Entries from September 2008 ↓

Back before I started to sell my own products I often wondered how in the world people automated their downloads. I mean, it all sounded so mysterious and I wasn’t sure if I could handle the technical end of things. Thankfully, someone introduced me to e-junkie.

Have you heard of those products you have to install on your server and try to figure out your MySQL databases and all that jazz? Yeah…I didn’t want to deal with all of that either. E-junkie was definitely the answer.

For a mere $5 a month all I had to do was sign up, upload my products to their server (simple, one click step there), select a few preferences and I was up and running!

E-junkie takes care of:

• Creating my “buy” button for me
• Storing my product (this is AWESOME!)
• Keeping track of buyers in case I need to mail updates
• Generating ecrypted download links for buyers
• Tracking how much I’ve earnd
• Tracking refunds
• Generally being amazing

Honestly, I can’t believe I only pay $5 a month and get such great service. Yes, I have heard reports that they’ve been down a few times, but heck, so has my webserver. I guess it’s par for the course.

I give e-junkie two thumbs up and recommend it to anyone who needs a simple, tech-free, safe, cheap way to sell products online.

Check it out here:

(They might even have a free trial running!)

I got my start as a ghostwriter so I’ve paid close attention to how to write website articles. One thing I’ve noticed in my time online is that many people are intimidated to write. They get completely overwhelmed trying to figure out how to do their research and synthesize the information into good web content.

We’ll dig into how to write web content in a minute, but if you’ve been following the rest of the series on getting your website up and running make sure you’ve:

1. Gotten a web host for your site

2. Chosen your niche

3. Decided if you want an HTML, WordPress site, or otherwise

4. Planned your content

After you’ve gotten that all figured out, you need to do research for your web content. Now, there are many people out there who will tell you to just go to an article directory and re-write what you see there. Nothing could be more dangerous! Not only are you infringing on copyright, but you also run the risk of passing along someone else’s badly researched content.

It’s best to understand where the best places to do your research are in the first place. The more information has been passed along the more confused the information becomes. You should try to go straight to the source as much as possible. If you can’t go to the source (what is called a “primary resource”) you should make sure to use authority sources or at the very least make sure that their sources are cited so you know they are legitimate.

Whew! I realize that might sound confusing, so let’s back up a minute.

If I were researching diabetes here are the places I would go to find my sources:

1. American Diabetes Association (because they are a well-known authority)

2. Google Scholar (because I can find journal articles that are peer reviewed studies about diabetes)

3. Questia (because this is an online library with books, magazines, and journal articles that have been printed OFFLINE)

4. Wowio (to see if there are any books on the topic there)

Now, if I didn’t find everything I was looking for I might decide to do more research. But I would still make sure to use high quality sources that I know are accurate and unbiased. Yes, this will take longer than it would to just go to an article directory, but your articles will be stronger and stand out on the web as a result.

The next step is really to organize your research according to your articles. I do copy and paste/type notes into categories of articles. I use a software called Scrivener to organize everything. (It’s for Mac, a similar software for PC is Page Four)

So, after I’ve gathered my research I:

1. Do my keyword research to determine article topics/titles

2. Create a separate tab in my software for each keyword/title (you can just open up a new page in Word if you want to separate your notes)

3. As I come across relevant information from different sources I copy and paste (while citing) snippets that are relevant. I may also type up notes to remind myself of important things for when I write the article later.

4. At the end of going through my sources I should have my notes easily separated according to article topic. That way the information is there for me whenever I want to write my website articles.

Viola! It’s not that hard to learn how to write website articles after all. The hardest part is organizing your research and when you follow this method it will be easier than ever.

If you’ve never heard of Stompernet, then you might not have been in the Internet Marketing game very long. They are most known for having an $800 a month membership site. They are also known for giving great free content and good results. That’s why my attention was peaked when I heard about Stomping the Search Engines 2 and the Net Effect Print Journal.

Now, they actually released Stomping the Search Engines years ago (before I was in IM) and sold it for a hefty price. They are also selling this new one for $500. That’s out of my price range for sure!

Then, I got a mailing for an offer where they give it to you for free.  Uh huh…what’s the catch?

They were actually very upfront that the catch was you are auto-enrolled into a subscription for the New Effect Journal. This is a print magazine that shares their latest findings in getting great search engine rankings and amazing SEO tactics. The good news for those who are worried (like I was) is that you can cancel at any time.

So, I joined in on the offer! Be warned, there are a few upsells. I actually got two of the upsells (the best one is at the end!) but you don’t have to. I haven’t received the materials yet, but I can’t wait to see what kind of amazing things I’m going to learn.

I mean, Stomper hasn’t released anything in my price range in YEARS. Who am I to turn down a $500 product and free edition of their magazine for a measly $10 shipping charge?

You can read a great review of the journal here: Net Effect Stompernet Journal

Stomping the Search Engines II and the Net Effect Journal are something I’m excited to try to get my sites higher in the rankings. In turn I hope to make lots of money off of my sites! I can’t wait to get my package. When I do, you’ll get a full review.  I don’t get commission from this (a friend does ), but I wanted to alert you since I hear they aren’t going to leave the offer up forever. (that’s not hype, I think they are testing). And you can’t beat free.

Check it out here

When I first started out in Internet Marketing someone suggested I take a look at the movie “The Secret.” I watched it and found it intriguing, but also a little bit hokey. I quickly set aside any thoughts of manifesting my dreams. So, why am I doing this mind movies review?

To be honest with you, my mind is starting to change. Have you ever heard that we only use about 10% of our minds? I have…it’s been quoted to me ever since I was in elementary school. This amazing fact has truly stuck out to me over the years. Doesn’t it make sense then, that if you really “put your mind” to something that you could see results?

I think so!

What really got me interested in mind movies was this video with Frank Kern.

In it, he states what a  massive impact the Law of Attraction has had in his own life. He even attracted his own bathroom! (that is not a joke watch the video to understand what I mean.)

A mind movie is basically something you make that encompasses everything you want out of life. It contains short, succinct statements like “I have a happy life” and “I have a loving family with 4 kids”. You place pictures and inspirational things in your movie, and watch it often for inspiration.

I’ve made my own mind movie (You can see examples by signing up with the Kern video), and it’s amazing. My productivity is up and I somehow know that I’m going to get what I want out of life. I feel at peace.

You might be wondering what in the world this is doing on an Internet Marketing blog, but it’s actually quite fitting. If you’re spinning your wheels with your Internet business or wondering how you’re going to be able to juggle kids and work, this is just the thing for you.

Another thing I was concerned about was this not fitting in with my Christian beliefs. That’s actually part of the reason I didn’t pay attention to the Law of Attraction at first. The thing is, it totally fits in! I’m even able to honor God in my mind movie by declaring that I have strong faith, I have no doubts that my faith will become stronger as a direct result.

It doesn’t matter who you are, or what you believe in, you can benefit from learning about Mind Movies.

The creater, Ryan, takes you by the hand to guide you through making your own. Everything you need is included in the package, along with support. It’s amazing and gets my 100% recommendation.

To sweeten the offer of buying through my link, I’m offering a $30 Amazon.com gift card mind movies bonus to the first 20 people to join up. I want you to use it to further your law of attraction knowledge, or to grow your business with other materials.

After you’ve purchased through this link (check out the videos, words don’t do this justice -you’ll be hooked), e-mail me at mindmoviesbonus (@) gmail (dot) com with your receipt and we’ll work out the details of your bonus.

I have gone over the product very thoroughly, and have made my own mind movie using the product, and they don’t leave anything out. Definitely take a look at what Mind Movies can mean to your life.

Update on Becoming a ChaCha Guide:

Since I first wrote this post in 2008, a lot has happened in the online world. From the many, many comments this post has received, it is quite clear to me that I can stand by my original conclusion that ChaCha is not worth it for most people. Those who do claim it’s worth it, tend to also include their referral link

With that said, ChaCha just might be a fun activity you can do while earning a few bucks at the same time.

But, if you’re looking to earn an income from home, I 100% do not recommend ChaCha. There are far, far better ways to make more money with your time.

Whether you’re a writer, have the ability to be a virtual assistant, like to do graphics design, etc.

The bottom line is that ChaCha won’t pay the bills, but there are plenty of things you can do to start earning.

Heck, head on over to Fiverr.com and post a few offers for things you can do for $5. It’s better than the .005 you might earn at ChaCha.

That’s my bottom-line opinion

————————————————————————————————————————

(Original Post Below)

Okay, part of my job is to help the readers of this blog know what a good opportunity is and what a bad opportunity is. I know of many people who are interested in the Cha Cha Guide opportunity. Is it worth your time?

Well, I actively set out to find out. The only problem is that I wasn’t accepted as a guide. This was very strange to me as I have very good research skills, am a fast typist, and am generally good at all things online. I DID take the entrance test while my toddler was running around like a banchee, but I was very surprised to learn that I had not passed. I also didn’t read the guide I was supposed to read, so it’s totally my fault. Okay, I was a little bit bummed as I really did want to see what all the fuss was about.

A few days later I got an invitation for a new Cha Cha role called an “expediter.” This sounded interesting too!  Apparently I don’t suck that much The basic gist is that you help speed up the process of connecting guides to people asking questions. I tried to log in to try this role out, but the login would not work. Several e-mails to the “guide care” e-mail and no response. I’m starting to feel like they don’t treasure their guides all that much.

That last paragraph made me realize that I should back up and explain what Cha Cha is. It’s actually kind of interesting. You can dial in on your mobile phone and ask a question. Human guides (Cha Cha guides) search for the answer and send it to the person “mobiley”.  (It’s free for the person asking the question.)

Now, this is not big money even if you are offered a role. As a guide you have the opportunity to make a whopping .10 per search. I think the average pay is around $4 an hour. Holy moly is that low!

While I was waiting to go “undercover” to investigate this opportunity for you I did some research on this company and how they treat their guides. What I found wasn’t pretty (suddenly, I was glad that their guide care people didn’t get back to me). In fact, it was downright scary sometimes.

The WAHM.com forum posters defintely didn’t have good things to say. There were a few people here and there who were having fun as guides, but many others had been terminated for seemingly silly reasons. Many people weren’t accepted in the first place, and those who were often felt like they were not paid anything near what they are worth. Debates about the program are rampant.

It seems like a dark world as a Cha Cha guide. In fact, they are heavily regulated to the point of craziness. People who had websites couldn’t post their true feelings for fear of getting banned. Those who did…got banned

So, do I recommend you become a Cha Cha guide? Definitely not. While I wasn’t able to “get in” I did hours of research that told me to stay far away from this “opportunity.”

Working for pennies just isn’t the best way to work online.

Remember, if you want to start earning an income online, sign up for my free books. Feel free to drop me a line if you have any questions. Sometimes you just want to earn more, and being a Cha Cha guide isn’t going to pay the bills.

I’ll admit it…I had never backed up my computer before! I assumed that everything would always be okay and that computer crashes happened to “other” people. Well, here I am doing a Mozy review for online backups, and it’s for a good reason.

My computer crashed and I lost EVERYTHING!

I was away on vacation surfing the web when my beloved MacBook froze up (which it never did). I turned the computer off, waited the obligitory 10 seconds and turned it back on again. All that came up was a flashing question mark. There was nothing I could do on vacation, but when I got home research showed me that the computer was a goner.

I was lucky in a way because all of my client work for ghostwriting was turned in and all of my products I sell were uploaded into my beloved e-junkie shopping cart (thank goodness!) Pictures of my son were also on my husband’s computer, or loaded into Shutterfly. All in all, I really did luck out. But that doesn’t make it any less shocking to lose products you’ve bought, software, and things I’m sure I’ll never rememeber.

Enter Mozy, the online backup solution.

I now have a new MacBook Pro (it’s glorious!) and the first thing I did was sign up for Mozy. Mozy is an online backup software that sort of catalogs the contents of your computer onto their very secure server. It takes a while for it to backup your entire computer the first time (like a day), and then you can set it to backup from then on whenever you want. I have mine set to backup whenever my computer is idle for a certain length of time.

So, what do I think of Mozy? I absolutely LOVE it. There is no complicated hardware to try and figure out, or weird settings.

Here are the steps to backing up with Mozy,

1. Pay your incredibly low fee of $4.95 (holy moly that’s a low price per month!)

2. Download the Mozy software – for PC OR Mac

3. Start backing up your computer (this will take a day or two)

4. Set it to back up automatically (you won’t even notice it in the background!)

What don’t I like about the service? To be honest with you, it’s worked perfectly. For under 5 bucks a month I have the security of knowing that my files are safe on a secure Mozy server. I don’t have to do anything, or even remember to backup.

Since you’re starting your Internet marketing career I’d say Mozy is an absolute must. As you work on your websites, write articles, and purchase products you’ll want to make sure they are safe and secure. Don’t make the mistake I did! Back up your files, I know that I can finally sleep soundly at night. This Mozy review is positive for sure!

Hopefully you have set up hosting through Bluehost or a similar hosting service by this point. If you haven’t, it’s really easy and cheap to get started. Just click on one of the links I’ve added in the previous sentence to get some help. Of course, that’s just the first step in setting up a new website.

You need to do these things before moving on:

Choose your Niche

Choose the platform you’re going to use

Now then, you need to start thinking about the content you’re going to have on your website. There is no magic formula to doing this, but there are some general guidelines. First, it’s important to know what the people reading your website are going to be interested in.

That means you need to do some research to get some general ideas. You should:

• Visit authority sites in your niche to get an idea of how they are using content
• Look at niche books on Amazon.com to see what kind of content published authors are putting out (browsing the table of contents can give you excellent ideas)
• Check out magazines in your niche to see what the tantalizing headlines are
• Visit forums in your niche via Big Boards to see what kinds of questions commonly pop up

Do you have some good ideas yet?  great!  Write thoughts down as they come to you for content you want to cover.  The Next step is going to be organizing those ideas and doing some keyword research. That post is soon to follow (or might already be around if you are reading this later!)

For now, be sure to sign up for your free eBooks on making fast money online here