Make Money From Home

Making Money from Home — Can You Make It Work?

Laurie — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 03:59:01 +0000

One of the things I’ve learned is that when you want to make a living online, you’ve got to stick with one system to make it work. When you hop all over the place, from system to system and method to method — you lose the momentum for success. Your energy gets split and dissipates. Sure, there’s a variety of ways to make money online, but first and foremost it takes discipline. It takes following a system and doing it. When you find a product or method that works for you — stick with it.

You can spend hours spinning your wheels following every new idea that comes along, but usually what happens is you dip your toes in swish them around awhile, get unfocused and go onto the next “new” thing looking for the quick and easy way to make money online. Well, there really isn’t a “quick” way to do it, but when you follow a step-by-step system, it certainly isn’t hard. But most people who try to make money online — roughly 95 percent of them — quit because of just this reason. And the funny thing is, they usually stop right about the time that they could be “making it big.”

To that end in March of 2011, I quit my full-time decent paying job to work online from home. After 40 years working for everyone else, this was a HUGE deal for me. It scared the “hell” out of me because I was used to that every two-week paycheck. I quit just before I turned 58, and I took a lot of fear with me. We had a “huge monthly nut” to make each month, but my husband and I both agreed that we would do it, whatever the result. I couldn’t take the weekly grind and commute any longer. For twenty years of my working adult life, I commuted two hours to and from work each day. I was driving a bazilliion miles a week and my butt couldn’t take it any longer.

I started out with a bang, because I was mostly just doing freelance writing — and though my affiliate sales still trickled in, in total about $100/a month, I ignored that and went to work just on my freelance writing. The first mistake I made is that I did not diversify my clients and the HUGE client I worked for started to dive — especially after all the Google changes — and I went right down with them. Unfortunately, this caused a big fracas in our home, and we are being forced to reinvent ourselves at a time in life when most people retire.

And with Google’s Panda Penalties and its other search engine reinventions, I’ve learned that I need to put my eggs into many baskets, not just ONE and incubate them so they multiply. I’ve got to develop my income across several streams. Along with my freelance writing, which is paying the basic living expenses thank God — I’m going back to developing the affiliate end of my business.

So my husband and I are starting over again — reinventing our lives and changing the way we live. What was important yesterday is no longer important today. We’re downsizing, but in a good way, even though from all outward appearances, it doesn’t quick look that way.

Right now I’m working with Sara Young to get me back in the “swing” of things and to help me develop a system for my affiliate marketing. Yes, I’ve used many systems and had success with them, but I petered out because I got bored — and I had all the steady income from the day job and then the freelance work that I let the affiliate marketing stuff fall to the wayside. So, I’m reading through the Easy Paycheck Formula right now and I have to admit I’m pretty excited. I was pleased to find she has updated it because of all the changes made by Google — exactly what I needed because I’ve sorta been out of the loop on that stuff. What I like even more: she’s understands writing. And she’s a mom. Of 6!

A mom of 6, working from home, writing for the Internet and making a 6-figure salary. Hmmm. Do I have to do the math here? I think this is someone I need to spend some time with. For someone starting all over (though not entirely starting from scratch), this is good for me. The writing part I “got,” but I’ve never really been able to take my affiliate sales beyond the $100/a month mark. Mostly because I basically abandoned it to freelance write and create content for others. Being an Aries, keeping my focus on one thing can be difficult, even though I have written two books and have plenty of ideas for more. But in order to write them, I need to be able to get some income coming in to support my writing. While freelance writing is good, if I “overdo” it there, it takes away from my desire to write fiction. It’s a whole mental “track” switch that I haven’t quite nailed down.

So I picked up her product and I’m just now getting into it and so far, so good. I think it’s because she’s a “mom” that she speaks my language. She makes it simple. While I am refreshing myself with the basics of what I’ve learned, I know I am going to gain some keen insight because I plan to follow her “affiliate marketing” track and get it right. Many people start out trying to make money online and they give it up because they get distracted. The Internet is a HUGE distraction — so the first thing is FOCUS.

FOCUS, FOCUS, FOCUS.

Second is commitment. That part’s easy for me. Being the Aries that I am, and someone who lived in a trailer atop a hill just outside of Yosemite (without running water and electricity I might add for longer than most), I can tell you that I am one stubborn person who does not give in. I WILL not give in. I will, however, admit when I’m wrong — and the thing I did wrong — but didn’t see coming was to rely on one MAIN source of Internet income. I knew better too, but I was basking in the joy of working from home and didn’t see what was coming. Plus working through all my internal money issues (which is often harder the older you are because you’re more stuck in your ways), has been at the heart of all that. That all comes from the spiritual side of things and I’ve been hunkering down there as well. So it’s no wonder I created this whole scenario for me to start “over.”

You can bet I was surprised to see that Sara offers “Money Magnet” created by Dr. Anthony as a bonus download when you sign up for Easy Paycheck Formula. While I have a PLETHORA of how-to’s on my computer from many an Internet marketer, and only a handful of them really work, you can bet I’m happy to be signed up for her program. You see, she also includes some great information for moms and dads living on a budget. This woman has it nailed — and she tells you the main points right off.

Her program costs $47 to sign up. You’re offered a chance to extend it to her “Easy Paycheck Formula on Steroids” and continue to get updates on a month-to-month basis — but that’s your choice. In any case, I’m in and I *know* that this program will take me where I want and plan to go in the next few years.

Everything that I’ve seen is very organized in a step-by-step manner. For the person who doesn’t know anything about the Internet or needs a refresher to REFOCUS like I do, this is where you need to be if you want the freedom of working for yourself.

Google Penalties: What’s It All About?

Laurie — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 21:26:13 +0000

All-in-all I don’t see an issue with Google penalties. This site is among the 20 plus sites I manage and was the only one that experienced a “Google Penalty.” I was using an auto-blogging software to add content. The only problem was I kind of forgot about it. Along with those “articles” came a host of backlinks. After reviewing nearly 7 pages of backlinks, I ended up deleting 4 pages of them — why?

Because they were crap.

What Google is doing is penalizing crap and spammy sites. Yes, yours can get included accidentally, which after reading Google’s forums many have had this happen. But in the case of valid sites, within a few days they were back up. One of the problems is that many people saw an easy way to make money by scamming others. There’s no integrity involved or transparency for that matter in these scenarios. Just plow into one of those sites and you’ll see the problem. Many people have been trying to find a “push-button” way to make money on the Internet and use all kinds of questionable means to do so. Frankly — what they need to do is get off their duffs, start working and quit scamming people.

I’ve never really worried about any of my sites because I do all the writing for them (except for this one — I imported content over the pages I already had that I created originally). That and the bad links got me a penalty with Google. They were right to do so. When I started this site, I was new to Internet Marketing. I didn’t know then what I know now nearly five years later. I still believe that if you find your passion and follow through with it, keep original content on your site (you can check it here: copyscape.com) and double check that you haven’t accidentally pulled content from elsewhere, you’ll be fine. As a former journalist, if you’re going to pull content, make sure you put the content into quotes so that it is recognized as not coming from you. Always quote the original contributor to keep your copy clean.

With original content, honest-to-goodness links from other sites that pick up an article of yours in syndication, and no behind-the-scenes trying to climb up in the rankings “illegally,” Google will not have a problem with your site. I don’t blame Google for penalizing sites that are trying to increase their page rank by nefarious means. My mistake is that I thought I’d be adding valuable content, only to find that many of these articles linked to bad sites (I took some bad advice with the auto blogging feature).

You can also be penalized even though your content is fine when your site links to a site that Google deems questionable. When I went through my links (and it’s my fault I ignored these for a while), out of 7 pages, 4 of them were filled with links to 404 pages, link farms or the website had been taken down already. To the Googlebot, this is indeed suspicious looking.

You can resubmit your site to Google when you remove all the crap — and they will look it over for re-indexing. Anything that looks suspicious, remove it. This includes comments from spammers. Install a plug-in to your site to catch spammers and don’t approve comments from those who are just trying to ride on the back of your website. Honest-to-goodness real live comments or links from reputable sites will never be a problem with Google.

Basically it’s time to clean house — and everyone should be paying attention. No more “fast buck” attempts to falsely generate traffic. Really, really pay attention to your links and review the “Quality” terms and conditions Google has — yes it may be a giant — and yes it is controlling things to a certain degree, but the Google network is its own. If you find you don’t get the rankings you want, take a good look at your site and get rid of questionable material.

Here’s what Google says on link schemes:

Your site’s ranking in Google search results is partly based on analysis of those sites that link to you. The quantity, quality, and relevance of links count towards your rating. The sites that link to you can provide context about the subject matter of your site, and can indicate its quality and popularity. However, some webmasters engage in link exchange schemes and build partner pages exclusively for the sake of cross-linking, disregarding the quality of the links, the sources, and the long-term impact it will have on their sites. This is in violation of Google’s Webmaster Guidelines and can negatively impact your site’s ranking in search results. Examples of link schemes can include:

Links intended to manipulate PageRank

Links to web spammers or bad neighborhoods on the web

Excessive reciprocal links or excessive link exchanging (“Link to me and I’ll link to you.”)

Buying or selling links that pass PageRank

I don’t think this is unreasonable. When I reviewed the 7 pages of links and a full page that had yet to be approved — I found many of them no longer linked to a website. While someone may have posted an article I wrote a while back — during the time my site has been up for a while now, they let their domain expire. This leaves a lot of 404 pages — and to the Googlebot, it may look scammy. Get rid of any links that are broken and are not from reputable sites.

Make sure you use original content and you provide value to those looking for information.

Quality first, always.

Here’s what Google has to say about quality and content:

Thin affiliate sites: These sites collect pay-per-click (PPC) revenue by sending visitors to the sites of affiliate programs, while providing little or no value-added content or service to the user. These sites usually have no original content and may be cookie-cutter sites or templates with no unique content.

Doorway pages: Pages created just for search engines

Auto-generated content: Content generated programatically. Often this will consist of random paragraphs of text that make no sense to the reader but that may contain search keywords.

Scraped content: Some webmasters make use of content taken from other, more reputable sites on the assumption that increasing the volume of web pages with random, irrelevant content is a good long-term strategy. Purely scraped content, even from high-quality sources, may not provide any added value to your users without additional useful services or content provided by your site. It’s worthwhile to take the time to create original content that sets your site apart. This will keep your visitors coming back and will provide useful search results.

I can’t argue with any of that — can you?

After all, if we provide valuable content, and Google has gotten rid of or de-indexed crap, it makes it that much easier for your site to be found. And do remember this: Google is only ONE search engine, yes the biggest, but there are others that provide traffic to your site.

Avoid auto blogging or content scraping, link schemes and more and you should be ok.

Remember to keep a positive attitude and keep your website’s nose clean and all should be well in Google-land.

Is Wealthy Affiliate University a Scam?

Laurie — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 20:06:50 +0000

Do you have a problem finding the right program to teach you about affiliate and internet marketing? You may have looked into the Wealthy Affiliate Program and wondered if this program is a scam. Is the Wealthy Affiliate University a Scam?

In all fairness I have to tell you that I am a member of the Wealthy Affiliate University. I’ve been a student of this program since late June of last year, and using the techniques I’ve learned I have generated well over $2,000 so far. And that’s only spending roughly 4-5 unfocused hours a week.

To increase my revenue I need to get more focused with my online activities, but it is soooo easy to be distracted by the newest shiny object or email promising internet riches. The only thing I have found that works so far is consistent focused activity as taught by the Wealthy Affiliate University

So far, for what I have seen online (and I have gone through countless number of programs) the Wealthy Affiliate University is not a scam.

It’s got a simple fee structure: $39 a month and in this one PLACE you can learn everything you need to learn about affiliate and internet marketing. Many programs only offer you one arm of internet marketing. The Wealthy Affiliate University offers you all of them.

Internet and affiliate marketing is one of the fastest growing online businesses today. Ordinary people from all walks of life are turning to the internet to create extraordinary wealth working just a few hours a day from the comfort of their home.

It’s easy to become overwhelmed reading all the programs and websites out there and even reading articles like this one. But for me, I wouldn’t steer you wrong about Wealthy Affiliates, frankly I don’t want the karma.

Drawbacks of the Wealthy Affiliate System

The main problem at the Wealthy Affiliate University Site is the fact that there is TOO much information. Seriously, once you sign up and pay for your membership, you log-on to find yourself completely overwhelmed — where to begin?

Because there is SO much to do on the Wealthy Affiliate site, the best thing to do is develop tunnel vision and stay focused on the project at hand: learning about Affiliate Marketing. Don’t be presumptuous, everything on this site is there for a reason, and even if you think you know about affiliate marketing, do the coursework any way. You need this foundation.

Here’s a few things of what you will get with your Wealthy Affiliate membership:

Detailed Internet Marketing Coursework
Detailed and step by step action plan
Coaching and Support
Ready-made website templates
Advanced Keyword Research tool – spy on the competition
Free Website Hosting
Forum membership — Excellent Resource
Niche Marketing Course
PPC Marketing Course
Article Marketing Course
Free Website Builder (Site Rubix)
Training Videos
And so much more…

So if you’re waiting to get a better job, why not make that waiting pay off and join the Wealthy Affiliate University and spend an hour or two each day and see what kind of money you can make.

Join the Wealthy Affiliate university today!

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The Best Way To Make Money On Ebay

Laurie — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 17:36:17 +0000

Many people want to know how to set up a work from home business on eBay. This can depend on what you are selling, but there are some considerations that every seller should follow.

Laying proper groundwork for any business is an extremely important step. Just like building a house, a business built on a solid foundation will last for years. Overlooking these details can result in your eBay business not going as well as you would like.

First you need to have a camera – preferably digital and internet access – ideally from home. Without these items selling on eBay will be difficult at best. Next, you should have a bank account and a PayPal account.

PayPal is not required to sell on eBay, but it is the easiest way to accept online payments if you do not already have a merchant account. Find an area in your home, shed, or rent a storage unit for your inventory. Be sure that any rental unit is rodent and pest free. The same holds for a storage shed or attic. If possible, do not smoke in the area where you plan to keep inventory.

Now you have the very basics in place. Are you ready to sell? Not quite yet. There are still a few areas to cover. Check with your zoning regulations for laws about running a home business.

If your area has a property owners or home owners association and there are restrictive covenants in your neighborhood, be sure that you can legally run a home business. Starting out this may not be a problem but once you start getting large deliveries several times a week, if you are in violation of zoning or HOA/POA rules, someone will complain.

Apply for any variances now, before your business gets really busy. Just a few more things to cover before you start to sell, get a resale certificate or sales tax ID number. In order to purchase form many wholesalers this is required.

Otherwise they will charge you full retail price or not sell to you at all. You can sell under your own name, or file a D.B.A or fictitious name. D.B.A. stands for doing business as. You can open a bank account in the business name once you file the correct papers. Finally, be prepared to file quarterly income taxes.

If you are self employed and you make money in any quarter, you need to file this. Now you are ready to sell on eBay.

You have found out the basics of how to set up a work from home business on eBay. The foundation is in place. Now what? You need to have an eBay ID. It’s easy to register on eBay. Go to ebay.com and fill out the registration form. You’ll need a credit card to verify your identity.

Now you have everything in place to start selling. Almost, what are you going to sell? Before answering this I suggest that you take a look and search through eBay to see what is selling and what items appeal to you. Selling off some of your unwanted stuff is a good idea, as it generates easy capital for your business and it gets rid of unwanted items in your home. Furthermore, you can get an idea of how eBay works.

These are the very basics of how to set up a work from home business on eBay. There are a lot more details that you should cover such as product selection, market research, choosing an accountant or accounting software and more.

Before you go and spend a lot of money, go through these basic steps and see how successful you are at selling a couple of items or two. Then you will know if setting up a work from home business on eBay is really right for you. This article was designed to give you just the basics so that your work from home eBay business starts off on a solid foundation.

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Copy The BluePrint

Laurie — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 14:57:49 +0000

Here’s a program that anyone can use to make money.

It’s got a rock solid guarantee: “Every Member Gets Our Original ‘Earn Or Get It For Free’ Guarantee With Exclusive 24/7 Support!”

It comes highly recommended and it’s getting good results on Wealthy Affiliate’s scoreboard. It’s an easy system that allows you to copy something that is already working!

It can’t get any simpler than that!

Copy The Blueprint

That link contains a revolution that’s been secretly unleashed. What’s inside is one of the craziest yet most sure-fire thing for guaranteeing you will profit almost starting tonight.

If you’ve been feeling financial hits at all (and I know we all do!), you will see that I’m not kidding on how sure-fire it is.

Here’s why this monster system is so UNIQUE …

Normally, many gurus out there will only try and “teach” you their methods and techniques. Essentially, they have you waste time, energy, money, and resources to get it working.

This beast totally BUCKS that trend and gives you exact campaigns to copy straight from their own daily business!

What is being revealed here is a secret system so under-used that only a select few of “online elite” have heard of its existence …

Click here to watch the video as Jamie helps a street person make money in just a few minutes with this program.

Affiliate marketing is one of the fastest growing flow of cash ever seen… ESPECIALLY in a time of financial hardship.

It’s still kind of low-key so take advantage of it right now.

Think about it: well over 85 Billion dollars will be made this year … DESPITE the cycles of other markets.

And it’s only going to keep growing … MARK my prediction on this….

Here’s the bottom line:

Secure your place in one of the easiest wealth “vehicles” uncovered. This is it.

Copy The Blueprint is without a doubt… about as safe as it gets – because you are replicating their affiliate marketing business.

These campaigns are already being exploited by only a few of the online wealthy elite … and they are NOT letting this out for everyone.

Imagine Never Having To Do Trial-And-Error Ever Again

See yourself copying their campaigns to grow your portfolio FAST.

They even update campaigns on a regular basis to ensure your profitability.

What if you can use these anytime to create “income out of thin air”?

Copy it now. See for yourself if I’m right: Copy the Bluprint

If you’re sick of methods out there not working for you…. I know EXACTLY how you feel … I’ve been through the same struggle. Copy The Blueprint is the full system that doesn’t even waste time teaching you … it just lets you automatically DO what they are doing right now. Packed with new, never-before-revealed templates that literally go over the top.

Yet so EASY anyone can immediately use them just via “copying and pasting” … not to mention someone with your abilities. Copy/Paste/Duplicate Their EXACT revenue streams

I bet you have been told lies in the past from other gurus perhaps… These guys are the real deal and you’ll see they make revenue daily through those exact templates you are getting. Jamie really knows what works and what doesn’t and ONLY gives you precisely what works. Take everything …. use them as your own ….

Steal Their Keywords, Ads, and EVERYTHING in-between

I’ve seen some cold, hard and shocking proof this is the real deal. Just check out their 10+ raw testimonials. It won’t be around long so see it now…

Copy The Blueprint

Actually only a few licenses will remain before the membership is closed, so don’t procrastinate.

Listen, I could spend the rest of my life trying to describe the massive cashcows you have at your fingertips with these to copy. It’s better than being hand-held from start to finish.

By copying these, you are virtually being PUSHED from zero to profit in a matter of days (or hours if you’re aggressive at copying).

Yes, as odd as it sounds, I DARE you to mess this one up. I could even try to show you how you are going to see secrets even Google doesn’t want revealed.

But nothing I can say will even begin to do this “automatic push-button” system justice… You have to go right now and enter the door. –>

Copy The Blueprint

This is worth at least a minute of your time (if not many more … once you see the revenue duplicated for you).