I also wrote 2 reports, one on Making Money from Blogging and the other on promoting your business with articles. Both will be released, along with a load of other reports soon (at least that is the plan).
Nigel posted a comment, but I thought it best to answer it here
Andy, I'd be interested in your thoughts on Content Desk (contentdesk.com) versus PortalFeeder. Could you throw Content Desk into your mix of reviews along with Article Miner and Blog Auto Publisher? Content Desk is also asking a $197 per month fee, and it appears to me that PortalFeeder may to trying to compete with them. Would sure love to know your thoughts/experience. By the way, do you have a PortalFeeder site up yet?
I can create sites with Portal Feeder, but currently I don't have the inclination.
They don't have the features I am looking for yet.
The software does work, but the time involved in gathering content, and the final results without effectively redesigning a site with custom PHP stuff, means I am not going to make a huge effort trying to make it do thing it is not capable of on it's own without major modifications.
Dr. Mani has a strong belief that it is going to be a good system. He might well be right, it is not just a single programmer involved, but a whole team. Hopefully I will get a good taste of it before I have to make a final decision.
A week ago I joined an off-shoot of Content Desk, Content Propulsion Lab.
It seems to be a pretty good service, but the biggest value for me is the opportunity to grill Willie Crawford and Jack Humphreys on article marketing. Willie is not only one of the most helpful internet marketers I have encountered, he is also a sly fox, and I am going to enjoy learning some tricks.
The aim of Content Propulsion Lab is to exploit media to the maximum, whether it be articles, podcasting, or vlogging. They provide all the tools, tuition and with Content Desk, a massive exclusive distribution channel.
It was interesting listening to 2 different teleseminars on Article Marketing within a week. The Free seminar laid on by Article Marketer was very informative (a recording is available here), but at the same time extremely different.
The teleseminar from Content Propulsion Lab was more "in the trenches". It was more focused on how to make money from Article Marketing than how to write good articles.
Neither were like a hyped sales pitch in any way. I think a lot of the attendees for the Article Marketer teleseminar were existing customers, and the Content Propulsion Lab conference was purely customers.
A longer post about CPL was well overdue, but I have a major project that has to be launched... hopefully today.
Content Desk... I don't know. I am severely tempted to sign up in some way and convert my existing membership.
The hosting is worth a bit, though I have 8 hosting accounts spread around. I have no idea quite how powerful the tools are but I suspect I can do more with blogging and BAP. Their system is in constant development though, and maybe they have a few useful tricks in their toolbox.
The tools isn't everything. It is the learning experience and "peer group"
For instance I have made the effort of joining 2 teleconferences for CPL despite starting at 2am for me.
I am not making a fortune online yet, I spend a large chunk of my income in growing my business, with tools, domains and services. But I do it out of my profit.
I popped into the forum at AssociatePrograms.com earlier, I hadn't been there for a while.
Someone wanted to know what to spend $500 on, this was my reply
Don't spend any of that $500 on anything other than hosting and domain
names unless it is from your PROFIT. Only spend money to enhance profit you are
already making. If you spend miney in the hope of making money, there is a
huge chance you will spend it on something that will make a loss.
Alternative view...
If you have no knowledge (but I don't think that is the
case), then you wouldn't go far wrong with taking up the seasonal offers
with Sitesell for 2 SBIs The
learning experience with SBI is extremely valuable, and I haven't heard of
anyone failing totally with an SBI site who put a little effort into it, and
followed the guidelines.
That was thought to be a little vague, so I elaborated a little...
It is a little vague It is to avoid the urge of spending money just because you have this big wad of money, and have decided to take up internet marketing, without a clue about what you are doing, but also just as important, what you like doing. Even if a technique proves to be something you can make money at,
you might not like the way you are doing it, and might end up out of pocket a
few $100 from the attempt. If you don't like writing, have no technical
knowledge, and have no intentions to learn, as an example, you might not be
justified spending $500 on tools to help you create niche websites. The best
ebooks are the ones that teach a single system. Most of those ebooks cost money,
and very often are focused around specific tools. E.g. Neil Shearings recent
ebook. A nice system, many people have had success with it, but the tools
involved will burn through that $500 and then some, and you might not like doing
the work, or be capable of the technical aspects.
I have a fair number of income streams coming in now, and most of what I spend is from residual earnings. I spend sustainable earnings on the growth of more sustainable income. I finally took a chuck of money out of my business a week ago, but most gets recycled in increased PPC, my investment in out-sourced programmers etc.
Most people fail online. I wouldn't want anyone purchasing a product with my recommendation who wasn't already making money.
There is a common mantra that you have to invest money in any business to succeed. You don't have to, it just helps speed up things a bit (success or failure).
Hindsight is a wonderful thing. It is easy for successful people to say they were successful because they made a huge investment in something, and it payed off. That is like the lottery.
I tend to believe that those who will succeed in business will manage it, despite the hardships.
Many of the top marketers were broke when they started.
This is a long post with a lot of waffle, but it does have a purpose.
Anyone can learn how to setup a few Wordpress blogs. It will take time, but there is plenty of help available covering all the basics.
Read a few ebooks (I have some good ones in my library), though that is going to be expanded a lot soon.
Take part in all the free giveaways, and pickup some of the many open-source page generation scripts that are currently available.
Make money, and then invest it in your business.
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