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Are you a Niche Blogger?

March 27, 2008 | Leave a Comment

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Obviously, you can tell from my site here, this site would not be considered a “Niche” blog for the pure fact of all the random postings I do from the sandwiches my kids make to business related articles and the crazy random rantings of an overwhelmed mom that doesn’t get enough sleep.

However, if you are like me and love learning about Internet Marketing and various methods of Making Money Online then I’m sure you have heard about Niche Blogging.  While reviewing a couple other sites, I clicked on a link to a blog on African Safaris.

Why am I so engrossed with this website? Well, it’s a great example of a very simple process of selling an affiliate link that most likely is making the site owner money and only took them a couple hours to create.

Still don’t understand?

Here it is broken down

  1. Notice that this is a simple out of the box template hosted on a free blog
  2. Notice the EXACT title- African Safari Trips- very specific- it’s not just African Safari that can get lost in over 2 million search results. It has the niche building word “trips” making it into a long tail keyword and has an end result of searches in the 200,000 then you add quotes to the keyword in Google and your just shy of 10,000. That’s your key target for Article Writing that will get you in the highest rankings!
  3. This is a blog attached to a bigger Safari theme site.
  4. When I review it, I bet they could fit some killer affiliate links in there and even a great info product of their own and sell.
  5. Add an automatic newsfeed for anything safari/Africa plains related and you get easy content.

Again, just my random musings on a niche potential simplified!

Like my Post? Maybe you would like to Buy Mama A Java! It will help to keep me reading, writing and scooping out the info

Posted by Kristen | Filed Under Infoproducts, Keyword Research 

Review of Getting Paid for Blogging

March 27, 2008 | Leave a Comment

I have a confession… it’s the mom’s guilty conscious thing… and this isn’t about one of those bad parenting moments when you say something without thinking first and wonder if you just hurt your kids self esteem for the rest of their lives…or the fact that I dropped my hairdryer on the baby yesterday while she was innocently sitting in her bouncy seat (yes, it was at least off but I still feel awful). I only feel slightly not as guilty when every other parent around me fesses up to their “accidental” moments.

This is about the fact that I occasionally take money to write a post on this blog. GASP! It’s a method of adding an additional revenue stream to a business, and a large majority of blogs include Affiliate Links.

For anyone that is not familiar with Internet Marketing or Making Money Online an Affiliate link is a link in a post/article/banner for a company/product and if a reader clicks thru and buys it or signs up for something you get a percentage of $ kick backed to your account.  It’s very straightforward and it’s actually a fool proof way to make money online that costs a person nothing except the time of promoting the link and can be fully automated.

I signed up with two different companies when I started to look into the process of getting paid to blog. Linkworth and PayU2Blog.  Here is the scoop:

A summary of LinkWorth: You sign up for a free account and submit your blog to be reviewed to see if it is an acceptable blog. If you have a Blog that is full of random spam affiliate links, don’t bother trying to get accepted, they do have good standards of quality blogs… after all, I got accepted.. sorry couldn’t resist. :)

Once you are approved and classified, you will get emails from companies that think your blog is a fit for their company and offer you X amount of money to write about them within a certain time frame and meeting their requirements of word count, keywords and outgoing links.

Here is what I like most about LinkWorth, YOU get to APPROVE or DECLINE the offer! The ball is really in your court. What I do is visit the site, poke around and I think it’s worthy I will accept it.  If I think it’s crap, I decline it.  Yes, I hate to decline the money for something that will be about 10 minutes of work, but I don’t want my readers to have to sift through junk because you’ll get irritated (just like I do on other sites) and won’t come back and in reality, my readers are more important then a quick buck.

Now, once you approved the assignment and write up your wonderful review or post you publish it. You have several options to let them know it’s been posted, you can login and do it manually, have an html option or what I think is the easiest, use a WordPress LinkWorth Plugin that does it automatically. Perfect.  The LinkWorth team will then review the post and approve/deny the post.

My first assignment I was denied three times… I missed one certain keyword that needed to be created into an anchor text link, I fixed it and re-submitted and was approved. Within a few hours, the money was deposited into my PayPal account and I was at the mall the next day getting the kids new sneakers… just kidding, but really it is deposited into your PayPal account very quickly.

NOW, PayU2Blog is another story. I am actually very disappointed with this site and more so because I saw so many other bloggers endorse it and thought highly of it. If anyone reads this and had different results, I would love your comments posted below and I would be willing to re-examine.

First, PayU2Blog was almost the same as LinkWorth regarding the Free Sign Up process and approval period.  However, the biggest difference is you MUST complete every assignment that is put into your cue. You don’t have the option to pick and choose what you consider is high quality- or average quality for that matter.

They also don’t send you an email notification to let you know you have an assignment. You need to manually put a tickler on your calender to enter every week or two and see what you have waiting. They state every two weeks, but I waited two weeks, logged in and I had 8 assignments in my cue and 4 were already past the “post deadline”.

This is where I found that out of all 8 of my assignments, ALL of them are what I would consider spam businesses. You know, the ones that you delete from your email account about Drug Rehab centers and DeTox and well, you get the idea.  The first thought in my mind is, OK, I’m the “Mother of Four- Goddess of Chaos” talking about being a work at home mom, small business and kids….. and they want me to post 300 words on a Drug Rehab??? I DON’T THINK SO.  Don’t get me wrong, a drug rehab is very important, and I’m sure somewhere in this world there is a Work At Home Mom over the edge that has some issues and may need this service.. was it my post about struggling to wait until 5 oclock to have my glass of wine and unwind after a day of hell???

But again, as I posted in the above, I can’t write about that here, it’s totally irrelevant. I did contact Customer Service, since I signed the agreement during sign up saying I will complete every assignment in a professional manner, I felt I had an obligation to not just ignore this.  I kindly asked what the process is for giving out these assignments and if there was anyway to filter or even know if I’m going to get crap after crap because then I’m not interested.  Another black mark, I never heard back…. hmmm..

I do feel guilty, because I maybe I shouldn’t have been so naive about “posting every assignment” but it really just didn’t dawn on me that I would actually be asked to promote spam like companies.

In summary, you have to know that I love to review products/businesses/services and I mention a ton of them here because anyone who knows me, knows I’m well…. “opinionated”, some of them will be giving me money, most of them not. I just share what works or does not work for me so maybe it will help save someone else time or money or good food for thought.

I do promise that I will not promote anything that I personally do not agree with or find value. I have high standards and will keep those standards, and that’s my rambling confession for now.

Like my Post? Maybe you would like to Buy Mama A Java! It will help to keep me reading, writing and scooping out the info

Posted by Kristen | Filed Under Make Money Online, Work at Home MOM 

Key to Affiliate Marketing Success

March 18, 2008 | Leave a Comment

Every affiliate marketer is always looking for the successful market that gives the biggest paycheck. Sometimes they think it is a magic formula that is readily available for them. Actually, it is more complicated than that. It is just good marketing practices that have been proven over years of hard work and dedication.
There are tactics that have worked before with online marketing and is continuing to work in the online affiliate marketing world of today. With these top three marketing tips, you will be able to able to increase your sales and survive in the affiliate marketing online.

What are these three tactics?

1. Using unique web pages to promote each separate product you are marketing. Do not lump all of it together just to save some money on web hosting. It is best to have a site focusing on each and every product and nothing more.

Always include product reviews on the website so visitors will have an initial understanding on what the product can do to those who buys them. Also include testimonials from users who have already tried the product. Be sure that these customers are more than willing to allow you to use their names and photos on the site of the specific product you are marketing.

You can also write articles highlighting the uses of the product and include them on the website as an additional page. Make the pages attractive compelling and include calls to act on the information. Each headline should attract the readers to try and read more, even contact you. Highlight your special points. This will help your readers to learn what the page is about and will want to find out more.

2. Offer free reports to your readers. If possible position them at the very top side of your page so it they simply cannot be missed. Try to create autoresponder messages that will be mailed to those who input their personal information into your sign up box. According to research, a sale is closed usually on the seventh contact with a prospect.

Only two things can possibly happen with the web page alone: closed sale or the prospect leaving the page and never return again. By placing useful information into their inboxes at certain specified period, you will remind them of the product they thought they want later and will find out that the sale is closed. Be sure that the content is directed toward specific reasons to buy the product. Do not make it sound like a sales pitch.

Focus on important points like how your product can make life and things easier and more enjoyable. Include compelling subject lines in the email. As much as possible, avoid using the word “free” because there are still older spam filters that dumps those kind of contents into the junk before even anyone reading them first. Convince those who signed up for your free reports that they will be missing something big if they do not avail of your products and services.

3. Get the kind of traffic that is targeted to your product. Just think, if the person who visited your website has no interest whatsoever in what you are offering, they will be among those who move on and never come back. Write articles for publication in e-zines and e-reports. This way you can locate publications that is focusing on your target customers and what you have put up might just grab their interest.

Try to write a minimum of 2 articles per week, with at least 300-600 words in length. By continuously writing and maintaining these articles you can generate as many as 100 targeted readers to your site in a day.
Always remember that only 1 out of 100 people are likely to buy your product or get your services. If you can generate as much as 1,000 targeted hits for your website in a day, that means you can made 10 sales based on the average statistic.

The tactics given above does not really sound very difficult to do, if you think about it. It just requires a little time and an action plan on your part.

Try to use these tips for several affiliate marketing programs. You can end maintaining a good source of income and surviving in this business that not all marketers can do.
Besides, think of the huge paychecks you will be receiving…

Like my Post? Maybe you would like to Buy Mama A Java! It will help to keep me reading, writing and scooping out the info

Posted by Kristen | Filed Under Make Money Online 

5 Easy Steps to Make Your Own Editorial Calender

March 14, 2008 | Leave a Comment

Most business owners think only print publications create and use editorial calenders. Maybe you have gone through the process of contacting newspapers and magazines for a copy of their editorial calender to plan your public relations or advertising efforts. However, every business, especially now in the world of web 2.0, can benefit from their own editorial calender.

Many online business owners today understand the impact of internet marketing strategies and are working to use various outlets.  They are responsible for content on their website, blog, article marketing, and any niche specific blogs or guest blog positions.  While outsourcing content is an option, often with the right plan you can do it yourself and still carry out your other business activities.

Creating a plan at the beginning of the month will allow you to focus your efforts into specific keyword rich topics that will provide the highest quality content to your readers. You can then modify that piece to fit the distribution requirements of other publications by re-organizing the content or slightly changing the focus.

5 Easy Steps to Get Started

Step 1
Print a monthly calender template from Outlook or another online calender maker.

Step 2
Choose your keywords using Google, Wordtracker or SEO Tools related to your market. These will be the pillars of your authority posts.

Step 3
Determine your deadlines and schedule. An example might include posting on Blog 1 on Tues/Thurs and Blog 2 on Mon then post 2 articles a week on Friday.

Step 4
Brainstorm or use Mind Mapping methods to create your list of article topics, potential interviews or podcast topics.This method will also help you determine if larger topics should be broken into a “series” of information.

Step 5
Include scheduled time for research, organization and marketing. I have found that I need to schedule my social networking time as well since this can become overwhelming and suck time away from other activities.

While this method will keep you on track, remember that to add in spur of the moment content.  That’s what keeps the blogging world so current so don’t be afraid to “sprinkle” on a few smaller posts that maybe build on other another bloggers post that caught your attention.

As an extra bonus, stop by clickbank, share a sale or commission junction and see what affiliate programs may apply to your keywords and include those for an extra income stream.

For an excellent example of an Editorial Calender or you can download a copy from Andy Wibbel  of Six Figure Blogging and customize to meet your needs.

Like my Post? Maybe you would like to Buy Mama A Java! It will help to keep me reading, writing and scooping out the info

Posted by Kristen | Filed Under Small Business Blogging, Web 2.0, Work at Home MOM 

A Typical Day of a Work at Home Mom?

March 12, 2008 | 2 Comments

Lego Queen

I haven’t finished writing the article I wanted to post today, but I can’t believe how long it’s been since I posted so something is better then nothing, right? I have so many friends ask how I balance four kids under the age of 8, work and life… people think I have it all together, boy do I have them fooled!

Here is what my day looks like today:

Up at 5:00 to feed baby. When she goes back down I start coffee and jump in the shower. While in the shower I prioritize my day and what needs to get accomplished, press releases sent out, laundry done, get out some Easter decorations….

6:00 all kids are up and I start to make breakfast and husband/kids lunches. I’m embarrassed to say, that this process takes a full hour because no one wants the same thing and when I pack lunches they seem to unpack what I pack because they don’t “feel like that today” so I have to re-pack with “what they feel like”. Oh yeah, feed all the dogs and cats and empty dishwasher that I started before I went to bed.

7:00 it’s the getting dressed shuffle and doing the final back pack check (can’t wait until we don’t need to fit snow pants & boots in those bags!)

7:50 Shoes and coats are on, pack the baby up in her snowsuit and we head to the bus. Today, the kids slept late so I decided to drop them at school so we actually didn’t leave the house until a little after 8.

Leaving the house today, one of the bunnies that lives in our yard was squashed in the road at the end of the neighbors driveway. Sadness….poor bun bun.

Morning Errand- take the babies to the hardware store looking for “something” that he wants me to track down. My luck, they don’t carry it even though I looked it up online (to avoid going through all this work) and they said they did.

Returning home I see that no one has removed the rabbit (even though all the neighbors sat at the bus stop most likely staring at it). So what do I do? Pull in the driveway, get the shovel and go pick up the rabbit. I bring it back to the house and dig a hole and bury it. This took approx 15 minutes and yes, my three year old watched. That’s life, you go in the road, you get squashed, lesson learned. He was happy it wasn’t his rabbit (that no one else seems to take care of but me…)

Home I jump on the computer for a quick email check. Jump to a couple Dlist blogs to post a couple comments for back links. do my post and check the RSS feed for news worthy of an article. I accomplish this in the half hour as the baby plays with her floor mat gym and Dylan has a second breakfast while coloring next to me at the counter.

That’s my day so far, here is what I “plan” on happening for the rest of day. Only tonight will I know if this is what actually happens.

Now, I will head up to the attic to pull out the Easter decorations with Dylan and then I’ll put him in charge of setting up some decorative baskets for the shelves. Then the baby will be ready a snack and a nap so I’ll feed her, put her in the car seat and we’ll head to the Library. While she sleeps and Dylan plays I’ll fire up the laptop and submit the Press Release to my goal of 10 outlets for this morning.

We will then walk from the library to the auto shop where I need to drop off a check and walk back to the library. Keeping my fingers crossed it has stopped raining by then so we can get the outside walk in.

We will return home for lunch and “quiet time” and I will run a couple loads of laundry while we eat lunch. Dylan will then play a game or look at books while I get my five articles written.

Fold and put laundry away and get after school snacks ready.

Get one kid off the school bus, give a snack then we need to pack everyone up to go pick the other one up from after school Cheerleading.

We will arrive home around 4:30, just in time to start cooking dinner. Kids will sit at the counter and complete homework while I cook and we will eat about 5:30. Then upstairs for showers, and family play time and reading. The kids go to bed about 7:30, although, with Daylight Savings time, this has been off a bit but we’re hoping to be back on track.

I clean up the kitchen, put the baby in her jammies and give her a last feeding (by the way, through the day she goes with the flow and is generally on my hip). By then the husband is home and will rock with her for a few minutes then puts her to sleep while I’m cleaning the kitchen.

Now, about 8:30-9:00 I sit down to do more of my work To Do list. I’ll work until about 11 go to sleep for a few hours and get up to work around 1 a.m. to 4 a.m. Go back to sleep from 4sh to 5:30 and TaDa, my day starts over!

There you have it, the schedule of a typical day for this work at home mom! After reviewing this I notice that my husband is not really mentioned… but really, he leaves to work at 7 a.m. and returns around 7 p.m. then eats his dinner while I have the kids upstairs getting ready for bed. He generally will come up and read a story but then takes over the baby duty while I clean the kitchen. I work on my laptop at the counter and he sits next to me and watches the kitchen T.V. and we talk as we go.

Yes, it’s distracting, that’s why I generally do thoughtless type of work like emails, keywork & niche researches, directory submissions, while he’s around and I save my “thinking” work for the middle of the night when the house is quiet and I don’t have someone pulling or yelling “I want” “I need” “mom” “did you”…..

It’s 5:30 and I hoped on to check for an email I was waiting for. Funny that I talk about my lack of sleep but the only way I can get anything done since I just read a post from WorkAtHomeMamma that goes into the details of  sleep patterns but more important, I know I’m not the only sleep deprived work from home mom!

Like my Post? Maybe you would like to Buy Mama A Java! It will help to keep me reading, writing and scooping out the info

Posted by Kristen | Filed Under Chaos of Life 

Top 10 Ways to Make More Money

March 8, 2008 | Leave a Comment

I have been working hard on my business but I have also been doing a great deal of research on how to add additional revenue streams of revenue.  As a small business owner, a piece of advice I hear over and over is “don’t put all your eggs in one basket”.

I have the following 10 tips that will help you look at additional options for you to easily add revenue with your current business.

1. Add a new line of products or services to your core business

2. Offer consulting services to your niche market

3. Create an alliance with another business that compliments your product/service

4. If you have a web site, blog, or e-zine - sell advertising

5. Offer additional services or another business that will build on your current business

6. Create a subscription newsletter or membership area of your web site

7. Create your own product and sell

8. Teach it! If you have a formula for success teach other people to do it.

9. Source PLR ebooks or info products and sell them on your site

10. Find Affiliate programs that will add value to your customers

Like my Post? Maybe you would like to Buy Mama A Java! It will help to keep me reading, writing and scooping out the info

Posted by Kristen | Filed Under Work at Home MOM 

Addicted to Wordpress Plugins

March 4, 2008 | Leave a Comment

I am getting really close to launching my first set of Special Reports and plan on providing a special page directly off my blog. Today I decided that my blog has become cluttered due to my addition to plugins and spent a great deal of the day trying to re-arrange.

Since I’m not a technical coder, more like a ” I think I know what that means, cut and paste” I was impressed with my ability to re-configure quite a bit of my sidebar. Then it never fails, just as I thought I was in the clear I saved and switched to the preview and there is was “ERROR” and both sidebars are missing.

I spent the next 45 minutes trying to trouble shoot and ended up backpedaling to the original file, copy and paste, start from scratch.

The Wordpress Update is next on my list, although I’m more intimidated by this due to the entire thought of actually deleting files. In a quick search I saw a Wordpress Automatic Update Plugin, perhaps I will attempt that first.

I loaded a couple new WP plugins today but had issues with a couple of them, one for Amazon the WP Sticky. Disappointing.

I am a plugin addict, here is a list of my current:

  • Akismet
  • What would Seth Godin Do
  • Buy me a Beer
  • YouTube Bracket
  • All in One SEO
  • Social Bookmarking
  • Google Sitemap-although I can’t get that to work yet….

I really want to figure out a good way of listing my new Special Reports easily- maybe a button on the sidebar linked to it’s own page?  I’ll keep cruising around blogs to see what I like from other people. Have a suggestion? Send it my way!!!

Like my Post? Maybe you would like to Buy Mama A Java! It will help to keep me reading, writing and scooping out the info

Posted by Kristen | Filed Under Chaos of Life 

On the Hunt for Unique Birthday Gifts

March 2, 2008 | Leave a Comment

Maybe it’s just because I have four kids so I’m a bit “jaded” but does Glow in the Dark Bubble Bath not scream “TROUBLE”??

We have a full weekend of birthday parties.  While the kids are always excited about another party, I found the biggest downfall is picking out a gift for a child you have not met. You know the one that is in the same class, but you don’t know the child or family.

You walk thru the endless aisles of toys and not know what they have already or even what they like? So I started searching for unique Birthday Gifts.

That’s where I found the Glow in the Dark Bubble Bath… I don’t think there are too many parents happy about getting that gift, although I’m sure the kids would love it.

Here are a few other ideas:

Mail Just4Me- I love this idea- A birthday gift that comes every month and provides an actual activity not just a toy that will run out of batteries and get lost to the bottom of the toy box.

Custom Cookies- How fun are these? More expensive then I would want to spend for a classroom party, but could be a great option for a loved one. Plus, they are organic!

Nostalgic Candy - Woodstock Candy-While they have options for kids, they also have great birthday candy boxes for baby boomers when you need a unique gift.

Pajamagram- Who doesn’t love a new pair of fun jammies?

Glow in the Dark Pillowcase- ComfyCozy- Custom Pillowcases with themes, names and glow in the dark options. I try to keep a few of these in the house for last second unique gifts. Everyone loves this practical but fun gift.

The age of the child will always be a factor when picking out that special gift. I also find that how many children are in the house makes a difference. I was surprised at the fact that my third child skipped right over the “baby” toys because he was more interested in what the big kids were playing with.

You can also think simple gift- for a first birthday this weekend I went to the store and bought a beach set that came in it’s own beach bag and had a couple different pails and shovels. Everyone that has kids know that you can always use shovels and buckets since they get left behind or break and you can always use them.

Then I then added a couple fun and different bubble blowers, a couple books, little rubber ducks, a kite and soft Frisbee (knowing she had bigger siblings who could play with her). I know she’s not going to run with the kite but she will have fun watching it.  The beach bag made it’s own useful container to hold everything and tied it with a big bow on the handle.

This was an affordable and useful gift and gives you an idea how easily you can customize it. If it was for a boy, I would have added a couple trucks or if it was for an older child maybe a beach towel with their name on it or goggles and fishing net.

Head to the dollar store and pick up a basket of misc items and keep them in a box in your closet- kids love the little toys, coloring books, hair accessories and other small items you’ll find. Then you can pull from the box when a birthday comes up and make your own gift basket on short notice.

Like my Post? Maybe you would like to Buy Mama A Java! It will help to keep me reading, writing and scooping out the info

Posted by Kristen | Filed Under Chaos of Life 


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