s look at this in a formula:
Quality Backlinks + Quality Content = LOADS of visitors!
Step 6 - Video Marketing Campaign
We‟ve mentioned this earlier, but it warrants being mentioned again because it is one of our top sources of ranking high in Google and driving loads of free traffic to our sites. It is, of course, Video Marketing!
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Getting backlinks from video sites is a killer way to get good backlinks and gain authority in the eyes of Google. All you have to do is use a free screen capture software like JING or just use the web based tool SCREENR.COM and just create a simple video walkthrough of your website, talking about the topic of your site, what it covers and what all other related topics are covered and how the site has complete information about that niche etc. Make sure the video is between 2-3mins long and then upload it to the top 10 video and some social media sites using this free tool called TUBE MOGUL - http://www.tubemogul.com/signup/.
Sites to Submit to:
 http://youtube.com/
 http://vimeo.com/
 http://flickr.com/http://video.google.com/
 http://video.yahoo.com/http://www.photobucket.com/
 http://www.dailymotion.com/http://www.metacafe.com/
 http://www.viddler.com/http://facebook.com/
Steps:
1. Use either JING or just use the web based tool SCREENR.COM to create a 2-3 minute video on your niche.
2. Sign up for accounts at the video sites listed above
3. Post your video to the video sites listed above and be sure to add a short description to each video and include a link back to your site.
4. Repeat every 3-4 weeks
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Alternate Video Ideas:
 If you don‟t want to speak, use call out boxes instead to display the text you want.
 If you don‟t want a video of yourself, grab a FREE copy of Open Office at http://www.openoffice.org and use the presentation software similar to PowerPoint.
Outsourcing:
Like many of the other methods, you can grab a gig on Fiverr to create videos and submit them to video sites.
Recap:
Using these methods, we‟re sure you‟ll get some great rankings for your sites. Just keep repeating these methods every few weeks and your site will definitely rank on Page 1. We recommend you keep repeating them even if your site is already ranking well so that it maintains the rank!
Method 7 – Guest Blogging
While other people are running away scared from anything having to do with guest blogging, you can dive in and reap the profits. Finding a site to guest blog on is probably one of the best ways to build good backlinks to your site. The best part is, you can still outsource the content if you choose and post it yourself.
Here is the trick: Get to know the person. Take a look at the wrong way and the right way to send an email to the person with the site you wish to guest blog on:
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Wrong way:
Hi Denise,
I was taking a look at your site and I would really enjoy writing for you on a regular basis. All I ask is that I have a backlink that links back to my site. I am an accomplished writer and will bring great content to your site.
Thank you,
Jack
Recap:
This may be written in an OK manner as far as grammar and spelling go, but it is the worst possible way you could go about this. Why? Because Denise here probably gets tons of emails just like this every day. She most likely won‟t even respond to you. Let‟s take a look now at the right way to do this.
Right Way:
Hi Denise,
I saw you live in Florida and write about the gentle nature of alligators. That is awesome. I visited there a couple years ago and, man, was it humid! It is tough coming from Oregon where there is no humidity.
I‟d love to connect to you and talk about our fascinations with alligators. Here is my Skype information if you want to chat some time: alligatorlover2930.
Talk soon,
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Jack
Recap:
What is the main difference between the right way and wrong way? We got personal. We learned a fact about Denise and we used it to try to get her attention. Rather than her getting another email about guest blogging, she just got an email that proves that we did a little bit of research to find out where she lives and what she is interested in.
We also made a connection with her because we said that we love alligators as well. Also, the weather is never a bad thing to bring up! I‟ve connected with many people by bringing up something as simple as the weather.
So now we have the opportunity to connect with Denise on Skype. And, NO, we will not get her on Skype and immediately ask her if we can guest blog. It is a good idea to spend 5-10 minutes trying to get to know her and then easing it into the conversation. We promise you this will work wonders.
After you get the green light to start guest blogging, make sure it is OK to add a link to your website in the article or in the author information section. You of course want to make sure that you are guest blogging on a topic that is related to your website.
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You can view the 8 videos on building backlinks and getting massive traffic to your Amazon Affiliate site:
 Getting Traffic Video 1
 Getting Traffic Video 2
 Getting Traffic Video 3
 Link Wheels Video 1
 Link Wheels Video 2
 Link Wheels Video 3
 Link Wheels Video 4
 Link Wheels Video 5
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MASSIVE MONEY BOOST #1 – LIST BUILDING
List building is one of the most simple ways to double, or even triple, your revenue AND profits. People are much more responsive when they receive emails than they are when they visit a Facebook page.
Many people are scared of list building. They think that it takes a ton of work or it‟s difficult. List building at most times is a “set it and forget it” type of system where you can automate nearly everything. We‟ll cover this in detail in a moment.
Let‟s start with learning about auto responders, what they are, how they are used, and which ones I recommend.
Auto Responders
Auto responders are a crucial step in building your list. In fact, they are a necessity. A good auto responder can be the difference between your subscribers getting your emails or not getting your emails. The options they provide heavily vary between auto responders as well, so pay close attention!
What in the heck is an auto responder, Ryan?
An auto responder is a service that will send out massive amounts of emails for you in a safe and timely manner. It will also automatically send out emails based on the options you choose.
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For example, if someone signs up to your list, you can already have an automatic email set up that will be sent to them at the interval(s) you choose. So, you hypothetically could have 52 emails set up that will be sent out at 1 per week for a year. Pretty cool, right?
Once again, the psychic in me knows you are asking yourself right now, “why the heck do I need an auto responder?”
Well, it‟s pretty simple. Without an auto responder, you would be left with the option of sending the emails out yourself. Not only would this be tedious, but your email account would be flagged and emails would go to the spam folder of the recipient. Spam is no bueno!
There are many benefits to using an auto responder. To name a few:
 Extremely high rate of emails that make it to the recipient‟s inbox and not spam folder
 Easy to set follow-up emails that are automatically sent at intervals you define
 Easy backup, segmenting, and combining of your many lists
 Web forms that integrate easily with your website
 Reports that show you tons of different statistics for your mailings
As you can see, auto responders are pretty cool. There are a lot of crappy ones out there, so I want to make sure that you don‟t fall into
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any traps. I‟ve used a ton of the auto responders out there, but I recommend only TWO auto responders.
GetResponse is currently my favorite auto responder. I have never had any issues with delivery rates or any other problems that I can think of. They are also willing to let you import lists without the subscriber having to confirm. This is only true if the import passes GetResponse‟s test using a high-tech algorithm after you import. Not to mention that the reporting with Get Response is simply awesome.
Aweber is a close second in the race of my favorite two auto responders. Aweber is the leader in auto responder services and provides some of the best rates for deliverability.
One of the reasons that I rank Aweber in second place after GetResponse is because they have recently been having issues with how long it takes to deliver the emails to the subscribers. They are a great company, so I am sure they are working on it as we speak.
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NEWSLETTERS, BROADCASTS, FOLLOW-UPS
Newsletters
Newsletters are a cool way to send emails (usually in regular intervals, i.e. weekly) to your customers. If you are providing good information, your customers will be chomping at the bit to read your next newsletter. Nearly every auto responder will have different newsletter templates you can use or you can even have your own newsletter designed using a freelance website like Odesk.com.
It is a good idea to pick a template that you really like and that looks nice and stick with it. This will give a uniform look to all of the newsletters you send out over time. This way, people will recognize the newsletters and associate them with you.
Here are some of the newsletter designs in GetResponse:
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As you can tell, GetResponse has probably forked out quite a bit of money to have some killer newsletters designed for you. Don‟t think that everyone will have the same newsletter look because you can customize it to look pretty unique.
Besides, if you want something that you know will be 100% unique with no questions asked, you can have a newsletter designed for you using any freelance website.
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Broadcasts
Broadcasts are pretty similar to newsletters except that they are not usually sent at regular intervals. Sometimes, I will sometimes send out a broadcast promoting a product and send out another one two days later or even two weeks later – it just depends.
Broadcasts are awesome for those last minute emails or promotions you want to send out. The cool thing is you can choose to either send it automatically or schedule for a date in the future. Most auto responders allow you to schedule a broadcast around 90 days before it is actually send out.
For broadcasts, I don‟t use any kind of template because it is usually just a few paragraphs of information about an upcoming product that I or someone else is launching. This is up to you though.
Follow-Ups
Follow-ups are an awesome way to send emails to your subscribers at any interval you choose after they sign up. It may sound a bit confusing, so I‟ll use an example to demonstrate how powerful follow-ups can be. Not only
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that, but they can be a huge time saver, and who doesn‟t like saving time?
Say that you have some pretty standard emails that you want to be sent out to your subscribers after they sign up. If you were to do this manually, it would be simple if you were getting a few subscribers per day. But when you are looking at hundreds or thousands of new subscribers, it would be impossible to send out follow-ups manually.
Here are the following emails that are sent out to your customers (example):
 Day 1: Welcome email introducing the subscriber to you and your business
 Day 2: Acknowledging a common problem in the niche you‟ve chosen and promoting a product to solve it.
 Day 3: A reminder of the problem and the product
 Day 4: Final follow-up for this sequence
This is just a simple example of what you can do with follow-ups. The possibilities are endless and you can tweak your follow-up sequence to suit your niche and the products you are promoting.
This couldn‟t be much more easy peasy lemon squeezy than using follow-ups! All you have to do in any good auto responders (i.e. GetResponse or Aweber) is to create a follow-
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up. The actual email itself is identical to creating a broadcast except for one feature.
When creating a follow-up, you can set the interval that you want it to be sent out. This interval is how many days after the person signs up that you want the email to be sent out. So, for example:
 Interval 0 – Right when the subscriber signs up
 Interval 1 – One day after the subscriber signs up
 Interval 2 – Two days after the subscriber signs up
 Etc.
This feature will single-handedly save you HOURS of time, I promise. Not only that, but it will likely increase your open rates and even your sales if you are promoting any products.
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CREATING A KICK ASS SQUEEZE PAGE
You want to create a squeeze page to entice people to sign up to your list. It‟s difficult any other way to build and grow your list without doing this. Don‟t worry because we‟ll go through it step-by-step!
The type of squeeze page you build is dependent on what type of niche you are in. The standard squeeze page model (shown below) is good for most niches.
A good squeeze page design will:
 Keep people from closing the page right away
 Make the visitors more likely to opt-in
 Give a more professional and authoritative feel
What does a squeeze page look like?
It can be a simple design like this that goes over the benefits of your report and convinces the reader to opt-in.
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WordPress Themes for Kickass Squeeze Pages
Sure, you can create squeeze pages using basic HTML… but how much fun is that? Creating HTML squeeze pages takes two things: time and HTML skills. I don‟t have either of these, so I lean more towards using WordPress themes to help me build my squeeze pages.
OptimizePress is quite possibly the best WordPress theme ever developed for building squeeze pages and membership sites. It boasts an extremely robust set of features that will leave you drooling.
I use it for all my squeeze pages and membership sites because of its ease of use, slick design, and all the options it has to customize the sites. Not only that, but it also has pre-designed squeeze pages where all you have to do is add a little bit of content and add the code from your auto responder form you create.
Click here to take a look at OptimizePress
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FlexSqueeze is my second favorite behind OptimizePress for themes that create squeeze pages. It is as close to one-click site creation as you can get while also providing some pretty cool other features.
The one area that FlexSqueeze does better than OptimizePress in is easily the option to quickly change the look and feel of the site. Don‟t get me wrong – I love OptimizePress, but most of the OP sites you will see have more of a generic look to them than FlexSqueeze sites. You can customize nearly every facet of OptimizePress, but FlexSqueeze just makes it easier.
You have to carefully weigh the options that you are looking for when picking a WordPress theme – especially if you are spending money on it. Luckily, most theme providers offer some sort of trial or money-back guarantee, so you can test it out for 30 days and see how you like it.
Keep in mind these theme providers coded the WordPress themes so if you do request a refund, they will deactivate your license and you will no longer be able to use them.
OptimizePress and FlexSqueeze do, however, cost money. If you are on a very tight budget, check out the options below.
Click here to check out FlexSqueeze
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ThemeForest.net is an awesome website for finding less-expensive WordPress themes. The themes are sold by individual vendors under the Theme Forest name, so it is all 100 % secure.
You can visit http://www.themeforest.net and find some killer squeeze pages themes for around $10. Just visit the link above and type “Squeeze” in the search bar and you will find quite a few results for squeeze page creation themes.
You can also search Google for squeeze page themes, and you may find something that is a great fit for you. If you want plenty of options and also ease of use in your theme, you‟re likely going to have to pay a bit more for it.
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Creating the Squeeze Page
The creation of the squeeze page heavily depends on the theme you are using. Because it varies so much based on theme, I am going to give you a generic idea of what it should look like rather than how to create it in each theme.
Each theme should have specific instructions on how to set up a squeeze page – I know OptimizePress has TONS of video tutorials and FlexSqueeze has some as well.
I prefer to create squeeze pages that have some sort of content on the left side (whether it be video or text) and the opt-in form on the right side. However, you are free to create this however you like.
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Above is a great example of a squeeze page. It has a compelling title that draws the reader in. Next, it has a video on the left side that explains what the product is about. Lastly, it has an opt-in form on the right.
Take a look at this heat map of a website. This is where people‟s eyes focus on a website first.
Tests have consistently shown that reader‟s eyes are drawn towards the top left first. Next their eyes move down and from left to right. Also, 99% of readers‟ eyes look first in the triangular area that is orange and red.
The orange and red section is where you want your content because it is more likely that the visitor will read it. If you had your opt-in form here, they would likely make a quick decision to leave. You are in essence using your content to help keep the visitor on your site and then to convince them to opt-in. Hence the reason why we want to create killer content!
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Learn how I made $43,281.78 using this One SIMPLE Method
A good title will compel the reader to opt-in. You also want to intrigue the visitor by leaving the key ingredient out. For example, which sounds better?
“Learn how I made $43,281.78 using this One SIMPLE Method”
Or
“Learn how I made $43,281.78 using this Method Where I Create Videos on YouTube to get Visitors to a Clickbank Product”
I hope you said the first one!
It goes along with the old saying, KISS – Keep it Simple Stupid. You do not want to give too much away but you also don‟t want to leave too much out. There is a perfect balance in between where you give a little bit of information (like the dollar amount) but also leave some to the reader‟s imagination.
Because your goal is to entice the reader to opt-in, you want to leave them intrigued on what you are going to tell them.
You‟ll need to obviously tailor your headline towards the niche that you are targeting. Your headline for promoting a product and your headline for your love of Rottweilers will be completely different.
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Make Sure you are in good Form
The design of your form is pretty important. If you have some crappy form that doesn‟t flow with your website, it could deter visitors from opting in without you even knowing.
Forget that! Aweber and GetResponse both have spent tons of money on developing slick looking opt-in forms for one reason – conversions! Make use of their hard work and money spent so you don‟t have to do any hard work or spend any money!
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CHECK YOUR RATES
In our actual auto responder, we are concerned with five different percentages. Pretty much all the relevant information we need to gather can be found by looking at statistics of these five rates. Are you dying to know what they are? They are:
 Open Rate – When you send out any type of email through your auto responder (whether it be a broadcast or a follow-up), a certain percentage of your list will open the email. This is exactly what the open rate is – the percentage of people that open your email.
You want to pay close attention to your open rates because it is a good idea to get a baseline of your open percentages. Your open rate is really based off three things: the time you sent the email, how responsive your list is, and the subject of the email.
You want the subject of your email to not give away too much information but still be enticing enough for the recipient to open it.
 Click Rate – This is the rate that people click on a link inside your email. This number will be 0% if you don‟t have any links inside your email. This metric is based on how much your email entices the reader to click on a link in the email.
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This is an important measure to focus on and compare to your open rate. Ask yourself the following questions when looking at your click percentages:
o Is the click % in this email high or low compared to normal?
o If it‟s low, what was different from some of the higher emails?
o If it‟s high, what was different from some of the lower emails?
o How many links did I add to this email?
o Was the content of the email in line with the subject or were they completely different?
It‟s important to always look at the factors of why things are changing. If they are changing for the better, great, but you need to know how to replicate it.
 Bounce Rate – The bounce rate is the percentage of emails that did not make it to the recipient. This can be one of a few reasons:
o Non-Existent emails don't exist or were cancelled. The address may have a typo or the person with that address might have left the company.
o Undeliverable bounces happen when the receiving server was temporarily unavailable, overloaded, or could not be found.
o Mailbox Full means that the recipient's mailbox was full. You won't be able to deliver the email until the contact makes space in their inbox. In some cases, the email address may be abandoned.
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o Vacation/Auto Reply is when your contact is away on a trip or unable to check email, they may show up in the Vacation or Auto Reply bounce category. Unlike with other kinds of bounces, your email was delivered successfully into these contacts' inboxes.
o Blocked email means that the receiving server blocked the inbound email.
 Complaint Rate – This is the number that you don‟t want to see a high percentage of. The complaint rate is the percentage of emails that go to the spam box of the recipient. This could be because the email provider marks it as spam or the recipient marks it as spam.
Most decent auto responders (Aweber and GetResponse do) will provide you with a spam score, based on many different metrics, before you send your email out. Most providers will rate your spam score where 5.0 or more is not good.
You can keep this down by:
o Keeping your “From” email address and “to” email the same over the course you are sending emails.
o Use confirmed opt-in where the subscriber has to confirm in their email to sign up for your list.
o Make sure your emails don‟t look like spam.
o Provide an easy way for the user to unsubscribe.
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 Unsubscribe Rate – This rate is the percentage of people (in proportion to how many subscribers you sent the email to) that unsubscribe from your list. This is actually better than having the subscriber mark it as spam.
Spring Cleaning
Cleaning up your lists and deleting inactive subscribers is important because it will help:
 Show more accurate statistics because the stats will be based off how many active people are on your list.
 Cut down on your auto responder bill.
As you probably know, auto responders typically charge based on how many subscribers you have. If you are removing the inactive subscribers, you are more likely to cut down on your bill.
 Lower bounce rates over time because if the people are inactive in your list, they are likely inactive in other peoples‟ lists as well. This means if their inbox is full, the email will be bounced more times than a bouncy ball by a 3 year old.
Wax on – Wax off
My criteria for removing someone from my lists are that if they are inactive for 3 months or more (meaning they have not opened any of my emails) then I remove them from my lists. It‟s really a pretty simple thing to do and you can do this every few weeks or every month.
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Response Rates Overt Time
Open rates are going to diminish over time – that‟s a given. The longer someone is on your list, the less likely they are to open your emails.
All of the methods that I‟ve listed to build and manage your list will help negate the dwindling response rates to a certain extent. Nothing you do can entirely stop this process from happening, but I‟ve laid out the methods that will at least help combat it.
Building a List with Facebook
You should understand now that your squeeze page theme should be directly tied to the niche you are targeting. Your goal is to have the highest conversion rate possible… Makes sense right?
Similar to how we monetized our Facebook page, you can also build a list in a similar way. For example, you could post an image and text that reads:
“Love your Rottweiler?
Then show it by joining the Rottweiler fan club!
Click here ==> http://iloverottweilers.com”
Once you start getting people to opt-in, it‟s way easier to get them to purchase products from you. Your conversion rates via email will blow your conversions from promoting directly on Facebook out of the water.
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You don‟t only have to promote Amazon products either. In the next Massive Money Boost, I‟ll show you different monetization methods that can make you quite a bit of money.
Building a List with an Amazon Affiliate Site
This part is extremely simple. Literally all you have to do is create a web form in your autoresponder and add the form to your sidebar on your Amazon Affiliate site. There are also different plugins out there that will create a popup for each visitor where they can fill out the form to subscribe to your list.
You‟ll want to make it enticing for people to subscribe or they‟ll have no reason to do so. You can offer something like a free 10 page eBook on Rottweilers or something that is tailored to your niche.
The more incentives people have, the more likely they will be to subscribe. And the more people that subscribe, the more money you make!
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MASSIVE MONEY BOOST #2 – EXTRA MONETIZATION METHODS
Some people complain that Amazon doesn‟t have enough breadth to simply use Amazon to promote affiliate products.
To a certain extent, these people are correct and I‟ll tell you why!
What if the people in your niche aren‟t interested in physical products? Perhaps they would be more interested in surveys, eBooks not on Amazon, etc.
In this case, CPA networks are the place to go. CPA stands for cost per action and it means you get paid when this action takes place.
For example, if you link from your Facebook page to a CPA offer that is a survey, you can get paid when the person finishes the survey and enters their email. Essentially, this offer pays out on email submit.
As you can imagine, your commission increases depending on what type of offer it is. i.e. You‟ll get paid more if the person you refer purchases a product than if they submit an email.
There are tons of different offers and these can make you quite a bit of money!
Even if Amazon carries products that your niche is interested in, you can still make money promoting other offers.
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Here are some of the most popular CPA Networks:
 Peerfly
 Neverblue
 MaxBounty
 CpaWay
 Convert2Media
 ClickBooth
 MediaWhiz
 Adscend Media
 CPA Lead
 W4
What you need to do is sign up to the networks that have products that will interest your target audience. Each CPA network will be slightly different in their application process and offerings.
After joining, you‟ll search for products and get an affiliate link just like you were promoting as an affiliate on Amazon.
There are a few different options of promoting CPA offers:
1. You can promote to your Facebook fans just like you would a normal Amazon product. Of course you need to tailor it a bit more depending on the type of offer.
2. You can have a banner or link on your Amazon affiliate site. This is only useful for certain types of products and may not be as successful for surveys and some other offers.
3. Promote to your email list. This will by far be the most responsive people you‟ll deal with. They already signed up to
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hear what you have to say and they‟ll listen far better than people who visit your Amazon affiliate site or your Facebook page. Use this TO your advantage without TAKING advantage.
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MASSIVE MONEY BOOST #3 – INCREASE YOUR AMAZON COMMISSIONS
Yep, I am calling this the super-secret ninja tactic. Each month, your commissions get reset down to a tiny 4%. Just like that, even if you sold 10,000 items the month before, you are back at 4%.
Say I promote a product at the beginning of the month and it sells 100 units for $100 each. Let‟s take a look at the commissions I‟ll receive based off Amazon‟s commission structure: # of Products Shipped/Downloaded in a Given Month Revenue (Commissions) 1-6 $24
7-30
$144 31-100 $455
TOTAL
$623
Look at that, you just made a total of $623 from one promotion! That‟s definitely not bad for a day‟s work, but you can do much better?
How, you ask? Simple. Promote a very inexpensive item that is still targeted to your list at the beginning of each month. This will dramatically bump your commissions up.
Let‟s say that I promote a $2 item on the first of the month and I sell 320 units. The commission on my next sale is now a whopping 7%.
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Let‟s look at how much I‟ll make now from 100 sales of the $100 product: # of Products Shipped/Downloaded in a Given Month Revenue (Commissions) 321-420 $750
Instead of $623, we just made $750. That‟s an increase of 20.3% by just promoting a lower priced item at the beginning of the month. How easy was that? This is based off Amazon‟s commission structure here: # of Products Shipped/Downloaded in a Given Month Volume-Based Advertising Fee Rates for General Products 1-6 4%
7-30
6% 31-110 6.5%
111-320
7% 321-630 7.5%
631-1570
8% 1571-3130 8.25%
3131+
8.5%
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CLOSING
I really hope you enjoyed this course. I spent a lot of time detailing the tactics I use to make money with Amazon and Facebook and left nothing out.
With that said, the ball is now in your court. It‟s your turn to take your newly learned knowledge and annihilate Amazon commissions. Take massive action and the rewards will come – simple as that.
If you need anything at all, please don‟t hesitate to submit a support ticket at http://ryanmartin.zendesk.com.
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