While we haven’t exactly been told what it is quite yet, Jeff Vacek over at GoBeProductivenow.com is going to be giving away $697 worth of free personal productivity training over the next week.

As it looks, the exact nature of the content will be based on what issues people are most interested in solving when it comes to personal roadblocks to achieving more time or money…

…so if you have a particular issue that seems to interfere with focusing & making money with your business… or having the time to do so, you’ll likely want to comment on his blog so that he can integrate your feedback for his training.

This sort of approach definitely reminds of me Eben Pagan’s Wake Up Productive blog, which I’ve gotten a lot from, even though I haven’t actually gone through his course (yet) - and it looks like it has the potential to be some pretty cool stuff. I’ll update again later this week, once the training gets sent over.

I recently came across blogger Shane over at AskShane.org and was really impressed not only by the content he offers for the successful internet marketers-to-be, but also by the angle he takes in his posts. Rather than a lot of “oh, you just need some crazy secret tactics to succeed”, he’s genuine in his advice about what it takes to really become successful online.

I think this view is really helpful not only to get a realistic view on the fact that making money online over the long term isn’t always just push-button easy…. but also because I would hope a lot of us internet marketer entrepreneurs desire to have an internet business that’s stable enough to withstand the test of time and changing technology, market conditions, and other variables.

Anyways, check out his post here - http://www.askshane.org/daily-tips/my-blueprint-for-quitting-your-day-job.php - and let me know what you think. Are there any parts of your own business blueprint (if you have one) that you also find to be critical to your success so far?

As we all know, one key aspect of marketing involves delivering exactly what your customer wants.

However, if you’ve been using Google Analytics or another analytics suite (and if not, why aren’t you??) and have ever seen your “Bounce Rate” at a number that’s higher than it seems like it should be… what do you do?

Well, you could go out and split-test to infinity to try to find out exactly why people are leaving… but you could easily miss the very factors that are causing people to leave - simply because they might not be things you’d even think of (Maybe it’s not the hideous brown/chartreuse color scheme you’re using - it’s the fact that your page takes 8 seconds to load while your competitors’ only takes 2 seconds).

Alternatively, you could get a friend, family member, or associate to look over your site… but unless this person is trained to do so or is part of the demographic segment that you’re trying to target, they could also easily overlook the glaring issues that you need to change to up your chances of keeping people around.

Fortunately, there’s a much better option - a set of 14 free (well, most of them) tools that will make your visitor retention rate skyrocket, increasing your profits, courtesy of the Conversion Rate Experts.

I won’t go into great detail about each of them here & steal this article’s thunder… but I will say that you now have no excuse for looking at your 93.1% visitor bounce rate and saying “Ah, wish I could get people to stick around & buy something!”

Check it out - and leave me a comment here on your experiences in raising your conversion rate - or your plans to do so!

Article: 14 (nearly-free) tools reveal why people abandon your website

As internet marketers, we’re generally in the business of making two key things happen: delivering value, and making money.

While there are a myriad of easy ways to increase the former, easy ways to increase the latter aren’t always as easy to come by.

Naturally, in order to make more money, you either need to reduce your expenditures, or increase your income.

But it can be difficult to do both at the same time - if you’re increasing your customer reach, you’re probably having to spend some amount of additional time or money to make it happen. If you’re intentionally reducing your expenditures (particularly on ads), you may be sacrificing potential income somewhere in your affiliate sales pipeline.

However, instead of sacrificing either, there’s a better alternative!

Increasing your conversion rate

While it’s probably not a new concept for you, (and this particular article isn’t particularly new, either) you may not be aware of all the tactics available to you to increase your conversion rates on your site - many of which are super easy to test!

I was reading Aaron Wall’s Interview with Conversion Rate Experts the other day and found this link to Ben & Karl’s site with 108 ways to get better conversions from your affiliate & sales sites… and if you haven’t, you may want to as well - I was really impressed not only by the width and depth of the advice they offered but moreover by their in-depth explanation of why a given element is important to split-test.

Their advice is not only essential to established marketers wanting to increase conversions but it also doubles as an excellent, excellent primer on how to construct a great affiliate/sales landing page. Best of all, the tips are clean & simple - no second guessing what they’re talking about or how to do it… so I’d highly recommend checking it out if you haven’t yet!

Karl Blanks & Ben Jesson’s 108 ways to improve your sales conversions

If you’ve been following internet marketing for more than a year or two, one thing you’ve probably observed is just the massive flood of new internet marketing tools, strategies, and resources that seem to crop up more and more frequently.

Undoubtedly a lot of them are decent, & worth checking out, but like most products, there’s some that are decidedly better than others.

However, the interesting thing is that, unlike you might expect, some of the better resources for certain things like PPC analysis, SEO optimization, Campaign creation are actually the ones that are free - not the high-end,  spendy ones.  And nothing is more frustrating than purchasing an expensive tool - and then finding a faster, better, free way to do it!

I got an email from CPA guru Gauher Chaudhry, and included was a link for his new, free 89-page CPA/PPC guide which details a complete strategy to take the best free & paid internet marketing utilities - and start really leveraging them to make some solid cash.

Unlike some other guides, he offers a pretty objective look at a fairly wide range of resources, making it easier to figure out which ones are most appropriate for your marketing efforts.

Additionally, I was glad to see that it’s all new material, not based on outdated tricks from a year or two ago - and very modern/relevant to people who are making a lot of money out there with PPC strategies leveraged against CPA offers.

As you’re probably aware, there’s a lot of money out there to be made with CPA… but knowing how to cater to the right crowd, do the proper research, and test/track your efforts isn’t always as straight-up intuitive as you might hope it would be… and that’s where I was really impressed with this particular guide.

Further.. if you haven’t done much with CPA, there’s a lot of helpful info here to get you started - basic terminology, strategy, and even some more subtle details of making CPA profitable for you.

Normally, I’d expect to see a guide like this packaged up as an ebook on Clickbank and sold for $39.99 or more.. but in this particular case, Gauher is really pushing the free line by putting this guide up for anyone to download.

So - check it out - and let me know what you think.

PDF: The Insider’s Guide To CPA Marketing Profits

So, I was thinking the other day…

My #1 goal for this site is to provide you, the readers, with the best, high quality, free marketing resources and tools for use with your online business.

While I could take some guesses and post up a bunch of stuff like SEO tools & PPC articles & marketing perspectives, and it *might* be useful….  but probably not as much as just asking what you’d like most to see.

So! If you’re up for it, I want you to tell me what kind of marketing resources I can post up here (for free, of course)! It could be anything - from an advanced Adwords tutorial… to effective copywriting tips… even a profitable campaign walkthrough & setup from start to finish.

Just leave me a comment on this post with what resources you’d like to see here, and I’ll do my best to put ‘em up! Thanks!