I know, I know, 'tis the time of year to see post after post and email after email about your goals for 2010. They make you feel a little bad because they infer that you didn't reach your goals for 2009.


But in reality, I bet you met some, if not most of your goals, didn't you? And just think how far you've come! Seriously, look back to where you were a year ago and take note of all that you've learned since then.


It's true, we sometimes get that deer-in-the-headlight look when we've got too much information coming at us, but it's also true that we've taken some action. Did you notice when you took the action path you came up against walls - some short and fairly easy to scale, and others that required a friend with a ladder to get over?


Pat yourself on the back and know that 2010 can be even better!  I know that as your business continues to grow, you will continue to learn and grow.
 
What one thing do you really, really, really want to learn to do in Online Marketing in 2010?  This can be a small thing, something that has been bugging you, or a big concept. Let me hear it now!


P.S. May your walls all be short ones in 2010.

Many online marketers fail because they do not know what their business is. Those who write ebooks and short reports believe they are in the ebook information business, while software creators or marketers both think their business is software. Neither one is even close.

When people trying to run a business do not have a clear idea of what that business actually is they will be unable to produce business plans, write compelling sales copy or build a loyal following. In short, they will not have a business at all.

Regardless of what your product is, your only business is MARKETING. It doesn't matter if your business is online or in a retail store in a mall. Your business is MARKETING. Successful marketers develop a marketing mindset. No one was born with it. They learned how to think like a marketer and to make decisions marketers need to make.

Your first step in this process is to develop a marketer's mindset, rather than an ebook seller's mindset, for example. If you've been selling products on eBay or on your own website, you've probably been consumed by finding interested niches, driving traffic, testing ads for conversion rates and building a list. As necessary as those tasks are, they are the product of a seller's mindset and, while you might make some sales with that mindset, your business will not soar to new heights.

In order to develop a powerful marketing mindset, you have to learn to focus on the one question that will govern every step you take online. All of your business decisions have to be looked at though this question: "How will this action provide true benefits and create loyalty among my customers?" If you cannot provide an answer to that question, you might want to rethink your plan of action.

For all the planning, designing, researching and testing that goes into a successful marketing campaign, the customer is actually in charge of your business. All your success depends on a sale of your products or services and that is 100% dependent on your customer and THEIR needs.

When you develop a successful marketer's mindset, you will understand the motivations that make your customers buy from you. You have to find out what they need and what they want before you start offering products to them. If you are a member of several forums, read the questions that are asked in any category and focus on providing solutions to them. That's a ready-made, customer-driven market for your specific answers provided as a short report, longer ebook or services.

In the past, marketing was all about selling products to a constantly changing market made up of anonymous customers who made a purchase and disappeared. Giant sales based on holidays or current events were designed to bring that anonymous customer back to the store or service to make another purchase. The customers were still anonymous.

Today's marketplace, the worldwide Internet, has demanded a shift from anonymous marketing to building personal, nurturing relationships with customers and that demands exceptional, over-the-top customer service, to start with. Your customers need to develop a personal, trusting relationship with you or they won't even open your emails and, eventually, will just unsubscribe. Click...Gone!

What used to be an Internet of quickly-built, simple web pages promoting products to an anonymous audience no longer exists. The new marketing principles are based on a social Web, with people interacting directly with each other and mega businesses. Open communication and honest answers have become the driving force behind any online relationship.

Those relationships are dynamic, vital and dependent on the customer's behavior, attitudes and interests. Now, a single customer in a very small town, way out in the country someplace, can reach out and grab the attention of a mega company on the other side of the globe and have an effect on their customer service or the products they provide.

Now that's worth thinking about!
 

There's no doubt in my mind that Internet marketing has a pretty steep learning curve.  While it may be true that some new marketers hit it big quickly with some good timing, offline experience, luck, great contacts, and being correctly positioned, the majority of new marketers find success at a much slower pace.

What makes the pace even slower is getting stuck.  It's like getting your car stuck in the mud - you spin your wheels, waste gas, waste time, throw mud all over... and don't go anywhere.  You're tired and frazzled and you've got nothing to show for it.

When I get stuck with my Internet marketing, I try to stop banging my head against the wall and come up with something that will be a positive action such as:

1. Google the problem.


2. Go to the Warrior Forum and look it up with the search function.


3. Look in Yahoo Answers.


4. Email my techie friend, my marketer friend, or my WordPress friend (which is one reason I love networking with other marketers.)


5. Post my problem on a forum.


6. Look for YouTube videos that might explain how to do it.


7. Submit a help ticket.
   

What do you do?  I'm sure I've forgotten something.  Please tell me your getting unstuck methods.

As you may have discovered, there is an art to writing blog posts for the viewers who read your blog. Before you write each blog post, you first must decide what outcome or what result, you are looking to achieve.

• Do you want people to buy a product you're promoting?
• Do you want to get comments and feedback?
• Are you looking for Diggs and Stumbles and Tweets?
• Maybe you're trying to build up your image as the expert in your field?

In addition to writing for a desired outcome, you need to know who your audience is. While you might think you know, you can find out for sure by doing a poll or survey to gauge the level your readers are at.

• Are they beginners, intermediates, or fellow experts?
• Which group buys the most from you?
• Which group tends to comment the most?

Figure that out and you'll have a better idea of who you are writing to and for. Of course, you'll have readers coming from many different directions, but you'll understand the major group you want to target.

Once you know the who you are writing for, you have to find your own voice. Instead of thinking about every single person who will read your blog post, try putting a picture of one person in your mind. That's right, you're going to write as if you are writing to one person. He/she can be fictitious, another marketer you are friends with, or one of your customers who you've had some past conversations with. Just make sure it is someone friendly.

As you think about this friendly person, write your post in a friendly manner and don't forget to put your personality in it. Travis Sago, of Bum Marketing fame, fills his emails to overflowing with his personality, and his subscribers love him for it. He comes across as real, honest, trustworthy, and funny. But make sure you don't try to be Travis or someone else; you have to be yourself or it won't ring true.

Think about some of the posts you've read at other marketers' sites and what you've liked about them. The best ones are usually when the marketer puts some personal info in them. Don't make it long, boring or too personal, just some little ditty that happened to you lately or maybe some-thing that pokes fun at you. People like to know who they're dealing with - it brings trust into the equation, and that can convert very well indeed. And not only that, it's more fun for you.

So to repeat: Decide what results you want before you write. Know your audience. Write to one friendly and interested face. Add your personality and include glimpses of your life.

If you can do all of this then you've got the makings for some awesome blog posts!

(No affiliate links were included in this post)

Positive thinking is a very powerful thing. We are not talking about the power of attraction, but the power within you to accept change in its various forms. If you’re a current or future business owner, you must realize the success of your company depends on being able to think positively and embrace and learn from the changes that happen.

Free Your Mind – What Does That Mean Exactly?

When you started your business, there were probably acceptable practices and standards for success. It could be anything from increasing interaction with customers to using a time-tested method for getting the sale.

That is a good place to start. Other entrepreneurs have a lot of helpful advice to contribute to new business owners. Add to that an attitude of choice. Some businesses die from lack of creativity and willingness to change when necessary.

It is true that what goes down will eventually come back up, but can your business wait that long? Living in unpredictable economic times is a call to action on your part.  

Open your mind to the possibilities that can keep your business successful and not add you to the heap of the dead and dying.

Get Back to Basics

Maybe it’s time to start over. Go back to your original business plan and marketing strategies. You may have decided on one course of action to get the business started. Now could be the perfect time to niche into a more defined product.

Here are the advantages:

• More targeted marketing strategies
• Higher sales

Previously, you were looking to reach a more diverse group of customers. For every 200, you may have made a sale to at least half of them. With a niche market, you have 200 customers that you know are interested in your type of product and your sales may increase to 150. Is that worth it? Yes!

Your business plan also includes how you will package your product. For those marketing information, this is a great time in business. Article marketing is a mainstay but why limit yourself? Now, you can market your product through video, audio (podcast, CDs) or a combination of both. Expand your product line to include these media outlets and increase your customer base in the process.

They say that success is its own reward, but that’s only true if you are willing to pursue it. When you allow yourself to dream big, the sky is the limit. Sure, sales may be slow when you first implement the new strategies or you’ll have to overcome a learning curve to get started.

Think of the alternative: You won’t grow without the attitude and vision to see beyond where you are now.

This policy is valid from 01 Dec 2009

This blog is a personal blog written and edited by me. For questions about this blog, please contact ejcooksey@ejcooksey.com.

You should assume that the Admin of this site has an affiliate connection to the products and/or services mentioned or reviewed on this site and may be compensated if you purchase a product from an affiliate link.

You should always perform due diligence before buying products or services from anyone via the Internet or offline.

Hoping everyone's day was filled 

with love, good food, fun and laughter!

Want A Piece Of THE Hottest Niche (Hands Down) This Holiday?

So, what's the hottest holiday niche? Well, toys, of course!  No doubt about it, even if nothing else ever sold during the holidays, toys will keep on going - forever.

You've probably seen the Wacky Gals' great turnkey sites, and they go like hotcakes on a cold December morning when they make each release. Well, NOW they have re-released a site in one of THE hottest holiday niches you'll ever find...And by special permission, it's running as a DIMESALE!

This turnkey website is monetized with 5 (FIVE) different income streams and it's in a HOT, BILLION DOLLAR niche!  Not only that, but this niche gets hundreds of thousands of dollars in sales during the Holiday Season...And now you can be a part of it!

In about 5 minutes time you can have your new website up and running, and you can start making sales later today. It's THAT easy to do!

The "Gals" have even written a special report to show you exactly how and where to promote your new site, and they're including it with your purchase at no extra charge.

As I said, they're running it as a DIMESALE which means you can pick it up DIRT CHEAP...In fact, if you hurry, you can grab it for about the price of lunch at McDonald's!  (was just $3.85 when I posted this)

Scoot over NOW and get your piece of a multi-billion dollar industry and put some Holiday Cash in your pocket:

Click here to get to the DimeSale!

You really DON'T want to pass this up for EASY money, especially with the Holiday Season in full swing. Grab yours now and get started right away... it's easier than you think!

To Your Success!

(Yes, that is my affiliate link: if you buy from my link I make a commission.)

This is a MUST if you are trying to make money online with affiliate marketing.

DO NOT make the same mistake I did:

I had not checked my affiliate links on my blogs in over 6 months and didn't know that the site I was using to shorten my links was no longer active. (When I checked my stats, I had not had a click on these links since the last part of May 2009). Almost all my affiliate links on my blogs were going to "Page not found" when clicked. It took me 3 or 4 days to get them all fixed.

Needless to say, my sales are way down for this year. I will not make this mistake again.

***Note:  It is also a good idea to check any outgoing links on your site to make sure they are going where they are supposed to go.  I had several links in my blogrolls that were not working. ***

Have you ever noticed that some internet marketers don't practice what they preach?

They go on and on with what sounds like really good advice and then you notice that they don't follow the business model or best business practice they're touting.

Here are some examples:

They say...Don't send your list promotion after promotion. 

They do...Promotion after promotion. 

You don't have to bother opening their email after awhile; you know what's going to be in it - a promotion for their buddy's new product.

Send the people on your list meaty valuable content and sprinkle in some promotions.

~~~

They say...You should be blogging on a regular basis to build your brand.

They do...Not keep up with their own blogging.

Are they just too busy? Is blogging really not a good business model?

Blogging can be a great platform for building your brand by giving information that shows you're an expert and by doing it in a way that shows your personality. People like that and will not only follow you but buy your products. It's also the place to sell affiliate products, do honest product reviews and show a personal picture or two.

~~~

They say...Use article marketing to drive traffic to your site.

They do...No article marketing.

While it's true some of them may still do article marketing under a pen name, many have moved on to easier and more lucrative ways to bring traffic in. They may have established a good following and don't have to constantly write articles. 

Article marketing can definitely work, but it's harder than it seems and there are a lot of nuances you need to know, like how to make your title bring in readers and how to craft your bio so people will click on your link. And be aware article marketing is not the only way to generate traffic.

~~~

They say...Put AdSense on your sites and you will make some good money from that.

They do...Little, if any, AdSense on their sites.

They use the space to advertise their own products, affiliate products, and paid product ads.

The reality is Google is not going to fill your pockets with AdSense money unless you practice a little search engine optimization, use some awesome longtail keywords, and get the necessary traffic.

~~~

They say...You've got to create a product, load an autoresponder, bring in traffic, and so on.

They do...Not tell you how to do it.

You can't build your business on "you shoulds". 

If you don't know how to do something find a mentor, hire someone to do the more difficult aspects, or look at YouTube for an instructional video.

~~~

They say...You should do blah, blah, blah on your website.

They do...None of what they just told you to do.

Sometimes you'll read or listen to someone's words of wisdom and when you check to see if they've done it, it's obvious they haven't. If they aren't doing what they tell you to do it makes you wonder... Are they purposefully leading you off course? Are they just spouting words they've heard others preach? Do they not know how to technically do it? Are they just trying to sell the latest and greatest but would never use it themselves? How does this make you feel about that marketer?

Now, if they tell you to do something and admit it's something they need to work on too, then it's all okay.


The bottom line is if you're going to preach, then preach what you practice. And when others are preaching to you, listen to what they say and form your own judgment. Some of what marketers are preaching is yesterday's news and not what really works in today's marketing. Another thing to consider is that your circumstances may be different.

It seems that everybody is selling secrets on the Internet that are hyped to unravel secret procedures or secret methods to make a living online. There are so many secrets being offered for sale everyday that you might expect to see the secret location of Atlantis or the "real truth" about UFO landings any day now. Everybody loves a secret.

There are, however, some "secrets of success" that you just have to master if you are serious about starting any business, offline or online. Business is business and, except for building rents and physical inventory, there's not much difference between online and offline businesses. You will need a winner's mindset, marketing knowledge and the ability to attract customers in either business model.

Basic "secrets:"

• Let's start with the organization mindset you need to develop to start your success. You will have to develop a strong ability to focus on what you need to begin creating your business success. Your next step is deciding what products or services you want to sell. Choose a niche you are passionate about. Your last two "secret" beginning processes are keyword research and determining your competition.

• You need to decide what terms or words people will use to find your website. Using keyword suggestion tools, you will see how many searches have been conducted for each of your words during the last month. You can determine the amount of competition you will face by doing a Google search on each of your chosen keywords and checking the result numbers listed on the top right side of the page of returns.  Example: Results 1 - 10 of about 41,000,000 for apples. 41 million competing websites is a lot of strong competition.

The information in those two paragraphs above have been stated and restated in probably hundreds of "Secrets of Something" ebooks and reports all over the Web. They are not secrets, but very well-established techniques any successful business owner uses everyday.

Common sense & hard work "secrets:"

• Successful business owners know how to deal with their customers. Their customer service is based on courtesy and professionalism at all times. They know that there will be customers they cannot please, but they do not drop their courtesy. It's no secret that successful businesses require happy customers.

• If no one knows you exist online, you will not have any customers. There are several ways to promote your business. Two ways are advertising and networking. You can announce your online business in forums and in related newsletters and ezines, to name a few.

• You can also use viral marketing techniques and post articles on directories or give away an ebook or short report. You can create videos for your webpages and post them on YouTube. Marketing is hard work and requires diligent attention on your part and that is also no secret.

All those hyped up promises that fill your email everyday and chant that you can get rich overnight without doing any work at all are myths. They offer the ultimate "secret" to becoming an overnight millionaire. The truth is that success demands hard work and commitment and will not happen overnight. There's no way around that. No secret magic wand.

Your journey to a successful business will be buried in frustration, failures, and rejection. If you persevere, you will build the business you want to build and, after months or years, be the success you always knew you could be.

The only true "secret" is what's in your heart and mind, a picture of your goals and your real pride in your accomplishments.

If you've been struggling to make even one dollar online, then you can take a breath of relief and know that making money online the easy way is now more possible than ever, and it won't even cost you a penny.

The biggest problem with internet marketing beginners is that there is so much information about easy make money online methods that they simply get confused. Even if they go out and try to make money online with one of the methods they learn about, often the method is flawed which ends up being a complete waste of time because it doesn't work for the newbie to make easy money online at all.

But thanks to a generous young marketer who knows all about the easy side of making money on the internet, you can finally discover for yourself the easiest ways to make money online.

For a limited time, Stuart Stirling is giving his new ebook called "No Brain Cash" which reveals four of the easiest ways to make money online from scratch. This newbie report you can download immediately for free contains roughly 30 pages of easy to digest info about using free and easy methods to make money online, step-by-step.

I recommend you to go and check out "No Brain Cash" right now and grab your free copy so you can finally see how to make money online without spending a cent to get started! This is by far the easiest way you'll ever come across sto make money online for free.

Hurry over to the website and download your copy while it's still free!

To Your Success!

Thank you all for taking the time to visit!

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Bible Examples - Practical lessons based on Bible examples.

This isn't a test or anything, just a few simple questions to ask yourself before jumping into the internet marketing arena...

Do you like to learn new things?

• Even if they make you crazy trying to figure them out? If you like to stay where you're comfortable, warm, and happy, then you're not going to want to break out, try new things, get soaked a few times, and get to the spot where you're making some righteous coin.  If you truly want to embark on this internet marketing path, expect to learn new things - a lot of new things - and expect that some of them will be hard for you at first.  You have to challenge yourself to grow.

Are you afraid?

• Realize that everyone is afraid and has doubts at some point in their career as an internet marketer. Take action anyway.  Don't be that guy who works hard to create his first ebook, and it's really good, but won't actually put it out there for sale because it's not perfect.  The problem is not that it's not perfect, the problem is he is afraid of failing.

Will you allow yourself to fail? 

• Failing is part of learning.  You need to pick yourself back up after your screw up or fail at something, learn from your mistakes, and go forward.  Yes, you might want a band-aid for that hit you just took, but you should develop the mindset that you just paid for some valuable education and you know what to do now.  You also need to know that it's not personal when your product fails to meet your income expectations.  Learn as you earn.

Can you focus?

• Many wannabe marketers tend to reach for the latest product that pushes their buttons.  They believe the marketer and just know it will work for them this time.  They spend a lot of time reading sales letters and buying products, and very little time focusing on one business model and working it 200 percent until it's making them a good income.

Can you be your own boss?

• Successful internet marketers start off pushing themselves much harder than any boss ever did. They realize if they want to make the big bucks they have to work hard in the beginning, and smarter later.  You have to be able to tell yourself "no" as in no TV, no MySpace, no online games until the work you set out to do is accomplished.

Can you figure out where to get help?

• Whether it's researching an answer on or offline, or reaching out to a person in the know, you will need to find answers to the puzzling issues and problems you come across.  Sometimes the answer is a simple YouTube away, but if you don't look for the answers in the usual and unusual places you're going to end up dead in the water.

Are you comfortable with selling? 

• This is big.  No matter what product you create, you are going to have to sell it. You can't get anywhere being the "apologetic marketer" but you don't have to push your agenda down people's throats either.  Find a happy medium where you can be true to yourself, but also actively sell your product.

Are you a control freak?

• This one is tough for many people.  They want to do everything, control every aspect of their business.  But in reality, handling all the minute details is holding them back - preventing their business from growing.  Find outsourcers you trust and build your team.  Please forget that you can do it better yourself.

Can you network? 

• Internet marketing is not about going it alone, even if you are the only person working in your little home office.  You need to build relationships with other marketers, not only so you can converse with people who "get" what you're doing, but also so you can help each other out.  They'll give you constructive criticism when you ask them to look over your product, throw pointers your way regarding your copywriting, and help you with your marketing funnel ideas.  In turn, you do the same for them - show them how to install that script or give them a testimonial for their latest product.

Again, this is not a test, but some questions you should ask yourself.  Be honest with your answers and go from there.

To Your Success!

While it may seem hard at first, you can succeed with internet marketing given you have a great desire to learn, you are taking massive action, you've found a mentor, and you're building relationships.  
Sometimes you might find yourself doing things that are counterproductive to your true desire to be an internet marketing success. It's time for a reality check.

Are you doing any of these?

Only download FREE products.
You don't want to have to pay for anything if you can get it for free, right? Even if you have to spend a lot of time finding the free information.

Start off by jumping right into the "internet marketing" niche as your niche of choice.
IM is an interesting niche; why not try to pass yourself off as an expert when you don't know anything yet?

Learn everything by yourself.
You like to be your own island and you're a DIYer. Besides, none of the successful marketers are likely to answer any questions you might have. They're too important.

Spend a lot of time on forums.
You're not stupid; you know you can learn a lot on forums. Why, there's so much information there you'll never be able to read it all. But you're going to try.

Have plenty of ideas and starts, but don't complete anything.
You loved your idea in the beginning, but then you just get, well... bored with it and never finish it up and get it out the door. Plus, it's not perfect yet and perfection is necessary.

Don't ever follow the advice in the PDF report you just read.
While it might be true that people have become very successful using the methods explained in the report, they won't work for you because of your unique circumstances.

Seminars are for stupid people.
Those things are just a pitch fest anyway. Why should you waste your time and money?

Jump around to different business models quickly and often.
You tried one method of making money online (for one whole week) and it didn't work, so now you're trying another one that's going to be just the thing. 

Obviously I'm being very tongue-in-cheek here, but did you feel just a little uncomfortable regarding some of them? 

Turn this around and...

•  Download only quality information even if it's not free as it can save you time searching and be exactly what you need right now.
•  Think about positioning yourself as an expert in a niche you are an expert in and go after the profits there first.
•  You can go above and beyond with your learning by asking others. Don't reinvent the wheel. Not every guru will have time to answer your questions, but there are many successful marketers who will. Build relationships!
•  Learning from forums is fine, but you don't have to read everything. Limit your time on forums and don't mistake reading forums as taking action.
•  Abandon your goal of complete perfection and get your product out there already. You can't make any money from it if you don't go live with it. You can continue to tweak it even if it is already on the market.
•  Swallow your excuses. Many a marketer has come from very poor odds and gone on to successfully make money on the Internet.
•  Seminars are a great way to build relationships and create joint venture partnerships that can be quite lucrative. And you could learn a thing or two from watching how the speakers market themselves and their products. 
•  Pick a business model and don't quit unless you've given it all you've got and then some. You have to own that business model, not just dabble in it.

Now go forth and multiply your internet marketing profits.

To Your Success!

I do hope that your week has been going great!

If you've been trying unsuccessfully to make money online, then you won't want to miss this...

It's common when we first get started online that we feel we're missing some pieces to the whole puzzle. Well, today, you'll be happy to know that you've finally found them!

The "Internet Marketing Profit Plan" is perfect for those who are new online or struggling to make money...Here's what you can learn just minutes from now:

* The mindset that will almost guarantee you have success - not just thinking positive!

* One thing that you MUST learn to be a "real" online marketer...

* The most profitable thing you can work towards and how you need to watch everything you say in your emails if you are to stand a chance of getting this.

* The single biggest mistake people make when starting out - you MUST avoid it if you ever want to make serious profits.

* How to accelerate your learning so you can get more done faster!

* And so much more!

Oh, and the best part... 

It's running as a Wacky Weekend Dime Sale! 

(The price was just $3.00 at the time of this post!)

Get your copy now, while the gettin' is good. ;)

Wacky Weekend Dime Sale!

To Your Success!

( This is an affiliate ad )

Created by: Forwardsteps

Building a business is a fantastic and challenging experience.  You can wake up exhilarated to begin your day and go to bed feeling overwhelmed and frustrated.  The key to success is to maintain a positive, yes you can do it, mindset. 

Easier said than done, right?  Here are 5 keys to help you create and sustain a positive mindset so you attain the success you desire.

1. Surround yourself with successful and positive people.

The influence people have over our own personal energy is amazing.  Moods and attitudes are so easily spread – think about how much of a difference a simple smile from a stranger can make for your day and then magnify it 1000 times to demonstrate the power of positive and successful friends, family and associates.  When you have people around you who inspire you, believe in you and want you to succeed, there’s no room for doubts and even when they creep up, they’re quickly swept away.  

2. Create a mantra or an affirmation.

Repeating positive affirmations has been shown to get people through tough times and to actually help them truly believe what they’re saying.

For example, “I am building a powerful and profitable business.”  Many of the most esteemed business professionals have used the same affirmation strategy to attain their success.  To find the right affirmations for you, consider writing a quick list of your doubts, insecurities and complaints.  These can then be quickly turned into affirmations. 

For example, if you write that you’re always feeling disorganized then your affirmation would be, “I am organized and in control.”  Repeat your affirmations several times a day and feel the power of positive thinking.

3. Capture negative thoughts. 

We all have negative thoughts from time to time, however, negative thoughts and emotions can derail us and prevent us from achieving all we desire.  Of course catching those negative thoughts takes practice and persistence.  When you find yourself thinking negative thoughts or having negative emotions, find a trigger to turn them around.  The affirmations mentioned above are a great way to turn the negative into the positive.  You can also find quick pick me ups like a favorite song, a walk outside in the fresh air, or some exercise to help improve your mood.

4. Set goals/intentions and then be willing to let it go.

The law of attraction says that we attract what we focus on the most.  However, desperation, needing your business to be a success, sends mixed messages and a lot of negativity into the universe.  Set your goals and intentions and then let them go.  A certain amount of faith in yourself and in the power of attraction is necessary.  Give it a try.

5. Be grateful.

Gratitude is perhaps the single most powerful and positive tool for success.  When you’re grateful for all of the wonderful things and people in your life the challenges you face seem significantly less important and are more easily dealt with. 

Consider keeping a gratitude journal and make a practice of entering into it daily.  That way, when you’re facing challenges a quick peek at all the amazing things in your life will make you feel as if you can tackle anything.   Additionally, an attitude of gratitude helps you maintain a positive perspective and to face challenges as opportunities rather than obstacles. 

Success is within your reach and with the right attitude you can accomplish anything you set your sights on.  Embrace these five powerful mind success strategies and you’ll build a better business and live a happier, more satisfying life.

I've just signed up for an excellent FREE resource, and I thought you'd want to see it asap:

It's called Twitter Tycoon

This membership gives you pre-written tweets for some of today's hottest affiliate products.

Every tweet set is designed to earn you INSTANT commissions, right to your PayPal account.

Let me know what you think ok?

I hope this helps!

Rosalind Gardner, author of the Super Affiliate Handbook,
explains affiliate marketing in a nutshell.

Visit the Super Affiliate Handbook!

If you would like me to add your link, exchange links or for your comments to be approved, there are a few simple rules that will need to be followed.

Links and Link Exchanges:

Most of the links on my sites are ones that I liked or thought that my readers would like. I have never contacted them and ask them to link back to me. If those sites choose to link back to me, great.

If someone requests a link exchange, usually I am very happy to do so, if it is compatible to the blog it is being requested for...but there are limits.

• Someone sent me an email request for a "link exchange". I liked what they had on their site and added their link to my site. Replied back to let them know that I had done so. I then received an email back stating "If their link was still there after 24 hours they would then consider adding my link to their site" . Excuse me? That is not a "Link Exchange". Their link has been removed.

• Someone left this comment on one of my posts: " Your posts are waaaay to general. My site is much better than yours. Would you like to exchange links?". Ummm...No thank you and the comment was not approved.

• Someone left the same thing on 5 different posts in one day. It was not a comment, but an ad for an affiliate product that went to their affiliate link. They ask me to "exchange links" with them. Are you kidding me? No thank you and the comments were not approved.

• One person left 10 messages in a row at Blogcatalog "telling me" (not asking) to add their link to my sites. What? No thank you, their site was not compatible to any of my blogs.

I will not link to sites that have absolutely nothing to do with what my blogs are about. Nor will I link to any gambling or adult sites. Don't even bother to ask.



Comments:

I will approve any comments:

• That add to the conversation of the post they are left on.
• That don't agree with what I have written. (You can disagree with someone without being rude and condescending to them and their readers).
• Telling me about memes or awards.
  

I will not approve any comments:

• That are rude, condescending (to me or my readers), hateful or blatant ads. (If you can't say something in a nice way, don't say anything at all).
• That just says "hello, I was here...with a link to their site" and nothing else.
• That are 5 paragraphs long and have nothing to do with the post they are left on.

If you've been working online for any length of time, certainly you know that you MUST become a good affiliate marketer. Sure, you can have your own products, but there are sooo many great opportunities for affiliate marketers that many folks never even attempt to run their own site or make their own products...

They just happily earn thousands selling other people's products. And, hey, there's nothing wrong with that!

Today, you have the opportunity to pick up this excellent 58 page resource that will take you by the hand and make affiliate marketing not only a priority for you, but maybe the most important part of your business.

And, yes, it's running as a DIMESALE so the price is steadily rising... Normally the Wacky Gals reserve their dimesales for the weekend, but today, they're just a little wackier than normal.

BUT there's a catch...

The dimesale pricing ends "sometime this weekend" (they refuse to tell me exactly when) and even though you'll still be able to pick up this fantastic resource after the weekend, you'll have to pay FULL price.

Get on over there now before it goes any higher: Wacky Wednesday Sale

To Your Success!

So you've made the big decision that you'd like to work from home and that affiliate marketing on the Internet sounds like your ideal job. The next step to making any money on the Internet is to decide what you want to do. You'd also like to start making money as soon as possible and you don't want to fork out a lot of dough to get started.

If this sounds like what you are looking for then selling affiliate products might be your answer, at least to start.

The Pros of Selling Affiliate Products:

1. You don't have to have a website: You can buy a domain name and use it to redirect to the product producer's sales page.

2. It is easy to get started promoting: You don't have to take the time to produce a quality product, get testimonials, get the product set up on ClickBank, or write some killer copy.

3. You don't have to wear many hats: Your job is to promote the product through your affiliate link and that's it.

4. Promotional materials may be provided for you by the product producer: Blog posts, articles, emails, and keywords you can use.

5. It doesn't take a lot of money out of pocket to get started: You can promote it for free by doing article marketing. You can also venture cautiously into using Pay Per Click advertising.

6. You are not involved with customer support: The product creator is in charge of customer support, answering questions, giving refunds, etc. There's no big worries keeping you awake each night because you are not ultimately responsible for the product.

7. You can tell how well a product is selling on ClickBank: By looking at the stats they provide, if the product's track record doesn't look good, you'll think twice about selling it and pick something else.


The Cons of Selling Affiliate Products:

1. Promoting someone else's products: You can only make a certain percentage of the commission whereas if it were your own product, you could make 100%.

2. You have no control over the affiliate product: It's not yours to change around, up the price, make the sales page better, etc.

3. You are not branding yourself: Selling an affiliate product will not help you brand yourself as an expert in your field like your own product can do.

4. You might have lots of serious competition: If it's a product that sells well on ClickBank, other people might know how to promote products better than you. You'll need to learn the best ways to promote, and each product may require different types of promotions to effectively make sales.

5. You must follow the merchants TOS: You need to read the terms of service of the merchant's product to make sure you are following the rules. The TOS are not the same for every product, so be diligent in reviewing them.

As with anything, there are pros and cons of becoming an affiliate marketer. If, after going over everything you decide you want to give it a try, do some further research on affiliate marketing to arm yourself with all the knowledge you need to be a success.

Did you know that companies are spending billions of dollars every year marketing their products to Moms? If you’re in the Mom market yourself, you know you’re in the right place. If not, then why aren’t you?

Services like Mom PLR eBooks make it easy for you to tap into this market, too. Don’t worry, there’s plenty of room, as you’ll see in our Top 10 reasons why the Mom market rocks:

1. Moms make up a huge market. There are over 80 million Moms in the United States, with 1.4 million new Moms giving birth for the first time every year (US Census).

2. Moms send a lot of money. Moms spend $1.3 trillion every year (Marketing to Moms by Maria T. Bailey, 2002). Have I mentioned the Mom market is huge?

3. Moms make a lot of buying decisions for their homes and families. Moms account for about 50% of spending on consumer electronics, food, health and beauty aids, home furnishings, and clothing (MRI, 2004). If you’re still looking for products to promote to the Mommy market, let this guide you.

4. Moms are web savvy. About 70% of Moms surveyed say they use the Internet to research before buying products (Marketing to Moms, 2002).

5. Moms like to shop online. The majority of Moms say they buy products online (Marketing to Moms, 2002). I told you, you’re in the right place. Internet marketing is the way to go!

6. Moms read their Email. Moms check their Email messages all day long (Lucid Marketing & BSM Media). Whoever said Email marketing was dead, was wrong.

7. Moms take Email messages to heart. 71% of Moms say their buying decisions are influenced by Email messages (Lucid Marketing & BSM Media). Not only do Moms read your Emails, they act on them, too.

8. Moms make things go viral. 80% of Moms say they forward useful Emails to their friends (Lucid Marketing & BSM Media 2004). So make your Emails useful!

9. Moms buy, not only for their spouses/partners and children, but for their parents as well. Up to 40% of Moms reportedly are involved in purchases for their aging parents (Marketing to Moms Coalition, 2007). This is a wonderful insight - let’s remember that Moms are somebody’s children, too.

10. Moms rely on their communities or tribes. 64% of Moms say the recommendations of others influence purchases they make for their home (Marketing to Moms, 2002).

Moms are the chief financial officers of their homes (and many have their own businesses as well). They buy a lot of stuff, both online and offline. They rely on other people to make up their minds about what to buy, and they appreciate getting really useful information that makes their lives easier.

What’s the take-away lesson for marketers here? You better be marketing to Moms and you better be doing it properly. Moms are craving useful information - are you providing it? Moms PLR eBooks can help you give Moms the content that they’re looking for online. You’ll get high-quality content written just for Moms, to use in your websites, infoproducts, Emails and more.

Use coupon code “momsrule” (without quotation marks) to get $10 off your first month of membership.

Give Moms content and products they love and they’ll spread the word for you. Moms ROCK!

What's the hardest thing about blogging? Coming up with fresh, new content! And you have to publish new posts frequently - twice a week at the very least - to keep readers interested and earn search engine love.

If you're feeling stuck, here is a list of 50 blogging ideas that are sure to inspire you to come up with new content for your blog. Most of the ideas can be used more than once, so you won't run out of blog posts for months to come.

And by the way, if you want to make more money from your blog, Blogger's Paycheck shows you how to make passive income from your blog without spending all day at it.

1. Special events - Relate your blog topic to a special event, national day of, or holiday.

2. News - Subscribe to Google news alert on your keywords and write about the latest news in your niche.

3. Book review.

4. Respond to a post on another blog in a niche similar or related to yours.

5. Blog milestone - Write about your blogging milestones, such as publishing your 100th post, getting your 1000th comment....

6. Niche heroes -Blog about a person who made a positive contribution in your niche.

7. Blog memes - Join in blog memes such as "Wordless Wednesday". There's at least one for every day of the week!

8. Product review - An excellent way to work in some affiliate links.

9. FAQs in your niche - Write a short Q & A based on FAQs about your niche.

10. Blog comment response - Write a long and expanded response to a comment on your blog.

11. Predict trends - What do you see happening in your niche in a year? 5 years?

12. Historical view - What was your niche in the past? Or what past event influenced your niche?

13. Top tips on any topic of interest to your readers.

14. Best of... - A good year ender, make a list of your best posts for the year.

15. Contests - Organize a contest for your blog readers, or make a list of contests your readers can join.

16. What I learned from... a current event, a person you met, or an experience you had.

17. Definitions - Define terms that are commonly used in your niche but a beginner may not understand

18. New products - Not a review but simply an announcement of a new product relevant to your niche. This is another good opportunity to drop in some affiliate links.

19. Biggest problem - Ask your readers what their biggest problem is about your blog topic or niche. They post their answers in the comments section.

20. Biggest problem follow up - Summarize the comments from #19 in another post.

21. Biggest problem follow up series - Write a separate blog post tackling each question from #19.

22. Interview somebody knowledgeable in your niche, or has succeeded in it, or is otherwise interesting to your readers.

23. Big list - Compile a big list of various resources, just like this one. The bigger the better!

24. Reader Survey - Put up a brief survey online and blog about the results.

25. Be Provocative - Challenge a common belief or widely accepted idea in your niche.

26. New Idea - What new idea about your blog topic or niche have you come across lately?

27. YouTube - Embed a funny, moving or insightful video on YouTube. You can even have a "video day" once a week.

28. YouTube version 2 - Make YOUR own YouTube video. Publish it on YouTube then embed on your blog. This way, you can attract traffic from YouTube to your blog.

29. Freebie - Scour the 'net for freebies that your readers will love. Or create a freebie of your own, such as a checklist or special report.

30. Personal story - Use a personal story to illustrate an important concept or principle in your niche.

31. Free to publish articles - Check out relevant articles in article directories such as Ezine Articles... but don't publish them entirely on your blog. Instead, use an article or a group of articles as your take-off point for a blog post, or several.

32. Link love - This is a post with links to other blogs. Some bloggers set aside one day a week to publish a list of the best blog posts on their topic.

33. Photo - A picture is worth thousand words, right? Search Flickr for creative commons pictures that your readers will like.

34. Hot topics - Look at Digg for hot topics in your niche

35. Pros and cons - Examine what's good and bad about something related to your blog topic

36. Respond to relevant questions you find in Ask.com

37. Guest post - Invite another blogger to write a guest post for your blog

38. Reader's post - Invite blog subscribers to submit an article or post to be published on the blog

39. Inspirational post - Write a motivational post for your readers.

40. Update an old post with fresh ideas, new learnings and current research findings.

41. Beginner's guide - What do beginners in your niche struggle with? Write a post to guide them through it.

42. Best list - Patterned after "best dressed lists" make a list of the best ___ in your niche.

43. Worst list - Make your version of the "worst dressed list" for your niche.

44. New uses for - Think of new ways your readers can use gadgets and other stuff.

45. Write about a live event that you attended and what you learned from it.

46. Bribe post - Bribe your readers with a freebie in exchange for subscribing to your newsletter or RSS feed.

47. Around the world - Compare how people in different countries do something related to your niche.

48. Seasonal - Relate the month or season to your blog topic.

49. Blog carnival - Join or host a blog carnival, where several publish posts about the same topic on the same day.

50. Host a virtual "conference" on your blog - Invite "speakers" to publish their post on a specified date and time. Q&A happens in the comments section.

Now that you've got a steady flow of fresh content, how do you actually make money from your blog? Visit Blogger's Paycheck for a step-by-step guide on blogging for profit.

Many an internet marketer got his start making money online by selling someone else's product. It is actually a good place to begin because you don't have to come up with your own product, you can get started quickly, and you don't have to spend a lot of money.

Affiliate marketing is a win-win situation for both the product creator and the affiliate. The product owner can ultimately sell more of his product by having others (the affiliates) sell the product and make a predetermined percentage of the sale. The product will reach so many more people when the owner has affiliates out there selling it for him.

It's like having a sales team doing the marketing, and he's happy to pay them. It's a good situation for the affiliate marketer because you don't have to spend time and resources creating a product, you can promote it inexpensively, and you are not responsible for customer service.

Typically, affiliate commissions are around 50% and higher. You aren't charged anything for being an affiliate, but you also don't make any money if you don't sell the product. Think of it like a sales job where you work only on commissions. If the product you're promoting sells for $57 at a 50% commission, you will make $28.50 for each sale. Just think if you sold 5 per day - that's $4275 per month. The earnings potential is the big thing that drives people to try affiliate marketing.

Occasionally you'll find a product, such as an ebook, that you can make 100% commission on. These products tend to be less expensive, and the product owners do this to get you to sell more. They're going to make their money on their own links inside the ebook, plus backend sales.

Many product owners will give you affiliate tools from a website dedicated to helping you be a good affiliate. After all, it's in their best interests to help you sell so they can make money too. They might offer you banners, ebook covers, blog posts, articles for your website, emails you can send out to people on your list, a list of keywords, and maybe a short report you can brand and give away.

If you are an affiliate marketer then you should realize the emphasis is on the word "marketer". Here are some ideas on how to market the affiliate product:

* Article marketing, lots of it
* Pay Per Click (PPC) ads
* Marketing the product to your list
* Adding your own bonuses to any sales through your link
* Having a product review blog that showcases the product
* Squidoo lens
* Twitter about it with a link
* Selling it on the backend of a PDF you're giving out for free
* Interview with the product creator
* Doing a video about how to use the product

Effectively marketing affiliate products requires finding the right niche, the right product, the right keywords, and the right combination of marketing. The good thing is you can gain knowledge and experience as you go and tweak what works until you're making the kind of money that's possible to make with affiliate marketing.

NOTE: The following is a guest post from one of my favorite internet marketing mentors.

By Jimmy D. Brown of "Affiliatenaire"

The word "overhead" is not a favorite among those who run businesses of any kind. Nobody likes the expenses of operating a business. And nobody really talks about them much when it comes to promoting all of the "money-making" products and services online.

But, don't kid yourself, there's a lot of overhead.

That brings me to the fifth reason why I love affiliate marketing...

** You don't need a big budget to make it work **

Do you have any idea how much money is spent running an internet business? There are monthly fees for...

* Autoresponders
* Hosting
* Management
* Advertising
* Scripts
* Much more

There are regular fees for...

* Licensing
* Outsourcing
* Support
* Customer Service
* Maintenance
* Development
* Recruting
* Much more

It's not uncommon to spend tens of thousands (even hundreds of thousands) of dollars in operational costs -- which is fine if you've been in business a while and are making the bucks. However, if you're a newcomer, it can be taxing on your budget!

SIDEBAR: I paid one girl over $30,000 last year
just to oversee one small part of my business.
No one talks much about it, but there ARE a lot
of expenses involved before you get to the
"bottom line" of profit.

BUT, with affiliate marketing, you don't need a big budget to make it work! You can simply use a variety of free and low-cost marketing methods to generate clicks to your affiliate link.

That's why I love affiliate marketing.

You don't need a big budget to make it work.

.........................

Jimmy D. Brown is the author of "Affiliatenaire", teaching you a whopping 27 ways to increase your affiliate commissions! Tired of "tiny" commission checks?

Grab your copy today at...http://ejcooksey.affnaire.hop.clickbank.net

.........................

There are many different ways to make money online and many successful internet marketers use more than one method. I've listed fifteen ways to make money online here. If you find any of them interesting, follow up with further research and take action.

1. Offer a service - Examples include ghostwriting for marketers or creating graphics for their websites. Other services include virtual assistant (VA), web hosting, or website building services.

2. Affiliate marketing - Sell other people's products and receive a percentage of each sale. You can do this with or without your own website. Ways of marketing the affiliate products include Pay Per Click, article marketing, creating Squidoo lenses and/or Hubpages.

3. Blogging - After you get your traffic consistent you can make money selling ad space on your blog and also sell affiliate products that could help your readers.

4. SEO - Offer your search engine optimization skills to others who don't have this knowledge or don't have time to implement the strategies involved.

5. PLR - Write, or hire someone to write private label rights articles or products and sell them through your website.

6. AdSense - Put up blogs or websites with content and AdSense ads and make money every time someone clicks on the ad.

7. Copywriting - This can be a big money-maker if you're good. It takes skill and knowledge to become an in-demand copywriter. The sales copy is what sells a product and is so very important.

8. Transcription - Another service option, but growing because of all the people doing recorded interviews these days and wanting them transcribed.

9. Consulting to offline businesses - Many offline businesses are not yet online. If they are, chances are they're not optimizing their website and gathering leads. This is where you come in with your knowledge of how internet marketing works.

10. eBay - You're selling physical products and there's money to be made here. Many internet marketers have used this business model successfully.

11. Flip websites - Create websites, add content, and sell them to the highest bidder. This can work well if you just like setting up websites but don't like to maintain them.

12. CPA - Join performance-based CPA (cost-per-action) networks and make money with their ads.

13. Online coaching - Develop a coaching program your students can follow online and make money with each new student who goes through.

14. Create your own product and sell it - You can do this successfully in any niche, as long as you've done your research and determined there is a desire for your product.

15. Joint venture broker - Be the one who brings together two business people and get a percentage of their joint product earnings for structuring the deal.

This is an incomplete list of the many various ways to make money online. Some can make you more money than others, but you shouldn't let the amount of earnings be your total guide to which one(s) you choose. Do some more research, start with one model, and then go for it!