Willie Crawford is next in line for the Make A Difference Marketing free webinars tonight at 1800 EDT.
http://jointwinwin.com/MADMarketing/July09/Free-Webinars.php

Register as a JointWinWin member for free and get access to not only Willie’s upcoming webinar but also all of the other participants webinars too.

There is a form at the bottom of the page where you can submit your questions to Willie and other panelists.

Get your question in now:
http://jointwinwin.com/MADMarketing/July09/Free-Webinars.php

All the best,
Tom

JointWinWin is launching a series of free webinars aimed at entrepreneurs to help them build their businesses.

Initial lineup of speakers includes:
Willie Crawford
Kim Dushinski
Shel Horowitz
Bob Jenkins
Maggie Keenan
Lon Naylor
Allison Nazarian
David Preston
Kevin Riley
Dr Mani Sivasubramanian
Felicia Slattery
Scott Tousignant

Register now:
Free Marketing Webinars – Register Now and ask put your questions to the panelists using the form at the bottom of the page.

All the best,
Tom

Most Internet marketers understand that having mini
sites is the fastest and easiest way to make money
online. They don’t require a lot of time, energy, or
money to set up, and once you’ve got one up and
running, you can sit back and just collect money from
all the sales you’re making.

At least… that’s how it’s supposed to be, right?

The truth is that mini sites really ARE easy to set
up. They really DON’T require much time, energy, and
money to set up. So why is it that so few people
actually make money with their mini sites?

The answer is that they never learned how to actually
turn their mini site into a profitable moneymaker that
runs completely on autopilot. The good news is…

*************************************************
YOU’RE ABOUT TO LEARN HOW TO DO IT!
*************************************************

Here’s what this is all about: My colleague Michael
Rasmussen has just released a brand new video course
that will walk you through the process of creating a
killer mini site from the ground up, and then he’ll
also teach you how to actually start making money with
it right away and into the future.

If you’ve been looking for help with monetizing your
mini sites, then this is exactly what you need. The
best part? The videos are FREE! I’ll tell you more
about that later. First, let’s talk about the videos
themselves.

If you’re in a hurry, you can just check the
videos out right now for free. Here’s the URL:

http://www.grabacoffee.com/MiniSitesProfitsExposed

*************************************************
OVERALL QUALITY
*************************************************

It’s important to note that these are online videos
that you access from your web browser. Michael uses
Camtasia Studio to create these videos, which is the
premier software program for creating screen capture
tutorials such as these.

The first thing I noticed when I hit the play button
on the first video was the incredible production
quality. These are NOT your ordinary screen capture
videos. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone
make videos that are this high quality before.

He uses beautifully created graphics to pass his
wisdom along to you, and the sound quality is the
highest you will ever hear in an Internet marketing
product. They sound like they were recorded in a
professional studio.

Michael explained to me that he was sick and tired of
seeing all the low quality videos out there, and so he
set out to create something different in order to
raise the bar in our industry. I think that, when you
see Mini Site Profits Exposed for yourself, you’ll
agree that he has succeeded.

Now let’s move onto…

*************************************************
THE ACTUAL VIDEOS
*************************************************

Here’s a brief summary of each video. Obviously
it’s impossible to list every single thing here,
but I want you to get a feel for what each one
covered, and how well it covered it.

If you’re in a hurry, you can just check the
videos out right now for free. Here’s the URL:

http://www.grabacoffee.com/MiniSitesProfitsExposed

VIDEO 1 – INTRODUCTION

This videos introduces you to the entire course, as
well as the teacher himself. You’ll learn what you can
expect from the course, and why it’s structured the
way it is.

Michael realizes that you may not have heard of him,
and so he spends some time establishing his
credibility with you by sharing some of his biggest
successes. It doesn’t come across as bragging at all.
Michael explains that, in order for you to get value
from the teachings, you need to have faith that the
teacher actually knows what he’s talking about. By the
end of this video, you will have no doubt.

By the way, this is a good lesson for all of us
product developers. If you want people to accept you
as an authority on any subject, you first need to
establish your credibility with the reader. That way
he’s willing to relax, and trust that what you’re
telling him is sound advice.

VIDEO 2 – THE BASICS

This video will introduce you to the basics of mini
site marketing. This will set the foundation that all
future learning will rest upon, so it’s important to
pay close attention to this one.

You’ll learn:

* What mini-sites are, and what makes them different
from regular content sites.

* Which businesses they work well for… and which ones
they don’t.

* The right mindset to have when it comes to creating
mini sites as part of your online business strategy.

* And the different tools you need to get started.

This was a great video, and did an excellent job of
kicking things off, and building the foundation for
the rest of the course.

VIDEO 3 – SQUEEZE PAGES

This is probably one of the most useful videos of the
entire course. Every Internet marketer needs to build
an email list, but how do you do it? What is the best
way to capture the most opt-ins?

The answer is ’squeeze pages’. This video will teach
you:

* Why using a squeeze page is far superior to other
opt-in methods.

* The single most important thing you must include at
the top of your squeeze page to skyrocket your opt-in
rate.

* The secret structure of a squeeze page, and why most
marketers get it wrong (which costs them a LOT of
money).

* The most important to include in your opt-in process
that will make sure that people actually receive your
email.

After watching this video, you’ll know everything you
need to know to start building a massive opt-in list
right away. This will probably be the first video that
you ‘take action’ on. You’ll be so excited about the
possibilities, that I guarantee you’ll go and create
your own squeeze page right away.

VIDEO 4 – MINI SITE COPYWRITING – PART
ONE

Nothing happens until the sales copy is written.
Graphics alone will never sell a product, but sales
copy alone WILL. This video begins to demystify the
mysterious process of writing words that make people
whip out their credit cards and buy.

Specifically, you’ll learn:

* Why you need to learn copywriting, even if you “hate
to write”

* What a compelling offer looks like, and how to tell
the difference.

* How to write an eyeball-grabbing headline that
practically forces your readers to go through your
entire page.

* A simple trick you can use in your opening to make
your reader want to learn more.

There is no skill that is more important to your
success than the ability to write killer sales copy.
Make sure you pay extra attention to this video, as
well as…

VIDEO 5 – MINI SITE COPYWRITING – PART
TWO

This video dives right into the individual components
of a killer sales letter. You’ll learn how to create
the “secret structure” of a mini site sales letter
that makes big money. Specifically, you’ll learn:

* How to create captivating body copy that draws your
reader into the sales letter.

* Bullets that force your reader to keep reading the
whole page, and makes them insanely curious and want
to buy your product

* How to take the risk off people’s shoulders, so
they’ll feel safe buying from you.

* How to craft your ‘call to action’, and get people
to whip out their credit cards and buy immediately.

* The secrets of writing a killer P.S. that helps seal
the deal, and flip your prospect into a buyer
instantly.

This video covered a surprising amount of detail,
especially considering that this course is not
specifically about copywriting. Michael Rasmussen is
definitely someone who overdelivers in his educational
products.

VIDEO 6 – HOW TO AUTOMATE THE
DELIVERY OF YOUR INFOPRODUCT

Unless you want to be chained to your computer, you
must learn how to put your mini sites on autopilot.
The only thing you should be doing is driving traffic,
and letting the site itself do all the work, including
the work of instantly delivering the product to the
customer.

This video will walk you through the process of
automating your product delivery, so you can just
relax, and collect the money. The best part is… once
you have this automated system set up, you never have
to touch it again.

VIDEO 7 – HOW TO “GROW” YOUR SALE

This video is guaranteed to be an eye opener for
almost everyone who watches it, even the experienced
marketers. Michael dives into some of the most
effective ‘upselling’ techniques that I’ve ever seen.

Nowhere else on the Internet have I seen such a
thorough tutorial on how to increase the ’size’ of
your orders. You’ll learn:

* The psychology of ‘upselling’, and how to use it
make your customer spend even more money with you.
The best part? He’ll think it was his idea!

* The absolute best time to upsell your customer. This
one will surprise you when you realize how much money
you’ve been leaving on the table by skipping this
step.

* 5 simple techniques to increase your profit by up to
100%.

If you’ve already got a mini site that’s up and
running, this video will make a big difference for you
right away. Use any of these ‘plug and profit’
strategies to increase your income literally
overnight!

VIDEO 8 – CREATING AN AFFILIATE SALES
FORCE

If there’s one thing I’ve noticed that all successful
marketers have in common, it’s that they have a great
affiliate program. They create a program that allows
other people to make good money by promoting their
products, and they get to just sit back and relax,
while everyone else is doing the hard work of
promoting FOR them.

If you’ve ever dreamed of having an army of motivated
sales people working hard to make you money, then
you’re going to love this video. Michael will teach
you:

* What an affiliate program is, and how to set one up
very quickly.

* Exactly what tools you need to give your affiliates
(most people miss the mark here, so pay extra
attention to this part).

* Why merely having an affiliate program is NOT enough
to convince people to sign up, and what you can do
instead to have people eagerly trying to become one of
your affiliates.

* How to motivate affiliates to sell for you.

VIDEO 9 – MINI SITE MISTAKES TO AVOID

Let’s face it… it’s not enough to explain what you
should do. You also need to know what mistakes you
should avoid. Michael has already made these costly
mistakes, but you don’t have to. You’ll learn:

- Why people do judge a book by its cover… and how to
capitalize on that for your mini-site

- The single biggest reason people don’t buy from a
mini site, and how you can apply this ‘instant fix’.

- The single biggest thing that will kill your
mini-site (it’s not what you think, and making this
mistake is a surefire way to drain money from your
bank account FAST!)

- Two list building mistakes that’ll cripple your
long-term profits.

VIDEO 10 – SECRETS OF CREATING A
PRODUCT FUNNEL

This video will walk you through the process of
designing a product line that will make you a TON of
money. There’s a lot more to it than you’d think,
which is why this important concept (which was taken
from direct marketing) gets it’s own video.

After watching this video, you’ll understand why you
can’t just have a single front end product, and you’ll
know exactly what to do in order to get your customer
to keep buying more and more expensive products from
you… completely on autopilot!

This video is a MUST for any serious marketer who
wants to make a lot of money from their online
business.

VIDEO 11 – OUTSOURCING SECRETS FOR
WORKING LESS, AND MAKING MORE

The title of this video says it all. You’ll learn
all of Michael’s secrets for getting top notch
freelancers to help you create your mini site empire
in record time.

Let’s face it, you can’t be an expert at everything
that mini sites require. For example, it’s really
tough to be a top notch graphic designer, while also
mastering HTML, and then becoming a killer
copywriter, on top of also creating the product
itself.

And the list goes on and on. If you want to be
efficient, and begin making money as fast as
possible, outsourcing is the secret to making it
happen. This video will show you exactly what to do,
as well as some common (and very expensive) pitfalls
to avoid.

VIDEO 12 – OUTSOURCING SECRETS FOR
WORKING LESS, AND MAKING MORE

Let’s face it… it doesn’t matter how great your
mini site is if you don’t get any traffic coming to
it. Getting traffic can be one of the most confusing
and mysterious parts of making money online IF you
don’t get the proper education.

Thankfully, Michael really dives in, and gives you a
lightning fast education in this area. Specifically,
you’ll learn:

* How to use Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising to get
targeted traffic fast.

* 3 ways to get targeted traffic without spending a
dime.

* 2 ways to leverage the experience and contacts of
other people to explode your traffic.

* 3 traffic strategies to avoid like the plague!

By the time you’re done with this video, you’ll know
what to do right away to begin driving targeted
visitors to your mini site.

Wow, you get all those videos for free? Click
here to check out the Mini Site Profits Exposed
course for yourself:

http://www.grabacoffee.com/MiniSitesProfitsExposed

*************************************************
DELUXE VIDEOS
*************************************************

Mini Site Profits Exposed comes with 12 videos, and
has more content than most 300 dollar home study
courses. And did I mention that it’s free?

If you decide that you want to continue your
education, and get the biggest possible advantage, you
can also upgrade to the deluxe course for a small fee.
The deluxe course contains four full-length videos
that each cover one advanced topic in great detail.

Here’s a breakdown of each video:

*************************************************
VIDEO 13 – DESIGNING A KILLER BACK END
THAT RUNS COMPLETELY ON AUTOPILOT
*************************************************

This deluxe video could easily be a whole course in
itself. It walks you though the entire process of
setting up a back end that is completely automated
using an autoresponder system.

You’ll learn how to set up your autoresponder to
automatically remove a person from your prospect list
after he buys, and then insert him into your customer
list. This is where your new autoresponder sequence
will start promoting your back end products
automatically.

Bottom line… if you want to make the big bucks like
all the Internet marketing gurus, you need to create a
back end that works hard for you while you’re out
creating new mini sites and developing new products.
This video will show you how.

*************************************************
VIDEO 14 – LIST BUILDING SECRETS
*************************************************

In this deluxe video, Michael will walk you through
some of his best tactics for growing a massive list
from your mini site. He’ll not only teach you what to
add to your mini site, but he’ll also show you what
you must REMOVE from your mini site in order to get
the most possible subscribers.

Building a list is about SO much more than just
offering a free newsletter. In fact, Michael shows you
five different things you can offer your readers to
get them to instantly give you their name and email.

You’ll also learn the best places to actually put the
opt-in email form on your mini site. You’ll also learn
about pop ups and tell-a-friend scripts, as well as a
bunch of other incredible tactics for growing your
list.

I have a hunch that you’ll find yourself referring to
this video over and over again.

*************************************************
VIDEO 15 – MARKETING ACTIVITIES THAT
MAKE YOU MONEY
*************************************************

When you think about all the ’stuff’ you can do to
drive traffic to your site, it’s hard to know what you
should focus on first. This video will walk you
through the four most important marketing activities
you can do to drive traffic to your mini site.

Once you master these four, you’ll never have to
wonder what you should do when you start a new mini
site. You’ll have an easy-to-follow road map for
driving tons of targeted prospects to your site, so
you can begin making money ASAP!

*************************************************
VIDEO 16 – MAKE MAXIMUM PROFITS FROM YOUR MINI SITE
*************************************************

In this final deluxe video, Michael will reveal his
best kept secrets for squeezing maximum profit out of
any mini site. These are techniques that you have NOT
seen before, so you’ll want to pay extra close
attention to this one.

Think about it… if you’re going to put the time in,
and set up a mini site the proper way (like Michael
shows you in these videos), then it only makes sense
that you’d want to make the most amount of money
possible from it.

In this video, you’ll learn:

- How changing one sentence on your mini site could
double your profits easily.

- How to instantly increase the dollar amount of your
average order (which puts more money into your
pocket).

- The one thing you must add to your ‘download page’
that will instantly increase your income (with no
extra work, once this thing is put into place).

- How to turn your actual product into a money making
machine!

*************************************************
CONCLUSION
*************************************************

Whew! That was a lot of information, and I hope it
helped you decide to check out Michael Rasmussen’s
Mini Site Profits Exposed video course. Remember the
course is absolutely free, so you have nothing to
lose.

Michael believes that it’s important for him to prove
himself to you before he ever asks you to buy anything
from him. He wants to show you that he will deliver
you the absolute best education available anywhere,
and he’ll gladly do it for free… just to win you
over!

So go ahead and check out Mini Site Profits Exposed
right now, and see what all the fuss is about. I
highly recommend that you upgrade to the deluxe
course as well. Here’s the URL:

http://www.grabacoffee.com/MiniSitesProfitsExposed

All the best
Tom

Whilst researching some review sites today, I came across a particularly useful review of reviews article submitted by Brian Gilley here:

http://www.socialseo.com/a-review-of-the-top-blog-advertising-sites.html

If you have a website, one of the things you want to do is to establish reputation, get feedback and get valuable traffic to your sites. There is a huge industry which has grown up around this review model (I suppose you would have to include GrabACoffee too!).

Why should you take a look at this particular post?

If you are strapped for cash and have a blog, there are a number of sites you can have a look at and join. It’s a relatively painless way to earn cash with your blog but you will obviously have your objectivity influenced by the payment involved! That said, all reviews are “biased” to one degree or another, you can only give your honest opinion after all.

If you are a business owner, you should look carefully at the options of submitting for paid reviews – there are some sites which ask a little, some a lot. The benefits to you could be considerable in terms of links back to your site to boost pagerank, directed traffic to your site as a result of the review and should the review be favourable, you will gain in terms of credibility and reputation as a result.

Of course, you really need to ask for feedback and once you get it – act on it (if it resonates with you and has credence!). There is no bigger sin in terms of website design than to solicit feedback, get it and then promptly ignore it!

So for the post itself, I’d have to give it a 5 cups of coffee as it is very useful.

I’ve been waiting for this version of iMindmap to come out for ages, having acquired an earlier version of the software last year.

It had a few small problems with it and was not as feature rich as some of it’s competitors but I’m delighted to say all this has changed in the new version 3.0.2. The latest version has a plethora of features available and compares very favourably with market leading competitors.

There are 3 versions available for sale, each with different levels of functionality and set at different price points:

Elements $99

Professional $199

Ultimate $299

Tutorials

Nice simple tutorial covering main features very quickly. Narration a bit slow for my tastes but maybe I just had too much coffee today There are a number of other tutorial videos on the site to get you up and running quickly.

The good news is the software is intuitive and quick to get to grips with so with the addition of the tutorial videos, you’ll be mindmapping before you know it.

Sample Mindmap

Here’s a quick look at a simple mindmap I constructed (nothing fancy regarding icons, it took just a few minutes to construct):

Languages Supported

English to start with but French, Spanish, German, Russian, Polish, Chinese [traditional], Welsh, Korean, Thai and Hebrew due in October 2008 should you need it.

Fully integrated project management system

Only available in the ultimate version – this is of huge importance to business owners and entrepreneurs in particular. I have been waiting for this and am delighted it’s here. Managing projects using Mindmaps is a fast, easy and intuitive way to get to grips with a vast amount of information.

ELearning Courses

Ability to create and deliver your own Elearning courses in flash and integrate with iMindmap for delivery – very useful when you twin up with Camtasia produced information for example. Note – this functionality is exposed via an API which has not yet been documented/released. Technical support informs me this will be along pretty soon though.

Competitors

Mindmapping has been around a while now and there are some well established players in the market like:

• MindManager
• Free Mind
• ConceptDraw

The Competition

#1 MindManager

I played with this a couple of years back and although it is fully featured and highly recommended, I found the user interface somewhat clinical and austere. Mindmaps are supposed to be more individual/personal/colourful and fun so you assimilate the information contained within for easier learning. This was the main reason which put me off, the other thing was the price. It was more expensive than competitors and it’s still more expensive today.

#2 Free Mind

The great thing about this tool is the price: $FREE

I have nothing against this tool whatsoever and if you are on a budget, it’s a great place to start. For me though, like MindManager I found this a little clinical when I played around with it.

#3 Concept Draw

Like with the previous two, it’s been a couple of years since I played with this. I loved it to begin with, very colourful and vibrant user interface (out before iMindMap). Easy to use and a lot of features to boot. Price was an issue with this for me also but the other thing was I had created a humungous mindmap and was saving along as I went (however I was on a weekly backup schedule and I think you know where I’m going with this…) but the program crashed and the file was corrupted with no chance of retrieval just before my weekly backup came around.

I’m sure the software has come on leaps and bounds since then. From my background in software engineering I know there is no such thing as a 100% bug free program so don’t let this deter you if you are thinking of it, every tool has issues and limitations, iMindmap being no exception.

Interoperability

You have the ability to import Mind Manager and Free Mind maps so if you’ve already created your mind maps using these tools, it should be easy enough to import. Having said that, I have not tested this capability. Given the history of import/export operations in other tools, this may not be 100% picture perfect as vendors often protect themselves by keeping their output files difficult to re-engineer by using proprietary and private formats.

If you have a need to import, you will need to enquire with iMindmap directly. There is a 7 day free trial you should use to explore this feature thoroughly though to avoid any unwanted surprises.

Platform Independent

Supports the 3 main computing operating systems: Windows, Linux and Mac so good news there

Sketch capability

You can create your own drawings (if you can draw that is, it’s on my to-do list to learn having purchased a book on the subject!) and this will be a great addition for anyone who wants to truly personalise their mindmaps – creating an electronic hybrid.

Hyperlinking

We take hyperlinking for granted but this is a huge benefit. You can hyperlink to pretty much anything you want to, including other iMindmap files. This will enable you to create standalone mindmaps which can be integrated with other mindmaps in a mindmap network or nexus if you will.

Exporting

You can export and share your mindmaps in PDF and image formats for all three versions but only the Ultimate version allows you to create interactive web exports (useful for sharing clickable mindmaps on the net) using scalable vector graphics.

Problems/Drawbacks

Branch dragging/reforming didn’t work as expected – this was when I chose the Speed mapping mode (this was down to the autolayout function always on when in speedmapping mode) – not a problem as you can switch modes but it took a couple of mins to figure out.

Copyright: There is mention of copyright for some of the icons. I have enquired with iMindmap and they say to not use any such icons in publicly distributed work (which icons are copyrighted are not known though!). So if you intend to distribute mindmaps publicly, make sure you use icons and graphics you know are royalty free or you own the copyright to.

I’m sure I’ll hit some other issues but it’s early days and as I said no software in the world is perfect.

Affiliate Program

There is an affiliate program in place too which offers 40% commissions via Paypal, the extra benefit however is this is a two tier program offering an extra 10% per sale on any sales made by affiliates you refer as well.

To join the affiliate program, click here and scroll to the bottom of the page for the affiliate program link.

Official Endorsement

Tony Buzan is the man behind the invention of Mindmaps and iMindmap has his official seal of endorsement. Doesn’t get much better than that IMHO.

GrabACoffee Recommendation

If you have zero cash, FreeMind is the way to go. But if you have some cash, iMindmap is the way to go. It comes in at different price-points, all very competitive (better in fact) than the main competitors. If you’re an entrepreneur who will want to share interactive mind maps on the web, you will need to get the Ultimate Version.

GrabACoffee Rating

5 Star Cups of Coffee – A must have!

iMindmap – Go get it – Click Here