Hot Trends reflects what people are searching for on Google today. With Hot Trends, you can see a snapshot of what’s on the public’s collective mind by viewing the fastest-rising searches for different points of time. You can see a list of today’s top 100 fastest-rising search queries in the U.S. You can also select a recent date in history to see what the top rising searches were and what the search activity looked like over the course of that day.

Rather than showing the most popular searches overall, which would always be generic terms like “weather,” Hot Trends highlights searches that have sudden surges in popularity. Google’s algorithm analyzes millions of web searches performed on their search engine and displays those searches that deviate the most from their historic traffic pattern. The algorithm also filters out spam and removes inappropriate material.

For each search, Hot Trends shows related searches, a search-volume graph, and the top cities. It also displays news, blog, and web results to help give context about why a search may be appearing on the Hot Trends list today. You can also choose a date in the past to see what the top Hot Trends for that date were.

Google updates Hot Trends hourly.

PayPal

They offer a downloadable software utility that is called PayPal Secure Card. The utility automatically detects when a customer visits an e-commerce checkout page, generates a unique MasterCard number, and then helps fill out the payment form. This is done through a partnership with credit card issuer MasterCard Inc.

“From a merchant’s perspective this looks like any other MasterCard transaction,” said Chris George, director of financial products for PayPal. “And it’s just another PayPal purchase to the customer.”

Secure Cards work on Windows computers running either Internet Explorer or Firefox. Users of Apple’s Safari browser have only partial access to the service for now, George said.

Secure Card has been tested by 3 million PayPal customers in the past year. Mark ‘Rizzn’ Hopkins, one of them, tells about his experience:

You install and set up the software, and on your taskbar, you have a little PayPal icon. When you want to generate a random credit card number, you double click on it. A little “virtual credit card” pops up on your screen, complete with randomly generated MasterCard numbers, expiration date, and CVV. All payments made with the information are directly and immediately made from your existing PayPal account

The form fill seems to work decently in Internet Explorer, but if you’re a Firefox user, don’t expect it to fill out any forms. It has a Firefox plug-in that seems to do little more than really slow down the browsing experience (and I recommend removing the plug-in as soon as you install the application). It is, however, handy to have, especially for folks like me with a debit card so well worn that the CVV numbers are no longer visible.

The plug-in will be available to U.S. customers on Tuesday, November 20, 2007, with international customers to follow.

What’s your market? Hire a consultant to help you with your Web-business problems and one of the first questions he or she will ask is, what’s your market? How about eighteen to thirty-four year old, single male college graduates with a dog named Spot; or maybe forty-five to fifty-nine year old married women, who hate their husbands and can’t get their adult children to move out of the house. Maybe, just maybe, they’re asking the wrong question.

The Web isn’t about markets, it’s about audiences. Audiences need to be entertained, enlightened, and engaged, and if your website doesn’t, you’re never going to achieve what you want.

Time to rethink how you’re delivering your marketing message. Start treating Web-visitors like an audience not a market, and you might just find what it takes to be successful on the Web.

2. Think People Not Customers

You know all those visitors you attract to your website with your brilliant search engine optimization schemes, how many actually purchase anything? Stop treating visitors as if they are already customers and start treating them like what they are – people. That’s right, people. You know the two-legged funny creatures with wants, needs, desires, and maybe even a few bucks to spend.

Customers are always looking for a deal and they’re leery of websites that only want to take their hard earned cash. Treat your Web-visitors like people who can satisfy their wants, needs, and desires with your assistance and guess what? Maybe it will make a difference: one small step for Web-credibility, one giant leap for Web-success.

3. Think Experiences Not Features

Bought any good features lately? Didn’t think so. You would think the way business pushes the whole feature-frenzy thing that features are exactly what people are looking for, but nobody buys features, they don’t even buy solutions – boy doesn’t that whole solution provider nonsense really get to you after a while.

What people really buy are experiences, hopefully positive ones. Whether it’s soft ice cream or a new accounting program, what people are paying for is the experience your product or service provides.

Does your website offer an experience? Does it explain the experience your product or service delivers? If it doesn’t, then you really haven’t got anything anybody wants.

4. Think Emotion Not Logic

Think you’re a logical person, always making rational decisions based on practical criteria, and bottom line results. So tell me what was the functional thinking that went into the purchase of those leather pants you bought last year, or that sixty inch plasma television you bought just to watch the big game?

Let’s get real. You make purchasing decisions based on what you want, and then justify them with seemingly sensible rationalizations, just like everybody else. So stop trying to appeal only to the practical, logical, aspects of bean-counter sales, and start pushing the feel good aspects of emotional marketing.

If you’re trying to appeal to an audience that gets its only satisfaction out of acquiring the most features for the least cost, then your marketing to the wrong audience.

5. Think Memories Not Promotions

Most animals live in the moment, whereas human beings live in the past. Our here and now and our plans for the future are based on our experiences, our histories, and our memories.

We take pictures of our kids, holidays, and special events; we commemorate birthdays, anniversaries, promotions, and milestones of all kinds. Even the significance of our prized possessions is centered on the fact that those mere objects represent memories of the people, places, and events that shaped our lives.

Real marketing, the kind that creates long-term clients and customer relationships, is not about coupons, sale promotions, or deep discounts; it’s about delivering memories.

6. Think Marketing Not S.E.O.

Okay, here’s one you’ve heard from us before: think marketing not search engine optimization. Sure you’ve got to drive as many people to your website as possible, but if your marketing message is so confused, unfocused, and hard to comprehend because of all the keyword density and S.E.O. tricks, then what have you really accomplished other than wasting people’s time? And people really get upset when you waste their time.

7. Think Stickiness Not Hits

It’s not about how many hits you get on your website, it’s about how long people stay. If visitors remain on your site long enough to get your marketing message then you must have said something worth listening to, and if visitors get the message, your site has done its job.

If your website delivers the message, then you can expect the email inquiries and phone calls to start flowing, but it’s still up to you and your sales staff to close the sale: people close sales not websites.

8. Think Stories Not Pitches

Did you hear the one about the farmer’s daughter and the search engine optimizer … Stories, everyone loves stories. In fact before the invention of the Gutenberg press, oral story telling was the way knowledge got passed down from one generation to the next, and how news was sent from one region to another.

Now that we have this multimedia Web-environment, we can continue the tradition of real people delivering creative audio and video presentations that capture the imagination and drive home the marketing message so your audience won’t forget who you are. Nothing informs, engages, and entertains, like a good story: sounds to me like one heck of a way to sell to an audience desperate for meaningful communication.

9. Think Focus Not Confusion

There you go again, telling everyone who will listen all the wonderful things you and your company can do. Trouble is, telling them all those things just confuses them.

What is the product or service that is most important to your company, the one you are determined to sell to your audience? That’s the one you want to talk about. That’s the one you want to devote your marketing effort to promoting. That’s the one you want people to think about when they hear your name or see your logo. Focus your communication or your message will just be a forgettable, incomprehensible blur.

10. Think Campaigns Not Ads

Isolated one-time advertisements are like one-night-stands: exciting for a while but ultimately unfulfilling and devoid of meaning. Your audience is looking to get married, not a short-term fling. Your marketing has to woo your visitors with long-term campaigns that tell your story and deliver your focused message; audiences expect to be courted and counseled with meaningful communication. And that takes time and commitment.

If you’re spending money on just ads, you might as well be throwing that money down the drain. There is a better way. So if you’re looking for a long-term relationship with your audience, think campaigns not ads.

11. Think Message Not Hype

What message are you delivering to your online visitors? Are you telling them you’ve got the best product, at the best price, with the best staff, and world-class customer service? Is that what you saying? Guess what? Nobody cares, because nobody believes you.

There is only one way to show people you’re the best and that is to prove it, but here’s the catch, you can’t prove it until they become customers. Whoops. Okay, so what’s the solution? How about a real marketing message that speaks to what your audience really wants. It’s not about you it’s about them.

12. Think Personality Not Banality

Does your website just lie there like a lox; you know that cold, dead fish that often comes with a bagel? No personality, just more of the same tedious, dull, dreary, mind-numbing, tiresome, lackluster, monotonous, stuff everybody else has. Boring! This is the new Web, so if you can’t get with it, you’d better get out because you’re wasting your time and everybody else’s.

You’re so worried about downloading times that you forgot to put anything on your site worth seeing or hearing. Check your logs. If people are jumping ship faster than rats on a burning ship, it’s time to try something new; like, maybe some compelling content.

13. Think Branding Not Copyrights

Hay, I love the Beatles. I grew up with them, and I have all their records – ya records, like vinyl dude, not CDs. And guess what, I’ve also got a Mac, in fact I’ve got a bunch of them, not to mention iPods and other assorted Apple gizmos and gadgets. And you know something, I’ve never once got John, Paul, George, or Ringo confused with Steve Jobs. Amazing!

Worry just a little less about all that small print stuff and more on building a memorable brand that people will remember, and that nobody will mistake for some johnny-come-lately imposter.

14. Think Positioning Not Slogan

It’s funny how people have a position on almost everything: you name the issue and people will have a definite opinion on what they think, except when it comes to their businesses. Just because you have a cute slogan that you print under your logo, doesn’t mean you own a position in your audience’s minds.

It seems businesses can’t stand to make a definitive statement about who they are and what they do. Why is that? Afraid they’ll lose a customer I guess, but if people don’t understand exactly what you do, and why they should be doing business with you, then they’re never going to be customers anyway.

No company can be all things to all people and companies that try, never go anywhere. Tell people who you are and what you do and forget about all the other stuff, it just gets in the way.

15. Think Sensory Appeal Not Cents Appeal

Do you want people to sit-up and take notice of what you have to say? Do you want people to actually remember what you’re telling them? While if that’s the case, you better appeal to their senses, and we’re talking about sights and sounds.

Deliver all your juicy, got-to-have content in an audio and video presentation that will stick in people’s heads.

If all you’re doing is appealing to their desire to spend less, then maybe they aren’t the customers you’re looking for anyway. Nobody can afford to sell for less all the time, every time.

16. Think Identity Not Logos

Is your company the equivalent of the invisible man? You’re on the Web, but nobody cares because you’re not saying anything worth listening to, and if they do see you, you are instantly forgettable.

You’ve got to have an identity, a personality, an image, and there is no better way to create that identity than with a video of a real person delivering your marketing message in an entertaining, memorable manner.

17. Think Entertainment Not Biz-speak

Speaking of entertaining, you cannot engage, enlighten, or entertain if everything you present sounds and looks like it came from some b-school text book, or from one of those self-help courses on direct marketing guaranteed to make you a millionaire in only three weeks.

Every business has a story to tell and they can all be presented in a compelling way with a little imagination and creativity. And yes, even b-to-b businesses can rise above the mundane and deadly boring, if only they take the time and make the effort.

18. Think Communication Not Copy

Last but not least, let’s all remember, that websites are about communication. If you’ve got nothing to say, nothing to offer, or are afraid to say what you can do for your audience, then how do you expect to be successful.

Filling your Web pages with keyword density prose and instantly forgettable sale’s copy is not going to win the day.

Whether you are presenting your case in text, audio, or video, it better be interesting and enlightening – even text can be entertaining if written with style and attitude.

When websites fail, they fail because they do not communicate a realistic, believable, convincing marketing message.

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About the Author: Jerry Bader is Senior Partner at MRPwebmedia, a website design firm that specializes in Web-audio and Web-video. Visit http://www.mrpwebmedia.com/ads, http://www.136words.com, and http://www.sonicpersonality.com. Tel. (905) 764-1246.

Here’s just a few of the things you’ll discover in these video tutorials:

• Where to dig up an almost limitless supply of re-useable content to create new products.
• How to use Google to find an instant list of customers.
• The lazy marketer’s way to find out exactly how much people are prepared to pay for your niche products.
• Why Amazon should be a first place to visit if your trying to establish what sites to build for Adsense or affiliate marketing.
• How to really use eBay to identify hot, in-demand products.
• Plus how to turn your eBay research into killer info-products and Adsense revenue.
• A little known spot on eBay where you can find an army of instant BUYERS…
• Discover how to find lava hot niches with Myspace (in seconds) And how to use an often overlooked feature to unearth targeted niche goldmines.
• How to use PayPal as a million dollar marketing research tool.

This is a real CD-ROM delivered direct to your door, not a downloadable video. The price is only $17 plus shipping.

Link: Mining Hot Niches

It comes from Katerina, who writes:

I have read all the ebooks and have the programs to find niches and still I come up empty handed because when you follow the directions you discover that most of the niches I like have a high demand but also high supply.

I have not found yet a niche that has a good demand but a low supply.

Are niches all dried up now?

Well, Katerina, if I said the Internet isn’t becoming more competitive, I would be lying. If I told you that finding a niche market on the Internet is as easy today as it was five years ago, I would be lying.

The Internet is a competitive hunting ground, and it’s only going to get more competitive — but does that mean all the good opportunities are gone?

NO!!!

You are talking about a business medium that allows you to reach every wired corner of the world from your computer at home. According the Internet World Stats, as of June 10, 2007 there were 1.133 BILLION people online — and it’s still growing at a phenomenal rate.

With those kinds of numbers, I’d be willing to guess there are still a few great opportunities waiting to be discovered!

However, the fact is: If your hobby or interest happens to be something like “golf” or “health products,” the chances of finding a niche are slim to none. These are saturated markets, and it’s time to expand beyond them.

If you are serious about making money online and you have explored your interests and have found them to be too competitive, then it’s time to broaden the scope of your search.

What would you enjoy learning more about? Don’t let your lack of knowledge stop you from exploring a topic you’re interested in. I know if I set aside an hour a day for the next month and immersed myself in an unfamiliar niche, I would have enough knowledge to start an online business based on that topic.

The point I am trying to make here, is don’t limit yourself to what you know today. Broaden the scope of your search and explore new niches where you aren’t already an expert — and all of sudden different potential businesses will start to appear.

My final comment is this: Don’t always write a business opportunity off simply because there’s some competition in the market. Rather, you should determine the viability of an opportunity by analyzing the quality of the competition.

If you look at the competition and believe you could do a better job meeting the needs of the market — if you can come up with a unique selling proposition that offers more value and truly differentiates you from all the other sellers out there — then you can be massively successful in an already competitive market.

Remember: Perseverance is key! Like Albert Einstein said:

It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer.

To your success…

Derek Gehl

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Derek Gehl specializes in teaching real people how to start profitable Internet businesses that make $100,000 to $2.5 Million (or more) per year. To get instant access to all his most profitable marketing campaigns, strategies, tools, and resources that he’s used to grow $25 into over $60 Million in online sales, visit Internet Marketing Center

I just donated to Stephen Pierce’s Feed One Million Children charity drive by downloading a free report.

Stephen is giving away a free report that will teach you about building wealth. (Stephen has gone from having 2 cents to his name to making millions of dollars online.)

This report is yours free.

Now it’s your turn. Visit www.foragreatercause.org, and Stephen will donate a plate of food for a starving child on your behalf.

Pick up your free report and help a starving child.

Go to www.foragreatercause.org

Take care,

Andrei

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Don’t be surprised if your Fedex delivery guy is sweating a bit when he arrives at your door with your Insider Secrets Course…

… Because this year, you’ll be receiving a hefty 10lb box, jam-packed with…

• Two 8″ x 11″ full-color three ring binders.
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• Two 400+ page packages for a total of 819 pages, with tab inserts to keep you organized.
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• A full-color, poster-size business plan chart, to help you visualize the process of starting your business, set goals, and track your progress!

Read more: Insider Secrets to Marketing Your Business on the Internet Course, 2007 Edition

Just a couple of days after that, John’s decided to pour gas on the fire!

…and created a follow-up video, A Focused FLOOD Of Income.

John clarifies in details what he was saying in the previous video about building wealth and multiple streams of income, etc. He also answers many questions, like why is he a hypocrite that doesn’t follow his own advice!

In this new video he tells about the three important phases for making money online.

Which phase are you in? Go to his blog, watch the video and find out.

Not familiar with John Reese? Watch his famous $526,744 Video. John spent less than 120 hours setting up what he calls a “little side business”. In just over a year, it generated 17.1 million page impressions and $526,744 in AdSense revenue, with NO advertising.

They understand one of the best-kept search engine optimization secrets in Internet marketing. They know something you don’t.

It doesn’t have to be that way. I’m going to show you the strategies that one guy used to get his brand-new website to #2 on Google… in less then 30 days — for a keyword that generates a whopping 36 MILLION results!

Skeptical? Here’s proof. Just follow this link.

His strategies are very powerful. I personally know hundreds of entrepreneurs like you completely stagnant because they never learned what you’re about to discover.

This guy �will teach you everything you need to know about SEO fundamentals — as well as the latest advanced search engine marketing techniques that will catapult you to the top of the results — without getting in the search engines’ bad books!

And the best part is that it’s not hard. And it’s definitely not rocket science. Find out why.

And good luck with your business!

– Andrei

Unbelievable, isn’t it?

Apparently, he’s looking for a handful of real people who’d like to become his next Internet “success story” (no computer or business experience is required).

Now you have a chance to use his $60 Million advantage to learn how to start a profitable Internet business in just 45 days and make an EXTRA $7,500 to $12,750 per month, working as little as 30-60 minutes per day — even if you have NO business ideas or website yet.

As you’ll see, there is absolutely NO RISK involved in trying Derek’s #1-rated Internet wealth system. You get his entire 1,300+ page package, which includes 6 CDs and 2 DVDs… all for just $2.95!

Derek’s ONLY condition is that, once you’ve achieved your income goals, you agree to (#1) write him a glowing testimonial, and (#2) let him use your success story to inspire others. Both are pretty darn fair conditions as far as I’m concerned.

If this sounds reasonable to you, claim your $2.95 trial copy before Derek takes this page down.

I personally bought this course for the full price when I decided to start my Internet business, and found it extremely helpful. I keep those two binders on my desk for quick reference.

Hope you enjoy it too!

– Andrei