Constant Contact is one of the major players in email marketing services. If you study online marketing at all, one of the first things that you will discover is that you need to create an email list. Constant Contact can be the provider to help you manage and maintain the mailing list.

There are a lot of different players in the email autoresponder space and Constant Contact’s main focus is the local business owner. If you are an internet only marketer, you will find that Aweber is going to be a better fit for you.

Some of the things that I really like about Constant Contact:

1. Very easy to create a nice looking newsletter
2. Super easy to import names and email addresses from your regular address book without restrictions
3. Good customer support
4. Lots of apps and add on tools that work well with it

The main drawback with Constant Contact is it does not allow opt in by email. In other words, you can’t send an email to listname@constantcontact.com and subscribe like you can with Aweber. Also, some online shopping programs (Digital Access Pass, for example) do not integrate with Constant Contact. If you are selling good or services online, check with your provider before getting a Constant Contact account.

Additionally, the Constant Contact account opt in process is a little strange if you have multiple sites in numerous niches because of the way their opt in forms work.

My recommendation: Go with Constant Contact if you are a local marketer or if you primarily sell from only one website. If you are an internet marketer, go with Aweber.

Overall Rating
• 5.0 from 5

Big Commerce is one of several tools out there that you can use to build an online store for your business. Its main competitor is Shopify. Additionally, there are several WordPress plugins that you can use to build an online store.

Should you use Big Commerce or use WordPress? Well, it depends on how well you know WordPress. If you are a WordPress wizard, you may find WordPress easier to use. If you are more of an online novice, you will probably find Big Commerce easier to use. Either way, its quite easy to find people to help you build your site if you don’t know how to do it yourself.

I found the store builder tool to be fairly easy to use and the webinars quite helpful. They also assign you an account rep who is very easy to get in touch with if you have any questions on how to use your Big Commerce account.I asked my rep several questions along the way and he is always very eager to answer them quickly.

Big Commerce offers a free 14 day package where you can try it out before becoming a full member of the service. This is the easiest way to determine if Big Commerce is right for you. They don’t ask for a credit card. If Big Commerce doesn’t work out for you within the 14 days, the account simply expires.

Overall Rating
• 4.0 from 5

LinkAuthority is one of several SEO tools that you can use to get backlinks to your website. It’s a backlink tool that works by having you submit blog posts to their network. There are several tools out there in this space to choose from. I like LinkAuthority in particular for several reasons.

1. All the sites in the network are pr 2 and above.
2. Spinning is not allowed. While many people consider this a negative, I consider it a positive as not having spinning results in better quality, which protects the network.
3. Duplicate content is strictly prohibited. Like the rule above, this protects their network.
4. Your posts only go to one website at a time. While many will not like this rule, it will also protect the network, much like the rules above.
5. You can either do short articles with only one link, which is very similar to the way Build My Rank works or you can do longer articles and have up to 3 links, which is very similar to Authority Link Network. However, LinkAuthority has a much lower cost of usage. Unlike Build My Rank, which runs a hefty $59 a month LinkAuthority is as low as $10/month and even this is waived if you add a PR 2 or above site to the network.

Like any of the other link networks out there, you will need to make a plan to get content. You can outsource good content quite easily on Warrior Forum or Fiverr and I highly recommend that you do so.

LinkAuthority works on a credit system. You get a certain number of postings that you are allowed per day based on your credits. If you don’t have credits available for the postings you are submitting, they are queued in the system for later postings. One disadvantage is you must use your credits. There’s no banking of credits available. This is the only drawback that I’ve found with LinkAuthority.

Still overall, if you are looking for a good clean network at a fair price, LinkAuthority is a good Build My Rank alternative that you should seriously consider.

Overall Rating
• 5.0 from 5

Earn 1k a Day is a membership site by Dennis Becker. I’ve known about it for a while now, but never took the time to actually join it.

When I logged into the site, the first thing I noticed was how outdated the style of the site is. In today’s modern times with all the WordPress based membership sites, I was a little taken aback.

Wait a minute…this thing is just a forum!

And then I realized something….Earn 1k A Day was originally built in 2007, before all the fancy WordPress membership templates came out.

Graphics aside, I decided to dig in and look at the content.

And man, there’s a lot of content in there!

I’ve heard about how helpful the community is. Honestly, I wasn’t 100% sure if the reviews were blowing smoke up my butt, or if it was legit.

So, I decided to test it out for myself. I wanted to get some opinions on a WSO I recently did. I posted my question at midnight right before I went to bed. I woke up the next morning and already there were several very helpful replies!

Most of the replies told me that my copywriting needed some major help. I admit it, copywriting is something I need to work on.

So, I went into the copywriting section and did a search. I found 36  free copywriting downloads available. Oh by the way, these aren’t crappy little plr products that you see on Ebay for a penny. Most of these sell for well over $20 as stand along products and are well worth it.

Next, I decided that my graphics on my WSO need some sprucing up. So, I went to the graphics section. I found 50 graphics products to download for free. Take my pick!

And I’ve barely scratched the surface of Earn 1k A Day has to offer!

I’m still very new to Earn 1k a day, but I can already tell that I will stick with this thing for a long time.

I’m still filtering through all the goodies available on Earn 1k A Day. It’s a lot to go through. Some people have been members of it for 2+ years and still haven’t gone through everything.

If you still have doubts as to whether Earn 1k A Day is right for you, check out these reviews from the Warrior Forum.

A lot of people who aren’t members of Earn 1k A Day get hung up on “How many people are really making 1k a day from this site?” If you get hung up on that, you are missing the point. The point is to have a goal to make $1000 at least one day in your IM career. And they have many many people that have achieved that particular goal.

You can read the top posts from Earn 1k A Day for Free by clicking on the link below. Then decide for yourself if you want to do the $2.95 trial offer.

1K Per Day Top Posts

Overall Rating
• 5.0 from 5

Barter Arbitrage is an audio, video and pdf based course by Vegas Vince and Sylvia Rolfe that shows you how to make money with barter.

Before going into the review of the course itself, I need to explain the bartering system.

The first kind of bartering is simple bartering with a friend, also known as “chickens for goats.” For example, I have a friend who mows grass. I build websites and hate mowing grass. I’m building him a website in exchange for a year of lawn care. It’s win-win for both of us.

This works fine and dandy as long as both people want the service offered and they are of similar prices. It’s great way to start and every business owner should be doing it. When I started this type of bartering, also called direct trading, I was shocked how easy it was to find people who needed website help that were willing to trade for something that I needed.

The next type of bartering you may or may not have heard of. This type is bartering through an organized exchange. The most popular organized exchanges in the United States are ITEX and IMS. With an organized exchange a barter company facilitates the deals. It’s more of an “alternative currency” than actual trading. The barter member pays with his barter exchange credits and in turn uses his credits to buy things from other members. The exchange charges a fee of 5% for each transaction.

In theory, things in the barter exchange are supposed to cost the exact same amounts as they cost in the traditional world, known to the barter industry as the “cash world”. In reality, the barter world and the cash world have very different pricing structures. Some things are equal. Some are twice as expensive on trade. Some items are 5 or 6 times more expensive on trade. It just depends.

There’s also another problem with the barter networks. Sometimes it can be very difficult to find items needed in your local area. Some things are simply easier to source than others.

Barter Arbitrage changes all that. It shows you how to get super creative in your deals and make money or save money.

For example, I’m trying to buy a furnace for my house right now. It costs $2800 installed. I can’t find a furnace guy who’s in the network.

Here’s what I do…

I go and find a local guy who will trade a furnace for $5000 in advertising. Furnace guys need to advertise and my barter network has plenty of advertising opportunities to work with. Do you think that a furnace guy would take that deal? You bet he would!

Wait a minute, you are thinking….aren’t I overpaying for the furnace??

Well, actually no I’m not. You see, the $5000 in trade that I have didn’t cost me $5000. It cost me a few hundred. The actual amount varies, depending on what I do to earn the $5000 trade.

For this example, lets say $800. So in essence I got a $2800 furnace for $800. Pretty cool deal, isn’t it!

That’s the kind of stuff that you will learn from Barter Arbitrage. That particular deal was only the tip of the iceberg. There are many, many other creative type deals that you will learn from this course.

You say you don’t have any skills that you will offer? No problem. There are plenty of ways to build up trade credits and Barter Arbitrage will go through them step by step.

Ok, is there any downsides to the Barter Arbitrage training….

Yeah, a couple of things…..

One, Vegas Vince is very thorough. It can seem repetitive at times. Stick through it though and let the material sink in. Also, keep in mind that I’ve been a member of ITEX barter network since 2006 so I was able to pick up the concepts covered very quickly.

Also, Vegas Vince is a very direct and to the point kind of guy. He does occasionally use foul language. If that offends you, then maybe this isn’t for you.

Overall, though it’s a good product and I’m glad I got it.

Overall Rating
• 5.0 from 5

OfflineBiz is a membership site by Jim Cockrum and Andrew Cavanagh that shows people how to make money selling internet marketing services to local business owners, also known as “offline gold.”

I had seen the site for a while but for some reason, had resisted actually joining it. Recently, I finally joined OfflineBiz and was blown away at what I found. This website is an encyclopedia of everything you need to know to have an offline gold internet marketing business. Its chocked full of articles on every offline gold related topic imaginable.

Best of all, if you have a question about something related to the offline gold business, you can ask on the forum and either Jim or Andrew (sometimes both), will PERSONALLY reply to your question. Sure, there are a lot of forums out there where you can ask questions. However, I’ve found that on other forums the quality of the answer is only as good as the skill level of the person replying. That’s what makes OfflineBiz so valuable. You are getting quality answers from offline gold experts. You don’t end up chasing your tail going after tactics and techniques that aren’t proven or simply don’t work.

A word of warning though: OfflineBiz has a sneak peek free version that has its own forum. This is NOT the same forum that full members of OfflineBiz have access to. That was one of the reasons that I had procrastinated. I didn’t realize how good the actual OfflineBiz Gold member forum actually is.

If you are an intermediate or advanced level internet marketer, don’t assume that you know everything there is to know related to offline gold. OfflineBiz has something to offer for every skill level.

OfflineBiz has created countless success stories. And for good reason. It actually works! At less than $20 a month, it’s one of the best values around. I’ve paid as much as $99 a month for membership sites that aren’t half as good as OfflineBiz.

Did I mention that I like OfflineBiz??

Overall Rating
• 5.0 from 5

Chris Baker has a website system called SEO For Local Business that is designed for internet marketers who want to sell web services to local businesses. Chris sells leads of business owners who have been called and surveyed along with email contact info.

Unfortunately, there have been several complaints about Chris’s system from several people stating that Chris’s leads are a disaster. Chris provides you with a list of email addresses, but the ratio of bad addresses is very high. Additionally, there have been several complaints that the “interested business owners” aren’t in fact interested at all.

Holly Cotter, who is a very well known and experienced internet marketer bought Chris’s system and even got so pissed off that she made a whole blog exposing Chris’s scam. Wow, that’s a bad one!

Overall Rating
• 1.0 from 5

Dennis Becker has several products related to internet marketing and productivity. His most well known products are “The $5 A Day” strategy and his membership site “Earn $1000 A Day“.

Dennis is one of those people that I read everything he does. His work is always top notch and he doesn’t promote junk products or associate with “snake oil salesmen.”

The best way to learn a little more about Dennis is to try out one of the many free software tools and ebooks that he has available on his websites. A good one to start with is the free Quick Site Indexer software.

Overall Rating
• 5.0 from 5

Zero Cost Commissions is a product that claims you can make automated commissions from Clickbank. No software or product needed. The sales letter makes this sound like the most awesome product letter. It’s full of hype and promises (first sign that something is a scam).

The reviews on this product on the Warrior Forum and similar products have been overwhelmingly negative. The fact of the matter is no matter how much affiliates dream of a magic button, such a button does not exist. Like the old saying goes, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Do yourself a favor. Whenever someone promotes a crap product like this on your email, immediately unsubscribe! It’s the only way to get rid of these scammers.

Overall Rating
• 1.0 from 5

If you’ve been following internet marketing the past few years, you know the promo cycle goes something like this:

You get on one guru’s list and they promote the next “must have product”. Now you end up on two lists

The next month, both gurus are pushing the next “must have product” and now you are on three lists

The next month, 3 gurus are pushing the same product and you are on yet another list.

And on and on and on. Pretty soon, your inbox is full of promos and the gurus have provided you with very little value.

Very few marketers are smart enough to go against the grain of this cycle. Jason Fladlien is one such marketer. The dude actually provides value to his list! What a crazy concept. When you get on his email newsletter list, he won’t give you one free report or even two free reports. He gives you 32 free reports!

These aren’t crappy little reports either. He could easily sell them for $10 each as special reports on any internet marketing forum and they would sell like crazy. But Jason doesn’t do that because he knows that when he overdelivers in the short term, he will get more clients in the long term.

I don’t have all of Jason’s paid reports but his Bare Essence Squeeze Page product in particular has been very handy for my websites. I’ve used that quite a bit and it’s certainly a lit easier to use than trying to build a squeeze page myself.

Jason is now clearing over 6 figures a month online just from overdelivering on his empire of simple sites. Other marketers would be smart to follow Jason’s example.

If you’ve never checked out Jason’s blog, you can do so here. It’s definitely worth it.

Overall Rating
• 5.0 from 5