The Stock Market. Gotta love it, right?

Are we in a double-dip?

So say the experts… but if you look at a graph of the Footsie over the last 10 years you’ll see we’ve already had one with the peaks being 1999 and 2007.

There’s only one way to go… RISE!

But then… I could be wrong… I could be RIGHT!

Thad and I are in the process of settling on a WordPress theme to work with going forward. They are all a bit fiddly and you have to play around a little bit.

Flexibilty Theme looks to be a fairly easy one with plenty of options. You can pick from multiple layouts, colour schemes, etc without getting too involved with the coding. That’s the free version. For single page landers you’ll need to get the paid version which is £129 for unlimited use.

Worth a mention is Affiliate Theme but we found that quite restricting in terms of layout. It’s great for putting up quick review style landers with a thin site behind but is limited for more complex sites.

Also Thesis theme and Flexxtheme.

I guess overall we don’t see a theme that is a “one size fits all” for one reason or another. Thesis theme seems like it is the most configurable but we’ve still to try that.

We’ll post more on this when we have picked which one to run with.

We’ll then convert this blog and the ANC sales site into one integrated site. Eventually we’ll also do the members area as well though that will take some doing!

The new version of Wealthy Affiliate, Platinum will be released on September 15th!

I’ve been a part of the Beta Testing for Platinum and I’m sworn to secrecy so I can’t say too much at this stage.

What I can say is this is going to take the whole process of learning how to become successful at Affiliate Marketing to a whole new level.

The training resources, in particular have been completely revamped and organised around specific methods and levels of expertise.

So, if you are keen to get into PPC you can follow a step by step ‘Getting Started’ guide…

Already familiar with List Building? That’s cool… pick up some expert tips.

All the training resources are scaleable and will be updated on the fly by the resident experts.

One of the biggest problems with Affiliate Marketing training is how quickly things change and therefore, how quickly any training becomes out of date.

No Longer… Wealthy Affiliate Platinum will fast become the only one stop shop for Affiliate Marketing Training.

WA Platinum – Release Date – September 15th!

Stay tuned for more updates…

PS. Thad and I will cooking up an extra special bonus for this one and… whisper it… there could be another $1 Trial. We’ll keep you posted.

LOL! Just spotted this on Twitter

What if websites were people:-

That’s Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Wikipedia, Deviant Art, You Tube, Google.

Well, they’ve certainly got the grim Google boffin right! But what about Twitter? Kids and Teens don’t do Twitter. The Wikipedia dude looks spookily like my youngest son, Nick!

Pic courtesy of deviantart http://elontirien.deviantart.com/art/Internet-University-Cast-120846620

This month’s exclusive niche report is now available so ANC Members should head on over to the members area and grab it now.

Listen, I got a question for ya. Are we still in a recession or not? Not sure if you follow the financial markets. Thad and I do. In fact it’s our big interest outside of IM. (And yes, we do IM in that area.)

Anyway, confusion rains in the financial world as the bulls and the bears slug it out. Great fun for sure but it kinda makes it tough to pick a niche that’s ripe for these uncertain times.

But as usual Thad has managed to find one. This niche has long been a stable one, and can be great for anyone wanting to help a nice and hungry market that isn’t going to just disappear tomorrow.

And guess what? There’s a very definite spike in searches for the final quarter of the year which is coming up fast.

So, if you get cracking, you can be all set to exploit that spike!

People are still feeling the pain from the July Squidoo Policy Updates and whilst I sympathise I have to say in a lot of cases it’s really their own fault.

Forget about what topics can and can not be written about… forget about if you previously had some money making lenses and they are now toast.

Fact is, you should only ever use third party sites like Squidoo on your OWN terms!

That means using them for testing.

And then, once you have some traction in a campaign you can breakout and grab your own domain and start building your own site. You can then return to your lenses and switch them to point at your own site.

Use these third party sites as supplemental and complimentary silos. Use them for backlinks.

Do not base your entire business plan around something you cannot fully control.

(Inside ANC we have a guide that shows you how easy it is to get your own sites up and running. There is a post about the guide here.)

People will continue to feel the pain from Squidoo until they take matters into their own hands. Even if your lenses haven’t been slapped yet, they might, as soon as you amend them. If in doubt, copy the content now so that it can be placed elsewhere if necessary.

Should you continue to use Squidoo? Yes!

But like I said, use it as supplement for your campaigns, not the basis.

‘List Legions’ is available now!

Free for ANC members.

List Legions – Our complete guide to list building. Build a genuine relationship with your customers!

Covers all aspects of list building: using an autoresponder; how to capture leads; offering incentives; killer mail messages; getting traffic. Includes a step by step ‘How To’ section.

Guides like this one can cost up to $97.

ANC members can grab it now for free from the ‘Bonuses’ section of the member’s area.

(Not already a member? Check out the AffiliateNicheClub today!)

Hey, a question that often pops up in the Wealthy Affiliate forum (and loads of other places) is ‘how can I compete on competitive keywords terms’, particularly in relation to articles.

Or maybe there is already an Ezine article or Squidoo lens in place using the keyword term you want to use.

Often times, the answer will be to try another keyword phrase but that’s not always the right answer.

Let’s take a step back…

• First chose longer tail keyword phrases (3 – 5 words)
• Then, use the Google Keyword tool to check on the number of monthly searches.
• Then type your keyword phrase “in brackets” to check out the number of competing sites.
• If you have a few hundred searches a month and less than 5000 competing sites you are good to go, right?

Well, that’s a good enough guide to get you started but it’s not the whole picture by any means.

First, and very important, all keyword data, no matter where it comes from, is historical. That’s important if you are promoting something that’s hot or a ‘new’ angle on something. If your research tells you people will be searching on your keyword phrase but Google is coming up with the old ‘not enough data’ line, go with your instincts.

If, however, you are coming up with the right combination of monthly searches and competing sites, you still need to assess the competition.

How Strong Is Your Competition?

In, other words, how well optimised are those other sites for your keyword phrase?

There may well be other articles or lenses, etc but they may only be using the keyword phrase in the title, or maybe just the description (as displayed in the SERPS), or maybe just the URL…

The trick, whether you are writing an article, a Squidoo lens or Hub, a blog post or, indeed a web page itself, is to think how it will appear in the SERPS.

And you want your keyword phrase to appear in the title, the description and the URL. (And in the body of your text as well.)

Sometimes, you’ll find the competition has all the bases covered but not always. So, just because a keyword phrase has tens of thousands of competing sites doesn’t mean you can’t beat it out.

One little cheat Thad and I always use is to run our keywords through Micro Niche Finder first. MNF has a Strength Of Competition indicator (SOC). It’s runs a complex algorithm against all the competing sites for a keyword phrase and gives a score. It’s a very neat ‘trick’ and saves us a ton of time and wasted effort. You can check out our Micro Niche Finder Review for more information.

With keyword research, brain can usually beat brawn!

Creating a good bonus is vital to get people to sign up to your lists and it’s important that you give a great first impression.

One of the best ways to do this is by creating a short PDF guide. It doesn’t need to be huge but it’s important that it looks professional.

First, grab a copy of ‘Open Office‘. It’s free and you can download it here.

Then sit back and watch this short video that shows you:-

• How to add a header and footer
• How to add a table of contents
• How to make your table of contents hyperlinked.

Create a PDF Bonus Guide – Demo Video

The Duplicate Content Penalty has long been something of a debate in the SEO world and it’s hotting up.

Check out these three videos from the Stompernet guys.

Highly entertaining. LOL! How the hell he turns himself into a computer graphic is beyond me!

Anyway, have a look. They are about 8 minutes each but well worth it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9AfEfTFgzM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-m07czorMZg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lsf6Pq7PgXc

We’ll certainly be taking some of this into account on our sites.

In fact, I’ve already moved our bonuses onto their own page:-

Affiliate Niche Club Bonuses.

See, the thing is, I should have done it like that anyway. (Previously, all the bonuses were listed under each of our recommended product reviews. i.e duplicated)

I should have done it this way out of efficiency more than anything so if we change or add to our bonuses then I only need to do so in one place.