I have decided to use my own domain, so you can follow my internet entrepreneur's journey from now on at
http://www.jewelsofcyprus.com/
I will stop writing here, but will leave the blog for the archives and history purposes.
Hope you will come over with me, looking to see you soon!
Saturday, 21 February 2009
Thursday, 19 February 2009
Blog Blazers
Just finished reading Blog Blazers by Stephane Grenier and I had to run here to write about it, I am that impressed with this book! Yes, it is a real book, found at Amazon, not an ebook.
And what a book this is. You know by now that in my endeavour to become a wealthy internet marketeer, I am mostly focusing on blogging. So I am devouring everything I can find on blogging. Well, unless they are very expensive, but so far I haven't found one like that. But I digress.
I came across this book by pure coincidence, I was browing the Amazon pages, and actually reading about The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich by Tim Ferriss as I've heard that it turned so many people's lives around, it's such a great book. So while cruising Amazon, I somehow saw the link on Blog Blazers. Guess what, I quickly put the first book in my shopping cart and went off to read the blogging book. How could I withstand??
If you go to Amazon and check up on the book, it has really great reviews. We know how Amazon allows every review, so if there are people that honestly didn't like something, you will read about it. For me Amazon is one of the best review sites that there is when it comes to regular books. It never failed me so far. So I put it my shopping cart as well, and I bought both books. Now for some reason, the Blogging book arrived already, while The 4 hour work not yet.
So I've started reading the book and just finished it last night. And what a book it was. I'm seriously pleased and I've learned so much about blogging 'refined'.
Basically the book is a set of interviews of the major blogging gurus around the net, including Seth Godini, Yaro Stark, Andy Brice, J.D Roth and many others. I think it was a total of 40 internet gurus interviewed. Now each of them know LOTS about blogging. What Stephane did was pure genius! Each of these people had various and interesting answers to the very same question Stephane asked them. Their brains were picked mercilessly with questions like 'how do you make money with your blog', 'which are the best blogs recommended for a newbie to start making money', etc, and if you read the book carefully, you can really get the hidden gems of their success for many of them. I have to say, this book stays on my bookshelf for good. Is that good!
Click here to go read the reviews at Amazon and then tell me if you're sorry to spend a measly $16 for reading it. Beats those $47 ebooks that the 'so-called' gurus are selling on their hyped up sites.
And what a book this is. You know by now that in my endeavour to become a wealthy internet marketeer, I am mostly focusing on blogging. So I am devouring everything I can find on blogging. Well, unless they are very expensive, but so far I haven't found one like that. But I digress.
I came across this book by pure coincidence, I was browing the Amazon pages, and actually reading about The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich by Tim Ferriss as I've heard that it turned so many people's lives around, it's such a great book. So while cruising Amazon, I somehow saw the link on Blog Blazers. Guess what, I quickly put the first book in my shopping cart and went off to read the blogging book. How could I withstand??
If you go to Amazon and check up on the book, it has really great reviews. We know how Amazon allows every review, so if there are people that honestly didn't like something, you will read about it. For me Amazon is one of the best review sites that there is when it comes to regular books. It never failed me so far. So I put it my shopping cart as well, and I bought both books. Now for some reason, the Blogging book arrived already, while The 4 hour work not yet.
So I've started reading the book and just finished it last night. And what a book it was. I'm seriously pleased and I've learned so much about blogging 'refined'.
Basically the book is a set of interviews of the major blogging gurus around the net, including Seth Godini, Yaro Stark, Andy Brice, J.D Roth and many others. I think it was a total of 40 internet gurus interviewed. Now each of them know LOTS about blogging. What Stephane did was pure genius! Each of these people had various and interesting answers to the very same question Stephane asked them. Their brains were picked mercilessly with questions like 'how do you make money with your blog', 'which are the best blogs recommended for a newbie to start making money', etc, and if you read the book carefully, you can really get the hidden gems of their success for many of them. I have to say, this book stays on my bookshelf for good. Is that good!
Click here to go read the reviews at Amazon and then tell me if you're sorry to spend a measly $16 for reading it. Beats those $47 ebooks that the 'so-called' gurus are selling on their hyped up sites.
Why the newbies don't 'get it' many times
I've come a few times across an interesting phenomenon, related to advanced internet marketeers (or even gurus) teaching new IM wannabees. I've heard it a lot of times already, but it's the first time that actually happened to me as well, so I can now fully relate.
I've just joined a particular workshop program which helps in getting more traffic for our sites. Now the person keeping this workshop is a well known and respected internet marketeer. It cost me some money of course, but I had no worries about that, as I knew I would get my money's worth back, and more. (no, I'm not referring to Amy's Niche Blogging, which is a great program teaching you to make niche blogs that bring you passive income. That one is fully newbie friendly!)
The workshop has already started and the first few days were great. Until a particular day when I watched the video of the day and I felt I didn't 'get it'. I watched it again, and again, and after the 5th time, I felt like an idiot. I just didn't get it, no matter what. Now I know that I'm at least of an average intelligence, quite technical and being able to learn something quickly, but still, I spent the whole night last night feeling stupid and doubting myself.
Then this morning I woke up, logged on to that site and saw the questions asked on the forum related to that day's teachings. Well, interestingly enough, it turned out I was not the only one there who had no clue what were supposed to do. Other newbies asked the very same question, so that the coach had to actually post a special entry explaining those steps more in detail. In this post, he added a few tidbits which, if you're an advanced internet marketeer, it's something that you already know. But if you're not, it's not a thing of 'common sense', it needs to be first learned.
Suffice to say that today I felt much better and I feel that I can now tackle yesterday's exercise. It did set me back one day, and there's a lot to do today, but at least now I finally 'got it'.
What I'm aiming with this is that, sometimes when you don't understand something, it's not because you're stupid, or your brain took a vacation, or anything related to you. It has more to do with the guru not being able to deliver at a newbie level, forgetting that at some point, he was one of us as well.
Just don't give up, ask questions after question, hammer away, even if you feel what you're asking is stupid, as most of the time, you'll only be voicing the questions of most other newbies as well, who are just too intimidated to ask. And if you don't ask, if you don't get that info, you'll stay behind, labelling that program as yet another 'failure', which didn't deliver.
I've just joined a particular workshop program which helps in getting more traffic for our sites. Now the person keeping this workshop is a well known and respected internet marketeer. It cost me some money of course, but I had no worries about that, as I knew I would get my money's worth back, and more. (no, I'm not referring to Amy's Niche Blogging, which is a great program teaching you to make niche blogs that bring you passive income. That one is fully newbie friendly!)
The workshop has already started and the first few days were great. Until a particular day when I watched the video of the day and I felt I didn't 'get it'. I watched it again, and again, and after the 5th time, I felt like an idiot. I just didn't get it, no matter what. Now I know that I'm at least of an average intelligence, quite technical and being able to learn something quickly, but still, I spent the whole night last night feeling stupid and doubting myself.
Then this morning I woke up, logged on to that site and saw the questions asked on the forum related to that day's teachings. Well, interestingly enough, it turned out I was not the only one there who had no clue what were supposed to do. Other newbies asked the very same question, so that the coach had to actually post a special entry explaining those steps more in detail. In this post, he added a few tidbits which, if you're an advanced internet marketeer, it's something that you already know. But if you're not, it's not a thing of 'common sense', it needs to be first learned.
Suffice to say that today I felt much better and I feel that I can now tackle yesterday's exercise. It did set me back one day, and there's a lot to do today, but at least now I finally 'got it'.
What I'm aiming with this is that, sometimes when you don't understand something, it's not because you're stupid, or your brain took a vacation, or anything related to you. It has more to do with the guru not being able to deliver at a newbie level, forgetting that at some point, he was one of us as well.
Just don't give up, ask questions after question, hammer away, even if you feel what you're asking is stupid, as most of the time, you'll only be voicing the questions of most other newbies as well, who are just too intimidated to ask. And if you don't ask, if you don't get that info, you'll stay behind, labelling that program as yet another 'failure', which didn't deliver.
Monday, 16 February 2009
The money is in the list
...or so they say.
Every internet marketeer keeps saying that the money is in the list, and you gotta make your list, else you're leaving money on the table. But the pure thought of making a list of subscribers simply left me in a state of paralysis! Me, with a list of a bunch of people relying on what I have to say? And what will I write them about anyway? How can I sell them anything? I'm not good at it! Can I do it without a list?
Well, that's pretty much what ran through my mind right until a few days ago, until I took the plunge and followed The Niche Blogger's new month. I really didn't believe I can do it, but I said, I'll give it a try, what do I have to lose?
And here I am just now, grinning from ear to ear because I've just finished the following and it didn't even take that much time or sweat!
I feel much more confident now in the world of internet marketing, and I'm slowly getting the ropes. Never did I imagine when I first started with The Niche Blogger that I'll be doing such advanced stuff, which are way beyond simply 'blogging for money', as Amy advertised it! This is pure internet marketing, and presented in such a way that even newbs like me GET IT!
Every internet marketeer keeps saying that the money is in the list, and you gotta make your list, else you're leaving money on the table. But the pure thought of making a list of subscribers simply left me in a state of paralysis! Me, with a list of a bunch of people relying on what I have to say? And what will I write them about anyway? How can I sell them anything? I'm not good at it! Can I do it without a list?
Well, that's pretty much what ran through my mind right until a few days ago, until I took the plunge and followed The Niche Blogger's new month. I really didn't believe I can do it, but I said, I'll give it a try, what do I have to lose?
And here I am just now, grinning from ear to ear because I've just finished the following and it didn't even take that much time or sweat!
- Subscribed to Getresponse (Amy at The Niche Blogger recommends Aweber, however I know for a fact that both are top choices. My preference was purely based on 'molah', as Getresponse is cheaper than Aweber and for a startup internet marketeer, every cent counts.) Just in case you're wondering, Getresponse and Aweber are the top two autoresponder services, where you can write newsletter, ecourses, to your mailing list. But I will go into that in another post, later on.
- Set up my first web form where the users can subscribe to my ecourse, and added it (and tested it) on one of my niche blogs. It works like a charm!
- Wrote and tested 9 (out of 10, just one last to go) emails belonging to the course, which at first thought would be daunting to do, but Amy has a way to break down everything in such simple steps, that even I could do it. Yay me!
- Got already my very fist 5 subscribers. I know this is not the thousands of subscribers one is usually talking about, but hey, I've just started with it and didn't even advertise it yet. People found me on the net and subscribed!
- I've added the ecourse to Getresponse, and the first subscribers are already getting them on a daily basis
I feel much more confident now in the world of internet marketing, and I'm slowly getting the ropes. Never did I imagine when I first started with The Niche Blogger that I'll be doing such advanced stuff, which are way beyond simply 'blogging for money', as Amy advertised it! This is pure internet marketing, and presented in such a way that even newbs like me GET IT!
Wednesday, 11 February 2009
Musings on where I am so far with internet marketing
I am slowly past my second month at IM, and approaching my third month at The Niche Blogger, and I was thinking today about my progress in general and with the Niche Blogger in particular.
I've been asked by a friend (slightly ironically actually, although I didn't take offense since I know how people who are not interested in IM or know nothing about it label any internet activity as 'scam'). So back on track, I have been asked if I made enough by now to cover my costs up till now.
Well, yes and no. Let me explain.
I have spent quite a lot of money on various products, some good, some bad, equaling a few hundred dollars by now. If you are entering or thinking of entering internet marketing, don't be afraid, you won't have to spend that much. In most of my posts I have reviewed many of these products, and where I felt it's really useful to buy it, based on my personal experience and testimonials from those that are really using them, I say so. If I feel that something is really not worth your time or money, I say so too.
So if you're asking me whether since I started internet marketing, I made enough money to cover the costs of everything I have purchased, the answer is no, I have not.
I treat the initial costs as payment for my education. I mean let's be honest, how long it took you (or your parents) to recover the costs of your university or college tuition?
However if you ask me whether I made enough money to cover the cost of The Niche Blogger monthly fees, the honest answer is yes, I did. Actually truthfully, only from one single sale I secured the money for the next two months in advance. So yes, The Niche Blogger already paid for itself.
Now I still continue to buy books, ebooks, enroll in membership sites because I know that blogging for money and profit is not the only way to learn internet marketing. There are much more aspects of all this, and I love learning. I always did (well, except in highschool really), and I can't stay one day without learning some new nuggests of useful information that will help me make money faster or be more efficient in my endeavours. However to the credit of The Niche Blogger, it is a totally safe system for newbies to internet marketing. You can not fail there. I haven't, and you won't either. It is simply because blogging is very easy, once you learn the steps which are absolutely easy to follow (I honestly at first didn't know how to go about using Wordpress or that there is a difference between self-hosted blogs and the free wordpress blogs).
And once youhave that down, you simply continue building your next blog, while you bring in traffic to the first, and how everybody says 'rinse and repeat'.
It works. At first I was a bit skeptical, because in her classroom, The Niche Blogger has nothing magical about it. It's not the new secret that nobody knew about. What it is, is an exact and easy set of steps that if you follow them, YOU CANNOT FAIL.
If you're reading this, you are thinking of starting out with internat marketing but don't have a clue where to actually start from, I say go with The Niche Blogger. Seriously, in two months, heck with your first affiliate sale you've paid back the membership for the month, and you're all set. And you are not interested in internet marketing for one affiliate sale only, are you? :)
I've been asked by a friend (slightly ironically actually, although I didn't take offense since I know how people who are not interested in IM or know nothing about it label any internet activity as 'scam'). So back on track, I have been asked if I made enough by now to cover my costs up till now.
Well, yes and no. Let me explain.
I have spent quite a lot of money on various products, some good, some bad, equaling a few hundred dollars by now. If you are entering or thinking of entering internet marketing, don't be afraid, you won't have to spend that much. In most of my posts I have reviewed many of these products, and where I felt it's really useful to buy it, based on my personal experience and testimonials from those that are really using them, I say so. If I feel that something is really not worth your time or money, I say so too.
So if you're asking me whether since I started internet marketing, I made enough money to cover the costs of everything I have purchased, the answer is no, I have not.
I treat the initial costs as payment for my education. I mean let's be honest, how long it took you (or your parents) to recover the costs of your university or college tuition?
However if you ask me whether I made enough money to cover the cost of The Niche Blogger monthly fees, the honest answer is yes, I did. Actually truthfully, only from one single sale I secured the money for the next two months in advance. So yes, The Niche Blogger already paid for itself.
Now I still continue to buy books, ebooks, enroll in membership sites because I know that blogging for money and profit is not the only way to learn internet marketing. There are much more aspects of all this, and I love learning. I always did (well, except in highschool really), and I can't stay one day without learning some new nuggests of useful information that will help me make money faster or be more efficient in my endeavours. However to the credit of The Niche Blogger, it is a totally safe system for newbies to internet marketing. You can not fail there. I haven't, and you won't either. It is simply because blogging is very easy, once you learn the steps which are absolutely easy to follow (I honestly at first didn't know how to go about using Wordpress or that there is a difference between self-hosted blogs and the free wordpress blogs).
And once youhave that down, you simply continue building your next blog, while you bring in traffic to the first, and how everybody says 'rinse and repeat'.
It works. At first I was a bit skeptical, because in her classroom, The Niche Blogger has nothing magical about it. It's not the new secret that nobody knew about. What it is, is an exact and easy set of steps that if you follow them, YOU CANNOT FAIL.
If you're reading this, you are thinking of starting out with internat marketing but don't have a clue where to actually start from, I say go with The Niche Blogger. Seriously, in two months, heck with your first affiliate sale you've paid back the membership for the month, and you're all set. And you are not interested in internet marketing for one affiliate sale only, are you? :)
Saturday, 7 February 2009
SEOmoz - The Web Developer's SEO Cheat Sheet
A cool little cheat sheet I found yesterday at SEOmoz. If you're a web developer, or just trying to optimize your website or blog, you've gotta get this. I've already printed the sheets out and they're on my office table, readily available.
There are various tables, all essential in your web design work. Most important html tags for SEO, search engine indexing links, best title tag syntax, sitemap syntax, robots.txt syntax and meta tags, there's something for everyone. Highly recommended!
You can get the pdf directly from here.
There are various tables, all essential in your web design work. Most important html tags for SEO, search engine indexing links, best title tag syntax, sitemap syntax, robots.txt syntax and meta tags, there's something for everyone. Highly recommended!
You can get the pdf directly from here.
Friday, 6 February 2009
Quantum blogging
Now yeah I also chuckled at this one when I heard it. And then I started reading the book. And I really liked it. Well, you know by now that I'm a sucker for everything related to blogging so when I got hold of this indepth report, I simply had to read it. I can't get enough of blogging related material. It is a very short and fast read (around 10 pages or so), and most of the things, if you're a blogger, you'll know already, so there is hardly any learning curve.
So what is it all about? The indepth report describes the story of how David Congreave took a plain blog, used the most basic of search engine optimization on it, and brought it to #1 in Google – outranking some of the most prestigious news websites on the internet on a breaking story.
He basically breaks it into the steps how he did it, what free blogging software he used, and what the quantum strategy has to do with it all. There are no additional costs involved to set this up.
After reading it, I must say it's so simple and brilliant at the same time, I should have thought about it myself. I didn't, but I'm glad I came across the little book so I can apply it to some of my blogs. It's easy really when you think about it, but I have to admit, I haven't heard this one before.
Get the report, read it and apply it. It's free. (right-click to save to your computer)
So what is it all about? The indepth report describes the story of how David Congreave took a plain blog, used the most basic of search engine optimization on it, and brought it to #1 in Google – outranking some of the most prestigious news websites on the internet on a breaking story.
He basically breaks it into the steps how he did it, what free blogging software he used, and what the quantum strategy has to do with it all. There are no additional costs involved to set this up.
After reading it, I must say it's so simple and brilliant at the same time, I should have thought about it myself. I didn't, but I'm glad I came across the little book so I can apply it to some of my blogs. It's easy really when you think about it, but I have to admit, I haven't heard this one before.
Get the report, read it and apply it. It's free. (right-click to save to your computer)
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