Asian Tiger

I am not kidding you. I’ve had thoughts to move to the US. I’m a firm believer that grasses are always greener on the other side of the fence. Besides that, working in the US will help me grow my spending power. Imagine, in the US, DELL computers are only a few hundred dollars. Here, we are playing thousands of ringgit for the same hardware specifications (for foreign readers, average salary for Malaysians are around USD700 per month). How many of us can really afford an iPod? It’s like a luxury for those in Malaysia to own an iPod video.

So, the US seems like a great place but US is so darn big. Where in US you ask. Florida, I say. Florida’s weather is similar to Malaysia and Florida’s got plenty of attractions. Houses in Florida is also relatively affordable (assuming I earn USD). From what I’ve checked on the Internet, a beautifully single storey house/bungalow with a big lawn and no fencing is priced about USD350,000. Mortgage services is also aplenty and we can even check and plan everything from here.

The best part is, companies like 1st Heritage Mortgage Company who specialises as Florida mortgage broker can provide me with the best rates shoud I decide to get a mortgage. The fact that the company is a licensed Florida mortgage lender and have been in existance for 20 years, increased my confidence of using their services. If you visit their site, you will be provided with excellent tools and calculators related to mortgage and it’s free to use.

All I need now is a job in Florida.  Anyone can give me a hand here?

In this post, I would like to introduce you to a company called Apogee Search. Started in 2001 and based off Austin, Texas, Apogee Search provides services focused on search engine marketing (SEM). SEM is a function to choose target keywords or phrases and position these keywords/phrases high on search engines results for optimum exposure and effectiveness using traditional SEO techniques and paid advertisements such as banners and and PPC.

Like I mentioned earlier, Apogee Search is focused on SEM, primarily in 2 areas; natural search engine optimization and paid search advertising. Of course, any webmaster can claim that they are able to do SEO on their own but when there are too many keyword stuffing detected, the search engine may think that you are spamming. If you are not an expert in this area, best leave them to experts such as Apogee Search. Here’s a tip: if you want to do it on your own, go and attend one of them trainings offered by Apogee Search. Yup! Full fledged SEO training from the experts themselves.

As mentioned earlier, Apogee Search provides services in area of paid search advertising where your website will experience an overnight performance boost. Apogee Search will test and refine keywords/phrases to accurately drive qualified visitors to your website thereby increasing the chances of sales conversion.

Apogee Search has much success in the online marketing industry. Don’t just take it from me, read what their customers’ say about them.

Lisa Wells, VP of Marketing, Mesquite Software
We’re very impressed with your creative thought and ability to identify potential users of our software through targeted internet ads, as well as capture their names and e-mail addresses. You can bet we’ll be spreading the good word about you when we encounter friends and colleagues who could benefit from your services.

John Stockton, Director of Marketing, NetSimplicity
Since LCG/Apogee Search took over our paid search advertising, they have doubled the number of leads we’ve captured from PPC traffic to our site while maintaining or improving the quality of those leads, and has done all of this at no increase in total cost to us (including their management fees).

Nancy Harris, VP of Software, Forgent Networks (Nasdaq:FORG)
It is great to work with a partner who gets it in terms of your business and the challenges you face. I really enjoy working with you and your team.

While you are at Apogee Search’s web site, make sure you visit their free search engine marketing analysis page. Fill in the page and let Apogee Search do the rest for you.

Tags: Apogee Search, SEM, SEO, PPC, paid search advertising, search engine marketing, webmaster

Yesterday, I received a heads-up from a fellow webmaster informing me that Commission Junction (CJ) has reopened their doors to Malaysians. I quickly did a check and noticed that Malaysia is listed as one of the countries accepted into CJ’s affiliate programme.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with CJ, here’s a quick introduction.

Commission Junction, a ValueClick company, provides advanced performance-based marketing solutions that help marketers increase online leads and sales. By facilitating strategic relationships between advertisers and publishers, Commission Junction leverages its proven expertise in affiliate marketing, partner marketing and search marketing to drive measurable results for its clients.

In short, CJ to us is an affiliate marketing programme, allowing webmasters to earn money if our visitors converts into a customer. I have no idea why CJ suddenly opened their doors to Malaysia (after previously stopping Malaysian webmasters to join due to reported frauds). Without second thoughts, I quickly registered into CJ’s programme and was accepted. The final part to complete the registration at CJ is to fill up their tax form (W-8BEN - Certificate of Foreign Status of Beneficial Owner for United States Tax Withholding) and have it faxed or mailed back to them.

I wish all Malaysian webmasters good fortune on CJ and please, let’s not have them close their doors on us again.

Tags: Commission Junction, Malaysia, CJ, affiliate marketing, Malaysian webmasters