Are you currently subscribed to my monthly printed newsletter? If so, simply ignore this special.  You will be receiving this plug-in as a complementary gift with the next issue.

Would you like to completely automate your WordPress special offers? With the use of this plug-in, your offers will automatically begin and expire giving you the freedom to travel, sleep, or just not have to be at your blog to update your post.

This is how it works… You simply enter your specials start time, then you enter the specials end time.  After that, you insert two messages. The first message should be your order link. The second message is displayed once your special has expired.  It could be an expired message, or, it can be the link to a sales page with the regular price.  It’s completely up to you.  The last part is adding a snippet of code to your blog entry to display the two messages, and an optional timer.

Here’s a short video demonstrating the entire process:
http://www.aaronbrandon.com/videos/WordpressSpecials/

For the next 24 hours, you can purchase WordpressSpecials 1.0 for only $35.  After that, the normal price will be $50.00.  But you’d better hurry, this offer automatically expires Thursday, Aug. 14th at Noon PDT.

Sorry, this offer has expired.

Iforgot to mention another feature in WordpressSpecials 1.0.

If you insert the code

into your blog entry (replacing countdown ID with the number of your special), WordpressSpecials will automatically place a countdown timer into your blog entry. 

This has the potential of inreasing the number of sales during your special.  If your special hasn’t started yet, it will simply display when the special will start.

You’ll be able to change the look of the clocks any way you wish by doing a simple edit in the style sheet located within the plug-in folder.

- Aaron Brandon

The first version of WordpressSpecials is just around the corner!

But before I release it, I’d like to give those who aren’t familiar with running blog specials a bit of an overview on what goes on behind running one. Then I’ll get into some of the features of the plug-in.

What is a blog special?

Do you have a product or service to offer?  If so, do you have a blog?  If you have a blog, all that’s required to have a special is to create a new blog entry advertising your products or services.

Now, here are some of the critical details of what makes a blog special a success, or a complete failure…

One important part of running a blog special is the date and time.  I’ll usually run specials on Wednesday.  Why?  Because that’s when I find the most traffic on this site.  With that said, the day is obviously important to take note of.  If you have stats for your website, see how much traffic you get on Wednesday compared to Sunday.  There’s often quite a dramatic difference.

Next, I usually run my specials for 24 hours.  Surely, I wouldn’t want to run them for 1 hour, or 3 hours.  My traffic isn’t only from within the United States.  Many visitors that come to my site are from India, United Kingdom, Canada and Australia.  So I’d prefer not running a special for those who are still in bed!

Prior to starting a special, a blog entry and often a sales page need to be created.  Then once the special is over, it requires coming back to the blog to update the post to remove the link to the order page.  Previously, that required me to be at a computer with Internet to make sure the special ended at the proper time. 

So, we’ve discussed the day and length, and the link from the blog entry to the order page.  Here’s where WordpressSpecials 1.0 comes in.

After installing the plug-in, you set a time for the special to start and what time it ends.  A nifty feature is programmed into that part.  It’s not even required that you look up a date and time.  If you’d like to start the special immediately, you would type in “now”.  If you want it to start next Wednesday, you type in “next Wednesday” and it will start on that day.  Ending is the same.  Want it to end next Thursday?  Then you insert “next Thursday”.  Or, you can simply insert a date and time if you wish.

The next step is making the order message.  This can be as basic as your order link, or you may construct a customized message until you’re satisfied.

Then, you create an expired message the exact same way.  This can be as simple as an expired message, nothing at all, or a link to a web form to be notified of future specials.

All that’s required after that is to paste a small snippet of code into a new blog entry.  It’ll look something like this:

You would simply replace specialID with the number of your special.

Stay tuned for a blog special for this on Wednesday.

- Aaron Brandon

I’ll be releasing a new WordPress plug-in here very soon.

It is designed to automate special offers and events.  It’s a powerful tool anyone with an Internet business blog should have.

I’ll post more about it on Monday.

Stay tuned…

- Aaron

It’s a pop quiz…

If you received my newsletter for June, you’d probably know the answer.

I accidentally set the paper color to #24 Canary.

Shoot… I hope nobody notices!

Here’s where you can sign up for my newsletter:

http://www.aaronbrandon.com/newsletter/

But you probably won’t get the special #24 Canary edition.

- Aaron =)

I haven’t posted anything about me and life lately.  I suppose it’s a good thing to do once in a while.

So, the news is, summer arrived this week, and it’s been in the 80-90 degree range, so I’ve been in a pretty good mood these last few weeks.  Maybe I had a lack of vitamin D or something.

Here are a couple pictures I shot yesterday evening of a nearby “severe” thunderstorm.  I’m a bit of an extreme weather enthusiast.  When I’m not at the computer, I drive around to scout out the nearest thunderstorm.  Okay…not really.

- Aaron Brandon

The June edition of my print newsletter is ready to be mailed out!

This month, I’ve included the following articles:

*How to Drain your Advertising Budget in 30 days or Less* - Talks about the large numbers of businesses that run print advertisements, but fail to track them. I reveal two methods to track these advertisements.

*If Only That “Guru” Were My Friend* - Is about my old way of thinking prior to starting this business. You don’t need to be friends with a “guru” to succeed in internet business.  You don’t need to be waiting for an opportunity to sit down with someone and have them show you everything step-by-step.  Some people still believe this is what’s required when learning the ropes.

*Competition - “I already checked.”* - reveals the truth about the other digital product vendors, and why you should not be afraid of potential competition.  I recently sat down with someone who had apparently “checked”, and found competitors.  But, I didn’t tell him to “find a less competitive niche”.  I share the importance of adding more value than your closest competitors.

I’m sending this newsletter out on Friday, June 27th to my current subscribers.

BUT… if you subscribe to my newsletter by Monday, June 30th, I’ll send you two complimentary issues of my newsletter… (That’s a $50.00 dollar value!)

Here’s where to subscribe to my newsletter:

http://www.AaronBrandon.com/newsletter/

- Aaron Brandon

The other day I came across Richard Lee’s blog and saw a different theme than the usual.  The title “Internet Business” still appeared at the top of the page, but the rest of the content was “lipsum” text, a common content placeholder among web designers, used to imitate the look of a page filled with content.

But, lately on his blog (before this change) he was frequently posting about his #1 rank for “internet business” on Google.  Now this change?  What’s going to happen now?  His ranking will plummet from the #1 spot, and he’ll have to work his way back to the top… right?  Well, honestly,  I don’t know what will happen.  At the moment, he has been able to maintain his #1 spot, even with this new theme… or blog, with no real content.  Amazing.

What’s your take on this?

Is he doing this just to prove a point?

Has he abandoned his blog for good?

- Aaron Brandon

Considering that you can buy unregistered domain names for less than $10 dollars per year, how much are they really worth?

Just this morning, I listened to an NPR story about some of the latest high dollar domains that have been sold.  Some people are still shocked when they hear about a domain being sold for $40,000, but that’s chump change considering some are sold for multiple millions of dollars.

Here’s the link to the NPR story: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=91054770

And then there’s James Brausch, who must be out of his mind…

He’s selling some great domains for just $500 a domain!  There’s no doubt in my mind that most of them are worth far more than $500.00.

Check out his full list here:

http://www.jamesbrausch.org/last-of-the-domains/

- Aaron Brandon

The May edition of my printed newsletter will be sent out Thursday May 28th.

In it, I’ve included the following articles:

“What NOT To Do With Blogs” discusses using blogs effectively as a marketing tool for business.

“Video Testimonials” describes a neat way to add video from a DVD to a website and reviews a new online video player.

“Like-Minded? How Hard Could It Be?” is about effective networking. 

“Make An SOP - Standard Operating Procedure” explains why using standard operating procedures in your business can be very beneficial.

Right now, you can subscribe to it for just $25 dollars each month.If you subscribed to my newsletter in the month of May, this is the first issue you’ll be receiving.

If you subscribe after tomorrow, May 31st, your first issue will be June.

To subscribe, simply go to http://www.aaronbrandon.com/newsletter/ and click the “Subscribe” button.

- Aaron Brandon

I’ve just added a new page to the blog.

http://www.aaronbrandon.com/books/

On that page, you can view a number of books I’ve read which have helped expand my knowledge in business, marketing, copywriting, and in several other areas.

Enjoy!

- Aaron Brandon

James, your newsletter has done miracles for me in more ways than I ever imagined.  Today, a fly was in my room, and the stack of newsletters I’ve received from you over the last several months made an awesome fly swatter.  One hit with them and the fly was out cold.

Of course, your newsletters also have another use…

I had to glue my office chair recently.  Since I didn’t want my carpet floor full of dripping glue, I used a newspaper and placed it under my chair while it was drying.  Since the drying time for the wood glue took several hours, your newsletters came in handy to pass the time, and I was able to keep up with your latest traffic, product, and copywriting tips.

Thanks.  They are worth every penny.

Yours Truly,

- Aaron Brandon

Mark Russell just wrote a blog entry in support of my printed mailed newsletter.

You can see what he wrote here:

http://www.markdrussell.com/specials

Unfortunately, it is too late to get the April edition of my newsletter and to take advantage of Mark’s offer.  However, you can subscribe at any time and get the next months issue. 

If you sign up now, the first issue you will receive will be the May issue.  I’ll post the summary of this months issue very soon.

To subscribe, all you need to do is click on the newsletter picture on the right side of this page, or just head over to:

http://www.aaronbrandon.com/newsletter/

- Aaron Brandon

I just finished reading an interesting article about Toyota.

As some of you may know, I’m a big a fan of their company.  Their approach to lean manufacturing amazes me.  There is an overwhelming amount of information that can be learned from them, even if you run an online business.

Here’s the article I just read:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24457074/

- Aaron Brandon

The April edition of my printed newsletter is ready to be sent out.

If you would like to receive a copy, all it takes is a simple subscription using the following link:

http://www.aaronbrandon.com/newsletter/

The April edition includes the following:

- A newsletter exclusive special for CBMerchantPro.  The normal cost of CBMerchantPro is $200.00.  As a subscriber to my Online Business Newsletter, you’ll receive a link where you can order this brand new software for just $50 dollars.

- I reveal a traffic method I’ve used to drive search engine traffic to free blogs successfully.  This one isn’t something to shrug off.

- Do you ever get the feeling you’re in a market that’s just too competitive, and everyone seems to be selling the same product?  No worries.  This article will clear up how one multi-billion dollar industry allows numerous companies to sell the SAME EXACT product, and what they do to set their product apart from competitors.

- You can add as many videos as you’d like to YouTube.  Whether or not they’ll be seen around the world is up to you.  After reading this article, you’ll end of with a clear picture on how numerous YouTube video publishers are able to get tons of viewers in a small time frame with just one source.

If you want to get your hands on this issue, you’d better hurry.  I’m sending this issue out at 3pm PST on Wednesday (that’s today!). 

Get subscribed now for only $25/month by using the link below: 

http://www.aaronbrandon.com/newsletter/

- Aaron Brandon

Richard Lee pointed out that my blog is two years old today.

Way to go, blog!

It has been a great journey, and it continues….

- Aaron Brandon