Online Business – Changes, Failed Campaigns and Pressing On No Matter What

Posted by JR in Internet Marketing, Motivation & Success

There is only one thing that is certain about making money online and Internet marketing and that is that things can change at any time. Affiliate accounts get canceled, campaigns fail and do not produce the results we want, affiliate programs close, software we love stops being supported, venues come and go, etc. As marketers it is important that we learn to role with the punches, not put all our eggs in one basket and be flexible and rugged enough to handle changes that are both within and beyond our control. And most important never give up on reaching our goals.

Many newbies who begin the make money online venture have the misconception that buckets of cash will start to roll in droves 3 months after they launch a website. WRONG! This does not happen, as it takes hands-on experience, time, dedication and effort to make money online. Most of those newbies will not wait to see the magic happen as they will give up before it possibly can.

If you think that the big online successes like Jeremy Shoemaker (Shoemoney), Courtney Tuttle, or John Chow just to name a few, made their big online bucks in their first month or even first year online, think again!

In fact, if you have ever read about John’s or Jeremy’s history at all, you will know that they struggled to make even a dime in their initial years, especially Jeremy. And John, who was actually there when the whole Internet thing came to be, lived through and survived the infamous Internet crash, BUT, neither had given up and both now enjoy enormous wealth and the fruits of their labor.

Failed campaigns are another bone of contention that can trigger defeat and marketers to give up. It is something all of us have either dealt with or will deal with in the future. One of the keys to success in this business is perseverance and faith. And a true acceptance of the fact that some campaigns will fail, not all will make us money, or make us famous, whatever your goal online maybe.

This is why it is crucial to adjust goals and venues as needed to reach that ultimate goal of financial independence and to be free of the 9 to 5. I think overall that is the ultimate goal for all of us.

Putting your eggs in one basket online is not the safest or best idea and can be self defeating in the end. We have to diversify our campaigns, look to different monetization venues and options, build more sites once we feel comfortable with the process and press forward no matter what.

In reality, to me there is no failure online, as I learn from each and every one of my ventures, whether they reach their goals or not. In fact, I truly believe that the failures I have experienced were my biggest teachers. Many times learning what doesn’t work and what not to do can be the biggest propellers to success.

So press on no matter what, and do not let negativity, feelings of defeat, common changes and failures deter you from your goals!

Success will happen, with the correct knowledge, hard work, patience and faith, you will reach your goals, convince yourlself of that, follow the correct techniques and your half way there! The make money online business is a viable, real and credible venture and one that has an unlimited amount of potential.

I truly believe that and I hope this helps those of you who maybe feeling like giving up now or in the future.

What do you guys think? Anyone ever felt like giving up? How do you deal with failures online?

21 Comments

Hi, My Name is Dick and I’m Addicted to SERP Analysis

Posted by JR in Internet Marketing, Motivation & Success, Odds and Ends, Search Engine Optimization

I was perusing a forum the other day and someone wrote a really long post about how he is perplexed with the Google dance going on with his website in SERPS. He went on to describe in excruciating (and quite painful to any reader) detail how he is perplexed as to how his site keeps jumping 1 or two spots on an almost hourly basis, and yes he provided the forum members with a blow by blow of his day of checking minute by minute, and his frustration with these developments as his site was dropping a little bit at a time.

Ummmmmmmmmmmmm….Can You Say SERP Addicts Anonymous?……………….Yeah!

About 1/4 of the way through I stopped reading of course, and I wondered if he realizes that if this is how he spends his day, then his SERP positions will just continue to drop because he is not focusing on nor doing anything to enable better SERP positions and checking them minute by minute will certainly not make that happen

Getting obsessed and addicted to these types of things can often happen and especially with newbies to the business. In reality becoming fixated on those stats, as well as other aspects of Internet marketing and online business that people get caught up with, like checking commissions every 10 minutes is really self defeating. These are not productive activities as they only take valuable time from doing the array of important tasks for Internet marketing. There are regular fluctuations that occur naturally in SERPS and especially Google, and constantly checking these can be a source of great stress, which inevitably affect your work performance.

As an alternative spend some time…

Commenting on dofollow blogs, Gail from Growmap has a really useful resource to find some at Dofollow Blogs. How about some website promotion, link building, writing some good website content, networking for guest posts and article marketing.

You can also…

Work on boosting online conversion rates, commenting on some great blogs that have Comment Luv, testing ad placements, researching hot keywords for new or existing website pages, maybe you have been lacking in your search engine marketing efforts, or any number of other millions of tasks and duties that are on our plates, like social media marketing.

SERP analysis is important, don’t get me wrong, but there are limits, the Google dance is constant and it’s better to spend valuable time securing our positions rather than checking on them.

SERP analysis is important but they are the end all, in the grand scheme of things, falling some spots in Google will not crush you. The SERPS change all the time, and it’s much better to spend time focusing on the tasks that promote those SERP positions than obsessing over them and getting some good links that will ultimately aid those positions.

When you do need to check the SERPS, try this neat little checker, Instant SERP Rankings Checker that offers a simple interface for SERP analysis.

If you should find yourself checking the SERPS all the time, then please stop. Don’t let such distractions take over your online business and Internet marketing success!

What do you guys think?

46 Comments

Crucial Making Money Online, Internet Marketing and Affiliate Marketing Lessons Learned in 2009

Posted by JR in Internet Marketing, Motivation & Success, Search Engine Optimization, Webmaster/Website Optimization

Here are some of the most important lessons I learned in 2009 for making money online, Internet marketing and affiliate marketing. These come from all hands-on trial and error learning, which I believe is the best teacher of all!

1. Keyword Research is important, but hot products will always sell – Keyword research is crucial for affiliate marketing, blogging and making money online, but if you have a hot product in mind and it happens to have very low, or even non-existent search volume in keyword tools that does not mean it has no potential. The fact is hot products, promoted correctly will always make you money.

2. Write Great Content And The Links Come Naturally – This is something you hear over and over and something I always thought was a myth, however, this blog proves it.

Every single link that gives me page 1 SERP placement for tons of my posts as well as the home page are all natural. This fact of natural links is harder to achieve for some niches, as the Internet Marketing and MMO niche is more prone to natural links since it’s so big, but you should still have great original content for any niche as it will attract at least some natural links and establish you as an authority within your topic.

3. Volume of Content is Key - The more well monetized content (inner pages) you have the more traffic potential grows and that leads to more money, it’s that simple. Those inner pages flood the SERPS of search engines and bring traffic to your site. So either build more sites or expand the ones that you have.

4. Social Traffic is a Money Making Bust – With the exception of a very few select niche and social site combinations, social traffic doesn’t buy, this has been proven time and again. If you are a flagship blogger and looking for fame then social traffic should be your main focus, but if you want to make money online, then it’s a total bust, always focus on organic search traffic that is where the buyers are !

5. Diversify Your Link Profile – Getting links to home pages only is not wise, it looks unnatural and it is much better to get about a 50/50 split between home page and inner pages for you backlinks.

On the same note inner page links can be as effective if not more effective than home page backlinks, as Google will come to view you as an authority on your topic and that is what gives you high SERP placement.

6. There Are No Failed Campaigns – While some of my sites make a lot more money than others, there are no failures. For example, I have a few sites that make me about $25 a month, times those by 3 and that’s $75, times it by 10 and it’s $250, you get the idea.

Also, every thing you do for your online business is a teaching experience and an opportunity to learn something new. Even if that site only makes $1 for the whole year you can bet that I will learn something from it and it will help me to grow as an Internet Marketer.

7. Testing Is A Great Teacher – Whether it’s ads, money making venues, niche sites, or blog campaigns testing out different avenues online is the best way to learn what works and what doesn’t. What works for one marketer may not work for another, so if you have an idea go for it, test it out and see how it works for you. Try new things, test tried and true venues, just test test test!

8. Spend Your Precious Time Wisely – Time management is crucial for working at home in the online business since there is little of it and tons of tasks that most of us need to do.

Do tough and more mind draining stuff early when the mind is fresh.
Take note of activities that are not supporting success and don’t waste time on them.
Set goals for the day, write them down and get them done, don’t stray!

9. The More Sites You Have The More Money You Can Make – Once you know the biz and know what to do to make one website or blog succeed, then go for more and as many campaigns as your schedule will allow. It is a fact that unless your Amazon.com (which none of us lone marketers will ever be) then you need to grow in your business.

Launch new sites often and keep adding them, your money and experience will grow!

10. Information Is Good, But Action Delivers – Don’t become an information junkie, where you spend all your time reading the how-to’s and the guides but then do nothing in the end. Take action, it’s the only way to succeed in affiliate marketing, Internet marketing and to make money online!

What did you guys learn in your marketing, blogging and online business efforts in 2009?

22 Comments

Happy Holidays!

Posted by JR in Motivation & Success, Odds and Ends

christmas-night-magic-house I want to wish all my readers very happy holidays and best wishes for a great New Year! I really appreciate all the support that you guys have shown to this blog and especially to my long time loyal readers.

This blog ranks really high in SERPS and get’s a lot of love from Google and a lot of that is because of you guys that make such valuable comments and show the SE’s that you enjoy the content provided via tons of traffic and dynamic participation.

In fact, this blog has now reached a milestone of 3,200 comments…yaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiii!!!!!

In case you have not noticed I finally redesigned the site and I think it looks a lot better than before. If you guys notice anything wrong or not working properly I would appreciate you letting me know, I checked several times, but you know never know what might have been missed.

I think that fresh designs are important for any blog for several reasons. You will find that you will outgrow your design at some point, you may need more features or a more complex design, and the main reason I think that when we first start our blogging we lack the experience to have foresight for features that we might need, or layout elements and as we get better and better at blogging we will always find something that requires a better or different design.

So don’t be afraid to try new designs and change things up a big once you’ve outgrown your current theme. Here is a simple and step-by-step guide where I detail how to painlessly change themes without affecting visitors and traffic at How To Change Blog Theme in the Background.

New Twitter Feature Added to My Blog Comments

I have added the Twitter Link Comments plugin to the comments, so you can add your Twitter username with a link to follow you on Twitter in your comments, enjoy!

Notice: Issue With Reply To Comment Feature

The regular comments are working fine, but the WP Thread Comments plugin that I was using for replies and nested comments is having problems with the new theme as the submit button is missing, so until I find a solution the reply feature will not be there, sorry about that. A total pain as I will have to try to figure out how to make it work or find an alternative. If any techies are reading please help!!!!!!!!!

If you wish to know if I, or another reader has replied to your comments, just select the Subscribe To Comments option and you will be notified via email, sorry for the inconvenience.

Stay Tuned for Great New Posts

I am planning lots of great posts in the coming weeks with new stuff I have discovered for link building, making money online and Internet Marketing…so stay tuned!

Once again thanks for the support, best of luck and success to all your new year endeavors and happy holidays to you and your families!

17 Comments

Finally! Someone has Discovered the Shortcuts to Making Millions Online!

Posted by JR in Article Marketing, Motivation & Success, Odds and Ends, Uncategorized

So I’m up at 2Am writing some content for my niche sites, and here comes the infomercial and the opportunity of a lifetime…

Jeff Paul’s Shortcuts to Internet Millions

So what does Jeff promise?

…How bout $1,000,000,000 a week?

…Big cash flooding to your bank account immediately with his “secret Internet shortcuts” with only a couple of hours of work a week

…His system is full proof and the best part….

…He is committed to making me yet another millionaire like he did all those people on the commercial!

Plus…

Once I fork over a nominal fee of $39.95 to Jeff Paul, he will give me prebuilt websites that are ready to earn millions, as well as his Internet Shortcuts secrets and “I don’t have to do a thing”! (direct quote from Jeff)

WOW… So I pay Jeff, and he gives me instant prebuilt websites that will earn me at least $8,000 a week (like it is for all those people on the commercial), but more like $5,000 a day!

…Google won’t care that 2,000 other fools just bought Jeff’s great system, and will also be pushing the same mirror sites which are the exact definition of duplicate content, but that’s okay, because Jeff’s promises me that I can make thousands of dollars a week, instantly, with only a couple of hours of my time.

I don’t even have to learn Internet marketing, because Jeff’s system is totally automated and turn key, so all I have to do is pay Jeff for his “secret Internet shortcuts” system…and then start cashing in on the thousands of dollars that will just flood into my bank account.

And…

…Jeff’s promises that I don’t even have to know anything about the Internet or even how to use a computer! Joe on the commercial just testified that he is making $40,000 a month and he had never even logged onto the Internet before using Jeff’s Internet Shortcuts!

…and the best part? I will get rich while I sleep.

Jeff’s guarantees it so it must be so, right?

…And, Andrea, Bill and James all testified on Jeff’s commercial, that they went from bankruptcy to making $30,000 in their first week with Jeff’s Internet Shortcuts, then I can too!

…Jeff also promises that within a month of buying and using his Internet Shortcuts system I can be on a cruise, while money is flooding into my account.

…And all I have to do is pay Jeff $39.95

Only $39.95 for the secrets to making millions online instantly…what a great deal!

For all the newbies interested in Internet marketing and making money online let me tell you my Internet Shortcut Secret and you can send me half of what Jeff wants for his…

JEFF IS FULL OF SHIT!!!!

The reality of Making Money Online is….

…There are no shortcuts!

…You will not make even $1 in your first week, not even in the first month, and maybe not even in the first 6 months!

…It takes a lot of hard work, dedication, learning of correct skills and experience to make money online!

…Any cruise you take will be straight out of pocket and you will lose a week of valuable work time!

These are the cold hard facts Jeff!

I challenge Jeff Paul to show me one of his turnkey sites that makes him the 1,000,000,000 a week that he claims he makes, but, it can’t be the site where he shoves crap, like his “Internet Shortcuts” scam to desperate and naive people, and I will eat my shirt!

LMFAO!

36 Comments

Economy and Making Money Online

Posted by JR in Affiliate Marketing, Blogging, Internet Marketing, Motivation & Success, Uncategorized, Website Promotion

There is no denying that the United States and many parts of the world are having major financial difficulties. The recession is affecting retail sales across the country, and Internet marketing and the online marketplace will surely feel the effects as well. Some affiliate marketers are seeing significant decreases in sales, and while so far most of my sites are staying steady, some have seen a decline in sales.

This does not mean that this business is over, in fact, I truly believe that the Internet marketplace will become even more significant in these hard financial times because:

1. Its unique ability to provide below retail prices and major savings on products, just look at sites like eBay, Amazon and Overstock.

2. People seeking information on how to get through tough times and make extra or full time income while unemployed.

As always, the key to online success is to look for trends and the opportunities to exploit them and in hard times like these, the opportunities will focus around consumables and information.

Consumables:
Clothes
Pet supplies
Household items
Coupons
Baby items
Toys
Cheap home entertainment
Deal sites
Cheap anything sites
Health
Weight Loss
Free anything
…thousands more.

Valuable Information:
Making money
Work at home opportunities
Jobs and work
Schools and training for new careers
Career guides
Recession news
Saving money
Budgeting
How-to get cheap anything
Decreasing utility bills
Saving on car insurance
Health Care issues
Free anything
…and lots more.

Some of those make money, work at home niches and money blog sites are pretty competitive, but there are still long tail keywords that are viable and you can build a great website and make money. As always, make sure to research keywords for any subject matter you want to get into.

One of the most solid money making venues is still Google Adsense, and in hard financial times, Adsense is on top of the list, because you don’t need to make a sale, you get paid for the click, so information sites sprinkled with Adsense is a sure winner anytime and especially now!

Another solid money making opportunity is flipping websites, still one of the best ways to make money online with a wide open marketplace, here is the best how-to guide for doing this from Jason Pereira, a very successful blogger and website flipper at Flip Noobs.

Problogger wrote a good post about 13 Tips to Recession Proof Your Blog definitely worth a read.

21 Comments

Affiliate Marketing – Seize the Opportunities and Don’t Give Up

Posted by JR in Affiliate Marketing, Blogging, Internet Marketing, Motivation & Success, Webmaster/Website Optimization

I have an affiliate marketing website that I built a few months ago. And the keyword is very popular and I have worked hard to get traffic and SERP rank position. As the months went by, I was getting a good amount of traffic but not one single sale!

I analyzed and performed the requisite tricks, such as landing page, colors, navigation and other reasons that result in high bounce rates and lack of sales and nothing seemed to work. I soon decided to move onto to other projects. A couple of weeks ago I was checking my commissions and noticed that that website had a couple of sales. And in the last week the sales are increasing and averaging a couple a day.

The lesson here is don’t quit till the magic happens. Affiliate marketing and making money online is hard work and can be a crap shoot with lots of testing and failing. But if you give up then you will never reap the success you seek. Many newbies give up quickly because they are looking for a fast buck, but that is not realistic for affiliate marketing and making money online and if you set your mind that way you are destined to be disappointed.

Remember, not all websites will generate income right away, if ever, any honest affiliate, especially the honest super affiliates will tell you that. They all have failures on their books, but they also have one thing in common, they never gave up. They know that this is a great business with endless potential, but it has its ups and downs, bad months and good months, successful campaigns and some that are just dead. None of that matters, we move on and push harder.

Internet marketing is a lonely business. Most of us sit at home and pluck away at the iceberg, building websites, trying to rank our sites, build links, get traffic and of course make money. It is not easy, but many of us, including myself, love it and would not want to do anything else. Yes? No?

Sometimes, there are hard times and we all need the motivation to keep going. So, I am here to tell you to keep plucking away, new sites, new keywords, trial and error, learning from past mistakes, new opportunities and DO NOT GIVE UP!

Patience, faith and not giving up is key in making money online and affiliate marketing and the reward of the freedom that it provides in working for yourself is unparallel.

43 Comments

THE Tip to Staying Organized in Internet Marketing

Posted by JR in Internet Marketing, Motivation & Success, Webmaster/Website Optimization

I figured I will post light this Saturday and offer a big piece of advice that has saved me along the Internet marketing journey. USE YOUR BOOKMARKS!!

Weather you are using Internet Explorer or Firefox both browsers give you the greatest invention since ice cream…Bookmarks!

I will tell you that you should always keep very organized bookmarks for the simple reason that IT WILL SAVE YOUR LIFE!

The reason is that there is tons of information that you are and will be coming across as you work, from helpful blog posts, guides, tools, resources, etc…, the possibilities are endless, and if you don’t keep organized bookmarks as you go, you will be scrambling and pulling your hair out when you want to go back and find something.

It really does give a lot of peace of mind to know that the stuff is there and well organized, especially with all we have on our plates in this biz and because I am sure that most of us do not have personal assistants

The browsers really make it so easy to bookmark with drag and drop capability that there is no excuse not to. Some of you may be just clicking bookmark for everything, but, the problem is that you then just have a long list, without any order, this leaves you having to look through a possibly massive list…ugh!

What I do is I have folders in my bookmark tab that are titled for specific subjects and then I just drop relates links into those folders

Just a few that I have are:

Active Affiliate Programs (for easy check of $$$$ )
Site Launch Submissions (list all tasks/submits for a new launch)
Forums
Add URL
Products Maybe to Promote
Content Research (folder for each of my sites)
Word Press Stuff – Plug-Ins
Website Promotion/Traffic Sources
Tools and Checkers
Must Reads

and many more…

How and what you organize is totally a personal thing, but just make sure that you do, because believe me when you are working and very busy, you will come across things you want to save for later, and resources you currently use and you will want to have these things easily categorized and accessible, IT WILL SAVE YOUR SANITY!!

By the way, I just added 1GB of memory to my PC and WOW, $25 on Amazon for the module, did it myself took 5 minutes, I feel like I was released after serving 10 years in a tiny cell, my PC is flyiiiing without ANY limits. If you have low memory I highly recommend it!!

What do you guys think? Do you keep bookmarks? Any tips for staying organized?

26 Comments

Working at Home and Wasting Time on Stupidity

Posted by JR in Internet Marketing, Motivation & Success

By, JR

Last week I sat down to do some link building and write two articles. Unfortunately for me I started reading email and then I got all caught up in it and the emails and that led to other useless stupidity and before I knew it 3 & 1/2 hours had passed, wasted on sheer and utter stupidity!!

I know this has happened to you guys as well so don’t even try to deny it!

It is important to address time management when working at home because we need to have a lot more discipline than working for a boss. When working at home with, I hope legitimate work from home jobs, we have the freedom to choose what we do, when we work and there is no one to answer to but our selves.

Also, I am sure that many of you have full time jobs, kids and spouses that allow only a limited amount of time for Internet marketing and building your online business and so the time you do have is just that much more precious.

So, after I lost those 3 hours and I knew that I have done this before, I decided to implement a better plan.

Working at Home Time and Task Management Plan:

1. Everyday write down a list of tasks that must be completed the following day. Be realistic and make sure these can all be completed in the time available.

2. Don’t put to many complicated brain draining activities on the same list. Like, Tuesday: write 5 articles and 1 blog post, this is too much of the same thing.

Try to mix the more creative and exhausting tasks with easier more technical tasks, like link building and article writing, blog post and link building, directory submissions and forum posting, website content and keyword research, etc…

3. Have the list sitting where it will slap you in the face as you sit down at your work station.

4. Work first on those tasks and nothing else until they are done. No email or other distracting activities!

5. Commit to beat yourself senseless unless you stick to the plan!

I have been doing this since last week and I cannot believe how much more productive and efficient I am. Also, I find that my work has improved because I am doing these important tasks FIRST when I am fresh and clear! My articles are better and easier to write and I was able to add some good content to one of my websites after weeks of promising myself that I would while spending hours on inane activities. And, after I am done with those tasks then I can spend as long as I want on email and whatever without any guilt!

What do you guys think? How do manage your time? What tips do you have to be more efficient and productive when working at home?

24 Comments

Don’t Let Negativity Kill Your Online Business!

Posted by JR in Affiliate Marketing, Internet Marketing, Motivation & Success

I recently saw a post in an Internet Marketing Forum where a member was writing about how his mom is always bugging him about how he is wasting his time, he will never make money online…etc.

This so common that I thought I would write my thoughts on this whole issue. There are many out there that think affiliate marketing and any kind of Internet business is a waste of time. They often think that the Internet is too competative or that making money online is just a fool’s dream.

Those of us in the know, know this is just not true, however these kinds of messages can have a very negative impact on our Affiliate Marketing and other online business ventures.

As I have mentioned before, one of the most important components of success in Internet Marketing is believing in yourself, that this business works and having an overall positive attitude and hearing negativity such as, no you can’t, it’s impossible, you can’t do it, you’re wasting your time etc… are just the kinds of messages that can easily throw you and keep you off track.

I strongly recommend that until you have had Internet Marketing success, you not tell people that you know will be the sources of this type of negativity about your online efforts. You all know who those people are, those family members and friends that do not understand and will only bring negativity and doubt to your efforts.

When I first started, I only told two people out of my large family, my son and one cousin. Those are the people I knew would be positive and supportive and help my efforts. The rest of them I kept out of the loop until I had sufficient success to quit my day job and I knew there would be nothing they could say at that point.

Keep the Faith and Increase Chances of Success

It is very important to have a positive attitude and to surround yourself with supportive people that believe in you and will lift you in your online efforts and not shoot you down.

If there is no way to avoid that negative someone knowing, such as family you live with or roommates, then politely let them know to SHUT UP! Tell them that you do not want to discuss this subject with them AT ALL!

It is also crucial that you connect with other online marketers that have had success and expose yourself to success stories on a regular basis. This is crucial, especially since this is not a get rich quick biz, it takes time, effort and patience. These success stories will keep the faith alive and keep you going when those times of doubt hit you, and believe me they will hit you.

I am here to tell you:
You CAN Make Money Online!