Welcome to Create an Awesome Home Business!
Here you will find products, services and step-by-step processes that will cut through the jargon and help you to grow a profitable Internet Marketing business.
All in plain, simple English.
Contact me if you have any questions. Or explore the site through the search box or links in the sidebars to the right. To your success!
Useful Resources
These are some of the tools and resources I use every day in my Internet Marketing business.
Full Disclosure: I'm an affiliate for the products and sites referred to on this page and, therefore, I earn a small commission for referring new customers to them. Enough for a couple of beers, anyway.
But I've bought, paid for and use everything that's referred to on this page, so I have no hesitation in recommending them to you.
But I've bought, paid for and use everything that's referred to on this page, so I have no hesitation in recommending them to you.
If you'd like some more information on any of them don't hesitate to ask!
Join Us in the Third Tribe
Brian Clark, Sonia Simone, (CopyBlogger) Darren Rowse (ProBlogger) and Chris Brogan (ChrisBrogan.com) recently launched the membership site 'Inside the Third Tribe'.It's about finding a middle ground between the pushy traditional Internet Marketing approach (long sales letters filled with hype and yellow highlighting) and the warm, fluffy social media approach, used by social media marketers (but with little sales success).
The result is the Third Tribe, where you can discover how to draw on the best of both worlds and sell successfully, without the hype and pushiness.
It's all about Content Marketing.
This membership site offers you the opportunity to work with the four principals, or any number of other highly successful online business people. And the Third Tribe has attracted a lot of them - Johnny B Truant, Leo Babauta, Dave Navarro, Nathan Hangen and Chris Pearson to name a few.
There are few better (or easier) ways of getting to know, and be known by, these A-Listers. Think of the leverage that alone can get you.
There are monthly seminars and Q and A sessions with Brian, Sonia, Darren and Chris. These are all recorded and available as MP3 and transcript downloads, so you can review them as and when you want to.
In short, this is absolutely top notch, top-of-the-line training on how to build a successful, sustainable business online.
Here are the recordings that are already available:
- Product Launch Strategies: What Always Works and What’s Working in 2010 – Jeff Walker interviewed by Sonia Simone
- Action Email: Copywriting Tips for Insanely Effective Email Marketing – Dave Navaro interviewed by Sonia Simone
- How to Get Your Customers to Do Your Best Marketing for You – John Jantsch interviewed by Chris Brogan
- Email Marketing Strategies that Work – Sonia Simone interviewed by Brian Clark
- Building a Business Around a Blog: Part One – Darren Rowse interviewed by Brian Clark
- Building a Business Around a Blog: Part Two – Chris Brogan interviewed by Sonia Simone
- Building a Business Around a Blog: Part Three – Brian Clark interviewed by Sonia Simone
- Building a Business Around a Blog: Part Four – Leo Babauta interviewed by Darren Rowse
- The Quick Start Guide to Making Money Online – Johnny B Truant interviewed by Sonia Simone
Going forward there will be 2 new interviews added each month and 2 live Q & A calls each month, all of which will be recorded for those who aren't able to make the live calls.
As Brian has proved with CopyBlogger and Darren with ProBlogger, Content Marketing is a supremely powerful way to attract a tribe of loyal fans. And loyal fans are much easier to sell to than people reading your blog for the first time!
If you're struggling with the pushy sales letter approach and not making money with your blogging, you absolutely need to take a look at this.
I wrote a review here, and you can check it out here.
And if you join through the links on this page drop me a PM (my username is abledragon) so I can welcome you and show you around.
Host Your Sites Safely and Securely
I host this and all my sites with Hostgator.I moved to Hostgator about a year ago, mainly because my previous hosting provider was not able to support SFTP – an important part of your overall online security.
When I moved across, Hostgator had a deal where they transferred one site from my previous hosting provider free of charge.
I selected my biggest and most complex site and it was moved across flawlessly. The rest of my sites were pretty simple so I just re-uploaded them from my PC to my new Hostgator account.
Their support has always been top notch. Whenever I've had a problem they've followed through, quickly and efficiently, until it's been fully resolved.
The way they are able to offer hosting of unlimited domains means that your account can look a little confusing at first.
I wrote an article here on how to add an extra domain to your Hostgator account, but if you have any questions please contact me. (Or, of course, the Hostgator support team!).
The SFTP is easy to set up and works well. This, for me, is an important feature and I wrote an article here explaining why.
Check out Hostgator here.
Special Offer - Free Customisation and Installation of Thesis
If you'd like a blog designed to your specifications, which is also highly SEO-effective, then you should read on.The Thesis theme for WordPress is a highly customisable theme.
Calling Thesis a theme is to do it an injustice. It's way more than that.
Thesis is a platform (or framework) that enables you to unleash the full potential of WordPress - even if you're not a coder.
With unmatched SEO capabilities and infinite design possibilities, Thesis is the platform that A-List bloggers like Brian Clark, Darren Rowse and Chris Brogan, as well as SEO ninjas like Matt Cutts use out of choice.
For some examples of sites that are built on Thesis check out this page and scroll down a bit to see the gallery.
A couple more examples: my travel in Asia site, my personal site, my development site and my second development site, which contain the last designs I did for someone.
I've written several reviews of Thesis, the most recent of which is here.
Here's my Special Offer:
If you choose to buy Thesis, and do so through my affiliate link, I will happily create a design to your requirements and install it for you.
Alternatively I will give you two hours of one-on-one telephone consulting which needn't be restricted just to Thesis - we can cover anything you like.
Clicking my affiliate link will take you through to the DIYThemes site, which is the site from which they sell Thesis.
It doesn't look like my site but the click through contains my affiliate code, which I've tested, checked and secured. :)
Here's the deal:
Unfortunately the system at Thesis doesn't let me check in real time who's bought it through my affiliate link, so I have to go through this convoluted process I've described below:
After you have completed your purchase and received your username and password from the Thesis admin team contact me through this link and give me:
- Your name
- The version of Thesis you bought (Developer's or Personal Option)
- The date you bought it
- Whether you paid by credit card or PayPal (but don't give me your credit card number or PayPal email address!)
Your answers to the questions will enable me to create a suitable initial design, which you will be able to review on my development site and ask for changes as necessary before accepting it.
Here are some kind words from people for whom I've done some Thesis work:
Susan Bilheimer - Owner, SusanBilheimer.com
"...Too often, those who teach how to make money online overpromise and underdeliver. Martin's approach is the opposite.
I stumbled on his site, I have no clue how. But his invaluable tips on marketing in his newsletter really resonated with me. And, rather than have him design my site, I requested that he impart some of that knowledge to me, and we struck a deal.
I learned more in that short time with Martin than from many to whom I've paid a grand fortune.
His no-nonsense, bottom line approach is all substance and no fluff. He taught me a great deal about using Thesis, which I hope to begin doing soon..."
Sandra Du Plessis - Owner, Home Safety For Kids
"... Some little while ago, I decided to split a rather large and unwieldy site into 3 Wordpress sites.
I asked questions all over the place in the Warrior Forum and stumbled across Martin when he stepped forward to answer one of my questions.
To most people it is quite easy to set up if you understand these things. Of course, me being me I was more than slightly confused.
Back to Martin and his incredible patience. He created a custom style sheet for me, then tried to talk me through setting everything up correctly. Of course, I messed it up completely, but no problem, Martin went in and fixed it all up beautifully at absolutely no cost.
I recommend Martin and his services most highly.
Martin, thank you so much for your kindness and patience..."
"...Too often, those who teach how to make money online overpromise and underdeliver. Martin's approach is the opposite.
I stumbled on his site, I have no clue how. But his invaluable tips on marketing in his newsletter really resonated with me. And, rather than have him design my site, I requested that he impart some of that knowledge to me, and we struck a deal.
I learned more in that short time with Martin than from many to whom I've paid a grand fortune.
His no-nonsense, bottom line approach is all substance and no fluff. He taught me a great deal about using Thesis, which I hope to begin doing soon..."
Sandra Du Plessis - Owner, Home Safety For Kids
"... Some little while ago, I decided to split a rather large and unwieldy site into 3 Wordpress sites.
I asked questions all over the place in the Warrior Forum and stumbled across Martin when he stepped forward to answer one of my questions.
To most people it is quite easy to set up if you understand these things. Of course, me being me I was more than slightly confused.
Back to Martin and his incredible patience. He created a custom style sheet for me, then tried to talk me through setting everything up correctly. Of course, I messed it up completely, but no problem, Martin went in and fixed it all up beautifully at absolutely no cost.
I recommend Martin and his services most highly.
Martin, thank you so much for your kindness and patience..."
This offer is for one installation and customization only per purchase of Thesis and to get your free installation and customisation you must buy Thesis through my affiliate link.
If you’d like to use Thesis and you’re happy to get on with things yourself you can still buy Thesis here. At the very least it’s worth clicking through to see the gallery of different blogs that have adapted Thesis, and how they’ve done it!
BTW – that other review of Thesis I wrote a while ago – you can find it here.
