Dear Online Marketing Professional:

Google's job is to THIN the herd.

My job is to fatten it.

Which is why I have totally re-engineered the Bobsled Run for Spring of 2010.

This is what we are doing to help YOU prevail in even the most adverse conditions. This is my top-level, 12 week intensive personal AdWords coaching program. We start you at just before the first click and run you through the online marketing and sales process until you can successfully find traffic, get people on your list, sell them something, make a profit, and up-sell your customers well into the future.

That's the Bobsled Run. It's your 12 week secret weapon to exploding your business. When I started the Bobsled Run nearly 5 years ago, there was nothing like it. We took my exclusive "Google Code Cracking Matrix", combined it with my personal coaching, and ran advertisers and marketers through a 12 week, focused success gauntlet.

The aim was to double, triple or even quadruple my customers' businesses in just 12 short weeks. It worked. And I've got hundreds of stories and testimonials to prove it as you'll see in a minute. Every Bobsled Run has been unique, shifting as the market changes and molding itself around the custom needs of each group.

Bobsled Run: Re-engineered for you, right now. Dramatically Re-Engineered for 2010, including my brand new "Swiss Army Knife" formula for Bionic Google Ads.

But this session, I've decided to totally re-engineer things because Google, the market, and the economy have so radically changed the landscape that a more targeted, more refined, more precision matrix is needed to help you win. If you are planning on success using AdWords, you must understand the new lay-of-the-land and how to dominate. Here's what I've done to help you…

• 12 week program starts at 8am Tuesday April 6th and runs through June 29. Each week we cover ONE major topic which you then implement. I've made it color by numbers, step by step. Targeted. Simplified.
  • Each week, the format alternates between large group calls, Team Action Group calls (you'll be assigned to a small "Team" of like-minded, compatible participants to get more hands on time and develop synergy), and private 1-on-1 consultations with my coaches.
• Guarantee #1: If you complete the weekly assignments and don’t recoup your investment (from decreased click cost and increased sales) by the end of the 12 week course, you can contact our office get your money back.
• Guarantee #2: If you do the weekly assignments and don’t increase your income by a bare minimum of $25,000, then one year from today let us know and we’ll give you your money back.
  • NOTE THIS: I have offered this guarantee for several years because it works. The recession has not changed my guarantee. A small percentage of students invoke the guarantee but not many. Because advertisers who take this course and follow the simple steps I teach predictably make major gains.
• I am heart-attack serious about delivering principled information, customized to your needs and your business. Stop living in fear. I want to help you PREVAIL, especially in the present uncertainty.
• We start at the beginning of your sales funnel – BEFORE the first Google click – and work our way down to the final sale and beyond. Personal AdWords coaching covers market research, AdWords for both Search and Content Network, Landing Pages, Sales Pages, Emails, Autoresponders, Upsells, Cross-Sells, Pricing Strategies and my list of "Key Economic Factors" that determine your ultimate success.
• I will give you a set of guidelines on how I manage my time, my opportunities and my email box and how you can do the same. This 12 weeks will become a "protected zone" for high productivity and major progress – even if it's long eluded you.
• Two Membership Levels to Choose From…
  • Membership Option #1 – BLUE Team: Group coaching with me (including open Q&A/Hot-seat time), personal coaching with Sunny Hills, Bryan Todd and my hand-picked staff and experts
  • Membership Option #2 – Bobsled Run PLUS the 4-Man Intensive: All the intense results of Bobsled Run, PLUS a two-day personal coaching session at my home in Chicago, that I call the "4-Man Intensive" (details on the 4-Man Intensive are below…). All of your coaching and 1-1 calls are with me, and none other. FAIR WARNING: Qualifications to be accepted into this level are higher and assignments are more rigorous. This is not for the timid. But, you're also guaranteed much higher results and returns. (One year sales increase guarantee is $50,000, as compared to $25,000 with the Blue Team Level)
• Unlimited Access to the Bobsled Run Success Library. The "Library" includes "The Definitive Guide to Google Adwords" All-new, updated 2010 Edition, "Ultra-Advanced AdWords Strategies", "AdWords Beginner Basic Conference Calls" by Bryan Todd, "100 Unique Angles on Increasing Your CTR", "Power Leverage With the 95/5 Rule" by Bryan Todd, "How to Diagnose Quality Score Problems", and more…

Digital IDs

What's in your wallet? Chances are you have at least two or three items which identify you in some way: a driver's license, registration, ATM cards, credit cards, Medicare card.

We're used to carrying around ID, it's no big deal. But how do you identify yourself on the Net?

Assumed identities

Anyone who's spent any time in a chat room, MUD or newsgroup will know that the Internet is full of people who are faking it. You've probably done it yourself: assumed an identity, or given incomplete or inaccurate information, when forced to fill in a form to qualify for a software download or access to a site.

Even more importantly, how do you identify companies on the Net? When you're about to whip out your credit card and order that new Tina Arena CD through an online music store, how do you know who you're dealing with on the other end of this supposedly 'secure' transaction?

Checking real-world bona fides

In the 'real world' we identify and judge companies we deal with by a combination of name, reputation and physical appearance.

If you see an advertisement in the paper for a brand new computer system with the works and the price seems too good to be true, you're likely to do some checking up on the advertiser. If it's a familiar name or a company that others vouch for, you'll be encouraged to think about buying. If the company's name is unfamiliar, you might still decide to go to the store and suss them out: does the store look rundown or well maintained, do the staff look professional, do they answer your questions knowledgeably and clearly, how long has the company been in business, who else appears to be shopping there?

None of these things will guarantee you a 'safe' buy, but they all contribute to your decision whether to entrust your business to the company.

Checking virtual bona fides

On the Net, there's no way to give a retailer the once over; all you have to go by is the company's name, the look of their Web site, and things you've heard from other customers.

The same goes for software publishers. The Web is overflowing with software downloads, and you'll frequently come across sites which offer to download a Java applet or Arctics control to let you experience the latest gee-whiz effects. How can you know these 'freebies' are safe to unleash on your PC?

Digital certificates

Enter digital certificates. A digital certificate, or digital ID, is used to prove who you are on the Internet.

Digital IDs can be issued to Web sites, software developers and individuals. You can be pretty sure that anyone who produces a valid digital ID is who they claim to be. Of course, while a digital ID verifies someone's identity, it says nothing about their character – something you need to establish for yourself.

Nevertheless, the requirements for getting a digital ID as an organisation engaged in electronic commerce are stringent enough that they give some assurance of the certificate holder being an established business. For software publishers, a combination of a digital ID and an Authenticode certificate not only verifies identity but also states the equivalent of "this code has not been tampered with and should not wreak havoc on your computer".

The basic personal digital ID requires nothing more than having a verifiable e-mail address. If people you deal with on the Net are finicky about who they're dealing with, you can get different classes of personal IDs, requiring either third-party proof of your name, address and other information right up to IDs which can only be obtained by appearing in person or presenting registered credentials.

What is a digital ID?

What, exactly, is a digital certificate? Technically, it's an electronic document which conforms to the International Telecommunications Union's (the international body that determines communications standards) X.509 specification.

In everyday terms, it's a document which typically contains the owner's name and public key, the expiration date of the public key, the serial number of the certificate, and the name and digital signature of the organisation which issued the certificate. The digital certificate binds together the owner's name and a pair of electronic keys (a public key and a private key) that can be used to encrypt and sign documents. (If you'd
like to know how public key encryption works, see What is public key encryption?.)

Verifying certificates

What's to stop you from forging a digital certificate by combining your public key with someone else's identifying information? For instance, what prevents you from creating a bogus certificate in the name of the Australian Taxation Office?

This is the role of certificate authorities (CAs). These organisations are responsible for issuing, validating and revoking digital IDs. When you apply for a digital certificate, the CA checks your credentials and issues a certificate which they encode using their own private key. Anyone who wants to check the validity of your digital certificate can do so by decoding your certificate using the CA's public key, and then checking it against the certificate you've given them.

Of course, this means you need to be able to trust the CA, and that trust is based on the stringent requirements involved in becoming a CA. The most prominent CA at the moment is Verisign (www.verisign.com), although it is only one of a number of such authorities.

umber of such authorities.

Do I need one?

Currently, there's no pressing need for you, as an individual, to have a digital ID. But that's due to change.

Recently, a group of the major financial players in the world of online commerce, including Visa (www.visa.com) and Mastercard(www.mastercard.com) , have published a new protocol for SET – Secure Electronic Transactions. SET is designed to make online credit card transactions as secure as offline transactions and, once it's in place, many online merchants will insist you produce your digital ID before they'll do business with you. In fact, you'll need a separate digital ID for each credit card you use online.

It's not likely to stop there, either. Once online shopping makes digital IDs more commonplace, we'll probably see more Web sites using such certificates simply to check your ID. For instance, a single personal digital ID can be used instead of multiple user name/password combinations required to access different Web sites.

You'll also find more and more software developers, online shops and other sites providing their own digital IDs as surfers and consumers demand greater security on the Net.

While there's no need to rush out and get yourself a digital ID today, six months down the track you're likely to have a couple stored on your hard disk.

How do I get one?

You can get a digital ID from any of the CA's which provide personal digital certificates.

Usually the easiest way to get one is by using an application which supports digital signatures and encryption. For example, the latest versions of both Netscape Navigator (and Communicator) and Microsoft's Internet Explorer provide support for encryption and digital signatures, and each program offers an option to sign you up for a digital ID.

Safety's a chimera

No-one is making iron-clad guarantees about the privacy and security of online interactions. But with the introduction of new technology such as digital certificates, standards for e-mail encryption (such as S/MIME – Secure Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions), and SET for electronic commerce, exchanging sensitive information online is becoming considerably less dicey.