Yesterday, internet super affiliate Ewen Chia launched his latest print book, How I Made My First Million on the Internet and How You Can Too!: The Complete Insider’s Guide to Making Millions with Your Internet Business.

He kindly sent me a review copy and I took a quick look. And honestly, I was blown away. It’s literally an step-by-step blueprint of his affiliate marketing system that almost anybody can follow. Although it might not be as “insider” as you may think, it’s definitely worth the $13 from Amazon.

With this amount of incredible content in his book on top of Ewen’s incredible marketing skills, it was no surprise to see the book become an instant best-seller and hit #1 on the Overall Best-Seller’s List on Amazon in as little as 12 hours!

But what does it got to do with me? Well, here’s the interesting thing:

See that section where it says “Frequently Bought Together”? That little blue cover right there is my book – eMillions: Behind-The-Scenes Stories of 14 Successful Internet Millionaires! It got actually recommended by Amazon themselves! Now just imagined the thousands of people who went to that page on the day (it takes hundreds of sales to hit and maintain the #1 spot)… I’m pretty sure quite a few are going to take on that offer from Amazon (in fact, it says 6% of the people visiting that page end up buying my book)

Within just 24 hours, my book ranking has soared from 400,000 to 743 (hitting the #1 spot in the Home-Based Business Category)… all with ZERO effort and promotion on my part! (A typical campaign like this would cost anywhere from $1,000 up to $10,000! – unless of course you’re using word-of-mouth marketing)

This is the power of piggyback marketing

Remember to get a copy of my book, eMillions, over at Amazon (and get tons of cool bonuses):

http://www.emillionsbook.com

A few weeks ago, I wrote a blog post explaining how I brought in 184 unique visitors to my blog… just with a simple trackback that took me 2 seconds.

Like any good scientist marketer, I repeat my experiments to ensure accuracy and precision in my results. So the other day, I wrote a blog post called Web 2.0 Is Dying… Or Is It and linked it to the post on TechCrunch (which then got displayed on the trackback list).

72 hours later…

These are 10 useful plugins I personally use that I feel are being overlooked by others:

1. Insights – Powerful new way to write blog posts by integrating with real-time functions such as Flickr, Youtube, Wikipedia, Search Google, Search Google Images, Blog Search, Google Maps etc. It does all this using dynamic AJAX interface which loads the relevant information to your post in just a few seconds.
2. About Me Widget – An easy-to-use text widget that allows you to add an “About Me” to your sidebar.
3. Theme Tester – Allows you to test out a new theme while showing the old theme to regular visitors (so you don’t have to worry about your visitors seeing odd things happen on the blog while you’re testing with the layouts etc)
4. Blog Metrics – If you’re a stat junkie like me, this is the perfect plugin that allows you to monitor metrics such as average number of posts per month, words per post, comments per post without your own comments, trackbacks per post, words used in comments to post etc
5. GoCodes – Awesome plugin that not only shortens domain names but also tracks the number of clicks. Great for cloaking those long ugly affiliate links as well as reinforcing your brand. All done from the comfort of your Wordpress Admin Panel.
6. Comment Redirect – First impressions are important. This plugin identifies first-time commentors and redirect just those people to a specific page of your choosing (e.g. a page asking them to subscribe to your RSS feed and newsletter)
7. Minimum Comment Length - If you’re tired of those 2 word comments like “great article” or “thank you” then this is the plugin. If people then leave a comment of less than 15 characters, WordPress dies on them with the message “Error: Your comment is too short. Please try to say something useful.”, or whatever other message you decided to give to them.
8. TDO Mini Forms - A highly customizable form that allows non-registered users to submit guest posts. These are automatically turned into a draft and an admin can publish them.
9. Lightbox 2 - Used to overlay images on the current page and features auto-lightboxing of image links.
10. Yoast Breadcrumbs – This plugin allows you to add breadcrumbs to your theme. Great for membership sites and blogs with lots of categories.

UPDATE – 11. MaxBlogPress Optin Form Adder (thanks to Carl for mentioning this – awesome plugin) - Insert option form for your newsletter (e.g. GetResponse, Aweber) just by going through an easy 4-step wizard. Right now, it’s just 100% coding so this is going to make it a lot easier for me in the future

Just stumbled across an awesome slideshow presentation about Twitter (view in full screen):

It’s by @minxuan who is a Singaporean student living in Silicon Valley.

It is – at least according to Google Trends. Here’s the latest screenshot I took just minutes ago:

From the graph, you can clearly see there’s been a gradual decrease in interest over the past 12 months, with volume declined by almost 40%. TechCrunch takes a closer look at those graphs.

Personally, I’ve always thought “web 2.0″ was just a marketing phrase coined and places like the media and consulting firms just hyped it up (for the Youtube and Facebook acquisition news) in order to generate buzz and… make money. Really, it means nothing more than the evolution of the internet into a two-way communication medium that connects people together.

So is web 2.0 dying? Or is it just the term “web 2.0″ that have died?

Leave your views in the comments section

It happens with me. Sometimes I just stare at the blank page struggling to come up with stuff to write about, whether it is blogging, writing an article or creating a new information product.

Here are 7 easy ways to overcome writers block:

1. Freewriting

Just write what’s on your mind and don’t stop. Forget about the grammar, sentence structure, facts, research. The key to this is just to get everything in your brain onto paper. The more you get down the easier it becomes. Stopping mid-way to edit your sentence or researching something on Google will ruin your flow. In fact, this is what I’m doing write now as I’m writing this post.

2. Go Out And Take A Walk

Some of my best ideas come when I’m talking a walk – whether I’m walking home from school or just going for a quick exercise. It helps you relax your muscles and loosen your mind. You need to get your blood moving.

3. Save It For Later

You can always save that blog post or article for later. Save it as a draft and come back to it in the future. Who knows, a new angle may pop up and suddenly the block is gone.

4. Unplug The Internet

Close your email, shut your Twitter off and stop watching YouTube. There’s simply too much distractions on the internet if you’re going to overcome writer’s block.

5. Keep A Blackbook

This is extremely useful and powerful. You always keep a blackbook on or near you, so whenever a spark of genius pops into your head, you can immediately write it down. If you are outside having lunch and you suddenly come up with this awesome idea, there’s a chance you might forget about it by the time you get home.

The dullest pencil has a better memory than the sharpest mind.

6. Read Topics of Interest

Go read articles and blogs related to your topic. For example, if your blog post is about “How to teach an old dog new tricks” maybe you can go read dog training blogs. That way you are able to absorb a wider range of knowledge and able to give you more ideas to write about.

7. Take A Nap

Sometimes your brain just needs a rest from exhaustion and stress. Take a nap and usually the block is gone.

What My Twitter Followers Thought…

I also asked my followers on Twitter how they overcome writer’s block and got almost 30 awesome responses!

This guest post is written by Josh Lam.

Even though Internet has covered all areas of human life, a young Internet entrepreneur might feel it a bit tough to things started. Internet has helped to broaden their horizons and explore new heights in business development. The dramatic impacts have been instrumental in infusing the spirit among young generations as it made them realize that the opportunities have got no limits and a great career is there for the taking.

Having said all these, creative actions are the way to success, to the say the least. The preliminary step is to study about existing market that you are interested in and the next step essentially deals with designing of a proposed market of yours. Since the pool of opportunities might be confusing, the areas of your interests should be given supreme importance. After the selection of a specific area is done, a detailed study and analysis of the same had to be made. This knowledge would remain to be the best capital investment of yours in building up a name and reputation as a young internet entrepreneur.

Marketing area is one of the most demanded and attractive section in internet marketing and this is the arena in which a young internet entrepreneur can shuffle his cards. He can sell his own product or he can go with the commissioning stuff. Marketing and selling of their own products would take a lot out of a young internet entrepreneur and would be highly challenging. To accomplish the same, the business man should have his own products to sell. He should be well versed with marketing terminologies, tips and tricks prevailing in this arena. Apart from that, he should have a production section as well as a shipping office. It is something that cannot be accomplished within a short span of time and with little experience in the respective section. In, fact there are young entrepreneurs who do these activities, and confident people can never look backwards.

The other area where young internet entrepreneurs can excel is the area of affiliate marketing. In affiliate marketing, the marketers do not need to have a production section or shipping office. He does not even need to master the tough marketing strategies. Here, the marketer is not selling his own products. Instead he sells another party’s products. Simply speaking, the internet marketer promotes other’s products through their web sites.

Numerous affiliate marketing opportunities are there in the internet these days, and majority of them are genuine. Affiliate marketing is something that can very well be tried by young internet entrepreneurs as the studies reveal that the success rate is very high. Having said that, it should not be taken for granted that it does not require skill and knowledge. It does require good skill and sufficient knowledge. Terminologies do s and don’t s in affiliate marketing should be very well investigated by the beginner. For the products you promote, you will be getting a commission for that. It should be taken into account that some companies offer about 75 percent of the price of the products as commission that the affiliate marketer sell.

You already know how important it is to build your own email lists.

But do you build your lists as quickly as you could?

If you’re not sure, I can understand why.

More often than not, I was too busy chasing sales and not building relationships. Sure, I’d set up pay per click, write articles, post useful comments in forums. and still not make any sales. Argh! Before I knew it, I wasn’t marketing as often I should have. “Bah, what’s the point…? No one’s going to buy my product anyway, so why bother. Besides, I’m so busy working on my next big project.”

In the back of my mind, though, I knew I should be marketing differently. It nagged at me, so sometimes I would at least make the effort to ask another successful marketer for their advice. But, smart people that they are, they would usually say, “The money is in the list!’

So when I found out about a marketer named Jason James (one of the featured experts in eMillions), I perked up. You see, in less than 3 years, Jason has created more than 5 different products that debuted with six-figure paydays.

But that’s not the part that amazed me. You see, Jason found a way to add thousands of people to his own mailing list at the same time. In fact, one of his launches he created a brand new subscriber list of 1,000’s of buyers.

Jason is a real sharp guy. He realized that he could (and does) make even more money, simply by mailing to his own list.

He sends them useful content.

He sends them new product announcements.

He sends them affiliate emails that promote the latest big product being offered by other marketers.

And each time, he makes money when those subscribers buy.

It didn’t take Jason long to realize that the more subscribers that were on his list, the more money he could potentially make. So he shifted his focus to the list building methods that ultra-successful marketers use.

The good news is he discovered their marketing edge.

It’s called a Giveaway event and they have become fairly popular in the internet marketing niche. Of course, if you’re an online marketer, 99.9% of the niches you’ve thought of entering have never heard of giveaway events. (Talk about a big competitive edge!)

Done right, a giveaway event can give you a big list of hungry buyers and more money in your bank account.

Done wrong, and your event will be a major flop. Your professional reputation will be toast and you still won’t have a big list.

That’s why I was really excited when I learned that Jason wrote a manual that covers Giveaway Events.

It’s called Giveaway Riches.

http://www.stanleytang.com/go/giveawayriches

With Giveaway Riches, you don’t have to worry about doing your own giveaway event. As long as you follow Jason’s step-by-step plan on setting up and running your own giveaway event, your success is practically guaranteed!

http://www.stanleytang.com/go/giveawayriches

Jason reveals everything he’s discovered about giveaway events – and nothing is held back. He even tells you some of the major mistakes he made – and learned from – so you don’t make the same mistakes too.

He’s now making this manual available to you. Say goodbye to slow list building and say hello to:

• Rapid list building. Add loads of new buyers to your mailing list that other marketers gladly refer to you.
• Easy to understand step-by-step plans. You don’t have to guess how to do a giveaway event. You get access to exactly what you need to know. FAST!
• Unlimited license. You can use Giveaway Riches system on as many websites as you want or any niche you want to go after. There’s no limit to where you build a list.
• Make money at the same time as you build a list. Thanks to the special offers built into a giveaway event, you can make money while you build a hot fresh subscriber list. Brilliant!

Check out Giveaway Riches:

http://www.stanleytang.com/go/giveawayriches

1. Be remarkable – somebody worth making a remark about
2. Become a resource to others
3. Have your own unique personality
4. Be vocal and opinionated within the communtiy
5. Don’t continuously push the envelope by flooding them with requests
6. Invest time into social media
7. Produce and share content that your audience will love
8. Monitor what’s being shared about you
9. Become a real member of the community
10. Ask questions
11. Answer questions
12. Provide value to the community
13. Be controversial
14. Don’t be another “me-too”
15. Automate carefully – it’s about people not robots
16. Don’t be an asshole
17. Make it easy for people to share and bookmark your content
18. Listen to the community
19. Make at least one new connection every day
20. Engage yourself in conversations
21. Become the conversation
22. You’re there to make relationships, not hard selling
23. Take time to focus on building a loyal following
24. Give, Give, GIVE!
25. Treat social media like a cocktail party
26. Be supportive
27. Syndicate your content across all social media platforms
28. Encourage others to syndicate your content onto their sites
29. Fully research the community to understand your market
30. Be fun
31. Get to know the unwritten laws of the community
32. Create an attractive, unique and professional profile
33. Use a cool avatar/picture
34. Use the same avatar for each social media service
35. Don’t be a keyboard gangsta (i.e. trash talk all day)
36. Know what your followers/friends want and give it to them
37. Form reciprocal arrangements with others
38. Monitor your noise level
39. Never cheat the system
40. Help others unconditionally
41. Be yourself