Smart Passive Income #254 - Security through Obscurity

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Pat describes in great detail how to tell Google not to index a certain page, and how to remove it from Google if you do not want it there ...

For the first part you create a file called "robots.txt" and place it on  your web site e.g. with the following content:

User-agent: *
Disallow: /NAME_OF_THE_PAGE_YOU_WANT_TO_KEEP_HIDDEN

Most likely your service provider will have an online tool to create this file automatically. If not, there are tons of free tools online ...

Nevertheless, please note this does not keep Google or any other search engine away from your "secret pages". It just asks "in a friendly way" not to do so ... Google might follow your pleading, others might not ... the fun part is that you can actually browse those files yourself and you will know immediately which sites the owner of that webpage does not want to show everybody ;)

For the second part, Pat's description is a little bit outdated ... Just google for "remove page from index" and you will find an up to date documentation ...

... again this helps for pages indexed by Google, other search engines might not provide such a service ...

Why did Pat actually want to remove a page from Google?

Normally - in the business of internet marketing - you might think that the opposite is the case, we like to get indexed by Google ...

Google had indexed Pat's download page ... people just had to visit that very page to get the download link for his eBook(s?) ...

This is very bad if it is an eBook you charge money for, but it's still bad if it is one which you give away for free in exchange for an email address for your newsletter ...

In both situations it is a really bad idea to protect your property just by not telling everybody where to find it. ... there is a term for it: Security through Obscurity ... and it does not really work ...

Imagine you lock your house door, and keep the door in your backyard open ... nobody knows, so you are completely safe, aren't you? Nobody would dare to go around your house and enter from the back entrance ...

Please, please, please - you wouldn't do something like that in real life - please don't do that on the Internet ...

Even when Google follows your request, not to tell other people about your page ... what happens when you provide the link to that page to your "customers" ... what keeps them from sharing your link?

If you want to protect your pages, protect them using passwords:

• ... use different usernames and passwords for every single user
• ... use the email address of your customers as their usernames
• ... use scripts that do that automatically for you ...

Smart Passive Income #165 - Involvement by Asking & Give Avays

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Pat asks his readers to name his new eBook. To increase the involvement of his readers, he promises ten copies of The 4-Hour Workweek for people who subscribe to his blog. ... because we are about three years in the future, we know already the outcome. It's a combination of the responses from his readers ... Does that mean he does not really trust his readers?

Smart Passive Income #78 to #80 - eBook Marketing Techniques

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Pat continuous his "how to publish an ebook" series with marketing tips.

• Start marketing your ebook as soon as possible, even if it is not finished yet. ... let your fans know about your progress ...
• Use promotional pricing & discounts
• Spam (Pam calls it front-line marketing and he advises to be very careful) ... if you look in your letter box and find it 99 % filled with "marketing material" you could think that marketing actually equals spam ... and because it is so much easier to create and distribute virtual "marketing material" ... there is a reason why most legal systems have laws to prevent them ... please be even more than very careful with this kind of marketing and when in doubt please contact your local legal counsel!

Pat considers further markeing thechniques like Google adwords, Facebook or private advertising on other blogs. The first and the last are not for free, might generate traffic to your site but actually create no sales ... On Facebook you can buy advertisement space or go for "front-line" marketing ...

Pat's third post about ebook marketing addresses the use of affiliate programs for your own products ...

Smart Passive Income #75 - eBook Landing Page

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Pat's secret of selling ebooks?

The Landing Page

For Pat the landing page is like an infomercial, and should be treated as such:

1. Define the problem your product solves.
2. Show how it solves that problem.
3. Show your product.
4. Provide (real) testimonials.
5. Provide details of your product.
6. Show how ridiculously cheap your product is.
7. Provide a bonus gift.
8. Provide a guaranty.
9. Limit your product (only 3 pieces left ...)
10. Do split tests

Smart Passive Income #74 - eBook Selling

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The fifth part of Pat's "how to publish and ebook" series address the most important part of the passive-income process - the automation. Again the article is a little bit outdated but gives an idea on how and what to do.

Smart Passive Income #71 to #73 - Creating eBooks

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Pat's articles on how to publish eBooks is quite a bit outdated (early 2009), there are numerous tools out there (even for free) which makes creating eBooks even much easier. But there are a couple of tidbits you do not want to miss, e.g. the sections you might (should) want to include in your book:

• book cover
• disclaimer & copyright
• preface about the reasons you created the book
• notes about you (the author)
• links to your sites
• helpful tools
• contact information

Smart Passive Income #70 - eBooks vs Hard Copy

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One way of creating passive income (remember: creating a product once, setting up an automated process to sell, and earn money "without further" work) is selling ebooks.

Nowadays it's also not that difficult to publish "real" hard-copy books using various print-on-demand service. While paper is the traditional way to read more and more people read digital books. One major drawback is the production and delivery cost, which Pat calls even "loose money" ... Which of course would imply that people are willing the same prices for digital ...

Smart Passive Income #24 - eHow Recap

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Pat has finished his first month at eHow. How does it work? He writes articles on their web page and gets a cut of the revenues of the advertisements displayed with his articles ...

Originally Pat planned to write five articles per day for a year. After a month he has written 130 articles and has earned 20 USD ... True, it you look at the graph of his rising income - it look exponential - will that continue? Hardly ...

... and he reviews a book on how to increase your earnings on eHow. ... it took 15 minutes to read ... seems it is more of a booklet ... the author is a superstar on eHow because she makes 1000 USD a month on eHow ... seems either the definition of superstar is wooly ... or at an average you do not make much money on eHow ...

... concerning my own experiment on hubpages which has a similar concept ... I subscribed, set everything up, wrote my first article, and got rejected ;) ... ok, I will never see any money, if I do not continue, but for the moment I am not really motivated ...

Try for yourself, go to hubpages, and life up your creativity!

Smart Passive Income #7 to #9 - Lifestyle Design

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Blog entry #7 introduces lifestyle design - to actively decide how your lifestyle should be and act accordingly ... and of course not being forced to work a fixed 9-to-5 job empowers to do exactly that ...

The next blog entry is Pat's monthly income report which is quite impressive due to his already published ebook. But also his adsense income is more than most other people could hope for.

... and we are already in November 2008 ... start an ebook by writing its outline!  Nothing to add/comment there ... 

Smart Passive Income #7 - Sources - Blogs, eBooks, Membership Sites

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I have just listened to a podcast where Pat warns, not to try earning money writing guides on how to earn money ... So, it's really good that I do not expect to earn money, and these blog entries are only meant for me to summarize what I have learned(?) and for future reference ...

... continuing with Blog entry #7 ...

Still trying to create passive income - meaning create a product which then sells itself automatically without further doing - Pat explains how information may be such a product. He names three ways how to generate such a informational product:

• as blog,
• as ebook,
• on a membership site.

A blog is easy to start using e.g. wordpress or blogger. You can provide free content to your readers, establish that you are an "expert", which you can monetize using adds, affiliate links or even donations. It will be hard to show that you are different from the thousands of similar blogs, it takes time, and you need to update your content.

With an ebook you provide your precious information material all at once and you get a certain amount of money per sold copy. It might some time to create your ebook. Afterwards - if your information does not become outdated - you do not have to add to it. But it might be difficult to tell people that your book does even exist ...

A membership site had the advantage that if your memberships are reoccurring and nobody unsubscribes, you get more and more money ... However it might even be more difficult to convince people of your genius and that they should actually give money to you ...

... so, what will it be?