Very quick review here of Asus customer service & warranty service . In short, think of something really bad, double it, double it again, and you still may not be close to just how awful I have found them to be….

By the way – I am not libeling anyone here, I am talking about my experiences with Asus and their support contractors,  and my opinions as a result of  my experience.

I purchased an Asus Eeepc about 6 months ago for my wife to use at home, just for normal stuff, web, email etc – and in terms of the product itself, cannot fault it, brilliant. But then, the keyboard stopped working, so I thought – OK, no problem, very easy things to replace, I’ll just buy one and replace it myself – and guess what, I couldn’t find (in the UK) a replacement laptop for this netbook ANYWHERE!!

So, i opted to send it back for repair under warranty instead, since it’s only 6 months old.

First of all, trying to get it through the asus website was a complete nightmare, the website gave me 404 errors at various points, then when I finally got to the right page, it told me that the product was already registered – which it certainly wasn’t ! So then, when I finished completing the form, I got no reply, a few days later after multiple emails, Asus support finally emailed me to say that they required a proof of purchase – I sent this to them, they confirmed, and a few days later they collected the eeepc.

about 3 weeks later, I had heard nothing, so I phoned them & they informed me they were looking into it. After roughly 5 weeks, I got a quote from Asus support dept (which is a third party – SBE Ltd in Ashford, Kent), telling me that they had decided that the keyboard had been water damaged, and they want over £50 to repair it – which was broken down as £7.84 for the keyboard, and the rest “diagnosis, processing and delivery” .

So I phoned them, and told them I disagree with their findings, and I want them to send it back to me so I can get it looked at by an independent third party (which I’m informed by consumer direct, they have to do by selling regulations) they refused, and said I had two options – pay them the fifty something quid, or the netbook gets it…. seriously, there’s no middle ground, if  I do not pay them – they destroy the netbook.

I spoke to trading standards, they informed me that they’re breaking various trading rules by doing this – I spoke to them on the phone, both to SBE (who they sub contract their support to in the UK) and to Asus directly – and they both told me, that basically, they don’t care – this is their terms, if I don’t like it, then do whatever I want….

I asked them why the heck it was so expensive given that it was listed on the quote as only £7.84 for the part – and I was informed that what I was paying for, was for the consultancy work they had already done in diagnosing what the problem was – and delivery, since they’d made the decision that it wasn’t covered by warranty, then I had to pay for that. When I pointed out that they’re completely in the wrong by making a decision and not giving me the option to have a third party independently check it before paying them for this – they didn’t have much to say about that.

If they said to me “pay a tenner for delivery – and we’ll send it you back to get it independently checked” – then in my opinion that would have been fair – but instead, they’re saying that I have to pay them their consultancy rate for the diagnoses they’ve already done, before they will send it back to me, after which time I can do whatever the heck I want to with it, basically….

Consumer direct told me to tell my card company to do a chargeback – I spoke to my card company who informed me that because the purchase was more than 3 months ago – they can’t, so short of taking them to court, all I could do was pay them – but it doesn’t end there…

I paid them on the phone on the 12th of April, it’s now the 2nd of May – and guess what, still no eeepc…. I phoned them just now, and was told (after waiting on hold for about 5 mins) that they’re waiting for the keyboard to come in, and that it would probable be there in another week or so….

So – I am not saying that Asus or EeePC products are bad, in fact I’ve been very happy at the quality of the product itself – but would I EVER buy another Asus product  again? Absolutely not!!

I reviewed Aweber a couple of years ago – I’m still using Aweber as my email marketing and list building platform, so I thought I’d give another shout out to this brilliant tool!

Aweber is probably one of the very best investments I’ve ever made – whats’s more, it costs $1 for the first month! After this it’s $19 per month until your list grows – if you’re not making a fantastic profit on the cost of your subscription, then it’s time to go back to the drawing board!

The delivery rate is fantastic, it’s immensely easy to create lists, and to develop autoresponder series, the stats are brilliant, as is the ability to create segments from these stats… for instance, you can go into your stats, see who read the email, see who clicked it, and choose to send a follow up email to specific groups –  you could choose to send the same email again the next day but with a different subject header, to anyone who didn’t open the email. You can choose to send another email to anyone who opened the email but didn’t click – and you could choose to send a second email to anyone who did click. Very advanced.

Creating forms is very simple to do, and the form choice is great – and it’s very easy to customize the form, for instance you can even use the forms to create in depth quotation request forms, as I’ve done in the past.

I’ve tried other email marketing platforms, most of which have cost me a LOT more than Aweber, and I’ve never found one of them as good! The support is briliant, on the very rare chance that you’ll even need support – as it just works! They have got their sh!t together, so to speak, things just do what they’re supposed to, you click send – and it sends, you set up autoresponders and they go when they’re supposed to – it just works! I can’t even remember the last time I needed to contact support, it certainly wasn’t in 2012, in fact I don’t think I needed support from them at all in 2011 either.

This post is about some of the best wordpress themes that I’ve used in 2012 & 2011, that I would recommend for anyone who’s wanting to develop an income online, whether as an affiliate marketer, or through promoting their own products or services on the web. As a successful web marketer you’ll have many tools in your arsenal, including wordpress themes – in my opinion, if you’re not using wordpress, you’re missing out – and one of the reasons for this is the awesome theme’s available, and the brilliant plugins of course. If you’re a career web marketer, then you’ll probably want a few different themes – I have a folder full of them, I’m always on the lookout for great new wp themes to add to my toolbox – as well as plugins. If you’re fairly new to web marketing and have so far invested mainly in learning materials, this is one major shift you’re likely to notice, that you stop investing in ebooks & courses – and instead you start investing in tools, that you can use over & over again to gain real returns.

The best premium wordpress themes

in my opinion:

The Ultimate Blogging Theme -  The theme by 16 yearold “kid blogger” Carl Ocab, who gained internet theme when he gained no1 ranking for “make money online” . OK, there is discussion on the warrior forum about the fact that actually this is the son of successful marketer Aron Ocab, and that it may have been a case of his father using his son’s name in order to cash in on the angle of “kid blogger” by doing some or all of the work…but who cares. The Theme is very clever, very easy to use, and has some great features.

Socrates - One of the most popular premium wordpress themes for people who want a fast solution for creating profitable websites and blogs. Very fast & simple to work with, very quick & easy to personalise with custom header or choose a stock header, layout choices are very simple, links & ads / adsense very simple to set up. It may not be as flexible and advances as some of the others, but when I want to build & populate a wordpress site quickly & I don’t have any spefic requirements which require more flexibility, then I go for Socrates.

Thesis - Arguably the most popular premium wordpress theme for more advanced users. Thesis isn’t just a theme, it’s a “framework” – if you just want to buy a theme & be up & running immediately, thesis probably isn’t for you, and if you consider yourself a newby technically speaking, then again it’s probably not for you. If you’re more of an advanced marketer, and you’re wanting to put some time in to set something up which then enables you to create your own custom websites / blogs exactly how you want them, then Thesis may be for you. Many developers use Thesis when creating websites for clients.

Authority Pro Theme - Very slick theme, packed with features! This isn’t the kind of theme for throwing up small niche sites – for this I usually go with socrates, but if you’re planning to build bigger sites, and you need more features, I’d have a look at this theme. I beleive that as with thesis, there are many developers who use this theme to create websites for clients. Again this is more than just a theme, probably somewhere in between flexsqueeze and Thesis.

Flexsqueeze - I love this theme, it takes more time to setup for each site than socrates does, but it’s great if you need a bit more flexibility. In fact, this blog that you’re reading right now is on flexsqueeze. Lots of options in flexsqueeze, but it’s all very simple at the same time, a beginner may need to spend a little time finding their feet – but not as much as with Authority pro or Thesis, it’s very straight forward, there are just quite a few options, once you’ve played around with it a bit it’s very straight forward.

Authority Pro Theme - Very slick theme, packed with features! This isn’t the kind of theme for throwing up small niche sites – for this I usually go with socrates, but if you’re planning to build bigger sites, and you need more features, I’d have a look at this theme. I beleive that as with thesis, there are many developers who use this theme to create websites for clients.

Market Theme – Ecommerce WordPress Theme - Brilliant eCommerce theme. If you’re wanting to create ecommerce / online shop sites with wordpress, check this out. Very simple to use.

Acme - Created by Dan Nickerson, co-creator of Socrates – This is a child theme of the twenty ten theme. If you like the twenty ten theme but you wish you could do more with it, then this may be a nice theme for you.

Film Maker Theme - This is a unique theme, aimed at people who want to create their own movies & sell them online – but actually it has multiple uses. Basically what this theme allows you to do is create a very cool looking movie tailor website, and link from your trailer to Amaxon, iTunes, Hulu & Netflix, so you can sell your movie. Great idea as a money maker, find niche video’s (could be movies, could be instructional) on Amazon, create your own site – wuth a textual review, and run the trailer along with your Amazon affiliates link…

Band WP Theme - Great theme for anyone wanting to create a bands website, with a very easy system for uploading tracks, one click twitter & facebook integration & LOTS more. I’m a musician, I’m not in a band at the moment but back when I was – we would have been thrilled to have a band website the likes of which this simple wordpress theme can allow you to create in less than an hour.

A note about the word free – if you’re looking towards the web as a way to develop an income, just remember the old saying, “you have to speculate to accumulate” – OK, if you really have absolutely no money, and it’s a complete necessity that you get everything you need free – then that’s unavoidable, but just beware that in most cases if you’re looking for free, you’re making a trade off, while it’s free in terms of the initial transaction not carrying with it a fee, it may not be free in real terms, when it comes to the value you may have got if you’d gone for a paid premium wordpress theme, or the extra time you may have to put in with free themes. So if you do have a few quid to invest – then if you invest in one of these themes, it really is an investment, not a cost.

Investing vs. spending – the key is RETURN.

Just keep in mind that there is a difference between investing money & spending money. Spending means putting money into something which brings no return, investing means putting in money into something for a return. Business is all about return on investment, (ROI) return on money invested, and return on time & effort invested. One of the key skills of successful business people, is knowing what to invest in, in order to bring about a return. What successful business people do NOT do, is waste precious time & effort trying to find things for free, instead they simply figure out what they’re best investing in, in order to get the best returns.

One of the issues I find with people who’re relatively new to online marketing, is they are looking at things back to front & upside down, they forget that they’re in business & what they need to do is invest wisely to bring about a return, and they often tend to waste hours & hours of precious time messing about with free stuff. Often times people waste money on stuff that they’re not going to get a return on (such as purchasing numerous eBooks & courses promising the latest silver bullet for web marketing success) , and then try to scrimp on the stuff that really does stand to bring them a return.

A few days ago I wrote a post about traffic kaboom $1 trail ,  and I’ve since heard that the trial is no longer active,  Doh! I think this blog network is so brilliant, that I’ve decided to offer a traffic kaboom discount in a unique way.

By the way, it’s kaboom not caboom , I’ve noticed that a few people refer to it as traffic caboom, or even traffik caboom – not that it really matters…

Here’s how this discount thing works.

Click here to join traffic kaboom and then after 60 days –  forward me your clickbank order number (the order number you will receive by the clickbank network as soon as you order)  along with the URL of your website (your website address) and your most important search term(s), and I will do the following for you – free of charge:

1: Review your on-page SEO – and let you know if there are any areas which I feel you can improve

2: Review the search terms you’re focusing on - and let you know if I think you’re focusing on the wrong search terms, and if so – why.

3: I will blog about your website here – including a backlink to your website.

4: Send you a unique strategy for creating an income stream as an affiliate marketer - this is completely unique, it’s a system you cannot buy, anywhere – you will love it, it’s very simple, makes complete sense, and you’ll kick yourself that you didn’t come up with the strategy yourself.)

OR – if there is some specific SEO service you would like instead, just contact me & we’ll see what we can do.

So you’re receiving a discount by way of receiving something of value from me – not a cash discount (simply because this is against Clickbank’s terms) but something which is of value to you.

How can I offer you this discount if I don’t own traffic kaboom?

The reason I can offer this discount if you purchase via the link above (or you can purchase via this link right here) is that I’m a clickbank affiliate, I’ll earn a commission when you order via my link – which enables me to offer you this value. Some people offer products or other bonuses to readers or subscribers who order via their affiliate link, I’m offering the above services free of charge.

Why does this discount have to come after 60 days?

The reason it has to come after 60 days, is that this is the refund period – you can request a refund within 60 days, and if a refund is requested, I lose the affiliate commission, so if I put the time in to do the above but within the refund period, and then a refund is requested, I’m putting the time in to do this for nothing. I don’t like working for nothing!

So there you go, quite simple really – if you join traffic kaboom via my affiliate link, I’ll give you a discount via services to the value of the affiliate commission I receive.

Why don’t I offer a refund via a cash rebate after the 60 day refund period?

I would, that’s simple – but clickbank would kick my ass, as it’s against their terms. I’ve been a clickbank affiliate for years, I wouldn’t do anything that would risk losing my account.

So there you go, a very valid way for you to get a traffic kaboom discount

If you’re wondering what this is & whether it’s worth investing in;  Google (and other search engines, but Google is the best in terms of market share currently, by a long way) positions are the new hot property. You’ve heard the term “location location location” in property / real estate, well it’s the same with the internet – the top of Google for a given search term is the place to be, and no matter how fantastic a website is, unless it’s located towards the top of Google & the other search engines, it’s not going to earn you anywhere near the kind of return that it could do if it was.  Most people are aware of this, but what most aren’t aware of is how to get websites to the top of Google.

There are a number of things that you can do, you can hire an SEO company (from anywhere from a couple of hundred to a few thousand per month, depending on how competitive the search term(s), or you can do it yourself and save a lot of money but invest time & effort – if this is the route you’re taking, then one of the things you really should look into, is an article & video syndication – and you’re not going to get much better than traffic kaboom (in my humble opinion) than TK.  Click Here to find out more and / or purchase.

So you’ve heard about this new product Online Profit Bot, you may have watched the video and be wondering what it is, who’s behind it, is it a scam, has anyone else tried it & are there any honest reviews on the warrior forum, etc. In general you want to know more.

I don’t blame you either, while the video is very provocative, and the guy shows you a video of his various clickbank accounts so you can see that this isn’t a fake – he kind of contradicts himself, in slagging off those “scum sucking guru’s” (his words not mine) who don’t even show their face on their website – well, OK his face is there, but it doesn’t say who he is, what his name is, who’s behind the program etc., so I don’t think he can blame anyone from thinking this may be some kind of a scam, or hunting for GENUINE reviews first before grabbing this online profit bot program.

He starts off by talking about how many websites showing screen grabs of affiliate commissions are photoshop created fakes, and uses this to build into a pitch in which  he shows video’s of his clickbank accounts to show that he’s for real & not fake.

Very good, very clever, brilliant presentation skills, and appears clear that the clickbank & other accounts he’s showing on video are not faked, but in actual fact this could be faked too, any developer worth their salt could knock up a copy of clickbank & allow him to create a video which shows staggering commissions in what appears to be a clickbank account.

The best way for him to have established that he’s not fake, would have been to tell us his name, so that we can Google him & find out that he’s the real deal & not some flash in the pan trickster just trying to grab some money off you before he disappears into the night…

As you’ll see in the video below, he makes some HUGE income claims.

So I did some digging, and from what I can make out, the people behind this program are Paul Liburd, Antonio Giuditta & Chris Tylor (this info was on the Warrior forum). I haven’t heard of these guys before, but from a bit of searching I can see that they have a track record for creating software for the affiliate marketing arena – and that they’re apparently super affiliates. I can see that they were the brains behind a previous program called “zero cost commission” – and in the sales pitch for this software, they were saying very similar things about how they make their money, so I can’t see anything contradictory. As far as I’m aware these guy’s aren’t up there on the who’s who of web marketing “Guru’s” – and actually this intrigues me instead of putting me off.

You see, with the very well known gurus who release hit program after hit program (software, ebooks, courses etc.) there’s always the question, how much can a guru like this who has built up a massive list, help someone who is just starting out – because they’re on a different planet with different challenges, for instance a “guru” with a reponsive list of tens of thousands, can make thousands per month by just sending out a broadcast email every few days, and hire people to create products for them, etc., so when they create a program for us mere mortals, they’re creating a product to sell – in theory, the best products for those of us who want to make money online, or make more money online, as an affiliate, would come from those who are making their money by doing exactly this – selling affiliate products – who just pop their heads up, and say – “hmm OK, I’m making a ton of money online as an affiliate, here this is something I use, now you can do the same…”

For this reason, when it comes to the latest eBooks, courses etc., a number of years ago I stopped buying into such publications / products, because I came to learn that I wasn’t buying info about how someone like me is making a load of money online, I was buying info that had been specifically created by (or for) a guru with a huge following to sell to people looking for info on making more money online… See the difference?

So when I do take notice of products like this, is when it appears to be a genuine case of someone having learned how to make fortune with a particular system (i.e. thanks to their system, and not because they’ve achieved guru status & have massive lists & tonnes of affiliates waiting to promote their latest product) and deciding to share it.

It’s not often, as far as I’m aware, that this happens – in fact I think it very, very rarely does happen.  Think about it, if you’re quietly making thousands per day while sat in a coffee shop with a latte & staring into space, while pressing a button or two on your Macbook Air, why would you want to share that with anyone to make a few extra grand? Especially considering that sharing this with someone would take the effort of turning it into a product, customer service etc – who in their right mind, who’s earning the kind of cash that is being stated here with some amazing system, would want to mess about creating a product & dealing with people??

Well, that’s what makes me question online profit bot somewhat, if it’s such a fantastic system, why the heck are these guys sharing it?

Also – why whoisblock their domain name? the onlineprofitbot.com domain has a protected whois, so you can’t see the name and address of the registrant. I suppose I’m being a bit  cynical here, to be fair it’s very common to do this – and when you’re registering with some registrants the whois block is selected automatically, so I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt & assume that they’re not doing this to hide who they are & where they are.

And with regards why they’re sharing it, I suppose there is an argument to say that if there’s three guys in partnership, they may have goals, to build their list & make even more money, and having their own products gives some level of security that affiliate marketing can’t offer in the long term – so I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt.

What is Online Profit Bot?

OK so we’ve had the discussion on the sales video, and who is behind it – now what is it?

I have to tell you that at this point, I’ve not downloaded it (I will) and this info is coming from various sources, the warrior forum, and various other snippets of info – when I’ve downloaded it, I’ll come and edit this section & let you know ins lot more detail exactly what the online profit bot software is.

It’s a piece of software along with 5 video training modules.

The software includes the following features: keyword research, product research, website builder & “traffic robot”.

Looking at it in terms of what it is claiming to be, it looks quite promising. Keyword research and product research are immensely important areas which many beginners either don’t do, or don’t do properly – so if it does this well, this could be interesting. Website creation is again something which will help new affiliate marketers, if you’re more than happy to create wordpress sites for example, then maybe you won’t need this – but many new web marketers struggle when it comes to website building, so again, interesting. The traffic robot part of the software would be a very important piece of the puzzle, if they’ve created something which can drip feed some decent mixed PR, niche relevant, contextual anchor text specific backlinks – then as long as you create some unique content for each site, and as long as the search term research that the software does is good & you’re finding relatively ”low hanging fruit” then this could be a very interesting combination of tools, especially if the training modules are great.

In and of itself, a package like this is not unique, there are other tools out there which claim to be all in one money makers, keyword research, site builder, traffic generation – what interests me about this however is the fact that they appear to have proof of staggering income,  and they don’t appear to be known “Guru’s” so if they are actually out there making this kind of money actually doing “ground level affiliate marketing” and they didn’t actually get all these mega sales figures by selling other products like this (which doesn’t seem to be the case as I can’t find other products created by the same people) then – very interesting!

When I’ve had the time to download & test the product, I’ll edit this part of the online profit bot review.

Is Online Profit Bot a SCAM?

Simple answer to this is no. A scam is illegal, it’s taking someone’s hard earned money & not giving in return what is promised. This is a software package with training videos – so it’s certainly not a “brick in a TV box” scam, you’re getting something in return for your money.

What people really mean when they ask is something a scam, is does it really live up to the hype, is it as good as they say it is. Well, if you apply this test to all products, you’ll come up with the conclusion that EVERYTHING is a scam. Just look how amazing a big mac is on a TV commercial, they NEVER look like that when you get them – does that make a burger a scam too?

So, yes I would probably hazard a guess that once I have downloaded & tried this software & watched the training videos, that  I may well come to the conclusion that actually it’s not as steaming & as tasty as the sales pitch would make it appear – just like with a big Mac (but I’m vegetarian anyway so a big Mac doesn’t do much for me – but I wasn’t always veggie so I’m going from memory…) – but what do we expect? It’s not a good sales video if it doesn’t hype things up & state that the product is the best thing since sliced bread – doesn’t make it a scam if they have gone over the top a bit – all sales pitches go over the top, whether you’re being sold to on the phone, in person, via a website sales page or a video, you can usually bet your bottom dollar that it’s not going to be understated, conservative &  ”to the facts” – because if it did, it would flop! But having said that, if it’s even a faction as good as this video makes it out to be then it’s worth a LOT more than the price!!

I’ve just read a post online that someone has just started using it and is making a hundred quid a day so far  - so that’s promising, but it could be anyone saying this, including the creator of the product , so, we’ll see. I’ll download it & give it a try, come back in a few weeks  & i’ll hopefully have increased this review into a full case study.

So here is a review of the new clickbank code by Jesse Regan & Tim Bekker – and, savour this – because it’s not often you’ll actually read a negative review of any affiliate product – but I’m afraid this is going to be a negative review. It’s not all bad though, through the doom & gloom, there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

I didn’t read the original clickbank code, so I can’t tell you how the NEW clickbank code is new…

I have absolutely nothing against Jesse Regan or Tim Bekker, I haven’t previously purchased any of their products, and this review is completely honest and unbiased.

The first thing I’ll say, is the affiliate – who’s list I’m on – who sent me the link to this, uses the trick which I find a bit underhand, which is to put a load of line breaks between the end of the email and the unsubscribe link. This always makes me laugh, because the unsub link is there to ensure CANSPAN compliance, but if you shove a load of line breaks in to ensure that the reader can’t see the link without scrolling to the bottom of the email – then it’s not actually compliant at all. But why hide it – if the emails are good I won’t unsubscribe. Hiding it makes me question the integrity of the sender – and, as a result of hiding his unsub link – I have now unsubscribed from his list… (well, he got a commission from me first, because I decided to buy “the new clickbank code” – and no, I didn’t steal his commission  when clicking on the link – of course as an affiliate marketer I know how to do this, and it’s very commonly done, but I don’t do it as I think it’s unfair & underhand).

Anyway, I clicked the link – and went to the video page:

The first words “Congratulate yourself, because somehow, someway, you made it here!”

Erm……. CRINGE! Talk about taking yourself too seriously….

The video goes on to state that everyone else is peddling BS, and that this is the only real source of true information on making money via clickbank. Hmm, some bold statements! This one is one of the funniest for me:

“In fact, THE only page in this debased industry..that’s NOT actually interested in your 37 or 47 bucks…”

What’s so funny about this – is that OK this program us currently very cheap at $7 for a series of PDF’s and video’s – BUT, the minute you order, you’re taken to an offer to sign up for a monthly subscription which is a few dollars for a trial period & then $37 per month – so, yeah they ARE actually interested in your 37 bucks – monthly. This is fine, it may well be worth this (if it’s as good as they say then undoubtedly it is worth it), but what isn’t fine is the fact that he’s trying to make out that he’s there to help you, and he’s not interested in marketing is products, and this is the very BS that he is accusing all other marketers of peddling.

Not only this, but in this video, you’re given the impression that this program available for $7 is the mutts nuts, the bomb, the “code” that is going to enable you to make money online –  but guess what, as soon as you buy this, the offer page offers the same, for a monthly fee – so I’m confused, if I have to sign up to the monthly to get this “Gem” that is referred to, then what is “The New Clickbank Code” program that I just bought that they stated is $197 but currently reduced to $7????

Also – in the video he puts down other WMers for making over the top statements – and then in the offer page, he claims they just spent $20k on coding a script, and on the very page this claim is made, is an istockphoto image that has not been paid for so the watermark is still on – funny, they can shell out $20k for coding, but can’t pay about $5 for an image license?

On the website sales page he says this about the “Guru’s” :  ”Almost everything out of their mouths is a complete fabrication…” Well – watching this video, and buying the product, I guess this makes him a Guru by his own standards!

So, anyway – what about the product, what is this amazing code they’re talking about?

To be fair there are some really good bits of info contained in the PDF’s and the videos, but most of it isn’t at all what I was expecting. The main code they’re referring to (I think – it’s all a bit confusing to be honest)  is concerning list marketing & clickbank affiliate marketing, and it’s actually quite interesting, but I really don’t know how this info could be responsible for the kind of figures they’re discussing, it’s something that may be a neat addition if you’re doing a lot of list marketing, but in my humble opinion it’s really not the silver bullet that they appear to be claiming that it is. That being said, there are some good chunks of info in there that I think are actually more valuable than what they’re referring to as the valuable code. For me, I just wish they’d ditched a load of the fluff and waffle and kept it streamlined to the really valuable chunks of info.

One thing that does make me really giggle, is that quite a bit of the program is dedicated to telling you how & why to use something called traffic clash, I went to the traffic clash site & found that the info on there was fairly confusing – it reminded me of the way that the info in this program is arranged, and then when I saw that one of the images on the homepage, was a free Istockphoto image that they hadn’t paid to remove the watermark image, I did a whois search, and guess who owns this – yup, Tim Bekker, what a surprise…

So, I’ve given the guy a kicking – I’ve been very honest about my thoughts about this program and why, now here’ the big question, and you may be surprised by my answer:

Is The New Clickbank Code worth the money?

Is it worth the $7 – YUP, without a doubt, the chunks of info in there are worth way more than that. Is it worth the $47 , $97 or $197? Actually, yes. Would I have paid that – probably not – but is the info that the program contained worth this amount, if you didn’t already know this info – yes, I’d say so. I come to this conclusion based on asking myself this question – if I don’t already know this stuff and I apply it, will it bring me a return over time equal to or greater than these amounts – and the answer to this is yes.

So why the negatives? Simply because I think the video is WAY over the top, he’s slagging off “Guru’s” for making outrageous claims & peddling BS, while doing exactly this himself – and that annoys me, and he’s selling this program as the bomb, when actually it appears that to get what is actually the bomb, you have to subscribe to the monthly – and a sizable chunk of this product, that I’ve paid for, is dedicated to promoting another of his own products (and he doesn’t make this clear either…)

I do not think this product bears ANY resemblance to this amazing MASTERPIECE that he describes this product as being, in fact I would describe it as being not even a fraction as good as he is hyping it up to do (and he promises no hype!) but – that doesn’t mean I think it’s not worth having. I don’t think it’s put together very well, I think there’s a load of fluff that doesn’t need to be there, I think it’s fairly confusing when it comes to this “code” that he’s calling the clickbank code – but all in all, taking into consideration the info that is shared with this program, I do think it’s worth having.

What is Traffic Kaboom?

(Don’t worry, I’ll tell you shortly the trick to get it for the $1 trial!)

If you’re not familiar with traffic kaboom – in short, it’s an article & video syndication network, blog network – you submit articles and / or videos, and they go out to the blog network, to get you niche specific backlinks.

EDIT: 03/03/2012 - I’ve now been informed that the $1 trail is no longer running, when you click the $1 trail link you get a message that it’s no longer available. So – see my new Traffic Kaboom Discount post.

Blog networks are a GREAT way to get targeted backlinks, content backlinks (i.e. your link is within page content, which are the better backlinks to have, generally speaking), with specific targeted anchor text.

Traffic Kaboom is a very advanced blog network, and in my opinion it’s WAY worth the cost. No doubt in my mind that using the TK network – as long as you do use it & don’t just subscribe & then forget about it – is going to be worth more to you than the membership cost.

Traffic Kaboom is regularly one of the highest ratest blog networks, and many top web marketers use it.

Your articles & videos are auto-syndicated to thousands of blogs – but it’s not the quantity of blogs which is important, it’s the quality – and the blogs in this network are quality, human approved blogs, not the spammy zero value blogs. Your video’s are blasted to the top video directories, and your article & videos are drip fed within the traffic kaboom network, gaining exposure for the videos that were submitted, and backlinks to your website(s). This is a two step system that provides the “KABOOM” that they’re talking about.

So what about the Traffic Kaboom $1 Trial?

Click Here – and scroll down to the footer of the website, and you’ll see this link:

Click on the $1 trial link, and a new web page will open, scroll down to this button:

Click add to cart, and you’ll get traffic kaboom for $1 for 30 days, then you can choose to remain a member – or you can cancel – you will remain a member, I can guarantee it – if you don’t, then send me a hat & I’ll eat it!  Traffic kaboom is a fantastic blog network, you’ll get a great return from a relatively small investment in terms of both cash and time & effort.

If you’re looking for a silver bullet for SEO, when it comes to offpage SEO, backlinking – I personally think this is about as close as you’re going to get!

Total Surfing Fitness Download / PDF

In my recent total surfing fitness review post, I went into quite a bit of detail about the brilliant surf fitness training program total surfing fitness. I explained how the reason many of us, especially those of us who don’t get into the sea as regular as we’d like – struggle to improve because of our fitness level, not our general fitness, but our surfing fitness, and when you think about it, this makes perfect sense – as you use very different parts of your body in very different ways when you’re paddling, popping up & surfing, than you do when jogging, cycling, doing curls or bench press etc.,

What I’ve noticed is that there are a number of people getting to my review page, who’re searching for total surfing fitness download, torrent, PDF, free download etc – and I just wanted to offer a word of advice about this.

A few questions for you:

How much did your board cost?

How much did your wetsuit(s) cost?

How much did your rashies cost? Your boardies, your leash, your wax……..

And you were happy to invest this money into enjoying the amazing sport of surfing?

The Total Surfing Fitness  program offers incredible value for money, at roughly the price of a rash vest, or a hoodie – and costs only a fraction of the value of your board, in fact it costs probably less than a quarter of what you paid for your latest wetsuit, so why waste your time, and risk your machine being infected with malware (which often happens with torrents downloads)?

What’s more – it’s theft, and you’re not stealing from some massive faceless organisation, it’s stealing from one guy who’s making his living by helping people like us to improve their surfing, so it’s really not kewl.

So – stop being a tight ass, remember that you’re investing in the amazing sport that you’re fortunate enough to be able to participate in, get your hand in your pocket and just buy the total surfing fitness program

And that being said, I will now step down from my soap box!

So you’re looking for a 100% honest Aweber review? Or you’re looking for the best autoresponder or email marketing software / service?

OK – here it is  Aweber is AWSOME!!!!!!!

What more can I say?????

OK, I can say more….

I’ve been using Aweber now for maybe 2 or 3 years.

Aweber isn’t the first autoresponder / email list marketing system I’ve used – I have used others, but i’ve never been as impressed with an email marketing / autoresponder as I am with Aweber – and the crazy thing is, Aweber is the cheapest I’ve used!

I’m at a loss to even describe how good aweber is, seriously – I don’t know what I’d do without the awsome autoresponder – and I’m still amazed that it’s so cheap!!

If you’ve read my eBook (which you can still download FREE currently) The Ultimate Marketing Machine, then you’ll know exactly what you can do with this incredible list building & marketing platform, and how to use it – step by step – to literally transform your website from being an “online brochure” to being a “24/7/365 Marketing Machine!”.

___________________________________

Download my list marketing guide “The Ultimate Marketing Machine”

With Resale Rights Included!

Free for the first 100 downloads only! Get it free today!

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The thing is – as I’m thinking for negatives – I really can’t think of any! Usually with a service which is so fantastic, there would be somthing I could say which is negative, but there just isn’t.

Price: Excellent! Cheapest email list building / broadcasting /  autoresponder system I’ve used, $1 for the first month & then $19 pm thereafter.

Ease of use: Couldn’t be easier. FAR easier than the other autoresponder / email marketing systems I’ve used.

Customer Service: Amazing. Prompt, courteous, easy to understand, easy to contact – couldn’t be better.

Features: World class. Does everything I have ever wanted to do with list buiding & marketing, and more.

I feel a bit lost when writing this review on Aweber – if you’ve read any of my other reviews, you’ll know that I don’t usually hide my opinions, when something isn’t great I’ll say so, and I usually point out both the good & the bad – but honestly, with Aweber, I am scratching my head looking for negative things to say!

Help me – someone, come on, there must be something about aweber which isn’t 100% perfect??

If you can help balance out this review with something which isn’t 100% spot on perfect, then please reply & let me know.

You’re only allowed 1 service…

If I took on some crazy challenge, where I was dropped in the middle of the arctic in a cabin  – and I have to make my own money online to pay for the heating…. (OK, bit of a mad challenge ) and I was only allowed one service / peice of software, and everything else I had to do manually – I would choose Aweber as that 1 sevice, without a doubt!

So there you go, my 100% honest review on Aweber, the list / email building & marketing package I couldn’t do without!

Don’t expect many reviews from me to be so completely positive – I have complaints about pretty much everything else!

Thanks for reading

Kev

Which premium search engine optimization software do I use?

I’m asked this quite a bit – and the answer, it depends on what I’m doing – sometimes a mixture of free & premium SEO software, sometimes none at all.

If you were to ask “which premium SEO software do you own”  then, my reply would be “most of them”

I’ve used SEO elite, Web CEO, Web position Gold, and quite a few others – and although they all have nice features that speed up certain parts of search engine optimization, I’ve got to the point now where I can do most of the things I need to do, relatively quickly, manually.

I do use both SEO elite & Web CEO still, but it’s not as if I’m constantly using them, I do prefer to do a lot of things manually, I’ll just turn to these if I need to, but when I was starting out I would use SEO software a lot more.

Even when it comes to checking positions, I prefer to do it manually if possible, because I just prefer it, and I get information when searching manually that I wouldn’t get with using SEO software – But, it’s just not possible when you’re doing ranking reports for dozens, or even hundreds of keywords.

When this is the case I use WebCEO mainly – SEO Elite can do this too, I just prefer WebCEO when it comes to ranking reports.

Which SEO software would I recommend?

I can only go by my own experience & opinion, but personally I would say try SEO elite & Web CEO (I think they both do free trials still) and see which you prefer. If you’re developing a career as a pro SEO consultant, then you should have the tools there for when you need them, If you’re just SEOing your own sites it’s a bit different, but still it’s handy to have some decent tools, even if you don’t use then all of the time.

Make sure you can also do everything manually though, if you’re developing your skills as a professional SEO consultant, it’s good to develop the ability to go it alone without the use of any premium SEO software – you’ll find that sometimes it’s actually more fun & interesting to do it manually. Having said that – if my PC was eaten by a giant squirrel tomorrow – I would go out & buy SEO Elite & WebCEO again.

I’m talking about premium SEO software packages here – I do recommend handy browser plugins such as SEO for firefox Ranquest, and Quirk Searchstatus.

If you want more info on SEO Elite, I’ve written an honest SEO Elite review , I’ve not written a Web CEO review yet, maybe I will do when I get the time, but basically – it’s good. I’ve used other SEO tools such as web position gold, and lots of others I’ve forgotten the names of, I found that WebCEO is the best full SEO suite – and combined with the really powerful link building & analysis features in SEO Elite, I reckon you’ve got just about as much as any Pro SEO need – in combination with the free browser plugins, and of course a decent amount of trial & error, and shouting at the monitor