It's great having a bunch of internet marketing mates, friends who do the same thing as me, it means I've got people to talk to about the latest new stuff, as well as what's working well and what's not...

The only down side is sometimes they tell you to do something that you're not doing, and if you don't get on to it, they'll end up telling you off for not listening to good advice!

And that's what this blog post is about, and example where I've been dragging my feet, largely because I simply didn't feel that I knew enough about this technique...

What am I talking about?

Webinars!

Webinars are the big thing in marketing this year, I know they've been around for quite a while, but the technology has come on a long way over the last couple of years, AND the conversions you can get from webinars are simply staggering!

I have friends who regularly get at least 10 times as high conversion rates from their webinars as they do from their emails or regular websites!

we're talking about conversion from 10% at the lower end, right up to around 40%, that's BIG numbers!!!

As it happens, the timing for me to start learning about webinars and using them more has been forced upon me to a degree...

With the imminant launch of NicheReaper.com I'm going to be doing some webinars based on this awesome* new automated niche and keyword research system [* = I may be biased, as it's my system, but you can make up your own mind very soon]

So I needed to go out and learn all about how to do webinars the right way. If I'm going to do soemthing, I like to make sure I understand how to do it well!

As usual, my luck has kicked in and I've just managed to get hold of a brand new course that covers everything you could possibly need to know about doing succesful webinars, so I thought it would be a good idea to share it with you...

Using Webinars in Marketing

I've spent some time in the members area already checking out the first few (very detailed and informative) tutorial videos, and I can see that this is going to make sure I know exactly how to get the most out of webinars for my online business!

I highly recommend you check it out!

[this post: http://mattgarrett.com/webinars-in-marketing/]

Most Commented Posts

Ebooks, Software and videos with private label rights are by far the quickest way to launch your own products online, but you need to know how to do it the right way...

It's not difficult, it just takes a little bit more time and effort than a lot of people are willing to put in, BUT if you do, you will reap significant rewards, I know this from personal experience!

With the recent downturn in popularity of products on clickbank I know that a lot of marketers have felt the pinch on their bottom line, personally I'm actually making more money than I was 6 months ago, and it's all because of high quality, re-branded PLR products!

To help you learn how you can do the same I've got hold of a free report for you called "25 Ways To Reuse PLR Content", it's 37 pages long and has some great info in it.

here's where you can grab it [no optin required, direct links]: -

zip download - 25 Ways To Reuse Private Label Rights Ebooks download
open the pdf & read online - 25 Ways To Reuse Private Label Rights Ebooks pdf

and here's a bit of an idea of the stuff it covers: -

~ What Is PLR and How It Can Help Your Internet Business

~ Most PLR Content Sucks!

~ The Three R’s

~ REDUCE Make Money With Your Content by Trimming and Cutting

1. Take Advantage of the Less is More Trend
2. Use Lite Versions or Excerpts As Freebies or in Giveaway Promotions! >> N.B. This is an excellent Tip!!! <<
3. Reduce and Email
4. Blog Away >> No more content creation headaches!!! <<
5. Slice and Slim Content for Article Directories
6. Creating Content for Free Publicity

~ RECOMPILE Combine and Conquer

7. Make a High-Ticket Course
8. Beautiful Bonuses
9. Recover Lost Sales
10. Create a Coaching Program
11. Create a Membership Empire
12. Be Authoritative!
13. Focus Your Content
14. Media Medium Transformation >> This is a real powerful tip, for getting traffic as well as sales <<
15. Create a Lead-Generator
16. Get Viral!
17. Do a Paid Presentation
18. Archive the Live
19. Become an e-Teacher
20. Innovate With A Whole New Format!
21. Retired Product Rebirth
22. Make a Content-Based Web Page
23. Sell the Resell Rights to Your Products
24. Revise and Resell!
25. Lead a Double Life

as an extra tip, one of the best tactics I've found for using good plr reports is to simply setup an automated blog and have a bunch of links to the sales/squeeze page as a static page on the blog and just let the autoposting stuff get on with it, set and forget!

Note: If you don't know how to set up an "auto blog" check out http://automatedblogging.com/automatedblogging/

Obviously this freebie report has some links in it to a new PLR package that's just been released, don't act all suprised

BUT there is some really useful tips and suggestions in there as well on how to get the most out of your private label rights ebooks, so it is well worth reading [imho]!

The package mentioned is the 12th release from top PLR expert, Jeremy Burns, he's been doing this for quite a few years and his stuff is ALWAYS top quality!

The 10 brand new plr packages include: -

1. Automated Traffic Bot
2. Backlink Hurricane
3. Dot Com Cash Cow
4. Flippa Cash
5. Getting Facebook Traffic
6. Instant Facebook iFrame Templates & Training
7. Listbuilding Bully
8. Social Niche Marketing Mastery
9. Social Media Marketing Manager
10. Testimonial Confirmed

here's what you get: -

~ Full Master Resale & Rebranding Rights

~ MS Word Source File & PDF

~ Simple Rebranding Instructions

~ Full Web site - Just add your name, payment links, and upload!

~ 3 Full Graphics Packages

~ Pre-written Sales Letter (not all plr packages include this, and it makes it a LOT easier to get it up for sale yourself)

what you can do with them: -

# Sell Them - obviously you can just pop them up for sale yourself, just add your name and an order button and you're good to go!

# Create Traffic - you can use the content in the for articles for your blogs or article directory submissions for traffic

# Sell Resale Rights - you can easily double your investment in the whole of this package by just selling the resale rights for a couple of the courses...

# Make Them Your Own - if you just spend a few hours changing the titles, graphics and the salesletter you end up with a brand new 100% unique product of your own, with NO COMPETITION!

{Jeremy has also included a 2 hour audio course on how to do this}

This last is the most powerful option, imho, as you could then use them as listbuilding or bonus products, as well as being able to sell them...

here's the link for the PLR offer itself ~> Source Code Goldmine v12

IMPORTANT: for the next few days you can also get $97 off the whole package by using the coupon code "FastActionDiscount" in the checkout!

and here's the links for the free report again: -

zip download - 25 Ways To Reuse Private Label Rights Ebooks download
open the pdf & read online - 25 Ways To Reuse Private Label Rights Ebooks pdf

[this post: Ebooks with Private Label Rights]

Most Commented Posts

A couple of days ago someone asked me whether it would be possible to SENuke X to create an online income without having your own website or blog...

I admit my first thought was along the lines of "Why would you want to...", but I guess that's because I do have my own websites and blogs so it's natural for me to think of using the tool in this way.

I gave it a bit more thought and came up with an idea which I think you could easily use to create a fairly decent income in a short period of time just using SENuke and one other site, which I've mentioned a few times recently - Fiverr.com

The idea is really simple, you use SENuke to offer other people the services that the system provides, all at $5 a pop, and all very quick and easy for you to do as the system automates all these tasks!

So you could offer to set up profiles on: -

~ 29 Social Networking sites
~ 72 article directories
~ 26 Press Release Sites
~ 20 Video Sites
~ 22 Social Bookmarking Sites
~ 5 RSS Directories
~ 62 Web 2.0 sites

You can then offer seperate "jobs" to submit to those as "groups", so for example you offer to: -
~ submit their video to 20+ video sites
~ submit their link or site to 29 Social Networking sites
~ submit their articles to 72+ article directoris
~ submit their press release to 26+ Press Release sites
etc. etc.

you get the idea right?

you're basically levergaing your investment in the SENuke tool to offer the servies to other people, and using the tool to automate the work for you!

there's no reason why you couldn't be up and running doing at least 10-20 of these jobs within 24 hours, which would give you an online income of $50 to $100 per DAY!

it really is a simple plan, but hopefully you can also see just how powerful it is, that $100 a day turns in to $2,000 a month if you're only doing it 5 days a week, and the jobs themselves shouldn't take more than an hour a day TOPS!, as the system automates the process, you've just gotta pop the relevant info in to a new project.

ok, so here's the link for the SENuke tool itself: -  SENuke X

Note: the price onthis goes up at the end of tomorrow, so you need to get in quick!

and here's the previous video/blog post I made showing how easy it is to create all those profiles using the system: -

Automatically Create Social Profiles

and here's a new one I've just finished on how to do RSS directory submissions with it: -

Automated RSS Submission

and I'll have another one for you tomorrow on how to use it for Video Submissions.

AND you may also want to check out the cheap ebook on using Fiverr here: -

Fiverr Ebook

as well as the video tutorials here: -

Outsourcing with Fiverr

wow, ok, sorry that's quite a lot, but as the price of SENuke is going up tomorrow I wanted to give you as much info as I can to help you make the decision, I hope this helps!

here's the link again: -

SENuke X

[this post: http://mattgarrett.com/quick-online-income-plan/]

Most Commented Posts

[part 1]

Happy New Year's Eve!
I hope you've got something fun planned!

I thought as we're ending the year and rolling in to the new one I'd do an post or two summing up some of my best bits of the year (imho).

I'll also be sending you a little gift tomorrow, so keep your eyes open for it...

Here's a few of my favorite blogs posts from the last 12 months: -

Getting More Done...
http://mattgarrett.com/10-productivity-tips/
&
http://mattgarrett.com/managing-bad-habits/

Free tools, resources and software that you should make sure you have: -
http://how2.biz/internet-marketing-resource.html

The Traffic Action Plan Blog Posts: -

1. http://blogtactics.com/getting-website-traffic/
2. http://blogtactics.com/submitting-articles-for-traffic/
3. http://blogtactics.com/blog-directory-submissions/
4. http://blogtactics.com/top-30-rss-directories/
5. http://blogtactics.com/blog-commenting-for-backlinks/
6. http://blogtactics.com/video-submissions-for-traffic/

I'll be adding another 3 or 4 posts in this series, at least, over the next month or so, including using social marketing and getting as many backlinks as possible, both manually and "hands free"...

Social Marketing Blog Automation: -
http://blogtactics.com/wp-syndicator/
http://imtesting.com/wpsyndicator-instant-backlinks/

How to get your WP API key: -
http://blogtactics.com/wordpress-api-key/

Getting the most out of resale rights products, including a free report: -
http://iamuncovered.com/private-label-rights-ebooks/

I also made some videos to help out with using resale rights products which are here: -
http://how2.biz/videos/index.html

One of the very best "getting traffic" courses of the year: -
http://mat4.com/turbotraffic/

Buying Traffic: -
http://iamuncovered.com/media-traffic-buying/

If you like the "floating" optin box that appears on the posts on http://IAMUncovered.com, or the bar optin at the bottom, or the extra optin option at the bottom of the posts and in the comments area, then you should check out how I get all of those added to a blog very quickly and easily: -
http://mg.gd/a/getmoreoptins

that's it for "part 1", you may already have seen most or all of these blog post, but if you missed any I believe you'll find them worth checking out.

Have a great New Year's Eve!

Most Commented Posts

So is there really a "secret" Affiliate Marketing Promo Formula?

Some kind of step by step plan that can help you dominate info product launches..?

That's a screen capture from a fairly recent affiliate competition that I claimed top spot (and top prize) in.

Note: if you click on the image the full size version will pop up so you can see more details.

and that's not the only JV affiliate leader board I've done well on, here's a few more top place results...

I've included some older one's not just those from this year, so that you can see I've been doing this for a while, and I've not included all my top 10 placings from this year, let alone all the top 15 and top 20 results.

So back to the question - "Is there a secret formula for affiliate 'promo' marketing?"

I probably wouldn't really call it a "secret", but then that's because I know it, having discovered a lot of the "formula" for myself over the last few years, with some help from great friends along the way...

One of those friends, a guy called John Thornhill, has developed a real "Formula" that anyone can follow to get the same kind of results that John & I are used to.

John has spent 4 years testing, tweaking and perfecting his system!

He first showed it to me over 6 months ago, while he was still getting it just right, and it worked so well even back then that I've been using it ever since...

and now it's your turn, go take a look now: -

Affiliate Marketing Promo Formula

I've also put together a bit of a bonus offer for you...

here's what you get: -

1. http://AutoProfitPlan.com

This is all about list building and email marketing, so perfectly compliments John's APF
NOTE: This is brand new, please don't try buying it from that page, it's not up for sale yet...

2. 16 full PLR (can be given away to help build your list) internet marketing ebooks

To make sure you get the bonuses, it's the usual process: -

please MAKE SURE the affiliate ID shown at the bottom of the "Secure Payment Form/Order Page" says this: -

[affiliate = confirm]

If it doesn't then you will need to clear your cookies in your browser settings and then use the link above again

Once you have successfully grabbed your copy follow these steps: -

~ 1. visit http://askmattg.com
~ 2. open a support ticket
~ 3. paste a copy of the receipt you get from ClickBank

here's the link to use again ~>Affiliate Marketing Promo Formula

Most Commented Posts

one of the best things I ever did for my internet business was visit a marketing event.

it was run by Robert Puddy, who's doing another one in the US in Oct (LFMpires Workshop US), and it made a massive difference to my online business!

I admit, I wasn't looking forward to going and having to do all that "networking" stuff, mostly because that always sounds to me like standing around in a room full of people you don't know, trying to start up a random conversation, not exactly easy or pleasant, unless of course you're a bit of an extrovert!

as it happens, all my "networking" ended up being done either in the bar, or outside having a smoke, so starting conversations wasn't forced, it just happened naturally.

And of course the plentiful flow of Guiness helped!

In fact it was while I was outside having a smoke (that's the unhealthy bit) that I met (and made friends with) many of my best joint venture partners, well known and very succesful marketers like (in no particular order): -

Soren Jordansen
Simon Hodgkinson
Tahir Shah
Randolf Smith
Chris Freville
JP Schoeffel
John Delavera
Robert Puddy
Terry Telford
Ian Rollinson
Tim Brocklehurst
Tina Lindgren
Pete Lauder
Paul Kinder
Richard Butler
Scott Paton
Jeremy Gislason
and Alex Jeffries, who was a newbie at the time!

[I know I'll have missed someone off, so apologies right now!]

I should note that whilst I met all those mentioned above that weekend, not all of them were smoking!

in fact, on the first night at that seminar, most of the non-smokers ended up joining all us smokers outside!

so it turns out that while smoking and drinking are undoubtably bad for your health, they can actually be good for your business! lol

would my internet business be as successful as it is today if I hadn't got up off my backside and gone to that event?

Maybe, but I know for certain it wouldn't have been as easy for me to be successful without the help of all those good friends (and JV partners)!

and here's a bit of proof, just one single mailing from just one of those guys mentioned above a couple of days after the event more than paid for the whole weekend for me, including the bar bill!
(thanks again Ian!)

in fact Robert Puddy's weekend wasn't actually the first internet marketing related "event" that I went to, the very first was a training weekend in the US for some software tools I bought back in 2005, and that was a pretty cool weekend too, you might even recognise the names of a few of the people I met on that one: -

Ryan Diess
Keith Baxter
Jerry West
Dave Moore
Dave Kelly

I also met 3 other brit marketers who eneded up being good friends to this day, so I guess I better give Gary Prendergast, Mike SPencer and Rich Daniels a mention as well, so they don't tell me off!

so are you starting to "get it"?

going to these internet marketing events is pretty damned important, it can have a massive effect on just how successful your business is, and how quickly you "get there"...

now obviously I wouldn't be a marketer is I wasn't also leading up to something, right...?

so here's how you can get started, if you haven't already.

1st up - LFMPires Workshop Notes Free Report

A great guy called Alex Poole, who I met at the LFMpires workshop in the UK earlier this year, in fact he ended up giving me a lift home (thanks again Alex!), spent the weekend writing up massive amoutns of notes of all the best info given out by the speakers, and for some daft reason he's giving this wicked report away for free!!

I've gotta admit, I'm very happy he wrote the report, as usual I spent a little too much time in the bar, and missed some top notch info, so Alex's report broguth me back up to speed!

you can grab Alex's report here: -

IM Success Notes Free Report

2nd - UK Event this weekend (25th - 27th September)

Mark Anastasi has put together a pretty damn impressive list of speakers for an event at Earls court in London, including: -

Armand Morin
Shawn Casey
Brett McFall
Kirt Christensen
John Jonas
Alex Goad
Mark Vurnum
Reed Floren
Amit Mehta
Alex Goad
Jeff Dedrick

Mark's set me up with 20 free tickets to give away, so if you can get there, go grab a ticket now: -

http://www.speedcashseminar.com/matt

and of course you know where to find me for a beer, if I'm not in the seminar, just find the bearest bar!

3rd - US Event in Baltimore (October 16th - 18th)

Robert Puddy's throwing one of his excellent LFMPire Workshops in Baltimore in the US, so if you're "over the pond", you're not going to miss out!

he's got the usual top notch crowd on board: -

Donna Fox
Soren Jordansen
Dave Lakhani
Jennie Armato
and of course Robert Puddy himself
and it wouldn't surprise me if he throws in a surprise guest speaker or two at the last moment, knowing Bob!

you can go grab your ticket for this one here: -

LFMPires Workshop Baltimore US

unfortunately they're not free, but they are dirt cheap!

oh, and once you've signed up, make sure you grab Bob's wicked guide for attending seminars, it's probably worth the cost of the ticket on it's own...

4th - my top tips for going to a seminar..?

I should probably do a separate blog post for that sometime, but here's a couple of important one's: -

1. take a camera, and don't be shy to ask for a photo, although don't be too pushy either
2. make sure you've got a laptop (and charger) or big notebook for taking as much notes as you can.
3. take some business cards, even if they're the one's you print yourself, you need to have something to give possibly new JV partners with your contact details on!
4. if you can, stay in the hotel where the seminar is, it'll be easier to hang out and meet people in the evenings.
5. take some hangover pills if you're gonna drink, and do try to make it for breakfast and the early seminars, although that's possibly a "Do what I say, not what I do" thing...
6. if you do end up at the bar, make sure you know your limits, no point in getting blasted and spoiling all the good networking you have done...

5th, and last - a few pics from previous events...

a team shot from the Coventry BritPack 2007 event: -

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mat1/3078022684/

and another from the LFMpires Workshop earlier this year: -

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mat1/3523529524/

and I hope to see you at an internet marketing event soon!

Other Posts You Might Like...

UK IM Workshop

the workshop is being run by Kevin Brown and the main speakers will be Kevin Riley, who is a top dog when it comes to product creation, and Lee McIntyre who was a school teacher up until just a couple of years ago and has built up profitable online business and an excellent reputation for delivering high quality advice, tips and products.

The Workshop starts at 10am Sunday July 26th 2009

It's also pretty cheap for such an event, at just $177 (inc 15% VAT), and as it's not a massive overcrowded event you'll have more chance to network with people and make some great new contacts...

I'll probably get to the hotel on Saturday afternoon, so if you're coming you should be able to find me in my usual spot (at the bar) from early evening onwards.

here's the link again -

UK IM Workshop

hope to see you there!

Other Posts You Might Like...

I managed to make it down to London a couple of weeks ago for Martin Avis' London Lunch for the first time in well over a year, and it was great to see so many people there!

It was also great to catch up with a whole bunch of people (fellow internet marketers) who I've not seen in months, although I didn't manage to chat with everyone I wanted to (sorry Rob!), and I forgot to take any photos, too busy nattering away, sorry!

So there's 2 points to this post, first is an invite to what will be a great internet marketing workshop weekend that I'm going to, and the 2nd is more of a proposal based on having some kind of informal getogether in Cheltenham every couple of months...

Bristol Internet Marketing Workshop

This workshop is being held by Robert Puddy in Bristol (here in the UK) on May 8th - 10th!

I've been to a few of Robert's events here in the UK and at every one I've a. learnt v. useful stuff, b. met some GREAT new friends & JV partners, and c. had a lot of fun!

so do whatever you can to try and make this, I know you will love it!

go take a look here: -

Bristol Internet Marketing Workshop

you can probably spot me in a couple of the pics!

Incentive => if you use the my link (above) to grab a place let me know and I'll buy you a beer at the bar!

Oh, and Bob's also done a quick video about the weekend: -

here's the link again - Bristol LFMpire Workshop

Cheltenham & Gloucester Blogging & Internet Marketing Meet

over the last 5-6 months I've had email conversations with a few people about possibility of doing some sort of informal getogether for beers and a chat once every couple of months, so I thought it's time to throw it out there and see if it sticks...

I'm quite happy to work out a suitable venue here in Cheltenham, but here's what we need to discuss/decide on: -

1. should the meet be during the week (mon/tue/wed/thu) or on a weekend (fri/sat/sun)?

2. should it be a lunch or in the evening?

3. when should the first one be? e.g. end of April or end of May?

so if you're interested, leave some feedback and let's get this rolling a bit...

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1. PMA - "Positive Mental Attitude"

If you have a negative attitude to being successful then you're going to end up sabotaging your own efforts.

Likewise if you listen to others with a "that will never work" attitude, then they will have a negative influence on your efforts, so don't do it.

Instead start seeking out and mixing with people who have the same positive attitude and are interested in the same things as you, see No. 5 below.

I posted a great example of how a self defeating negative outlook can be recently here: -

Nothing Works Part 2

Warning - it's a LONG read!

2. Investing in your own education

If you wanted to be a Doctor, Engineer, Lawyer or any other high paid offline "professional" you would have to spend a small fortune getting the education you need.

Why should you expect to get the REAL knowledge you need online to be for free?

Yes, you can learn a lot for free, but it will take more time and effort, paying for the education from someone who has already become successful will save you a LOT of time, effort and heartache!

3. Taking Action

There's no point in spending money on the knowledge you need if you don't actually make use of it...

There are many, many people who spend all their time (and money) jumping from one thing to the next, without actually putting what they've learnt in to action.

Don't be one of these people!

Make a plan and start working on it now.

4. Persistence (or "bloody minded stubbornness" as my mother calls it)

Things will not always go right, you will stumble and fall along the way, we all do, even with the best education, mistakes still happen, it's part of being human, the point is we can learn from our mistakes, pick ourselves up and forge on...

If you expect to be an overnight success online then perhaps you're in the wrong business, maybe you should go try out for one of those Pop Idol or X-Factor shows instead.... lol

I know many people who are now earning a very good living online, many are now good friends of mine, and I don't ever remember hearing a single one of them say it was easy or happened overnight...

Any business that is worthwhile is going to take some time and effort to build up, marketing online is no different.

The fantastic thing about an online business is that providing you are willing to put in the effort, there will come a time when you end up in a situation where you can spend less and less time "working" and still increase the money your business makes, you just have to be persistent to get to that stage, so keep your goal in mind and push on!

5. Getting out and meeting people (aka "networking")

I mentioned in No. 4 above that I know have many good friends who are successful online marketers, most of those people I met by getting out from my home office and going to "internet marketing" events.

This is something that I can't recommend strongly enough!

The people you meet can not only become great friends, they can also become great joint venture partners and help you to make your business a success!

At one of the very first events I went to I met a great bloke who became a joint venture partner of mine, and the very first promotion he did for my product a few days later more than paid for all the costs of me going to that event, even the bar bill!

Don't be afraid of getting out there in to the "real world" and meeting people, it will help push your online business forward by leaps and bounds!

[UPDATED May'09] Side Note: there's a great chance to get together with a whole bunch of top class Ineternet Marketers in Musiccity, Tennessee in the US on June 19th -21st!

go take a look here: -

Tennessee Internet Marketing Weekend

Note ++>> there's a "2 for 1" on the tickets at the moment, so you can split the costs with a partner, if you're quick!

6. Getting the answers I need, when I need them

The other very positive benefit of attending seminars and workshops for my business has been to build a network of other "experts" who can help me when I get stuck on something.

We all get stuck on something now and then, so having this kind of network of people to help me when I need it has been worth an absolute fortune to me and my online business, but as a "newbie" internet marketer it can take you a while to build up this kind of network, so those seminars and workshops are even more important!

However, there is now another answer...

Another marketer (who I also met at a seminar I was attending) realised that this is one of the biggest problems most internet marketers face, especially when just starting off, so he's spent the last year building a site that allows any member to get the answers they need, when they need them, from experts who actually know the right answers!

The site has only just launched and there are already 500+ people getting the answers to the questions that were holding them back, from over 100 proven online marketing experts, you can join them today...

go watch this video to see how: -

EasilyAnswered

To the success of your online business!

Most Commented Posts

I can't believe I haven't made a post to this blog since the start of the month!

It shows what can happen when we get some sunny weather here in the UK!

I know us Brits are supposed to be "obsessed" with the weather, but that's because a lot of the time it does rain or get "cloudy", so when we have a week or so of summer weather in May we tend to want to enjoy it, just in case it's the only summer we get...

That may sound negative, but you have to remember that last summer I had to leave my home for several weeks because the flooding was so bad there was no power or fresh water, that was a serious exception to the norm, but we don't have great summers here that often, so when it feels like summer, we have to rush out and enjoy it while it's there...

And the weather isn't the only factor in my lazy lack of posting, having also just moved to a far better part of town, in walking distance of all the best pubs, I seem to have re-discovered having a "life" outside the internet.

and I have to admit I'm not even going to make this blog post particularly intersting, let alone "groundbreaking"!

Instead I'm going to tell you a little bit about the history of this domain name, "mattgarrett.com"

Until I turned this in to one of my "main" blogs a month or so ago, this was pretty much a "dead" domain name.

Let me explain a little more..

MattGarrett.com was the first domain name I ever registered, about 9 years ago, and back then registering a domain wasn't quite so cheap as it is now, MattGarrett.com cost me over £250 ($500+)!

In fact when I registered the domain there were far more valuable domain names available, including domains names that have sold for $millions since, so I guess it's a sign of my own "hubris" that I registered this domain when I could have registered something with a very high "retail"/"resale" value...

or perhaps I just have a lot of belief in myself...

So why didn't I use this domain more?

Well, back in 2000/2001 I did, but even back then when I was first learning about "SEO", I was experimenting with the "blackhat" side of things, and for a while the site did very well, it got up to PR6 at one point and then was hit with a PR0 before (back in 2004) people were even talking about Google Penalizing sites for bad liking practices...

I did spend some time on the site correcting what I believed Google were penalizing the site for, but back then there was no "re-inclusion" proceedure, so I shot off a few emails to the big G with the typical result, no-reply, so I stopped updating the site, getting links to it, or doing any work on it for several years.

and then about 6 months ago the domain suddenly got some "google love" again, the PR was back and it was back in the index, after 3+ years of being "shunned".

I hadn't changed anything on the site itself, so I've no idea why google decided to pay attention to the site again, but once I realised they were I decided to do the natural thing (for me), set it up as a blog and start blogging...

has it worked?

check for yourself, do a search on Matt Garrett, with or without "'s and this is the site you will find at no. 1, at present anyway..

so what's the moral of this post?

a. I'm self obsessed plonker who could have registered a valuable domain like "business.com", but chose to register my own name instead... 

b. who knows what the frack google are going to do to your site

c. blogs are good!

d. taking time out fromn blogging to enjoy the sun when it is shining is a good thing to do.

Matt Garrett

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