Help - Confused What Software To Use / Buy

[Jane Newman]

Hi,

Sorry if I've the wrong section everyone.

Can anyone help or advise me - I'm feeling pretty lost on what to do, should I buy further stuff etc ... for my marketing efforts ... I've bought loads of stuff over the years, some I use and some I don't and I keep getting loads of e-mails about new marketing software, new WP plugins etc ... you know what happens.

Trouble is, I'm no techie at all and what bit I do know is just my take on things which might be wrong as I'm all self taught.

I've listed the software products below and I'd realy welcome members opinions on what I should ditch, what I should keep and if I should buy into some of the new products as I find it such a minefield.

I'm also working with auto blogs on a blueprint programme which seems to take up loads of time - does anyone know at what sort of numbers I should be getting someone to help me with my efforts instead of me struggling along ?

As for what I call normal web sites, I've around 7 which are very old now and do quite well but I find I miss some forms of marketing just because of time restraints - I'm working at IM full time and I'm just not sure how much one person can take on before delegating.

Right, software products I'm TOLD will do the trick for me are:

SE Nuke X
Auto Backlink Creator WP Plugin

Now, here is the list of products I've bought into over the last several years:

SEO Elite 4 / Keyword Elite 1 & 2 / Niche Finder / Directory Submitter
Market Samurai / Instant Article Wizard 2 & 3
Auto Blog Samurai
IBP
Content Composer / Rewrite Rocket / Article Announcer / Comment Kahuna
Bookmarking Demon 5 / Tweet Whistle / Answer Analyst / DupeFree Pro
RSS Bot / PressBot
mirabyte Feed Writer

I must admit, I found myself caught up in the trap of new software coming out that promises the world and I've bought into it but I'd really like to hear from a Pro IM:

1. How many 'sites' can one individual work on full time and market successfully using a variety of tools ?

2. What is a good grounding software wise to use - what software can I ditch, use or dare I say it, buy into ?

I'm at the stage, I really need to put a stop to spending on all the goodies which keep reaching my inbox so I'd like to make sure I'm covered for all sorts of marketing I'm about to carry out for the next year or two.

Sorry this is so longgggg - really hope someone can help me out and advise.

Jane

[Istvan Horvath]

A very short advice: unsubscribe from all those lists/marketers that feed your buying obsession! Do NOT buy anything!!! (you have more than you need)

Tools/software will NOT make you any money by themselves. Use your brain...

[doorkicker13]

I had automatic backlink plugin on another website a few months ago.. I was not impressed. When post an article to the article network, you are allowing other articles to be placed on your blog. I found that most of these articles were poorly spun and often had many spelling and grammar errors. It looked very unprofessional in my opinion.

[realnetworker]

I am unfamiliar with a lot of the software, but I do own Market Samurai. While I purchased it right when I first got started, (it works great!) I do believe I could have done without it, and just used Google's free Adword tool with just as much luck. But I was a lot like you, trying to buy things to help make my manual labor easier and faster. I still have to watch myself, and yes, I do unsubscribe from all the lists that do nothing but promote products to me.

[Richard Tunnah]

Jane,
As Istvan said STOP buying now. You've spent a lot of money that tbh you didn't need to spend. You need to sit down and decide what you like doing or think you will be good at with online marketing. Make a plan then and stick to it. Don't get side tracked.

Good luck.

Rich

[Jane Newman]

Thanks for all the advice - looks like a busy forum this

You'll be pleased to hear, I've taken on board the STOP buying advice and I'll unsubscribe from the majority of places I get e-mails from - thanks guys !!!

As I've got a few software products - I'll continue using those.

Trouble for me in the past, someone has come along and said their product was the bee's knee's and like a muppet, I've believed it.

Getting over my buying obsession - thinking about starting a group for 'software users annonymous'

Just to add, does anyone have a good idea of what methods to use on a regular basis to promote my sites - something which can be realistically undertaken ?

Trouble for me is that I've had a couple of mild strokes and TIA's and that holds me back a bit as I have to relearn things on a regular basis - I know, I shouldn't be having things like that at my young age

Anyway, any strategy or blueprint type advice ... much appreciated !

Jane

[nichescape]

As a recovering "shiny object" chaser myself, I'll give you some advice that helps me to overcome the temptation to buy the latest and greatest pieces of software.

Instead of trying to fit a particular piece of software into your business (which often means starting something new and spreading your attention even thinner) figure out what your goals are and then look for software that will help you reach them. It's a subtle difference, but when you see a new software tool (or ebook, training course or any other type of resource) look at them from the point of view of how they can help you within the framework of what you're trying to accomplish.

And when you do pick something up (or decide to continue using what you already bought) really learn it. Don't just fire it up and use it for what you can do through trial and error. Set aside a few hours, a couple of days or whatever you need to go through all the training materials to really learn how it works.

If you have to relearn things regularly, it might be helpful to take good notes the first couple of times you go through the training, and while you're using it, so you can have a "cheat sheet" that's tailored specifically to what you need to know to use it effectively.

Make those notes as detailed as necessary to give yourself a quicker way of relearning it whenever you feel it's necessary.

Hope that helps.

John

[Jane Newman]

Will do - many thanks

Jane

[Clyde]

Jane.

Master a traffic source. (paid/organic?)
Monetize. (ecom, clickbank, amazon, adsense etc)
Optimize. (tweak website to improve conversion)

Buy a software that can help you in any of these.

[Clyde]

I see that you're a professional photographer.

Master Google Adwords and have profitable campaigns.

Example:

You bid on keywords such as "professional photographer uk"
Have a good ad copy that gets a high CTR.
Take that to your site.
Has a real nice Call-to-action button that says "Call Us".
Add testimonials, tweak website's layouts, test test test to improve conversions.

[Cliff_OBA]

I echo the comment that said you have enough software. I would focus on how best to use what you have.

[Jane Newman]

Hi Clyde,

Yes, a Pro Photographer but I had a couple of mild strokes and TIA's a couple of years back which knocked my confidence and I ended up in the IM game.

To be honest, IM has taken over from the Photography ...

I've never spent anything on advertising and all marketing has been by exchanging links with like minded sites, submitting to directories and adding or updating content on my financial services web sites and they've done okay.

Other than that sort of marketing, I haven't done any other forms but plan to do some article marketing and bookmarking.

I'm also building blogs (good quality ones) but this is a bit of a new venture for me - I'm building WP blogs on my own hosted domains.

Thanks for your advice - much appreciated !!!

Jane

[jimbowman]

I agree with John, it's essential to have a good plan of action and only use software that helps you to achieve that plan.

The next thing you need to do is keep track of the tasks that are slowing you down, and then look for ways to speed that up. Make sure you are clear exactly what part of the process is slowing you down.

[Jane Newman]

Hi Jim,

I've stopped buying for now so that's one good thing aye

Setting out a process or schedule to work to is my stumbling block now.

I've got several web sites (static sites) of which about 4 do really well - they are quite aged which I think helps and I've only ever updated content on them, submitted the url's to the directories and exchanged links with other like minded sites.

I'm trying to stick with the organic side for now as that is all's that I've ever done but I haven't done articles, bookmarking etc ... which I'll now try to do.

Does anyone have any good ideas for planning how much to actually do per day on each domain ?

Is it a good idea sticking to 1 web site per day etc ?

Jane

[IM Ash]

Originally Posted by Jane Newman

Hi Jim,

I've stopped buying for now so that's one good thing aye

Setting out a process or schedule to work to is my stumbling block now.

I've got several web sites (static sites) of which about 4 do really well - they are quite aged which I think helps and I've only ever updated content on them, submitted the url's to the directories and exchanged links with other like minded sites.

I'm trying to stick with the organic side for now as that is all's that I've ever done but I haven't done articles, bookmarking etc ... which I'll now try to do.

Does anyone have any good ideas for planning how much to actually do per day on each domain ?

Is it a good idea sticking to 1 web site per day etc ?

Jane

You can only set a schedule to work to if you have a specific plan in place. Without a plan you are basically on a journey without a map. You need a goal!

Use your passion as the basis to build an authority site and focus on that. Build yourself as the go-to for information revolving around photography. You can even consider writing an ebook about photography to help newbie photographers or you can choose an angle that best suits you.

In terms of software: I think you have enough!

I personally use 3 pieces of software - SEO Link Robot, Article Marketing Robot and Scrapebox. These pieces of software are all I need to rank my sites in the SERP's. I do not use market samurai because the firefox plugins coupled with Google's keyword tool provides all the info I need with regard to research.

[Jane Newman]

Hi,

Whilst I am a Pro Photographer, my main work these days is IM and it is a handful of financial services sites that I have.

I know what my end goal is and that is for a couple of my finance domains to be back on page 1 of Google (at the top) as they once were ... my affiliate earnings were then much better.

I'm working full time on these finance sites but what I'm doing is getting the domains back on page 1 so I presume I need to add in some other forms of promotion.

So that is my goal and other than adding further strategies to my daily routine, I'm not sure of how to draw up a 'plan' of how to do it.

Jane

[calfred]

That's a super general question you have there Jane.

Instead, ask yourself what you want to achieve with those software in mind.

Certain software can give you a full time income if you do it right and NOT spam your way through it.

[RevRPM]

OK, here's my "2 cents":

Here's the software and sites I am currently using (or planning on phasing into my traffic strategy):

Free - AdWords Keyword Tool (very powerful if you use 'Advanced options' - global monthly searches above 1000, competition = low)

Paid - Market Samurai (for more advanced keyword research - I've only scraped the surface of using this very powerful tool)

Paid - Stealth Profit Machines (I use this to build blogs on autopilot, however, I am sure you could use Fantastico in your cPanel account to the same effect - I don't use all SPM features)

Free - SEO Link Vine (the free side to get content to my blogs - some articles are 100% unique. Many are over 80%)

Paid - (currently $17 WSO) J Teng's 'Instant Article Suite' (just purchased this to enable me to automate my blog posting)

Paid - $97 - Article Marketing Robot (tried quite a few article spinning and posting products, but this looks like trouncing the lot = fully integrated - not sure about using this for EZA, though - I'll keep that separate)

Paid - Instant Article Wizard and Instant Article Factory (had more success with the latter - think that might be as its server hosted)

Paid - $97 - Web Traffic Genius (for getting all my blog posts indexed, etc) = superb

Paid - Video Traffic Genius (allows you to have videos from YouTube but searchers can click straight through to your site.

Paid - $147pm - SE Nuke X (tried Rank Builder, a friend tried Brute Force SEO & Serp Assist - we both agree SE Nuke is the best and now its more like Serp Assist in its interface) = superb

Thanks,

Richard

[mhhafizm]

I bought several software buy I do use the free ones. In my opinion, several software are priced too high and certainly will not help you make much money.

Try target buyer keyword or you can read free information about effects of nlp to potential clients. Also, you can use software to find these keywords related to your niche or doing the market research by yourself. This is the most important part. Use google trend or ebay pulse to find latest interest in the market.

I can only recommend you own scrapebox and optimize the usage. This is truly a great software, but still you need to explore the potential before you buy.

[CunningStunt]

I can recommend submiteaze - it's a fine piece of software that does website and article submissions in one. it's my #1

[IM Ash]

Originally Posted by Jane Newman

Hi,

Whilst I am a Pro Photographer, my main work these days is IM and it is a handful of financial services sites that I have.

I know what my end goal is and that is for a couple of my finance domains to be back on page 1 of Google (at the top) as they once were ... my affiliate earnings were then much better.

I'm working full time on these finance sites but what I'm doing is getting the domains back on page 1 so I presume I need to add in some other forms of promotion.

So that is my goal and other than adding further strategies to my daily routine, I'm not sure of how to draw up a 'plan' of how to do it.

Jane

Do some research on "link pyramids" as this is a powerful method to get your sites ranking again, and you should look into getting high PR backlinks for your sites as well - one way to do this is to use scrapebox or you can manually reverse engineer the links of your competitors.

Then you can look at article marketing, guest posting, forum marketing, yahoo answers, social media and the list goes on to diversify your traffic sources.

[Jane Newman]

Interesting stuff - wish I could better understand it all - hopefully one day aye

Although I'm a Photographer, as a result of a few health issues, I'm steering more to producing blogs to make me money.

I've a number of static web sites which earn me a little but I started out producing auto blogs just recently (but good quality ones and not spammy ones that is).

I'm currently building blogs (slowly) and my aim is to continue doing this - blogs and websites are now my main job / income.

What I'm wondering is ... do IM's work on just one blog per day ... i.e. build it one day, do a variety of promotion on an older blog the next day and so on ?

What methods do IM's really use ?

What order do IM's undertake the promo methods ?

And does anyone have a recommended spreadsheet or the likes to work to - a kind of schedule or blueprint ?

Cheers for all the comments everyone !

[George3573]

Originally Posted by Jane Newman

Thanks for all the advice - looks like a busy forum this

You'll be pleased to hear, I've taken on board the STOP buying advice and I'll unsubscribe from the majority of places I get e-mails from - thanks guys !!!

As I've got a few software products - I'll continue using those.

Trouble for me in the past, someone has come along and said their product was the bee's knee's and like a muppet, I've believed it.

Getting over my buying obsession - thinking about starting a group for 'software users annonymous'

Just to add, does anyone have a good idea of what methods to use on a regular basis to promote my sites - something which can be realistically undertaken ?

Trouble for me is that I've had a couple of mild strokes and TIA's and that holds me back a bit as I have to relearn things on a regular basis - I know, I shouldn't be having things like that at my young age

Anyway, any strategy or blueprint type advice ... much appreciated !

Jane

I have to recognize the validity of the views expressed as coming from Warriors.Every single one of them is more competent to discuss issues of Internet Marketing.I tend to describe myself as being technologically challenged, hence on a personal level I can identify with your issues.
In Spite of the fact that any suggestion I make should be taken with a huge grain of salt,(as I haven't made my first dollar online)There are two area's that might benefit from.First,Have you ever considered using "Macro's" to help automate the Programs or Applications that you already have.I have seen some on Cnet "Automation Anywhere" has three such programs."AutoMe"is another that is priced at $40.00. The second idea is Ken Envoy's "Site Build It" Yes it May be a little Steep in Price at $299.00/year however if online Marketing is your full time job, I don't know if you can afford not to.
Respectfully Yours
George