My Notes From The Ed Dale Internet Marketing Seminar
Over the weekend I attended Ed Dale’s 30DC Coming Home three day event in Melbourne.
Ed Dale, if you don’t know him, is one of Australia’s most well known and likable Internet marketers, who adds a uniquely Australian flavour to the industry. Currently he is most well known as one of the founders of the 30 Day Challenge, an introductory program that aims to take any person from absolute beginner to making their first few dollars online, and beyond, within 30 days.
Ed also has a rep for website flipping, having earlier in his career sold his website portfolio for $5 million dollars. He then moved on to teach how to build niche sites with Frank Kern using the “Underachiever Method”, which focused on creating small sites that each earned a few hundred dollars a month, and then pumping out as many of them as you could.
Ed is one of those types of people who likes to keep up to date with everything and anything going on online, with the eyes of a marketer and a geek. He’s constantly talking about the future before it gets here, and it’s clear this is a passion of his more so than a business interest – he just likes to geek out on technology, marketing, social media and the web, but always refers back to how it could be used to make money.
The seminar on the weekend was by far the most relaxed event I’ve been too, led by the TubbyNerd himself (Ed) wearing his sandals, shorts and geeked out shirts. This wasn’t a formal seminar with suits, or people attempting to keep up professional appearance or sell you anything. It was a bunch of experienced guys and girls coming together to teach a bunch of up and comers how to make money online, in the format of a casual conversation. Just how I like it 
What Are We Talking About
The Secret Tactic Of The Worlds Best Marketers: Become Obsessed
I have a confession to make – I’m obsessed.
With what I hear you ask?
With cars.
I’ve officially become one of those men I never previously understood. Why devote so much of your brain space to knowing the ins and outs of every car ever made? Surely there are better ways to spend your time and more important things to study than those little boxes that go around on four wheels?
While I can’t place the blame for my new infatuation squarely on just one thing, there was definitely a catalyst for how this addiction began. His name is Alborz Fallah, or as I call him, Al.
Al and I have been friends for a long time and you may know him already as the founder of CarAdvice.com.au, the most popular independent car blog in Australia. If you haven’t heard of him and his blog, stop reading this article and go and listen to the hugely popular podcast interview I published with Al here –
Interview With Alborz Fallah – A Million Dollar Blogger
Al is a basically a car encyclopedia you can access directly through voice command. You ask him a question and he dispenses a vast amount of wisdom about cars.
I’m often baffled by how he can know the intricate details about so many different cars. He knows the features, advantages, faults, price, target demographics, history, latest news, and all kinds of nearly-useless information about cars. Of course what he knows isn’t useless, because the market for cars in Australia is huge (Australians buy one million new cars a year, with a population just over 22 million, that’s pretty significant), hence Al has been able to translate what he knows into a very lucrative online publishing business.
I Don’t Buy Much Stuff
How To Avoid Hype When You Sell
There’s an interesting challenge I’ve come up against many times, which I think most professional bloggers know well.
The challenge is how to sell something without using all that horrible “hype” that Internet marketers use.
But wait a second. Hype actually works, or at least good “sales copy” works if you call convincing people to buy what you sell your desired outcome.
The challenge is figuring out what level of “sales talk” to use when trying to sell. You don’t want to be accused of over-hyping something, nor do you want to put in such a weak effort that no one buys.
The problem unfortunately cannot be solved 100% because what is hype to one person is not to another. We all have our own internal “bullshit meter” as it might be labeled, based on all kinds of things like our personality, experience with marketing, emotional state at the time of reference, etc etc.
You can’t account for everything, but you can work with what you should hopefully know quite well – you and your potential customers- and attempt to meet the needs of both.
Membership Site Mastermind Reopens Tuesday November 3rd For 24 Hours Only
Did you read that sub-heading? I hope you did.
It might seem a little out of place, but I put it there because one of the messages I want you to take away from reading this blog post is that I’m reopening Membership Site Mastermind for one last day for all the stragglers and latecomers who didn’t join during the opening last week.
I know there are stragglers because they keep emailing me asking if they can squeeze in, so I’m giving you one last chance to take the program with me during this final run for 2009.
This will definitely be the last time it’s open this year. No more one day openings, no exceptions, if you email and ask no matter how good your excuse, you won’t be allowed in. That wouldn’t be fair to the hundreds of people who took initiative and joined when the doors were open.
You can sign up here from 11 AM EST US time on Tuesday for 24 hours only -
So, back to my original thought train…
Podcast: How To Profit From Niche Websites By Adam Short – Part 1
Press play to begin streaming the audio or right click the text link and choose save as or save link.
Download the MP3 [ 46 Minutes - 21 MB]
Download Part 2 here –
How To Profit From Niche Websites By Adam Short – Part 2
I’ve been asked many times whether I own other websites in various niches, all making money. The answer is no, I don’t. All my websites focus on the same niche, and while in the past I spent some time buying and selling websites in different niches, now I focus on maintaining authority in one marketplace.
Today I’m giving you part one of an interview with a man who does the opposite of me. His specialty is creating profitable websites in various niches. In fact, he owns 90 different websites all making money. His name is Adam Short, and in this call you will hear Adam explain exactly how he can build sites and make money from them despite targeting so many different topics.
This Is Powerful Information
I had to break this call down into two parts because Adam and I ended up speaking for an hour and twenty minutes. Adam really spilled the beans about everything he does, including how he chooses a niche (it’s ridiculously simple), how he generates a list of keywords to target, how he gets content created, how he drives traffic and then turns that traffic into money using automated email marketing.
Although Adam is not unique in what he does – there are plenty of niche marketers out there – his system is by far one of the simplest I’ve found and he was particularly good at explaining it on this call. He doesn’t hold anything back during the interview, there are no secrets, and you will even learn what are some of the specific niches and websites he uses to make money currently.
If you’re the kind of person who doesn’t feel capable of establishing dominance in one market and you’re looking for a system of making money with websites in topic areas that you are not necessarily interested in, this could be the answer. After listening to the interview you will definitely have an idea of how it’s done.
Download Part 2 here –
How To Profit From Niche Websites By Adam Short – Part 2
Show Notes
- Adam introduces himself and how he got into niche websites
- We learn Adam’s very simple system for choosing a niche topic
- What keyword research you should do to check whether a niche is viable as a profit source
- Adam explains his traffic/keyword system for finding the high traffic/low competition keyword phrases
- How Adam gets content created for his sites
In part two of the call you will hear the rest of the process, including how Adam builds traffic, turns that traffic into money by selling products and advertising, and how he uses email autoresponders to increase the income returned. His entire system is “templated”, which makes it very easy to replicate, so make sure you download and listen to part 2 to complete the full picture.
Download Part 2 here –
How To Profit From Niche Websites By Adam Short – Part 2
Want More Information and Support?
If you enjoyed the way Adam explained his system and would like additional support and training to start building your own niche sites, Adam and his partner Alen have put together some free videos you can download if you are willing to give them your name and email.
Part 1 Mp3 Download
Click Here to Download the MP3 [ 46 Minutes - 21 MB]
What Topic Should You Blog About?
I spent some time yesterday manning the live chat interface we have running on the Become A Blogger Premium sales page.
The live chat is a little innovation Gideon and I came up with to help any person who is reviewing our sales page by making ourselves available to answer any questions live.
At any given point in time around 30 to 50 people are viewing our sales page during this week, while the program is open. Being available to answer questions live is a great way to help these people decide whether our program is right for them, but it also gives us valuable feedback on where people are “stuck” in their decision process.
We don’t man the chat 24/7, but whenever we are online and particularly just after we send an email about the program, we are there. When we’re not there, we just remove the chat interface.
I strongly recommend you consider some kind of live support during a launch campaign or even in general on any sales page. Demonstrating your commitment to your customers and showing your availability at the point of purchase, is a powerful persuasion tool.
What If You Don’t Know What To Blog About?
During the time I spent on the chat yesterday morning there was a common theme of questions.
The biggest “sticking point” people are facing when considering becoming a blogger is what topic to cover. The language used to describe the issue varied and included the following -
- I don’t know what topic to write about
- I’m not an expert at anything
- I don’t know whether my topic can be profitable
I really feel there is a strong insecurity and a general lack of understanding around what makes a profitable topic. This is a unique challenge for bloggers, because we don’t necessarily have a product to sell, especially when you first begin. In essence, your content is your product, and if you choose a product no one wants, then obviously you’re not going to make money.
The Subtle Elements Behind Choosing The Right Subject
I’ve long been a student of niche marketing and the initial choice of topic for a blog is the same as choosing a niche for any business. You’re choosing what market to enter with the hope of success, whatever that success is for you.
In most cases success includes some kind of monetary reward, but with blogging it’s a bit different, because for many bloggers, it’s just as much about creative expression, recognition and reputation as it is about raw dollars. You have to consider your potential to make money and whether you want to immerse yourself in that industry to potentially become an expert.
People don’t always look at blogging as the path to preeminence. Some just create a blog, stick some adsense on it, get some content created through outsourcers, then move on to the next blog. I’ve never been about this method because it lacks a soul. It’s purely about money and not about passion, and I don’t see that as something that will last long term.
It’s worth studying this method however because the people who use it are very good at figuring out where the money is, which unfortunately for those of us who focus on passion, often struggle the most with. There are plenty of struggling bloggers with a lot of passion and no dollars, so you owe it to yourself to use whatever resources you have available to make sure you’re not one of them.
The holy grail of blogging is a mix of what you love and what you can get paid for – and paid really well. Most book authors never make money from their work, yet with a blog you can put in as much effort as you would to write a book, and end up with a very cash positive asset. Best of all you can do this independently, from your home, without the need of distribution from a publishing company, who would take a large chunk of your profits.
I’m Going To Help You Find A Topic
Since I see the issue of topic selection such a major problem for people, especially those entering the blogging game for the first time, Gideon and I have decided to do something special for the new members of Become A Blogger Premium 2.0.
If you join before we close on Friday at midnight EST US time, you will qualify for a special live coaching session we’re going to do with this group if students to specifically address the challenge of topic selection.
The coaching will be live and we will do it next week once the program begins in earnest after we shut the doors to new members. This is ONLY for members, the public will not be invited and it will be focused 100% on the issue of topic selection. I hope we can also help some people live on the call by having a dialogue with anyone struggling to find a good topic.
There’s already resources in the program to help with topic selection, but I see this issue as something where you need as much help as you can get, including a chance to ask me and Gideon directly for help, so we’ve decided to put in the extra effort.
Once you have your topic, the rest of the blogging process can be quite straight forward. It takes work of course, but you will be comfortable because you will know what you stand for and who you are trying to talk to. That’s the magic of clearly understanding your audience and what you want to be to them.
If that sounds good to you, sign-up today so you qualify for the coaching session…
www.becomeablogger.com/signup/
I’ll speak to you soon,
Yaro Starak
Blog Mentor
PS. If you want to read more from me on the subject of niche selection, check out of my previous article – How To Simplify The Niche Selection Process
