One Man's Journey

Lazy Day

2008-11-07T19:30:00.000-08:00

I am going to take the night off tonight and just relax. My regular job was a bit hectic this week and there was a major shakeup so I am mentally drained more than anything. So I will relax tonight and tomorrow ans Sunday I will be watching football and working on my online business!

Opt In Mail Lists?

2008-11-06T17:44:00.000-08:00

Today I read a lesson on the importance of having an opt in mailing list to drive traffic and sales. Obviously, I have no interest in being and annoying spammer, sending endless emails trying to get people to buy products. However, there are people out there who want information on how to make money online and would appreciate and enjoy a weekly or bi-weekly email newsletter with some helpful tips, etc.

I have to admit I am struggling again with my desire to have everything in place and running NOW! Luckily the Weathy Affiliate University is there for me and they seem to be able to read my mind. They know how people like us think. So I need to reign in the horses and calm down once again! At their suggestion, I keep a little notebook with me to make sure I stay on track and to jot down all the great ideas I come across.

The opt in mail list is something I will deploy after I build my first website using the easy to use Site Rubix site builder which is included for free for Wealthy Affiliate University members or can be purchased really reasonably. Please follow this link if you would like more info on Site Rubix.

Anyway, back to the opt in mail list! This costs money but its like 20 bucks a month so I will probably not start that until I get some results from the article marketing and blogging. The site they recommend for this is called AWEBER and they offer a free test drive.

They KEY is to be patient and work the system! There is tons of good information but how to apply it and when to apply it is the hard part as we all want instant success. So I am going to keep following the 8 week plan and resist the urge to try and make it happen NOW!

A Little Break

2008-11-05T18:31:00.000-08:00

So it was an emotional day for the United States and to be honest I got caught up in the whole election and the discussion thereof. That is my excuse for doing very little to promote the blogs today, although I did manage to submit to several blog sites. This helps you build back links, which the search engines look favorably on. The key to this is to not expect instant gratification and that is how these shady marketers draw you in.....they know that we are an impatient race and that we want things now! Sadly this approach rarely works except for the people selling the schemes. I am working this and not looking for positive results for at least 12 months.....BUT....I am also not spending any money on this at all other than the 29 bucks a month for the Wealthy Affiliate University which has been well worth it so far!

In the past I have dropped like 1000 bucks up front for these schemes and scams that promised immediate returns. Not this time....I have waited this long and I can wait again. All the successful bloggers that I have talked to say it takes a year of building your blog and continuing to improve it before you will see results. It can happen sooner but forecast a year and you will be in good shape....anyway, until tomorrow!

First EZINE Article Published!

2008-11-04T17:21:00.000-08:00

I DID IT! :)

http://EzineArticles.com/?id=1641535

Ok, so I am pretty happy that my first article has been published on Ezine. The article is the start of what I hope will be 2 articles per day for each of my blogs. This is part of my new game plan. I reserve the right to change it as the new weekly plans come out of course. So you may remember last week I was going to be making 5 lenses and 2 blogs per week or something along those lines....

After reading the week 2 plan at the Wealthy Affiliate University I have revamped that plan based on what the program is telling me to do. One of my issues in the past has been spreading myself too thin and getting allot of little things done but never really staying focused. This weeks plan really tries to sell the idea of working on a couple of projects and really putting the effort in on those as opposed to having 100 lenses and 100 blogs all of which get no traffic!

So I am going to work on updating my blogs at least once daily (this is the key factor according to the program and every single blogging resource I have read) and I am going to write at least one fresh article marketing piece for my forex blog and for this blog each day. I am hoping that as you loyal readers see what I am learning you will want to do the same things for yourself and decide to sign on at The Wealthy Affiliate University, using my links.

Another goal is to begin to "forum market", which we will discuss tomorrow as I take the first steps in that direction. Until then........

Great Article!

2008-11-03T19:20:00.000-08:00

While I was posting another article today at EasyArticles.com, I ran across this interesting article from "Stonelzg" and I thought I would share it. All the Articles at this site are fair game, you can use them for your sites or rework them and post them on other article sites. You obvioulsy need to change the article alot but it can give you some ideas. I am going to need to play catch up on the training lessons as I am a bit behind on that at the moment. I did manage to get one article written for each of my two blogs. I am going to be posting a reworked game plan in the next day or two as well!

Here is the article:

There are many reasons why some affiliates are more successful than other affiliates. One of the things that you must observe is the habits that successful affiliates have as it is crucial to your business success. By observing their habits and trying to have the same habits as them, you will be one step nearer to success. Here are the 5 highly effective habits that they

1) They Always Believe That They Will Succeeded In Their Business- This is the crucial habit that you must have as mindset is closely related to the success of the business. When you have the thinking that failure is not a option for you, the action that you takes will gear you towards more to success. When you believe that you can be successful in this business, you have already won half the battle.

2) They Have Strong Self Discipline- There is a systematic approach to operating the business. It is important that you follow the system closely and stay focus on doing ONE thing at a time. Successful affiliates have the discipline to do the task that they have to do. For example if you are planning to invest 1 hour daily to driving traffic to your website, you must have the self discipline to stick to your plan.

3) They Are Massive Action Taker -Information is not powerful as it is applied information that is powerful. Successful affiliates are massive action taker and they apply the knowledge that learn when they know new strategy or methods that they can use in their business. They also believe that they are responsible for their own online business and they will take actions to ensure that the business prospers.

4) They Believe In Relationship Marketing- You will not have a business if you do not have customers. A successful affiliate will know the importance of having their own customer database and they will spend the time to build a good relationship with their customers. They know that when the customers trust them, they will have more profits as the customers will purchased the products that they recommend to them.

5) They Are Always Hungry For New Information- If you have observe carefully, most successful affiliates will still be eager to learn new information and strategies as the online business is changing at a rapid rate. They will have the mindset that they must follow the new trend in the business environment or else their business will be out of the competition. They will be humble enough to know that they can learn something from every marketer.These are the 5 highly effective habits that successful affiliates have. You will want to think like them and have the same habits as them so that you will be one more step nearer to success. Do try to cultivate these 5 effective habits for yourself and reach the success that you richly deserved.

Articles Posted!

2008-11-02T16:07:00.000-08:00

I just posted 2 articles pointing to this blog. One was posted at www.Ezinearticles.com and the other was posted at www.Articlecity.com. They take up to a week to get them posted so I will link them here as soon as I know they are posted online. I would love some feedback on them! I would post them here..... but the training says that the search engines really frown upon duplicate content. When you write an article you cannot just submit it to all the article sites, you have to change it so that the search engines do not treat it poorly due to duplicate content. Again....something new I have learned!

Week 2 Plan Unvieled!

2008-11-02T12:42:00.000-08:00

I got my week 2 plan today from Wealthy Affiliate University. The focus last week was on learning my way around the WAU site, introducing myself to the community via the forum (by far the most valuable resource so far) and getting some posts in. I was able to easily complete the weeks tasks and as I stated in an earlier post, I got 5 squidoo lenses built and 2 blogs started and all of those sites S.E.O. optimized. (This makes them "search engine friendly").

So its on too week 2 where the lessons focus on where to find products to market. In other words we will be learning where to find folks that will pay us to get people to their websites and ultimately get people to actually by the product. The tools on the Wealthy Affiliate website are mind boggling, including several different ways to sort through various products anbd analyze them to determine which are "hot".

There will also be a focus on the different methods of marketing...and we will discuss that in the coming days as I will be writing and posting my first article! Until then....

Happy Halloween!

2008-11-01T09:19:00.001-07:00

So, just a quick note as things are hectic with Halloween last night and Soccer Saturday coming up today.....I did manage to create a new blog on Forex which you may find interesting! Here is the link http://winningforextrading.blogspot.com/..... Forex is a crazy market and one that should be dealt with carefully but I find it very interesting. I am also of course promoting several products on the site so it ties in neatly with what this blog is about. I will check in tomorrow as I will have a new weeks plan from the Wealthy Affiliate site and hopefully I will make some more progress! I am very pleased with the plan and with myself so far!

2008-10-30T19:03:00.000-07:00

Today was not very productive on the Marketing front unfortunately. Regular work got in the way of my Internet Marketing but that is not unusual, I am doing this nights and weekends to get the ball rolling. Like all of you, I have bills to pay! I will be working some tonight on optimizing my 5 squidoo lenses which you can see by clicking on the links on the top left hand of this blog. In reading on the forum at Wealthy Affiliate University, I am really learning allot about how to get your blogs and lenses traffic. Obviously, traffic is the key to making money online. I never knew how simple some of the tricks are to get your sites, lenses and blogs listed in the search engines. For instance, I never understood the importance of having keyword rich articles and how important keywords are! The keyword search tool provided in the Wealthy Affiliate site is a HUGE help!

I think the forum is the most valuable tool I have discovered on the Wealthy Affiliates site as hearing the trials and tribulations and the failures and successes of people trying to do the same thing I am is extremely helpful. Everyone is really helpful and so far I am really happy with my membership.

I do not have any sales yet and today marks only my 5th day of membership.... But I have gone from a total internet marketing "moron" who had no clue....... to someone with 5 squidoo lenses and a blog already published! I have learned about keywords and tags and how to properly use them. Until tommorow. loyal readers!

So here we go!

2008-10-29T21:18:00.000-07:00

My name is Bill Lane and I am a married father of 2 with a decent job with a good company and yet making ends meet seems to get harder and harder each and every day. I am 42 years old and believe me I have tried just about everything once in my quest to make a better life for my family and I.

Recently I can across the "Wealthy Affiliate University" and I was skeptical but decided to give it a shot. That was last Sunday, October 26th 2008. So far, I have been very impressed with the tools they provide and the "8 week plan" they use to get you kick started. I have tried affiliate marketing in the past and failed miserably costing me thousands of dollars. I have bought E-Books, joined MLM's, tried to sell Vitamins, and even tried to sell on eBay........I even tried that program that Ritchie Cunningham's dad from "Happy Days" promotes! I know, I know.....I am a loser right? I get that from people all the time but what are they doing to try and better their lives? At least I am trying to make something happen! Tomorrow I will get into the things I have done so far since joining on Sunday and frankly I am pretty proud of myself for staying on top of it....but the program really keeps you focused. The thing I really like is the forum, where there are allot of helpful experienced and successful marketers willing to help. There are also "newbies" just like me to share ideas, failures and successes with. It is a great community and over the past few days I have spent like 20 hours browsing, reading and learning!