For readers of The Self-Propelled Business, go ahead and shout about what results you have achieved from your article marketing exercise with a comment below…

Thank you.

So its finally here. Traffic Secrets 2.0 was released following a last-minute adjustment to allow for hightened server-load, at 1.00pm Eastern Standard Time on July 15th.

This was a month short of four years since John Reese launched Traffic Secrets 1.0 and famously took $1 Million in orders within 24 hours.

It will be interesting to hear how much was taken in the same time frame this time.

So what is Traffic Secrets 2.0?

As everyone who runs a business online knows, traffic is the lifeblood of an Internet business. Not having strategy for building traffic to your website is like placing your shop window out in the middle of the ocean.

No matter what we do online, we all need traffic.

The purpose of John Reese’s Traffic Secrets program remains the same as it was with the first version: To educate people on the ways available for building a steady, growing stream of targeted (relevant) visitors to their website. The difference is that these days, in 2008, there are many more ways available than there were in 2004.

Social Networking, for example.

Web 2.0 is a phrase that has been used, rather broadly, to categorise the new breed of websites which enable members to interact with one another, share resources, insights, information, education, pictures, video, and countless other things which the Internet is capable of handling. In 2004 these sites were all but non-existent (although Facebook was launched in 2004 for college students to interact with each other)… but these days, they account for a near majority of all Internet traffic.

Many of the methods John Reese introduced to us in 2004 are still around, and he has updated his methods for using them in 2008. Article marketing, for example, traffic exchanges and pay-per-click advertising.

But many, too, have changed. The Google algorythm is being worked on all the time, and is a very different beast now, so search engine optimization (SEO) runs to new set of rules, and there has been a near-verticle growth in blogging, which itself provides new opportunities for building traffic and sales.

They are all things which Internet Marketers need to know about if they’re to create shelf-space for their sales pages, but what really gives Traffic Secrets 2.0 the two point oh, is its explanation of how you can integrate the range of methods available in 2008 together into a winning strategy for your web business.

Altogether, in the Traffic Secrets 2.0 pack, there are 12 CD ROMs. Each one dealing with a different discipline in traffic accumulation. Typical for Reese, it is very thorough, and it provides an in-depth education on how to build a community of trusting visitors and buyers to your business.

As well as this education pack, there is also a 377 page training guide, a workbook for tracking your projects, and a series of step-by-step blueprints in areas such as Adwords, Social Networking and Market Spying…

All in all, it is an impressive package for the price. Many of today’s most successful online marketers reached fame and fortune on the back of Traffic Secrets 1.0. There can be no doubt that the same will be true of Traffic Secrets 2.0

Verdict: Thumbs Up

More information: Traffic Secrets 2.0

10 or 20 years from now, we will remember this year as the year in which the world tipped towards digital innovations over and beyond their traditional oil-fed counterparts.

The papers today are filled with doom and gloom about the impending economic crisis, and the apparently endless oil price increases.

As I have reported before, this crisis is all the more extraordinary because for the first time, oil prices are driven by demand instead of scarecity. As China pulls its vast population out of poverty and into middle class, so more oil is being consumed there. And that means the price, for the rest of us, will increase.

One thing you can be sure of: Life as we know it is going to change.

Huge strides are being made in the delivery of battery-powered cars. more and more homes are turning to geo-thermal power, sucking their heating from the center of the earth instead of from burning fuel. The digital revolution, which has been so prominent with the rise of the internet and mobile phones, is also making up for our inability to afford oil any more.

So what does this mean if you work on the Internet?

It means opportunity, hope, promise, and an exciting future. Of course it does! – This is the time when every industry out there is seeking ways to avoid physical delivery of goods. Anything which can be delivered digitally, without adding to fuel costs, must be.

And unlike 8 years ago, when the bubble burst on those Internet pionneers because it was discovered that no one really knew how to monetize the Internet, the world knows better now, and the world has embraced the Internet. Well, to be precise, 1.3 billion of us are Internet users from a population of 6.3 billion. That’s 20%.

Moreover, 36% of those 1.3 billion say they use the Internet to make purchases.. that’s 468 Million buyers. And its growing all the time.

So have a think about your industry, if you’re not currently 100% online, and pay some thought to what you could convert to online delivery instead of off-. If you have an interesting case and would like some help developing a solution, let me know. Drop me a comment below, and I’ll get back to you. I read all my comments…

I’ll be interested to learn what delegates think of their impending position in the Internet Marketing community because it seems to me that Malaysia and Singapore are sitting on the mother of all gold mines in this industry.

Today’s newspapers spoke again of the impact on the world of increasing oil prices. For the third time in a generation, we are told, we are heading towards an oil crisis with global implications as the price per barrel teases the symbolic $100 mark.

But this time it is different. This time the price increase is driven by demand. Previously it has been caused by political pressure or constricted supply either in the Middle East, or Russia.

China’s consumption of oil has trebled since 1980. The current oil price, and potential increases in the future, are in correlation with the rise of the middle class in China and India as it steadily replaces mass poverty.

Look at these charts to see how oil consumption in China compares with Europe and the Americas:

And what else, aside of oil, do middle class consumers need?

Information… The Internet.

I believe the staggering increase in oil shown in China over the past 20 years is nothing compared to the forthcoming increase in Internet use in that country.

And when it comes to Internet Marketing, who in the world is best placed to teach them?

The cultural and language differences between China and the western world make it difficult for the main-stays of Internet Marketing to have a role in China’s growth. It seems more likely that it will come from her neighbours, in particular Malaysia and Singapore.

I’ll be speaking about this later today to the delegates of World Internet Summit Malaysia, and I will be interested to gather how prepared they are for their role in China’s Internet growth.