Internet Marketing Notes » General

Read This Before Publishing Your Next PDF Document

Jason — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 16:33:20 +0000

If you’re a Windows user and you’re using Microsoft Word 2007 to compose your next free report or hot-selling e-book, chances are that you’re probably planning to use a popular free Word-to-PDF publishing tool like Pdf995. Pdf995 is a recommended free PDF publishing tool by even some of the top internet marketers.

Well, Pdf995 is great for most purposes but not perfect.

If you’re not doing anything fancy in your Word document, Pdf995 will perform the Word to PDF conversion flawlessly. There are occasions when what you see is not what you get.

In case you haven’t noticed, with Microsoft Office 2007 Service Pack 2, Word now has native support for publishing a document in PDF format. This applies to Excel and PowerPoint too.

Just click on the “Save As … PDF or XPS” menu item and hit Publish!

What’s great?

Here are some good things I can think of about the native PDF converter:

Works fast
Handles some of the conversions better than Pdf995
Transparently converts Word hyperlinks, bookmarks, and table of contents to PDF equivalents
No ads!

So, the next time you want to publish a PDF document from your Microsoft Office application, check if you have the feature listed in the menu. The feature might have been automatically installed without you realizing it!

Paint.NET – A Free Image and Photo Editing Tool

Jason — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 14:27:31 +0000

No internet marketer should do without a good image and photo editing tool. If you’re already using Adobe Photoshop, that’s cool.

If you’re on a shoestring and you can’t afford Photoshop, you could try Paint.NET — which is free.

Don’t expect Paint.NET to be as feature-packed as Photoshop but it should be sufficient for most image editing purposes. Paint.NET is a Windows-only software.

Version 3.5 has just been released and it features a refreshed user interface, several new effects, and enhanced performance. Check it out.

Download Paint.NET

New FTC Rules for Testimonials and Endorsements in Marketing

Jason — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 07:36:58 +0000

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is introducing a new set of regulations beginning December 1, 2009 in its effort to put a stop on deceptive advertising.

What does this mean?

Online businesses will be affected.

The new regulations demand greater transparency in the use of testimonials and endorsements in marketing.

How does it affect internet marketers outside US?

Honestly, I’m not sure.

If internet marketers outside US are actively selling or promoting products to US customers, I suppose compliance to the new FTC regulations is implicit. The credibility of an advertising copy will now be judged based on the new set of rules. The regular Joe consumer will now have FTC’s backing and certain types of advertising claims will be seen in a different light.

Since I’m no legal expert, one of the best commentaries I’ve found on this subject is on Joel Comm’s blog — specifically a long write-up by Joel’s attorney, Kevin Houchin. I thoroughly recommend reading it!

New FTC Rules for Testimonials and Endorsements in Marketing

To quote from Kevin, these are the compliance steps that a marketer could take:

Audit your testimonial-based advertising for compliance with the rules.

Make any adjustments to your existing advertising to bring existing materials into compliance.

Take action to define generally expected performance metrics.

Require affiliates to complete an application, then review and renew affiliate relationships with updated agreements.

Revise affiliate marketing agreements.

Disclose any connections you have with the sponsors of products you endorse.

Initiate procedures to regularly secure the permission to use testimonials and endorsements.

Do a Google search to make sure your name is not being associated with any products or services that might expose you to liability. If you find any sites, take active steps to get your name/testimonial removed if the use does not comply with the new Guidelines.

Here’s another must-read item:

FTC Publishes Final Guides Governing Endorsements, Testimonials

Back from Blogging Hiatus

Jason — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 10:36:36 +0000

This blog has been pretty quiet lately. I’ve been actually staying under the radar — working on some very exciting projects. So, if you don’t hear from me, you know what I’m up to.

Here are SOME of the things I’ve done in the past 12 months:

Migrated one of my niche sites from a non-CMS ASP.NET platform to WordPress on HostMonster.
Released a text-to-speech (TTS) product for the general market; created a related product site and blog.
Converted all my WordPress installations from Fantastico to SimpleScripts and upgraded all WordPress cores and plugins to the latest versions.
Upgraded all my niche affiliate storefronts to use the updated APIs from Amazon.com.
Created another WordPress-powered niche site.
Experimented with an open-source sequential autoresponder.
Learn the WordPress APIs and plugin development.
Started work on my first commercial WordPress plugin project. (The product is going to be a hot!)

What’s the plan for this blog?

Remove all dead links.
To implement a new 301 redirect system.
Place strikeouts and “UPDATE: …” notes in posts containing content which has become irrelevant.
Review the current WordPress theme used; may consider doing some re-branding.
Create a “Projects” and “Free Stuff” page.
Of course, more fresh blog posts on the way!

If you have anything you want to see in this blog, feel free to leave your comment here.

Malaysians Can Now Withdraw Funds from PayPal

Jason — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 10:53:51 +0000

I got a heads-up from Zaiful Zin recently on a very good news for Malaysians. Malaysians have in the past been going through all hoops and loops in getting their funds out of PayPal.

The legit way for Malaysians to withdraw funds from their PayPal account is only to a US bank account; but now Malaysians have another option!

Well, Malaysians still can’t withdraw funds directly to just any local bank account but Malaysians can now opt to transfer funds from their PayPal account to any credit, debit, or prepaid card with a Visa or MasterCard logo.

With the funds in the card account, it’s a matter of going to the nearest ATM for cash withdrawals.

PayPal charges $5 USD for the transfer and it takes 5-7 business days to complete.

Withdrawal to a card must meet the minimum withdrawal amount — which $10 USD at the moment.

There you have it… say goodbye to receiving affiliate commission payments via slow-clearing foreign checks and it’s time to opt for PayPal payments (should there be such option).

UPDATE: For a compilation of debit cards which work and don’t work with PayPal, check out Steven Wong’s blog.

PayPal and Debit Card Woes for Malaysians

Jason — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 09:12:40 +0000

I stumbled upon this blog post by Azrin. It mentions about PayPal no longer accepting Virtual Money Debit cards to fund and activate withdrawal process. [UPDATE: November 2009 - Malaysians can now withdraw PayPal funds to a local bank account or debit card.]

PAYPAL States that Virtual Money Debit cards are no longer accepted to be used to FUND and ACTIVATE WITHDRAWAL PROCESS. In other words, your SOUTHWEST BANK or TOMATO BANK *(ACCEND Visa) can no LONGER BE USED to withdraw funds to.

Also mentioned is that although PayPal accepts E*Trade brokerage accounts (as of mid-July), E*Trade has stopped accepting applications from Malaysia though exemptions exist.

There are still e-books going around on the net detailing the above options of activating the withdrawal process in PayPal accounts. I suppose these options are now made obsolete.

I just thought I give you guys a heads-up here…

New Slimmer iMac Unveiled!

Jason — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 10:48:21 +0000

Here’s a tech news item I thought some of you Apple fans should be excited about.

Apple Inc. has unveiled a line of slimmer and more powerful iMacs!

The new re-designed all-in-one iMacs now feature aluminum casings with displays measuring 20 inches and 24 inches and will cost $1,199 to $1,799. The screen is made of scratch-resistant glass that Apple has coated for an extra glossy shine.

In addition, Apple has also updated its iLife and iWork application suites.

What can I say…I’m all awed by the minimalist and compact design of the new iMac! I’m using a Vista-based PC and I’m really impressed at what Apple has been churning out these days. Kudos to Steve Jobs!

Without rambling further, I’ll let the pictures do the talking…

Internet Marketing Store Unveiled

Amazon FPS / Payments – Another PayPal?

Jason — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 08:04:17 +0000

Amazon has launched the Amazon Flexible Payment Service (FPS) which is an extension of the existing Amazon Payments. With this service, we can look forward to third-party merchants offering online payments via Amazon’s reliable and scalable payment infrastructure.

This service accepts non-US/international credit card transactions. The pricing rate is available here.

It’s only a matter of time before we see plugins or widgets that take advantage of Amazon FPS to allow even non-techie site owners to provide online payment for their products.

Withdrawal of Amazon Payment funds into international banks. Possible?

PayPal users in some countries (like mine) are not allowed to withdraw their funds into their local bank account. What about Amazon Payments? Initial indications seem to suggest that one can only withdraw funds into a US bank account though I can’t be exactly sure. If that’s true, then that’s disappointing news for some of us.

Will Amazon Payments be able to rival PayPal?

PayPal has pretty much dominated the online payments services space. I should also mention that there is also Google Checkout but at the moment, it’s not quite as pervasive as PayPal. I suppose we’ll be seeing a lot of Amazon Payment vs PayPal vs Google Checkout comparisons in the near future.

Here’s a Money Tip!

Jason — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 06:37:17 +0000

Here’s a little detour from the main theme of this blog but it’s related no doubt…

Head over to PersonalDollar.com. You’ll find many nice tips on personal finance and money management.

Rather than rambling about it here, I’ll let the screenshots do the talking:

This is just one of the many online money calculators available:

There’s even an online store on personal finance or money management related products where you can browse catalogs, read product reviews, and buy these products online.

Apart from the above, there are also Downloads and Glossary sections. Do check them out!

Leveraging on Google Trends in Internet Marketing

Jason — Thu, 24 May 2007 16:12:24 +0000

Whether you’re an online advertiser or content publisher, I think there’s something to be gained from the recently launched Google Trends.

Google Trends

Google Trends graphically displays search volume trends for a keyword (or several keywords simultaneously) for the period dating back upÂ to 2004.Â Markers on the graphs indicate important events during the period.Â This is so to let you know what could possibly cause the spike in the graph.

So, could this be useful in the context of internet marketing?

As in the sample figure above,Â each graph line represents search volume for a particular keyword.Â Here, the blue keyword consistently commanded a higher search volume than the search volume of a related keyword (denoted by the red graph line).Â What is more interesting is the fact that the graph also illustrates that there’s a growing search demand for the blue keyword, whilst search trend for the red one seems pretty flat.Â Also more interesting is you could also nowÂ loosely anticipate future search trends based on historical hints.

For theÂ advertiser,Â the trend comparison information could be useful for planning future ad campaigns.

For the niche content publisher, while this information may not be enough for determining keyword niches, it gives a good headstart of what keywords to do further research on.Â A keyword with a relatively good volume AND a growing demand seems like a good candidate for futher exploration. What we really need to know is whether the search demands are being adequately met (i.e. via the supply of search results).Â That’s a whole other exercise but you get the idea.