Category: Autoresponders

Week 8 – List Building

sky-blogWeek 8 is the end of Partnership to Success Phase 1.  Phase 1 was all about getting my blog all set up.  I will freely admit I am glad Phase 1 is ending.  I think my blog is acceptable, not great but better than some I have seen.  I also have to admit that I still don’t fully understand what the purpose of the blog is.  I am sure that will become apparent eventually.

This week added a couple more features to the blog.  First, I added a product called Link Supercharger.  Link Supercharger allows me to change affiliate links to customized links.  For example, the following link

http://a9fd24k-8ggj07mws3jg74o2t.hop,clickbank.net/?tis=XXXX

can be changed to

http://bobcaine.com/recommends/P2S

I think the new link is more likely to be clicked.  Installation of Link Supercharger could not be simpler.  Download to your computer; add a directory (‘recommends’ in my case) to the site; ftp a file to the new directory; enter the file location in your browser; enter a user name, password, and email; and you are done.  To produce the example above, copy the affiliate link in the space provided, enter the desired name, P2S, and click the create button.  That’s it.  The new link can be cloaked or uncloaked.   A cloaked link remains the same on the link’s web page.  An uncloaked link changes back to the original link.  Some vendors, like ClickBank, do not allow cloaking so make sure you check.  Link Supercharger has other functionality as well but I haven’t used any of those yet.

The finishing touch to the blog was the opt-in form that greets a visitor upon arrival at the blog.  The opt-in form was created with Aweber.  I sure couldn’t create that form with TrafficWave.  John walking through the creation was a necessity.  First, I would not have even known the capability to create a form that complex existed.  Secondly, the positioning of the actual form on the background was at the pixel level and would have required a lot of trial and error.  Aweber allows the setting of the delay, how it appears and how frequently it appears.  I was definitely impressed.  I need to take time and learn all the Aweber functionality.  I am sure there is a lot more there.

Week 7 – Essential Techniques

Legal StuffWeek 7 is about getting my blog ready for the world.  The first part of this is to add “legal stuff” to the blog.  Guess what?  There is a plugin for the legal pages.  The plugin is WP InstaLegalPages.  It contains the following nine legal pages.

  • Affiliate Disclosure
  • Amazon Affiliate Disclaimer (multiple countries available)
  • Anti-Spam Policy
  • Contact Us
  • Digital Millennium Copyright Act Notice
  • Earnings Disclaimer
  • Medical Disclaimer
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use

When activating the plugin, creates all nine pages as drafts.  The pages are fully editable as needed and published when ready.  I used all the pages except the Amazon Affiliate Disclaimer and the Medical Disclaimer.  Once published, seven new, boring pages appear on my menu.  Not the best result for a good-looking blog.  The solution is to create and publish a page called “Legal Stuff” or whatever you prefer.  The “Legal Stuff” page is the main page for all the legal pages.  Making the legal pages sub-pages to “Legal Stuff” is done through Appearance, Menu.  The Menu page allows you to drag and drop, up and down, your pages to create the sequence you want.  To make the legal pages sub-items to “Legal Stuff”, you drag them to the right.  Click save, view the blog.  Now, you see “Legal Stuff” with a down arrow on the main menu.  When the cursor is on “Legal Stuff”, the list of the legal pages displays.  Clicking on one of the legal pages displays that page.

Week 7 also taught how to add images and videos to a post.  I have added images to several posts but still have several that need images.  I am hoping to find a site to get decent free images.  No luck so far. I haven’t added a video yet but I will just for the experience.  I may even get adventuresome and create a video.

How to schedule publishing a post and emailing broadcasts to your lists at a future date and time is the last topic of the week.  This functionality is useful if you are unavailable when you want the post published or the broadcast sent.  This is definitely a handy feature for both WordPress and Aweber.  I am starting to see why Aweber costs a little more than other autoresponders.  It has more functionality.

Please leave comments to help me improve and return soon.

Week 2 – Reflections

columboBefore I plunge into week 3, I thought I would pause and share my thoughts about the Partnership to Success program.  With two weeks under my belt, I am impressed.  The videos are very well done.  Occasionally, the screens on the videos don’t match what I see.  That is a because of a difference in versions or the fact that I am doing something for the first time whereas John has already used a particular function.  This is not surprising and hasn’t caused any hardship completing tasks.  A couple of times I had to search briefly to find the correct screen but it didn’t take long.

So far, the most difficult task has been joining the Facebook group.  This is a “secret” group which requires Facebook to send an invitation to my Facebook email.  My Facebook email was forwarded to my inbox.com email address.  It worked fine if I sent an email to the Facebook email.  I received the forwarded email where it was suppose to be.  But it sure didn’t work when Facebook sent me email.  It just disappeared.  After 4 or 5 attempts, Facebook won’t send any more to that address.  I switched the forwarding to a gmail account and it worked first try.  Paula, tech support, tried every day for a week.  I am sure she was glad to get me off her list.  Since switching to the gmail account, I have learned I have been missing emails for a long time.

I told you in the week 2 post about my problems deciding what to put in my blog header.  Now, I need to find a picture or graphic for my Facebook page header.  Something other that a big black rectangle at the top would be more interesting.  I am hoping I can find a picture from the Alaska or China trips.  That shouldn’t be that hard for me to find one.  I hope.

I have to tell you, there is a small part of me that does not want to start week 3.  Why?  The program uses Aweber as the autoresponder of choice.  I already have TrafficWave.  Everybody doing internet sales needs an autoresponder but 2?  I might be able to figure out how to use TrafficWave to do the same things but from what I have seen Aweber is more integrated with programs we are going to be using.  Optimizepress has a direct interface with Aweber and so does JVZoo.  I would drop TrafficWave but it is tied to a couple of other programs I am promoting.

The lessons for each week definitely don’t take a week.  So far, they don’t take a day.  I am sure this is partly because I have done most of this before and because John wants us to get used to writing posts.  Somewhere I heard John say I needed at least 10 posts before I can add any Adsense ads to the blog.  This is number 8.  Plus, I need the practice writing.  I didn’t realize how out of practice I was.  I am sure there are lessons to come that will take me longer.

On to week 3!

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All feedback is welcomed and helpful and the more the better.