If your sales or web pages have photos you lifted from Google images, you may be asking for trouble. Typically, unless otherwise noted, you can be violating copyrights if you use a photo from someone else’s site without permission.

The good news is there is a place where you can get legal, high quality photos for very little money. I’m talking about $1 or so for a web image. Shot by a pro. And with almost a million images on file, there’s plenty to choose from.

They have a search engine that helps you find the proper image.

Check out Istockphoto.com to learn more.

After a headline like that, you would expect to read a horror story about how I lost all kinds of valuable data and spent long hours trying to recreate my system, programs, settings and data.

This story is different… Read why.

If you have a list you have people leaving the list. It happens. No matter how good your content is. No big deal.

But what happens when they click on your unsubscribe link?

If you are like most people, they go to a default unsubscribe page controlled by your autoresponder system.

But some autoresponders allow you to deliver unsubscribers to a special page, or put your own links on the page tehy display to unsubscribers.

Why not use that real estate to make an enticing offer?

You could potentially promote a related affiliate product, another product of your own or even include some related content and adsense ads.

Here are some samples of how I do this:

http://www.CBmall.com/info/rake-it-in.asp

http://www.beatmyspeedingticket.com/unsubscribed/

Try this and see if you can’t create yourself another income stream.

I learned something new today about the dangers of
advertising brand new domains.

Seems there’s an organization called Outblaze that some ISPs
use to help filter spam. One of the factors they use to
determine spam is the newness of a domain name.

Yusuf Goolamabbas of Outblaze describes the data as coming
from spam trap message body analysis: “We have an extensive
set of spamtraps. The emails to these accounts are analysed
and URIs are extracted. For any domain found in these
emails, we check for ‘new’ and if so, its blocked.” In this
case, ‘new’ is defined as the domain being registered within
the last 90 days. This newness should help prevent
legitimate domains from being listed since spammers
routinely register new domains, use them for a only a few
days or weeks, then move on to a fresh domain for their spam
advertised sites.

So what can you do about this? Register domain names early
in any project and don’t plan large email campaigns until
the domain has aged over 90 days.

I personally saw a couple of my own domains blacklisted
because of this.

More info on tripping spam filters because of domain
names here.

My friend Jeff Walker has more detail on getting blacked out.

Jeff Walker’s Blackout Report

If you need to get any type of graphics work done, check out DesignOutpost.com

It works a lot like eLance in that you post a bid for a project. The difference is, graphic artists will compete for your business by actually producing the graphics. So if you wanted a logo, you would see logos from multiple designers. You pick the one you like best, or provide feedback so they get closer to what you want.

Then you simply pay for the one you like. This is far better than picking an artist and hoping you get what you want. Check it out.

I just got back from Yanik Silver’s Underground Online Marketing Seminar held in Washington, DC. It was excellent.

Yanik puts on a first class event. I personally picked up some great tips on starting and running a membership site, improving the results of email campaigns, ideas for product line extensions and lots more.

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When is the last time you verified that your server is actually backing up all your files like you think it is?

Ever read the fine print at your server company?

If you even have back-up service, and you likely don’t, they have no liability if it isn’t working. And in my experience, it often isn’t.

As internet marketers, we have a lot less physical stuff to worry about than retail business owners or service firms. But we do owe it to oursleves to make sure our valuable intellectual property is protected through proper backups.

Read more…

When you work on the computer for hours every day, anything you can do to save time is a big plus.

Windows has some built-in keyboard shortcuts that very few people seem to use. Here are the three I use multiple times every day.

1) When you want to type in a .com web site all you need to do is type in the domain and then hit the CTRL and Enter keys at the same time. This automatically puts http://www. before the domain you type and a .com on the end.

Example: Type cbmall into your Internet Explorer or Firefox browser address bar and hit CTRL+ENTER and the browser turns that into http://www.CBmall.com and takes you there. VERY FAST.

When you visit lots of web sites this is a great shortcut.

2) The Windows Key on the bottom of your keyboard to the left of the space bar makes two great shortcuts. Hit The Windows key and E at the same time and it launches File Explorer.

3) Hit the Windows Key and M at the same time and it minimizes all the windows you might have open so you immediately see the desktop. This is the quickest way to get to your desktop.

If you have other great shortcuts, why not leave them as comments for others.

What kind of business are you creating?
Is it a planet or a shooting star?

Unfortunately, it seems like too many Web businesses are based on the shooting star concept. A shooting star burns brightly, but for a very short period of time. Then it flames out and is gone.

When a Web business is built on fads or gimmicks, it is like a shooting star. It may make money for a short time, but soon the reason for its existence is obsolete and it stops generating revenue.

Read more…

If you buy an eBook what do you expect from the author?

Now let me ask you another question. If you buy a book from Barnes and Noble, what do you expect from that author?

For many people, the expectations are entirely different. With a physical book, you pay, walk out the door and that is the end of the transaction. You don’t expect Stephen King or Danielle Steele to answer an eMail and you don’t expect their phone number…

Read more on this controversial topic…