Posts filed under 'General'
I subscribe to a few different magazines and there’s one thing that they do to their subscribers that pisses me off so I’m going to have another little rant if you don’t mind.
Once your subscription is about to expire, these magazines will mail you the standard renewal notice. In the letter they send, they always say the same thing in big red letters.
“RENEW NOW OR PAY MORE LATER”
Well guess what?!
The last time I received that letter, I didn’t renew now! Oh my goodness, I didn’t renew. What to do, what to do? I was going to burn in hell because I didn’t lock in at that special subscription price. Life as I knew it should have been over right?
Luckily for me, my life was spared when I received another letter a few weeks later. This one was especially interesting because it was essentially the same as the previous one, but with a lower price.
A Lower Price!
Those bastards lied to me. I’m not happy now.
I could have believed them with that initial letter and renewed my subscription and fork over 20 big ones. Instead, I called their bluff (cause I’m smart like that) and ended up paying only 12 bucks.
Now, while this was beneficial to me, I can say that I’m not too thrilled with this magazine’s ability to blatantly lie to their loyal customers.
I know this is a marketing tactic from the days of old but is it really ethical?
Whatever that answer is, it doesn’t really matter. The whole point here is that I may not be a loyal customer for long. I would bet there are others who feel the same way. (I hope anyway, or else I’ll feel like giant tool.)
I’m sure you can apply this type of tactic to many online endeavors as well. I’ve seen a lot of things similar to this in email marketing where people offer a program or product for a certain price, then lower it for future customers. (In some cases they’ll even give it away for free.)
What a great way to lose credibility and trust.
To make a long story short, just don’t do this. Be honest. Stick to your word. It’s worth it.
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April 29th, 2008
A few days ago I sat down and agreed with myself to do the meticulous task of creating my own customized Adsense reports.
Any Google Adsense publisher can download reports right from their Adsense account, but I’m ridiculously anal about my numbers so I had to create my own reports. After a couple hours I had what I wanted.
I made seperate sheets in OpenOffice’s Calc for each month of each year that I’ve been an Adsense publisher. I then created another sheet that pulled the totals from each month to create a monthly/yearly overview.
I printed off this overview and have it sitting right in front of my monitor. I’ll update it weekly so my numbers stay current but the main purpose of doing this is to use these numbers as motivation to continue to keep those numbers growing.
I can also see which months performed better and figure out why. This helps me get rid of the ads that are sucking and tweak other ad units to do even better.
My intial goal will be to increase my Adsense income every month by 50 percent. I hope that isn’t an unrealistic goal but I’ll do my best to make sure I don’t eat my words after the first month.
At first I was simply aiming to do better than the previous month, but I realized this wasn’t a specific enough goal. If this goal of increasing my Adsense income by 50 percent isn’t challenging enough, I’ll change it to double every month.
Wish me luck and pray that I don’t embarrass myself!
And if it helps, try creating something like this for yourself to keep motivated. Not only is it a great way to keep your momentum going, but it’s exciting to see that all that hard work is paying off.
April 26th, 2008
Something that manages to really irk me is when people use frames on their website but don’t allow their users to resize them. If it was sized properly in the first place, that’s fine. But when you have a huge block of text or especially when you have a form in the frame but it’s cut off and you can’t resize the window, it’s extremely irritating!
So please allow users to resize frames on your website.
April 25th, 2008
I’ve stressed quite a few times how “to-do lists” (not a very well written post but you’ll get the drift of it) are really helpful when you need some way of staying motivated and organized, but I’ve also discovered that having “Things I Got Done lists” are just as helpful.
Throughout the day, I keep a list of all the things I did that made a positive impact. I’ll jot down when I posted to my blogs, when I’ve written an article, what I’ve done to promote them, when I’ve made a new contact, etc. At the end of the day, I’ll go back through the list and give myself a mental pat on the back for everything I accomplished.
If my list looks pretty bare, I give myself a mental kick in the ass to do better the next day. I even keep these lists in a file so I can look back at them weeks or months later. It’s a great way to assess your work day and use that info to become even more efficient.
Our ultimate goal is to make more and work less right? If you’re a crazy list person like me, this may help you achieve that.
April 25th, 2008
I finally signed up for NicheBot yesterday (yes I know, I’m extremely behind the times) and WOW am I ever going to be a busy girl for the next few months.
After spending a few minutes with this program I’ve got a monster list of new keywords which will help me tweak existing pages to get better traffic and also a plethora of new ideas for more content.
If you haven’t already heard of it, NicheBot is a keyword research tool and so much more. Corny, but true 
Anyone with a website should know that keyword research is a huge factor in creating and maintaining a website or blog so you should also know that having a program like this is extremely valuable.
How much did I pay to use this program?
One buckaroo!
You can get a 14-day trial for only $1*. You have access to all the paid features and you can cancel at any time. I figured I would check it out, generate some keyword lists, then cancel if I didn’t think I would use it that much. After about five minutes I knew I would be renewing after the trial period.
I have to admit that when I first logged in I was confused as to what to do or where to look, but once I read a bit it was smooth sailing.
I really can’t believe how much I’ve been missing out by not using a program like this from the beginning. I don’t even want to think about how much money I haven’t made but could have. Quite depressing really…
Anyway, I’m off to find some new keywords. It’s so exciting. Feels like Christmas!
Here’s the link again. Check it out, even if you’re a cheapo like me!
http://mamasontheweb.com/nichebot.php
*UPDATE: Boo! NicheBot no longer has a 14-day $1 trial period. Instead, you can try it for just 46 cents a day. Go dig around in your couch and find a couple quarters and you can make keyword lists til you drop.
April 24th, 2008
If you’re still plugging away at the internet marketing game, and you feel like you’re on the verge of giving up, let me ask you something.
Are you doing anything really well? Or are you doing a lot of things not so well?
I hear a lot of people talking about not making any money online and shutting down their website(s) after months or even years of struggling. One common thing I’ve noticed among these people is the fact that they’re all trying to cater to everyone and using a plethora of marketing methods. Instead, they should be focusing on a few key things that work for them - things that they’re good at.
Let’s say Julie has been running a gift basket website for a year. She’s also been writing articles, maintaining a related blog to direct traffic, submitting her site to hundreds of directories and traffic exchange programs, posting in forums, commenting on blogs, advertising in newsletters and other websites, and purchasing links from other relevant sites. At the same time, she’s dealing with customer orders via phone and email, and she’s also creating the baskets she sells on her site as each customer orders them.
You might not be surprised to know that she’s not selling very many gift baskets.
In my opinion, she’s spreading herself way too thin. She’s trying too many marketing methods but she’s not focusing on any one of them enough for them to be really successful.
If I were Julie, I’d start with article marketing and forum posting since those are the two things I enjoy doing the most. Instead of writing a few articles each month, I’d focus on writing at least 3 a day. I’d also find a few busy and related forums to post on with quality information. I’d establish myself as an expert through my articles and forum posts. Once I perfected those two methods (able to push out quality articles and posts in a short period of time) and once people recognized my name and product, then - and only then - would I start introducing other methods.
I’m not saying you should be using these two methods first, and I’m not saying it can only be two methods. You have to do what works for you. You should be focusing on the methods that you have strengths in. If you’re a good writer, then article marketing, forum posting, blog commenting, and any other kind of content creation would be a great start.
If you’re a people person, you might try going into some joint ventures with other people in your niche. Be careful to choose someone who’s product complements yours and not one that competes with it.
Everyone is different and each website or home business requires different things to make it successful. It’s your job to find out what those things are. Keep plugging away until you discover what works. Focus on that until you can’t make it any better, then branch out and try other methods as well, whether it’s by yourself or through outsourcing.
So, if you’re close to giving up, think about what you just read. Have you been focused enough or have you been just dipping your toes into each method instead of jumping into just a few?
Try it and see how it works. You just might have a renewed outlook about your business and a refreshed view on the future.
December 5th, 2007
Do you ever wonder why some people are more successful than others when it comes to internet marketing? There are obviously a variety of factors, but the one that I’d like to talk about today is the time factor.
Let’s say I just received an email from a fellow marketer about his new information product. He’s set up an affiliate page where you can get articles, autoresponder messages and graphics to help promote his product.
Which person do you think is going to make the most money from this affiliate program?
A) The person who clicks over to the site, picks up the information and puts it to use right away? (Or the person who hires a Virtual Assistant to do it for them.)
or
B) The person who puts the email off to the side to read another day, or at best they’ll bookmark the site to get the information later?
Unless you were born in a barn, you probably picked person A. Even if that person has a small subscriber list and person B has a big list, they’re still gaining the advantage by getting that information out to their subscribers early on. Also, chances are that person B will never put that information to use if they don’t act on it right away is slim.
Do you see a part of yourself in person B?
Have you ever purchased a digital product and let it go to waste on your hard drive? Have you ever ordered a magazine and let it sit for weeks before actually reading it? Have you started articles but never finished them? Have you purchased Private Label Rights products but let them sit in a folder and collect virtual dust? Have you learned a new marketing tactic but haven’t put it to use yet?
I think almost every one of us has procrastinated to some extent (I’m very guilty of it myself), but there has to be a point when you tell yourself, “STOP IT!”. If you have no intention of using that product or reading that book, don’t buy it. If you don’t plan on taking advice from a fellow internet marketer, don’t sign up for their newsletter!
Maybe that should be a New Years Resolution. My resolution will be to stop putting things off. I’m not going to let emails sit in my inbox for weeks before I read them. I’m not going to purchase any more information products and let them sit in my computer unread while everyone else takes the information and profits from it. I’m not going to let my to-do lists go “undone”.
I’m going to start doing things NOW instead of LATER. “Better late than never” will not be a part of my vocabulary. “The early bird gets the worm” will be. And I bet I’ll be more successful because of it. How about you? What are you going to do next year to be more successful?
November 22nd, 2007
To get anywhere in the online marketing world, you’re gonna need a clear focus - a clear goal.
Have you thought about your goals? It’s ok to have more than one. I have many small goals and a few big ones. An example of a small ones is to double my adsense income, a big one is to save up enough money to put a down payment on a new house.
Once you have some specific goals in mind, it’s easier to visualize how you’re going to reach them. I find that the best way to do that is to write down your plan of action. Seriously, write it down and keep it somewhere where you’ll always see it.
Here’s an example of a plan of action:
Do some research to find a market that has a need you can fulfill (through your own products or someone else’s as an affiliate).
Find the programs that you want to promote (or create them).
Create an email mini-course or newsletter that is informative and useful for your readers, but also promotes your product.
Create a website or blog to capture email addresses and to publish content regularly to draw in traffic.
Submit articles, buy ads, create joint ventures, recruit affiliates, etc. to reach a wider audience.
Test and tweak your author bio lines, sales pages, optin boxes, subject lines, etc. to increase conversion rates.
Of course this is just basic. I’ve left out a lot of smaller details, and not everyone’s plan of action will look the same. This is purely an example. Each one of these ‘to-do items’ should have it’s own list that needs to be carried out. If you end up having a long list, don’t despair. Just focus on the first item on the list and go from there.
Rome wasn’t built in a day, and you won’t be building your own internet empire in one day. Baby steps people - small but consistent baby steps. And don’t forget to make mistakes and learn from them on your way.
If you find that some things just aren’t working, it’s time to rethink your plan of action. Once you discover what works, you simply rinse and repeat, but always make sure you strive to make it better by continuing to test and track your results.
If you’re looking for some specific methods to build an online income, check out List and Traffic. Jimmy has some amazingly simple but effective ways to earn money online, and he outlines the plan of action for you.
November 8th, 2007
This weekend I decided to do some window shopping. I’ve been wanting a new couch for awhile now, so I drove down to The Brick and checked out some furniture. I found the perfect couch and decided that I HAD to have it.
I’m easily excited and amused by simple things, so the idea of getting this couch has been consuming me since I saw it. I’ve got a copy of The Brick flyer sitting on my desk right beside my monitor just in case I forget about it for more than 2 seconds.
Every time I see that flyer or think about that couch, I get my ass on the computer and work work work. I’ve made sales that I’m sure never would have came about if it wasn’t for that piece of furniture. I’ve written more articles this week than I ever have and these extra sales mean I’m very close to buying that couch.
Sounds kinda dumb, but if it’s motivation you need, then who cares about how you get that motivation. If it means you need to take a trip down to The Brick, then so be it. For the love of sales, get your unmotivated butt in your car and go do some window shopping!
October 22nd, 2007
Lori at FreelanceMom.com tagged me with the ‘5 Things You Probably Don’t Know About Me’ meme. This is the first time I’ve been tagged, yay! So if you’re ready for a nap, keep reading.
1. I used to teach piano when I was in high school. If I still had a piano, I’d be teaching it still. I miss my piano 
2. I’ve been engaged twice and married once. I’m single now, but that doesn’t mean you can add me on facebook and ask me perverted questions!
3. My favorite game to play is Final Fantasy. Any one of them. I love almost any RPG, but that one is my favorite. I’m basically a boy in a woman’s body. I can also burp louder than most guys I know.
4. I’ve never been outside of Canada. The farthest West I’ve been is to BC, but I’ve never been East. I’m pretty much just stuck here all the time in what a lot of people refer to as ‘Butt-hole Saskatchewan’.
5. I love classical music and I’m not afraid to say it. I listen to Timbaland and System Of A Down and just about everything else, but every once in awhile I’ll put on some Chopin and jam out to it. My favorite song to play on the piano is Moonlight Sonata by Beethoven. My favorite opera to listen to is Mozart’s Requiem.
I’ll tag a person who I haven’t talk to in awhile, but I think it would be interesting to see her answers if she ever sees this. Andrea, come on down!
September 19th, 2007
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