The IRS has given notice that they are not prepared to accept tax returns effected by the new tax law signed December 17, 2010 until mid February.  Returns to be delayed include:

• those that itemize deductions with a schedule A,
• those that claim Education credits for higher education (up to $4,000 of tuition on form 8917) and
• those that claim the new $250 Educator Expense Deduction.

The mid February acceptance is an estimate and the IRS will give notice when they are up and running.  We will be processing returns as usual, but they will be held until we receive notice the IRS will accept them. Please feel free to send in your information as usual, we will be in touch with you regarding your refund or amount due and to obtain authorization to file.

OK, I haven’t done well with ClickBank, but I think it still has a lot of possibilities. An easy way to get started is with Harvey Segal’s ClickBank for Newbies.  In this short – and free – ebook Harvey explains the key factors for success as a ClickBank affiliate. He also identifies how commissions can be lost, stolen and your account rendered dormant. And he concludes with a unique money making technique that I think can get anyone off the ground. Click on my link and see what I found in (the free) ClickBank for Newbies ebook.

an amazing idea for making you money

Dr. Robert B. Cialdini is a brilliant writer on the psychology of persuasion, at least in American culture. I can’t say whether everything is directly transferable to other countries and cultures. I have read his earlier book, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, and found it full of psychological and sociological principles that explain a lot of human behavior, especially group behavior. It is his ability to bring out how people respond in groups that make it so helpful to internet marketers. With all the insight he offers I would recommend reading his newest work, Influence: Science and Practice (5th Edition).

At a social gathering recently I had a conversation with a man who acknowledged that his firm’s use and knowledge of using search engines was woefully lacking. One of the first questions I asked was whether or not people were searching for products/services his company sells. I pointed out that you have to have something people are looking for that will solve their problem. You need to know what keywords people are searching for that would fit his company. I hope that beginning to analyze this process will guide him in the right direction.

I just checked my Google rankings for some keywords. I put in this search term:

“internet marketing consultants” chagrin falls

and was presently surprised that I have gone from so many pages down that I couldn’t find my company name to appearing third on the front page of Google. When I left the s off consultants, I disappeared in the rankings. Putting “internet marketing consultant” in quotes was a more specific phrase match. When I removed the quotes, broad match, I ended up on page 2 (17th) for internet marketing consultant chagrin falls.

When I searched for seo consultant chagrin falls, I ended up at the top of page 3 (22nd). I think the reason I showed up at all in the top 30, was due to my post mentioning that I installed the All in One SEO pack plugin.

It pays to have relevant content on your site!

I am currently (May 11, 2010) using a beta version. Everything seems to work well. I haven’t used many (if any) of the new features. My first set of tasks has been to activate some plugins. Here are the first ones.

Activated Akismet. Just remembered to activate. This spam protector should have been done right away.

Activated WP Super Cache. Not sure this is needed.

Activated Homepage Excerpts. I am just showing the most recent post fully.

Activated All in One SEO pack. This is especially useful if you are trying to drive traffic through your keywords.

I realized that the whole approach this business has taken has changed radically over the years. We have gone from consulting to small businesses (mostly PC related) to focusing on niche, more like micro-niche, marketing. When I started in 1986, there weren’t websites that resembled anything like today’s sites. I have also decided to switch mostly to WordPress, although I use Microsoft Web Expression 2 to do some html pages. I hope this website can reflect where we are going and help some other folks along the way.