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.

Jeremy Palmer’s Black Ink Project Thunders Along…

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As top affiliate marketer Jeremy Palmer’s Black Ink Project moves into week 3, there’ve been a number of great guests who’ve presented and will be presented in the series.

First off, the site has undergone a design revamp:

jeremy palmer black ink project

Looking very sharp.

Yesterday (Monday), my buddy Amit Mehta presented his series of Pay-Per-Click strategies – the slides and recorded presentation are available for download.

Today, SEO specialist Aaron Wall will be presenting SEO and linking strategies.

It looks like the Black Ink Project will get many new affiliates off to a flying start.

black ink project week 3

On Friday, I’ll be presenting a session on social marketing strategies and building your online brand.

If you don’t already have access to this quality training, you should register at:

–> The Black Ink Project

When Is A Joint Venture, Not A Joint Venture…

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…when it’s abused by uninformed marketers.

Here’s a tip: If you’re recruiting partners for a product launch, or you want to invite me to join your affiliate program, you just want to ask for help in marketing and promotion. That’s not a “joint venture”.

A joint venture is where 2 individuals or business entities are going to a deeper level of cooperation and collaboration – a prime example is my buddies Amit Mehta and Zac Johnson‘s newly-launched Magnetic Poetry Facebook Application.

There’s joint sharing and investment in product development and marketing, the partners might even form a new business entity to manage the business.

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On the other hand, if you’re looking for affiliates, you’re recruiting affiliates.

If you drop the term “joint venture” and misuse it, you lose a number of points right off the bat.

If in doubt, check out the Wikipedia definition of “joint venture“

Can Microsoft Get Its Social Media Game Together?

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In the aftermath of an aborted takeover of Yahoo!, Microsoft continues to remain the 800 lb gorilla in the tech industry. The question is where does it go from here?

There’s still talk about Microsoft working with Yahoo! on a collaboration for its search services, but really to leapfrog search engine leader Google, requires a paradigm shift. One possible avenue? The social media game.

Witness the fact that Google hasn’t done much with Blogspot/blogger in the last couple of years.
Services like Google’s Blog Search seemed like a half-hearted implementation.

That’s not to say that Microsoft and Yahoo! are exactly leading the field either.
The Web 2.0 space is still littered with their dying or dead blog services and communities.
A search at Microsoft’s Social Computing Group shows a number of interesting projects, but none really earth shattering to shift the field.

microsoft wallop
A couple of years ago, Microsoft spun off its own social network Wallop, to fanfare from Mashable and TechCrunch.
So what happened?

For sure, “cloud computing” still seems a distant reality, hobbled by a lack of compelling applications (in contrast, the Japanese with NTT Docomo’s I-Mode service do just about everything with their 3G phones which fold origami-like into small objects of art. Elsewhere in the world, cell phone users rejoice when they get restaurant recommendations or proximity locaters on their phones…).

It could be a good couple of years till Continue reading →

BizOp Reality Check: Is The Reverse Funnel System A Scam?

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Here’s one of the downsides of having a widely read blog – you get many calls from BizOp promoters.

I’ve had called from boiler room operators offering to sell me some “hot” over-the-counter stocks that are supposedly going to hit the big time (interpretation: some offshore stock brokerage somewhere bought a whole bunch of dead stock and are looking for investors/suckers to buy it in the hopes that it might go up because of some “hot” tip or impending news). -> scam.

I was just contacted regarding a “joint venture” to promote something called the “Reverse Funnel System” developed by Ty Coughlin.

It’s masked in internet marketing talk, with jargon like copywriting experts paid $20,000 to come up with the sales copy, and terms like landing pages, sales conversion, autoresponders thrown in for good measure to appeal to internet marketers.

Heck, the system is so “exclusive” that you have to pay $50 just to see the thing, without any idea of what it is…

Once you get in, you’ve offered an options to pay $2,995, which looks like it will go towards some type of timeshare membership (you get to stay in timeshare units) and there’re a bunch of endorsements from members who claim to be generating $30,000 per month.

[If you’re wondering why I’m not linking to the Reverse Funnel System website, that might give you an indication of what I think of the scheme…]

Here’s my assessment of business opportunities, especially on the Internet.

  • Risk Vs Reward: Does it sound too good to be true? Do you really think there’s a business out there which allows you to earn five figures per month, sitting in your pajamas at home, playing xbox360 all day, without lifting a finger to do much work, or little work? I’ve been blogging for the past 2 years and although it doesn’t take much time now, I had to invest quite a bit of effort in the beginning. If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
  • “Quick Cash” Dream: Anything worth working on is going to take time to master. If you are going to earn huge cash in a short amount of time, I don’t think the cash is going to be long term, expect the bottom to fall out at any moment.
  • The Internet is your friend, use it: Yes, quick cash is always tempting, but as Jason Bailey would say, “Use your noodle”, more importantly, use your friend, Google.com, do a search, look at some of the scambuster sites. If in doubt, head over to Ask.com or Yahoo! Answers, put in a question “Is (name of scheme) a scam? Has anyone had experience with it?”
  • Skepticism can protect your savings: The internet is rife with opportunists, some much less ethical than others. Beware of the “paypal account verification” scam from China, beware of the “Google Adwords account verification” scam, you need to be responsible for your finances.

If you’re still wondering about the Reverse Funnel System or RFS, check out Gator Byte’s Reverse Funnel System post.

The Market Leverage Schwag Bag….And Affiliate Offer Highlights

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I was a little shocked a couple of weeks ago when I received a huge FedEx box in the mail. I’d been expecting some materials from my friend Jim Lillig, but this monster of a box arrived.

It was a bag of schwag from affiliate network Market Leverage. I thought it was pretty clever of them to suss out my mailing address from my domain whois info, and they’re one of the few merchants and networks I’ve worked with who’s taken the effort to courier a box of stuff all the way to Singapore (the shipment costs came up to about $70!).

Many networks and merchants use the tagline that customer service, relationship building is their priority (together with “highest payouts, most number of exclusive offers”, etc), but Market Leverage delivers on its promise.

There was a fair bit of research to compile a list of affiliate bloggers and send them the care packages, together with the t-shirt campaign that the Market Leverage team had been doing – which shows how marketing and promotion ingenuity can bring you massive leverage.

Market Leverage’s president Sal Guarino certainly has foresight in bringing Dina Riccobono and Debby Phillips (the woman formerly known as Debby Banning on board). Dina’s clocked up video product experience working with Next Entertainment (which produced The Bachelor/The Bachelorette/Are You Hot?) and doubtless was instrumental in putting the concept together for the network’s MarketLeverageTV broadcasts. Debby’s pretty established in the blogosphere and her relationships and social networking will help build up the buzz effect among the blogging community. (google around and you’ll see a couple of “I wish I got a schwag bag” blog posts…).

One person who’s happy with the care package I received is my daughter, Bianca.

bianca wee

Although she’s happy with the “Future Blogger” t-shirt, the Market Leverage teddy bear and the Dora the Explorer game for now, I believe she’s eyeing the Flip Ultra which also came in the care package.

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Looking a little deeper in the Market Leverage offers available, I was particular keen on the exclusive offers which have a payout of $20 – $50 per lead or per sale – an area I typically focus on.

If you’re more focused on the zip/email submits with payouts ranging in the $1.20 – $2 range, there’re a number to choose from.

I’ve also had an opportunity to talk with my affiliate manager Erick Bright and it was encouraging to hear that similar to other top-tier networks, Market Leverage affiliate managers are contactable via IM, will give offer suggestions as you’re constructing your affiliate sites, and provide support as you’re launching new campaigns.

Check out:

–> Market Leverage Affiliate Network