SEO Basics

After seeing so many sites with the wrong SEO and other people posting on forums that they can't get search engine traffic, I thought I'd go over some SEO basics that should be done onsite to help get free targeted traffic for Google, Yahoo, MSN and many other search engines.

I'll keep it simple, to the point and VERY basic. There are many off site factors as well, but I want to keep this as a short introduction to Search Engine Optimization (SEO), so here goes. It's not really as difficult as you might think it is. You basically tell the search bots what your site is about by having these factors in place...

First, your title (the one in the blue bar) must have the specific keywords that your site is about. If you have a site about work at home ideas (like mine), then you want the keyword phrase "work at home" to be in the title, rather than something like "Dave's Cool Blog". Get the idea?

This is VERY important to get right and yet it's by far the most common mistake I see people make. Too many website owners just put their url in the title, but that's NOT a phrase surfers will search for, unless they already know your site, in which case they wouldn't be searching for it, now would they?

Next is content. Make sure it's relevant to your title and follows naturally. So, the "work at home" blog should have content related to that subject, naturally. Also, you need to target your specific keywords and phrase in your content. Your keyword density should be 2-3% of your content, so for every 100 words you should have your target words mentioned 2-3 times and it should include the keywords from your title as well.

This is a lot more difficult to accomplish in a blog than a static website, as blog content constantly changes much more than an average static site. A simple static site can have a title on top with a header title on the page of the same keywords and then 300 words of intro text that never changes with just the right keyword density. The correct formula will put you on top of the search engines and I've done it myself many times. It's not rocket science and I actually find the formula quite easy to understand. Mostly because it's about words and I have a university degree that involved a lot of essay writing. Lol!

However, blogs can be trickier. I find that it's better to treat each blog post as if it was a separate page, because that's how it can be found when searching. So, your blog post title becomes your main title which will be found in searches. SEO basics, in this case, and then you optimize your keywords according to how much you write for just that post.

Proper tags should be mentioned as well, even though many search engines no longer use them, there are still some that still do, so it couldn't hurt to keep them in place. Focus on the keyword tags and description and you'll be fine.

That concludes our SEO basics lesson for today!

Tis The Season To Make Money Online!

It should be obvious to anyone trying to make money online that this is the busy season. Surfers are searching around looking for good online deals and checking off items from their gift list. If you aren't prepared to push your products NOW, then it will be too late!

Even if you don't have a web store or products to sell, this is still important because people are starting to settle in for the winter. They'll be online more and surfing around more during this indoor hibernation period. It's YOUR job to get their attention! Make sure your links are in place with good, eye catching anchor text to bring them to you. Get your site out there in front of as many eyes as possible!

It's not as difficult as many people think it is to make money online. Yes, it can be VERY difficult, and most times it is, but that is mainly due to the enormous amount of mistakes a person makes when starting out. There is a LOT of trial and error involved in succeeding online and that's what makes things difficult and often frustrating. Once you've found your niche and what works for you, then things will fall into place. Don't be discouraged! Tis the season!

Make Money Using Revver Video

This is a simple one. Most people know the benefit of using viral video services such as You Tube to drive traffic to their site. You simply create a video with your url in it and upload it to one of the many free vid sharing services out there.

At www.revver.com , however, there is the added benefit in that you actually get PAID for posting videos there! Once you upload your video they embed relevant content ads on it and they split the revenue with you. The payout is a low $20 paid via Paypal.

Don't spam them though. Spam is evil. If you have a jewelry store, then show off your cool jewelry. If you are an expert at something, then post a vid about you explaining how to do that thing. Unlike YouTube, Revver pre-approves all videos, so if yours is crappy it will quickly be removed. Be creative and make money at the same time!

Get Paid For Your Expert Services Online!

Hello everyone! I wanted to share something cool I found on the internet today where you can actually make MONEY by offering to others information that you already know! Read on...

I read in forums everyday about people who have good websites and get traffic, but just aren't making money because they don't know how to monetize properly. Sure, you KNOW lots about your niche and you have a great looking website with lots of information, but are you getting paid what you think you deserve for your efforts? Many people are making mere pennies a day, if that!

Well, here's something different! At http://www.speak-tome.com/ you can sign up (free, of course!) for a service that places a widget on your site where visitors can pay YOU for the expert knowledge you have in your field. Wouldn't it be cool to get paid for your advice, just like a lawyer, or banker??

Here's how it works. Say, for example, you know a lot about computers and people always seem to be asking you some question or other about them. Why not get paid for your answers? You simply put the "Speak To Me" widget on your site and your visitors click on it to go to you live (when you're online) and they pay a "per minute" rate to get to speak directly to you!

There is only a small percentage fee that goes to the company for providing the service in connecting you with your visitors and, since it comes out of what has ALREADY been paid for your own service, you are never out anything, but you keep at least 80% of the revenue! It's the new way to make money online!

You have NOTHING to lose and another revenue stream to gain, so sign up at http://www.speak-tome.com/ and start making money per minute now!

Website Page Rank Checker

While surfing around the forums I constantly see threads from people asking how to check their website page rank. There's also the confusion between page rank (PR), SERP and Alexa ranking. Here is a clarification for all of my readers who may still be confused about all of this.

PR, or Page Rank, is assigned to a website by Google based on backlinks to your site. These links to your site act as a kind of voting system to determine how popular your site is among all the others and its ranked on a scale from 1 to 10. Contrary to many who argue this in the forums, PR is NOT about getting as many backlinks as possible! If you buy into those "blast of" type scams then you are just throwing your money away. It's important to realize that your Page Rank is determined by QUALITY over quantity. A handful of good backlinks from authority sites will raise your ranking MUCH higher than 1000's of useless ones from a "bad neighborhood".

SERP is simply your position on the Search Engine Results Page. Are you in position #1 on the first page of results for your keywords? Good for you!! Also contrary to popular myth, your SERP position has NOTHING to do with your PR! Do a search for ANY keyword or phrase in a search engine and you'll find that each website listed in the results has a different page rank. The site in SERP position #1 is NOT necessarily going to be the one with the highest PR.

Alexa Rank is based more on your website traffic. If you have a lot of visitors then your ranking with be lower (better) then when you started. This is a rank showing your position among all the other sites on the net, according to traffic stats. The site with the most traffic has an Alexa of 1, while a site just starting out with only a couple of hits a day will be something like 24 million. This used to be determined by the Alexa Toolbar, which users installed in the browser while surfing sites, but they changed that a few months ago and now bring other factors into it to bring a more realistic formula in determining a site's ranking.

They are several places on the net where you can check these various rankings for your site, but the one I recommend most is Site Rank Checker simply because it brings all these ranks together on one easy to read page. I hope your site rans well! All the best to you...

Marketing Promotion

Let's face it...marketing is DULL for most people. I read in a forum about a woman who loves her handmade Etsy store, but HATES to promote the marketing side of it. She hates trying to get visitors through all the traditional methods of promotion and I really can't say I blame her.

One of the key elements to being a success online is to actually ENJOY what you do. Don't promote some long, boring affiliate gateway page if your heart really isn't in it. There are people who do like online marketing, but if you're not one of them then avoid doing something you can't stand, as that will only add to your frustration and make you want to give up your online business without giving it a proper chance.

Find something you like first, and then find a fun way of promoting it, so it will then seem less like work and you'll stick with it longer. Think of the internet as a big flea market where lots of people have stuff to sell, but with social sites you can swap ideas of what works for you. Find forums and sites related to yours and chat with others within your niche.

If you're having fun, then you're more likely to succeed. Your enthusiasm will likely spill over to other aspects of your online business and every little bit helps. Get away from anything you're not happy with now! Enjoy your new business!

Anchor Text

I know most of you understand the importance of using the right anchor text, but I'm writing this with the newbie webmaster in mind and I'm including a few easy tips to get you started.

Basically, anchor text is used in a link (hyperlink) to describe the site or page that this link will take you to. It's a short keyword rich description of the destination website. For example, the proper anchor text for a direct link to my "become a degree broker" post might look like this: Be A Successful Degree Broker! It describes the content for the website, blog, post, page or any other url on the net that you're about to visit.

Easily the most common mistake that people make in writing their text is using very general words like "click here" or "visit us here" or similar, as it doesn't accurately tell the surfer where they are about to go. That may seem ok to you if you're thinking they just need to get there, but anchor text is about way more than just clicking a link. It's also used by search engines to figure out what a site is all about.

This is where it becomes important for you to never generalize your words. If you have a pet store website, then you don't want links pointing to your site that say "check this site out!" or anything like that. You want strong keywords used instead, like "Best Pet Supplies On The Net!" or whatever keyword phrase works for your situation.

One last point of caution I'd like to make is that most people who have a very basic understanding of how this works tend to overdo it by using the exact same phrase EVERY time and, at least in some search engines, this will actually get your site penalized instead of helping you. A good example is when John Chow asked everyone to point to his site using the key phrase "make money online" and, instead of a boost, he got the "Google slap" for his efforts.

The general rule of thumb, according to the biggest search engines, is to not use the same phrase more than 60% of the time. A good workaround for this problem is to use trailing or surrounding text that has your desired words within it. Example: If you want to always have "make money online" as your keyword phrase then just make sure those exact words are in your links BUT have other words with it to make unique link combinations each time, such as "Learn to make money online now!", "make money online blog ideas!" or similar anchor text combinations. You can be very creative this way and not get penalized for doing so. Have fun with it!

All the best to your success!

Free Forum Posting Marketing

I assume everyone reading my blog already knows the importance of posting in forums to get valuable backlinks and a PR boost for their site, but I'd like to add something to that.

I notice many people just post quick comments in forums for the sake of just the backlinks themselves and then leave it at that. While posting a simple comment like "hey everyone!" or "yeah, I agree" will get you a link back to your site, it has very limited potential.

The goal of most web marketers online is to get real, targetted vistors to their site in order to sell to those visitors and make money. To this end, making a simple comment won't do much for you.

What you should be doing instead is being the actual thread starter with an optimized title related to your website getting the backlink. For example, if your site provides work at home money making opportunities like mine, you should start a thread called "Making Money Working From Home" or something similar and then provide useful information for the readers of that forum thread.

This has 2 advantages. One is that the direct readership of the forum can find value in what you say and then want to click the link to your site to read more, which is something they wouldn't do if you're just a commentator to someone else's thread topic. Second, and this is the most valuable, is that for most forums your topic starting post becomes a webpage all on its own which gets indexed by search engines separately, therefore giving you free website promotion.

Pick any forum thread starting topic and see if it opens to a page that looks something like forumposting.com/your-topic-title and, if it does, then you know that any thread you start there will become its own page. Then, when people search for the keywords in your title and content in your post, they could find your information even ahead of your own site, if you post on a forum with high PR. This is great for new or small sites that are buried in the search listings, because at least your thread starter topic post will be found as its own mini site leading back to your original site.

It's another form of free marketing for you!

Good Upline Sponsor Means Downline Success

Here is another post I made at Link Referral. I apologize for not posting more often, but I find it's best to only post when I have something useful to say to my readers, rather than use a bunch of filler just to look active to the search engines, like other people do. I want to stress that I made this specific blog to help other newbie marketers out there and NOT to impress search engines! Now, on to the post...

I've read many stories of success and failure on both ends, from people doing very well for themselves online while others are failing miserably.The biggest reason most people fail online is the lack of a good teacher. Being successful online involves a LOT of learning and many people get buried in all the dizzying amounts of information they read everywhere.

If you participant in an affiliate program or MLM of any kind, then one of the most important keys to your success is your upline sponsor and, unfortunately, if you have one who just doesn't care about you then it can be that much harder to get ahead. When you read all those marketing newsletters, many of them mention the concept of "duplication". For an affiliate program to work it must be something your downline can duplicate to acheive success. This is extremely important.

If you are someone's sponsor and they are in your downline, then it should be your duty to help prevent them from failing. If you are successful, then you need to teach them HOW you made the program work for you. After all, if they do well, then you do well too. Problem is that most people just get sign ups and then abandon their downline with no contact or tips for duplicating their success. This is a recipe for failure.

On the other hand, if you are part of a downline yourself and have just signed up to an affiliate program, you should stay in contact with your personal sponsor and they should contact you to explain how they became a success and teach you the tricks to making money. If your sponsor never offers to help you then you should find another affiliate program that cares more for their downline.

For example, one of the programs I use is EyeEarn. I know you've seen their ads everywhere, but I'm sure you've also seen proof around that it DOES work. If you sign up under someone else and they have no interest in helping, you then you are left to sink or swim based on your own ability to survive in the online marketing jungle. But, if you sign up under me, I personally see to it that you have the tools you need to acheive success, which includes ideas I've personally come up with that no one else is using and, if you've read my posts here, you know I have some great original ideas. Using these ideas I get 5 times more sign ups per month than even the testimonial on the Eye Earn sign up page!

This is true for any affiliate program I promote in that I respond personally to any questions anyone in my downline has. Your success is my success, so I obviously have a personal interest in making sure you do well in whatever program you choose. Too many new marketers forget that fundamental principle of people helping people helping people, as your downline helps their downline etc. Let's all make sure everyone does well and no one gets left behind!

Focus SEO For Buyers

This is from a post I made at Link Referral, where I am a regular participant in the advice forums. I felt it was worthwhile reposting it here to help others focus on a different approach to SEO...

Everyone seems so concerned with bending over for Google and pleasing their algorithm every time it changes that they sometimes miss the potential in the next biggest search engine, Yahoo. You'll notice that the search results in Yahoo can be wildly different from Google, so obviously they use a different set of rules to list results. That can be to your advantage if you're not currently doing so well in Google.

Yes, they have a lot less surfers, as they are a distant 2nd to Google, BUT I've noticed through my research that it's more of a BUYERS audience, and that's what you really want when trying to convert visitors into sales.

I've noticed through experimenting with some of my sites and maximizing some for Google and others for Yahoo, that the ratio of visits to sales is much better in Yahoo, and this is for the exact same products offered through all the sites. This may have something to do with Yahoo being a portal site with a wide variety of visitors, including other sellers with Yahoo stores, whereas Google is still mostly used as a search engine for people just looking up information.

Another bonus I've noticed through Yahoo is, unlike Google, they list subdomains created to get affiliate sales. Those of you who cloak your affiliate links through tinyurl or whatever will notice how Google penalizes that as duplicate site names, as well as penalizing subdomains that point to duplicate content on affiliate pages, but Yahoo allows it and I make FAR more sales from my cloaked subdomains that way.

Yes, Yahoo is a smaller audience, but it's a better converting audience. Would you rather have 1000 visits through Google with 1 sale, or 100 through Yahoo with 5 sales? Don't put all your eggs in the Google basket.

Social Networking

With all the buzz about "Web 2.0" coming, the social networking sites that are at the hub of this new internet phase are gaining in popularity as a potential marketplace for online entrepreneurs. Facebook now allows you to place ads, similar to the Google Adwords campaigns, and online marketers for years have been leaving comments in forums as a way of getting the word out about their site.

It's a constantly shifting internet landscape and the possibilities are expanding as the potential for profiting from social networking increases. However, as with anything related to the fickle internet, these constant changes mean you have to constantly adapt to stay "in the game".

With Facebook ads, for example, even though you may have had a successful Adwords campaign in the past, you'll find the Facebook audience needs a different approach. I find the click thru rate (CTR) to be higher, but the conversions are lower. Unlike Google, the Facebook clickers haven't already searched for your keywords, but see your ad while logging into the site and click more out of interest even when they're not looking to buy anything. This flurry of clicking can drive up your daily ad budget very quickly.

A much cheaper (free) alternative is posting your links as comments in forums and on blogs and social networking sites. However, while posting in forums on social sites can be of a certain benefit, you shouldn't overdo it. At the webmaster forum for Link Referral, where I post often, I see people every day post comments that have nothing to do with the discussion thread they post in, but they do it just to spam the thread with their link. Some even go as far as copying the posts of others, word for word, because they're too lazy to write something original themselves.

I never spam a forum and I'll only post if I actually have something to add to the discussion. I'm honest and I don't want to send someone in the wrong direction, so I won't post in a thread on a topic I know nothing about. Spamming, while it will get your link seen, has no overall advantage since people will see your post for what it is (spam) and they'll avoid your site entirely.

I'm sure many of you with blogs have had spammers leave comments on your site with links to their insurance or pill sites. Would you buy insurance from a site that spams people? I don't think so! So, don't bother doing any comment spamming yourself.

Just find that balance between getting your site seen without being intrusive about it. Offer helpful advice on forums and in comments without being a pest and surfers will want to visit your site to read more. Draw visitors to your ad links through sincerity over hype and you'll soon find yourself with an audience who will actually want what you have to offer them. Just don't overdo it!

EyeEarn Pays! Eye Earn Paid Me!

Eye Earn Pays! This is actually a funny story, so please read on. Ok, so my title sounds a bit overly excited, but it's because I had made a mistake in my early calculations of the SFI EyeEarn program and I was pleasantly surprised yesterday to find I was wrong.

I joined the EyeEarn community because it seemed like an original, novel idea to make money online and offline that was different from all the other affiliate crap out there, which I'm sure you're familiar with. They all seem to pay pennies, if at all, so I wanted something different. Eye Earn was just what I needed. All I had to do was make an initial investment of just $20 for a great kit with the EyeEarn shirt, car banner, stickers and Eye Earn "X-cards" business cards. I got MORE than I was expecting and it was WELL worth the investment.

Within a month of joining EyeEarn I already had made a few dollars and I never even had to sell anything! How many affiliate programs can you honestly claim that you made anything more than a dollar from a month later? Anyway, here's where the story gets funny.

I thought "Great! I made a few bucks. That's not a bad start!" and then went full force promoting it. However, the following month it looked as if I had only made a couple of dollars from Eye Earn still and I was a bit disappointed. Then the next month came and it was still only a bit more. I thought if I was only making a couple dollars a month that it really wasn't worth it. I figured I may as well drop Eye Earn for a crappy PTC program and be just as well off. I was very wrong.

Figuring that Eye Earn was just another bad investment, I lost interest and didn't bother with it anymore. Then yesterday I got a check from SFI and, before opening the envelope, I thought "How is this possible? I only made a bit over 10 bucks!", but it turns out that I had misunderstood their Eye Earn Earnings chart the entire time! Instead of making just a couple dollars more each month, I was actually DOUBLING the amount each month and ADDING the couple dollars to it!

For example, instead of making $10 one month, then $3 the next, $5 the next and so on, at only a few dollars each month, the REAL amount was $10, then $23, then $48, then $104 etc. Do you see where I went wrong? The amount was actually doubling each month and a few dollars added on to the doubled amount. It adds up really quickly that way!

Their own EyeEarn calculator estimates that I'll be making a couple thousand dollars a month after just over a year of being in the Eye Earn community! I didn't think it was possible. I didn't believe it at first. But now I do, and so should you. Yeah, I know you're tired of seeing the ad with the smiling people wearing the Eye Earn shirts and EyeEarn car banners, but try to look beyond that at the real money potential. You'll be glad you did.

I'm a helpful, friendly EA (executive) Eye Earner now, so if you ask me for advice I won't leave you stranded. Just join my Eye Earn team and start earning today! Does this mean I'm promoting EyeEarn again? You bet! Get Seen. Get Paid.

SEO Working With Images

There is a lot of good SEO advice out there related to using keyword tags as part of your page URL, but not much is said about optimizing your website images for search engines as well. When it comes to pictures most people think of just adding an alt tag to the picture image, which basically describes what the image is about. Yes, this is useful, but there is something else you can do as well.

When saving an image file, you should always choose a name with direct search engine friendly keywords. Make sure the keywords are separated with something like an underscore character. For example, if you have an electronics store with images of each product you sell, then you should call your Sony DVD Player website image "sony_dvd_player.jpg". When a surfer wants to take a look at what DVD player models are out there to buy, your image will come up in the image search results and lead the visitor to your store!

This seems simple and obvious, but many people overlook it, especially when taking pics with their own digital camera, where the images are automatically saved on the camera memory card in numerical order (ie. img_001, img_002, etc). Simply rename the image files when using them on your website to a more search engine friendly name.

If your images have the proper SEO work applied to them, they can be a better search magnet to your site than your optimized text! This, of course, is especially true if you're selling anything visual or graphic in nature. It wouldn't be very helpful for a "work at home" site like this one, but can be very useful for many other types of sites.

Many surfers now are just as likely to do an image search as a web search, so the next time they do an image search for something they want to see first, make sure your optimized images draw them to your site ahead of the competition! You'll be glad you did that extra bit of effort before uploading your pictures.

Spring Cleaning Sales Advice

Hi everyone! It's finally spring time and for most of you with online stores that means preparing things for listing in your store or on an auction site. I was reading an article that said online sales on some sites have gone up by as much as 70%! The economy is getting worse with the high cost of living, gas prices skyrocketing, food prices increasing and many related product costs rising.

The increasing amount of people listing items online has forced the asking price of many of these items to be reduced significantly. Keep this in mind when managing your online listings. With everything going on, this may not be the best time to list too many items on a site like Ebay with the hope of a decent return.

I'd advise using all your marketing logic to decide what works for you this time of year and what won't. During spring cleaning you may uncover some gems that seem worth listing, but will you really get what they're worth? Hang on to the valuables for a later time and only sell what you have to. Resist the temptation for a quick buck and you might be surprised down the road by how much extra you can make at the right time. With online marketing, timing can be everything. Don't lose sight of your goals.

Are Meta Tags Keywords Useful Anymore?

I posted before about the importance of keywords in general for good SEO work, so I guess this could be considered as part 2 of that post. Here I'll discuss the importance of Meta Tags. Are they still useful?

There is some debate recently among SEO specialists as to whether or not you even need meta tags anymore. Apparently, some of the biggest search engines no longer consider them important and will either dismiss them or index them only as a general reference for your site category. I know of at least one person with a site on the the first Google SERP for their keywords of choice without ANY meta tags at all or even a site title!

Gone are the days when keyword stuffing would get you top results. Now, it's all about content, and that's how it should be, really. A site without useful content isn't of much value to anyone, so why should they read it? Search engine results are becoming more about presenting useful content to the searchers and surfers on the internet, and with the implementation of "web 2.0", this can be seen as a step in the right direction. Just make sure your site content is useful and relevant to the keyword results you wish to be found in and you'll be ready for the latest Internet revolution.

Until the search engine algorithms change yet again...

Never Give Up The Work At Home Dream

I've been extremely busy lately and haven't had a chance to write in this blog, but I just wanted to post a quick note saying I'm still here! I'm working on another "work at home" article as well, so that should be published soon. You may have noticed that my Wordpress blog was removed. It's a shame because it was doing quite well.
That leads me to my tip for this week: Never give up!! If you want to succeed then you must keep working at it. Nothing comes easy, but if you put in the effort, it will be worth it in the end. Don't give up hope. Never quit. Live your dream to work at home and be your own boss!

A Penny For Your Thoughts

Are you frustrated by the constant barrage of online offers that turn out to be scams? Yes? Well, so am I! There seems to be no end or shortage of all the crap that gets hurled at online marketers these days. I started this blog basically as a means of presenting all the various programs out there and review them for you in advance to explain them and separate the crap from the gold.

I used to laugh at all the obviously lame offers and the "too good to be true" offers out there, but now I'm actually a bit worried. I got an email from one of those "Get paid to read emails" sites today that offered me a penny to come back to my account, log in and read the penny email. That's right, folks...one whole cent! Ooh! A penny for my thoughts!

I don't know whether to laugh or cry. It wouldn't matter if this site was a scam or not, or if they really do pay, as I'm not waiting to find out. My time is valuable. YOUR time is valuable. I only want you to read this if you value my opinion. I don't know if my thoughts are worth a penny to you or not, but I do know that your time is worth more than the cent they offer to you for the time it takes to log in and view that ad for 30 seconds.

You CAN make money online, but you have to be wise about it. You need to invest a small amount sometimes to get started and you need to maximize your time in the best way possible when you start earning that online income. Don't get lured by the promise of a few pennies. You are worth far more than that, my friends...

Monetized Blogs

Monetized blogs have been all the rage for some time now. However, there are a few things you should consider before accepting the hype of making easy money by starting a monetized blog.

There are many books out there about the "easy money" of creating a free blog and simply sticking some Adsense or other ads up and making money. The true part is that, if you use one of the many free blog sites, at least you won't be out a lot of money for start up costs, but you could be out a lot of time instead. Yes, it can be "easy" as well. Just create a free blog, insert some ads or Adsense code and you're good to go. Unfortunately, this WON'T make you any money.

To make money off a blog by using Adsense, Adbrite, or any one of the many other ad publisher codes, you have to have massive amounts of traffic. The average click thru rate (CTR) for most blogs is very small at only a percent or two of your traffic. If only 1 person clicks on an ad out of 100 who visit your blog, then you've only made a couple of cents per 100 visits. Unless your blog becomes VERY popular, then you will only end up with making just that couple cents per day.

I've heard of people who compensate for this low rate by starting MANY blogs, of which they still only make a few cents each, but combined they bring in more. While this is possible, the problem is that if you create 10 more blogs, then you also have created 10 times more work for yourself, and you've still only made a few more cents (NOT dollars!) a day. Is this really worth it?

The amount of effort required to bring in more traffic to make a few cents more is enormous, as good updated content is what brings in the traffic, meaning that you can NOT just start a blog, put up some ads and forget about it. You have to regularily post and update to EACH blog you create. Many people abandon their blogs after they realize it's not as easy as they've been told.

If you've noticed, I do have Adsense ads as well, but it's for more of an experiment than for making actual money. I've never made the payout threshold, and I don't expect to...ever. I have other blogs as well that do not have Adsense and they focus on music and other topics, but this one is for online business topics, so I use the ads here to put things in context to see what works and what doesn't.

If you really want to make money with a blog, I suggest creating good, original content by writing about something interesting on a topic you like and then putting some affiliate program ads or product ads on it that have the potential of making you more than just a few cents. I blog for fun and research, but I offer legitimate online degrees as a Degree Broker to earn my money from them. Yes, you can blog for fun and profit. You just have to find the right balance before you can make it worth the time you must put into it to succeed.

Be Exceptional!

I got asked on the weekend what it takes to succeed online and, while there are many variables, it really comes down to the individual person more than the program they choose. It's possible to make a couple dollars off pretty much anything if you are a real "go-getter". However, the problem is that most people just get lazy online and never make anything because they don't have what it takes to succeed.

Don't take offense to what I'm saying! I'm not saying YOU are lazy, but just that many people online ARE lazy. They don't have a boss watching over them at home and they lack the self discipline it takes to succeed online. To make money online you really have to pull yourself up and above everyone else. You can't just take an affiliate gateway site or throw up a splash page and expect to sit back waiting for the sales to roll in. You'll be waiting a LONG time!

My advice would be to work hard at success and set yourself apart from everyone else. Don't just follow the herd and do what they do. To truly succeed you have to BE EXCEPTIONAL! That's the online reality. If you work at it then the payoff will eventually be worth the effort. I promise...

Search Engine Friendly Keywords

Keywords are obviously an important thing to understand correctly for SEO work on any website, but many people see it as more straightforward than it really is. Most people think they can just list a few of their most important words and the visits will roll in, but it's much more complicated than that.

There was a time when "keyword stuffing" was popular, but now those days are gone. It's all about percentages now. For every keyword you add to your list you are effectively diluting the importance of each word used in a search. The percentage is broken down and divided among those words used.

For example, if you have a website about successful marketing research online, you may use keyword terms like "marketing, research, success, advertise, online", and each word would rate a percentage of 20% out of 100. If you used only 4 keywords then each one would be worth 25%. It works the same with descriptions used as well. The more you use certain keywords in a description, the higher it's percentage of importance will be. There used to be variables such as emphasizing certain words with the use of capitals, but things change so rapidly in the SEO world that it's not as important as it once was.

How the percentage rate effects you when ranking in "organic" (ie. not paid) search engine listings is that, if someone else's site uses the same keywords at a higher percentage, then they will be found ahead of you, regardless of PR or site size. If my own marketing research site used just the keywords "marketing" and "research" then each word would be valued at 50% and, therefore, be more valuable than your keywords at 20%. I've had new sites show up as number one in the listings within a couple days of launch just by keyword percentage strength alone.

What you should do about this is really quite simple. Just use the keywords that are absolutely essential. In my first example, the word "online" isn't necessary, as it's a website, so that should be obvious. Your "success" is also subjective, so should be left out. Just emphasize what really needs to be without overdoing it.

The other point that needs to be addressed is spelling errors. That is another SEO relic of the past. "Experts" would use every spelling mistake variation they could think of in their keywords in the hopes of full optimization. That is also no longer necessary and can dilute your "good" keywords significantly. The majority of your potential search engine visitors will type the words correctly and, hopefully, find you. Those who make spelling mistakes in Google will now see a "Did You Mean" warning at the top showing them the correct spelling for that word. Try typing in a mispelled word and see for yourself! I've had search engine visitors find my sites using all sorts of horrible spelling variations, even though I only use the correct ones.

You should really only need to consider word variations when branding an uncommon name, and that's really an entirely different post altogether, so, until next time, have a great and search engine friendly week!

Your Sweat Equity ROI

Many of you are still clicking links for a penny until your fingers cramp up and you see your computer screen in your sleep! I mentioned before that I didn't understand why people still click links for pennies, but I think I may have it figured out. It's the sense of community that it gives people to join these sites. Many of these sites have cute, friendly sounding names so you feel like you joined a network of friends rather than a big faceless site.

Ok, fair enough, but 0.0002 per click?? I noticed that on a site today where they "bragged" that Jane Doe just make that for the link being clicked. It make me chuckle. I see these sites as a means to an end...a tool to be used in making money, but NOT the money maker itself.

You have to seriously consider how much your time is really worth. You could make more working at a sweat shop factory in a third world country than you could at those programs per hour. Business people often talk about their ROI (Return On Investment) with regards to profit after overhead, but I think online workers should consider the ROI on their own sweat equity as well. Could your time yield more profit doing something else? How much could you realistically make if you just changed your focus?

I'm not suggesting you abandon your online work at home plan altogether, but I AM suggesting you take a good look at what all your hard work clicking for hours every day is bringing you. Are you at LEAST making the current minimum wage per hour you would be otherwise making working somewhere else? If the answer is no then your return on investment for the time spent is not good enough. You ARE worth more than minimum wage, right? I think so!

The Importance Of Being Earnest

I want to stress how important it is to be honest about your online earnings and success. There are so many scams out there that the entire "work at home" industry is suffering because of it, and it's about time we, as entrepreneurs who actually do the "dirty work", laid out our cards to let each other know the good, the bad and the downright ugly.

Instead of trying to scam each other, we should instead expose the big scam companies for what they really are. I'm not just talking about the obvious scam sites either, of which most go out of business rather quickly. I'm talking about some of the big sites we've been hearing horror stories about lately.

No doubt many of you have heard about the Ebay Seller Strike and how poorly Ebay is treating those who have supported the site and pay seller fees. Many of you reading this are likely Ebay sellers as well, working from home to make extra money and were also shocked by some of the irrational changes the company wants to impose.

It doesn't stop there, however. There have also been several horror stories of sellers getting ripped off and gouged by Paypal as well (owned by Ebay). The forums at Link Referral are overrun with these tales of woe, where the "little guy" trying to make a few dollars online has his profits diminished by the rich, greedy corporate bastards at these huge companies.

And let's not forget a certain search engine company, which I can't name for legal reasons, but which I used to admire back in the early days of the internet, when they took on the big search engines at Yahoo and MSN and won. They were the kind of upstart dotcom that really stood for something, back in the day. Now it's all about profit over helping real people. Everyone wants to get to the top of the search engines and now they make BILLIONS every few months helping you get there. They charge you an arm and a leg to place your own ads with them, yet they find every excuse they can NOT to pay you the meagre earnings you might get in return for placing other company ads for them on your own site. I can't even begin to count how many posts I've read in forums of how people almost got to their $100 threshold (which is too high for small sites in the first place), only to have the company suspend or terminate their account for totally arbitrary reasons.

It's time we stood up to these greedy bastards and supported the smaller sites with REAL customer service. I had contacted support from 3 big sites just this week and never heard back from one! I've also read of other people never hearing back from the support at a big site. Do we not count? These big companies do what they can to stomp out the small companies because they know the competition might bury them someday, and they will. I predict many of these big sites will go the way of the dinosaur someday, and soon, if they don't start paying attention to the hand that feeds them.

Unique Website Domain Names Work Best!

My tip for today is something amazingly simple, yet overlooked by the average online affiliate marketer. I know many of you reading this are making money, or trying to make money, by promoting some product or another for a company by using their affiliate link address, which is usually quite long and unappealing. I've seen some REALLY long and cumbersome URL names out there being promoted!

To address this issue of long addresses (I couldn't resist the pun!) there are MANY places that have sprung up all over the net offering to "cloak" your URL or make it shorter. Horror stories of Clickbank commissions being stolen by other affiliates have created cloaking as the method of choice for many affiliates to protect their sales potential.

I, however, would suggest you consider a MUCH better alternative. For less then 20 bucks you can have your very own domain name that can be forwarded and masked (cloaked) to your affiliate website address. This address becomes YOURS and, being unique, is much more search engine friendly than competing with many similar affiliate URL's. Plus, when you own a domain name you get your own professional looking email address with it as well.

Yes, you could use a popular free service like Tinyurl to cloak your long link name, but I urge you to see the reality of that. There are tinyurl links all over the net now, to the point where you are competing with others with similar tinyurl names just as much as you would with the original affiliate url. A tinyurl or similar service url will never be found on its own unless you pay to list it through your keywords on a service like Adwords on Google.

I want to mention a tip here too, since there is much debate over the "proper" way to do URL forwarding or redirection so as not to be penalized by Google. The fact is that it's really a case by case basis, depending on your situation. You should "mask" your forwarded domain if you really don't want surfers to know the destination, as your own domain will stay in the address bar that way. However, keep in mind that your masked keywords used will be ignored by Google and, recently, Google (yet again) changed its algorithm so that it will even remove your domain from the search listings if it appears to be a phishing attempt, so be careful!

If you don't want to cloak or hide your affiliate link, but you just want an easier to remember name then use forwarding without masking the URL, but make sure to pick the "301" permanent redirect option or the search engines will ignore you again, or all sorts of other problems can arise down the road. This works great if you're on a free host as well, since you can just forward your professional sounding domain name to their subdomain or sub-directory URL they give you when you sign up.

The flexibility of having your own domain name and its benefits are enormous. It makes you stand out from the crowd, showing you are unique, which will increase your SALES dramatically. URL forwarding is very easy to set up through your domain registrar, so don't be scared off by thinking it's a difficult task. Look at it this way...which domain name do YOU think a potential buyer to your product would be more likely to click on, your own address at http://www.youruniquesiteaddress.com/ (for example) or an affiliate id at some place that sounds like www.affiliatetrackersalessite.com/id-3576901/saleshop??

My own address here at http://www.adegreeofsuccess.com/ is just forwarded to Blogspot.com, as A Degree Of Success is simply easier to remember and more to the point than http://adegreeofsuccess.blogspot.com/ , don't you agree? Getting your own domain name is a VERY worthwhile low cost investment, which you'll get back quickly with increased sales!

Click the link to increase your sales and make more money today by getting your own domain name now! You'll be glad you did!

Asmodeus' Work From Home Story

It's perhaps a bit late in this blog to be giving you my life story, but I thought this was a good time to tell you a few things about me, if for no other reason than to give you a bit of inspiration to carry on when things get difficult. My friends and regular readers will notice gaps of time in my blog and that is due to the fact that I have an intestinal illness which prevents me from doing anything at all on some days. I get very severe pain and can't even move much on bad days, much less sitting up in front of a computer to update my blog.

However, the part that I'd like to focus on is how working from home has basically saved me from a life of poverty. I had a good job in an office as a supervisor and was doing quite well for myself, I thought, until my illness took it all away from me and prevented full time work as a possibility. I tried several crappy part time jobs, working when I could to try to make ends meet, until I came to the realization that I could NEVER get ahead that way. I'd always be poor, just living day to day.

So, I set my goal to work for myself at home, where I could be comfortable, and do what I could to be successful as my own boss. It was a struggle at first, as it will be for anyone starting off (never believe the hype that you can get rich overnight!), but I fought against all the obstacles that came my way. I've always believed that an obstacle is just a good challenge to find a solution. Those who only see the obstacle without looking for the solution are the ones destined for failure. ALWAYS look at an obstacle as another step in getting ahead once you overcome it, and you WILL overcome it if you choose to work at it!

I tried many different ideas at home. I sold satellite dishes, programs and many different MLM schemes (anyone remember "Project 21"?), but they either didn't work or made very little. Since I didn't want to live my life on a meagre disability pension, I continued on, determined to succeed.

I already had a university degree, so I tried to use my education background to my advantage at home in perfecting techniques that worked. My university training was in logic and solutions, so that helped quite a bit! I got into being a degree broker for various small colleges and universities, and that worked great for me. I recommend being a Degree Broker to anyone who realizes the importance of a good education.

Then I became a Mystery Shopper and I have a lot of fun with that one. I get free food, gas, groceries etc. and, because of this, many of my basic expenses are already covered! I worked my way up the ranks over the years and now am a full fledged service evaluator for my entire region. I plan to write a more detailed post on this topic in the future as there are MANY scams out there related to mystery shopping and I intend to expose those for you.

Among many things I have on the go now, my latest project is running the new EyeEarn Community Network and, so far it's the easiest affiliate program I've ever been involved in. What could be simpler than wearing a shirt or driving a car with a website logo on it? No cold calling or bugging your friends or really pushing it on anyone. People see the website address as you do your daily routine and they join if they want to! You can Join EyeEarn for free and see for yourself!

There are "gurus" out there who will tell you to focus on just one thing to be successful, but you'll notice that the "one thing" always happens to be the program they are promoting. My advice to you is the exact opposite. Try a few different things and see what works for you, after giving each one an honest shot of hard work. If you put all your time into just one thing, as they tell you, and it doesn't work for you, then you've wasted valuable time that could have been used on something else! Always keep your options open.

Even if you only make a bit of money off each idea, then you are creating multiple income streams that, put together, will make you a nice income. That's what I do with my affiliate programs, mystery shopping and my Ebay store and, trust me, it works! I believe almost anyone can be successful if they want to be.

Read Between The Lines

I want you to ask questions. LOTS of questions. I want you to THINK first and THEN react. I want you to research and read and learn and prosper. I want you to be a SUCCESS!!

Got your attention? Good! By now I KNOW you've seen 100's or even 1000's of websites shouting at you about how you can get RICH online if you just do what they tell you to do. They make it sound so simple. Just join their free site and you'll be rolling in the dough a day later. Well, I hate to tell you but it ain't gonna happen. They use what we call hype to get your blood pumping and your adrenaline screaming to action in the hope you'll join them, spend some money, and make THEM rich. You won't get rich yourself and, most of the time, THEY aren't rich either. It's the hype talking.

I've always been honest with everyone in saying that, to make ANY money online, requires patience and a LOT of hard work. Those who tell you otherwise are LYING to get you to join under them. For the record, I myself am NOT rich. However, I DO make a living working at home. I've been doing it for 7 years now and I work at home for myself, using the ideas I share with you in this blog. I make a decent income and it's enough that I no longer have to work in the "rat race" for someone else. I also have a nice home up on a high hill by the ocean (see photo at bottom of page taken from my front lawn). I do fine on my own, doing what I do.

I mention all this because some of you are STILL getting sucked in by the hype of those flashy websites. As I surf around forums and click sites I see 1000's of hyped up claims that never amount to anything. There was one today saying I'd make a "cool million" just by reading emails. Wow! If it was really THAT easy I don't think anyone would ever go back to work again! We'd all be millionaires!!

So, what's a poor surfer to do? Read between the lines. Don't be distracted by the hype. THINK about what you are reading and see if it makes sense. A million for reading emails? Nope.

I'll leave you with an example I read 2 days ago of a site run by a self-proclaimed internet success "guru". I don't want to give too much info to identify the site, as I'm not here to slag the marketing hype of others, but I just want you to be aware of what to look for. I was sent a message through Adland of a "great" free eBook on the mistakes others make online. Curious, I read it and this "successful guy" wrote about how well he was doing. He had a pic of him with his fancy car and house. He said that I, too, could be as successful as him. He certained LOOKED successful in the photo and information presented.

However, upon closer inspection, I noticed a pattern. He was claiming to be making that "six figure income" we hear about all the time, yet he was clicking for ad credit on a FREE site. He claimed to be bringing in over $100, 000 a MONTH! Heck, if I was making over 100k a month, I could afford to market myself with a full page spread in Time magazine! I could afford to advertise ANYWHERE I wanted.

Also, he kept saying you need to work hard and focus on just ONE program to get rich. He kept repeating that he only uses ONE program to make over 100k a month. After reading several pages of his eBook, he gave a link to this one program which, of course, was his. Now, I'm not saying we don't all promote our programs, as I do too, but he claimed that one program is all you need, yet had several of his own affiliate links plastered throughout the pages. If he's making 100k from just one program, why is he trying to make a few cents off an affiliate link to someone else's program site? Makes you wonder, doesn't it? Read between the lines...

Be Intelligent And Be A Success!

I'm going on a bit of a rant today, so please forgive me. I'm quite frustrated and I'd like to get a few things off my chest, so I'll get right to it.

Something like 95% of you are going about things the WRONG way and are wasting your time. I know this seems a bit harsh, but I feel really frustrated when I see good people who have no hope in ever succeeding with their online business. To really, actually and honestly make any money online you have to use your BRAIN more than anything else. That's why they call it business SMARTS! I'm going to break down one of the most common problems right here and now.

There seems to be a major problem out there with spelling. Even if your primary language is NOT English, then use a dictionary if you plan to write in English. This is not merely a pet peeve, but a serious flaw in those trying to get ahead. I was looking around the Linkreferral site today and was amazed at how many sites have spelling mistakes RIGHT IN THE DOMAIN NAME! Think about that. Your domain name is your "store name" to the world and you spent time AND money to register it. Shouldn't you be very careful in spelling it out to make sure it's perfect first? I'm not talking about cute, on purpose mistakes to make the domain stand out. These are glaring errors. If you can't spell your own domain name, then either use dictionary.com or don't register it at all!

The other frequent spelling errors occur in site descriptions and keywords. Yes, I know that incorrect spellings are commonly used on purpose for keywords, and that's fine, but you should also make sure you include the CORRECT spellings as well. Search engines will find your site according to the text you use and if your main keywords are spelled wrong, then they won't find you. Even worse, some search engines even penalize your site in the ranking for being poorly written!

Here's a good example. Say you have a site for making money online and, obviously, you want people to come visit your site. So, you write a description, but it's full of spelling errors like "com hear for gret idees on how mak munee and get ritch qik. bee a suksess now!" Ok, I know you're laughing because that's an extreme example, but I've actually seen real descriptions almost that bad! Joe Surfer, who is looking for a good opportunity online might type the following words into his search engine of choice: "make money, success, rich, ideas". What sites do you think he'll find? He'll see a list of all the sites with well-written, search engine optimized keywords, and NOT the kind of garbage in my first example. The spelling mistakes you make will never match the search terms you want, so be careful when writing your descriptions!

Again, I'm not trying to pick on anyone with poor English or spelling skills. I'm just showing the reality of the situation, and the sooner you understand that, the faster you will be back on the road to success. Think of it this way: If your domain name is spelled wrong and your description and keywords are wrong, then you're not just off the road to success, but you're actually off the information highway completely, at a dead end where no one will find you!

You have to get SERIOUS about your online business, and being intelligent is a big part of that. No one will want to join your opportunity if you, as the sponsor, seem clueless and unable to explain things clearly. I'm telling you this because I WANT to see you succeed! Good luck!

No Such Thing As Passive Income!

I know you've all seen LOTS of ads screaming at you about the joys of "passive income" and how you can make huge truckloads of money in your sleep, and I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it's all a LIE! They are just trying to scam your lazy side. A big part of why I started this blog was to expose some of the crooks out there, while also showing you how to actually BENEFIT from their schemes. Many of us want something for nothing, or at least to make money with the least amount of work, and that is the weakness that the scammers prey upon.

Truth is, anything you do is going to come at a cost. If you want to be a free member of a site without paying anything, then be prepared to click endless links or read bottomless junk mail until your fingers virtually bleed, in exchange for perhaps a few pennies per hour for your time. Never underestimate the value of your "sweat equity"! Your time is worth MUCH more than a few cents an hour, but you just have to be made aware of that. Working from home seems easy when told you just have to view some ads or emails, but it NEVER pays off in any real income payoff.

There was a time, during the internet boom of a few years ago, when all you had to do was throw up a few banners on a site and then go to bed while the money rolled into your bank account. However, any honest and REAL internet entrepreneur will tell you that those days are LONG GONE! These days, in the so-called "web 2.0" period, a person has to WORK really hard to achieve any degree of success. There have been so many scams out there over the years that now people are more wary of buying anything online unless it's from a trusted online establishment, and your small affiliate page with your smiling picture on it just won't do.

You now have to go WAY beyond that. You have to assure your potential customer that you aren't going to rip them off. You should be comfortable yourself with any affiliate program you associate with and, no matter what they tell you about your "warm market", do not spam your friends. If you are promoting a program you truly believe they might want to look at, then send to them a personal friend email asking how they are doing and just mention the program as an aside as something they should look into. When you send a bulk spammy email to everyone, including your friends, it seems impersonal and they will feel insulted, and you don't want ANY potential customers to feel that way.

Keeping all that in mind, technically you CAN make money while you sleep, but it's not really "passive" after you consider the endless hours you need to put into making it all work. It's the work you do when NOT sleeping that will make you money later on. I DO make a living working from home, but I also work sometimes 18 hour days to make that happen, and you should be prepared to do the same thing if you want to be truly successful.

I participate in and maintain 73 different websites and affiliate programs, and that requires a great deal of effort in terms of time and organization. I don't intend to make an exhaustive list of all the programs I'm involved in here as, truthfully, many aren't worth the effort and I participate mainly as an experiment so I can report on the "good, the bad and the ugly" to you here in my blog. I stick with a program long enough to determine if it's crap or if it's worth pursuing, and then I report on it accordingly. Those programs that make it to this blog are the ones that have been tested to have at least SOME benefit to the average user. That may be in the form of FREE advertising (ie. WebCentreSurf or the like) or in REAL income that can make you a living working from home (ie. Degree Brokering). What you choose to do is up to you, but, as always, I wish you the all the best!

Join The Fun NEW EyeEarn Money Maker!

Finally! Here's a fresh and innovative new concept for those tired of working endless hours trying to promote a crappy concept that's never gonna make you any REAL money anyway. You don't have to promote a site, or spam your friends, or click until your fingers go into convulsions. You simply put a small cling-on banner on your car and wear a shirt with the website addy on it! That's it!!

With this unique way of promotion, you are not actually trying to get referrals under you. How it works is that by wearing the shirt whenever you want and just regular driving of your car, you are giving exposure to the website and some people will see it and join. The cool thing is that you get paid from the pool of EVERYONE who has joined up since you have! No pressure to make sales or get sign ups! Of course, it's a no brainer that you should sign up as soon as possible with a new program like this. I had 47 sign ups after me just within an hour!!

They have a cool tag line for advertising the program: "Get Seen. Get Paid." and it REALLY is that simple to make money! CLICK HERE NOW for more info on this exciting and fun new program!

Need Traffic? Surf For Credit!

I'm Back! I hope everyone had a great week and many successful ventures.

My post for today is focused on what I call the "surf for credit" type sites, also known as surfing for cash or credit. Very similar to what I mentioned in my Adbux post, but with a couple of important differences. (By the way, Adbux was having some problems with their site hosting and have moved, in case you noticed it was down).

The important differences are that with the surf programs the sites will breeze right by in front of your eyes while you watch, whereas the Adbux type ones you have to specifically click on the ad text to see the full site. The other thing is that, technically, there is no money adding up for you as you surf the credit sites, since you are being "paid" in credits to be used for your own ads. While you CAN make a little money with their affiliate programs, that requires more effort, whereas with Adbux and the like you can start making your few cents on your own right away. The thing they ALL have in common, as far as I'm concerned, is that they shouldn't be thought of as a means to make any amount of riches, but as a cheap means of getting advertising traffic for whatever program you choose that WILL make you rich.

That being said, I'll just give a quick overview of 2 surf credit sites I recommend along with the pros and cons of each. There are MANY sites out there, but 2 of the best to get started are the WebCentreSurf traffic site and the ad traffic exchange at TrafficG. The obvious first difference between these two is that the Webcentre site is more user friendly and easier to start than the TrafficG site. The TrafficG site takes more effort to list your sites and add descriptions while at Webcentre you just copy and paste your site addresses and you're good to go.

Each one features fun symbols to click on for credit as you view the sites. At WebCentre you have to watch each site for 10 seconds and when the timer hits 0 you have to click on a matching symbol or color to confirm your credit. The rapid trivia for bonus points helps keep you paying attention if you start nodding off while surfing! The main stats page is also very user friendly and easily understood. Surf ratio is 40% unless you upgrade. Also, you can only list up to 5 sites as a free member.

TrafficG has a 30 second timer and no trivia games, but there is what they call a "skill card" which you have to click on once in awhile to prove you are still viewing the sites. Their symbols are generally cartoon characters as well. They have a promotional page where you can list all your sites on one page, which I found handy. They also offer a starter page option for your browser. Surf ratio can be 1:1 without upgrading, but only after you surf for awhile. You can list as many sites as you like for free.

To summarize, Webcentresurf is fun, easy and to the point when surfing. TrafficG offers many other features (perhaps too many) for a beginner with only 1 or 2 sites to promote. Your pick depends on what you require from them. My recommendation for listing them here is that they are both FREE services in which you can create ads for your websites and programs and have them seen by 1000's of people looking for what you are selling. Both also have a hit counter telling you how many times your ads/sites were viewed and you can list several on each site. So, what have you got to lose? It's FREE advertising for you! Check them BOTH out NOW!!

Have A Successful Week!

I just wanted to add a quick post letting everyone know that I'll be in the hospital for the next couple of days, so I probably won't get any new posts in this week. I haven't been feeling well lately, but I hope everything will turn out ok. I guess I could turn that into a tip for this blog as well, and that would be to hang in there, even against all odds. It may seem like a constant struggle to get ahead in life, but when you see an obstacle you should look for a solution and not give up! It may take awhile, but eventually you WILL succeed! Believe in yourself!
Until my next post, have a great week and here's to your future success!

Become A Degree Broker!

I've had several people on some of the forums ask me what work at home program works best for me. If you've been following my posts then you'll know that I'm not about promoting one program over the other. I don't use my posts to recommend programs for 2 reasons:

1. What works well for me may not also work for you,
2. This site is meant for helpful general advice and tips, rather than pushing programs.

However, that being said, I will answer the question based on the fact that I've already written articles about this and so my answer is already out there if you can Google it. My personal preference is to work from home as a degree broker for various colleges and universities. I have tried many different things and brokering is BY FAR the best one for me.

Forget those stupid pay per click programs where you get a whole lousy penny for your time, unless you are using them NOT for money, but for your own advertising purposes (see my previous post). I'm truly amazed when I read forum posts about people who are overjoyed about actually making it to their $10 threshold. Do they not realize how truly small $10 is for all the time they put into it? They could work 18 hour days in a sweatshop and be better off! Seriously.

The whole PURPOSE of a "work at home" program is that you can make enough to actually WORK AT HOME, without having to follow the "rat race" to your job every day. How is 10 bucks going to help you? You need to actually make roughly what you make at your day job in order to eventually quit and work from home.

As a Degree Broker, I actually HELP people get ahead in their career by offering low cost degrees to people who cannot afford full tuition. It's real, legal and a much faster way to get ahead. You've probably noticed how many ads there are from universities offering online education degrees posted all over various websites. It's because it's quickly becoming BIG business and every school wants a piece of the pie. This is where you come in, acting as a broker for the schools to help people who need it and everyone wins!

As a degree broker, the commission is the highest that I've ever found, and is enough for me to live at home without having to "work" at a day job. That's REAL income and not the fake payouts that some other places may promise, but never deliver. Also, you never have to pay out anything yourself, which should be common sense for ANY job, work at home or not. Any program that wants you to pay out anything to them for an "upgrade" is scamming you! Remember that.

As with anything, don't take my word for it or anyone else's. Read the FAQ I have set up at http://instant.adegreeofsuccess.com/ and see what it offers at no risk to you.
All the best to your success in the future!

Combining Programs To Maximize Profits

Hello! I hope everyone is doing well!
For my tip today I wanted to give a quick example of how you should combine the programs available to you in order to maximize effect and profits. I know you have some sort of affiliate program to sell, in either an ad or a website you are trying to promote, but how do you get that message across with the least amount of investing and effort on your part? Well, there are many ways.
The most obvious ones are to join a link exchange program to promote your website, or an ad forum to post an ad. I have some fast, free and easy ones to join listed in my links. However, one other way that works amazingly well is to join a pay per click (PPC) or Paid To Click (PTC) program site. I know you're thinking "Oh, those don't make any money. I tried one and only made a few cents!". Exactly. I couldn't agree more, and I don't recommend them to actually make any money, but rather, to use them as a free advertising forum for your product.
This is putting a bit of a twist on it when you use it NOT as a means to make money. Let me give you an example. If you were trying to make money, the average threshold for most of those programs is $10, which would take the average person MONTHS to acheive. They also don't tell you that, once you join, there are hardly ANY ads to click in the first place, so there's virtually no way to make any big profits.
However, you CAN use this to your advantage. If you join a program like Adbux (in my link list) they have a system where you can exchange your click credits for views of your own site to others. Now, the vast majority of people are in it for the money only and don't even consider that, but when you see how few ads there really are, and that they have a membership currently OVER 700,000 (ALL greedily looking for new ads to click), then you realize what a potential marketing goldmine it is.
So the plan is simple. You join up at no cost to you, then click their ads until you reach the exchange credits threshold (which is only 75 cents!) and then put your ad/site up for everyone else to see. Keep in mind too that these are all people looking for "work at home" money making programs, so it's the perfect target audience!! And it's all FREE advertising! Can't go wrong there. Tip: When choosing your interests upon sign up, make sure you pick "biz2biz", "get Paid to" and the like. While you may like music and sports and the other categories, there are NO ads for these topics, so you'd be out of luck. You must pick all the money making type topics for it to work.
Until next time, have a great week!

Sunday Is A Work Day Now!

I know many of you probably think of Sunday as a traditional day of rest. Perhaps you go to church in the morning or gather with friends and family for a big supper and relax in the evening. That may be a nice way to spend a day, but if you are to succeed in the "work at home" field, then you must learn to alter your lifestyle a bit.

That doesn't mean you have to give up your traditional values, but you must rearrange things a bit in order to fit in time for your new business endeavors. In the case of online work at home, Sunday is usually the best work day of the week! Until your online business takes off you will still likely be working at your regular 9-5 job during the week, which only leaves the weekend to get many other projects done, including your home based business.

Since many other people also only have Sunday as a day to relax, they are more likely to be "winding down" by Sunday evening and maybe doing a bit of surfing around the internet. This is your best time to find a prospective buyer for your product. Ask any seasoned Ebay store owner and they'll tell you to make sure your auction time ends in the evening, as this is when your buyers will most likely be around. If you have any changes to make to your website or ads, make sure you do it in time so that it's out "live" to the public by the start of Sunday evening. Take into account the different time zones according to where your target audience is as well. You don't want them to be sleeping when they should be seeing your updates!

That's it for today. As always, here's to your success!!

The Winter Is Upon Us!

Well, its now officially winter, at least if you live in North America. It's cold and snowing every other day. There is ice on my car and I have to bundle up with 6 layers of clothing before going outside! BRRRR!!!

Some People LOVE winter and others HATE it. If you love to go out skiing or building a snowman with your kids, then it can be quite fun. Others are miserable and suffer from SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) and the winter blues gets them down. Most people agree that winter is a time when things move slower and most people stay inside.

By now you are thinking "I thought this was a Marketing Forum? Why is this crazy person telling me about snow and cold weather??!". Well, it's quite simple, really. When you work from home at an online business, winter is the BEST time of year! This is the time of year when you should be working the hardest to get your product and ideas out there to the masses.

Most times with an online business it's difficult to find an attentive audience, as so many people are busy or out doing things that must be done. They don't have time to read and study your presentation with so much to do in their busy lives. However, during the winter season, they are less likely to go out and are more likely to be inside on the computer, surfing the web. It's warm inside and they don't mind sitting down for awhile to read your ad or offer.

There is a term among online business owners called "Summer Slowdown", meaning that when more people go outside during the warmer summer weather, they aren't inside buying your product on the computer. So, if you are to make it in this business, you have to take advantage of the time your potential customers stay inside.

It doesn't matter what you are selling! NOW is the time to take action and reap the rewards! Get yourself out there in front of your attentive audience while you can. The next 3 months are crucial to your success online and, in some cases, will make or break you as an internet entrepreneur.

As always, all the best to your success in the future!!

All The Best In The New Year!

So, here we are in another year...2008! What will the new year hold for you? Will you be rewarded with the success you deserve or will it be another year full of financial pain and struggle? You have to ask yourself first how far you are willing to go to succeed. There is no such thing as a "get rich quick" scheme...you have to work really hard to get ahead, and anyone who tells you differently is lying to you.
Sure, there are people who make money online in their sleep (myself included), but what you don't see is all the long hours put into making that dream a reality. You have to post and manage ads, mailing lists, set up websites, join programs and learn all the time. You have to follow trends and be constantly on top of everything 24/7 with all that you do online. I sometimes put in 18 hour days online (no kidding!) and you have to be willing to make that same sacrifice to get ahead.
Those people who appear to be truly successful are doing an enormous amount of work "behind the scenes" and they rarely get to take any time off. They can go on vacation, but they would have to take a laptop comp with them to prevent from getting too far behind in their efforts. The point is that there is no such thing as an easy road to riches. You CAN make money, but you have to have patience and perseverence. I know I may seem like a broken record on this one, but it's worth repeating as a resolution for the new year.
On a positive note, don't give up and eventually your dreams can come true! Good Luck!