I just got confirmation today that I won an auction for a superb domain name – ben.me

It was the end of what seemed like a very long saga.

Back in June I first registered for the dot me “Landrush” at DomainMonster. This was basically a pre-launch where you could order the domain you wanted before full registration was opened.

If you ordered a domain and no-one else ordered it, the domain was yours when the dot me was finally released.

If more than one person ordered it, you were all entered into a closed auction – whoever bid the most won the domain.

So, you can go see what is currently being auctioned here: http://auctions.domain.me

However, even if you really want to join in and bid for a domain listed there, you can’t. The only participants are those people who pre-ordered the domains between 6th June and 26th June 2008.

On the 16th July I got confirmation that the domain was going to auction and that the 3 day auction was starting on the 5th August.

I figured that the auction was ending at 4pm on the 8th August so I would bid my max bid (a 4 figure sum) at 3.50pm that day – leaving any opposition with the least possible time to respond to my bid.

So that’s what I did – I bid at 3.50pm yesterday and then the auction refreshed and showed me as the high bidder.

Problem was, the auction was extended by 24 hours because of my last-minute bid.

I didn’t know that was going to happen, and it scuppered my plans just a little! I had wanted to bid at the very last minute to avoid anyone beating me or pushing up the price too much but the auctions were set to punish auction snipers by extending the time remaining.

As it happened, one of my competitors did try to outbid me yesterday and pushed the price up by another $80 or so but today at 4:54:11pm I got an email:

“Congratulation! You won your auction!”

Final price was just 36% of my max bid so whoever was bidding against me certainly did not value the prize as much as I did.

Back in February of this year I made several 4 figure offers for a different “ben dot” domain with a pretty poor extension but the seller did not acknowledge my offers.

How glad I am that he didn’t as it forced me to act on the dot me landrush – and now I’ve got a great domain to use!

Not sure what I’ll use it for at the moment, apart from a pretty easy-to-remember email address. A blog perhaps?

This last week I decided I wanted to get entry into a conference room which was only available by signing up for a traffic exchange called “S.W.A.T. Traffic” and paying a monthly fee.

I’m brand new to traffic exchanges so I’m learning as I go along but as I get 750 credits a month as part of my membership I thought I may as well have a look at them and see what they involve.

So far, so good.

From what I’ve found you have two types of TEs – manual surfs and autosurfs.

Manual surfs require you to load a webpage for a specific amount of time (10 seconds or so) before a button appears that you click to load the next.

For each page you view, you earn a number of credits.

You can then use these credits to get views for your own site from other traffic exchange members.

The more credits you have, the more views you get of your own site. You don’t have to surf yourself, you can just buy credits but if you are new to the game or short of capital, surfing allows you to build up a store of credits to use for advertising.

Autosurf traffic exchanges are apparently (I say apparently because I haven’t tried any) different in that you can just leave the surfing app running and the websites are loaded on screen automatically.

As you can probably tell, autosurfs are prone to abuse as there is no need to be sat watching the screen in order to earn credits. Or so I understand.

I guess people don’t need to watch the screen so it’s unlikely that they will do. Which means it’s probably not as effective as advertising on manual surfs.

Anyway, I’ve heard plenty about TEs in the past, mainly from Robert Puddy who organises the seminars I like to attend whenever possible.

He suggests using TEs to build a prospect list – so I guess that’s what I’ll be doing with all these credits I have sat in my account.

I’ve heard people describe this type of advertising in some pretty unflattering terms but I have some spare time at the moment so I figured I’d give it a go and see what kind of results I get.

If you are struggling to get any traffic it may be worth trying to see if a traffic exchange works for you – see SWAT Traffic for more info.

Stay tuned for results and do share your experiences with traffic exchanges by using the comments form below.

The latest and greatest marketing technique being used at the moment seems to be “forced continuity“.

Internet marketers are offering high value products “free” (just pay postage) but you are signed up to be billed monthly for some kind of magazine, newsletter or DVD club.

Most of the time you won’t want any add-on and probably won’t read the offer properly because it is priced so low. As the famous saying goes – if it seems too good to be true, it probably is.

Some marketers are very upfront about the forced continuity aspect of their offer. Others attempt to hide it from their customers.

One particular marketer, who I have had A LOT of problems with for over a year, now seems to only use online videos rather than sales letters.

He briefly mentions details of the monthly billing in the middle of the video but nothing appears on the order form.

Never one to pass up a bargain, I like to take advantage of these offers but I don’t want to get caught in a trap where I see a $29.97 charge on my credit card each month.

I realise I can cancel it but is it really worth the hassle?

There are some companies who are starting to get a reputation for extremely poor customer service.

Do I really want to be hoping that some $5 per hour helpdesk assistant will deal with my cancellation request correctly? Not really.

So, how can you take advantage of the offers but make sure you are not billed any further?

Simple – use a temporary credit card. A credit card that will let you pay for the postage but will decline any further attempt to bill you.

Perfect – a solution that allows you to get the initial product (the ‘sweetener’) but halts the forced continuity danger immediately.

I use a service called “3V” which is available to anyone in the UK.

This is how it works:

(1) You sign up at http://www.3vcash.com and receive a card through the post

(2) You then take that card to a nearby newsagent and ask them to credit your card with £20. He gives you a receipt with your temporary credit card number on it.

(3) When you get home, you check your email and find the expiry date and CVV number of your “credit card”.

(4) Using these 3 numbers, you can now pay online for any product and not have to worry about being billed monthly – because if there is no money on the card, the card will be declined.

Here’s how I used mine…

• Credited it with £20
• Bought “Free DVD” with one month free membership from marketer 1 – £10.11 ($19.97)
• Bought “Free DVD” from marketer 2 – £5.96 ($11.77)

Both of the above offers have forced continuity attached but I have just £3.93 on the card so any attempt to bill me will fail.

So my mission is accomplished and I don’t have to cancel an unwanted continuity program.

What about the £3.93? I guess I can pay myself £3.93 via PayPal to empty the card.

For those not in the UK, you may want to check out a similar option offered by PayPal called “PayPal Plug-In”.

I haven’t been able to try it myself but it certainly looks like the kind of thing to use.

Any questions/queries, please leave a comment below.

I’ve just gone through a box in my spare room and found a load of seminar videos which I would like to pass on rather than throw away.

Asking price? Free to anyone prepared to pay toward the postage or come and collect from me.

Here’s what I found:

(1) The Affiliate Profitmaker Seminar featuring Declan Dunn, Patrick Anderson, Andrew Reynolds, Ola Edvardsson and Michael Hill. There are 6 VHS videos in the set and the seminar is from around 2001. This is classic affiliate marketing material.

(2) The Internet Profitmaker Seminar featuring Corey Rudl, Kirt Christensen, Marlon Sanders, Andrew Reynolds and more. 15 VHS videos in this set, the seminar was from the year 2000 as far as I can gather.

(3) The Profitmaker 5 Seminar featuring Bill Myers, Andrew Reynolds, Vince Stanzione and lots of other speakers. There are 20 VHS videos in this set and the event was filmed in 1999 according to the copyright notice.

(4) The “Las Vegas Meeting” featuring Corey Rudl, Marlon Sanders, Jonathan Mizel, Fred Gleeck, Robert Allen, Terry Dean, Yanik Silver, Derek Gehl and many more speakers. This looks to be the Internet Marketing Super Conference 3 from Carl Galletti which was held in either 2000 or 2001. Classic internet marketing material. 33 video tapes make up this seminar footage.

If you are interested in any of these sets, please let me know by leaving a comment below. I’ll get back to you asap to arrange delivery / collection.

Make sure to leave me your email address or phone number. Your comment will not be shown.

Thanks,

Ben

It’s short notice, I know, but this weekend Steve Foley is holding an internet marketing and property related seminar in Manchester – the “Entrepreneur Weekend”.

I’m booked into the hotel from Friday and looking forward to the line-up on Saturday – the “Money Maker Boot Camp”. The Sunday event is called the “Women Entrepreneur Summit” and I am assured by Steve that everyone is welcome, not just the ladies.

Here’s what Steve had to say about the two days in a recent email:

“Right now many people are stretched financially, while others remain liquid financially. There is always great crossover at our events.

What do I mean by that?

Well, the people who are primarily involved in property are drawn to the internet experts who are cashflow-rich.

The Internet players are drawn to the property experts for investment & capital growth.

The smart players are already playing both camps and the most successful property players are very ‘savvy’ about internet marketing.

eConfex events focus on Wealth Creation and ways to create passive and multiple income streams using little or none of your own cash.

Is this of Interest? – if so

You may want to check out our forthcoming Entrepreneur Weekend in Manchester.”

I must admit I am turning up early to try and get a chance to mingle with the speakers before the seminar. I managed to do so successfully at the hotel last year.

The ticket price of the Entrepreneur Weekend in Birmingham last year was £348.97. This year it is even more of a bargain!

Anyway, I will be at Steve’s event this weekend, staying over on the Friday night and attending on the Saturday.

I highly recommend you try and get there too.

These seminars are superb for renewing enthusiasm, generating ideas and making valuable contacts.

Come and find me on the Friday night or Saturday so we can have a chat over a few drinks.

[Link removed – site no longer online]

If you want to know more, check out my review of last year’s event:

Entrepreneur Weekend Seminar – Birmingham – April 2007