For those of you that follow me on a regular basis, I know it’s been a while – ha.  With a new year, I thought it was time to get my stuff together.  In this spirit, I thought I would tell you about some of the upcoming plans for my business.  Firstly, I want to do at least one internet marketing product review a month (12 for the year).  I already have one review that I need to complete in the coming days.

Secondly, I have decided to let go of the other niche that I have been working in when it comes to digital products.  There just hasn’t been enough going on in the space for me to keep at it.  Since the niche is in a space outside of internet marketing, a lot of the people in the niche don’t seem to understand how to do launches and stuff like that.

I keep putting new sites that don’t do much of anything, so I’m going to let those go.  I am going to have to do some research and figure out another niche to go into that is more profitable for me.  I want it to be something I somewhat enjoy.  I don’t know what it is going to be.  I also want to start another Amazon site.  It proved tougher than I thought to get ranked and get traffic, but I have some ideas of the things I want to promote.

I also need to work on building my list and getting them to be more engaged.  I think I also need to do more planning, at least on a monthly basis, to know what specifically I am going to do.  This way, I’ll have a better idea of the kind of money that will be coming in — instead of just relying on residual stuff like I have been doing.  Well, that’s all for now.

Until next time…

I was really looking forward to February.  I thought some of my sites might take off because of the niches they are in.  Shockingly, that did not happen.  In fact, the traffic didn’t change from what it usually is — not much.  Even though the products I promote on those sites are good quality, I guess they just aren’t that popular, anymore.  It’s disappointing, but I get it.  The products have been out for a few years.  I think I am just going to let them go when time comes up for renewal.

What else is there…?  Oh, I learned a bit more about the secure-site issue.  From what I have gathered, the online entrepreneurs that are like product creators/vendors/merchants – sites where people directly buy things and put in their payment information and such.  The reason I say I “gathered” this is because none of the high-profile marketers that I follow that just have affiliate sites (make way more money than me) haven’t bothered to “secure” their sites.  I’m wondering if I should look up how it’s done – don’t even know if it’s free or something you pay to have done.

Oh, my commissions on the JVZoo platform are slowly but surely picking up.  One thing I like about it is that the product creators — at least the ones I’ve been approved by — seem to be really into back-end promotion.  Apparently, once you’ve been approved to promote one product creator’s product, you can earn commission for other products the creator promotes — as long as they got there through originally clicking on your affiliate link — kind of like Amazon.  Well, that’s all for now….

Yours in online success…

It seems like January was a pretty slow month.  There weren’t even a lot of products to come out that I thought would be good to promote.  I think that perhaps people were spent from the holidays.  I had planned originally planned to promote what I thought would be a cool internet marketing product.  However, it teaches something that I have not ever done before – making money with Facebook and Instagram.

I think I might get into that later or do a case a study.  Something like that could take a while.  The most I have ever done is to get some traffic from different social media sites.  Besides this, I also found out that, even though the creator of the product is not well known, one of the criteria for being able to promote his product is that you have a certain amount of sales on the JVZoo platform.  Since I don’t promote that much stuff on there, I have not met this criteria, so getting my sales on on said platform is one of my goals.

What else happened…Oh, I have been hearing rumors about how Google wants website owners to get more into securing their sites with HTTPS — rather than just the standard HTTP.  I think this might only be for a certain kind of site like e-commerce or something like that.  I have to get more information and read up on it before I can be totally sure about what it’s all about, so there will more on this to come next month.  Well, that’s all from this neck-of-the-woods.

Until next time…

With the year coming to an end, I thought it would be a good idea if I kind of brainstormed some ideas of some things that I hope to accomplish (and continue to do) into the coming new year.  For starters, I know I am going to stay in the internet marketing niche and continue to build my list.  I probably won’t ever leave this niche.  It’s how I keep my finger on the pulse of what’s going on (new ways of making money online, new strategies for getting traffic, etc).

One thing I know I need to do is implement some strategies that will allow me to actively grow my list — rather than just relying on the traffic I get some the search engines.  This alone isn’t growing my list as fast as I would like it to.  I also want to add more content, reviews in particular, than I did last year.  I kind of slacked off because there has been a shift in the platform I prefer to use (from Clickbank to JVZoo and other platforms, the pricing and quality of such products – lots of $7 – $10, some good, some bad).

While it would be good to review a ton of stuff, I don’t want to review things by people that I don’t know and who don’t have any connections in the industry.  In other words, I don’t want to take the time to put up reviews for products people aren’t really looking for in the search engines and what not.  It doesn’t actually do anything to boost traffic to my site.  That being said, I am going to aim to do at least IM one review a month.  Hopefully, I will be able to do more than that.

I also want to continue to work outside of the IM niche.  Right now, I have a number of sites in one of the “big 3” niches that’s also digital.  I am thinking about building a list in that niche as well.  However, unlike with the IM niche, this niche has lots of high-quality products.  Once someone finds what they need, they don’t really need to come back.  It’s not like IM, where things change over time and thus need to be updated.

Finally, I want to give Amazon another go.  It didn’t work out so well the first go around.  I found it somewhat challenging to get traffic and such to my site.  It’s way easier to rank for digital stuff than it is for physical stuff.  I think it’s because of the competition and the types of sites that are also ranked.  When I do decide to give it a go, I think I am going to choose a different niche that before.  I really don’t know how its going to go, yet.  Well, that’s all from this neck-of-the-woods.

Until next time…

I was going to do the my usual “month in review” this month — until I realized I hadn’t done that much with the holidays around the corner and what not.  I haven’t even begun to plan what I am going to be doing for next year — other than what I already have going on.  So instead, I decided to address a question a reader sent me.  In a nutshell, she asked me why I promote things like Google Sniper and over pieces of “done-for-you software” when it comes to blogging and stuff.

She’s tried it (and has yet to succeed) and thought it took too much work.  After I reminded her that making money online is work and that there is, what I believe to be, a very good reason.  When I first got started online, I was told that one of the things you never want to do is put yourself in a position where someone else has control over your earning potential (like a job, basically).  I didn’t get it until something bad happened to me.

When I first got started with affiliate marketing, I used free sites for years and years.  The pages on these free sites were easy to set up and ranked really well in the search engines.  It was awesome — until they started changing their rules.  They got considerably more strict about the kinds of things you could promote and how you could promote them.  After a while, my income dried up because of all the changes (many of these sites eventually just disappeared).

After this happened, I had a decide if I wanted to keep at this or just give up.  I obviously kept going and eventually learned how to use things like WordPress and such, but I also learned a couple of valuable lessons.  1) Regardless of what you do to make money (online or offline), there are going to just be some things you have to learn if you want to survive in the industry.  If you’re one of those people that just hopes to learn one thing and is never adapt to changes, you will become obsolete.

2) Never ever give someone else the controls to the major components of your business.  If you do, they can screw you over — and there is nothing you can do about it.  If you’re serious about making money online, you need to say “no” to all that software crap that promises to do things you can easily do yourself and “yes” to acquiring the knowledge and skills it takes to build a sustainable business.  Rant over.

Until next time…

It’s that time of the month again — and some interesting things have taken place since we last spoke.  Where should I begin.  Well, there was a product I was looking forward to promoting on the JVZoo platform.  Unfortunately, I did not get approved to promote said product.  The reason is because I don’t use JVZoo that much and haven’t yet made enough sales for the product creator’s liking.

That’s one thing I can’t stand about working on the JVZoo platform.  Even though it all about digital products, you have to get approved to promote everything.  If a product creator knows and likes you, they can make it to where you get automatically approved to promote their products, but that’s something you still have to earn through relationship building, so it’s still more challenging than Clickbank in that sense.

On the up side, I still think there is a potential for me to make money from said product (don’t quote me on this).  I think that if you’ve been approved one for one product and have made some sales and those same people make purchases when the product creator sends out their e-mail, I’m pretty sure you still get commissions on that.  UPDATE:  It appears to be true.  I made a commission from something I didn’t actually get approved to promote.

Amazon.  When it comes to Amazon, things are not going so hot for me there.  Getting traffic has been more difficult than I intitially thought it would be.  When you are promoting a physical product on a smaller site like I am, you may run into the issue of having trouble getting ranked because you run into one of the big dogs — even when you do research ahead of time.

I think I am going to have to re-work my strategy for that and perhaps purchase a guide on it and close my account until I get something up and running (still on the thing where it’s temporarily open).  Let’s see.  What else.  Oh, I’ve been hearing some buzz about a new product coming out in one of the non-IM niche markets coming out.  I just hope the product doesn’t suck.

I’m looking forward to it because the other product I took the time to create a site for still hasn’t had an official launch, and I want some stuff to promote around the holiday season.  Well, that’s all from this neck-of-the-woods.  Until next time…

It’s that time of the month, again.  Firstly, something very interesting (and potentially bad) happened this month.  Someone tried to hack into my site!  Fortunately, they got locked out.  The only reason I found out about it was because I have a plugin installed on my site called WordFence.  It’s a free plugin (optional paid version) I encourage all of you with WordPress blogs to install.

Let’s see.  What else happened.  Oh, I finally got up another site (promoting a digital product in the non-IM niche) up and running.  I thought being a procrastinator would end up hurting me, but it didn’t (thankfully).  The product I created the site around still has not launched at this point, so it’s like a waiting game.  I think I might add another page to it to better cement my site in the search engines results pages.

I’ve got time, so I’m not in that being a rush, but it’s good to have time to let thing settle.  When it comes to publishing content onto sites, things don’t show up immediately — unless you have a major authority site that the bots come back and visit often.  This site isn’t that, but because of the nature of the product and how it has to be promoted (had to use a generic domain name related to niche rather than a product name), it allows me to promote similar products down the line (don’t know how often that will be, small niche).

What else…Oh, I added a page of Halloween costumes to my Amazon site.  The site isn’t directly related to Halloween, but the niche I’m in puts out the kinds of products that someone looking for a Halloween costume might also buy.  I haven’t made any sales for the site, yet (proving more challenging than when promoting a digital site) – guess I’ll keep adding pages to it until something happens.  I hope it’s before my temporary access to Amazon is closed – don’t want to have to go through the hassle of opening another acct.

Well, that’s all from this neck-of-the-woods.  I don’t really know what I’m going to be doing next month, but I hope the digital product I’m promoting launches soon and that my Amazon site picks up (both before the holidays, if I’m lucky).

Until next time..

Let’s see.  Where to begin…Oh, you know how I told you about the forthcoming release of a popular product from back-in-the-day that’s going to be like a second installment?  Well, the good news is that I was able to contact the product creator and get “white-listed” in order to promote the product.  Some product creators do this to protect their brand.

They don’t just let random people promote their stuff.  With that said, I’ve been a complete slacker and am still in the process or getting my site up.  On the plus side, people don’t seem to know about it, yet, so I’m really going to have to get into into gear for September.  I want to be ranked a good month before I start to see any other competition.  Hopefully, this will get me an advantage.

Now, for some not-to-great news…I got an notice from Amazon (still haven’t made any sales on my site, yet) basically saying that I need to hurry up and make some sales.  Apparently, when you first sign up to the affiliate program, you are given temporary access to everything and a certain amount of time to make sales (before they shut down your account – can request to get it re-opened once you start getting regular traffic to your site and stuff).

I actually thought putting up this kind of site was going to be easier than this.  On the plus side, one of my internet marketing friends is going to be releasing some free tutorials next month that give me some ideas and should help me some some sales before I get my account closed.  This makes me excited.  Plus, once I make my first commission from a physical product, I think I will feel like a more complete marketer.

I’m really hopeful because my account shouldn’t close before the holiday season starts to come around, so I think I’ll be able to at least make one (if not several commissions – will earn commission for everything people put in their cart — not just on the stuff I’m promoting.  It also means that by next year, I will have more things up making me money (what it’s all about) and will be able to hit the ground running.  Here’s to a good September.

Until next time…

July was kind of a slow month for me (was a slacker – happens to the best of us).  This usually hold true since it’s like the tail-end of Summer vacation and stuff like that.  There aren’t even a lot of products and stuff that come out that you can promote.  You kind of have to be really active and hunt for stuff to do.  I will admit that I’m not the best at time – kind of hard for me to stay motivated.

I’ve got to really put my nose to the grindstone, as it were, and get more stuff done on my Amazon site (haven’t actually done much more than what I did during the case study period).  One interesting thing that happened to me this month was that someone actually contacted me and asked me to take down a review (or take their name off of it).

The strange thing about this was that the review wasn’t even a bad one.  It was just old, and the product wasn’t being sold, anymore.  Like usual when this happens, I will just remove links and forward visitors to something that similar and legitimate but still open.  I just decided to take the guy’s name off of the page but leave it up – easiest thing to do.

Let’s see.  What else happened?  Oh, learned about the forthcoming release of a product in the other niche I’m in (not the Amazon one or IM).  If it were a movie, it would be like what you’d call a sequel, I guess.  The first product launch in this niche was really huge (about 5 years ago or something like that), so I’m hoping this one will be the same – gotta contact the product creator and stuff like that to see what’s up.

This could turn out to be good for me because I checked the organic listings, and there’s not any actual competition for it, yet.  So, if I really put in work, I could have both it and my Amazon site bringing in some good money for the month of August.  I’m also hoping that there will be some decent IM products starting to come out by then, too.  That way, I’ll have stuff going in 3 different niches – good stuff.

Well, that’s all from this neck-of-the-woods.  Until next time…

Well, it’s that time of the month, again.  Unfortunately, I don’t have too much to report.  I’ve most been just working on my latest site (my first Amazon site that I’ve created on my on domain).  I’m still not sure how this whole thing is going to work out, though.  I have found myself taking a different approach to it than I do with my digital-info sites.

For example, I have been using more pictures on this site.  I’ve been using pictures as my call-to-action links over the traditional texts links I use with anchor texts (like on this site).  One of the good things about this site, if I do it right, is that it should generate me money all year around.  Unlike my other sites, IM & another popular niche, they are kind of seasonal (at least it seems that way to me).  As a fan of this niche myself, I think it should be different.

There is also a good amount of stuff to promote.  One thing I’m kind of worried about, though, is how I’m going to write in order to promote that stuff.  Because of the niche it’s in, I don’t view the niche as one where you just give potential customers the product specs (since they can already read that before they purchase it).  Instead, I’m focusing more on building a personal connection, so the user will want to click.  What else has happened?

Oh, one product in this niche is particular has been pushed back — as far as the release date.  While this annoyed me at first, I think it might be a blessing in disguise because I get more time to build my site up and stuff.  Let’s see.  Oh, I forgot to cancel a domain (for the second year in a row).  I’m such an idiot.  I made sure to cancel it after it renewed this time, so it won’t happen, again – ha.  Outside of this, I’m just thinking around what I want to do for the Fall and Winter months.

That’s all from this neck-of-the-woods.  Until next time…