I mean, it is just so easy to just leave it for tomorrow (and tomorrow, and tomorrow) because you always assume that it will always be there — till it’s gone, of course!

So you can imagine my reaction when I bloody woke up one day to find my ALL blogs gone. Everything - kapish! At first, I thought my eyes were fooling me because I was still in my half-wake daze (with hair all over the place), so I do what I normally do online when you think your eyes are playing a trick. You hit the F5 button.

But to no avail! This time (after countless attempts at mashing the refresh button) my blogs just wouldn’t reappear. It was only then that I really woke, raised my right eyebrow, and my brain kinda registered what the heck was going on — I just freaking lost over 2 years of hard work and labor in an INSTANT. Just wiped out from the face of this earth! (Not funny AT ALL.)

After I finished my obligatory cussing, I wanted to find out how in the world my blogs could be literally here one day and gone the next. I logged into my backend and checked my SQL databases and there was the answer — ALL my SQL databases were gone without a trace (POOF!) — confirmation that my blogs were really gone.

I had back ups but they were many months old (like I said - I was procrastinating) and now in the moment where you really wished you hadn’t waited all those months to do something so darn right important, it was too bloody late.

Maybe I haven’t really painted how crucial this really is; losing all your data is akin to having your factory and retail stores all burnt down to a crisp — and you didn’t buy any insurance! In just one day, your business is gone and you have to START ALL OVER AGAIN.

On the Internet, that means all your websites, products - the stuff that makes you money - is entirely obliterated and your income goes all the way to ZERO (which is not very sexy at all!).

And something that would cost you 30 minutes to do (the backups) is now a god-knows-how-long struggle to build all your websites back up again. Not very smart. So now if you can see how really important backups are, whoppee!

Now here’s the best part about the whole thing…

My blogs weren’t really gone at all. My webhost was doing some maintenance and my SQL databases just vanished for awhile (they were back up later in that afternoon), so I was very thankfully granted a very timely “reprieve”.

But you know, it was probably life’s way of tapping your shoulder (or actually smacking your face) to remind that you have something really important to do that shouldn’t be put off any longer.

So now, I’m not taking anymore chances, every freaking thing is now fully backed up and I can rest easy knowing that if anything silly does happen, I can have everything back up online with a simple click.

In fact, your autoresponder is so important that when one millionaire Internet marketer was asked which one of his websites made him the most money, his answer was - “None of them. My autoresponder list is the one that makes me the most money.”

Here are 7 reasons why your autoresponder is the #1 tool your online business will ever have: (until email becomes obsolete anyway…)

1. Your autoresponder will help build a targeted list of leads and subscribers. Nowadays, even an IT dummy (like me, honestly!) can simply cut-and-paste some lines of gibberish code and start collecting opt-in leads with in minutes. It is so bloody simple. But that’s just the geeky part. The really important part, like I mentioned earlier is that it allows you to build you list. Not only that, it helps you build A HUGE list (which is impossible if you’re using something like MS Excel) and you’ll see why that’s the #1 asset your business (online or offline) will ever have.

2. It helps you automatically follow-up with your leads and subscribers. We all know it pays to keep in touch with your customers. But if you have 10,000 people on your list, sending them an email every week manually will simply drive you nuts. But you know what, your autoresponder can do all of that automatically. And you only need to do it ONCE. The moment you preload your queue of pre-written emails, you can practically follow up with your list indefinitely.

3. Everyone reads emails! Unless you’re John McCain, of course. In fact, the #1 reason why people log on to the net is to use email. So you can be sure that with an autoresponder, you’re using a medium that people are going to read and respond to.

4. Make sure your emails get delivered. With a professional autoresponder service, you can be sure your emails get delivered (and you want that, of course! That’s the purpose of email.) Because these autoresponder people work with the major ISPs to make sure that mail that comes from their servers reaches your subscriber’s inbox. Plus they have the hardware to send emails at super speeds. I know of a company who built their own system and it took them DAYS to just send a few thousand emails out. Not good enough. A good autoresponder will get that done in less than an hour.

5. It’s so darn cheap. Like what, $15 a month? Surely you won’t scrimp on that. And you get something that’s darn useful, customer support, upgrades and maintenance by a professional full-time team. And for goodness sake, don’t hire a programmer to do this for you - he’s going to charge you a freaking bomb and it will never work as well as what you can get from a company that specializes in this stuff.

6. It gives you protection. You see, spam is rampant online. And people are on the lookout for it. By using an autoresponder, it forces you to follow the guidelines they set, so you can never be accused of spam (which is really bad for you company). For example, you know how I hate it when I receive an email from some company which I can’t freaking unsubscribe from!? Ughh… I’m one disgruntled dude when that happens. But you won’t see that happening if you use a good autoresponder (unless the subscriber’s too dumb to see the unsubscribe link at the bottom. It happens.)

7. The ‘easiest’ way to make money online. The moment you build a targeted list of people who are eager to hear your message, you can practically mint a fortune online. Because every time you send an email out, you make money. Now obviously, you’ll need some time and effort before you’re afforded that kind of heady financial superpower. But the moment you do, you can literally start from scratch, but with your list, you can still make money anytime.

There you have seven reasons why you’ll really should get an autoresponder (if you haven’t already). There are probably tons more reasons out there, but seven’s a nice number, so I’ll stop at there.

If you want a recommendation on which autoresponder you should pick, I personally use AWeber and so do 50% of IMers out there. The other choices are GetResponse (which I find the interface really clunky. Sorry!) or Email Aces.

Here’s the link to AWeber. It’s an affiliate link or if you wanna just go naked, simply go to www.AWeber.com.

Later…

Of course, we all know that the friendly operator is just a software program, so don’t bother chatting her up (if you didn’t know this, go laugh at yourself in the mirror - especially if you’ve been trying to chat her up!).

I really don’t know about the effectiveness of using a gimmick like this because in this day and age, a lot of people are Internet savvy enough to know that the ‘live chat’ isn’t real at all. And to design it in such a way to make it seem to people that its ‘live’ kinda beats the purpose because people are not going to fall for it anyway.

Anyway, this is besides the point - here’s my gripe. I recently purchased a product online for US$77. I thought it was a great deal (and it is considering the information inside). But you know what?

I felt cheated.

Because when I went back to the site (after having already made my purchase) to study the salesletter, as I was about to leave the site - lo and behold! Out popped this really cute, blond (they’re always blond…) chat operator who stopped me in my tracks and told about the special offers I would enjoy if I made a purchase.

And this is where I found out that I could purchase the same exact product at a US$10 discount. In other words, I could simply forked out US$67 instead of US$77 for the same darn thing.

Boy… did I feel like a chump!

What this means is that if you’re DUMB enough to be convinced to make your purchase straightaway - you’re going to pay more money. And if you’re not too sure and you decide to leave, you actually get rewarded with a freaking ten-dollar discount. It’s like buying a pair of jeans from a shop only to find that your friend bought the same pair at the same shop for a much lower price. CHUMP!

The point is if you’re employing this sort of tactics in your online business - stop. Because eventually your customers are gonna find out and honestly, I think you know they will not be best pleased. Offering a straight discount is simply not an effective way to move your product. There are much better ways to go around doing this.

An alternative is offer a downsell instead. For example, instead of giving a straight discount, you could offer your product without the bonuses for a lower price. This way, you are justifying your discount and your customers will understand.

Another way is to offer a trial offer. Instead of having to make the full purchase price, you can offer a 30-day trial and then do a full billing after that. Either way, everyone ends up paying the same but you simply offer a trial period to those who are not too sure about your product from the get-go.

Either way, you don’t want your customers ending up feeling like a fool just because they did business with you. Because if they feel like one, you can be pretty sure they won’t be shopping with you again!

UPDATE: There’s a recently launched IM product going for US$37 (you may know which one I’m talking about). Now don’t be a chump - if you decide to purchase it, close the freaking window, the chat thingy will pop up and get yourself a ten-dollar discount. That’s like more than 25% off! WTF…

That being said, social networking sites are getting REALLY popular today. Facebook alone, I believe, has over 110 million users. Imagine what you could do with a database that size! Not only that, I believe FB is the first social networking site to really go mainstream.

Back then, other social networking sites were more or less used by the ‘younger’ crowd. For example, I was on Friendster years ago and so were all my friends and peers. But you never really met anyone from outside that circle.

But Facebook, oh my! you’re seeing everyone and I mean everyone getting a Facebook account today. Even big old organizations are getting in on the act. I regularly read news online and even there you have links where you can share the news article on Facebook.

Sites like ESPN, LA Times, Reuters, Washington Post, and even the jolly British - the BBC - have share links to Facebook. You never saw such things with other social sites before. So FB is really mainstream now.

But back to my titular point…

So with the growth and reach of Facebook today, it’s no surprise that it is fast becoming a very powerful way to promote your products and services. And as you know, a lot of marketers are in fact already doing so.

Now, there’s a right way and a wrong way to promote your business on social sites like Facebook. You see, no one likes to be bombarded with advertisements day in and out. We may be ok with that happening on the radio, TV, magazines but definitely not from our ‘friends’ on Facebook!

You have to remember that the main reason people visit sites like Facebook is to connect with people, and not have their online ‘friends’ constantly pitch products to them. So if you’re using FB now to pitch, pitch, and pitch your products to your friends online - STOP.

Marketers have found that it is highly ineffective to pitch your products on social networking sites like Facebook. People are just not that interested! Now it’s definitely ok to let people be AWARE about what you do, what your business is all about and the products you offer. But you don’t want to pitch.

Instead, you should be using FB the way it was designed to be used - to connect with people. To connect with your peers, your JV partners, your customers, your fans, etc. And when you build a solid relationship with them, they’re naturally gonna want to find out more about you and what you do. And if they’re interested at all, they may do business with you.

But if you’re doing something as dumb as this:

Then you risk peeving A LOT of people off.

Especially if you post that same exact message on ALL your friend’s walls. Not only that, all your mutual friends can also SEE that you posted that same exact message on everyone’s wall. Really, really dumb. In other words, you’re just abusing the access to the network you have. And for what? To earn some dollars promoting your affiliate link? the Not worth it.

There’s another word for things like these - it’s called spam. And your friends won’t appreciate that at all.

Hi Adam, I’m a starter to this entire IM and affiliate marketing thingy and have been trying to find some legit product to market. Problem is i went browsing through ClickBank but most of the products, after doing some research, i found that they appear to be fake. why i say appear is because, some results are in favour of the product while some others claim it to be a scam (and the question of jealousy comes in place).

How do i find a legit product to market? Are there any tips or basic things to look out for when searching for a product in ClickBank? Really appreciate if you could give me a reply. Or if you do not want to flood your comments list, replying me through the email i gave u is fine too. Thanks

Well, the easiest way to know if a product is ‘legit’ is to simply purchase it yourself and see if it’s worth its salt. Put yourself in the shoes of the customer and see if the product really adds value or if it solves whatever problem the market wants solved.

Of course, this would be a lot easier if you really were a part of the market yourself. For example, if you’re a fat bastard (kidding!) and you really need to lose weight, buying a weight-loss product that really helps you out here; whoa! you know its worth its salt.

Or you could test out that dating ebook (you’ve been dying to get) that promises you more attention with the women and see if it gets you to second base or a smack in the face. Whatever it is, actually buying the product, testing it, and also going through the sales process just like a true-blue customer would will give you the best opinion of the product always.

But if you’re a miserly cheapskate and you just can’t bear to shell out some dough to test a product - don’t worry! You can always approach the vendor directly and ask if you could have a review copy. And most times, the vendor will be more than happy to send you a review copy (especially true for digital products) to help out any affiliate who can add more sales to their bottom line.

But also be prepared to back up your affiliate ‘credentials’. I’ve personally had people who’ve emailed requesting review copies of my products and for some of them, I get the feeling that they’re just doing that to get the product for free instead of actually wanting to affiliate the product. If I’m getting that cheapskate vibe from someone, I usually ask for some of his background, his websites, etc to check if he’s for real or not. And most times, they can’t produce anything. Haha! Busted…

A great way to start looking for products to affiliate is to go with products from reputable marketers in whatever niche you’re in. If someone’s pretty well-known in a niche and s/he is well-trusted, respected, and yadda yadda yadda - that means something. And it usually means they’ve built their solid reputations based on giving true value to their marketplace. Of course, you should still want to test out their products first before you promote anything. It always plays to be safe. You don’t to promote junk to your list and lose any goodwill just for the sake of making some profits in the short-term. So check.

And remember, you don’t need to just stick to Clickbank products. There are tons of other great products out there being affiliated through other networks or by themselves. So don’t miss those gems just because you only want to focus on CB.

This site is a great resource for anyone looking for great products to affiliate - www.AssociatePrograms.com

And lastly, don’t just promote any product that comes your way that you think is a good fit for your list. Why don’t you actually ASK what your list is actually looking for - what type of information do they want, what problems do they have and need to be solved, etc. In a nutshell, ask them what type of products they want and simply give it to them! Could it be any simpler?

The best way to do that is to create a simple survey and ask. I’ve done it before and the data you mine is really, really useful stuff to know. I mean, having your list tell you what they want to SPEND MONEY ON? You really want that sort of information.

If you’re looking for survey software, you can consider this - www.Ask500People.com. It’s free (oh yay..) and it looks pretty too. Another pretty popular option is this - www.SurveyMonkey.com. So ask away.

Hope this helps you out!

A tool that automatically steals IDs of non-encrypted sessions and breaks into Google Mail accounts has been presented at the Defcon hackers’ conference in Las Vegas.

Last week Google introduced a new feature in Gmail that allows users to permanently switch on SSL and use it for every action involving Gmail, and not only, authentication. Users who did not turn it on now have a serious reason to do so as Mike Perry, the reverse engineer from San Francisco who developed the tool is planning to release it in two weeks.

When you log in to Gmail the website sends a cookie (a text file) containing your session ID to the browser. This file makes it possible for the website to know that you are authenticated and keep you logged in for two weeks, unless you manually hit the sign out button. When you hit sign out this cookie is cleared.

Even though when you log in, Gmail forces the authentication over SSL (Secure Socket Layer), you are not secure because it reverts back to a regular unencrypted connection after the authentication is done. According to Google this behavior was chosen because of low-bandwidth users, as SLL connections are slower.

The problem lies with the fact that every time you access anything on Gmail, even an image, your browser also sends your cookie to the website. This makes it possible for an attacker sniffing traffic on the network to insert an image served from http://mail.google.com and force your browser to send the cookie file, thus getting your session ID. Once this happens the attacker can log in to the account without the need of a password. People checking their e-mail from public wireless hotspots are obviously more likely to get attacked than the ones using secure wired networks.

Perry mentioned that he notified Google about this situation over a year ago and even though eventually it made this option available, he is not happy with the lack of information. “Google did not explain why using this new feature was so important” he said. He continued and explained the implications of not informing the users, “This gives people who routinely log in to Gmail beginning with an https:// session a false sense of security, because they think they’re secure but they’re really not.”

If you are logging in to your Gmail account from different locations and you would like to benefit from this option only when you are using unsecured networks, you can force it by manually typing https://mail.google.com before you log in. This will access the SSL version of Gmail and it will be persistent over your entire session and not only during authentication.

Man, these type of things are real because recently one of my friends had his Gmail account compromised and there was a a lot of sensitive information inside. Thankfully, he got his account back without any damage done. But don’t take the freaking risk. How’s how to activate the SSL feature in your Gmail account:

1. Sign in to Gmail.
2. Click Settings at the top of any Gmail page.
3. Set ‘Browser Connection’ to ‘Always use https.’
4. Click Save Changes.
5. Reload Gmail.

That’s it! If you’re using Gmail, get that done and keep your noses clean.

Haha! Ok, besides the really cute accent (I’m sorry, I was bursting out laughing when I watched it) I think this video is a really great warning to Internet newbies out there that what you see is not always what you get on the Internet.

If it’s so easy to just do stuff like this, you bet your ass that there will be people out there who have no qualms using these methods to hook you, sell you their crap, and make off with your dough.

In fact, here’s a forum thread I stumbled upon where this bozo who had the nerve to actually fake his Clickbank earnings and sell his ’system’ to the forum. Now that’s not the dumb part. The REALLY dumb part is that even when some pretty sharp people spotted the obvious signs that it was scam, there were still people on the forum still DUMB enough to buy his shit. Can you fucking believe it?

Omigod! Are those people dumbasses or what? Ha!

Anyway, thanks Charles for the heads up on the video!