Internet Marketing from Startup to Success

Moving my blog

2009-02-21T05:05:00.001-08:00

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!

Blog Blazers

2009-02-19T09:09:00.000-08:00

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.

Why the newbies don't 'get it' many times

2009-02-19T01:44:00.001-08:00

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.

The money is in the list

2009-02-16T13:01:00.000-08:00

...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!

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 can't believe I've got over one of my major stumbling blogs in Internet Marketing: making a list AND writing a set of emails to them in the form of an ecourse.

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!

Musings on where I am so far with internet marketing

2009-02-11T11:04:00.000-08:00

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? :)

SEOmoz - The Web Developer's SEO Cheat Sheet

2009-02-07T02:49:00.000-08:00

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.

Quantum blogging

2009-02-06T10:35:00.000-08:00

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)

Don't go with the crowd, write honest, unique articles instead

2009-02-05T00:19:00.000-08:00

Here is an interesting experiment I conduced - without me realizing I was doing so.
I have a few niche blogs, some more interesting to me than others, but I really try to post useful, informative info on each of the blogs. The last few days I was a bit busy in the evenings when I usually devote my time to internet marketing, and as I am subscribed to a PLR membership site, to 2 of my blogs I posted rewritten plr articles.

Now, in case you are wondering, what is PLR in the first place? PLR is private label rights, so if you get these articles, you can do pretty much anything you want with these: you can use them as is, or modify them, and post them to your site, or put them in an e-book, or as an online course, the sky is only the limit.

Nothing wrong with that. However, everybody has their own 'voice' so to speak when blogging. A blog still means, even today, an online journal of a real person. And everybody blogger has their own personal style of writing, style that the readers are expected to shine through in their posts.

So as didn't want to leave the blogs unattended during these last few days, what I did was adding some of the relevant PLR articles as new blog posts. I tweaked them a bit, but really my heart was not into them. It was not me writing them, the ideas were not mine, and I guess it showed. Guess what: my adsense income from those 2 blogs really went down to a whooping: .27 cents a day!

I guess those posts were not researched carefully in terms of proper keywords, so the relevant Adsense ads didn't come through (let's say you're writing about diet, and you get a Forex ad? there's definitely something wrong with your blog post!). Or maybe they were just not interesting enough for the reader, they were not personal enough.

I've started writing my own articles again, and my click-through rate to Adsense is much better. Also the bounce-rate is less. People are stopping by and reading my blog posts.

So I think early on in the game I've learned a very valuable IM lesson: use original articles in your blog posts, or even if they are PLR, don't post them as such, or just rewrite them a bit. What I suggest you do is read the whole PLR article, then put it aside and rewrite it totally in your own words. Spend those 10-15 minutes per article to write unique, relevant and interesting content that come from your mind and your soul. It will make the difference between earning money - or not, between getting a following, or being alone with your blog in the cyberspace.

A last note here: I am not saying 100% that my Adsense income changed due to the PLR articles, however I found it strange that those two days exactly when I didn't use my own posts, Adsense decreased as well. I'll research more into this.

Using Dummies books for your niche research

2009-02-04T09:04:00.000-08:00

I've recently come to a goldmine about making niche and keyword research: the Dummies books.
I actually stumbled upon this idea when I was searching on Amazon for something. But Amazon is another story for another day. However when I explored the Dummy books, I realized that there is a real potential to be mined. I quickly headed over to the Dummies website and started looking around.

So how is best to research these books for niche ideas?

Well, you can go directly to their website, and see what they write books about. Basically wherever there is a profitable niche, the dummies are there. If you can't find a dummies book when searching on something, most probably the niche is not that profitable. These guys spend a fortune to make these books, so they definitely don't want to lose out on profits if they can't sell their books!

Now don't get me wrong, I don't really like the dummies books. I bought a few when learning various software a few years back, and if anything, these books turned me off from learning. And don't ever buy a dummies book when trying to cure an illness (talk acne?)!
But for an internet marketer, whether the books are good, or not good, is totally besides the point! You don't want to buy the book, you want to enter the niche!
So go to the dummies site, snoop around, type in your niche idea and see what the Dummies will show you.

Why learn internet marketing?

2009-02-02T03:35:00.001-08:00

I have been recently asked by friends and colleagues at my day job the following question: "why are you learning internet marketing, what do you want to achieve with it?'

Well, I can find several reasons for it, but the main one really, that is nagging me for years now is that I want to be my own boss. I am tired to make others rich and me just living from a measly salary,and a tiny salary increase that I have to beg for every year.

Now don't get me wrong, there is nothing inherently wrong with working for others for a living, for the most of the people is the normal way to live all their lives, and that's ok. However for me it's just not working. I never really worked well with bosses, and although I used to blame them for it, I realised it's me. I am not good with authority, taking orders from others. And it scares me the fact that I might have to spend the rest of my active life working for others. This thought really paralyzes me.

I haven't really done anything about it until now because I didn't know I could do it. All my life I was conditioned by family, peers, teachers, at school, etc that this is the way to go, there is no other way. Working for others offers me a job security, a place to go to every day, safe money every months and everything else is just not feasible, don't even think about it. But as of recently my eyes opened, I've seen that many others are making a living by themselves. They are not working for others for a 9-5 job, and they are ok. Actually more than ok. They are happy. They are working in their pajamas, yes, sometimes slaving away at their computers, but they are happy doing what they do because they do it for themselves, and they love doing it. And this is what I miss right now. That feeling. Knowing that I can work from home, for myself, doing what I like to do best: working with the internet.

So, there you have it, my very selfish reason for learning IM. I know a few people who are making good money with it, and they are nothing special in terms of mental faculties. What I'm saying is, they are your regular, average John Doe. And they make it. I always thought until now that only geniuses, or those very gifted can make a lot of money. But if John Doe can do it, I can do it too.

I am only starting out, a 2.something months newbie, but I did already make a few sales, I've started earning from Adsense, a few affiliate programs, and people started following my blogs, it seems that what I'm saying makes sense to them. And I am having a lot of fun. And that's important. When you like what you do, it doesn't seem like work anymore, it seems like something enjoyable, fun.

Rant over :)

Do you have troubles with hyperlink syntax?

2009-01-28T09:06:00.000-08:00

Well, I admit, I am pretty geeky when it comes to computer and such (I still prefer a regular tower computer to a laptop because I like to change the memory card and other cards in the pc by myself), but for some reason, when it comes to making those anchoring hyperlinks, I have a mental block. Somehow I never managed to learn the proper syntax, whenever I try to do it manually, I either make a mistake, or simply don't know where to start.

I know I'm not the only one because the other day I had a talk with a friend and she told me pretty much the same thing. She said she has the actual anchoring syntax in a notepad on her desktop, and every time she needs to insert one manually (say in the author box in her Ezine article), she uses that as a template and then pastes it in the article.

Well, lucky for me, I found a free site that allows me to do that automatically. I bookmarked it, brought the bookmark to my toolbar and I have it handy every time I need to add hyperlinks with anchor texts manually, where automatic insertion is not an option.

It's called Easy Hyperlinks, and it's seriously a breeze to use it.
Just type in your anchor text, your link, and voila the full hyperlink is done. You have it ready for the web, and also for forums (BB code).

It is truly a time saver for me. Maybe it will be for you too.

Action paralysis - slow death

2009-01-28T00:06:00.001-08:00

I've started IM sometimes mid last November, which makes me a 2 months old IM newbie :)
The first month was wasted simply because I was learning, getting fed - and overfed, and slowly showing symptoms of info paralysis, which led to action paralysis. I've simply wasted one month, but it's ok, newbies can do that, they're forgiven.
In the meantime though, I've started taking action. I joined various great IM forums (and left some that didn't give me what I wanted), started creating Wordpress blogs, posted Ezine articles, articles at AC, make Squidoo pages, landing pages, pretty much everything that an IM newbie can do to get started for real. Until quite recently, I haven't had any real 'success' in terms of money coming in. I was close to giving up. However, the last few weeks, money did start to trickle in. Not much, here an affiliate sales, there some Adsense, I see more visitors to my niche sites, and I know that I've finally beaten action paralysis. I've done something. And that is the most important thing a newbie can do: do something, anything, but don't procrastinate, don't just think and overthink, plan and overplan, because you're wasting time!

I've followed the Warrior Forum for a while now and I see all the time posts from people who started IM 2-3 years ago (yes years) and are yet to make a dime. So then I really don't feel bad that in 2 months I only made a total less than $100. Because it's a start. And as every start, it's a slow start. It's normal. And it will pick up. I consider myself lucky because I took steps, and I actually enjoy the process. And I started earning money. So I'm that much closer to my goal of leaving my regular job in 2 year's time, of 'firing my boss' the way they put it :-)

I've just read a post on WF about action paralysis, and I took the liberty to copy here the main action paralysis symptoms. Full credit goes to The 13 th Warrior on the WF for this list.
If you recognise yourself in some of these, please start taking action. Do anything, register some domains, put up a website, or a blog, add some Squidoo pages, do some article marketing (hey English is not even my first language so if I can do it, you can too!!). Just do something, get out of the 'newbie paralysis' and you'll succeed. I'm totally confident that I am on the road to success. I can see it in my Paypal account.

So here are the steps:

1) -overthinking,
2) -in-action,
3) -lack of action
4) -non-serious action
5) -planning on a plan to action
6) -planning to look for a better plan to action
7) -looking for better information,
8) -looking for the ultimate secret that puts it ALL together
9) -fear of failure
10) -looking for that "just one more thing...."
11) -...then a always finding a new "one more thing"
12) -overplanning
13) -planning to make a plan
14) -planning to make a perfect plan
15) -planning to make a "mistake-free" plan
16) -planning not to fail, rather than suceed
17) -planning on planning the right time to start
18) -planning to find the perfect tools before starting
19) -planning to find the best tools before starting
20) -looking for that "one" answers-to-all guru
21) -just waiting for that one "last" ,new, perfect advice from your go-to guy before starting
22) -looking for that one thing that will answer all questions
23) -looking for that one tool, that will find the holy grail of all before you start
24) -looking for that one thing that will solve all problems
25) -looking for that one thing that will solve and insulate all future problems before you start
26) -in-exhaustable searching for "THEEEE" lastest gizmo before you start
27) -researching and to make sure the info you start with is not too old, THEN you will start
28) -will start soon as you get a day off
29) -will start soon as your daily life calender is clear
30) -will start soon as you double check and research the info you start with is right
31) -too much to choose from, undecisive
32) -will start when conflict of two or more methods/tools/strategies are resolved
33) -researching for the research that tells you what to choose
34) -cross-referencing two or more pieces of info, once resolved, will start
35) -finding new, UPDATED info on researched info, and once THAT is resolved, will start
36) -looking to make sure everything is right before starting
37) -planning to gather all the best information, THEN researching HOW to narrow the confusion before starting
38) -Freezing up and delaying on 1st problem when action is "FINALLY" initiated
39) -Freezing up and delaying initiated action of 1st problem by looking for "PERFECT" solution.....

Do they sound familiar? Then do something about it!

Latest Google Bug that you can exploit

2009-01-22T10:35:00.000-08:00

...or not.
Ok so like everybody else who was during the last week on the Warrior Forum, we all got caught up in this WSO selling the latest "Google bug".

This shows why research before buying something is so important! I had my fingers click-happy on the Paypal button when I decided to Google a bit about it. The reviews on this WSO were quite mixed, so I was not sure. My search landed me to the DP forum, where the guy was selling the same report to a different crowd.

People who bought the report at DP, were MIGHTILY pissed off with him (I have to say that the Warrior Forum is way more diplomatic in that respect than DP, where people can literally kill you online if you're cheating them), and it seems that the very same bug was already discussed towards end of last year in that very forum - for free. Which this guy was now selling for $7 (or something similar).

So what was this bug all about? It's basically about adding 'hyves' as a subdomain to your domain. If you do that, the particular subdomain will get instantly PR 7. Yep, you've heard it right, PR 7. Funny thing is, you get a pr 7 even if your page is non-existent. Which is bullshit, if you ask me. I mean do you think Google will not penalize all those subdomains (and possibly the domains) when they fix this bug? I wouldn't want to have one of those domains when that happens!!

I am really saddened about the way internet marketing is becoming. Or better said, the way some people try to exploit the online folks with something like this. I have no problem paying money for stuff that works - heck half of the posts on this blog are reviews of things I bought and liked - but taking advantage of the people in such unhealthy ways, is something that I hope the online community will always deal with accordingly.

Seriously, if I were in this guy's shoes, I'd most probably avoid those forums in the near future. Cheating people into buying something that it's old and free news (and if you ask me, wrong too), is no kosher in anyone's books. I'm only wondering how many people asked for a refund!! I would!

This is just a lesson to learn when you want to buy something, research it first. Don't jump on it before reading a few reviews about it, or at least before googleing the first few pages about it. You will save many times money and frustration in the process.

Adsense placements and their importance

2009-01-17T08:52:00.000-08:00

I've just learned about the importance of proper Adsense placement first-hand. I've been making some coins on Adsense during the last 2 months since I started learning about IM and made my first niche blog.

Yesterday, however, I changed the placement of one of my ads, and this morning when I checked my Adsense earnings, I was surprised to see that yesterday I've earned as much through that particular ad block as I've earned in the two months through everything put together so far. I actually had to look twice as I didn't believe my eyes.

Now these earnings are still tiny, nothing major to show off with, however the fact that just by moving the ads around, I've increased my CTR (click through rate) it says something about listening to the big IM guys when they teach, because sometimes they are right :)
For the best Adsense placements and format, check out this Google post, it's golden.

Micro Niche Finder - a Review

2009-01-15T09:42:00.000-08:00

I bought Micro Niche Finder recently, as an IM newbie because everybody recommended it. Not because I knew I would need it - of course, I was hoping that I would be able to use it, but if everybody else had it, I had to have it too. Do you ever feel that craving inside you, that pushes to click on that Buy button, on an impulse, even though later on you might regret it? And at $60 something, this is not a cheap software to get. Well, it didn't break my bank, but still it was money.

I bought it and forgot all about it. I kept receiving emails from the author, which I left unread in my Inbox.

Until about a week ago, when I clicked on the software quite by accident. I was trying to click on the shortcut for Microsoft Word and I clicked on Micro Niche Finder *lol*. Well, I was at home, it was weekend, I had some time, and I said, why not, let's give it a try, see what we bought afterall. When I first bought it, I didn't know how to use it, or what to go after, what the titles all ment.

So I started the software, typed in a keyword in one of my niches for which I have a Wordpress blog setup, typen in the captcha letters and waited for a few seconds until I got a list of about 115 exact matches. I looked over the keywords list, sorted them Search count (counted monthly, just like the Google's keyword tool), and started looking at some of them. I scrolled down, bypassing the very first ones with a TON of searches, because I knew that they also have a ton of competing pages. Got down to about 2000 searches and selected all between 2000 and 500. Then clicked on 'Get checked phrased count', waited a few seconds, and it immediately displayed me the competing pages in Google. Quite neat and fast too.
But what really blew my (newbie) mind, were two things (not to mentioning the fact that the Ad cost of each keyword was there listed, for easy comparison).

1. Commercial Intent
2. SOC (Strength of competition)

1. Commercial Intent is basically how commercial the keyword is. Which means, how willing are people searching for that keyword to actually buy something. Obviously if I stumbled upon a keyword 95% commecial, with the right searches and little competition, is quite a find to target.

I also found 7% competition, that is hardly worth going after. It's mostly people who are looking for free online tips. Now yes, you might say, it is common sense to figure out how commecial a keyword is. Well, in some cases, yes it is. But in many cases, it's not really, until you spend your time on Google researching that keyword on pages, articles, etc.

For example how commercial do you think 'flower centerpiece' is? Heck, I didn't even know something like this existed. Yet, it is 94% commercial. Just to put it to test, I clicked on that keyword, which brought me to a huge list of menus, and I selected 'Amazon search', which opened a new browser tab to the Amazon page for 'flower centerpiece'. Yep, there are books for that. Hm, what about articles? Ezine articles? Yep, that menu is there too. But I am getting ahead of myself. I'm still at commercial intent.

I've put this to test with a few keywords and it always came through correctly, so I can definitely trust this feature to know if it's worth targeting a particular keyword.

2. SOC - now this is one mind blower by itself. When you click on it, it gives you a number, and next to it a small icon. The icon is starting from a green ok tick, to a yellow warning, to a red stop sign. This way you know instantly, without any further tedious research from your side if that keyword has a lot of STRONG competition, or not. If then you actually click on the number given, you get the following:

- inanchor numbers
- intitle numbers
- inurl numbers

Inanchor is basically how many sites have the keywords in the anchor text (and we know how important that is!)
Intitle is how many sites have the keywords in their title
Inurl - self-explanatory, I guess

Now that I see a bit deeper in the whole Internet Marketing jungle than when I first started out, I realise how much research time it takes you to do all this manually. And this is just for two options in the software, Strength of Competition and Commercial Intent. And I haven't touched yet the options associated with the keywords themselves, but I'll quickly post here a screenshot, because it's worth it. Just with one click of a button you can see the exact pages in Google, in Amazon, Clickbank products, Ezine articles, Google products, Google News about it, Google trends...

In conclusion - as there is always a conclusion - I have to say that the money spent on this one tool is one of the best investments I ever did. No wonder the big gurus are mentioning it all over the place. Pretty much everybody who is in the IM for a while, they have it, and they use it. And now I start to really understand why, the potential and time saving it offers. Hut ab, as the Germans say. Or Kudos, in English. This one goes to one of my favourite top 5 products.

And not only because of the features I focused on. Because Micro Niche Finder actually found me a few hidden gems that I am now monetizing. Some as Ezine articles that bring leads to my site, and some as blog posts (Adsense pages, which I am already getting clicks for, so it's true, people ARE looking for those keywords, yayy!)

Btw, before rushing off to anything, I suggest you watch the 5 free videos on the product, they are worth it!

Recession Advantage reviewed

2009-01-11T02:22:00.000-08:00

I bought this ebook recently in view of the global economical crisis, hoping to get some valuable tips from it. I've read it cover to cover and I got a few useful tidbits here and there, but most of them were common sense things, really.

Without going into details, the book deals with two aspects of going through a recession: as an employee and as a business owner, and it shows some basic (and solid) principles on how to manage the storm.

Some common tips for employees (which are so common-sense, I'm sure I'm not breaking any copyright laws by mentioning them here), are not to job-jump during the recession, but try to prove yourself in the company, to make yourself indispensable. Obviously, since if you're leaving, you're just the new boy/girl in your new place, which means you're the first to be get rid of.
There are much more tips in the book, each of them just as common-sense as this one. Which is good so, because people need sometimes to be reminded about what counts in times of recession and what should one do - or not do to survive.

As a business owner, the book gives several examples of how to weather the storm, as in diversifying, finding new niches to focus on (think what is flourishing during times of crisis, based on history repeating itself ?), invest in some very 'hot' things right now, and so on.

Like I said, the book is not earth shattering or chock full with new insights, it is simply a foundation that you can start your journey on during the recession. If you already have some tips up your sleeves, this book will not be for you. If you're just starting out, it might be worth a read. You will not get rich from the book, but it might save you on some newbie mistakes you might avoid making down the road.

ABC of link building

2009-01-02T06:21:00.000-08:00

I've just finished reading a book on link building targeted towards more beginners, like me.
If you're a pro in IM and just looking for ways to enhance what you know, this might - or might not be for you, but it's definitely for newcomers like me to internet marketing.

Link building is big. It's actually crucial to getting yourself out there. There are millions of blogs on the www and we all want to be seen by others, else how can anyone click on our affiliate links and buy our products? Writing plenty of content is good, but so does every second or third newbie IMer, since we don't have yet the money to outsource, we have to do it ourselves. So that leaves just proper link building.

Now I've heard all the used words on it, but did I actually know what all these mean? words like 1-way, 2-ways and 3-ways links, real page rank (not the Google toolbar one that shows the green line), authority stoppers, and most of all (the one I was always afraid to ask about in forums, for fear I was laughed at my ignorance), 'link bait'. Well, I didn't really know what any of these mean. How could I, with only one month and some small change worth of online marketing under my belt? I've read a bit, cruised forums, left some useless ones, joined others, and tried to wade through all the info that was there, picking this and that in the process, hoping that I could actually retain it all.

Well, I have to say that Josh Spaulding's Link Building book is really good. I don't say it's one of the best (probably is), but after reading a few on the subject (some free, some not free), I found this one had everything I need. This book is absolutely wonderful for IM newbies like me. Why? Because it goes into explaining all the link building jargon, it gives examples and it walks you through some link building strategies that you can get started with right away.

Does it have everything under the sun and earth about link building? Definitely not. But what it has is the power to make you understand, in a 'newbie like language' (as opposed to the 'guru like' *sigh*) and make you take action instead of getting all frozen up by information overload.
At this point I am not looking into how to make 'even more money', how to 'tweak the system' and how to leave my 9-5 job in the next month. That's simply put, impossible. At the moment all I want is to learn the ropes, from the best that's out there.

This is the book I truly recommend, if for nothing else but for really crystallizing in your mind what you need to do to get those links to your website and take the first steps in actually doing it.

This site is my online diary which I hope will help other newbies like me to get started in this IM jungle that is out there. I am writing honestly about all my internet marketing experiences that lead me so far to my first affiliate sale and hopefully to much more in the months and weeks to come. I am writing about the good, and also about my negative experiences, so do not think that my only goal here is to give links to everything under the sun. I only give links to whatever I truly feel it has helped me, and only to things I have bought or joined personally. And if I don't feel something has helped me greatly, I will blog about it as well, warning you to stay away from it.

My first affiliate sale!

2009-01-02T01:21:00.000-08:00

I woke up this morning to great news! I got an email from E-junkie that I got my first sale. Isn't that a good omen for 2009? Making my first sale on day 1 of the year?
I am really excited now as I managed to prove to myself that Internet Marketing does work, you can make money online. Don't get me wrong, it is honest money earned through hard, serious work.

About a month ago when I started learning online marketing, I set myself the goal to work from the comfort of my home, for myself, in two year's time. This New Year's Eve I have reinforced this goal, through the resolution to work hard, not quit, not even when I feel depressed that it doesn't work as fast as I'd have liked it to.

Happy New Year everybody, and don't give up!

An overview of Wealthy Affiliate and why I bailed out

2008-12-22T08:11:00.000-08:00

As a new internet marketeer wannabee, I've heard about this place right from the beginning. Apparently it's 'the' place to be to learn internet marketing, and particularly affiliate marketing (and bum marketing).

It is quite a costly place for somebody who starts out with no money, $39 per month, or $29 per month if you buy a whole year. I was curious about the place and eager to learn, so I joined for a trial of one month, thinking that I'll either upgrade to a whole year, or just leave it be and move on.

The site is major, it has pretty much every bells and whistles one could find in one place. In that respect, it is great. They have tools for making your keyword research, making your first site, hosting, website creator, even an online text editing where it shows you how many words you wrote so far (great in article marketing). And it has a great forum, hands down to it.

So why didn't I stick with it if all is that great?
The reason for me is simple. After only 2 short weeks, I've discovered online free, or very cheap tools to do just the same as this website offers. Either you download them for free and use them whenever you want, or buy them and they're yours to use them whenever you want, or use them online for free - whenever you want. And that is one of the key reasons.

The reason why they have all these additional tools that one just 'can't be without', is to attract AND retain the masses of people. Afterall, that's what they're making their money with.
Imagine, if you started using their Rubix site builder (which is available ONLY to Wealthy Affiliate users), you're pretty screwed if you decide after a while that you need to leave, due to lack of funds, etc. Same with every other tool on their site, which allows you to save your searches, and retrieve them while you're a member. Once you're no longer a member, all is gone. All your hard earned work is gone. So of course, if you started to use these tools, got hooked on them, it's that much more dificult to leave later on, isn't it? The site makes you totally dependant on their tools and freebies, so you can't leave if you start your business with them.

So I went out and found all the tools they offer, elsewhere for free or to get for a small free - to be mine forever. Not depending on a membership site to do my work. Nothing is new under the Earth and Sun, but of course, if you're a rather lazy person and don't feel like doing just a little bit of Google search, their membership is great to give you all the tools on a table.

Second major gripe with the site is the fact that after a while I got more and more confused. I didn't find a structure within the site to follow. I mean a real step by step guidance. Yes, there is a set of 8 weeks lesson, which basically you have to stick around for 2 months to get them all, as each lesson is published for you one a week (notice another attempt to 'cath you' with this?), but the lessons are very basic and general. Yes, the overview in those lessons is great, however it didn't go in specifics of doing ONE thing, it went into all directions: affiliate marketing, bum marketing, niche websites, etc. One thing I've learned since I'm studying IM is that you need to do one thing, to become expert at it and only after expand and multiply. And this is what I felt the huge site (that you can get lost in as a newbie) was lacking. A real direction.

One plus I have to give the site is their forum. People like Travis (the bum marketing guru), Potpiegirl and a few others really give meat to the site. But darn it's an expensive course for $39 a month.

So there, you have it. If you are a lazy marketeer, and want to have everything handed on a plate, go ahead and join them. However, if you have your own mind to go with, search a bit on Google, you will find everything you need right there. Without spending $39 a month.

If you want to spend a monthly fee to get a strong direction in Internet Marketing, by following real steps that guide you, go instead for The Niche Blogger. The site is much newer but the content gets added every single day. And the forum is also growing, I see new faces every time I login. And it costs you only $17 a month. And you get all the tools you need to work with mentioned there, exactly where to find them and how to use them - but through external sources, so if you ever leave the membership, you won't leave anything behind. Website, tools, are all yours, to keep.

Steps for today - moving my site

2008-12-18T10:13:00.001-08:00

Today I had a technical task at hand, to move my product review site to a new server.
Last weekend I changed my Hostgator account from a baby to a reseller account, so now each of my domains is on a separate account. Took me a few hours or swearing and sweating, because working with a reseller account is a completely different game from having your regular, baby account, but finally it was done. Everything was Wordpress. Today, however, I decided to add a new review to my regular html site, which is using XsitePro (highly recommended for ease of use and webpage optimization), and I've realised that I never moved this site to the new server the other day. Woups.

But finally it proved to be much easier than I originally thought. It was very easy to reconfigure the ftp server, home directory, ftp directory and all that. Oh I love Hostgator! With the review page together, the whole thing took me less than 30 minutes.

Interesting thing I've noticed. On the same server I have my review site (the html site) and a WP blog. The blog has already rank 0, but the site is not ranked yet at all (unranked). And the WP blog was done at least a week after the regular site. I kept hearing about it, but I guess it confirms for me as well, Google does like Wordpress blogs. A lot!

A peek behind the curtains at Niche Blogger and limited time free book

2008-12-17T09:21:00.000-08:00

I'm about 2 weeks in The Niche Blogger's group and I have to say I'm still very impressed. I wanted to put off giving a review after my first discovery, knowing how I am, becoming disillusioned and disappointed very fast after my initial enthusiasm. But I have to say, I love this site. OK let me break it down what all there is.

Amy's site is a membership site, and she has for every single day of (starting from September, I think, when she put up the site) a blog post, a lesson on how to progress, taking one step at a time. Just a few thing here, how to research and find a niche. And not just any niche, but a niche you can monetize. Pitfalls you encounter, how to go around them. What are the best domain names for blogging - and yes, they are different from getting domain names for authority sites. How to set up your first Wordpress blog, every single setting, option, plugin and widget that you need to install to start monetizing the site right away. Only the walk through in the WP jungle made it all worthwhile for me. Now, it's all a breeze...
How to SEO your blog, talks about social bookmarking, and about lots and lots of other stuff. I don't want to spill the beans here, but all these are just in the first month. And she's almost finishing now the 4th month.

This is a recipe which cannot fail. Well, unless you try to change it, and not follow it to the letter, or simply give it up.

The second major part of this site is her user forum, which is priceless. Members from newbies to seasonal to those that know what they're doing, are all there to help, to chat, giggle, share stories of success. Now if I found one forum which is purely driven by a desire to help, and very friendly, that's the one.

So this was the good stuff. Now onto the 'not so good stuff'.
The membership is set in two ways.

You either go month by month, paying for each month separately, in which case you have access to the month that you just subscribed for (plus all the past months), but cannot see in advance further months, until you get there with your membership. Now this caused me some frustration initially until I figured out what to do.

Which was...going for a lifetime membership, It's really worth it, because, well, I figured in one year I'd have paid the same amount month by month, and then I'd have to continue with payments to stay in. Whereas the lifetime membership is one time payment only. Plus you get instant access to all the work Amy has put in, all the weeks and months of information is open for you to access instantly.

I still suggest to go through the day by day plan and follow through, even if you're eager to see more (like I was), but at least if you're a bit more ahead of the very newbie stuff, you can proceed to some more advanced things.

One thing here, Amy is raising the membership with every 100 people, and folks are finding her site and registering like flies. Amy became very popular because she gives a down to earth, very reachable goal filled plan, which everybody can follow and get results. It's not a get fast rich scheme. How they say it, the turtle always wins the race?

And now, for reading through all my blabbering here, I'll give you two bonuses *grins*.

One is a peek in her site, which means you have access for 3 days to her first month of information. Which is a lot! And you can visit the forum as well. All payment is through Paypal, so you don't even have to inform Amy that you don't want to go ahead. Just go to your Paypal account and cancel your subscription. Simple as that. But I tell you what - once you get to her site, you won't, I promise you that :)
So where is that link to check out her site behind the curtains?
Here it is. Totally free to try it for 3 days. And if you join say a Friday, you have the whole weekend to read through everything before you need to cancel, because you have more time on your hands to read all the posts, and even make notes, than say during the week. And don't forget to go to the forum, it's free during all this time as well.

And the second bonus, here is Amy's Blogging Empire book, released for free. There are just a few copies of these, released to the members of her site, so grab it now while you can. Once she says the book is no longer available, I'll have to take it off the shelf as well.
Just unzip it, it's a pdf book inside.

IM goals for today - done!

2008-12-07T09:24:00.001-08:00

It's important to set goals for each day, because this way you can track your accomplishments and actually see the steps you are doing to succeed. Just put small goals for each day, but do not leave a day out if possible.

My goals for today:

- get feedback on my blog from the forum folk - done
- update my Adsense with all the url channels - done
- research about a new keyword for my niche and write and post 2 articles with them - done
- cloak all my affiliate links and change them on my conduit site and my niche blog accordingly - done

Now this last one was a major pain for me and I'm thrilled that I found a link cloaker on Amy's site, free for members to use.
And just two weeks ago I bought a cloaker for about #20, which is quite difficult to use, needs some heavy setting up, monitoring, whatnot. It's still zipped on my computer, that one. Amy's link cloaker works in ... 3 second - as fast as you can type :) Now having this tool in my arsenal already paid for being on Amy's site!

Update on my progress and goals

2008-12-07T02:23:00.001-08:00

What have I done so far since I started?

The two weeks since I started with IM were pretty unproductive, it was all about investing and learning.
There is a ton of free information on the web on learning internet marketing, however if you are as scattered as I am in goals, you need a strict plan.

One Week Marketing is a pretty good plan, and if you want to earn relatively fast cash, if you want to increase your extra earnings so you can pay for your next holiday, or buy your spouse that great birthday present, or simply have extra cash, this is perfect.

However I've realised that I'm in this for the long haul, and I need my own website and/or blog to work on. OWM is all about Squidoo and Squidoo is not mine. They might just up and go one day and all my hard work will be lost.

So here is my long time plan, a combination of 3 things I will be (and already started) using:

1. Chris's Conduit method. Now this is perfect for affiliate marketing. Why? Because is is VERY SIMPLE to set it up and to up and run with it. It's actually incredibly simple, without having to invest too much time into it. And without having to know pretty much anything about the product you're advertising. I'm seriously impressed with it. It's only $14.95 and using alone this program you're off to success.

2. Allan Gardyne's free 18 Steps Affiliate Program Tutorial. This is an IM manual in itself. It doesn't go deeply in stuff, however it's perfect for following your goals and achieving them, step by step. With this it is much more work than with Chris's Conduit method, however this is a full IM program suitable for those who want to take it from the beginning to the very end. Having read (yes, I did buy Chris's method) both programs, I find that they complement very nicely each other.

3. This is something that I am totally excited about! Amy's The Niche Blogger - Make Money Blogging Program. I've already enrolled and I'm amazed at what I found there. You are taken by the hand step by step while you learn to blog for money. And I mean big money. You are assumed to know nothing about blogging. And let me tell you something. If you are using blogspot (like this blog here), and you think you know what blogging where you can also earn money is, then you're completely mistaken. You are taught a new way of blogging using Wordpress. I've never used Wordpress in my life before, and I got a bit scared at the thought. But the program is laid down step by step, broke into tiny pieces. In less than one week I've set up my first WP blog, learned how to search for best profitable niches, implemented them on my blog, searched for good products to advertise and now I'm off and running submitting my site to search engines, rss sites, web 2 sites and more. Wow what a ride! And this is only the boring beginning. From what I've seen in the program, the fun stuff comes after!

Now I have to tell you that each of these methods in itself is a full method that if you follow through, you'll get results. Chris's conduit method works totally on its own without the need to blog. And it's faster. Amy's blogging way doesn't need Chris's method at all, since her program is about blogging and marketing it her way. And if you like to write, if you like blogging, this is perfect for you. But after having read Chris's conduit method, and being an active member on Amy's site, I see how well these two complement each other. I get the best of both worlds :)

And Allen's 18 steps (free online book, btw) is something that you need, no matter what, if you are a beginner at internet marketing and affiliate marketing in particular. There's just no way around it if you want to get the whole picture.

And the good thing about the One Week Marketing plan? Well it's pure gold even if it will not be my main program, simply because what I've learned from PotPieGirl about Squidoo and how to market there will put me ahead of the game when it comes to advertise my conduit site and my blogs. So I could actually add this program as #4 above, if I really think about...

What I've done so far?

2008-11-24T12:21:00.001-08:00

I've only started learning IM about 2 weeks ago. The first week I simply stumbled upon all sorts of pages, bought a lot of ebooks, some useful, some less so, but I'll consider all that spent money as IM learning fees.
I've purchased a one month membership to the Wealthy Affiliate site, a great internet marketing school, with an even greater forum. I'm still in the one month period. Not sure if I'll stick around. If I make sales in the meantime, then I'll purchase a one year membership. If not, then I'll come back later, when I can afford it.
I will be missing their great forum though, that I can say. And Travis' posts :)

Then I bought One Week Marketing by Potpiegirl, and this is when I decided that I will stick with it, learn everything I can about internet marketing, particularly affiliate marketing, and will become independantly wealthy. Big words? Maybe. But that's why my online diary, so I keep reminding myself of my goals. In 2 years I should be able to quit my job, and sustain myself from working for myself, not for others.
If there is a program that gave me hope and encouragement that I can do it, OWM (One Week Marketing) is the one. It is particularly suitable for folks like me, who are scattered all over the place, and cannot seem to keep it all together. Folks who want to learn everything, jump from one thing to another, get lost in reading endless forum posts on how to do this or that better, but never really get down to DO IT.
OWM offer a weekly plan, split day by day in manageable pieces and I will be following, at least at first, the program.
There is a lot of crap out there if you want to learn affiliate marketing, but OWM is not one of them. It's the genuine thing.
My next posts will be tracking my progress through learning IM based on OWM's lessons.

Why the need for this blog?

2008-11-24T12:13:00.001-08:00

I am working in the corporate business, as a sales/marketing executive (whatever that is), and I hate not being able to work for myself. That's the truth, pure and simple. So I've decided to start out on my own. However, I've come to realise that with jewelry (my main hobby so far) it's not an easy task. Sales are steady but slow, and following that rate, I will retire before I really fly off the ground.

So I've decided to learn internet marketing. The internet is expanding, exponentially at that, and selling online is something that can be done quite easily. Ok, not as easily as I first thought when I looked at it all, about two weeks ago, but easily enough, that if you have some brains, and stay with the program, you can make it. Easier than sitting at your desk for hours making a piece of jewelry which you can sell for, say, 25 Euros. Making jewelry will always be my main hobby, but in the meantime, I've decided that within 2 years, I will quit the corporate world, and work for myself.
And I will use IM, particularly affiliate marketing, for it.

So this blog will be my progress, as often as I can update it, of me learning IM, hopefully making my first sale, and many more to come.