Author Archives: Andrew Wee

About Andrew Wee

My name is Andrew Wee. I'm 32 years old, live in Singapore and am happily married with a 2 month old daughter. I've gone through a list of various occupations including: * journalist (for a business newspaper) * Internet content developer (for one of Asia's largest media group's Singapore Press Holdings) * trainer in entrepreneurship, business building, life skills * photographer/photojournalist * real estate agent * consultant * entrepreneur (I think that's enough for now...more later!) This is a personal space to express my goals, dreams and aspirations.

Verdict on Google Chrome? – Memory Hog

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You’ve probably read about Google’s new release of it’s Chrome browser and possibly read blog posts about the new challenge to Microsoft’s Internet Explorer and Mozilla’s Firefox.

The question is: Should you install it?

As Status_Girl AKA Melanie Nathan notes: Chrome has an accompanying 38-page cartoon explaining how it works. I’m not sure how many would spend the time to read the pretty techy cartoon, but it reads more like a graphic novel, than a mere cartoon.

Still, there’re reports that it’s a fast browser.

I’ve noticed that on sites like my buddy Amit Mehta’s SuperAffiliateMindset, the inclusion of widget and/or tracking code from MyBlogLog, BlogCatalog, BlogSkinny, Blog Rush and others might trip Chrome up. Making me think that the browser is optimized for HTML content.

Chrome doesn’t have the RSS auto-discovery features of Firefox (meaning you can’t click on the RSS icon if the browser skims through the site to locate a RSS feed). So you either have to look for a RSS icon or link and click on it. Or you can try permutations of domain-name.com/RSS to try to locate it.

To read RSS feeds, you’ll need a web-based RSS Reader like Google Reader or Bloglines.

Affiliate Marketers take note:

I was initially concerned that Chrome might have the cookie-crunching “feature” of Apple’s Safari browser. Safe to say, the default setting is to “Accept all cookies”, which we should be rejoicing. No affiliate tracking cookie, no affiliate commission, so this is a good thing.

I tested it via an affiliate link and the tracking cookie lodged.

I’m just a little concerned that cookies (located via the “Options” and “Under the Hood” pulldown menu) have 3 settings –

  • Accept all cookies
  • Restrict how third party cookies are used
  • Block all cookies

Let’s keep our fingers crossed that users don’t opt for option #3.
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Chrome’s Achilles Heel
Here’s where Chrome’s advantages and shortfalls are apparent.
Yes, you have tabbed browsing, you can even pull out the tabs into their own separate windows (kinda “Apple-like” in a way).
But it’s not without a price.
I did an informal benchmark with Continue reading →

How To Unleash Your Secret Blog Weapon!

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Whether you’re a new internet marketer or a SEO or PPC affiliate looking for sources to generate traffic and convert that into profit, chances are you’ve either explored or are harnessing the traffic and profit potential of blogging.

In the last 2 years, since I’ve been growing my internet business, two key steps:

1) posting quality content and

2) achieving authority status in the niches I operate

have played a key part of my success.

Successful, long-term blogging goes beyond just harvesting the most popular and/or profitable tools from keyword tools and bashing out keyword-dense content.

It should also encompass planning skills and management skills to be able to publish original, quality content a year, two years or longer down the road.

What most marketers may not realize is that following a step-by-step system can greatly reduce the amount of effort needed to blog prodictively and effectively.

The Secret Blog Weapon coaching program I’m launching today is a result of more than a year’s worth of research into the most relevant topics and techniques new and experienced bloggers need to have at their fingertips, together with a system designed to either kickstart your blogging efforts or bring them to a new level.

What I’ve done my best to achieve has been to:

  • Identify critical skills that bloggers need to possess (and develop them if they don’t already have them)
  • Organize your blog effort around a proven system to maxmimize your results
  • Create a system to build a brand and effectively use this brand to build your business

You can find more details about this comprehensive 6-month program at: SecretBlogWeapon.com

secret blog weapon

Why You Should Not Focus On Internet Celebrity Stargazing

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harrison gevirtzIf you’ve been following developments in affiliate marketing, you might’ve seen 16-year old affiliate Harrison Gevirtz (right) blog or met him at a conference. Posting at Shoemoney’s blog recently on “How I Optimize My PPC Campaigns“, it’s easy to see how marketers might be overly focused on his age or the fact that he earns about a 6-figure net profit each month from his PPC campaigns.

Just as celebrity fans check the magazines to find out who’s dating who, what they wore to the MTV awards, or who they’re currently feuding with, likewise in the internet marketing world, legions of marketers constantly scour the blogs and forums to find out what a successful marketer’s shopping trip cost, how much they paid (or overpaid) for a rare painting, or just pictures of their $1,000 dinner.

While reading this news can be a source of motivation for some, the risk in spending just about all your time on this pursuit can be detrimental to your business growing efforts.

I’ve been talking to my friend NickyCakes about issues of time management and prioritization, here are a couple of issues for consideration:

  • Prioritization: Are you spending 90% of your time relaxing, spending your time checking out cool stuff to buy, planning your next vacation, researching your business (ie: reading blogs and forums, chatting over IRC), leaving 10% of your time to actually running your business? Or should it be the other way around?
  • Focus: How much of what you are doing now will help you get what you want? Or could that time be better spending doing something more productive?
  • “Secrets” of Internet Marketing: As mentioned by guests on the Friday Podcast, although you can learn strategies and techniques from blogs, forums, books, courses and networking at seminars and conferences, ultimately your success will rely on taking action, as well as testing and measuring your results. If you’re looking for a magic wand or magic dust to achieved your desired income level, you could be looking for a long time.

You can check out Harrison’s tips on setting up his PPC campaigns.

Friday Podcast: PPC Affiliate Strategies With John Hasson

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John HassonI first met PPC affiliate John Hasson at ShareASale’s “Party Under The Stars” party at Affiliate Summit West earlier this year. We were eating a heartattack-inducing tiramisu/ice-cream concoction and talking about our businesses.

John spoke at the “Meet The Experts” session chairing a table on PPC affiliate marketing. At the recent Affiliate Summit East in Boston, John presented a session on PPC marketing.

During the course of our discussion, I was pretty amazed at how John’s brought his programming skills to automate and employ leverage in PPC campaigns.

We also talked about:

  • How John got started as a programmer early on and his first experience at generating $600 a day through PPC arbitrage
  • How he made his transition into affiliate marketing
  • Tips to succeed in PPC affiliate marketing

You can access the Friday Podcast below:

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Note: John was travelling as part of a project he’s working on and the line dropped a  number of times and the connection wasn’t the best. Listen in for some great tips though.

You can visit John’s blog at JohnHasson.com

Should You Upgrade To Firefox 3?

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A new update for the Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.16 browser has come out, Firefox 3, which promises several enhancements.

The question is whether you should take the plunge, especially since reviews like the one done by Cnet seem to give it a glowing review, mentioning spectacular increase in loading times. Firefox 3 sports a shiny Web 2.0 style user interface.

BUT if you’re a marketer and you use Firefox plugins in your daily work, you will want to hold off on the upgrade.

A number of my existing Firefox add-ons (ie plugins) were deemed to be incompatible with the new version of Firefox and I’ve lost the use of them (on my secondary machine).

Depending on the developer, it could be a few days or a few weeks before a compatible version is available.

If passing on the upgrade (for now) means that you will be able to do your work, it might be a better option for now.

3 Faces Of Success In PPC Affiliate Marketing

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In the past year, I’ve had the opportunity to talk to 3 top PPC (pay-per-click) affiliate marketers. More than that, I’ve had the opportunity to gain insight into how they operate their businesses as well as set up and fine tune their PPC campaigns.

Although I shouldn’t have been that surprised, still it’s quite amazing how different their approaches are from each other. Which goes to show that there are multiple avenues to achieve your goals with PPC and affiliate marketing.

Note: I’ll be painting in broad strokes here, so expect some generalizations.

super affiliates

(left-to-right) Jeremy Palmer, Amit Mehta, John Hasson

Jeremy Palmer is a name that comes up often, especially if you’re a Commission Junction (CJ) affiliate or if you attend the Affiliate Summit. I’ve found that Jeremy and I use a similar approach in looking at offline research avenues, including books, magazines and reports to research niches, and develop deep, content rich sites.

Given his experience as a web developer, I guess it’s not surprising that he tends to build sites from the ground up. Also, having presented and watched his Black Ink project unfold, I’ve seen how Jeremy uses a systematic approach to building his campaigns.

You can check out Jeremy’s appearance on the Friday Podcast.

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Amit Mehta has spoken at the past 3 Affiliate Summits, and given his background Continue reading →