This concludes the end of the year. And as year-end traditions go, those irresistible “best-of” lists are everywhere.

For fun, I decided to do an internet marketing edition of one of those lists. I know it’s a little indulgent and more than a little incestuous due to the tiny size of our niche, but I bet you’re a sucker for this as much as I am.

So the Best in Internet Marketing 2009… Here’s an overview of the various categories:

• Top 10 Internet Marketers
• 3 Biggest Shockers
• Top 5 Products
• Top 5 Online Marketing Breakthroughs
• 5 Bold Predictions for 2010
• Puppet String Marketing Products of 2009

Without further ado…

1) Ryan Deiss and Perry Belcher

I know I’m cheating by including 2 marketers instead of one. But these two are inseparable and boast of some of the best “good cop, bad cop” chemistry since the Lethal Weapon series. Awesome marketing insights and sharp-as-nails business acumen make them the marketing role models I wish I had years ago. These guys are the real deal.

2) Mike Hill

Mike Hill has been the secret weapon of many, many multi-million dollar corporations. He has pioneered a lot of the CPA offers we promote today, and has paved the way for Acai Berry, Teeth Whitening and Colon Cleansing to become the million-dollar niches they are today. He’s also a really big-hearted person and has even given me an unforgettable wedding gift.

3) Amish Shah

Some people call him the top CPA affiliate marketer in the world. I’m inclined to think so. His manic testing, grasp of human psychology and business smarts have put him way above the level of many other established marketers in his hyper-competitive domain. Recent props from Frank Kern will propel his already shining star even further.

4) Mike & Vishen from MindValley

The MindValley boys are going to be speaking at Yanik’s Underground 6 event  next year. And now… the doors will be flung open to those whom I feel to are among the world’s top underground online marketers. The only reason I know about this is because I used to be copy chief for these guys. These guys are all about marrying Silicon Valley-level technology, world-class email marketing and  topgrading to create 6 figure DAYS on a regular basis.

5) Marty Rozmanith

He’s on this list because he’s the man behind 2 of my top 2009 products WordPress Direct and CPA Ninjas. I rarely follow other marketers so closely. I even more rarely buy something a marketer’s put out. Most people produce derivative info or badly-coded software but whatever this guy handles is top notch. Learned a ton and Wordpress Direct is my single best investment this year, and I make plenty.

6) Tim Schmidt

He’s not one of those guru types but he’s introduced a whole new way of doing continuity programs that’s going to revolutionize the way we do membership sites in the years to come. Called Association Marketing, his 80% stick rate and other staggering figures make mincemeat out of the far inferior forced continuity models introduced by Mike Filsaime and Russel Brunson of yore.

7) “The Barefoot Exec” Carrie Wilkerson

There’s an old internet marketing adage that says “all you need is one idea to put money in your pocket”, and you see this on countless IM sales letters. Well, the reason is that it IS true. Carrie gave me just one idea in the early days of the business to come out with my flagship product the Twitter Salvation System, and we have hundreds of buyers since. Plus, of course… She has an iron-clad grasp of personal branding and social media.

8.) Robert Plank and Jason Fladien

These guys are synonymous with the words “Speed of Implementation”. In the space of less than 12 months, I’ve seen them churn out no less than a whopping 22 products between them. With them, quantity doesn’t compromise quality though, and these guys are a boundless guide to smart resourceful strategies that you don’t need a lot of money to implement.

9) Andy Jenkins

In my opinion, the former Stompernet CEO has ascended to the pantheon of the email marketing Gods where deities like Frank Kern, Matt Furey and Dave Dee now reside. And that’s for starters; his SEO and e-commerce teachings have already become the stuff of legends. After all, making $25,000 off of a fake sword site really deserves recognition of some sort.

10) Peter Parks

Though not as well-known as Amish Shah, Aymen or the rest of the CPA Cartel, he has successfully cut a swath as a really smart superaffiliate to watch out for. His mastery of little-known licensing strategies and Web 2.0 marketing has brought some much needed innovation to the tired affiliate marketing space.

Perry Belcher retiring

I consider Perry a friend. I know his name has been synonymous with controversy over the past few years, but I still consider him one of the most brilliant marketers of his generation. The next Vincent James, I dare say. So imagine my shock when all his social media accounts got deleted and the revelation of his retirement from the IM scene was written on his blog. You’ll be sorely missed, Perry.

Google shutting down 100,000 accounts

Those in the scene know Google ain’t the biggest fans of us online marketers. But what they did next was just balls out insane. In the sweeping move that may change the face of the affiliate marketing landscape forever, they shut down a 100,000 AdWords accounts of online marketers — both spammer and legit. Overnight, entire income streams disappeared. “What next?” seems to be the question on everyone’s lips for 2010.

Andy Jenkins leaving StomperNet

There have been a lot of nasty rumors and wild speculation surrounding the circumstances, but let’s not go there. All I’m going to say is that he was the face behind one of online marketing’s biggest innovations in Stompernet… Thus, forever ends the era of those awesome StomperNet emails and pop culture references.

1) Wordpress Direct

The one thing I missed about working for one of my previous companies was their content management system. They could set up an entire website structure in under 10 minutes. Now… technology has caught up because we can now do the exact same thing with Wordpress Direct. Of course you need to upgrade to Platinum membership in order to enjoy an optimal CMS experience. But I believe every penny spent is worth it. You can get it here.

2) SENuke

People once paid underground marketers like Jeff Johnson $25,000 to learn SEO tactics that now SENuke can do on autopilot in a span of 15 minutes…At a fraction of the cost. The single most powerful linkbuilding and SEO tool on the market today, it can easily take the place of your local SEO company. Huge learning curve, but the search engine rankings are worth it. You can get it now.

3) CPA Tsunami

CPA marketing has been the rage this year. This says something: As much as CPA marketers make a ton of money, the product owners are making much much more as they tap into their army of insane super-affiliates. CPA Tsunami is brilliant underground marketer Mike Hill’s gift to the world… On how to set up your own CPA marketing program so that you don’t have to worry about traffic again. Thank you, Mike.

4) CPA Ninja

To continue the CPA marketing craze… There has been a slew of CPA affiliate marketing products released throughout the year with exorbitant price tags attached… Ranging from the painfully mediocre to the plain darn excellent. The best of the lot to me is CPA Ninja–Marty Rozmanith and Matt Trainer have excellent chemistry together, and Trainer’s Excel tricks have revolutionized the way I set up my AdWords campaigns forever.

5) 13 Sneaky Little Email Tricks

As a highly-paid email copywriter, I have seldom come across email marketing products that are any good. This $97 package by Ryan Deiss is a hidden gem among the slew of overpriced product launches. His ninja autoresponder tricks are really cool, and have directly impacted my income more than any other product out there. It’s still available, so get it while you still can.

1) CPA over Clickbank

Clickbank has long been the default starting place of the fledgeling affiliate marketer. In 2009 however, marketers have flocked over the CPA networks instead. Why? The simple reason that a simple Zip/Email submit converts far better than trying to squeeze a sale from jaded prospects. The maths is staggering. CPA is here to stay.

2) The Rise of the Cartel

As with any industry growing up, oligopolies and monopolies will form. Whereas the internet marketing scene was the Wild, Wild West a few years back, it’s now resembling more and more the dog-eat-dog offline world. The early adopters who are now the “top dogs” have banded together to form an invincible faction with mailing lists and money in the millions. Good business sense. Not so good for the lone rangers.

3) Bleep Bloop

For far too long the IM scene has had no checks and balances. Unscrupulous marketers have run roughshod over consumers with their forced continuity and upsell hell over the past decade or so. As a consumer, I have dealt with non-existent support, terrible coding and rehashed products so much that it has sadly become an industry norm. And in comes the Salty Droid, a blog detailing the various scams and scandals of the industry. He may be vulgar and a tad mean-spirited, but he’s a much-need breath of fresh air in a scene plagued with chicken-hearted sycophants. Read his rants here.

4) The FTC

And while the Salty Droid is the voice of the grassroots, the FTC is the governmental enforcer part of the equation. To be honest… I sometimes see the FTC as an inconvenience. No more high-converting testimonials with specific results… Disclosures everywhere, etc. Yet it’s one of those painful-but-good-for-you necessities because with no guidelines, there’s just going to be wanton abuse. So a grudging thanks FTC, for keeping us honest.

5) Social Media

Twitter and Facebook. Facebook and Twitter. 2009 is the year of social media. Every other day there seems to be a breaking news story on Twitter, Facebook and other social media services. Social media marketing is indeed revolutionizing the way we do business. Even for an obscure Malaysian marketer like myself, it has catapulted me into stratospheric heights that otherwise would not be possible.

1) Greater barriers to entry

5 years ago, the internet playing field was indeed a level one. Your average industrious work-at-home mom or the unemployed bum could succeed in online marketing, given enough determination and a Clickbank ebook. Unfortunately, times have changed. With newly-loaded online marketers employing an army of article writers, backlink builders and bloggers, the one man army does not really stand a chance anymore. You need sufficient cash and stringent tracking and testing in order to compete… Now, the online marketing scene is like any other industry–competitive and cut-throat, where only the strong survive.

2) Local Marketing

I was one of the first few who hopped on the local marketing wave long before Jeff Walker and Frank Kern exposed it to the world–and I’ve profited greatly from it. Most small biz owners don’t know the different between a squeeze page and SEO. So grab these low-hanging fruit by using your knowledge, experience and expertise to charge lucrative consultation fees and stop competing against the Mike Filsaime’s and Aymen’s of this world.

3) Going to the CPA networks

If you’re an existing product or business owner, there’s no better traffic tactic then turning to the CPA networks to lend you their army of SuperAffiliates. PPC… SEO… Article marketing… All these pale in comparison to the sheer awesomeness of “having a daily product launch” (as Mike Hill says). That’s how obscure niches like teeth whitening and acai berry are now multi-million dollar industries. Once you have an offer that converts, you don’t have to worry about buyers’ traffic ever again.

4) The shift from affiliate to product owner

By the same token, being an affiliate now is really not advisable. Did you know that if you’re using AdWords, there’s an option where you can make Google your affiliate? Offer them commissions, and they will auto-optimize your campaigns while spelunking profitable new keywords for you. The big problem? When Google perfects this formula, they’ll probably start cutting out the middlemen–i.e. affiliate marketers. All the more reason for you to launch a product-driven business and let other affiliates worry about Google’s next destructive move.

5) Building your business outside Google

Face it: Google is arrogant.  They’re probably have cause to be proud because the money-loaded corporations have jumped on board and they don’t really have to take care of the needs of the small business owner anymore. Plus, their shutting down of a 100,000 affiliate marketing AdWords accounts isn’t creating any more goodwill. Good news: Google only represents 15-20% of the web, so there still a big and lucrative playing field outside of them. CPV, CPA and contextual marketing… Explore them all.

Of course, what’s a Puppet Master post without a plug eh? Here’s some of the best-selling products we have released this year.

Twitter Salvation System

The grand-daddy of Twitter marketing. The Twitter Salvation System has been purchased by the gurus themselves, pleasantly surprising me in the process. Mark Joyner calls me a “Twitter genius”, click on the link to find out why.

Twitter Mind Control

What happens when you combine forbidden persuasion with Twitter’s real-time power? Twitter Mind Control, that’s what. Use these sneaky psychological triggers to boost sales, attract prospects or carve out your niche. Your call.

Twitter Affiliate Marketing

There’s a lot of BS out there on using Twitter for affiliate marketing. Follow-spamming your prospects while spamming them with endless Clickbank offers is far from best practice. Here’s my tested and proven method to shovelling in big fat affiliate commissions to your bank account–no black hat or illegal tricks.

Advanced Affiliate Marketing

If you want to take your affiliate marketing to the next level, you should take a look at this. Judging from the number of the most prominent affiliate marketers who bought this course, the Puppet Master’s take on Bum Marketing will turbo-charge your SEO and article marketing like no other.

Email Salvation System

This email marketing home study system is one year in the making. One of my buyers told me that they can see themselves making money utilizing even a fraction of the content. Most email courses are either crap or expensive, this may be the best bang for your buck if you want to enjoy profitable autoresponder marketing for the new year.

Well, what do you folks think? Agree? Disagree? What are your thoughts for the Best of 2009? Please leave your comments below!

Obama has served 100 days in the White House.

A 100 days. "Success or failure?", the 2 camps are still debating.

A policy here. A ruling there. Intervention all around. Some people call the President’s moves brilliant. Others call it plain dumb.

Yes, the voices are crystal clear. The first 100 days are always forgivable ones. You need to get your feet wet, to clean up the mess of the previous administration, just to learn to juggle the various egos of the others in power.

The first 100 days are about research, and policy discussions, and rounds and rounds of meetings to fix what’s wrong about the country.

Yet, the same media voices claim the next 100 days are THE MOST CRUCIAL ONES to determine whether Obama succeeds as president  or is a flash in the pan.

You see, the next 100 days are about IMPLEMENTATION. To stop talking and take action. And the anticipated results will determine his destiny.

How have you spent the last 100 days?

Did you set your goals? New Years Resolution? A fierce determination to succeed and prevail through this difficult recession period?

Now, whether you see results or not, it’s crunch time.

Just like Obama, it’s your next 100 days that determine whether you sink or swim in this moment of crisis. Whether you make a comfortable living or become yet-another-statistic.

It depends on you.

And right now you want to take the street fighter route and use any weapon to not just survive, but thrive.

This is when Twitter comes in. A marketing channel that doesn’t cost money, yet has unprecedented opportunity. Oprah, Ashton, CNN… Twitter’s now mainstream baby, and it’s time to learn how to harness Twitter for maximum ROI.

Internet wealth specialist Stephen Pierce says that its far easier to dominate a marketing channel that it is a niche. In other words, you reap more profits from focusing on one channel than trying to challenge the existing Goliath’s in their niche.

They’re probably going to clobber you.

You still have first-mover advantage on Twitter. In fact, I guarantee you that if you focus on Twitter marketing for the next 100 days, your business will accelerate in a way you never thought possible.

Picture this… Once you master Twitter… Your prospects suddenly transforming into evangelists… A steady flow of leads without spending a red cent… Your personal brand spreading like wildfire across the Internet.

It is possible. In fact, in less than 100 days after coming on Twitter as an unknown, I established a 5 figure business from scratch–with no name, no list and no website. And a 100 days later, I’m among the elite marketers in this world.

I’m handing you the keys to the kingdom. This is the age of acceleration. The whole old-fashioned, white-knucked slave-till-dawn was the old rule of successes. Now, it’s to springboard off the opportunities and devices that make leapfrogging your predecessors so much easier.

So come on! Your next 100 days is do or die. Seize the moment and take that step of faith to succeed today.

—–> Carpe Diem!

P.S. 100 days may seem short. But miracles can happen in that time. A 100 days ago I was still unmarried. A 100 days before that I was still an unknown copywriter trying to make a living. Take the 100 days challenge and rise up now.

Twitter Salvation System. Doors Now Open.

Stop the presses!

On Friday, Oprah sent out her first tweet, and in the space of 3 days, she had over 300,000 followers.

Twitter is now officially uncool. (Actually, I’m kidding there. :p)

But on a serious note, I personally believe that when Oprah Winfrey got on Twitter on Friday, that represents one of the most significant things to ever happen to your business and to your marketing if you are using Twitter as a marketing, branding and business channel.

I’d like to discuss with you 4 urgent reasons why Oprah matters to your marketing, and why you should take note and take action as quick as you can.

1. Twitter has just had the Oprah Effect

As you know, Oprah is one of the most influential people on earth. Love her or hate her, her endorsements have turned otherwise obscure books into New York Times best-sellers; she is the reason why The Secret is the world-wide phenomenon it is today as opposed to a niche viral video.

And now, Oprah endorses Twitter above Facebook and Myspace and all the other social media of before.

It doesn’t take a detective to know that whatever Oprah endorses becomes successful.

We can already see the spike she’s caused; over 1.5 million more users were added on Twitter because of her arrival.

Shaq, Ashton Kutcher, Demi Moore have used Twitter and brought it into the mainstream market, but Oprah has just stepped in to open the door to a much wider demographic.

And here’s why it matters to you.

1. Now you have a fresh audience on Twitter. Twitter’s grown immensely over the last year (1000%) and it’s probably going to grow another 1000% in the next few months because of the Oprah endorsement.

Hence the tipping point.

2. The second point is the acceleration of a trend that’s already growing on Twitter, namely that the older demographics are the first to get on board the Twitter wagon.

The 25-35 year-olds and the 45-60 year olds are by far the biggest users of Twitter right now, as opposed to teenagers or kids.

The Oprah audience is largely of this demographic as well.

This demographic has money, is eager to do business, and have the disposable income that marketers and businesses covet.

It’s not a fact ignored by many corporations either, because tons of brands are getting on Twitter.

Although Twitter has one seventh or one-eighth of the audience of Facebook, there are more businesses on Twitter than there are on Facebook already.

In short,

(i) You have a new dimension of audience on Twitter

(ii) And for the first time in history, this early-adopter/cusp of mainstream audience is a group of people with money; people with a financial security and disposable income.

That’s really good for business when you have a marketing channel filled with people who have the money to spare.

2. The Pareto Principle is now in Full Force

You see, Oprah’s audiences have been dwindling due to some mistimed moves.

Her audience has been dropping but she’s still the most influential person on television (as far as I know). But what is happening is a very clever strategy especially in the recession period: the Pareto principle, which is, as you probably know, 20% of your customers contribute 80% of your sales.

This means that if you have an existing brand like Oprah or you’re a small business owner and you’re actually getting people to follow you or to subscribe to your Twitter channel without much promotion or pushing, or just by promoting it to your customers, they probably fall into the 20% of your customers because they’re willing to sign up to what they know if a marketing channel and they’re interested in what you have to say.

Twitter succeeds in being a filter of sorts between the 80% of your audience who don’t care so much about what you have to say vs. the 20% of your audience who really care and actually sign up to be hit from multiple marketing channels with more marketing angles by you.

This is really good because as you know, 2 out of the 3 ways to make money are (i) to sell to an existing audience and (ii) to increase the size of purchase for every transaction. Twitter does that really well; it creates a pre-sold audience that’s already interested in you and can create a 20% that’s already interested in you just like The Cult Of Mac.

And Oprah knows that — she knows who her 20% are, as opposed to the 80% nominal viewers; she knows who the consumers are who’ll buy from her over and over and over again.

As you know, the backend sales will normally surpass the front-end ones, and it’s this 20% of your buying population who’ll do that.

Twitter easily and effectively separates the nominal 80% from the 20% of raving followers.

And the beauty of Twitter is that through certain strategies, even that 80% who may be lukewarm to you on Twitter can be converted into your 20% raving followers ratio.

3. You — Like Oprah – Will Now Know What People Want

Oprah now has what is probably the most effective channel of knowing what people are thinking of or about at the moment. Remember that I’ve said before that Google is good for what people are searching for at the moment, while Twitter is good for what people are thinking of at the moment.

No market research is as immediate and as precise as what’s happening on Twitter at the moment.

Oprah now has all that information; she would know what her 300,000 fans have to say; she’d know their thoughts by simply using the ultimate, free research tool: Twitter.

If the celebrities are going in, in full force, to get this direct connection with their fans on Twitter, it’s best for you to go in and to know your customers in a more intimate way too because on Twitter you’ll probably have people tweeting you their hopes, dreams, fears — uncensored and in a very safe and personal setting.

As you may know when it comes to marketing research and focus groups, a lot of focus groups don’t really work simply because people in that kind of setting will give an answer they think you want to hear as opposed to what they really think.

On Twitter, it’s uncensored and spontaneous; you get a true feel for your market’s demographic and you can craft marketing angles one after the other to create really excellent response results.

4. You still have room to dominate this marketing channel

Stephen Pierce, the great internet wealth expert and motivation speaker said something really interesting recently. He said that it’s easier now to dominate channels that it is to dominate markets.

What does that mean? It means that it’s easier now to dominate a certain channel of marketing for a particular niche as opposed to dominating the niche itself (unless of course the niche is really small and is at its beginning stages).

We’ve reached a point where nearly any and every niche is crowded.

You go into the marketing niche and there’s a thousand pretenders; you go into the financial niche and there’s a thousand other people competing for your share.

What you can do is be an authority in a specific marketing niche. And because of the newness of Twitter and because of the pioneering aspect of Twitter you can go on Twitter now and be the expert in your field for that particular channel.

Because of Twitter’s mainstream acceptance, when you position yourself as a Twitter expert, you have a large inbuilt list of buyers and prospects that you can reach out to that will see you as an authority, as the channel expert in your field on Twitter.

There are many ways to dominate this channel, and many ways in which you can position yourself as an authority.

For me, the world of copywriting is somewhat saturated, but on Twitter I am my own man; I am ‘the king’ of copywriting and email marketing with close to ten times the followers of most copywriters on Twitter which gives me credibility in this niche on Twitter.

Twitter has given me the authority and the edge I otherwise wouldn’t have if I’d followed the traditional route.

That is why I urge you to sign up today so that you can dominate Twitter so that no one else can. This is first-mover knowledge, it’s first-mover intelligence whereby I teach you how to dominate Twitter, to be a Twitter expert and to claim your market share as much as possible.

It’s so easy to get really big on Twitter simply because it’s easy to get new followers fast.

Just tap into my secrets to find out how you can be wildly successful on Twitter.

The mantra of both my course, the Twitter Salvation System and my marketing is this, “psychology, not technology.” You may have the latest nifty Twitter tools that can enable you to spread your message spread far and wide, but if you can’t grasp the Twitter user’s mindset, you’ll never be able to sell a dime.

Instead of using tired “Buy or Die” tactics, I give you sound advice and demonstrate the full potential that my little labor of love can do for your business.

I used these principles to launch a 5 figure biz from scratch nearly exclusively using Twitter—and that was even before I discovered any of the Twitter tools. Purely by using the web interface we’d made $10k in 3 weeks—with no list, no name and very little money.

And now by replicating these same techniques over and over again, I have got a sizable income rise, speaking engagements and more JV projects that I have to turn down.

Here’s a sneak peek of the 3 BRAND NEW MODULES that I included with the package:

• How to get 1000 followers in a day, and transform them into evangelist—with just 1 Tweet? Yes, it’s possible. A sprinkle of persuasion magic is all it takes!
• How to unleash the power of social influence marketing. Often, it’s not the what but the who that matters in marketing. If you’re respected, everything you say holds more weight. A simple way to accomplish mavenhood in as little as a month.
• A step-by-step Twitter for newbie’s module. Look, I know some of you came in from the nudging of Ashton  and Oprah. It’s nothing to be ashamed about. Here’s a quick and easy blueprint to get you up to speed. You’ll be tapping into Twitter as a lucrative marketing channel in no time.

Here’s the thing. There are strictly limited copies available.  We’re limiting it to 500 copies because me and my wife Laura do all the customer support ourselves –we believe in personalized support for each and every client we handle.

There’s been quite a bit of buzz about the Salvation System so I want to make sure you get first dibs on one of the hottest Twitter products around.

Your Twitter Salvation Is Here

Some people on Twitter have wished me ill. Somebody even asked me to choke to death.

Why do I incite such animosity?

It’s because I have a way of doing business on Twitter that ticks off a lot of people.

I have opinions on doing Twitter marketing that ruffles a lot of feathers.

And before you go on, a warning to people who do not use Twitter for marketing nor use Twitter for business: with all due respect, if that’s the way you connect on Twitter; if you don’t actually use Twitter to make money online, then you don’t have to read on because this blog post isn’t for you.

It’s for those who want to make money on Twitter and want to know what the fuss is about on Twitter in terms of marketing and business-building online.

This is, in a sense, an open letter to all my haters, and this is my totally biased opinion on how to do Twitter marketing online.

There are several objections I get on my Tweetstream from the people who write back to me. They’re generally very nice people and they write back to me asking why I do things the way I do. Now, I’m going to address 3 such objections.

The first is this:

1. Why do I tweet so much?

Most people equate a lot of tweeting — or tweeting the same tweet over and over again — as being a spammer. But I say sometimes, it’s necessary because there’s just so much noise on Twitter. Most people follow more than 30 people on Twitter, and statistically, if you follow more than 30-50 people, you will already be overwhelmed with tweets. And 30-50 is just the bare minimum.

Most people follow between 400-500 to 1000 people on Twitter. How do you keep up with everybody if you’re following so many people? The bottom line is this: your message will actually get lost is a crowd of 500-600 people; you need to shout louder in order to be heard.

You might have the most well-crafted tweet in the world with the best copy, and the best headline or bullet, but if nobody sees it, there’s no point. And that is why I Tweet as much as I do. I don’t tweet this way about a lot of things though– only when there’s a launch or something coming up, and I want to get a lot of traffic to one site. I have done my research — the more you tweet, the more traffic you’ll get.

It’s the same way in which if you’re doing autoresponder marketing, the more emails you send out, the more money you make.

Of course, the thing to really consider is this: are you willing to ruffle the few feathers that will be annoyed? Because the truth is, some people will be annoyed. Are the people you’re bringing in through the funnel enough to supplement/make up for those who unfollow you? That is what you have to ask yourself.

If you are not brave enough to do this, please don’t.

2. Kenneth, why aren’t you using Twitter to build a relationship?

Isn’t Twitter about building relationships? Why are you just trying to sell stuff?

The thing is, Twitter IS about building relationships, it is. But what’s the end result you want on Twitter? Is it to have a good time? Do you have a service you want to introduce to the world? Is it to interact with the people you connect with?

Those are all good reasons, but if you’re a marketer who’s using Twitter to measure ROI, to spread your product and boost your sales, if you’re using it as a marketing channel, then you need to look at your relationships form a profit-potential point of view.

Don’t get me wrong. I am about relationships. There are many people that like me.  If you look at the favourites tab in my Twitter profile you’ll see that I’ve got tons and tons of raves because I do give out a lot of value and a lot of content, and I do get a lot of retweets.

I really do want to talk to everyone and converse with everyone, but the only problem is time — you can’t be on the Tweet stream the whole day.

And that’s the little sneaky confession I’m making, I do use automated posts/tweets from time to time in order to allow me to stay on top of things (because I now have a wife, and I need to take care of my wife; if I tweet too much she’s gonna divorce me).

At this point in time, you want to create relationships that make your followers so familiar and so friendly with you that they will trust you and hand you over their money to. They’ll even spread your marketing messages (which my fans do).

I believe I’ve cracked the code to doing this; there is a reason why I’m called the Puppet Master. And that is because I use accelerated intimacy techniques rooted in human psychology and in a bit of persuasion in order to simulate a bond that otherwise wouldn’t be there.

I mean, you can take the hard way and take 10years to build a following, or you can use what I use and get fans and followers who are warm to you from the first tweet, from the time they follow you. These are some of the powerful strategies I have in my arsenal.

The other objection is this:

3. Why do you follow so many people, since you can only keep up with a few?

For me, the answer is this: that’s a valid but misguided mindset. Because when you follow tons of people, it’s not about you – it’s about them.

You see, in a recent article from TechCrunch, they said that Twitter is a thought-stream, which basically means that Twitter is a stream of people’s hopes, fears, dreams, thoughts, comments and opinions.

What you have right now is probably the most powerful marketing device in the world. If you only follow a few people, that’s alright too — but you only get updated with your group of friends, your own clique.

You won’t really know what’s going on in the marketing world, though, because not even Google can tell you what Twitter can.

TechCrunch says that while Google is good for what people are searching for at the moment, Twitter is amazing for what people are thinking of at the moment.

Robert Collier said that the key to good marketing is to enter the conversation in your prospect’s mind, and Twitter is one big conversation. I use Twitter for Psychic Market Research.

Right now, at my fingertips, I know what works instantly. I know that when I tailor my marketing in a certain way, people will bite; I mean look at how many retweets I get for my links; how many click-through I get for my tweets — they work because this is what people want, and I’m just giving it to them. That is why I’m wildly successful at what I do.

These are only 3 of the objections — there are probably a lot more issues that we can address, but if you want to know more about them, I encourage you to sign up for the Twitter Salvation System Teleseminar that I’ll be hosting this Tuesday night, 31st March, 9pm EST.

I invite you aboard to sample and witness my unorthodox style of doing Twitter marketing. Again, it’s a free call: no strings attached.

There a re a lot of ways to do Twitter Marketing online, but I believe although other methods may works, my methods works and is proven. you can check ROI, you can track and test, you can really build your presence online not on touchy-feely things like being a rockstar but on how to really build a business online using what I believe to be the most powerful marketing device on earth.

I welcome you and ask you to come aboard.

UPDATE: The call replay is available here:

Twitter gives you a lot of opportunity to be famous in your niche.

In fact, they seem to have an organic system that actually rapidly elevates you to maven-hood if you play by their loosely defined rules.

There are several ways to put your personal branding on steroids, but one of the best ways is through Follow Friday.

In case you do not know what Follow Friday is about, go here. This blog post however is for those who not just know what Follow Friday is about, but who also want to be the belle of the Twitter ball.

#followfriday

Getting endorsed on Follow Friday really reaps tremendous benefits. And it’s not just for stroking for your own ego, even though that’s nice.

For starters, you not only enjoy an easy way to gain followers, you get ‘em WARM. Master persuasionist Joel Bauer says that you “live vicariously through the opinions of others”. In other words, the more endorsements you get from an outside party, the more credible you become. As a result, those who follow you from a recommendation are  likely to be more predisposed towards you. Consequently, that means they are more willing to ReTweet your Tweets, listen to your (marketing) message and eventually–BUY YOUR STUFF.

Here’s something even more potent. Dr. Rachna Jain, president of MindShare and social media expert, says that familiarity leads to likability. This means that the more people see your @username appearing in Tweets, the more they’ll actually think you’re cool. This is because they’re thinking that if large amounts of people are endorsing you, you must be a pretty okay person. So even if they don’t bite the bait and follow you the first time round, they will EVENTUALLY come to you because they keep seeing your name everywhere.

I’ve personally experienced all the social proof positives. @emailcopywriter is a frequent fixture on the #followfriday listings, with an average 15-20 shoutouts from people per week. As a result, I’ve been making pretty brisk sales with my products–nearly exclusively through Twitter–since I not only get followers, I get FANATICS.

You probably think that you must do something really spectacular to get that kind of word-of-mouth treatment. Or be one of those internet celebrities. Far from it. Honestly, it takes very little to appease the human mind. Here are 3 shortcuts to pull off some voodoo to make your Friday the best of the week!

1) Give a lot of quotes, especially inspirational ones

For some reason, the human mind is attracted to inspiration. We live in big bad stupid world, so when it sees something that’s positive, insightful and thought-provoking, it’s like an oasis in the desert of the mind. Quotes get ReTweeted A LOT. And there is a measure of gratitude for the person who introduced the quote, which you can cash in on later. Becoming a treasury of quotes is easy; just log on to BrainyQuote.com, Tweet the quotes you like on the front page and voila, #followfriday magic!

2) Be a Twitter gossip

For perhaps obvious reasons, Twits dig Twitter-related Tweets a lot. Be it a how-to, news items or blog posts, anything Twitter related gets tweeted a lot. The rationale is simple–your followers are probably thinking, “I’m here on Twitter, so what I can do to maximize the Twitter experience?” They will appreciate any help they can get. Better still, you don’t have to come out with any of your own, just ReTweet someone else’s. Bonus if it’s in list form (3 ways, 5 secrets, etc). Lists are irresistible.

3) Get personal

Unless your mom is on Twitter (and mine is), you can tweet your hopes, fears, dreams, aspirations, failures, success, etc. Vulnerability is seductive and will set you apart as human in a world of bots. People are attracted to nudity. Do a twiptease dance and dazzle people with your heart-to-heart spell. DISCLAIMER: Just veer away from emo teenage brat territory, unless your target audience is other emo teenage brats.

Now, these 3 ways should get you more #followfriday recommendations nearly effortlessly.

But you know something? #followfriday is really child’s play, relative to the sheer moneymaking potential that Twitter can offer your business.

Through Twitter, I have made friends with the top dogs in my industry. Through Twitter, I have BECOME the top dog in my industry. Through Twitter, I have been able to carve myself a nice living when the world outside collapses. Honestly, right now I have to turn down projects since I already have so much on my plate.

There is such a wealth-attracting force to Twitter that goes beyond any “15 k followers in under an hour” BS or some rehashed Clickbank eBook.

With a few simple tricks, you can unleash 5 different income streams through this micro-blogging platform.  call on Twitter Marketing; monetizing Twitter the RIGHT way.

There’s too much fluff out there, it’s time to bring some proven techniques on maximizing Twitter for your business to the table. I want you to be sure that each and every piece of marketing material you send out hits its target point blank.

… Wait, did I just say marketing material?

Yes, I must admit I am selling something. And what I’m doing now is to whet your appetite. Twitter Salvation System is now available, and I’ve worked day and night to have all the components in place.

However, instead of doing tired “Buy or Die” tactics, I decided to give you some sound advice to demonstrate the full potential that my little labor of love can do for your business.

Indeed, I used these very same principles to launch a 5 figure biz from scratch nearly exclusively using Twitter—and that was even before I discovered any of the Twitter tools. Purely by using the web interface we’d made $10k in 3 weeks—with no list, no name and very little money. And now by replicating these same techniques over and over again, I have got a sizable income rise, speaking engagements and more JV projects that I have to turn down.

Here’s a sneak peek of the 3 BRAND NEW MODULES that I included with the package:

• How to get 1000 followers in a day, and transform them into evangelist—with just 1 Tweet? Yes, it’s possible. A sprinkle of persuasion magic is all it takes!
• How to unleash the power of social influence marketing. Often, it’s not the what but the who that matters in marketing. If you’re respected, everything you say holds more weight. A simple way to accomplish mavenhood in as little as a month.
• A step-by-step Twitter for newbie’s module. Look, I know some of you came in from the nudging of Ashton  and Oprah. It’s nothing to be ashamed about. Here’s a quick and easy blueprint to get you up to speed. You’ll be tapping into Twitter as a lucrative marketing channel in no time.

Here’s the thing. There are strictly limited copies available.  We’re limiting it to 500 copies because me and my wife Laura do all the customer support ourselves –we believe in personalized support for each and every client we handle.

There’s been quite a bit of buzz about the Salvation System so I want to make sure you get first dibs on one of the hottest Twitter products around. Don’t miss your chance.

Twitter Salvation. Here.

There seems to be an amazing persuasive power when it comes to one-on-one mails.

Love letters that endured the test of time, moving lovers into the throes of unstoppable desire. A bulk of the New Testament were the letters of Paul to a struggling church, and that changed the course of humanity forever.

Then, you have the billion dollar industry built off the backs of sales “letters”.

Now, back to the topic at hand.

You see, e-mails are basically letters in digital form.

With the right training, your prospect’s decisions can be effortlessly influenced by just a few strokes of the keyboard.

Who knew such simple text messages can have such insane power? It’s an amazing ability to foster such frightening intimacy that you’re able to wield such total control, where your prospect does your bidding.

Whatever that bidding may be — to buy your product, to refer you to their friends, to change the world by carrying your message forth.

In this modern age, your autoresponder is the quickest, fastest and most effective way to unleash that kind of money-geting power and pulling your prospect’s heartstrings AND pursestrings.

Unfortunately, it does not seem to be the case these days, doesn’t it?

Plummeting open rates, strict spam controls and just sheer ineffectuality seem to be the order of the day.

You know something? Puppet String Marketing — Laura, my wife and I have constantly beat the odds when it comes to our email marketing.

I have written an email in 20 minutes that had generated six figures within 24 hours, and that’s without any product launch formula-type strategies.

Granted, that’s not a common occurrences. Yet, we’ve mastered a proven six-figure formula that has enabled us to double one of our client’s revenues from their list–and that was in the Wall Street bloodbath a few months back. Or generate $84,567 in a month off a $27 ebook.

And it may sounds unbelievable, yet all it takes is just some back-to-basics old school persuasion and a sprinkle of nakedness. Not the naughty kind, mind you, but the heart-on-sleeve kind. You see, the more you bare your soul, the more your products are sold.

Actually come to think of it, this bears repeating.

*The more you bare your soul, the more your products are sold.*

Write it down in your notepad, because this tip’s free.

The more you STRATEGICALLY let people into your world, the more inclined they would be towards you and the more predisposed they will be towards you and your marketing messages.

Trust is such a scarce commodity in the recession tightwad world. Your emails function to do just that. Display ample doses of trust and you’ll attract prospects like water in the desert.

Anyway, in case you haven’t heard, we’re opening our 6 Figure Email Salvation Tele-Training up for you. This is probably one of the rare opportunities where you get the behind-the-scenes look at email rock stars at work. We brought in hundreds-of-thousands of dollars for both our clients and ourselves, and now we want to give you access to these top secret strategies.

Why? Because we care. Unapologetically. The recession is a monster and we want to show you the quickest, easiest way to email riches.

Claim your remaining slot for the 6 Figure Email Tele-class now.

That’s why the pricing is deliberately set so low.

However, here’s the catch. We’re closing the teleclass on  Feb 18th 2009 (Wednesday). It’s because classes start the next day on 19th Feb. Furthermore, we’re limiting seats to the first 77, since there’s exclusive personal consultations from us.

Already, 15 of these slots are already taken at last count.

Needless to say, this is a steal, I urge you to hurry while you still can.

Claim your remaining slot for the 6 Figure Email Tele-class now.