Once upon a time, I was a newbie – a broke newbie at that. I absolutely absorbed any and all free information I could get my hands on. I was on tons of lists in hopes that they would each give me one more little piece of the internet marketing puzzle so it would all start to work for me. There was one list in particular that I LOVED (and still do), but suddenly, that list owner started to push Wealthy Affiliate and I started to lose interest in their emails. So now, I imagine YOU are wondering why *I* promote Wealthy Affiliate. Fair question… and one I’d like to talk about today.

It’s a Jungle Out There

Learning internet marketing, especially the way *I* went about it at first, is tough. It’s a jungle out there full of shiny things, “get rich quick” offers, and lots of bad information. When I first started trying to learn, I would sign up for any list that even hinted at giving some of that good information away.

Inevitably, the list owner would try and sell me something – and that’s ok, I know that’s how this all works. Besides, who here wants to work for free? Yes, giving things away and helping people is GREAT…that is super important to me, it gives me a nice “warm fuzzy” feeling that lets me know I am living my life on the right path for me.

However, I can’t recall the last time our mortgage company would accept a “Warm Fuzzy” as payment!

(makes me think of that gum commercial where the guy offers to pay the babysitter in gum….I’m not thinking my mortgage company would be near as excited as that babysitter was…lol!)

But – when you don’t have the money to buy some of the answers, it is FRUSTRATING. That feeling of “If I only had money, I could figure all this out” gets stuck in your gut – and it kinda hurts.

It starts this whole cycle of – “I don’t have money, I’m trying to learn HOW to make money, but I don’t have the money to learn – why can’t someone just tell me FOR FREE and STOP asking me to buy stuff?!?!?”

Oh, I’ve been there….yes I have.

So back on topic – this particular list owner started in with the Wealthy Affiliate thing – and I became disenchanted. Thankfully, I kept reading the emails from this list owner, but I still couldn’t hear what they were trying to tell me. Finally, one day in July 2008, I got it – and I joined WA.

I struggled with the decision of whether or not to pay $39 a month for that membership – really struggled. Now, in hindsight, I’m SO glad I chose to make the choice to give it a try and see what it was all about.

I was an active member of Wealthy Affiliate for about 8 months before I said anything about WA here on my blog.

Why?

Because I wanted to be sure of what it was all about. I wanted to know that *I* would choose to stay and be an ACTIVE member in that community and that *I* found real value in the tools and training.

Promoting something just for the sake of an income stream is not how I wanted PotPieGirl.com to be – or to be seen.

I believe in Wealthy Affiliate – I am proud to be a member of WA, too. If that changes, you can be sure I’ll speak up.

I also know deep inside that when someone is new to internet marketing, or is ready to take their efforts to the next level, that WA is a GREAT place to be.

Let’s Break This Down

Let’s break this down a little. There are a lot of great products and great tools out there that can make your online efforts better.

Each month, I could tell you about one product or one tool that can help you – and good stuff, too. And many people would be out there buying ONE piece of the puzzle and spending $30, $40, $50 and more each month for that ONE PIECE…

Or…

They can get a LOT of the pieces (if not MOST of the pieces) for $39 each month (tools, training, services, AND the community).

Do I make money off of it? Yes, I do – I’d make money whether someone opted to get the single piece of the puzzle each month thru me or if they opted to join Wealthy Affiliate thru me.

It doesn’t make sense to me to offer one piece of the puzzle at a time – even if *I* make MORE doing it that way – than recommending a complete package that I believe in AND participate in.

And that’s the thing, I don’t just PROMOTE Wealthy Affiliate, I RECOMMEND it.

I recently came back from a trip to Vegas with Wealthy Affiliate. Yup, it was a great time – yup, it was cool to be spoiled – yup, it’s awesome to be able to say I was honored with an invitation for that trip AND to sit around a table with some I consider to be OUTSTANDING marketers (and people).

The BEST part of my trip to Vegas was being able to sit down, face-to-face, with the owners of WA (Kyle and Carson). I got to speak with them and hear from them what they are trying to accomplish with WA – what their visions are – what they hope to achieve – and that had a huge impact on me. Their values are very much in line with what *I* want to achieve online.

They were also very much about helping me better ME – Not just how I can promote them better, but helping me be better with my online marketing and improving my results.

That meeting in Vegas could have turned out to be one big “YAY, Wealthy Affiliate!” pep rally-type thing, but it didn’t. It WAS about making each of us better in this industry as a whole. Kyle and Carson give like crazy – their site is massively under-priced – but they want it that way. They want what they offer to be attainable to anyone who needs it.

Is Wealthy Affiliate Right For EVERYONE?

No, Wealthy Affiliate is not right for everyone. I’d be hard-pressed to come up with a learning/tools community that IS right for EVERYONE. We all learn differently and have different goals. All I know is that I chose the Wealthy Affiliate path – and have no intention of coming off that path. It was – and IS – right for me.

There are also readers here that HAVE been Wealthy Affiliate members – and they hated it. Some may have even had a bad experience with WA. I’m sorry it went that way, and I can understand why you don’t like me talking about it.

Others have joined and then quit because they didn’t feel it was the right place for THEM. That’s great, in my opinion, you tried it and it wasn’t what YOU needed. You didn’t base your decision off what others said (including ME), you made the best decision for yourself based off your own experience.

My goal is for each of you to be able make the best choices for YOUR online business and for YOU that you can. Internet Marketing is a strange little industry. You really can’t take the word of what others say about tools and services – you need to try them yourself.

My Video From Las Vegas

I made a video while I was in Vegas. I’m not big on the “getting in front of the camera and talking” thing, but something moved me while we were there that last day that compelled me to do it.

Many of you might know that I love to play tournament-style Texas Hold ‘Em poker (like what they play in the Main Event in the WSOP – World Series of Poker). Now, there are all kinds of poker to be played, but tournament-style (like the Main Event) is playing until one person has all the chips. It’s very challenging – involves a good bit of skill and the ability to read people.

Anyway, Binion’s HorseShoe in old, downtown Vegas is where the WSOP originated. Downtown Vegas is not NEARLY as “shiny” and glitzy as The Strip in Vegas (where we stayed) – but I love going down there. It’s rich in history and a bit more “real” for my taste (if you can call Las Vegas “real”…lol).

So, our last day there, we went down to old Vegas. Through-out our trip, we talked to many dealers, servers, hotel employees, cab drivers, etc and we kept hearing a recurring theme that had to do with the economy and how badly it was hurting Vegas – and hurting the very real people that count on Las Vegas to make their living and support their families.

When we got to “old” Vegas, it all really slapped me in the face how BAD things are. I saw WAY too many people working that should be retired. I saw WAY too many “things to do” in Vegas with very few people doing them (not just gambling, but restaurants, attractions, etc).

Then, I walked into one well-known place for me that we have been before – and I could really see in a large scale what was happening. The room was EMPTY – abandoned. The emptiness I show in this video is not just a lack of customers – it also represents a LOT of people that are without jobs.

There are so many people working that should be retired and so many more people that also need to work, but they can’t GET a job.

And that is not just Las Vegas – that is the state of my country.

And *I* had just spent a spoiled week in Vegas because of the blessings internet marketing has given me – and I suddenly became very moved and very THANKFUL to be a part of Wealthy Affiliate.

Now, just a note: I am a goober. Seriously…. I’m an odd bird at times…lol! But this video might lag here and there when you watch -and it makes me appear to be an even BIGGER goober. I’m also not used to being in front of the camera and I think it shows.

However, I’m posting this video anyway – maybe someone can hear my message.

By the way, if you are already a Wealthy Affiliate member, Kyle and Carson just posted more videos from our Vegas trip. Those videos and a trip summary are here.

To sum up – when you believe in something and are thankful for the value it added to YOUR life, you talk about it – you can’t help it.

I know there are some that read here that don’t like me talking about it. In fact, thank you for mentioning it in comments on yesterday’s post because it helped me remember that I wanted to do a post on this very topic. THANK YOU!

I know I can’t please everyone – hard as I try, I just can’t. However, I can talk about what I believe to be good things for others to check out and try out for themselves. I believe in Wealthy Affiliate, so I talk about it.

Will Wealthy Affiliate Work For YOU?

I sure hope Wealthy Affiliate works for you, but obviously, I can’t guarantee a thing regarding your online business. As I’ve said many, many times – there is no “get rich quick” available out there. This is a business that takes work and constant action (not much different from any other business).

Wealthy Affiliate is NOT a “magic pill” – you get out of it what you put into it (again, like any other business or education situation).

So I don’t know if WA will work for you. The only way YOU can know is by taking a chance on Wealthy Affiliate and finding out for yourself.

Ok, that’s enough about that =)

Other Stuff

Wow, yesterday’s post sure got a LOT of insightful feedback – 200+ comments in less than 24 hours….Wow, thank you! Please, if you’d like to comment on that post, be sure to leave that comment ON that post. I’d like to leave that topic there and move on.

Otherwise, we are headed out for Oregon early Thursday morning. This trip is for my hubby’s new business – and we are both so excited! Also, I’ve never been to Oregon before so I am looking forward to the trip as a whole.

Once we get back, I’ll be off to work on the website and promotion of his new business so I might be quiet for awhile (IF I am CAPABLE of being quiet….lol), but I’ll still be around.

Other than that, I hope everyone knows I have a new, FREE, online course out. I worked many long nights on it and it seems to be really helping people. It’s called The DAM Way – and it’s specifically written for those brand new to internet marketing, those that have very little time, and/or those that can’t seem to get started.

If that’s you, you can read The DAM Way at thedamway.com.

Finally I want to say that you all are a GREAT bunch of people and I appreciate all of you very much!

Post from: PotPieGirl.com

When I Was a Newbie

An interesting, and somewhat painful, situation happened on a fellow marketers blog recently. A comment was made about me by a blog reader that was uh…not so nice. The situation sparked conversation and a follow up post from the blog owner. In my opinion, the conversation and opinions were very interesting and it got me to thinking whether we, as blog owners, should censor the comments that come through our blogs.

Censoring? Or Free Speech?

As US citizens, we are granted the right to free speech in a public forum. Now, we don’t have the right to scream, “FIRE!” in a public area when there is NOT a fire, but we do have the right to state our opinions and beliefs.

But is a personal blog a “public forum”?

Let me back up and give you the short version of what happened.

An excellent and well-respected marketer was doing a multi-part review of One Week Marketing on her blog. This marketer did this review on her own free-will. She did not contact me before doing it or while she was doing it. She bought the course and spent days with her readers as she worked her way through it. She and I both made some sales as a result of her review and many people who had felt lost with OWM actually went back to it to try again. All in all, it was a good review series that contained very valuable feedback and constructive criticism for me that I listened to.

However, in her “final decision” post, a comment was made by a blog reader that really, really teetered as being a personal attack on me.

This lead to some controversy. The blog owner then went on to make a follow-up post about a reader she had that chose to remove himself from all the blog owners lists because she chose to allow that comment about me to be approved and posted on her blog. The blog owner then went into great detail about her comment policy for her own blog and a great conversation in the comments began. In short, the blog owners policy for comments is that she does not censor unless she considers the post to be “racist or threatening” (or spam…lol).

Here is a quote from her post regarding this situation and her blog comment policy:

If I did NOT allow Dorothy to have her say on what her personal experience was, THEN I would be an unethical marketer. If I filtered what my subscribers experiences were, THAT would be wrong of me. THAT would make me the kind of marketer who makes things look great through rose colored glasses in hopes that you would click on my link and buy her OWM product.

Not a great situation – no real “right” or “wrong” here, but I’m telling ya, I totally respect the transparency in which this blog owner handled this situation. And, yes, I also really appreciate someone being that loyal to ME. It felt nice to know that someone felt deeply that what they read wasn’t “right” in their opinion.

That said, the reader who did the un-subscribing emailed me and told me about the situation and his reasons for doing what he did. I emailed him back and thanked him…and of course, added my 2 cents about the situation.

I’d like to show you my response now so I am also transparent on the situation. However, I will not be showing the original email sent to me (not my right to post someone’s private email to me without permission), but I will say it was very well-written, stated his reasons for his actions, and did not attack anyone personally.

Ok, here is a screen shot of my response email (with personal details removed):

So, this all brings me back to this question…

Should We Censor Blog Comments?

I do believe this is a judgment call. Your personal blog – your personal choice. To me, my blog is like my home – it’s not a forum. Heck, ask my kids what I say about our home. I’m always saying, “This is NOT a democracy!”…..lol! And it’s not. We don’t elect who makes the rules around here – Mom makes ‘em (and sometimes Mom lets Dad make some, too! haha! Just kidding!)

My point is that my home is not a public forum – and neither is my blog.

I won’t allow someone to USE my blog as a platform to personally attack another human being. Besides, as Angela pointed out in a comment on the post in question, by me POSTING that personal attack, couldn’t it make me somewhat liable legally? That content is on MY site after all.

BUT – those are all MY thoughts and MY policy for MY blog.

Now, the comment in question, while a bit “bitter”, did have some “constructive” feedback and comments. I can handle bad – I can handle someone not having nice things to say about my product. That was all part of the conversation that was going on.

However, when words like “sheep”, “wannabe”, and “poser” come in to play in reference to me PERSONALLY – well, now we’re treading on thin ice…. and it’s a thin line, isn’t it?

It can be a very thin line when trying to decide if someone’s somewhat hateful comments are actually offering valuable feedback that contributes to the conversation – or if someone was just using you and your blog to spark controversy and get their bitter feelings out in the public.

I don’t envy the decision that had to be made there – not at all.

What Do YOU Think?

I’m about to point you to where the original comment in question is and where the follow up post is, but before I do…

I am asking – no, I am BEGGING each of you to PLEASE not get personal if you choose to comment about this situation (either here on the other blog). PLEASE DON’T. This is not High School. We are all grown-ups and professionals so please let’s be respectful and behave that way when adding to the conversation. THANK YOU.

Whether we are marketers or readers, we are all people with feelings and families. Heck, it was my husband who found that comment about me – and I’m not gonna lie, IT STUNG. I work hard to help others and to NOT be like “all the other gurus”…and yes, I do try to make some money along the way. But I’m a big girl and I can handle this personally. So please don’t post personal attacks about another human being. I won’t post them. It kills me to think that someone’s loved one or friend could read something nasty and personal about someone they care about on my blog. I won’t take part in that.

If you want to do things like that, you’ll need to get your own blog

Alrighty, here is the final review post where the comment in question was made (down in the comments section by someone named “Dorothy”):

http://www.tiffanydow.com/blog/main/final-one-week-marketing-decision

And here is Tiffany’s follow up post regarding her comment policy and the situation at hand:

http://www.tiffanydow.com/blog/main/i-dont-censor-my-subscribers-sorry

To Tiffany, I’d like to say – ‘Girl, I don’t envy you ONE BIT over that situation. You just stick to what YOU believe in – You are doing great things for people!’

Ok, now, I want to hear what you all think about this. Do you think blog owners should censor their comments? Do you feel your blog is a public forum? I don’t care if you agree with me or not…. let me have it!

Post from: PotPieGirl.com

Should We Censor Blog Comments?

If I’ve been asked once, I’ve been asked a thousand times – “Jennifer, How do you make money on Google?”. When I first started making money online, no one really paid much attention to what I was doing (or they thought it was a scam…or it wouldn’t work…etc, etc), but now that things are really kickin’ for me and we have enjoyed a serious positive life-style change, suddenly people want to know what I do, how it works, and how they can make money on Google, too. So, I decided it is time for this post to explain the basics of how I make money on Google for free.

Table Of Contents

Below are “quick links” to the info on this page about how to make money on Google:

2 Main Ways to Make Money On Google

There are two main ways to make money on Google. One is free, the other is not.

If you’ve ever done a search on Google you may have noticed two main parts to page that is returned to you after you click “search”. Let’s take a look at that page so I can show you what you’re looking at.

As I noted in the above picture of a Google search for the phrase make money online, there are two main/basic parts of a Google search result page (also called the Google SERPs which stands for Search Engine Result Pages).

The Left Side

The listings that are returned on the left side are the free side of a Google search result page. These web pages (not webSITES, but web PAGES) are returned in an order based on how relevant Google thinks they are to a search that is requested.

The process of making your web page more relevant to a search in Googles “eyes” is called Search Engine Optimization (or SEO for short). The basics of SEO are fairly simple and straight-forward to learn and to implement.

Keep in mind that Google is an algorithm….a computer program…that runs on a patented formula to rank pages in order of relevance based on what Google thinks a web page is about. Your job when you optimize a page is to help Google understand what your web page is about so Google can rank you well in the search engine result pages.

If you consider the fact that about 80% (or more) of the world uses Google to find things online, you can bet that being in the top 5 places on the free side (also called the “organic listings”) of Google can bring good traffic to your web page. It has been reported that a web page with a #1 listing in a Google search result will get 40% of the clicks for that specific search.

Based on that, it is pretty amazing to think that 80% or more of the WORLD that is looking for a certain something in Google will click that #1 listing – and if it’s YOUR web page there….well, that’s a really, really good thing =)

The Right Side

The Right Side of a Google search result is paid advertising. These are advertisers who deliberately create ads that will only show up when a certain phrase is searched for on Google. These ads are charged each time they are clicked. How much they are charged can range from 5 cents all the way to $10 -$15 or even more. The amount is decided based on the competition of the phrase being searched for (that phrase is also called a “keyword” or a “keyword phrase”).

This type of advertising on Google is called PPC (or Pay Per Click) and Google’s program for this is called AdWords. PPC is a whole ‘nother can of worms that I am not going to get into today.

What I want to talk about is how to make money on Google for FREE.

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How To Make Money On Google For Free – The Basic Concept

Here is the short version of how this all works – or at least as short as I can make it…lol.

The majority of people who make money on Google for free are doing something called “affiliate marketing”. Affiliate marketing is similar to a “real job” in the sales industry where you are paid a commission when you sell something for a company.

Being an “affiliate” for an online company like Amazon.com is completely free to do. There are HUNDREDS, if not THOUSANDS of companies that will allow you to be an affiliate for them for absolutely no cost.

Once you sign up to become an affiliate with a company online, you will be given special links that you put on your web page. These links are coded so that is someone clicks those links, the users activity is tracked and if a sale is made, the commission goes to you.

Commission amounts can be anywhere from 4% of the purchase price all the way to 75% or more (the higher commissions are usually for things like ebooks – digital products). People buy all kinds of things online – and each year their online spending increases. Believe it or not, I have actually sold gas grills, furniture, and other things online as an affiliate.

In order to be an affiliate and make money on Google for free, you will need to use sites that allow you to make free web pages. There are many sites like that out there on the internet. Just always make sure that the site you want to use allows “affiliate links” so you don’t break any terms of service.

So that’s the short of it – you make a free web page, put your free affiliate link on it along with some great content (a good article….not a sales pitch), then – repeat and make another.

The concept is simple, but people tend to really complicate it.

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What You MUST Have To Make Money On Google For Free

Want to know what you MUST have in order to make money on Google for free? Ready?

Yup, that’s it….and for most of us, we already have those two things so why not make them work for YOU?

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How I Started Making Money On Google For Free

When I started trying to make money online I was pretty much broke. I had no money to invest into making my own web sites or to pay for PPC advertising so I had to find a way to use all free resources to bring money in.

I ended up using a site called Squidoo (squidoo.com). This site allows you to make a free web page (or hundreds of free web pages) on just about any topic you’d like. Now, they do have rules so be SURE to read their terms of service before making a page to be certain that you aren’t going to break one of their rules.

Squidoo calls their free web pages a “lens”. Think like the lens on a camera….how it will focus in on one very specific topic. That’s how a Squidoo lens web page works best, too. A Squidoo page will do best when it is about one very specific topic or product. For example, a lens will do best when it is about purple rhinestone dog collars as opposed to dog collars or dog products or worse… about dogs in general.

When I started out, I would make a free page (a lens) about a specific product or topic and put my free affiliate links on it. When people came to my lens, clicked my links, and then made a purchase, I made a commission. I made a LOT of these free web pages on all sorts of topics.

Here is an example of a basic Squidoo lens (web page) that I have – go ahead and click here to see it (it will open in a new window) It is about Vizio TV’s. The links on that page are my affiliate links. When someone comes to that page, clicks thru via my links, and buys something, I make a commission.

Go ahead, take a good long look at it. It’s doesn’t LOOK difficult, does it? That’s because it’s not.

Keep in mind that ONE free web page will most likely not make you rich overnight. However, a bunch of free web pages mixed with some time can make a very definite positive impact on your income.

If you like having extra money, this is a great FREE way to make money on Google from the comfort of your home when YOU have time to work on it. Plus, once the web pages are up and in Google, those pages will work FOR you even when you are not working. That whole “make money while you sleep” thing is very real IF you work it.

I have a free guide that walks you through the process of making a web page on Squidoo that has helped a lot of people get started. If you’d like to read it, you can get my free Squidoo guide here (just click – it will open in a new tab/window so you don’t lose your place here).

Over time, my free web pages on Squidoo were making me some nice extra money so I decided to amp up my efforts and turn it into a full-time income. It was the best decision I ever made.

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What To Watch Out For

As I’ve just explained, making money on Google can be totally free. However, that doesn’t mean there aren’t some “make money on Google” sites out there that want to charge you for their information. While not all of these sites and systems are bad, there are definitely some “bad apples” out there so be careful.

Before you pay for any “make money on Google” type program, be sure you know WHAT you are getting, how much you will be charged, and how OFTEN you will be charged. I’ve heard of some horrible situations from my readers where they signed up for some program and were getting charged ridiculous amounts each month – and had to go thru hell and high water to get the charges to stop. Naturally, those details were somewhere at the bottom of the site in very small, and very light, print….so be sure to read.

As with all things, if it sounds too good to be true…. well, just trust your instinct. Or, join an online marketing forum and ask others their opinion and feedback. Trust me, if there is negative, they’ll tell you =)

I know what I am showing now about making money on Google might just sound too good to be true, but at least it’s free to try it and find out for yourself.

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Where To Learn More About Making Money On Google

As I said, I started out the free way doing what I teach in my free Squidoo guide. Once I got that rolling, I wanted to learn how to make really great free web pages that did better in Google….and better for ME. That’s when I really kicked it in to learn how to better my efforts and started plowing thru the internet for little tips and advice. I slowly worked out a system that works awesome for me. My readers here at PotPieGirl.com wanted to know how I was doing it – they actually TOLD me to get it all in an ebook and sell it – so I did. That process is now a series of 5 ebooks that is called One Week Marketing.

Now, if you are TOTALLY new to all this, don’t go buying One Week Marketing yet – it will totally confuse you. Get your basics first with my free Squidoo guide….see if it’s something you’d like to continue doing and do better….THEN think about One Week Marketing.

After getting my One Week Marketing Action Plan working for me, I wanted to learn more about all the ways to make money online so I joined an affiliate marketing training site called Wealthy Affiliate University. It was also a great decision for me and really helped me accelerate my success online.

Wealthy Affiliate can teach all about free ways to make money online, PPC, making your own web sites, creating your own products, and so on and so on. They also have all the tools you need to get each type of technique rolling.

The best part tho, to me, is the forum. Whenever you have a question, you just post in their private forum and there are hundreds or more people in there who can answer you.

That forum has been a “sanity-saver” for me many, many times!

There are also tons of member-shared tutorials in WA. I have many tutorials in there that I only share with other Wealthy Affiliate members. For example, that example Vizio TV lens I showed you earlier (click here in case you didn’t see it ) – I have a complete step-by-step tutorial inside Wealthy Affiliate that shows exactly how I made it. It’s in the training resources section and it’s titled “Fast Action Quick Start” (not to brag, but it’s currently the #1 rated tutorial. Ok, I guess that WAS bragging….lol!)

It’s funny to me now, but a year and a half ago when I was trying to decide if I should join Wealthy Affiliate or not, it was a really tough decision. Everything they have is included for a whopping $39.99 a month – that’s just a little over $1 a day! Now, I can’t believe I hesitated for even a second – it was the best decision I’ve made to help me turn my part-time online income into a real live full-time online business that I run from the comfort of my own home (and many times in the comfort of my own pajamas too! lol).

I have met the two owners of Wealthy Affiliate, Kyle and Carson, face-to-face. They are the real deal. That entire community is founded on their solid integrity and principles. They both started with nothing like I did, and now are very successful internet marketers. They could charge SO much more for all they offer, but they want to keep the rate in reach for everyone. Wealthy Affiliate is changing peoples lives – I see it in there every single day.

I recommend keeping Wealthy Affiliate in your mind as you move along with making money on Google – or just click here to learn more about their community, training, supports, and tools. They also offer a free guide that is definitely worth the read.

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Summing Up

Ok, that’s my “quick” overview of how to make money on Google for free. Well, maybe not so quick- it’s about 2500 words or so – but I felt it was important to explain the basics of what I do the very best that I can (and hopefully not confuse the heck out of anyone).

I’ve been doing this for over 3 years now – and I LOVE it! I started out not knowing much more about the internet than the basic skills that are needed to send an email – things most people know these days. However, by sticking with it, taking action every day, and working hard, I have managed to turn this into an income that I have never made before in any “real job”.

Best part of all – *I* am my own boss.

I decide when I hang with the kids or my hubby, when we go on vacation (which we do a LOT more of these days), and when I work. It’s also kinda cool having a business you can run from anywhere you have internet connection – the beach, your couch….anywhere. There is no more stress and struggle over bills, or holidays, and as a former broke single mom I can tell you that I won’t go back to living that stressful broke life ever again – not ever.

Now, don’t misunderstand me, this all did not happen overnight, but this is something that over time, will snowball and potentially become the best income YOU ever made, too.

I wish I could promise that, but we all know I can’t. The biggest determining factor in your success is YOU. You are starting your own business and just like in the real world – you only get out of it what YOU put into it.

If you have any questions, please ask here in the comments section. While I tend to be extremely busy these days, I do the best I can to balance my time and help as many as I possibly can.

Best of luck to you!

Jennifer
~PotPieGirl

Post from: PotPieGirl.com

How To Make Money On Google

I just got home from a week in Las Vegas for the private Wealthy Affiliate Super Affiliate Conference. If I had to sum up the entire experience in one word, it would be “WOW!” Can you imagine sitting in a posh luxury suite table with some of the most talented and successful internet marketers in the world? Can you imagine how humbling it is to look around that table of select marketers and realize that YOU were invited to sit there, too? I’m still suffering from a severe case of “shock ‘n awe”! lol!

A Brief Summary of My Week In Vegas

I have so much to share about my trip….videos and pictures to upload…..tons of thoughts and details to download from my brain and get on my computer…it’s almost overwhelming. The entire experience was….well, pardon the “hypey” way of putting this, but it was life-changing. Kyle and Carson (the owners of Wealthy Affiliate) absolutely went above and beyond for the group of us. Thing is, not only did they spoil us beyond reason, they also once again proved to me that they are completely involved and dedicated to my personal success online. Yet another example that those that give more DO make more money online.

In short, the entire conference I was surrounded by others who have found great success online by giving as much as they can. What’s the saying? “Your success is a direct reflection of the number of lives you have touched”? I think that’s it…if not, I’ll look it up to find the exact wording.

For a conference, it was a small group of people. I’ve been to other conferences and usually we’re talking hundreds of people who are being spoken to by any given speaker. Of course, those conferences are a great learning experience, too, but this private Super Affiliate conference was something of a different breed all-together.

While most conference-style events are usually a one-sided presentation type thing… the Super Affiliate conference with Kyle and Carson was a conversation. It was more of a “meeting of the minds” thing as opposed to a “meet the mind” event.

That spoke volumes to me.

I love to learn and love listening to people talk “at me” about their techniques and experiences. But when two VERY successful internet marketers, who also started with nothing, want to talk WITH me about techniques and experiences….well, that’s a whole ‘nother ballgame. Add in a small group of other VERY successful internet marketers to the conversation and it’s just plain ol’ AWESOME.

If Kyle and Carson didn’t keep some sort of structure to our meetings, we would all still be sitting there a week from now….or longer!

The cool thing is that each of us brought something a little different to the table so we could all add to each others ideas and thoughts. Just proof-positive that Wealthy Affiliate can crank out some very successful internet marketers who each attack the business from different angles.

What REALLY Shocked Me

Know what REALLY shocked me? When these other fantastic marketers came up to me and said it was an honor to meet ME.

ME?!?!

Now I will brag a little and mention that not only am I the first woman to qualify for this yearly WA private conference – I’m the only woman to ever qualify (so far….but I sure hope to change that!). But c’mon, I’m still just little ol’ me….lol!

Quite a few of these other marketers who qualified to attend are “under the radar” type marketers. They aren’t as uhhhhhhh……as out-spoken and chatty as I am online….lol. But if you want me to name-drop, I’ll pick one name that I bet the majority of you know of.

Ever heard of Bum Marketing? Ever heard of Travis that wrote Bum Marketing? Yup….he was there..and I have the pictures to prove it too =) I’m here to tell you that he is just as nice (if not nicer) than he comes across online.

Let me ask you… if you just spent time hanging out in Las Vegas….in a luxury 2-story suite….sharing meals…seeing a show…riding in a limo…chatting and exchanging ideas….wouldn’t YOU be in a bit of “shock ‘n awe” too?

But wait…. it gets even better…

My “Blonde” Moment

First off, my apologies to my blonde friends – no offense intended – but I had a total “blonde moment” while at the conference.

On Tuesday, I had my private meeting with Kyle and Carson (and yes, they DO exist…lol). This meeting was just the three of us sitting at the table in their fabulous suite.

Know what they wanted to talk about? They wanted to help me with MY business. They didn’t want to talk about how I could make THEM more money….they simply wanted to help ME make more and be more successful.

I was totally unprepared for that meeting.

I was expecting them to want to talk about me and Wealthy Affiliate. Nope… I was wrong. They wanted to talk about me and MY business. As they started talking with me I found myself sitting there thinking, “Get outta here! Is this a joke? Every conference has a pitch…where’s the pitch?!??!”

There wasn’t a pitch. No hidden agenda at all. I got to look those two successful young men in the eyes and see what I have always suspected about them. They are givers who do as much as they can for as many people as they can for the least amount of investment possible.

If you’re on the Wealthy Affiliate mailing list (either as a member or a non-member) have you ever noticed – EVER noticed – Kyle and Carson pimping any other product? No, you haven’t. They are completely confident that they have all the training and resources inside Wealthy Affiliate that you need to be successful online. You don’t NEED anything else.

When those two say, “Your success is OUR success” – they mean it. That’s why I’m part of their community and it’s been why I have always recommended Wealthy Affiliate for anyone who wants to accelerate their success online. My experience in Vegas has now doubly confirmed my feelings about that.

Oh, wait… I got off track. I was about to tell you about my “blonde moment”…sorry!

Ok, so I had that private meeting with Kyle and Carson. It was so good and really helped me a lot. Got me thinking about a lot of things that suddenly made so much sense after hearing it from another point of view from 2 people who had been exactly where I am now.

As I left the suite to the super-private elevator to take me down to the “real world” (if you can call the MGM Grand in Las Vegas the “real world”….lol). I got in the elevator and was totally lost in thought. The only way I can describe it is as a bunch of “lightbulb” moments hitting me all at one time.

Suddenly I realized that I’d been in that elevator forever. I know I was wayyyyyy at the top of that huge building but surely it didn’t take that long to get back down – at least it never had before.

That’s when I realized that I never pushed the button to take me somewhere in that elevator.

I just got in, the doors closed and then I stood there lost in thought.

I bet the security guy in charge of watching the elevator cameras was laughing his butt off at me! I know *I* am still laughing about it!

More Details About Vegas Coming Soon

That’s about it for tonight. It’s almost 1 am and I am wiped out from the past week. I need a vacation from my vacation so I guess it’s time to get back to work!

As I mentioned earlier, I have pictures and videos to share as well as more details from in my little pea brain that I’d like to share (and that I’m allowed to share).

I actually did my very first “sit down in front of the camera and talk” video on our last day in Vegas. I don’t consider myself a shy person, but I’ve never been a video type person before – but something happened on that last day that gave me the strongest drive to make a video and talk about it.

Oddly, making videos is much easier than I thought it would be especially when it comes from the heart and is unscripted.

So anyway, I’ll share that with everyone, too. Not sure how I’m gonna put ALLLLL this stuff together, but I’ll figure something out. Right now, my brain says it’s tired and I need to leave it to rest for a bit.

Perhaps I’ll avoid MORE “blonde moments” if I do just that! lol!

If there is anything specific you’d like to know about the Wealthy Affiliate Vegas Conference, just ask. If I’m allowed to answer, I will, but please keep in mind that this was called a “private” conference for a reason. It wouldn’t be cool of me to share things from other marketers that might be sensitive.

So ask away! I love the conversations in my blog post comments – they are WAY better than the actual posts!

Otherwise, just hang in there and I’ll let everyone know when more details, photos, and videos of the Vegas Trip are available. If you aren’t familiar with Wealthy Affiliate or haven’t gotten their free Internet Wealth Guide, you can check all that out by clicking here.

Post from: PotPieGirl.com

Back From Vegas

As many of you know, I started internet marketing in early 2007. For the first few months to almost a year, I was doing it wrong. I thought, “I am an internet MARKETER now. Marketers sell – so I must SELL”. And as much as I detested the “salesperson” concept, I went about trying to SELL online. It wasn’t pretty, but little did I know how wrong I was. I came across a post today that made me think back to this crucial lightbulb moment in my online marketing career and what a difference it made for me both personally – and professionally.

FlashBack to 2007

This little blog of mine started out in 2007 as a free blog on Blogger.com. Every single post was designed to sell and to GET. Needless to say, it wasn’t working and I was clueless as to what was wrong. Not only did I not get what was wrong from a financial standpoint, I also was troubled about how I felt personally. Being a pushy salesperson was never my thing. I never respected that and I didn’t like feeling like that, either.

Then it hit me – I didn’t BUY from that, either!

I have never in my life bought something from someone who was shoving the product in my face – why was I thinking it was going to be any different when *I* was the salesperson?

So, in January 2008 I made two major – and business changing – decisions.

1 – I was moving my blog to my own WordPress site on my own hosting account, and 2. I was going to stop selling and start giving and sharing as much as I could about as much as I knew at that time.

A Question For You

Let me ask you something…. If you and another person are headed for a door at the same time, but you got there first – would you hold open the door for that other person?

If so, would you expect ANYTHING in return for opening that door for them?

Is that just one of those little things you do each day as a random act of kindness that make you happy to be you?

See, that’s me… that’s how I am. Trying to become a pushy salesperson just was NOT me. Not only did it not work for me, it also did not feel good.

Opening doors for people DOES feel good for me.

And that is exactly what PotPieGirl.com became – a place where hopefully, the door to low-cost internet marketing skills and advice is opened. I set out to better myself and increase my knowledge so I could help open as many doors as I could. After all, you can’t give what you don’t have, right? That goes for knowledge and experience, too.

Funny thing is, I didn’t know there was a name for what I was doing or for how I am, but after today, reading a certain blog post, I realize there is.

I Am A Go-Giver

Apparently, I am a go-giver. It’s a whole mentality for life – not just business. But let me tell you, giving online DOES really, really help your online business results in a BIG way.

Overnight? No – don’t be silly….lol. But I’ll tell you this – if YOU are feeling crappy about the way you are putting your content out there and feeling like you are just another one of “them” online…..changing into a go-giver WILL make you feel MUCH better overnight!

As I wrote in the comments of the blog post I read today (I’ll link out to it in a minute…hold your horses…lol), I think the biggest roadblock people have with being a “go-giver” online is this:

giver = get taken advantage of

Don’t be afraid to give. But if your sole reason for giving is just to GET, you might have a hard time.

About Being a Go-Giver

The Go-Giver concept comes from this book – The Go Giver (go ahead and look. That’s a link over to the book on Amazon and it will open in a new window) which has been followed by another book titled Go-Givers Sell More.

I just ordered them both tonight after listening to an interview between Justin Brooke and Bob Burg (co-author of Go-Givers Sell More). It was really, really good – and I’d like to send you there to read Justin’s post and listen to the interview recording.

Justin’s Go-Getter post and interview with Bob Burg is here.

Take a few minutes and listen to it – check out the books – these are the types of things that really make YOU better (online AND offline).

Tell me what you think – do givers make more money? What did you think of the interview with Bob Burg? Have you read the book, or like me, just ordered it?

Let me know!

Giving via your content online as an affiliate marketer is really tough to teach. Usually, it is a lightbulb moment, just as it was for me. I think learning to be a go-giver can totally transform your online business AND make you feel really good about what you do.

Agree? Disagree?

Post from: PotPieGirl.com

Give More – Make More?

I get so many emails and questions asking me if I think someone should do PPC, or outsource articles, or purchase a pre-made website, or buy this program or that program, or do article marketing, or….or…..or…..or…..(you get my point). I know it can be difficult trying to decide where to start, what to buy, what NOT to buy, what’s worth it, what will work for you – but it really comes down to one question of yourself… Time? Or Money?

What Can You Afford?

Let’s put experience and all that aside for a moment and talk about the hard-core question that should be in the back of all our minds when choosing what to do to make money online.

It comes down to Your Time, or – Your Money.

Do you have more money than time? Or, more time than money?

For example, when I started, I had more time each day than I had money to risk. I couldn’t afford to do PPC -whether it was “easier” or “faster” or not – I simply didn’t have the money to risk, let alone the money to do it at all.

The biggest investment I could make on my new online business at that time was my time and my elbow grease – and I invested a LOT of both things!

As time went on, I managed to get to a place where I wanted to save time and I used money I had earned to do just that. I saved my time by getting good tools, by outsourcing, and now, by purchasing sites that are pre-made.

Before, when I had no money, I did all my research by hand using free tools. I made all my own sites, promoted my own sites, wrote for my own sites – all of it.

Was it the “fast” way? Was it the “best” way? No, probably not – but it was the ONLY way for ME.

Was it hard and frustrating when someone would offer to show me the light for only $700, $70….or even $7? Yes – because I didn’t have that money to spend in order to see that light. I had no option but to find the way myself.

We are all blessed with 1,440 minutes in each day – 24 hours. Those minutes were my investment into myself, my business, and my family’s future – and I invested as many of those minutes each day as I possibly could (and then some…lol).

But dollars were NOT an option. I had to invest alllllllll those minutes in order to eventually have the luxury of investing dollars to save minutes and hours.

You

So let’s talk about you – Before you make any choices about your online marketing future, ask yourself, “What can I really afford?”

Perhaps you only have 2-3 hours a day to work online, but you do have a little cash that you can invest into your business on things that will SAVE you TIME…

Perhaps you have alllll day to work, but you just can’t invest dollars now…

Perhaps you have time and some money….

It’s also possible that you have very little time each day – and no money to invest.

These are all very real situations that I hear about from very real people every, single day.

Which one are you?

If you have limited time to work (as in WORK…lol) and no money, then I recommend getting a plan and following it each day. Stop tormenting yourself with all the offers out there for things that you can’t have right now – and only work each day for the time you have.

If you have ALLLLL day, but no money, I recommend the same thing. Always keep note of the things that take the most time from your day so when you DO get money, you will know the things you need to save you TIME.

If you have some cash then think about investing in things that will save you time. What those things are truly depends on your experience and knowledge level in this industry. For example, perhaps you know how to do keyword research, but it’s taking a lot of your time. You would then look for a good keyword research tool that will do what YOU need done to save YOU time.

Can Having Money Accelerate Your Success?

That’s a good question – if you ARE able to buy things, does that mean you will succeed faster?

Statistically, I say NO.

Sadly, there are too many people out there who have spent thousands and thousands of dollars – and never really took any ACTION. It’s a sad cycle of buy this/try it a little…. move on and and buy that/try it a little…..and so on and so on and so on.

However, I do believe that those that make thoughtful purchases of things that they WILL use and know WILL save them time so they can be even MORE productive, will see faster results from their ACTIONS.

Money, alone, will not buy you success online.

YOU create your success – no matter WHAT your situation is.

Do you REALLY want to know what “works” to make money online?

YOU.

Post from: PotPieGirl.com

Time or Money?

What a busy week or so it’s been! I don’t like it being this long between posts, but time flies by before I even know what’s happened! I figured I’d take a break and let you know (and see) what I’ve been up to. Besides, if your email inbox is anything like mine lately, you’re over-whelmed with the “latest and greatest” launches out there. I think we can ALL take a break from business and product launches and allllllllll that stuff we do day in and day out today. So, if you don’t mind, let’s take a little break from the norm and I’ll ramble about some of the corny things that have been happening around here. I’ve got pictures and a video, too =)

I Got Old(er)

Yes, as of February 13th, I officially became one year older. As a special gift, we received about 4 inches of snow the day before my birthday. It was absolutely gorgeous! That night, my hubby, my daughter and I played outside in the snow. I’m tellin’ ya, if you want to feel young again, drop yourself in the snow and make a snow angel while big puffy snowflakes fall on your face.

It was awesome!

Yes, that’s me making my snow angel =)

Thankfully, my daughter grabbed my hood and pulled it up just as I was about to fall backwards into the snow (not sure exactly when SHE started mothering ME, but I like it).

Unfortunately, my already snazzy hair-do I acquired from the snowball fight all went into my face when my hood was pulled up so I have this lovely picture of me and my daughter for all future generations to see.

Oh well, the moment was perfect….

After our snowball fight and snow angels, we just HAD to let our cats out to play in the snow. OK, perhaps “let them” is not the correct terminology… we PUT them out in the snow for our own entertainment and made a quick video of it. (just a note: no animals were hurt during this production. Both cats were quickly back in the house and snuggled up by the fireplace).

For my birthday, my sweet daughter-in-law made a special dress for my granddaughter, Hanna, to wear. The front of the dress says, “Happy Birthday GiGi” on it. “GiGi” is my nickname and I’m guessing what Hanna will call me. Here is a picture of Hanna wearing the birthday dress (both the dress and the bow were hand-made by her Mommy).

Hanna will be 3 months old soon, and everyday she changes. I’m tellin’ ya, if I had known how wonderful being a (young…ha) grandmother would be, I woulda had the grandbaby first! She is so precious!

My 3-Year Anniversary

Today, February 18th, marks my three year anniversary for working online. Talk about time flying! Wowzers! Seems like just yesterday that my hubby came home and found me staring at a blank computer screen and asked, “Hey baby, whatcha doin’?

Me: “Making a website – I’m gonna make money online!”

Hubby: “Uhhhh…do you know how??”

Me: “Nope, I have no clue…..but I know I can do it.”

The rest is history – and so is that first website I made since I accidentally erased it while trying to learn FTP….lol!

Those first 2 years or so, I worked my tail off online. We’re talking 12…14…..or more hour days. I wanted this more than anything and was determined…. FIERCELY determined to learn and achieve all I could to make it happen for myself.

I know there are so many of you out there that are going thru exactly what I was going thru just a short time ago.

Hang in there! Please don’t give up!

Do this for YOU.

I wish I could articulate what a difference this has made in my life. Yes, money is cool and all…..but it’s not that. There is something liberating and empowering about wanting something so badly and doing more than you ever thought possible to make it happen. It all happens because of YOU, because of YOUR effort and YOUR learning and YOUR actions.

I know it’s hard to have faith in all this. There is so much uncertainty – no guarantees. No one can promise how much you will make, or how long it will take you to make it.

It’s all up to YOU.

I have no doubt that every single person reading this right now has ALL it takes to make this work.

You just have to want it badly enough… and then GO GET IT.

Think back on things you’ve worked really hard to achieve in the past. Reflect on the dedication and focus you mustered up to get them. You have all it takes =)

Perhaps you are someone who really can’t think of something you’ve ever poured your heart and soul into. That’s ok – but TODAY is the day to start. Do it for YOU.

Post from: PotPieGirl.com

Happy Anniversary To Me

Yes, I said it… hot dogs. Today we are going to talk about hot dogs – more importantly, how to SELL hot dogs. What in the world do hot dogs have to do with making money online? Well, actually it has a lot to do with it. Sit back and enjoy another trip into the weird mind of PotPieGirl.

Congrats! You’re a Hot Dog Vendor

Well, it’s been decided that YOU are going to sell hot dogs for a living. You got your hot dog cart…you got the buns and the weenies and all the cool stuff that goes with it. Awesome, now you’re ready to rock and roll.

Selling hot dogs should be easy, right? I mean c’mon, EVERYBODY loves hot dogs, don’t they? All you gotta do is put yourself and your hot dog cart where the people are. Easy.

So, you think about a place like downtown New York City. Tons of people there, right? Should be a breeze to sell a ton of weenies each day.

But wait – there’s also tons of OTHER hot dog vendors in New York City, too, aren’t there? You bet there are!

You’re gonna have to compete… get there early, get a good spot, offer something a little different than the rest of the vendors…..whew, you’re gonna have to like WORK.

Sure, there’s tons of people there and sure, you’ll probably sell a few, but you’re gonna work your tail off, jump up and down, and stay on top of things to get that piece of the market. There are also plenty of vendors there already that have been doing this for YEARS. They know what they’re doing… they know their market. In short, they are established and experienced and just might run your little hot dog business into the ground.

So, okayyyyyy….maybe downtown New York City is not the place for us. Maybe we need to take your hot dog cart to a place where there are a lot of people, but not any other hot dog vendors.

That should be easy, right? If you’re the ONLY hot dog vendor, you shouldn’t have to work so hard, ya think?

Yeah, well what if you find a large group of people somewhere every, single day BUT…..they’re vegetarians.

Think you’ll sell any hot dogs even tho you are the ONLY hot dog vendor for miles?

Not thinkin’ so.

We need to rethink this….

Ok, what if you park your hot dog cart right near a construction site that has a large group of workers? Now, that could work! Only problem is, it’s winter….they aren’t working now, but maybe they’ll come back soon….maybe?

Or maybe you could park your hot dog cart right outside your house…whatcha think? People come by now and then…maybe someone will want a hot dog AND be willing to pay you for it as opposed to going in THEIR house and just cooking one….maybe?

Selling Hot Dogs Is Too Hard!!

Sheeesh, this big idea to sell hot dogs suddenly got tricky. Perhaps it’s too hard and you should just quit before you even got started? You can park that hot dog cart in your garage and make your family eat your hot dog supply for the next 5 years….lol.

Not the answer. Quitting before you even tried is how I define “failure”. Let’s get back on this and make YOU a Hot Dog Tycoon!

So you gather your wits and get out there and take a look around. You suddenly drive past a good-sized high school or college that is right next to a park…and there’s no other hot dog vendor around.

Hmmmmmm……

No, you probably won’t see as many hungry people as you would in New York City, but you definitely will see more hot dog eaters than you would with the group of vegetarians…and you won’t have to wait to SEE if someone shows up as opposed to the construction site….but it could work – with a LOT less work on YOUR part.

These folks are hungry AND they eat hot dogs…you are positioned to be found without having to jump up and down and carry on the BE found.

You put yourself where you can be found by people that are looking for what you’re selling.

Hello? Tap, tap….can anyone hear me?

Put your offer where you can be found by people who want/need your product…and where YOU don’t have to work so hard to BE found.

Hot-Diggity!

Making money online is the same way… especially with affiliate marketing. Sure, those high-gravity Clickbank products are cool…and people are obviously buying them – BUT tons of OTHER affiliates are also SELLING them (New York City).

And yup, you can take that high-gravity product and get it found for a totally unrelated keyword…..so what? (think the vegetarian group). They don’t want what you’ve got so why offer it them?

Or… you could work one itty-bitty keyword that is very relevant, but the search volume is super, super low….and then fuss ’cause you aren’t getting massive traffic and results from that one web page (think the construction site). You can’t MAKE people search for a keyword more than they do. You have no control over search volume. You’d need a group of those itty-bitty keyword pages to have an impact on your sales and traffic-levels.

Or maybe….just maybe… you could pick a less-competitive product and have YOUR “cart” be found in a little nook (niche) where you don’t have to work so hard to get there and STAY there….AND, people WANT what you are offering.

You can do the same thing with a high-gravity product, but the odds of finding that little nook where you can be found and stick there are slim. Not IMPOSSIBLE, but slim. The folks you are competing against are not all one-man/one-woman hot dog carts – they are multi-cart owners who have lots of people working for them and deep-pockets to MAKE it work (and KEEP working).

Pick your battles. Use your time wisely.

Sell hot dogs.

Post from: PotPieGirl.com

Think You Can Sell Hot Dogs?

So, I got a video camera for Christmas. My hubby got me one of those snazzy Flip HD cameras….and it’s awesome! Today I got to use it to catch a totally spontaneous moment at my house. Naturally, if you know me at all, you know it’s not the best video in the world – BUT, it really got me thinking about something that applies to all of us when we work online. Shiny Things.

Oh, Look! A Shiny Thing!

Before I get to this video, let me tell the story behind it.

The day was…. today. Hubby was home, I was cooking in the kitchen (yes, I cook….at least once a year….lol). The sun was coming through our windows at just the right angle to cast a reflection off the face of my hubbys watch. That reflection made this shiny spot on the wall and the ceiling as he moved.

This Shiny Thing drove my cat INSANE!

She started running around, making this chattering sound….and we couldn’t figure out WHAT was wrong with her.

Suddenly, my hubby figured it out – so, we teased her some more with the Shiny Thing making it go all over the room, the ceiling, the walls – and I whipped out my handy-dandy Flip Camera =)

Oh, Look ANOTHER Shiny Thing!

As I am watching this cat of mine freak out over this little reflection of sunshine, I got to thinking about how I was when I first started working online. I was just like Bailey (our cat)…. chattering, running in all directions….. basically trying to catch something that can’t be caught.

Sound familiar? Anyone? A quiet nod will suffice to let me know that I’m not alone here….lol!

Also, am I the ONLY one who has many normal, day-to-day things happen that make you think of internet marketing? I mean, seriously, I can be washing the dishes and start thinking about how simple repetitive tasks get the big job done. That even tho the dishwasher is a VERY cool invention, it still doesn’t load itself so it can then work for ME.

But that’s a story for another day… Let’s get back to Bailey the cat.

I’m Gonna Catch Me One Of Those Shiny Things!

I can’t believe how possessed she was over chasing the shiny things. Her eyes were glazed over – you couldn’t distract her – nothing. All she wanted to do was catch that shiny thing. Even if it meant hurting herself in the process.

Meanwhile, our other cat (actually both cats are my older kids cats, but if you have older kids, you know that they don’t tend to take the pets with them as they grow up. Hence, reality is – they’re MY cats now)….. our other cat just sat there staring out the window or at the wall or something. She’s really not the brightest light on the Christmas tree, but she wasn’t the one chasing a reflection of light, now was she?

{perhaps she is smarter than I give her credit for…..nahhhhhh}

You’ll catch a glimpse of the other cat during this quick video. She’s the big black cat sitting in the shadows watching Bailey jump the walls like a fool….lol.

Again, I warn you…

This Video Will NOT Change Your Life!

Are You Hurting Yourself Trying To Catch Shiny Things?

It’s so easy to get distracted by the “latest and greatest” Shiny Thing being sold online. And they all look and sound SO great, don’t they? Simple systems… effortless….hands off….even a three-year-old could make millions…

We all know the drill.

What’s worse is that for many, many people I talk to online, they are not simply distracted by the Shiny Things – they are STUCK on the Shiny Things.

One new “latest and greatest” product after another and they still have yet to get anything real online that will get to work FOR THEM.

When you’re trying to build a real online business, trying to catch the Shiny Things can make you look and act like my cat. And, as Bailey can’t seem to figure out – you can’t CATCH Shiny Things. All you do is run around TRYING to catch the all-illusive “prize”.

What DOES Work?

Wanna know what really works when building an online business?

These are four things that I believe in firmly…..and the four things that have enabled me to get to this point of success I’ve had online so far.

They are also the same 4 things that can get YOU ahead online, too.

PotPieGirls Personal Under The Radar Notes

I do a lot more online that just “be” PotPieGirl. In fact, my preferred online business model is very “under the radar”. It’s something I deliberately worked towards and something I still deliberately work ON.

Just like my dishwasher, it’s something you load…and then let it work for you. No, it’s not “effortless”. And to be honest, if you’re still looking for that all-illusive “effortless” system to make money online, you’re reading the wrong blog

Also, unlike One Week Marketing, it’s not free to implement so I had to work with free techniques until I got to the point where I could get to my “under the radar” ways.

No, it’s not PPC or CPA offers or whatever the latest and greatest is…. It’s just good old-fashioned web real estate.

Yes, websites.

No, it’s not “sexy” and it’s sure not Shiny…but it works.

I’ve learned a lot about creating these little sites….and learned a lot of shortcuts, too.

I’ll be sharing these things with all you great folks that are on one of my lists in the upcoming days.

No, it’s not gonna cost anything….Just little ol’ me sharing some things I’ve learned – and things I am currently learning to make it even better.

While my silly video up there won’t change your life, I’d like to think that some of the info and insight I have to share might have some impact.

Even if all it does is help ONE person focus, get to taking real consistent action, and stop chasing Shiny Things, I will be super excited!

Do You Want My Under The Radar Notes?

If you’d like to read along as I send out my Under The Radar notes – great! I’m happy to have you with us!

If you’re already on one of my lists (ie, you get occasional emails from me now and then already) then you don’t need to do a thing. You’re all set!

If you are NOT currently on a list of mine, all ya gotta do is sign up here at PotPieGirl.com

OR at OneWeekMarketing

OR at 6StepNicheSites.com

OR get my free Squidoo 101 Guide.

OR, just follow me on Twitter (twitter.com/potpiegirl). As the emails go out, I will link to them in a Twitter Tweet post thingy.

All there is to it =)

That’s it from me for now. I’m thinking I might go get a flashlight and turn off the lights to see what Bailey does with THAT Shiny Thing!

Hope my Flip camera is all charged up!

Have a great day!

Jennifer
~PotPieGirl

Post from: PotPieGirl.com

WARNING: This Video Will NOT Change Your Life

It’s that time again. Time we say good-bye to the year past, and welcome in a brand new year. New years are so bright and full of possibility – very exciting for me. However, 2009 was a fantastic year for me and it’s sad to see it go. Is anyone else in shock that it will be 2010? Twenty-Ten!??!?! Wow! I remember being little and trying to do the math to see how old I would be in the year 2000 and thinking ‘WOW, I’ll be OLD”. hahahaha! Funny how “old” doesn’t mean quite the same thing anymore =)

Thank You, 2009

2009 was so wonderful…and also full of ups and downs. Many “bittersweet” moments… my son got married, my daughter graduated high school and started college… youngest started kindergarten…. I became a grandmother (yay! That’s a picture of me and little Miss Hanna on Christmas Day. She’s just awesome!). We took some wonderful vacations, were blessed to be able to spend time with great friends and family. I had surgery… my hubby had surgery… we lost a terminally ill loved one. In short, LIFE happened in 2009.

Business-wise, 2009 was great and I am very grateful. I am also very thankful that I have the ability to work as hard as I do and the support of those I love the most.

Goal-wise, well…wow! As I have been closing out the 2009 books and taking a look at how everything went, I am amazed that I not only hit every goal I had for myself…but actually surpassed them.

Funny tho, one of my goals was to be able to earn a certain amount in a month via AdSense. Now, I am not a big AdSense marketer, but I do use it here and there so I set a goal for myself for a particular amount earned in a month.

I hadn’t hit that goal all year long… until… TODAY. Literally, today, December 30th, I hit a monthly earnings goal with AdSense….lol! So, that last goal DOES get to be checked off after all =)

Goals for 2010

This is my favorite week of the year… the week between Christmas and New Years. This is when I tear into all my stats for the year, looks thru my various campaigns and all that good stuff, and really SEE what worked, what didn’t work…what I want to amp up…and what I want to discontinue.

I’m not big on New Years Resolutions. There seems to be something about January 1st that makes people put so much pressure on themselves to make all these drastic changes…crazy. To me, EVERY DAY is a great day to make a small change in your life. One small change a day can mean a totally re-worked life within a year, ya know? But anyway…

I’ve been trying to set my goals for my next business year. I knew as soon as I stood up a bit ago to go get something to drink and tripped over a boot on my office floor that my very first goal is to clean my office. Lord have mercy…. it’s driving me nuts! I’m accustomed to tripping over a cat or a Barbie…. but my OWN BOOT? Sheesh!

Otherwise, I know I want to set myself to be able to outsource more. The funny thing is, it sounds so easy.. hire someone to do your work. Simple, right? But its not so easy for me. I’ve been totally hands on for just about 3 years now working my tail off. It’s habit for me now. Changing habits is hard, but I’m getting there. I know it’s time for me to scale and leverage…and learn how to work ON my business – not IN it (if that makes any sense). I also have so many great things going on in diverse areas that there’s no way I could do it all myself – so I won’t. It’s time for me to improve my ability to be the conductor….and stop trying to play every instrument in the orchestra.

In short, I’ve worked really hard to get to this point, so I need to stop fighting myself and do it. Do you do that? Maybe it’s a “mom thing”. Ya know, we work so hard to raise our children – so hands on and so involved – that we have to fight ourselves to let go and realize we accomplished our goal. I dunno… maybe its just me. One thing I do know is that each time I “let go” and outsource something, I feel so GREAT knowing the work is getting done and I am free to work on something else… or not work at all.

Anyway, I’m rambling…thinking out loud (sorry if that’s scary…lol!!!)

As for financial goals - I’m gonna boost my over-all goal by a certain percentage tho I’m not set on exactly what percent yet. I want it to be realistic, yet challenging. Also, this year I am doing more campaign-specific goals which I didn’t do last year (2009). This past year, I set an over-all amount that I wanted to hit (both gross and net), but I didn’t break my goals down per project. This year I am.

I am going to try and avoid a set $ amount and instead have a goal of a certain % increase over 2009. Why? Well, honestly, the $ numbers aren’t a real inspiring goal for me anymore. If every year is as good dollar-wise as 2009 has been, I’m good. Heck, I’m beyond good – I’ve been extremely blessed.

But let me ask something that might sound vain (and I’m sorry if it does – not intended to)…. How much money does someone really need?

When I started all this in 2007, my main goal was to be able to make enough online so that I didn’t need to go outside the home and work. You know, as in get a “real job”…lol. Once I accomplished that, I set a goal of a certain amount I wanted to earn each day that added up to a number for the year that I believed would give me peace of mind.

The daily goal in 2008 was $273.97. I wrote that number in pink highlighter ink on a sticky post-it note and stuck it on my wall next to my computer – and it’s still there now. It’s my “peace of mind” reminder. It keeps me balanced and focused…and calm. That number, if earned every day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, means I bring in 6 figures – 100k. It amuses me now to think I really believed I could do that. My goodness, it would’ve taken me like 3 YEARS to earn that in my old job as a managing golf pro! What in the world made me think for even a second that I could generate that kind of income ONLINE?

But that was my number. To me, that amount meant I could lay my head down each night at peace knowing whatever financial challenges were thrown at me, I could handle it. As someone who was once a broke single mom:

money = peace of mind

NOT having money is stress…it causes problems…it hurts. I know that. All money does is take care of the problems that NOT having money creates (thank you, Chris). For me, the number one problems that NOT having money creates are stress….and fear. I wanted those problems gone and $273.97 a day seemed like a good number to erase those issues.

Oddly, I started out with goals that would stop pain and stress, but as 2008 came to a close and I realized I was really hitting my goals, something else happened that blew me away.

I became hopeful, brighter, optimistic…almost like I somehow empowered myself to do ANYTHING I set my mind to. What’s weird is it’s not really the money as much as it is being able to see real results from your actions and hard work. Once I made my first sale in February of 2007, I knew that if I could make $7 online, I could make 7 million – it was just a matter of time, repeating and learning, and butt-busting hard work….oh, and a nice dose of patience…lol.

So when it came time to set goals for 2009, I sat and played with numbers, read a lot about creating financial business goals (which I really didn’t know much about before), but each time I came to a number, it didn’t have the challenging feeling in my gut that I need. Suddenly I just blurted out a number, my hubby grinned, and I laughed because it WAS a really crazy number to shoot for.

And I’ll be damned… I hit it.

For 2010, I need new goals, but I know myself well enough to know that $$$ aren’t gonna challenge me. I’m a golfer – I’m out to beat myself. If any of you golf, you know that golf is one sport that your biggest competition is YOU. So my goals for 2010 will be to beat myself =)

Complacency and contentment are NOT good business traits – never get comfortable. Challenge yourself – and don’t be afraid to do it. If you work hard everyday to reach those goals, you can not fail – even if you don’t hit those goals. Working hard to make your life better is NEVER a failure. Never EVER.

Write your number down and post it where you can see it while you work. Don’t just pick a random number, pick something that MEANS something to you…something you can feel. I could feel $273.97 a day in 2008. I could also feel $78.90 a day in 2007 (that was my first goal to get to $2400 a month…a number I wanted so I didn’t feel I needed to get a “real job”).

Above all, remember that all of this is not about choosing a destination – it’s all about the process and creating checkpoints for yourself to follow along the way. Everything you DO to reach those checkpoints along the way is a success.

You can not fail when you keep moving forward.

If I could give just ONE THING to each of you that have managed to somehow tolerate reading this so far, it would be to give you the empowerment to KNOW that you can do ANYTHING that leads to the knuckle-headed raw determination to keep moving forward and go GET what you want.

No one is gonna give it to you and the only person in the WORLD that can stop you – is YOU.

I’ll stop rambling now (again) =)

2009 Highlight Posts from PotPieGirl.com

Whew… I got long-winded above, didn’t I? My apologies…and super glad you’re still here…lol!

I took a stroll thru my posts from the past year here at PotPieGirl.com and decided to pick one (or maybe two) from each month that I think are worth either re-reading, or reading if you never have.

Let’s see what I came up with:

January 2009 -

January had some really good posts so it was tough to pick. There’s posts on keyword research, getting Google to index your lenses, how to start with internet marketing….lots of stuff, but I like this one for my January pick:

How Much Does It Cost To Make Money Online?

February 2009

February is always a great month for me. My birthday is in February… my online marketing anniversary in also in February…and I’m a big fan of Valentines Day, too! Here is one of my favorite posts from February 2009:

A Day In The Life Of PotPieGirl

March 2009

March was a quiet month, but it also had one of the most important posts I’ve written. It’s about back links and the importance of how they work:

Links, Links, Links

April 2009

April had a lot of good posts, but one of them sticks out for me – the first time I made a video tutorial. Lordy, lordy, I am not a tech-wizard, that’s for sure!

I’m A Video GENIUS!

May 2009

May was a very quiet month. I had surgery and was out for awhile… we also had a loss in the family. However, in the midst of all that I managed to write a post that I really like. I went off about how exhausting it is to have everyone and their brother trying to sell your something online:

Stop Selling To Me!

June 2009

June had some great content here at PotPieGirl.com, but there are two posts that have really helped people learn how to create an ebook and how to sell an ebook using PayPal. Yes, I even have a bunch of my “fancy” graphics and pictures to walk ya thru the steps to get it all set up.

How To Make an Ebook

How To Sell an eBook With PayPal

July 2009

July had a post that I think is a big help. Ya know how you can search for a keyword in Google and it seems the results keep changing – even when you search back-to-back? Ever wonder why?

Why The Google Results Keep Changing

August 2009

August had a post that has a video on it that my husband shared with me. Absolutely mind-boggling!

Is Internet Marketing Too Saturated?

September 2009

I think September had one of the most important posts I’ve ever written. It’s on a topic that has crossed all of our minds as we work and learn this business.

Should You Follow Your Passion Or Just Try To Make Money?

October 2009

October was pretty darn quiet. Was on vacation and stuff most of the month, BUT I did manage to crank out one really good post about all these FTC changes.

Who Is The FTC After?

November 2009

November was a great month, not only was my granddaughter born, but I actually had some good posts here, too! lol!

I did a case study on Google ranking of a Squidoo lens and reported the case study results here.

Also, I taught everyone how to get those cool snippet links in your Google listing. These snippet links in my Google listings have been very effective for me – not just for Squidoo lenses, either (tho they are really easy to get for a lens).

How To Get Snippet Links

December 2009

Well that brings us to December 2009…and I’ve already typed enough in this ONE post to equal like SIX posts, but I still had some other good posts on the new Google real-time search results and talked a lot about converting your traffic into sales (good post for those struggling to make sales).

Happy New Year!

So, how are you closing out 2009 and getting ready for 2010? Any new goals? I’d love to hear them!

I hope everyone has a wonderful and SAFE New Years! We will be celebrating here at home with friends. January 1st is also me and PotPieDude’s wedding anniversary so we have something extra to celebrate when the countdown to the new year is over.

My best to your and yours! See ya in 2010!

Post from: PotPieGirl.com

2009 In Review

This Christmas marks the 3rd holiday season I have spent with all of you here at PotPieGirl.com – wow, time sure flies, doesn’t it? Each of you long-time readers have shared marriages, graduations, family vacations, births…and even sad losses with me. And now, we celebrate another Christmas.

Merry Christmas To You And Yours

I’d like to take this moment to wish each of you a very happy and very SAFE holiday season. Please, turn off the computer and take time for your family and loved ones. I can promise you that ‘work’ will still be there when you get back. Trust me, I know how hard it can be to put work to the side, but it is absolutely one of the best things you can do for yourself AND for your business.

We work in a business that is running wide-open 24/7. The internet never closes. Because of that, it can be a real challenge to make ourselves stop and take a break.

We all need breaks…and we all deserve breaks.

I’d like for all of you to have a relaxed and peaceful Christmas AWAY from the computer and work and all that stuff that absorbs our thoughts day after day. No matter how bleak your personal situation might feel at this moment, Christmas is not the time to think or dwell on those things. There are much more important things in life than click-thrus and hoplinks, traffic and back links, ranking and SEO. Please choose this time to be thankful and reflective on what is GOOD in your life.

And I hope you will each join me in doing just that – starting with turning off the computer…and closing the office door.

Everything will be right here when you get back.

A quick personal note to Anne. If you’re reading, I want you to know that I received your beautiful thank you note in the mail the other day. It touched me beyond words and it hangs on the wall in my office as a reminder of why I really do what I do.

Chin up, girl…. you’re gonna be just fine!

To everyone else… MERRY CHRISTMAS! Thank you for all you do all year long…and thank you for sharing your time with me.

Kiss your babies (no matter how old they are), love on your spouse or significant other, call someone you haven’t spoke to in a while, visit friends, hold the door open for someone, take your dog for a walk, smile and say hello to a stranger – whatever it takes to warm your heart and quite possibly warm the heart of another. Just do it OFF the computer =)

From my family to you and yours…. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Be safe!

Jennifer
~PotPieGirl

Post from: PotPieGirl.com

Merry Christmas!

Good-bye long-tail… hello Tiger-tail! Ok, now I’ve seen it all…lol! It seems all the demand for up-to-the-second information on Tiger Woods has caused Google to use something I haven’t seen before – a scrolling box on the Google search results page that is automatically updating with Twitter “tweets” and newly found web content on the topic of Tiger Woods. Anything new on the internet, that Google finds “seconds ago”, is showing up in that scrolling box as you sit on the Google search results page. Unbelievable! Seems Google had to find a way to keep up with Tiger Woods!

Latest Results from Twitter and Other Web Sites in Google Results

Go ahead, try it…. Google “Tiger Woods” (no need for quotes, Google knows EXACTLY what you mean…lol) and see if a scrolling box shows up that displays latest tweets and web pages that were just found by Google.

Here is a screen shot of what I just saw:

How’s about that? Google had to find SOME way to keep up with the overly-dynamic, ever updating, constantly changing trend of Tiger Woods and all the stuff that is surrounding him now.

How big of a sudden trend IS this Tiger-phenomenon on the internet?

The Tiger-Tail Effect

Let’s take a look on Google insights and see the change in web search interest since all this stuff broke in the news:

Wow, huh!?!? That graph represents the web search interest for Tiger Woods since 2004. In case you live under a rock, Tiger Woods has been in the news and done MANY MANY news-worthy things since 2004, but his web search interest has remained pretty level for the most part.

Until the end of November 2009 – all this stuff about him has shot web search interest through the ROOF…and Google had to find some way to keep up and keep offering their users the most relevant and up-to-the-moment results. Quite a task, but what an interesting way to handle it.

Just a note: When I use FireFox and search Google for Tiger Woods (not signed in to Google), I see this scrolling box at the top of the results. Now, my hubby, in the other room (not signed in to Google either) is using Internet Explorer (ugh) and his scrolling “latest results” show up more towards the bottom of the first page. Not sure why, but thought I’d mention it in case your “latest results” are not in the same place as my screen shot…. or you don’t see them at all.

Anyway… I thought this latest coolness in the Google search results was really interesting. Sure shows the effect the “Tiger-tail” has on the search results, doesn’t it?

Oh, and just a fun fact… I don’t see one of the “latest results” boxes when I search on Google for Obama…. but, hey, he is “only” the President of the United States…why in the world would we people want up-to-the-second info on The President? (sigh).

PotPieGirl Edit - (8 Minutes after originally publishing this post): Looks like I made the “latest results” scroll bar in the Google results for Tiger Woods…lol!

personal note from PotPieGirl - this post is intended to discuss the effect the Tiger-tail has on Google from a SEO-perspective and to encourage further discussion on that one subject. I am NOT welcoming any comments that have to do with the current Tiger Woods situation. While I respect that everyone, myself included, DO have personal opinions on this situation, I do not feel that my blog is the place to discuss it. So please… please…resist the urge to discuss your personal thoughts on Tiger Wood’s personal situation. Thank you.

Post from: PotPieGirl.com

Google Can’t Keep Up With Tiger Woods?!?

After running my affiliate marketing poll, I see one of the biggest problems affiliate marketers run into is trying to get the traffic they receive to their web pages to convert into sales. It’s also one of the top questions I get from my readers. They tell me they are getting traffic, but they can’t get that traffic to turn into sales…. What are they doing wrong? I think this topic deserves some in-depth conversation, so grab a Coke or a cup of coffee and let’s get into it.

I’ve had this post almost finished and sitting in my draft folder for some time now. Life has been so crazy lately that I am just now getting to finish it. With the holidays…work… family… and that new awesome, wonderful, precious granddaughter…well, I’m swamped! (and a HUGE thank you to everyone for extending your congrats and well-wishes on her birth!)

The GREAT news is that the person who inspired this post is now making money! Ted contacted me via my help desk to give me the good news.

Hey Jen!!!

Just wanna tell you that I am your another living proof that OWM is totally awesome!!! I am making a living with this already!!! woohooo!!!!

I’ve a few sales already!!! yeah!!!!

and it just keep on coming!!! AWESOMENESS!!! Thank you so much!!!

I’m so sorry Ted for being late for you, but apparently you didn’t need my help after all! haha! I’m super proud of you!

However, I think there are still a few folks that suffer from the same situation Ted was in, so I am going to talk about this anyway.

Meet Ted

Ted is one of my One Week Marketing followers. He’s been working hard (has 7 campaigns out there already) and is getting traffic to his web pages – but, no sales. He contacted me to ask for some help and insight and since his questions were so good and so important, I asked his permission to re-print his message to me so we can all learn from it.

I have a problem with my OWM. The problem that I have is as below:

1. Product chosen – How do I know whether the product is converting? Any preference to choose clickbank product? looking into gravity? referred? or what? I have 7 campaign now and non of them are converting to sale.

2. Which leads me to the second and last problem. I am getting traffic from google and other various places but I don’t see any sales. So my question is, how can find a BUYING keywords and PROFITABLE NICHE KEYWORDS.

Is it true that PROFITABLE keyword is the keywords that is “problem-solving” keywords? like “How Can I”, What is the”, “Where Can I Find”, or what?

I guess if I have the solution for the above problems my OWM would be better I guess.

I am very determined to make this work for me and I won’t give up until I get my first sale! Once the first sale is made I will just rinse and repeat and eventually proceed to your wordpress niche!

Thanks for your help,
Ted.

PS-How long it takes for you to get your first sale when you started your FIRST campaign?

Great questions, Ted! Let’s take your questions one at a time and see if we can clear things up a bit.

Choosing Clickbank Products That Sell

This is always a tough one – how can you tell for SURE that a Clickbank product will sell for you? Well, you really can’t be SURE, but you definitely can take a look at some things to see if it might work for you.

About Clickbank Gravity –

Clickbank gravity, in a simple explanation, refers to the number of affiliates who have sold at least ONE copy of that product in the last 30 days. If an affiliate sells 100, it still counts as ONE gravity point just as if someone only sold one in the last 30 days, that would count as ONE gravity point, too.

I DO look at gravity…. but gravity does NOT make or break my decision of whether I promote that product or not. Yes, I like to see SOME gravity so I know that affiliates ARE able to convert leads to sales. However, I don’t have a “set” gravity number that I use as a rule of thumb. Some products are more popular, or have vendors that have more partners… some vendors have no idea how to attract affiliates. Some products answer the problems of a large group of people and some products are very, very niche-specific.

In short, for me, I look to see if there IS gravity…and then I look at the sales page. I want to make sure *I* don’t click to it and leave instantly, that it’s set up properly, no AdSense ads on the sales page (ugh), things of that nature.

Now, many ask me, “Do you choose a product to promote based on whether YOU’D buy it?”

No, I do not. ME buying it has NOTHING to do with it. I am looking for a product that answers the problems of a certain sub-set of people. Odds are good that I am not part of that sub-set. I can’t judge value for someone else.

Matching Clickbank Products With Buyers

To me, the most important part when looking as a sales page for a potential promotion is – WHO wants this?? WHAT is their problem and can this product solve that problem for them?

As the guys in Wealthy Affiliate always say, affiliate marketing is like being a match-maker. Find a group of people with a certain problem and match them up with the solution.

If the product you are thinking of promoting doesn’t solve at least one important problem of the target market, it’s gonna be tough to make sales. The more “troublesome” the problem is, the more sales you should make.

Travis, Mr Bum Marketing, used the phrase “Hair on Fire”. I love that phrase and I keep it in my mind whenever I am looking at products to promote. If the problem the group of people have is not like having your hair on fire, sales will be slower and you’ll have to work harder for sales.

Think about problems people go thru that are all-consuming for them at the moment. Think about things that have happened in YOUR life that you would’ve done just about anything to get the answer right away.

Anyone hearing me? {tap, tap, tap…. is this microphone on? Anyone hear me?}

Finding Buying Keywords

Learning how to identify buying keywords is a left brain/right brain technique. Sure, we have keyword tools that can help us identify good keywords in a competition sense – maybe even tell us the “commercial intent” of a keyword – but sometimes you just have to look at a keyword phrase and think about it. Think of what problem the searcher is having. If the keyword doesn’t imply a problem, but more an intent for something free or just some information, then it probably won’t lead quickly into a sale.

Unless…..

Yup, there’s an “unless”…lol. UNLESS you plan to bring people in with the “info searching” keywords and somehow get them to stay with you thru their cycle to get to a buying keyword. Good niche sites do this – they offer info to all cycles of the buying process. Good One Week Marketing campaigns do this, too =)

But this takes practice and learning how to identify if there even IS a product at the end of their search cycle. Sometimes…no, a lot of the times, you just have to get the content out there, see what keywords people are using to find you, watch their behavior, and take a good hard look at your own stats. There are NO stats better than your OWN.

Summary

Do you think someone who is looking to learn how to grow tomatoes is having a “hair on fire” problem? No, not likely…and the odds are really good that they will find all the info they need to satisfy them for free online.

However, what if some weird bug thing was eating their tomato plants? Hmmmm…. hair starts to sizzle a little now, doesn’t it?

The “problem” with most campaigns is not that our keyword research was wrong or the product was bad… usually the only problem is that we are “missing” with our match-making. Affiliate Marketers give solutions…we don’t sell =)

People come online to socialize, for entertainment, to get info….and to get solutions to their problems. Help them solve their problems and the sales will follow.

Oh, forgot a question…

How long it takes for you to get your first sale when you started your FIRST campaign?

It took me about a week to make my very first sale online. I have NO CLUE how someone found me or my site because I knew NOTHING about internet marketing or SEO or back links or ANY of that. But, through some grace of God, someone bought a $7 ebook from me… and changed my life. Once I saw with my own eyes that I COULD do this AND it really WORKED, well, I was all over this internet marketing thing.

As for my first sale with a One Week Marketing campaign…. See, the thing is, One Week Marketing didn’t exist back then. I created it as I went along learning. I didn’t even know I was creating a product – had no intention of it nor did it even cross my mind. I was just trying to turn the things I was learning and writing onto thousands of post-it notes into a plan of action that I knew worked and that I could repeat over and over and over.

No matter what you’d like to end up doing with internet marketing, One Week Marketing is the solid basics of just about all of it (excluding PPC).

Ted, THANK YOU for your questions! I love being inspired! Better yet…. CONGRATS on your sales! Keep up the great work!

Post from: PotPieGirl.com

Traffic But No Sales?

Just a quick post today to let everyone know that our first grandchild arrived safely into this world Monday morning. Both Mom and Dad (my son and his wife) are doing very well….and my granddaughter….well, she is absolutely PERFECT! I put together a quick video of pictures for you to see….

Welcome To The World, Hanna Joanne!

A big congrats to my son, Trey and his wife, Carissa, on the birth of their daughter, Hanna Joanne. I was blessed with the opportunity to be right there in the delivery room when Hanna was born…..and I can’t seem to find the right words to express the miracle I experienced.

Yes, I’m speechless (write that down…it doesn’t happen often).

Here’s a picture of the delivery team:

And here’s the precious results of our efforts
(OK, Carissa, the Mom, did all the work…we just cheered her on):

And here’s a video of my pictures:

Everyone is tired, but happy and healthy…and so, so blessed!

I’ll be back to full-speed sometime soon, but just wanted to share the miracle with all of you!

Post from: PotPieGirl.com

It’s A Girl!

Back in mid-September, I did a Google ranking case study for one of my Squidoo lenses. I figured I’d take a few minutes today to take a look at the results of my efforts and then take a few hours to create screenshots and a follow up post detailing my results. I’d also like to share how I doubled my traffic for one of my keyword phrases. It’s all kinda cool (well, for a SEO-geek like me it’s cool). If you’ve got a little geek in ya too – or you’d just like to learn a simple way to double your traffic – sit back and let’s walk thru this.

The Google Ranking Case Study Details

As some of you may remember, I picked a Squidoo lens I’ve had sitting around that I hadn’t TOUCHED in over 17 months. It ranked fine, but I knew it could do better. Thankfully, Squidoo gives good traffic stats for our lenses so that made my work a bit easier (hey, guess-work is hard on the brain…give me REAL stats…lol).

You can read the original case study here.

In the 3 months previous to me changing anything, that one lens had gotten 556 visits via Google. I also identified a keyword I ranked ok for, but had a nice opportunity to harness more traffic if I ranked even better for it. Then, I picked a “tough” keyword to see if I could rank for it since it had really great traffic potential.

The lens was my worm composting lens that I use for most of my case studies and experiments.

The opportunity keyword that I wanted to rank higher for was “how to make a worm farm”. At the beginning of the experiment I ranked #5 in Google for that phrase and got “ok” traffic for it. Now, I rank #3 for it and traffic has improved for that one keyword phrase.

The tough keyword? Well, let’s just say that failure is a big part of this business….lol! As of this moment, I can’t find my lens in the top 200 results of Google for that tough keyword. However, the tough keywords take more time so I am not giving up, nor am I admitting defeat =)

About The Google Traffic

Before I started this experiment, I received 556 organic visits from Google for this project in the previous 30 days.

Now?

In the past 30 days from today? Oh yeah, now we’re at 796 organic visits from Google for this project!

What’s even better is that previous to these changes, I received about 60 visits a month from Google for ONE keyword that I wasn’t even targeting…and now? Now I’ve had 124 organic visits from Google from this same individual keyword.

So tell me, would YOU like to double your traffic for a keyword you already rank for?

Thought so! Let me show you what I did.

How I Doubled My Traffic

When I first started I had one little listing on page 1 of Google for this keyword phrase. See this screen shot taken 10-27-2009:

I said to myself, “Self, how can you harness MORE of that traffic?”

Sure, I can try and rank #1 instead of #2 – easy enough….but what else?

So then I thought that getting a Google snippet link would be cool – AND would help my traffic:

And it did help… AND it helped my ranking to get to #1. (read how to get a Google snippet link)

Then I said to myself, “Self, if ONE listing is good, wouldn’t TWO listings be better? Like TWICE as good?”

So, I tried that:

And let me tell ya, two IS double better than ONE =)

I used to only have the #2 position which brought about 60 organic visits a month from Google.

Now, I have #1 AND #2 AND a snippet link and that has brought 124 organic visits from Google in the last 30 days for that ONE KEYWORD!

Lens #1

Lens #2

Any of your lenses or web pages rank for a keyword that you wish you could double your traffic for? It can be done!

Doubling Your Traffic

This works for your own web pages, not just for Squidoo, but it is really easy to do with Squidoo. However, if you have your own web site that has a page that ranks well for a targeted phrase, you can do these same steps on your own site, too.

First rule is this: for best and easiest results, you need control of both web pages. Now on these free-to-use sites like Squidoo, you CAN piggy-back another page on the site that you don’t control, but it’s not near as easy.

And yes, “piggy back” is my official technical term for ‘double listing’ or ‘indented listing’ =)

So, take a look at the stats for a lens you already have that is already ranking. Pull the traffic stats for as far back as you can get them and look for a keyword phrase you are getting traffic for that you didn’t specifically mean to rank for (ie, you didn’t optimize specifically for that phrase).

Now, build a NEW page targeting that one specific keyword phrase.

We’ll call your original lens “Lens A” and your new piggy back lens “Lens B”.

Ok, now….. link Lens A to Lens B…and Lens B to Lens A using the exact phrase your want to piggy back for as the anchor text. Yes, they each link to each other with the same exact phrase as the “clickable words”.

Now, get Google to crawl/index your new lens and re-crawl your old lens. A couple of back links to the new lens with that exact same anchor text you want to piggy back for will do fine – or read how to get Google to recrawl your web page here.

Now, you wait. Yes, I know, patience is a booger, but it’s a necessary evil in this business.

Google Double Listings

Here’s the “catch” about getting these double ‘piggy back’ listings in Google. Lens B (your new lens) has to be able to at least rank on the same page as your original lens (Lens A). If they both rank on the same page of the organic listings it is most likely that Google will pop them together and make a double listing out of them.

The good news is that it takes WAYYYYYYY less back links to get that piggy back lens to rank where its needed in order to get that double listing.

Take a look at this screen shot that analyzes the Google organic listings for my targeted phrase:

As you can see by the orange arrow, my piggy back lens only reports ONE back link. Now, yes, that is an easy query space to work in, but my point is, that’s all it took. Actually, it started showing as a double listing when there were ZERO back links showing on this tool (and by the way, if you don’t have this free analysis tool you’re missing out on something good).

As you can see by the green checks all the way across for my piggy back lens, that page is optimized for this specific keyword phrase. I talked about how to do that in the original Google Ranking Case Study post here.

The purple arrow shows the “cache age” of the web page – ie, how many days ago that Google crawled and cached that web page. As you can see, for both my lenses, my cache date is fresh (and it has been) and that is really important. Sure don’t want Google to forget about you, now do ya?

Now, I have found that when I do a piggy back lens, that it will pop into Google….and then pop right back out. That happens, don’t worry about it. Fall back on that “patience” thing we all struggle with =)

That particular piggy back lens was MIA from Google for about 3 days and then not only did it come back, but both lenses were then #1 and #2.

Don’t try and out-do the original lens (lens A) with your back links and optimization efforts. All you want is for that Lens B to be able to rank on the same page as Lens A – not to beat it. If you take it too far, it is possible that eventually your Lens B could out-rank and “cannibalize” your Lens A leaving you right back where you started – with a single listing.

So, just take it slow. Make the new lens, get them linked together, get Google there to do it’s thing, and then see where you stand.

Once you have your double/piggy back listing, you will most likely get double the traffic you WERE getting for that keyword phrase – regardless of whether your double listing is on page one of Google or page 4…. it will double what you WERE getting. Obviously, having #1 AND #2 is really, really good tho =)

If all this seems over your head right now, don’t worry about it. When it’s time, this tutorial will be right here waiting for ya!

Read the original Google Ranking Case Study here

Read How To Get Google Snippet Links Here

and, in case you missed my email -

Get this Free Report – Top 6 Super Affiliate Secrets (it’s from the same guy that makes this cool free software I used up above).

Post from: PotPieGirl.com

Google Ranking Case Study Results

Anyone seen the new snippet links in the Google search results? Some folks call them jump to links – I’ve also seen them called section links – but regardless, they are quite cool and make your Google listing stand out by offering the searcher another link to exactly what they are looking for on that one web page. While you can get snippet links to show in Google for any web page, they are really easy to get in Google with a Squidoo lens.

What Are Snippet Links?

When I first noticed these links showing up in the Google search results, I called them “jump to” links because, well, because that’s what they SAY in the Google results – but when you hold your mouse over them, it seems Google is identifying them as “section links”. However, Leslie Rohde calls them snippet links so I’m gonna go with that (what? do you think I’m gonna argue with Leslie Rohde? Do I look stupid? Ok, don’t answer that).

In short, these snippet links make another link inside the description area of your web page listing in the Google search results. These snippet links link to a specific part on THAT same page/lens. Don’t confuse these with Site Links which link to OTHER pages on your site. These snippet links are deep links to content on the same web page.

Google Announces Snippet Links

Google announced these snippet links on September 25, 2009 –

We just announced a couple of new features on the Official Google Blog that enable users to get to the information they want faster. Both features provide additional links in the result block, which allow users to jump directly to parts of a larger page. This is useful when a user has a specific interest in mind that is almost entirely covered in a single section of a page. Now they can navigate directly to the relevant section instead of scrolling through the page looking for their information.

We generate these deep links completely algorithmically, based on page structure, so they could be displayed for any site (and of course money isn’t involved in any way, so you can’t pay to get these links). There are a few things you can do to increase the chances that they might appear on your pages. First, ensure that long, multi-topic pages on your site are well-structured and broken into distinct logical sections. Second, ensure that each section has an associated anchor with a descriptive name (i.e., not just “Section 2.1″), and that your page includes a “table of contents” which links to the individual anchors. The new in-snippet links only appear for relevant queries, so you won’t see it on the results all the time — only when we think that a link to a section would be highly useful for a particular query.

Posted by Raj Krishnan, Snippets Team

Thanks, Google – these snippet links work wonders for my Squidoo lenses =)

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What Does a Snippet Link Look Like?

Since I tend to always use my worm farming lens for my case studies, I figured I’d use it again here.

This is what my Squidoo lens description looked like in Google BEFORE the snippet link:

And this is how it looks now WITH my snippet link:

See that link the red arrow points to? That is a snippet link (or a ‘jump to‘ link…. or a ‘section link‘). That link in the Google results description links to a certain section on my lens.

And it’s been really good for business =)

Just a note before you go rushing off to see if your lens has snippet links in Google. When I am signed in to my Google account, these snippet links do NOT show for me so if you’re not seeing them, make sure you are signed OUT of Google. And just for the record, you should never be signed into Google when you are doing ranking checks or anything. That ol’ personalized search can really skew your results.

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How To Get Snippet Links For Your Squidoo Lens

Good news! If you are familiar with making Squidoo lenses at all, you should be able to make these snippet links show for your lens. It’s not hard to do tho you might have to tinker with it to get these snippet links be as effective as they can for you.

Google Snippet Links Instructions

The Short Directions

Here’s my short instructions for getting snippet links:

1. Use the Table of Contents option in your intro module – NOT the individual Table of Contents module(see image below). Why? I believe it is because the links in the intro module table of contents are do-follow while the links in the Table of Contents module are NO-follow. (however, to note: I also tried making straight html links actually IN my intro module content that linked to individual modules on my lens and I couldn’t seem to get it to work – I’ll keep trying tho). Regardless, Google seems to love that “Contents at a Glance” area of a lens.

2. Get Google to re-cache your lens.

Yeah… that’s really all there is to it. Google is using the the titles of your modules that are included in the intro module Table of Contents (ie, “Contents at a Glance”) to show as snippet links in the search results.

But…. truth is…there is more to it in order for them to be EFFECTIVE (oh, and actually SHOW in Google).

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Optimizing Your Squidoo Lens for Snippet Links in Google

Here’s what I did to make these snippet links more effective for me (oh, and yes, to get them to actually SHOW in the Google search results…lol).

I took a long look at my Squidoo lens traffic stats – specifically, the most popular terms my lens was found with in Google. Why? Because if I am getting good traffic for these terms already, why not up the stakes and get MORE traffic for it? People are already searching for those phrases… I am already ranking for those phrases…. so why not make my lens description in Google even more attractive and clickable to get MORE traffic for those phrases?

So, I pulled up my top organic search terms for my lens for as far back as Squidoo gives me stats for (or for as long as YOU have stats for) and came up with this list:

And then I made those exact phrases my Module titles on my lens:

And now that Google has re-cached my lens ( or recrawled….reindexed…respidered….same difference kinda sorta), I get cool little snippet links like this whenever someone searches for that specific keyword phrase:

So, do you think someone who was looking for worm farm plans and then saw that snippet link with exactly what they were looking for as the text of the link would be happy with the search results? Above all, do you think they would click it?

I do. The traffic to my lens is up…. especially for those specific phrases. Now granted, I’ve only been testing this for about a week and have tweaked and made all kinds of changes to see what works best, so this is not a guarantee your traffic will be up or that it will make an ounce of difference at all….. but, I am seeing improvements. I won’t be able to ever know for sure the impact these snippet links have on my lens traffic once this post goes live since people will be going to Google and searching my phrases and going to my lens and all that fun stuff (and yup, I’ll probably end up having even MORE competition in this market, too) – so naturally I’ve got other lenses out there quietly testing for me so I can get some sort of stats on this.

I’d love to know if it works for YOU tho =)

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Snippet Link Tips

First off, these snippet links need to be keyword specific. If my module title was “Tip #1″ and then my module sub title was “worm farm plans” – it probably won’t work.

Make your module titles short and keyword specific – then “dress it up” with the module sub title. It seems shorter module titles work best, but I’ve managed to get some long snippet links to show if I forced it.

Naturally, I had to FORCE that one to show by searching Google for that exact phrase as it shows on the lens – and who the heck is gonna search for THAT? lol! But, my point is, if you have a longer keyword phrase, don’t be afraid to use it.

Snippets Aren’t Showing

Now, I imagine some of you have already rushed off to Google to see your snippet links since you know you’ve been using the table of contents option in your intro modules…. and when you searched – Surprise! You ain’t got no snippets!

Why?

Remember – this is NEW with Google. If your lens has not been cached by Google recently, then your snippets will NOT show in Google (remember to be signed OUT of Google, too, when you check).

You need Google to recrawl your lens. To check when Google last cached your lens, search for your lens in Google, find your listing, and then click “cache” under your listing. Google will give you the date they were last there. If Google was just there (like in the last day or 2), and your snippets still aren’t showing, try tweaking your module titles a bit. Also, make sure you are searching Google for your exact keyword specific module title (don’t go searching for “My Story” or something vague like that – it won’t work. Besides, why would your module title be so vague anyway?)

If the snippets still won’t show, be patient. Google does what Google wants so that is the best explanation I can give.

How To Get Google to Recrawl Your Lens

A simple way to do this that seems to work more than it doesn’t work is to go to your lens, make your module title changes, republish, and then go straight to SquidUtils.com. Sign in, go to your advanced dashboard, and click “ping” next to the lens you just changed. You cannot ping if you have not edited your lens (you’ll get an error message)…and please, don’t go pinging more than once a day. If you have any problems or questions about SquidUtils.com, check with TheFluffanutta (the site owner) – he’s a really smart guy and tons of help.

How To Get Butt Ugly Snippet Links For Your Lens

Yes, I said “butt ugly”…..lol C’mon, what would YOU call this snippet link and description?

Isn’t that butt ugly? I told ya so!

If you have a module that is pulling data from another source (ie, an RSS module, a product feed module, an Amazon module, etc), you had BETTER be SURE you enter some relevant text into the module description area. In this case, I have an eBay module there and had left the module description area empty – therefor, it was a really, really butt ugly snippet link =)

Ok, that’s all there is to getting snippet links in Google search results for a Squidoo lens. Just please keep in mind, these snippet links do not happen overnight in Google…it might take some time.

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Post from: PotPieGirl.com

Google Snippet Links For Squidoo

Since the announcement of the change to eBay affiliate payout structure this past August 19th, there has been a LOT of craziness surrounding the eBay Partner Network (eBay’s in-house affiliate program). One of the main changes was the new guideline that retracted affiliates option to put their eBay affiliate links on web pages they do not own. In other words, sites like HubPages and Squidoo that were once famous for being a strong authority sites to expose your links are now a “no go”. It seemed as if eBay was going to work something out with Squidoo tho since Squidoo is such a strong affiliate for eBay. However, this has not happened…leaving many Squidoo lensmasters out to dry.

The Squidoo eBay Earnings Module

When the eBay Partner Network made it so we could no longer use our own eBay affiliate links on a Squidoo lens, we lensmasters breathed a sigh of relief to find that at least we could still use Squidoo’s eBay modules. These eBay modules allow us to promote eBay items as an affiliate under Squidoo’s eBay affiliate account. When our lens earned something via eBay’s affiliate program, those earnings would be tagged to our lens and then Squidoo generously split those commissions with us.

Since eBay has gone to this new Quality Click Pricing payout structure that pays affiliate based on “quality clicks” as opposed to commission per sale or per sign up, it seems there is some break down in communication from eBay to Squidoo as to how the new payout structure will be tracked and paid to Squidoo, so Squidoo could then in turn pay the respective lensmaster.

In short – all those eBay modules on Squidoo are earning nothing for anyone but for eBay.

From what I understand, Squidoo is not being paid because no one from eBay will take the time to work out an agreement and a process for tracking the clicks from each lens that hosts eBay earning modules.

Considering eBay announced this new Quality Click Pricing structure on August 19th, and it’s now the beginning of November, am I crazy to think that eBay could care less about Squidoo and the traffic they bring to the eBay site?

If it was me, and I had an affiliate with the earnings power of Squidoo, I do believe I’d be paying a bit more attention to the situation and trying to come to some sort of plan for the future – even if it’s just to say, “Sorry, Squidoo, we can’t do it – we don’t know how to track these earnings for you”.

But THEN what would happen? Yup, lensmasters (like me) would be dumping those eBay modules off their lenses like crazy and switching to Amazon (who, by the way, is still more than happy to have the traffic and sales from Squidoo).

What Squidoo Has To Say About eBay

Last we lensmasters heard officially from Squidoo HQ regarding eBay earning modules was on October 8th:

With eBay’s recent announcement of their Quality Click Pricing plan come some good questions from lensmasters who love (and profit from) our eBay module, and a good dose of patience while we wait for some fixes from eBay.

The short of it is that eBay is changing the way they pay partners, even big and trusted ones like Squidoo. And as they implement some of their changes, other things break. That explains why you’re not seeing the daily eBay stats for your lenses right now, and we’re confident eBay will fix it for us very soon.

Once we know more from eBay about how their QCP plan will work for us, we’ll share it with you right away!

However, that was almost a month ago. Meanwhile, some great lensmasters who relied on their nice income from Squidoo eBay modules are now earning exactly $0.00. I have a funny feeling that Squidoo.com is missing that revenue, too!

From my perspective and from all I have read, this is NOT Squidoo’s fault. They can’t do anything about this without eBay – who apparently is not communicating with Squidoo on this matter.

Poor Gil, the lone ranger programmer from Squidoo (I still have NO clue when he sleeps – or IF he sleeps) has said in the SquidU forum:

On 10-19-2009

I promise that we’ll post an update as soon as we hear back from eBay. We’ve done everything we can to escalate the issue.

and on 10-20-2009

Yes we were aware of the quality click pricing change before it happened and attempted to make pre-emptive adjustments, but with no data or reporting tools how do you propose we do that?

I know you just WANT THIS FIXED (i do too!) but it’s not so simple. There isn’t an obvious solution other than pooling eBay revenue. Now I don’t like that option and I’m sure you probably don’t either, so that’s why we’re hoping eBay provides new tools for us soon.

Just hang in there and we’ll keep pushing together. OK?

Poor guy, he’s catching a bunch of slack about all this when there is absolutely nothing he can do without eBay’s participation.

Yes, Squidoo HQ could keep us more up-to-date on this matter, but what is there to say other than “Still No News From eBay”?

In the meantime, eBay gets the traffic, eBay gets the commissions (and saves paying for the clicks) – Squidoo gets nothing and our lensmasters get nothing.

Will Lensmasters Get “Back Pay” From eBay?

All this brings about the next logical question – When/IF eBay gets their super affiliate Squidoo all squared away and operational again, what about the lost earnings from when we were NON-operational? Will Squidoo and it’s lensmasters get paid for those clicks?

Who knows?

Its scary to think that a mega-company like eBay who has known for Lord only knows HOW long that they would be changing the payout structure to affiliates didn’t factor in and proactively prepare for their Super Affiliates like Squidoo.com. If it’s taken all this time to even begin to try and figure out how to track Squidoo’s eBay affiliate activity from that day forward, how in the world can we feel confident that eBay will ALSO figure out how to track activity that already happened?

Sad thing is, we lensmasters can SEE all the clickouts from our lenses to the eBay site. And now, with this new Quality Click Pricing, each click is worth money. It’s no longer sales-based… we are supposed to be paid by the click.

Yes, we can SEE that we are losing money…. just great, huh?

When I think of just the lensmasters that had Halloween-based lenses that promoted relevant eBay products, and all the money that the lensmasters lost during that time (but eBay still earned), it makes me sad for those folks.

And now… here comes Christmas… so now what?

Should We Dump All Our Ebay Modules?

Another good question is if should we dump all our eBay modules and replace them with Amazon earning modules? Hey, while it might not be the best solution, at least Amazon pays Squidoo. With the holiday shopping season fast approaching, I’d rather promote a company that will pay Squidoo than promote one that won’t even work with us.

But here’s the thing…..

Once upon a time, wayyyyyy back in 2007, I was an eBay affiliate thru Commission Junction. All was good. Then, in Spring 2008, eBay announced that they were going to a new in-house affiliate program (ePN) and that we’d all have to reapply AND change out ALLLLLLL our eBay affiliate links to fit the new Partner Network links.

That was NO FUN – but we did it.

Then, in August 2009, eBay announces this new Quality Click Pricing structure (that is vague at best). Along with that announcement comes the new terms which prohibit eBay affiliates from using their own affiliate link on web properties that they do not own. That meant, in a nutshell, get alllllllllllllll your eBay links OFF Squidoo, and Blogger….. and no more eBay earnings on HubPages.

So off we all go AGAIN…. changing or removing our own personal eBay affiliate links from Squidoo (or at least the ones we can remember are out there. Many lensmasters, like myself, have been working on Squidoo since 2007…and that is a LOT of lenses and eBay affiliate links out there).

Again, NO FUN – but I, like the others, did it and changed our Squidoo eBay links to reflect Squidoo’s affiliate account so we would be within the terms of service of ePN…oh, and so we would get paid.

Now I’m not some super affiliate for eBay. I send a couple thousand clicks their way each month….a couple hundred bucks in earnings…nothing to get excited about. But at Squidoo, we have lensmasters who were (operative word: WERE) making really good money via their eBay modules.

Now they are making nothing. POOF, gone. While I am a little frustrated, I can only imagine how frustrated the bigger eBay earners are…. and how it hurts to have that income source just disappear. I feel for them…. big time.

What’s The Squidoo/eBay Solution?

I have no idea what the solution is here. EBay’s new payout structure is based on “quality clicks” per campaign.

Confused? Trust me, you are NOT the only one.

October was my first month being paid out under this new structure and I think I’m slowly “getting it”. eBay wants it’s affiliates to click eBay ads that are exactly what the consumer is looking for so that they take an on-site action (ie, make a bid, buy it now, sign up for eBay, etc) right away. I managed to get my per click payout up to .31 for a few days last month – but I also had days when I made .04 per click.

As I said before, this new per click pricing structure is vague at best – but that is a story for another day. Or, just travel the eBay affiliates forum and you’ll see how confusing it is for everyone.

Regardless, I am not a programmer (and if I was, I’d break the internet, no doubt), so I don’t know the technical side of all this and how to solve it. I know what my eBay affiliate reports look like now and I wonder why each lensmaster can’t be it’s own ePN “campaign” – however I barely know my ABC’s from PHP =)

But, I am a person who knows that there are fellow Squidoo lensmasters that have worked really hard, played by all the rules, and they aren’t getting credit for clicks they have earned. There are real people out there that are not being credited for income they have earned – and that is a real problem in my book.

I’m not even worried about my own clicks. Heck, I might not even HAVE an account any more after this post goes live…. eBay might give me the axe!

I’d like to know that eBay is on top of this. That this situation is pressing for eBay and they are putting their heads together with Squidoo to work this out for the affiliates that have worked so hard for them both. They deserve it.

Above all, I’d love for poor Gil to be able to have an answer – even a SOLUTION – so we can move past this and get back to our holiday marketing for eBay.

If anyone knows anything I don’t, or I’ve mis-stated something, please let me know.

*** EDIT – INFO UPDATE ***

Thank you to TheFluffanutta for bringing an important Squidoo HQ announcement to my attention regarding the situation with eBay. Since info is always all over the place, it’s easy to miss updates, but in this particular case I am bopping myself in the head. This announcement was found in the Official SquidTeam Announcements thread – yeah, like totally where I shoulda looked in the first place. Duh, Jen!

This information comes from Megan Casey in this SquidU thread. To be sure that everyone reads it, I will copy/paste it here (hope that’s ok, Megan).

Gil already addressed this in this thread about eBay reporting, and I posted about it on the SquidBlog too. But I want to be extra clear since we’ve been hearing from lensmasters with some incorrect assumptions.

Here’s everything we know:

Beginning October 1, 2009 eBay has switched from paying out a commission based on sales to a commission based on “quality clicks” (their own system, not ours). We requested in advance of this change that eBay provide detailed reports to us, so that we can direct those quality click commissions directly to the lensmasters who generated them. We still have not gotten those reports. If eBay cannot provide this level of detail, Squidoo will distribute eBay earnings based on a pool system in much the same way we do with Adsense and Infolinks earnings.

So to put it another way:

* Yes, you will still make money from the eBay module.
* No, it’s not true that “you won’t get paid for your eBay sales.”
* But yes, it IS true that we’re not getting _any_ reporting from eBay right now, so the eBay stats on your royalty pages aren’t updating properly.
* No, we’re not sure if eBay will allow us to continue paying “directly attributable” royalties, sale by sale, directly to the lens and the person who generated them. It might be that we have to pool all eBay earnings and figure out a system to disburse royalties to participating lensmasters.
* No, this eBay reporting problem has nothing to do with the quality of Squidoo lenses or our community, and Squidoo is not being singled out by eBay. This has everything to do with eBay trying to roll out a new payment system in an unfortunately unclear fashion.

I understand that a lot of lensmasters are worried about eBay’s new payout structure, and concerned that we don’t have answers yet. We are too. But we’re pushing on this every day with them, and as soon as we know specific answers, we will share them with you.

Thanks for your forbearance.

So, the issue is a reporting communication break-down between ePN and Squidoo BUT earnings to the Squidoo site as a whole are still be recording. Only thing left to figure out is whether these earnings will be paid out via a “pool” earnings like AdSense is, or if they will be paid to the respective lensmaster.

I’ll let you know what I find out.

As for HubPages

Seems I was wrong there, too (thank you, Cat). Apparently you CAN use your personal eBay affiliate links on HubPages. I’ve been collecting info and tips for doing this and will have a follow up post up shortly.

Thanks all!

Post from: PotPieGirl.com

Dear Mr eBay, Please Call Squidoo

Since the announcement from the FTC that they had updated their advertising and endorsement guidelines, there sure has been a lot of talk and speculation over what all this means for those of us who work online. While the new FTC guidelines are not aimed solely at the blogging community, the internet is a new advertising medium that until these changes was not included in their policies. What does all this mean for us – especially for those of us that are affiliate marketers and online vendors? Who is the FTC after?

It’s Only Been 29 Years

The last time the FTC revised their guidelines was in 1980. This silly little thing called ‘the internet’ happened since then so I would think it’s about time they did some updating.

Here is an excerpt from the FTC announcement that was released on October 5, 2009 –

The Federal Trade Commission today announced that it has approved final revisions to the guidance it gives to advertisers on how to keep their endorsement and testimonial ads in line with the FTC Act.

The notice incorporates several changes to the FTC’s Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising, which address endorsements by consumers, experts, organizations, and celebrities, as well as the disclosure of important connections between advertisers and endorsers. The Guides were last updated in 1980.

As I said previously, these revisions are not ONLY for the online marketing community – they are for ALL advertisers be it print, radio, television, etc. After reading and re-reading the 81-page revision guide from the FTC, I have to admit that I have been paying more attention to commercials than I ever have in my life! I am very curious to see how these commercials change to try and comply once everything takes effect on December 1, 2009.

I have this vision that a normal 30 second commercial will suddenly become 10 seconds of content and 20 seconds of disclaimers…lol!

That FTC document is full of ALLLLL kinds of hypothetical scenarios in an attempt to explain who should comply in all kinds of situations, but all it really does is confuse most folks. It also can make for a good chuckle here and there as well.

Now, I’m not a lawyer, I don’t play one on TV either. I have no legal knowledge nor am I offering advice or anything that should be construed as advice (enough of a disclaimer? lol). All that said, I do have some thoughts on all this now that I have read more, learned more, and really thought about it.

Thoughts About The FTC Revisions

First off, I think it is a really good idea that we comply. No, not because of some rumor of an $11,000 fine for not complying with the FTC, but because there is nothing wrong with being transparent.

Also, as Frank Kern pointed out, when it’s you vs the FTC – it won’t be you that wins. He also shared his story of how being sued by the FTC is no fun at all.

I do also admit some shock that there are still people in this world that don’t realize that the celebrity raving about that latest diet is a PAID endorsement. Or that those pharmaceutical commercials that depict these “real life” people with certain medical conditions that were solved by some pill are actually paid actors.

But the fact remains, that there are MANY people out there who do NOT know this. There are also plenty out there that really believe that if they take that diet pill and do nothing else to change their lifestyle habits, that they will lose 500 pounds overnight. If they buy that how to make money ebook and DO nothing – maybe not even READ it – that they will get rich overnight.

Yes, its sad….. sad, but true.

Those are extreme examples, but the fact remains that people all around us are being sucked in to deceptive advertising every minute of every day and I think that is what the FTC is wanting to get a handle on.

Most likely, if you are reading this little blog of mine, you work online or have some knowledge of internet marketing. Folks, the Wild, Wild Web is a haven for those that are out to deceive others for profit. I am sure that is not a news flash for any of you.

Those of us that understand internet marketing may have built up a bit of immunity to a lot of the things going on around us. We are more aware of how things can be online – how a simple script can do something to a page…. how a seemingly innocent link in your email could rob you blind…. how clicking a link on a site could generate revenue for that site owner…and so on.

However, I think those that truly understand that and are aware of it make up MAYBE 1% of the population.

The good news is….

As of December 1, 2009 – EVERYTHING On The Internet Will Be TRUE

A local friend of mine asked me about these new FTC guidelines the other day and that is how I responded. Yep, all advertisements on TV, radio, print, the internet….they will all be TRUE after December 1st. (please see the humor in that statement).

I think we all realize that it won’t work that way in reality, but these FTC revisions just might put a little more faith into the average consumer when it comes to buying online. That can only help us. Knowing that our family, friends, and loved ones that fall into the “other 99%” will be a little more protected is only a good thing, too.

I bet we all know of at least ONE person who got taken by some deceptive advertising or online scam. It would be nice if that happened a little less and it would be even better if consumers were more aware.

However, I am afraid that all these compliance guidelines will do is increase the amount of fine print in advertising to the point where no one reads it at ALL. The FTC says that relationships etc must be disclosed, but I don’t recall them saying HOW to disclose it.

To me, this is a fascinating time to be involved with internet marketing as we watch all this evolve….see who gets made the “example”….see how many bail because it all gets too hard.

Who Does The FTC Want?

Last night, as I was doing some market research, I didn’t notice it, but a pop-up window opened in my task bar. I wish I could remember what site I was on when it happened, but I simply can’t recall. BUT, I CAN recall the little site that I saw in that pop-up.

As soon as I looked at it I thought, “THAT is exactly who the FTC wants to nail!” I kept the window open with plans to blog about it today, but my computer re-booted itself last night and I lost it. Go figure.

Crazy how things work tho. Today, in my email, I got an email from Harlan Kilstein who made a video he wanted to share with everyone. It was a video about a flog CPA scam site…

The exact same site I saw last night. Thank you, Harlan!

For the record, a flog is a fake blog….and I personally think these types of sites will be directly in the cross-hairs of the FTC come December 1st (if they aren’t already).

Take a moment and watch this video from Harlan – see if it shocks you, too.

Flog CPA Scam Video

Think back to when you were first looking into making money online – wouldn’t you have really looked at this site? Doesn’t the setup give the perception of credibility where it is totally NOT deserving? Do you feel that maybe some of the folks in your “other 99%” might fall for this?

I think so and personally, I am ok with that kind of advertising being monitored. To me, it’s not about free speech – it’s about flat-out deception.

So, How Do We Comply?

That’s a good question and one that I am not exactly sure of yet. We are all gonna have to be accountable for our own businesses and do our due diligence with this. These guidelines are new – not even being enforced yet – so I KNOW there will be tons of backlash and hysteria and all that other fun stuff that comes when something this major happens in our community. Just don’t forget, this extends wayyyyy beyond our internet marketing community – it applies to ALL advertisers. I imagine there are corporate lawyers scrambling all over the world to either fight this or figure out how the heck to comply.

Andrew Hansen has a great post about his thoughts in how to comply here >> My Take On the New FTC Changes

This could all prove to be very interesting….very interesting, indeed.

Oh, and by the way, if anyone comes up with (or knows of) a FTC compliant privacy policy/terms of service plugin for WordPress, let me know please. I have a sneaky feeling that there will be a few released in the very near future.

So, your thoughts? Have you been following all this? How do you feel this will impact your business? What are your plans to comply…or to NOT comply?

Post from: PotPieGirl.com

Who Is The FTC After?

I was checking the stats and rankings of a few of my Squidoo lenses tonight and found one I wanted to do some work on. As I was about to make changes I thought, “Wow, this would make an awesome search engine optimization tutorial post for my blog!”. So, I took a few extra hours (on something that would have taken me all of 5 minutes to do) to take screen shots and walk through all the steps I take to get to the actions I take to make my Squidoo lens rank better in Google. Grab a cup of coffee because you are about to take a long trip inside the brain of PotPieGirl (be afraid…be very, very afraid…lol)

I Want My Squidoo Lens to Rank Better in Google

Tonight I found a lens of mine that needed some love. It’s not a money-maker, but it ranks well, gets decent traffic so I figured let’s see what I can do with it to make it rank better, get more traffic, and maybe see if I can’t turn it into a money-maker (which probably will NOT happen now that I am about to spill everything here on my blog…sigh).

I have this lens about worm composting. I made it in February of 2008 and hadn’t touched it since April of 2008 (yes, I have not “freshened” the lens in almost 17 MONTHS).

This is why I am always all about telling my One Week Marketing followers to get their lenses out there and simmering.  Once a lens ages and gains some Page Rank of it’s own, it has real power and it becomes a resource that you can leverage.

Sooooo…how has this lens been doing in all this time being left alone?

Let’s take a look at the traffic stats for the last 30 days:

Not too shabby, huh?

BUT, it can be better.

Next stop is to see how my lens is already ranking (I use a little online tool for this that I will link to – as well as other tools shown – at the end of this post)

Not too bad.  I know there are more keyword phrases I can work for now that the lens is older and more established.

Upon examining this, I see that I rank #1 for how to start a worm farm, but I am about #4 for how to make a worm farm.  I wonder which phrase is better… Could changing one word make a big difference in search volume?

Let’s hop on over to the Google keyword tool and see:

Well dang!  Changing just one word in that phrase could mean four times more traffic if I rank #1 for it!

I’ve read in a few places that a #1 ranking in Google means that you could count on about 40% of the search traffic, but for me, it never works out that way.  Seems 20% of the exact search volume is more like it for my lenses and other web pages so I stick with that number when I am “guess-timating” potential Google traffic.

In fact, 20% is about right for this lens, too.  Google indicates about 480 searches per month and 20% of that would be about 96 visits per month from that keyword at #1 in Google.  My actual Squidoo lens stats for the last 30 days say:

Yup, that’s about right.  I rank #1 in Google for that phrase and got 98 visits in the last month for that search phrase.

Based on that, if I could increase that Google ranking for how to make a worm farm to #1, I could guess-timate that I could potentially get 20% of THAT search volume which would be about 320 visits a month.  To me, this is worth looking in to!  A nice boost in traffic would be sweet!

I also decided that it was time to work this lens for a bigger and more competitive keyword search phrase. It’s well-established, sits on an authority site so why not? After poking around a bit, I came up with worm composting.

8100 searches a month… Yup, that’s what I’m talking about!  I’d like 20% of that search volume, too!

BUT – How Hard Will It Be To Rank?

This is the BIG question.  It is cool to pick keyword phrases you’d like to rank #1 for, but how hard will it be to get there?

This is where experience comes in for internet marketers to help us identify when something is “do-able” or not…and how much work it will take to achieve that ranking.  We stop looking as much at the results for a keyword phrase in quotes and look more at the sites we want to out-rank.  This comes with time, experience, and some good tools.

Starting out searching Google in quotes for the phrase competition is a great way to learn and to see yourself rank a web page.  If you find keyword phrases that have less than 10,000 competing web pages in quotes, odds are good that you will be able to rank your web page IF you target that one keyword phrase and learn to optimize properly.

This is not a part of your learning that you rush through.  When you’re new and you try to optimize one web page for lots of keyword phrases out of the gate, odds are good that your web page will rank for nothing worth talking about…and you won’t see results…and you’ll give up.

Start at the beginning and learn to do it properly.  Then, the sky is the limit!

The great thing about using Squidoo is that most of the work for on-page optimization is done for you… and the part you need to know I am about to share with you here in this case study.

Now, what I am about to show you might totally boggle your mind if you are new to all this.  For some of you, it could very well be an “A-Ha” moment where you can really see how rankings happen.  Now, if it boggles your mind and you don’t “get it”, that’s ok!  Really, it is perfectly ok.  No one is expected to ‘get it’ at first.  This is what learning is for  =)  Just keep all this in the back of your mind and then one day you will say, “Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh…. I get it!”

Google Rankings and SEO Analysis of a Web Page

So, I wanted to know how hard it would be for me to get my lens to rank #1 for how to make a worm farm.  I used another tool I have to check out what it going in in the query space in Google.

Take a look at what I found out (you can click the image to see it bigger if you want to):

Highlighted in green you can see my worm farm lens.  What I am looking for are opportunities to optimize my web page for this keyword phrase and do it better than those above me.  Things that have a green check mean yes, that page has that – a red x means no, that page does not have that.

Now, one of the cool things about a Squidoo web page is that the Squidoo.com site is already listed in the DMoz directory and the Yahoo directory.  How much this really affects ranking, no one knows for sure – but this is a factor that most SEO analysis programs will look at.

Also, there are a LOT of back links to the Squidoo.com site, so all I really need to work on are links to MY page on the Squidoo site.  Remember, web pages are ranked individually in Google based on their own strength.  What site the page sits on has it’s benefits tho – especially when the web page is new.

What I am seeing from this analysis is that I need my keyword phrase in my title, my H1 tag, and in my description.  Then, all that is left is building links TO my lens with my target keyword phrase in the anchor text (the clickable words in a link).

My lens already has a nice Page Rank 4 – which is because I built links to my lens and have links to my lens on the Squidoo site…and let it “simmer”.  Based on the Page Rank of the web pages that currently rank higher than I do, Page Rank is not a problem for me here.

Main thing I am looking at is Back Links to the web page of the ones that rank above me.  Can I beat that?  Without going too in-depth into back link analysis, the answer for me is yes, I can beat that.

What About My “Bigger” Keyword Phrase?

Then, I took a look at my bigger and higher volume keyword phrase that I’d like to start targeting.  How tough will THIS be  (especially since I don’t rank in the top 20 in Google at this time)?

Let’s take a look:

Hmmm… this one will be tougher. I did take a look at the back links for the web page that is currently #1 and there aren’t many (maybe one or two) links to the site with the anchor text of worm composting. I also noticed that a lot of links show because they have a few sidebar links on blogs. This means that every page of the blog links to the site and will show like a lot of links.

So, based on that, and on the potential rise in traffic, and based on my sheer stubbornness and my love of a challenge, I’ll give it a try.

Optimizing Your Web Page For Better Google Rankings.

We talked about what I need to do ON my lens to help with the on-page ranking factors.  I need my targeted keyword phrase in the title, the H1 tag, and in the description.

Squidoo makes this VERY easy.

This is how my lens looked before I made any changes to it:

The title you give your lens is also used as the H1 tag for the lens as well as what is put in the tag for your lens.

If you right click on a lens, then choose “view source” you can see the code that Google reads.

The < title > tag is here and is taken from the title I give my lens:

And then the title I give my lens is used again in the code as an H1 tag:

The description is taken from the first sentence or two that I add into my lens intro module:

…and just for fun, the keywords are entered into the lens code from the tags I choose:

All of this comes together to make my listing in Google:

So, a good title, a good opening sentence or two in your intro module, and some good tags can really, really, reallllllllllly help the Google ranking of your lens when it is mixed with good back links TO your lens.

My Lens After Making Changes For Google Rankings

So, I went in and changed my lens up.  I got my two targeted keyword phrases in the title, in the intro module and in the tags.  I also used a modified version of the keyword in an anchor text link.  I think that Google puts a little more weight on words it finds as a link on a web page so I do this on my web pages.

Here is how my lens looks now with the changes:

So, wonder how that made the SEO analysis of my web page look now that I made these changes?

Take a look:

Green checks, all the way across – perfect!

Next, I will take a little bit of time making some links TO my lens with links like how to make a worm farm and worm composting.

Now What?

After that, I leave it alone. Google will need to “read” the changes on my lens and they will need to find the new back links. It takes time for all this to happen and for it all to work together so I let it simmer and work on something else.

If this was a One Week Marketing campaign, I would print out my Mind Map and write the one keyword that each part is individually targeting and be sure to link TO that page with that keyword I wrote down for it or for that phrase with a modifier.

For example, I am now targeting worm composting, so I would make links to my lens with phrases like -

worm composting for beginners

worm composting for profit

learn about worm composting

etc, etc…

As you can see, the phrase I am targeting is still exactly in order in all of those phrases, but I added words to it so Google doesn’t find ALL the same anchor text for ALL my links. Make sense?

People ask me all the time what is the best way to keep track of your One Week Marketing campaigns. For me, it is by simply printing out a Mind Map for each one and writing my campaign details on it. Log ins, keywords for each web page, urls… the whole thing. You can keep track of your rankings over time on the back.

With the help from the tools I used here, you can also print out some reports to keep with your Mind Map so you have everything together. When it comes time to take your One Week Marketing campaign to the next level (ie, start using more than free sites to make money online), you can simply pull out your file and know where everything is when you get ready to make a niche website.

Get Better Google Rankings For Any Web Page

There you have it – inside my little pea brain. What I’ve shown here will work with any web page – not just a Squidoo lens. Thing is, Squidoo makes it easy for this to work, but once you ‘get it’ you will be able to apply this to getting any web page to rank higher in Google.

Tools I Used

I used the Google Keyword Tool. I always switch it to show me the “exact” search volume. I feel this is more accurate that the default “broad” results.

I used this software for the SEO Analysis. This software is really cool and does lots of great stuff – and, it’s FREE. Now, the paid upgrade is awesome and enables you to do so much more, but you don’t have to pay for anything to have the basics of this multi-purpose SEO tool.

I used this tool to see what my web page ALREADY ranks for. To me, this is one of the best tools I have. Being able to enter a url of a web page I own and see all the phrases my page ranks for is so great. And, for reverse engineering a niche or a web page that is ranking higher than you, being able to enter THEIR url and see what THEY rank for is absolutely PRICELESS. Here is an example report you can look at to see all this program can show you.

If you’ve never used Squidoo or have tried, but got too confused to actually make a web page there, you can click here and get my Free Squidoo 101 Guide – I’ll walk you through it =)

If you have used Squidoo and are wanting to take your earnings to the next level, take a look at my One Week Marketing Action plan here.

Hope this info sheds some light on how you can improve the Google ranking of your Squidoo lens or web pages. Guess this post coulda been an ebook because it is SO long and SO in-depth, but hey, why not put it here on PotPieGirl.com so everyone can see it and learn from it?

Any questions? Post them here in the comments area please. I’ll be out of town this weekend, but will try and answer and moderate comments as soon as I can.

If you liked this post or found it useful, please feel free to “tweet” about it or link to it. It would be greatly appreciated!

Have a great day!

(edited to add: You can click here to read the results of this Google Ranking Case Study )

Post from: PotPieGirl.com

Squidoo Lens Google Ranking Case Study

When first starting an online business or your first One Week Marketing campaign, you may find yourself stuck on one question – WHAT should I sell?  I’ve seen this question asked numerous times in forums and I’ve had it asked of me time and time again.  Is it the best idea to start your internet marketing career working on something you are passionate about?  Is the phrase, “Do what you love and the money will follow” accurate?  Is it good advice?

Once Upon a Time…

When I first started online, I had this big idea that I would make a huge authority website about something I really love – golf.  I was in the golf business for years, I love the game, I know the products, and it would be an easy topic for me to write about.  Seemed like a good idea to me.

But there was a problem…

I didn’t know anything about internet marketing.  I didn’t know how to make a website.  I didn’t know how to do keyword research or get traffic or any of that stuff.  I spent hours and hours each day working on a site that no one was visiting.  I kept on thinking that since I am passionate about the topic and I really enjoyed it, that they money would come soon enough.

In reality, “soon enough” was not nearly soon enough.  Fact was, I needed money yesterday.  I was so stressed about making money that this normally enjoyable topic for me became stressful and a big bucket of pressure.

It hit me like a ton of bricks that I didn’t have the luxury to follow my passion.  I needed to make money.

So, I changed my direction…started working on Squidoo and learning what to sell and how to sell it….. and the rest is history  =)

“I Only Want To Sell What I Believe In”

I’ve heard many people say, “I only sell what I believe in” as if there is something wrong with selling products you do NOT “believe” in.  Stick with me here, ok?  I’m not slamming people who only recommend things they’ve tried – I’m talking about marketing as a whole.

What if you referred people to things THEY believe in?  Is it wrong to make money that way?

If I find a passionate market who is all about purple widgets, but I don’t have any use for a purple widget, am I wrong for marketing to these folks?  I’m not passionate about purple widgets, but THEY are.

When you walk thru the grocery store, do you think the grocery store owner has personally tried each and every product?  Do you think a bookstore owner has read every book on their shelves?  Do you think they are passionate about each and every product in their store?

Of course not!  They are stocking their shelves with the products their CUSTOMERS want.

Is it ok to be passionate about giving your market what they are looking for?  For referring them to something and letting them decide if it is what they want?

What If You’re Passionate About NOT Being Broke?

A little over a week ago I had a very special day.  Internet Marketing bought my daughter her first car.  As someone who was once a broke, single mom, this was a very special and proud moment for me.

I am passionate about never being broke again.  That is a stress that is almost unbearable.  I am passionate about my marriage and my family. Doing things that make them happy and doing things to open up our options for now AND for the future is very important to me.   It is empowering to know that I have the ability to do these things now.

I don’t know where you have been in your life, but I’ve been down a broken road.  For the longest time I only thought I was capable of what others said I could do… that I was only worth what others said I was worth…. and I allowed that to limit me.

Did money change that?  Yes and no.

By being passionate about learning internet marketing and making money from it, I am now able to explore my real passions and do the things I really care about.

Once upon a time my “passion” was hoping I could scrounge up enough money to have enough gas to get the kids to school and give them lunch money…. now my passion is in creating a whole new business that could help my community and I’ve been working really hard on that lately.  Meanwhile, because I worked so hard on making money online, those income streams are still working for ME so I don’t have to worry about paying the bills while I follow a passion.

Sure, having money is cool and all, but that’s not “it”.  A friend of mine sent me a quote that says, “Money will take care of problems that NOT having money creates”.  So true – and I’ll be the first to admit that having money beats the heck out of NOT having money…lol!

But if you spend the time to create the income streams online that bring money in, the reward is far greater than just “making money”.  It gives you this freedom to do the things you really care about.  It gives you the luxury to follow your passion AND be able to pay your bills.

Above all, it is incredibly rewarding, empowering, and self-satisfying to know that YOU are capable of doing these things for yourself.  No one tells you what you are (or aren’t) worth – no one tells you what you are (or aren’t) capable of.  You decide.  You know.

No one is going to fire you… No one is going to lay you off.  This is yours – you created it.

But it all starts with making that first dollar and then continually creating things that make more dollars for you long after the work is done.

It starts with making money.

It Really Is OK

Needless to say, all this has really been on my mind.  As I read folks advising people to “follow their passion” when starting internet marketing, I just cringe.  What if there isn’t a market for their passion?  What if they don’t know how to promote their passion?  These folks are turning to internet marketing to make a difference in their financial situation….not start a hobby!

So I want to tell you – it is plenty OK to just want to make money online at first.  I’m not saying be deceptive, I’m saying it’s ok to be a marketer… to give people what they are looking for (regardless of whether YOU would buy it or not).  It’s ok to just make money first, and THEN figure out what your passion is and how you can use internet marketing, or the money from internet marketing,  to make a difference in the world.

Make that first dollar online.  Then, scale and leverage your resources and make more money.  Get it all set to where it all works for YOU.

Passionate people don’t have to be broke  =)

Pursue Passion… or Profit?

As I said, this has all been on my mind lately.  It’s tough when you want to scream, “Sell people what THEY want!” because some people take that as a greedy or self-serving attitude and they don’t want to be “that kind” of marketer.

But think back to jobs you have had in the past – or even a job you have now.  Are you passionate about it?  Or are you just making money?  How many times did you stay at a job because you needed the paycheck?  Is that wrong?

What if you viewed your internet marketing as your job?  Why not use your time and your resources to make money so you then have more time and resources to do the things you are passionate about?

As I was trolling around the internet tonight, I stopped by a blog I love, but haven’t visited in a while.  A very sharp and very cool woman named Lynn Terry runs this blog and her stuff is always so good.  One of her posts had a video of her talking about this very topic and I’d like to share it with you.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this… Passion? Or Profit?

Post from: PotPieGirl.com

Should You Follow Your Passion?