Dev Singh Blog

I may be hated for writing this but…

A lot of people don’t realize it until it’s probably too late, trust me, I used to be one of them… for a very long time. I spent over 10 years of my life hoping to find that magic internet program which would make me rich very quickly online. Guess what, it was staring me in the face all along! And I just couldn’t see it, because I was powered and blinded by emotion.

A mixture of greed, want, need, delusional fantasies of being able to buy a private jet so my favorite pet could fly on a seat next to me… You get the picture. I was a strong dreamer and dreaming is necessary for drive but there comes a point when reality either becomes your guide or your enemy.

In my case, tragedy after tragedy, kept beating at my soul to break me but my point is reality can be a b.i.t.c.h. sometimes, more often than not. I know that first hand, and it’s not just me alone. I know this now. Okay, I tend to stray but I’m getting to the point, brings me to a story I once heard.

There was this guard at the American/Mexican border who was suspicious of this one guy who he kept searching when he crossed the border quite often. The guy always rode his bicycle and had a sack of dirt on his back. The guard always searched him but could never find anything but dirt in the sack, so had to let him pass each time.

Time passed and the guard retired and decided to vacation in Mexico where he met the same sack-o-dirt guy but the guy seemed to be doing well financially. The guard approached him and said he was retired and no threat to him and just wanted to know what the sack-o-dirt guy was up to since he was always suspicious of him but could never find anything but dirt in the sacks..

The sack-o-dirt guy looked at the retired guard and simply said, “I was smuggling bicycles!”

Okay so this is where my real point comes in. We are being sold tonnes of systems and software online which is supposed to make us rich but are not! They seem to work for the creators but not for us. Maybe we used it wrongly or maybe there’s something else we need to do for it to work… We’re still looking at the sack of dirt!

So what the hell is the bicycle? Here it comes, bear with me a bit longer.

In nineteenth and early twentieth century history, there was something known as the Gold Rush. Many people flocked towards and migrated towards countries and states with the hope of becoming overnight millionaires by finding and mining gold. A lot of people gave up everything  to go find gold and become rich, and a lot of them failed… sad but true. Many people went broke because they had no idea what to do so they bought land claims, mining equipment general store supplies, written manuals on how to mine gold successfully.

Guess what, many of them were left broke while many of the merchants and transport facilities made fortunes. Granted some people were actually made rich by finding gold, but this was a minority, usually those who researched and surveyed before they bought land claims, or the very lucky ones.

So millionaires were sometimes made by those who know what they were doing or sometimes the very lucky ones but almost always by the merchants who supported the gold diggers. If they need to dig to find their gold, sell them the shovel.

So in case you don’t see my point because I have not brought it across clearly enough, for a very long time, how others made money online eluded me. I bought system after system, tool after tool and still could not make what these so called “gurus” were making. I was making these “supporting merchants” rich while I was “digging for gold” in all the wrong places.

Conversely, if I knew where and how to “dig for gold”, the tools I bought from these merchants would have come in very handy in making me rich, but I didn’t. And the big boys who already found their gold would have used their riches to buy up all the most promising areas anyway. If I, however, sell shovels and maps I most definitely would come out with something from this gold rush!

Also some of the more dishonest marketers (And I am by no means saying all!), would have diverted our attention to their “sack of dirt” when they were really only getting rich by selling something else. Like selling their failed system is making them rich from those who don’t know any better. (Again, this does not apply to all marketers) Some do fake it before they make it..

I’ll stop now and let it sink in for a bit.

Devanand Singh

a.k.a Dev Singh

My Favorite Adsense Alternatives

Why would someone want adsense alternatives? I could come up with many (i.m.o. great) reasons but I’ll stick to facts rather than personal grudges.

Let me first say that I am very grateful to Google for cutting all those generous checks in my name, when I used to receive them. Something went quite wrong one day and I got a notice from the “Big G” that one of my websites was in violation of their TOS and my adsense account was discontinued.

“One of  your websites” is not a very good description considering I own many of them, so I couldn’t fix the problem, in fact, there was no warning! The adsense account was already closed without any warning to fix the problem or else…

So I accept total responsibility for my oversight and not paying better attention to my numerous websites all at once. I deserve what I got. Now that I got that out of the way, in case any google official stumbles upon this page, I ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY!

Stupidity was my downfall at that time, because every other successful internet marketer always advised diversity. I still placed too many eggs in one basket because the money was nice… until the checks stopped.

So yes adsense alternatives are important because of diversity. Diversified sources of income, just as diversified niches, websites, forms of internet marketing… you get the point. If one fails you, you still have something else to fall back on.

This is just a starter list and by no means exhaustive. Your experiences may be different from mine depending on how you use them or type of niche or website. These are all FREE to join unless I state otherwise.
PLEASE NOTE THAT ADSENSE POLICY MAY CLASH WITH SOME OF THESE. Check each program’s terms of use before you combine with adsense or any other program.
Also remember, without traffic, ad performance is dead.

MY BEST PERFORMERS

(I use all together in every money making blog I have)



This company claims targeted ads. Personally, I’ve seen many game ads and some education ads here and there but I don’t sit and watch all my websites all the time. The game ads seem to convert well with my entertainment websites. They also have automatic links inserted onto several words on your website so if someone clicks on them for more info you get paid as well.

Nice company. They convert many words on your website into links – info links so when someone clicks for more info, you get paid.

Very nice pop ads. I say pop because they can be pop-out / under / over / hover etc. These work well if you have search engine traffic. The pop ads can be integrated to be non-intrusive (unlike annoying pop-up ads). They contain ads related to what the reader was searching for in the search engines when they found your site. If they don’t find what they were looking for on your webpage, they can click here to find more and you get paid!

Works similar to the previous DynamicOxygen, in fact they look like sister companies. What the reader was searching for is noted and if they exit your website without browsing further, an intermediate page is shown with results for their initial search. If they click, you get paid!

MY OTHER PROGRAMS

I do earn some from these companies but my website are probably not tuned well to their methods. I do still add them to every website I own. They add up!

This company also provides targeted ads to readers and I do earn some from them. Maybe my websites need some fine tuning for better ad performance.

Again, targeted ads provided here. My websites again probably need some fine tuning to monetize heavily from their ads. I have used them to post out my ads to other people’s websites and I have received good response for minimum $5 advertising. So in this respect, I know targeted ads are well placed by this company.

MY NEW PROGRAMS

I keep on trying new ad programs and this looks like some of the promising ones, but only time will tell.

Fairly new ad company. Seems legitimate. I want to be pioneering in something like this, why? Their ads are totally adjustable, by color, keyword targeting, fall back ads (in case the originals can’t find ads). They seem well connected to big affiliate companies which the small affiliate marketer cannot get an account with. If your readers click the ads, you get 70% of the profits!

All these companies also accept small marketers and have low pay outs like $50 or less. Some pay via paypal or check.

I will post updates as I come across more info, so be sure to subscribe to this page or something to keep updated.

Devanand Singh

a.k.a Dev Singh

Water is essential for life but too much can drown you!

Always consider how excessive use of any technique can make or break your online business. I mention this because of experience. Some methods may have been exhausted by excessive use of specific techniques. Let me cite a real example.

I was always used to building lists using my own techniques of advertising which I put together from combining many different courses and resources. I decided to try a different tactic known as email swaps because I heard so many great things about it from other marketers.

I scheduled email swaps for a month straight, back to back, day after day. After 3 days of swapping, I managed to get 19 new subscribers which is great for the price. I also managed to frustrate my list with too many email offers and got complaints and lost 15 subscribers!

Needless to say, I immediately cancelled most of my scheduled swaps for the future. I decided to go with just 3 swaps a week. My point here is simple, some things done in excess may have a negative effect on your online business. Conversely, others may make you rich!

In my case, my subscribers were probably so used to getting 2 to 3 emails a week, that every day emails were too overwhelming. I’ve read about some marketers just doing swaps twice a month.

The problem is not the method, but how the method is used. This is what frustrates many newbie marketers, they hear about how successful a technique is but when they try, it is counter productive. This is one of the roadblocks, which when overcome, becomes a marketer’s successful journey.

Another scenario of excess being anti-successful is when a method has been overused by so many marketers that it no longer is effective as it once was, either because of over flooding of the market or the prospects becoming immune to its effectiveness eg. banner blindness… that’s a whole other story, google it.

If you’re interested in one of the email swap websites I use, here it is. It is still mega effective for many marketers, especially when used properly. Try to make your offers unique and different, even if it is an affiliate program, try changing up the words and/or landing page so that it looks like a totally different offer.

Points to note when email swapping:

1. Don’t swap every day. Space your swaps out, give your list breathing space.
2. Try not to take duplicate swaps too often, like the same offers too many times.
3. Check out your partner’s swap message and see if it fits your style and list.
4. Delete your un-subscribers and bounces from your auto responder account
5. Make your offer unique. Duplicate offers may be rejected because someone else did it already.

Before I forget, here’s the link, Safe-Swaps.

Happy list building and don’t make the same mistakes I did… It really hurts,

Devanand Singh

a.k.a Dev Singh

Only a select few out there really understand this concept. Any one who ever read “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” by Robert Kiyosaki and did not come away with this concept, should go back and really read this book again.

A job is not there to make you rich. It’s there to make the owners of the business rich, period! You will never be able to make more than your boss does. So where does that leave everyone? Your only option is to become your own boss, if you want to become rich or financially free, that is.

But what is the easiest business to do? Honestly, I don’t know but I can say with ease though, online marketing creates the easiest environment for success. Now bear with me here, I know some people will not agree with me, so let me rephrase that.

Online marketing is the easiest was to create wealth, in this day and age, providing one can find or create a system that works for him/her. There is a steep learning curve and many may fall off it back into a job but those who persevere until they begin to uncover the true secrets of success online, have a very bright future ahead of them.

Don’t be fooled, starting an online business is a lot of hard work. Many would have you believe otherwise, but if you’re new to internet marketing, it’s going to be one hell of a ride, initially. The people who make it look simple are those who have been through the rough already and know how it’s done. It not how to walk on water, it’s knowing where to put your foot.

I was just reminded of an old joke I heard when I used to do network marketing. Three gurus, 2 more experienced and 1 newbie, were sitting in a boat. The eldest one got up stepped out onto the water and gracefully walked across without a single drop of water on his clothing. The second eldest did the same as the youngest looked on in awe. Finally the newbie guru mustered up some courage and put his foot out on the water and fell into the pond and had to swim to shore where the other 2 waited patiently.

“How did you walk on water? I want to learn!”, the young guru said. The two elders looked at each other then at him and one simply said “It’s not how to walk on water but where to put your foot so you step on the rocks”.

Funny as hell, even now, but it’s true in any endeavor in life. The more experienced individuals always seem to be able to “walk on water” to the newbie eyes. The fact of the matter is they’ve been around the block a few times well and know exactly where to put their feet to get where the want to be.

One thing will eventually happen when you finally begin to have online success is, if you want to become more successful, you will need to start automating, outsourcing or delegating certain duties to others. There’s only so much one person can do.

But back to the main point. You job should be your stepping stone in life, if you want to be successful. It should be a means to an end, a way to get by, while you work on what is more important to you and the future of your family. If, like the majority of people, you get caught up in the nostalgia of having a secure income at the end of every month you’ll end up with..

• No money and No Time
• No money and Plenty Time
• Plenty money and No Time

but you will never have

• Plenty Money and Plenty Time

To Your Success,

Devanand Singh

a.k.a Dev Singh

Yes they’ve done it again! Google has released their new update code name ‘Panda’ or ‘Farmer’ recently on 11th April, 2011. This new algorithm change focuses on the quality of the articles being put out on the web. God knows what planet their A.I. was imported from to figure out what these robots can!

Basically, if your content is mostly low quality spun articles or poorly written copies, the bots lowers the score of your page and ultimately your website. What this means is quality is becoming more important to your online business, especially if you rely on article marketing.

Marketers out there who depend heavily on hundreds of spun articles are most at risk. Yes the spun articles may not be of direct importance because they were created for backlinks only, but if they get thrown way down in the result pages, their positive influence on your main site is severely diminished.

Many big websites including popular article submission sites have been hit hard by this new change to google’s ranking system. The search engine giant ays they do not directly use statistical data collected from users web browsing habits but the collected data do correlate with what their main mission is… To increase the quality of web browsing experience for all users.

So what does this imply or mean for article marketers?

• The days of badly spun or translated articles are coming to an end. If you use those total automatic spinners, the only advice I have for you is STOP! Put a little extra effort in your work or pay some one to do it for you.
• Don’t over-cram your website with ads. If the readers go to your webpage and leave quickly out of frustration because of too many placed ads, chances are it will be noticed by the search engines and your site will rank down in the results.
• Make sure you site is easily navigated. If the web user finds it too difficult to find information on your website and they navigate away too quickly, you will not only lose a potential customer but  may also begin losing rank with the search engines.
• It may be best to write a few unique articles. These can be rewritten a few times to create more unique content and submitted to only a handful of article directories.
• Is your site helpful to readers? Do they stay on long and read through your other pages? Interest equals rating.
• Last but not least, now the importance of lists becomes apparent. If you can build lists effectively and not rely on search engine results pages alone, then these changes may only curb your business but not kill it.
• Duplicate content is a definite no-no now.

All in all, the bottom line is quality. This is a good thing. I have seen some marketers too lazy to sit and write their own articles properly and set up terrible content sites.. unreadable garbage and sometimes total copies of other people’s content. I’ve seen it with my own unique content and it hurts knowing the time, energy and effort I put into it myself.

This new change effects more honesty and quality and may actually bring about a more professional environment in which we can all work in. At the same time, you can be wrongly accused of poor content and if axed, there’s nothing you can do about it to change their mind. Just be careful out there folks.

To Your Success,

Devanand Singh

a.k.a Dev Singh

If you’ve been into internet marketing for some time and seriously tried building lists as cheaply or as free as you can, chances are you most likely came across free safelists at some point in time.

Free safelists are basically websites that you sign up for and have the option to earn credits by doing some sort of task like opening emails or clicking ads. The credits can then be used to send emails to members of those safelists, in an effort to drive some traffic to your website or offer through email marketing.

The PROS of Free Safelists:

1. It is one of the cheapest and free email marketing tools around.
2. You can earn credits by doing simple tasks, not requiring money.
3. You may be able to earn cash by referring others to safelists.
4. You can blast out an email to thousands, maybe tens of thousands for next to nothing.
5. Their solo ads are usually much cheaper than private email lists.

CONS:

1. Some safelist companies recommend separate emails to receive list emails and contact emails (also used for their solo ads). This means many people have list email accounts they never really check.
2. Some websites have so many free members who send so many free emails that they can literally overwhelm your inbox, if you do not use email filters. This being said, your email can easily get lost in the bulk of emails.
3. You are usually only limited to earning credits once a day.
4. Your email only goes out once per period (like sometimes 1 week), so there are no guarantees on open and click through.
5. The members are usually very low-responsive to emails because of a combination of the other factors.

Now don’t get me wrong, I still send out emails to free safelists, from time to time, because I have credits built up and I have gotten some opt-ins using these methods. The response rate is terribly low though, even for the most effective email subject lines, body and offer.

Even with the most “Can’t Refuse” offers sent out to tens of thousands of emails, the click through rate (CTR) is usually in the hundreds, like about 25000 emails to 500 click throughs. The opt-ins then depend on your squeeze or landing page offer.

A CTR of 2% is considered acceptable, in this type of marketing, but eventually you’re going to run out of credits and have to earn or buy more. You have to then learn to optimize how you send your emails to make the most of your efforts.

Optimize with:

1. Super effective Subject lines – make sure they open your email first
2. Short, tantalizing Body with a link to your squeeze/landing page – your job is to get readers to your landing page.
3. Always track your links! – bitly, trackyourlinks … some sort of tracker
4. Send to relevant lists – don’t send fat loss to internet marketing crowd (I see it all the time)
5. The time you send maybe of importance – You want to send emails at a time that corresponds to when your prospective readers check their inboxes.

This last one is difficult to predict especially in the global climate of the internet. The most popular train of thought says most people check their inboxes in the evening, around 7 – 9 pm and most are receptive to business opportunities around this time on Sunday evenings.

So if your email factors, landing page factors and timing of email broadcast are in perfect precision, your open and CTR’s are supposed to be higher, at least in theory. Good luck on that one!

To Your Success,

Devanand Singh

a.k.a Dev Singh

Effective Email Subject Lines That Work

One of the challenges I faced as a total newbie was to figure out email marketing techniques. I sucked at it big time because I didn’t understand the concept behind it. I assumed that once you get your email out there, someone is going to open it. Then it hit me hard. No one was opening my emails!

Internet marketing is an ever improving process. If someone is not prepared for that then they’re in for a big surprise. I subscribed to so many different newsletters that when I open my email inbox, I ignore most emails and just browse through at sender and/or subject lines that get my attention.

Then how am I different from any one else? I’m not, I’m human which means I’m subject to human behaviour. As such, if I look at my habits, I have to wonder if this is how the rest of the world does it as well. If so then there’s the secret to improvement or success, take advantage of what the majority of people do.

So if everybody’s email inbox is crammed and they all just browse through for sender or eye-catching subjects, then we have a technique to exploit.

When I just started out, I created an autoresponder account and when I got optins from my capture page, I totally neglected to change the “from” setting in the follow up emails or even inform subscribers that they would be receiving emails from specific names. People were getting follow up emails from a “Devanand Singh”. Who the hell is that?!

So yes, when you create your autoresponder follow ups, put a name that you know your subscribers would recognize, because some people (like myself) don’t read thank you pages.
I usually use my website name e.g. DevSingh.org.

That’s all well and fine for your subscribers, so what about non subscribers. Non-subscribers such as via solo ads, don’t see your ‘from’ address and even if they did, they have no idea who the hell you are unless you’re Bill Gates or something.

Now here’s a major challenge, both for your list or non-list, getting people to open your email. So if everyone just browse their email for subjects that capture their attention, then this is what we have to do. Capture their attention!

These are just some techniques I’ve used that doubled my open rates and more.

1. Make your subject line short. Most email subjects are too long and so creates a conditioned blindness in readers. They just ignore long subject lines, the sort ones stand out more. Ask yourself, if you had 2 seconds to catch someone’s interest, what would you say in just 5 words or less to get your message across? e.g. “Get Your Emails Opened”… The title of this article.
2. All caps and strange lettering may work but they are considered spammy and can be filtered into the spambox. In any case, many readers may consider this hype and spam, hence don’t open it. If you have to use all caps, do it with one or two words in the subject line. e.g.”DO NOT buy this!”
3. Engage the reader. Ask a question, pique their curiosity. Personally, I think the question thing is getting obsolete as too many people use it but in combination with other techniques, it may still be effective. e.g. “Is it true?”
4. Create suspense. The last two example did this but if you create an air of suspense, it get’s people to open your email to see more. It’s just human nature. See the last 2 examples.
5. Try making the first word a number. At least one of the first 3 words, where they are most likely to be seen. This in combination with longer subject lines, is overkill! My open rates plummeted with this. It is also great for longer subject lines, if you use it at the beginning so it captures someone’s eyes. e.g. “5 Ways to Get Your Emails Opened”
6. Avoid some words. Words such as Free, Money, Opportunity especially in combination with specific other words can trigger spam filters and your email may end up in the spam box. Use them sparingly.  If you use aweber, there is a built in spam checker which rates your whole email and let’s you know which part is considered spammy so you can change it. e.g. DO NOT use “FREE Money Making Opportunity”
7. Use hypnotic words such as Secret, Explosive, Sure-Fire, there are much more. Just make sure they don’t trigger the spam filters. e.g. “3 Secret Techniques to…”

These are some of the effective ways to get your emails opened. They also work great for headlines, even though headlines are usually much longer.

So we’re on to getting our emails opened more frequently, now it’s just to figure out what the heck to put in the email body… *sigh*. It’s all one big science.

To Your Success,

Devanand Singh

a.k.a Dev Singh

Don’t Waste Your Hard Earned Money on Paid Traffic Systems

There are so many phases that a marketer goes through that it’s so difficult to remember them in a step wise fashion. In my case, I tried so many different opportunities or types of opportunities, until I finally zoned in to the ones that work best for me. In fact, this is what each marketer has to go through on their own.

You may download or purchase a product which sparks some fire in you, but when you try the same techniques as described by the author, the results are not the same. And why is that? It’s mainly because the methods that marketer used, were fine tuned and created for his use. It does not mean the opportunity is worthless, it just means that was his or her ‘baby’ and you have to make your own procedure that works perfectly for you, from all the information you can gather on it.

Just like each snowflake is different and unique, so are us humans. What works beautifully for someone else may not for you. At this point, many new marketers are ready to give up and give in and that is exactly the type of attitude that would guarantee failure. Remember, anything work achieving is worth fighting for. It’s up to each and every individual to decide if their financial freedom and future is worth fighting for.

I do remember, however, when I started writing emails to send out to free traffic programs. My first email was a disaster! And to make matters worse, I sent it out my whole quota, hence wasting the whole effort. I put the wrong subject line with the wrong email and I did not even track my links, so I have no data to check and return. I did learn a few things from that episode, and I promise you, it never left my sub-conscious til this day.

My point is, everyone has their phases to go through, even if it’s the dumb phase like I did. It is not a failure unless you did not learn from it! Now when I send out anything I always double check the title, the body and the links before I proceed and I don’t even realize it sometimes.

One thing I’d like to say before I close is this. If you can’t make a single conversion using free methods, don’t waste your hard earned money on paid techniques, until you’ve learned to. Many free traffic methods are overwhelmed and the patrons are not as responsive as we would like them to be. BUT, if you can capture a few leads from it, then the good news is you can move on to more responsive and paid techniques.

Free programs have their place and some people get so good at it, they make a living off it. Use your free systems to hone your skills in preparation for bigger and better things to come.

Here’s one of the free traffic programs for you to start testing your skills or even get some initial list optins like I did:- Traffic Zipper .

To Your Success,

Devanand Singh
a.k.a. Dev Singh