I‘m pleased to announce the Rapid Niche Websites Version 2 is nearly ready for release. After months of working on this major upgrade, the product is nearly ready for release.

A few of the new features and/or improvements :

• A totally revised RapidFormatter - with a simpler (’flatter’) navigation through the various editing screens - so the process is both faster and more intuitive.
• Full widget support - for WordPress Vsn 2.2 - so what you design in RapidFormatter’s sidebar gets transferred to your server as widgets.
• Helpful visible tips on most windows - to guide newbies through the theme-building process
• Updated theme templates - revised and refined to cater for the latest browser issues.
• Upgraded and additional WordPress plugins- to address the Web 2 requirements for modern sites
• A key productivity improvement - the Auto-Install - which allows you to which plugins install/activate, and which WordPress settings to auto-set - so you can literally start using your site as a niche site immediately after uploading the set of templates and plugins. You can pay $97 to get this capability in other products …

Want to see what the new version looks like? Watch the following video - and see how quickly you can create a new theme and set up a new site …

I recently posted about how great a service Skype is, and if you’re not using it, you should load it and adopt it.

My reliance on it was emphasized this last week when Skype had a rare sustained failure. It failed to recongize that you were connected - so it didn’t allow you to accept calls, or maintain even message chat sessions.

The impact:

• Firstly - I rebooted my laptop - not once - but twice - as I suspected my aging overloaded Dell - rather than Skype. This takes an age, and obviously yielded no improvement to the situation - except to make me even more frustrated.
• I had my JV partners calling on a regular basis, only to have failed connections after a few seconds - so the whole thing ended up a waste of productive time. Our scheduled 3-way conference had to be postponed for a couple of days - which in turn impacts our project.
• I couldn’t support a couple of customers who needed one-on-one interaction.

If you’re faced with something similar, check out Skype’s status at : Skype Heartbeat. It’ll save you some blood pressure problems and/or save your computer’s keyboard from being pounded in frustration …

It’s been a couple of weeks since I posted anything - largely because I have been knee-deep in recoding RapidFormatter to cater for the introduction of widgets to the standard WordPress release.

Widgets have been around for about a year, but were not part of the official release. Introducing them has complicated how I construct sidebars using RapidFormatter, but I am pleased to write that this process is now over.

You’re now able to design your theme in RapidFormatter as before, and when you upload your theme, the sidebar code is widgetised - so you can add and modify your sidebar settings without having to revert each time to RapidFormatter. This gives you the ease of use of RapidFormatters theme development with the speed of enhancing and updating your sidebars that widgets deliver.

The end result - a fast and flexible combination.

WordPress 2.2 ( ‘Getz’ ) was released just a few hours ago.

I have installed it on my local PC for testing. The first thing I tested was one of it’s most noticable changes - the inclusion of Widgets.

Widgets?

They’re simply snippets of code that run a specific WordPress function or plugin. So you can choose the List Pages, or List Categories, or Show Search - each of these are widgets, and can be included (with several others) in the sequence that you choose. This helps site designers to quickly design / change their sidebar layout - without any coding knowledge - simply by using drag-and-drop. The widget inclusion is a nice enhancement that will help inexperienced web developers in particular.

I Mentioned ‘Mayhem’

If the web hosts do what they did last time, then people that use WordPress for their product (like I do with RapidNicheWebsites) are in for many support calls.

Why?

Because some web hosts upgrade to the latest version almost immediately - giving customers no option but to create their WordPress blog with the lastest version. Others lag for weeks - even months - so there is no common version in use. And if the theme or set of plugins being used by an inexperienced site developer is not compatible with the version (function or variable names changed in WP 2.1), then they log a support call. Or worse - request a refund.

Sadly the Fantastico script library does not appear to cater for multiple versions of a script. Right now, ideally they should cater for WP 2.0, WP 2.1 and WP 2.2 - but they don’t. So - depending on your hosting, you need a specific theme and set of plugins for the WP version on the server. For template and plugin developers - this just increases the workload - having to create multiple version compatibility. Not surprisingly, not that many are doing this - which leaves the site builder in the lurch.

A Missed Opportunity…

One big disappointment - they haven’t fixed the code ‘cleaning’ in the WYSIWYG editor. If you want to add in a DIV tag - say to fix the position of an image, the DIV tags get modified to P tags. Additional line breaks - which you want at times - are removed when you save - messing up your layout. This is really disappointing - as this basically forces me to use the basic text editor, rather than use the use-friendly WYSIWYG. I think this is such a glaring shortcoming to overlook. The WYSIWYG editor really speeds up entering text - but it doesn’t help if the editor scrambles any custom HTML that you enter in text mode.

Overall - congrats to Matt and his team. They continue to enhance WordPress , and with each release it becomes even more powerful. Just wish they’d fix that damn WYSIWYG bug …

There are several tools that I am finding invaluable in Internet Marketing, and one of them is free. If you’re not using Skype at this stage, then you’re missing out on a great service.

For quite some time, I used MSN Messenger for instant messages and voice conversations, and didn’t really see the need to also have Skype installed. Regular crashes / computer freezes when I was either signing onto, or off a MSN Messenger voice conversation started irritating me, so I decided to try out Skype.

What a difference - much more stable, and it has more features (or it did when I switched over).

So How Am I Using It?

Firstly - to have chats and voice conversations with JV Partners. The ability to share links / send files, and all the while talk away with pretty good quality saves so much time compared to an email trail. And these conversations can be more than just two-way - Skype allows you to dial in 3 others to a conversation - so it’s viable to have business or project meetings across considerable distances - without incurring any telephone costs.

I have also used it as a support tool - when I’ve had to fix a customer’s RapidNicheWebsites / WordPress site. While I have a support ticket system, and in most cases this is adequate. There are, however; some cases where a voice conversation is required - particularly when a customer is struggling with a crucial setup issue - or does not understand my responses via the ticket system. It usually takes just a few minutes to sort out tricky problems - as we’re both able to look at the Admin interface of WordPress, and I can talk my customer through where they had gone wrong with the setup.

Of course, it’s proving equally useful for coaching - something I signed up for earlier this year.

SkypeOut

One great feature that I only started using after several months of Skype usage - is the SkypeOut feature. This allows you to dial to any landline number in any country. The smart thing is that it connects you to that number via a local exchange - so when I phone my parents in Australia (from South Africa), the costs are as if I am calling from the same suburb in Oz. It’s quite amazing to have lengthy international calls, and hardly see anything happen to the remaining units balance.

I don’t only use it for personal calls. All my calls to support desks in the US are via Skype - as none of the toll-free numbers are recognized as such by our telephone monopoly. So - rather than pay expensive international call rates, I go via SkypeOut, and save myself a hefty telephone bill. I mentioned this to my sister in Oz, who recently bought a bookstore. She immediately commented that this is going to save her a small fortune in international calls to the US - as she has to phone book suppliers fairly regularly.

If you don’t have Skype installed, why not set it up now? It’s free, very useful, and quick to set up. Head over to http://www.skype.com to get started. I don’t think you’ll regret it.

I‘m going to use this section to share with you the tools and services that I either use in my business, or I have come across that look useful, but haven’t yet tried out. Where I have first-hand experience, I share with you what I like about the particular product or service, and how I use it in my business.

I’ll try and not fall into the all-to-common Internet Marketing trap of pimping every product and service with a lucrative affiliate program …

There’s been a parallel debate regarding the value of Who Loves Money going on within two forums:

• The Warrior Forum, and
• WealthyAffiliate

A Warrior Forum member bought Who Loves Money, and within a couple of hours, had posted a review that slammed the book - stating that there was nothing new in the book - that all of the suggestions and tips could be gleaned by surfing the better forums - such as the Warrior Forum. Several other Warrior Forum members agreed with this - while WealthyAffilate members who also belonged to the Warrior Forum took an opposite viewpoint - stating that the book was a useful addition to Internet Marketing. They also queried how a useful review could be carried out within such a short space of time - as clearly none of the techniques had been tried out.

Another similar thread was also started in the forum of WealthyAffiliate - the membership site of the authors. The contrast? The members of this forum have been singing the praises of the book - and are already claiming results from some of the methods in the book.

Are they just being super loyal?

I don’t think so. The focus of this membership site is members making money - by building a solid dependable web business using the hands-on teaching of Kyle and Carson. I don’t think that the book would have got endorsements from practical, profit-focussed marketers if it didn’t have some useful money-making techniques that they weren’t already using.

One criticism raised in the Warrior Forum - there’s nothing new in the book vs. the sales copy which implies revolutionary methods. I do believe there are new slants on existing marketing methods - so have Kyle and Carson taken liberties in claiming these to be revolutionary. In the eyes of some - perhaps - but I think they are nitpicking.

One of the complaints most newbies make when joining an active forum - such as WA, WF, or Keyword Avalanche - is information overload. Not knowing where to start. Not knowing how to start. Being lost …

And finding gems is difficult. Even threads that diligent webmasters flag as Stickies have a mix of expert comment and newbie ‘oohs and aahs’ - so trawling through forum threads is very time consuming.

I like the fact that Who Loves Money is structured, illustrated (gee - we don’t see that much in forum threads), and shares real-world experiences of proven money-makers.

So - I intend to leave the Warrior Forum critical analysts to their endless trawling of threads (is their time not worth anything?), and will focus on using the clear, concise information in Who Loves Money to build my web business.

I picked up a copy of Who Love Money yesterday, and quickly read through the book. As I expected - an easy read, and yet with lots of useful tips on how to successfully approach affiliate marketing.

The authors - Kyle and Carson - run the WealthyAffiliates membership site. They are also the co-authors of two other useful Internet Marketing ebooks, Beating Adwords, and Inside The List. And once again, they’ve released a quality product. I wasn’t really surprised. I have been a member of WealthyAffiliates for several months, and rate it as the best value membership site I have ever belonged to. For $29.99/month, you get access to tools, tutorials, and a very active forum. The forums has a wealth of information - where Kyle, Carson, Travis Sago (Bum Marketing), and several other super affiliates help out with tips and even hand-hold members through their campaigns.

But - back to Who Loves Money.

It has several sections - some specific to Kyle and Carson’s specialty - affiliate marketing - but others that will be useful for those creating niche sites.

Key to being successful as an affiliate marketer is conducting effective research prior to launching a campaign. Pretty much the same for setting up niche content sites. Kyle and Carson refer to this as Niche Hunting. Their sources for niche ideas are equally useful for anybody creating niche sites - as the key message is finding out what’s hot and being searched for. You may have seen some of the ideas before, but I like the way Kyle and Carson explain how they use these sources. If you can develop their mindset, you’re surely going to be a more effective marketer.

As to be expected - standard affiliate marketing issues are covered - Clickbank, keywords, webpage (landing pages) design - plus there are some low-cost traffic suggestions (useful for any sphere of Internet Marketing).

Overall opinion.

They don’t over hype the opportunities by promising instantaneous wealth while you sit around doing nothing - as many marketers do. But they do provide many practical - and several low cost - techniques to getting started and becoming effective and profitable as an affiliate marketer. This is actually a feature of the book - they’re giving you several techniques that don’t require that you buy more tools before your can get started. In fact in the WealthyAffiliates forum Kyle and Carson are continually advising to avoid chasing after the next ‘killer technique’, and rather to focus on the fundamentals of good marketing.

Is it a comprehensive, step-by-step guide covering all aspects of affiliate marketing? No. They don’t give you spreadsheets, checklists, multiple screenshots walking you through the basics of setting up Adwords. I think they expect you to get Beating Adwords if you want a pure Adwords guide. They also don’t guide the total newbie through signing up for Commission Junction, and several other affiliate networks. For me the important parts of the book are the niche hunting, and the pragmatic, low-cost/ low-key approach that Kyle and Carson recommend to systematically build a wealthy internet business.

During the launch week, you can get Who Loves Money at a $10 discount, and of course there is an 8 week money-back guarantee if you don’t think it is good value. So - why not check it out right now. If you really want the full benefit from Kyle and Carson’s skills, why not sign up for the WealthyAffiliates as well - as one ClickBank sale a month should cover your monthly membership - and you will gain access to a wealth of practical, money-making advice and tools.

For many Internet Marketers, Affiliate Marketing is the starting point for their online marketing activities.

Why?

Because it is relatively simple to implement. You open ClickBank and AdWords accounts, find a few products to promote, develop some expertise at setting up AdWords campaigns, and you can be in business in a few hours to a few days.

This is far faster and easier than writing your own ebook, creating an infoproduct, or creating a software application.

I’ve gone the hard route - starting with a software / info product - and now live with some of the support issues long after my affiliates have been paid. Over the next few months I want to improve the spread of my internet earnings by spending more time on honing my affiliate marketing skills.

WordPress was created in 2003 - starting with a few users, and only some basic web publishing capabilities. For a while it ‘lurked’ in the shadows of more established publishing tools. But then in 2005 it started emerging as a preferred blogging tool. Just over 3 years after launch, and things are very different. During 2006, there were over 1.8 million downloads of Vsn 2 of the software - resulting in hundreds of thousands of web sites being powered by WordPress.

And the reason for this massive surge in popularity? There are a few key factors - ease of use, good documentation and support, an open framework, and continual development by a dedicated team.

My introduction to WordPress was in 2005. I had already had some experience with web publishing products. We created a browser-based intranet application for a customer, as published a few business websites for clients - all done in Microsoft’s ASP / ASP.Net. So we were used to a painful process associated with setting up a new site…

When I saw the WordPress statement about a “5 Minute Install’ - I thought it was an idle boast. When I logged onto my web control panel (all new to me - as I was only familiar with a Microsoft setup), and quickly installed my first WordPress blog within the 5 minute window, I was astounded. The install - run through Fantastico - was so incredibly simple. And the install auto-populating the new WordPress blog with a few sample entries made it so easy to immediately grasp how the program worked. A stroke of genius that probably most WordPress newbies don’t even appreciate.

Trying to get developers to document software is like trying to herd cats. Many software projects - even in corporates with strict development controls - battle to get this right. Well - somehow Matt Mullenweg - the driving force behind WordPress - has managed to pull this off. The WordPress website has many, many pages covering a large range of topics - from basic setup, WordPress fundamentals, all the way through to developer guides to enable 3rd party developers to create plugins to extend the program. And if you can’t get answers there, the forum usually helps clear up any issues.

The real genius has been the open framework - where 3rd party developers have been enabled to write plugins. These extend the basic functionality of WordPress. Hundreds of developers have created a variety of extensions. An “extended’ WordPress can look very different to a basic blog, becoming a powerful publishing platform suitable for many different types of sites - such as content sites, ebay sites, affiliate review sites, and even business sites.

Not all plugins are great, and there are some that are not supported after release. But there are also many good ones that make it so easy for even a publishing newbie to set up a powerful website very quickly. Contrast this to having to pay a developer a lot of money for some customized website software - that takes forever to develop and debug.

The final factor that definitely contributes to WordPress’s growing popularity is the ongoing development of WordPress. Matt Mullenweg and his team of developers deserve at a special thanks for creating such a useful and flexible web publishing platform. And for their continued dedication to upgrading WordPress. There have been several significant “leaps’ in functionality with each major release that has taken place over the past 3 years, and no doubt more are on the way.

If you haven’t tried your hand at WordPress - why not give it a go. It is after all free to install. And if you get stuck with setting up a site with WordPress, there are several sources to help you - from video courses, to templates, to plugins, to full-scale products that offer complete web publishing solutions based on WordPress. If you do check it out, you will see that Matt Mullenweg and team have succeeded (actually exceeded) with their goal.

“WordPress was born out of a desire for an elegant, well-architectured personal publishing system.”