money for my life

Internet Marketing: Zzzzzzziiiiiiiiiipppppppppppp!

When you download your theme from http://themes.wordpress.net it will be in a compressed file. You can go to Google and type in “zip file” in the search field and get the software for unzipping files, if it isn’t already loaded onto your computer. The whole premise of zip files is to be able to sent large packets of information in a relatively short amount of time. Once you have your file unzipped.

I find that having Win-Zip software has allowed me to download programs, e-books, music…all sorts of files without spending an exhorbitant amount of time online to do so. There is another step that is necessary, but let’s save it for another day. The important thing is to “un-zip” your theme onto your hard drive. Make sure that you name the folder in an easy-t0-find location.  If you are walking into the middle of this, go back to earlier post and you can catch yourself up to speed.

Have a GREAT day!

Tags: blog installation

Internet Marketing - Installing a Wordpress Blog On Your Website, part III

The next bit that you have to do is to click on the button that says “Install Wordpress”. You will then have some information provided about your blog, like that a data base was created, what your username and password is, and other bits of information. You could write all that information down, but look instead for the button that says “Email Wordpress installation to”  or “Email installation details to”. Just enter your email address to that screen, save your email to a file that you can find at a later time.

That’s all that is required, and now you will have your very own blog installed on your very own website. That’s a great first step to having success with your Internet Marketing.  Now you can begin writing a post on your blog. You will be able to set it up so that it will “ping” your website each time that you update it and make it available to the search engines and the whole World Wide Web will be able to find you. Of course, there are a few small steps that you have to take that make sure that your blog is properly configured, but we will cover that in the next few days.

Have a GREAT day!

Tags: blog, blog installation

Internet Marketing - Installing a Wordpress Blog On Your Website, part II

So yesterday, you began the process of installing a Wordpress blog on you website. We will continue today. By now you should have already secured a hosting account like HostGator, set up an administrator name and password.  Now it comes to choosing an administrator nickname, which could be anything of your choosing. Some people choose to use their first name because anything that you post to your website via the Wordpress blog will have your administrator name attached to it. You can use a pseudo name or a pen name. The choice is entirely your to make.

Then you have a place to put your administrator email. You can enter your personal email here, which some say is a good idea. Any blog activity will be sent via email to this email address. The next field is the site name. For this, you can simply put what your site name is. At this time, it is best to use a word or a keyword phrase that is related to your subject matter. This will help you to gain more traffic to your website.

Tomorrow,  we will finish up on installing a Wordpress blog to you own website.

Have a GREAT day!

Tags: blog installation

Internet Marketing - The Domain Name Server (DNS)

In a nutshell, the DNS is the address of location of the server that holds your website. In order to change that, you will need to log into the account where you set up your domain name that you recently purchased (or will purchase). Choose “Manage Domain” once you are into your account, and then click the link that says “Manage Domain”.

You should have received an email from the hosting service when you set up with them.  Contained within that email you will find your own domain name servers. Copy them from your email into the fields that are asked for in the domain name management account. Once you do that, hit “okay” (you’ll probably have to hit that twice).

You are done.

What seems like it should be more complex than it is really isn’t. You are well on your way to having your own website and enjoying the rewards that Internet Marketing and successful traffic flow will bring.

Have a GREAT day!

Tags: domain name selection

Internet Marketing: Purchase That Name!

Yesterday we looked at the domain name selection process, which is fairly easy and painless. Now that you have found a domain name that is available, you can easily purchase it. This process can usually be done in a short amount of time. Here are some things to think about that will come up during your domain name purchasing process:

* Privacy - once you register a domain name, by law, the information goes into a “whois” directory. For a fee of about $10 a year, you can make that private. If you don’t make it private, anybody can have access to your name, address, and phone number. That will be a decision that only YOU can make.

* Avoid the add-ons - Securing a domain name is a pretty cheap prospect, and it can be for as little as $4.95 a year. At this early stage, it is recommended that you just purchase your domain for one year. I have purchased multiple names that sounded good at the time, but now I no longer need them. Companies are good at selling you the extras because that is where they make more of their profits (think: “Do you want fries with that?”)

* The extra domain names - The easy part is now that you just have to fill out a few fields that will take you about five minutes or so. Some of the sites that sell domain names will offer you variations of your site name with .org or .net endings. You will be better off by just getting the .com domain because most websites are of the .com variety.

Tomorrow: Getting a Hosting Site

Have a GREAT day!

Tags: domain name selection, internet marketing

Internet Marketing Success - What Product Are You Going To Offer?

What I love about Internet Marketing is that you don’t need to get a large inventory and storage space for selling things on the Internet. The beauty is that you can often find a company that will joint venture with you and, if you bring them the customers, they will drop ship the items to you. The reason that a joint venture may be the thing for you is that it is a win-win situation. The vendor wins because more of their product has now sold. You win because you are getting a commission for bringing the customer to them. If the item has real perceived value for the customer, they will win as well.

In the old days of brick-and-mortar sales, you had to have a lot of capital up front: There was storage to pay for, advertising, overhead, shipping, etc. that often meant that you could go years before you saw a profit. The Internet is full of opportunities for you.

Perhaps you want to sell physical products. Great! Nearly every manufacturer has affiliate possibilities within their structure. Simply go to the home page of the manufacturer of the product that you want to sell, and search for the affiliate link. Usually that link is found at the bottom of their home page. Check them out because they will often allow you to joint-venture with them because, when you bring them a customer, that is less money that they have to spend on advertising to attract that same customer.

If you sell a non-physical item like music downloads, movie downloads, or even book down loads, there is a greater opportunity for profit because there is not a physical product that has to be created and stored. All you need is a server that houses the product. If you write the ebook, you can store it on your site. Good sources for e-products are places like Clickbank or PayDotCom. As a matter of fact, I have an ebook call Never Surrender!! that I sell on my own, or people can earn a 75% commission through PayDotCom. That is a high commission for something that you don’t even have to put too much effort into.

Whatever you offer, make sure that you are setting up the value for the niche that you are marketing to. Do this, and you success will be there!

Have a GREAT day!

Tags: internet marketing, making money on the internet

Internet Marketing - Are You Taking Inventory?

By now, you should be seeing what it is going to take to succeed in the world of Internet Marketing. It isn’t enough to have a website. It isn’t enough to paste a product on the site. If you do that and watch your bank account, you will be sorely disappointed. A lot of places that promise you the world with little or no effort don’t tell you the whole story. 

There is work involved.

It takes concentrated, tireless effort to generate traffic. Sites like Google or America Online are established and don’t have to worry so much about promotion to get traffic. They did in the beginning. But once established, getting new people in the door was not as important as getting the old people to stay. You have to provide value to the customer/visitor to earn their trust and earn their business.

Take an Inventory.

You should keep a list of things that work. After a while you will notice by tracking your visitors (usually through webmaster tools or the cpanel) that there are certain days of the week that you attract more visitors. My site usually attracts about 19-20% more on Saturdays than it does on Fridays. There are a lot of reasons for this, but I notice that the content that I post on Fridays and Saturdays matters to visitors. You start to notice that the use of long keyword phrases tend to increase your visitor rate as well. Keep in mind that what may work for you may spell disaster for others. Keep trying until you find the perfect mix for you.

When I first began, I didn’t have any affiliate sites linked on my homepage. But after experimenting a bit, I am discovering those that work well. You can experiment with your sites as well. Just keep an open mind and the goal in focus.

Have a GREAT day!

Tags: goals, internet marketing

When Are You Going To Be Serious About What It Takes To Succeed In Your Internet Business?

Hopefully the answer to that question is NOW! Or ALWAYS! Sometimes Internet entrepreneurs start out and continue to be casual about the whole prospect. They read the stories that them them how easy it is to make boatloads of cash with a minimal of effort. So, that is what they do: Put forth minimal effort. Little do they realize (until too late sometimes) that making a living of the Internet, which can be done, takes honest time and effort. It is the old adage of what effort you put into something will greatly affect the outcome. 

Keep a positive mental attitude and put the effort into your venture, and you will get some positive results. Be sour and negative, and your chances of achieving success are greatly diminished. It’s up to you. When I first started with a website and a blog, I put my heart into it and saw quite a bit of traffic to my sites. I was regularly updating my sites and pinging on a daily basis. I also visited many related sites and left comments (with my website as a contact point) and saw a bit of traffic there. But after a few months, I hadn’t seen a vast increase in traffic because I was only posting twice a week and not visiting other sites and leaving my name and mark there.

I began to seriously look at some of the social networking sites to increase the traffic, and that has helped tremendously. I reconnected with some of my friends and former students to which I have been a silent mystery for years. I got a profile on Facebook and Twitter and spent some effort making my website known there.

Traffic has increased dramatically. I also realize that the attention span of many is shortening as time goes on, so more of an effort is being put on short, information-filled messages. You just have to be open to try new things and stick with the things that are working and find changes to make to get other things working as well. 

Just keep at it and working at it until you find what works for you. It may happen overnight because you might stumble across what is working for you immediately, but it make take longer. Just be patient.

Have a GREAT day!

Tags: internet marketing, making money on the internet, success

Internet Marketing: I’m So Excited!!

It is amazing that Internet Marketing has the ability for you to earn decent money. Thirty years ago I can recall the dawn of the personal computer. There were dreams that were written about that went into detail on how music would largely be done on computers. A lot of it is done that way nowadays, but there is something about the ability to actually play an instrument. There was talk about telecommuting to work and never having to leave your home (that is closer to a reality for many people than was ever envisioned). But to actually make money on your own as an Internet Marketer was unthought of in those days, but now it is a booming industry in which you just need a computer and some guidance.

Is it easy? No. Despite what the pitchmen and pitch women will tell you, it will not happen overnight: there is some work involved in it. Unlike what they would have you believe, you don’t just turn on your computer and the money starts flowing to your bank account.

If only it were that easy.

Just as a star athlete doesn’t get to their highest level of excellence without hard work at the gym, you will never succeed without your own hard work. How much? Ask yourself some questions: How much money do you want to make? What is the time-frame for earning this money? How much time are you willing to devote to this endeavor? Are you going to spend any money in the process? How much? Are you willing to do research to find out the information that you need to succeed? Are you going to have anybody mentor you? Is any of this written down?

Of course, this just scratches the surface of the soul-searching that is required to have Internet Marketing success. I honestly believe that if you have the desire and willingness to work, you will be successful beyond your current dreams. Success begets success.

Have a GREAT day!

Just as a star athlete doesn’t get to their finest without working out at the gym, you will never succeed unless you put in some time and effort. How much? you may ask. It depends. How successful do you want your Internet business to be? What are your goals? Who is yo

Tags: goals, internet marketing, success

It’s Tuesday, Do You Know Where You Positive Mental Attitude Is?

When on the road to Internet Marketing success, it cannot be emphasized enough that a key to that success is a positive mental attitude. This attitude is not just for the first few days and it will all be easy and downhill from there, but it is a need that needs to have a constant flow of good input in order to be effective. New Year’s Day is a great example. Traditionally people are all excited on that day because it is a new year and an opportunity to start fresh. People often choose to start diets and exercise programs then (why do you think that gyms advertise so much during the Christmas through January time-frame?). There is excitement and somebody may go to the gym every day for a whole week.

Then other influences creep in and make it easier to quit than to press on. They skip going on the Monday after one week and tell themselves “It’s okay, it is only one day, I will make it up tomorrow.”

Tomorrow never comes.

You should do something every single day to feed your positive mental attitude so that, like a muscle, it becomes stronger over time. I am not suggesting that you are “on fire” 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, but a steady flame does so much more to evenly temper you mettle and you will be more successful in the long run.

That’s how I became successful with my ebook Never Surrender!!. Every day a little bit more was done on the book. Had it been attempted in one or two full days of work, it would not have turned out as well as it did. Instead, small bites were taken and the success was built upon.

You can do the same with your Internet Marketing.

There is  lot of information out there and it can be overwhelming, but when you tackle it a small piece at a time. You will find that you will be much more successful in the long run!

Have a GREAT day!

Tags: internet marketing, making money on the internet, positive mental attitude, success