In my last post I wrote about the Directory Network Association. Here is the link if you are interested in learning more. BTW it is not an affiliate link, just posting as I thought people may want to get in on this.

I would but can’t afford the price tag they are asking.

Here it is

Directory Network Association

Earlier today I was on a live call hosted by Jack Humphrey. From what people say he is a well respected authority on Social Marketing. He his one of the owners of Authority Site Center and he has also published a great guide to Social Marketing. You can pick it up for free at Authority Black Book. I have read this guide and there were a heap of great tips I picked up to use on my sites. Did I mention that it is free?

Getting back to the call. It was promoted as “The Next Great Internet Opportunity” and a call not to be missed. In the call which was also a webinar it would be a pitch free information call that talked about trends in the internet that are going to be huge. All of that had me intrigued. That surely was something I did not want to miss out on.

So there I was listening to the information. Joining Jack Humphrey were Mark Braunstein from vTribes, Monica Holbrook and Benjamin Prater. They started off by talking about how small businesses are looking for an alternative for Yellow Pages advertising and about how Google just has not really captured the local area advertising market.

Next they had Benjamin talk about Apple Iphone applications and how these may be used along with geo-targeting to help people find local information as they are out shopping or wanting some food. All this sounded interesting. They also talked about something called Cloud computing, you can look it up on wikipedia if you don’t know what that is.

During all this time the speakers went on to say we are here to teach you about the trends of the future and we are not selling any internet widgets or stuff like that. After having me all excited and thinking wow this is great information out comes what they were really wanting to talk about.

Presenting DNA!! What are you talking about you might say,  isn’t DNA that scientific stuff? No. In this case it is the Directory Network Association. There is a website that explains more. I will have a link to this tomorrow.

This is a network of sites that will have an address such as http://directoryoflongbeach.com. You can check out that site to see an example site. This is a site that has all sorts of information about Long Beach in California. The aim of the site is to attract local advertisers so that they can connect with people wanting information about businesses in that city. It all sounds great but when you are expecting a pitch free call the bit that came next was a bit surprising.

They announced that they have bought up the directoryofcityname sites for all of the major US cities and also many foreign travel destinations or cities and for $3000 or $5000 for the more popular locations such as New York, Chicago and Los Angeles you can buy a domain that gets you in on the network. The sale of these domains takes place next Tuesday.

It was interesting that during the call you could see other cities around the world being snapped up using the domain name of directoryofcityname. My city of Canberra was available when I first looked but by the time my stupid internet connection stuffed around and connected me to my domain buying site it was gone.

If you think this sounds good and you are interested in learning more check back tomorrow as I will have a link to the site that has all the information.

For me I would love to be part of the network but the price keeps me out of it. I just have to say for a no pitch webinar it is funny how it turned out. A $3000 opportunity is hardly a no pitch kind of thing. The bad thing about all of this is that it looks like being something huge, at least if they can pull it off. Time will tell.

Don’t forget to come back tomorrow if you are wanting more information.

Hi there. I have been a way for a while from my blog. I went to Beijing for all of August and before that I was working on a project that was related to the Olympics. I was trying to cash in on my time in Beijing however not being able to access all of my sites while I was over there threw a spanner in the works.

This site was one that I could not access. I put it down to the host I am using. All of the sites hosted by the company I use for this site could not be accessed while another set of sites were fine. As I have shared hosting I assume there is something on some site that shares my host that has offended the Chinese.

Going to Beijing was great, although I really must learn Chinese to add to the experience. As I could not speak the local language I could not get a good grip on just how the Chinese were getting into the Olympic experience. Compared with the Sydney Olympics it seemed the grumpy Olympics. The security was over the top and also the language barrier did not help.

I can’t say the Chinese are not friendly or fun loving people, it was just the organisers took security a bit too seriously.

Now that I am back at home base I have been thinking what do I want to focus on nowadays. When I went away to Beijing I was planning on getting stuck into learning Camtasia and video editing in general. The Olympics got in the way of that as I spent time watching all the exciting sporting stuff. Also getting out and seeing the city took time.

After I got back I took a few weeks off as my family and I settled back into life in Canberra. After Beijing it was so quiet here.

It now seems that the economic troubles hitting the US will come into play all around the world. It is amazing to see such huge losses take place. My father keeps telling me about the business practices that the captains of industry in the USA follow and it is no surprise that the current mess came about.

From what he says there has been too many people just doing too many things the wrong way. Speaking about that how many of you out there are trying to start a home business to earn some extra cash during the bad times or to improve your living standard? If that is you do you have a plan that shows where you are heading and steps you through each day.

I have recently come to the realization that it is a lack of a plan that has seen me go nowhere in the internet world. I am too busy being busy doing nothing constructive. I do a bit here a bit there all without a real game plan. Does that sound like you?

I am currently in the middle of a free course called 16 steps to success. It has great content and the guy teaching the course points out that the main reason for failure is not following a detailed plan as well as not doing the right market research at the start of a project. It is all good stuff so far. I have just got to get myself organised and map out my business.

It is good to be back.

Below is a promotional interview from Michael Cheney. As it does provide some basic information that may be useful to newbie’s I thought I would publish it here.

I am also working on a guide for getting started online step by step. As my guide is not yet ready I thought I would give Michael a plug. Not that he really needs it.

How To Make Money Online (yes, even if you’re a newbie)

Have you noticed how difficult it is to actually get any REAL information about how to make money online?

It’s a nightmare isn’t it? You start off buying up everything you come across – all promising your overnight riches but only to disappoint you and leave you out of pocket. Well it doesn’t have to be like that as Michael Cheney is about to explain in this interview.
Michael Cheney, one of the most-respected names in Internet marketing, has been online since 1995 and is the man behind the 6-Figure launches of AdSense Videos, 11 Days To List Profits and Michael’s Traffic Videos.

After receiving 1489 responses to a survey he put out to his list one big request came back from almost everyone;

“Give us something easy, step-by-step and proven to make money online that anyone can do!”

So that’s what he’s giving you in the new product Start Your Profits Today.

Q. Michael, thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to talk with us today.

A. My pleasure – I know a lot of people out there want to get started making money online so it’s my job to get out and spread the word about how easy it is.

Q. So what do you see as being the main hurdles to newbies being able to make money on the internet? What is it that’s stopping them?

A. To be honest with you I think the main thing is information. There is just so much BAD information out there. Scams. Cons. Just bad information that is leading people astray and wasting their time and money. I mean you get onto the Internet and the first thing you see almost is these get-rich-quick schemes. It’s not your fault for seizing these so-called opportunities as they are presented so well. And believe me – I know there are thousands of you out there who have been taken for a ride by things like this. People on my list have been telling me this.

Q. Yes, you ran survey didn’t you to ask your list what they wanted? What sort of questions did you ask them and what did they say?

A. Well I asked how I could most help them. You know – I’ve been online since 1995 and make a lot of money online but I was keen to tap into their BIGGEST challenges and needs. So I asked them what sort of information they wanted to learn. What style of learning they preferred and how they wanted this information to be delivered. I was totally blown away by the responses – I got 1489 people completing the survey!

Q. So what did they say?

A. There some big common themes that kept coming up as I looked at the responses and all the comments. These were that people want something that is STEP BY STEP, something that is AFFORDABALE and something that takes you right FROM BEGINNING and doesn’t leave anything out. You can get really frustrated when you start investing in products that claim to make you money online only to find that leave out a massive piece of the jigsaw. Or they forget to mention that you need to buy X, Y and Z just to make their system work. And that’s where Start Your Profits Today is different.

Q. How do you mean exactly?

A. Well, for the first time – I take you, as a total newbie beginner, right through the entire process from beginning to end on making money online. You discover how to get your own website address, how to create your website and how to start bringing the money in by selling other people’s products. This is a distilled version of the best making-money techniques I have ever used in my 13 years’ online experience. This is quite simple the fastest, easiest and best way to make money online and I show you what to do every step of the way.

Q. Sounds great. So how do you take people through all these steps?

A. Simple – I have recorded short videos on-screen of me actually doing each of these steps so you just follow the simple success formula – WATCH. COPY. EARN. You cannot go wrong, even a child could do it. I’m serious!

Q.You’re right, it does sound really easy. So tell me, what are some of these steps that you go through in Start Your Profits Today?

A. You learn how to pinpoint the most profitable products to promote. You like that title?! I like to have snappy titles that inspire you to take action as it’s not all sexy make-money stuff right from the beginning. There are obviously crucial steps you need to take in preparation. You know – to get your website online, to get your website address and to add words and pictures to your website etc.

Q. So what exactly do you need if you’re a beginner starting out trying to make online? Are there some items you need to buy?

A. Great question – yes you do need to have a few essentials. You just can’t make money online without them. You’ll need your own website address and of course your own website. I show you where to get this and the best, cheapest place to go for this in Start Your Profits Today. Other than that you can do everything else pretty much for free.

Q. So you don’t need to buy lots of different things to get started online?

A. No not all. I’m a big believer in doing things that are free! I started out with nothing, working from my bedroom in a poxy one-bed bachelor apartment. Now I live in $800,000 house in the country. My point? When I started out if there was a free way to do something – I found it! And I’m still that way now so I uncover some of these insider money-saving secrets in the videos as well.

Q. So wrapping up then – who would you say would benefit from these videos? Do you need to have a basic level of knowledge on the internet to get started?

A. If you can turn on your computer you are good to go! Seriously! You’ll see that I take you by the hand and guide you through every step of the way. I hate jargon so you won’t see any of that and it’s all explained in simple English and you can go along and progress through to the money at your own pace.

Q. You really do seem to have created a product that every newbie is going to want! So I guess the big question is – how much money can they make using Start Your Profits Today?

A. Well this all really depends on your attitude. If you have a great attitude and you put in the time to go through the steps then there is honestly no limit. You could quite easily be bringing in a few hundred to a few thousand extra dollars a week once you are up and running. What you need to remember is that is exactly the same system that I use in my multi-million dollar business. It works for me, it works for thousands of other people and it will work for you too.

Q. That’s great Michael. Thank you again for your time today, I really appreciate you doing this interview for us. Well all that remains now is for anyone listening to this interview to get over to Start Your Profits Today and start your profits today!

I don’t know how long it has been happening for but there is a recent trend where someone will offer you a free DVD with some valuable information. The trick is you need to pay for postage,which I guess is reasonable to expect.

To cover the postage you are usually asked to provide credit card details. Here is where you need to pay attention. Don’t get excited and just jump to the end of the sales page and go to order.

Read everything. Somewhere on the page there might be some text lurking that is something like this:

“That’s right, you get an entire month free to put all the material in the DVD and the magazine to use in your business. After your free month I will automatically charge you the same low $37.97 price I extend my preferred, long time clients. ”

I have to admit I made the mistake of not paying attention with one of these offers. When I received a second DVD I soon realised  what was happening. I then asked to have the subscription cancelled using the orders email address that came with the order. That seems to be my next mistake.

In the mail a month later there was another DVD and magazine. I was not impressed. I then went to the website promoted on the magazine. I found the contact us link…clicked. It did not work. Hmmm. Was this link not working by design or by error?

Anyways I clicked on a link that showed my the sales pages again and funnily enough it worked. I then found the information I had missed before. You know, that text I mention above. It also had in very small print an email address to contact to cancel the subscription.

I have now emailed again to ask for the cancellation.  I also checked the order form again to see how prominent the text about the membership was. It is listed as Bonus #2. It is something easily overlooked.

Have you had this same experience? Or do you pay more attention than me? I have learned my lesson, I hope I have helped you avoid the same thing.

What do you think of this marketing tactic?