A 1 Year Learning Experience

Internet Business, watever May 29th, 2008 Say Something (0)

So just about a year later from getting into internet marketing and knowing what I know now, I am changing “my major”. I hear from a lot of people out there, that there is only a small percentage of people making “their living online” and anyone else that is trying… well it will never happen. They are just playing “the game”. I find myself doing that now.

I mean people can go out and buy those ebooks or home study courses but nothing ever happens. I mean the reason those “gurus” are even selling that information is because that info is not needed anymore or is outdated. Realistically speaking, there is no step by step “how to” make money online. YOU have to take the risks and put yourself out there in a manner that gets YOU noticed. Pretending, if you will. From all the things that I learned this past year from going to seminars, meeting everyone that already has this “game” figured out and being suckered into buying those ebooks and courses, I figured out that they will not make my money for me. I have to do it myself and put in the work. Not that I have not made money online, because I have and everyone can do it… the main issue is people want to make a living online and quit their day jobs. Not only do that, but enjoy what they are doing and not feel that they are scamming people. I feel that those seminars I went to, was nothing but a scam fest. Yes, I have befriended most of these people but I still feel that the products they sell that teach people how to MMO, obviously doesn’t work. If it did, why don’t’ they have every single person making the money they promise people could make. Or make sure it does happen? REALISTICALLY, that just doesn’t happen. The excuse used is people never take action. Well, some people do take action and still can’t figure it out.

So, what should they do?

Should they buy every product out there promising them riches until they can make money or should they give up?

Well, my turn around came when I was spending a ton and never making enough back to break even. I have been scammed up and down… yet I fell for the MMO dream. So, to answer the question of giving up… don’t. I can tell you that right now YOU do not need to spend anymore money online to learn HOW to make money online. Tongue twister. Whatever though… everything you need to know and learn is FREE online. The only thing is you need to do is, go search for it, organize it and try to make sense of it. Of course, there is a price on that. Hence the making of ebooks and courses. People pay for that free info packed and organized together nice and pretty. So stop paying for those ebooks, home study courses, outdated audio presentations, interviews and high priced coaching programs. Note: the coaching programs are only helpful IF you are already making a living online and you want to expand your income. If you do keep buying those things, then your stupid.

You have to dare to be different and take risks. No matter how you decide to make your living online, make sure you are ok with putting yourself out there and not be afraid to lose money. Thats it. My journey has changed and I am now putting all of my time towards ppc affiliate marketing. Now, I know that the risk is HIGH. There will be money lost and that is something that I am willing to dive into because I have chosen not to give up. I will plug away at this until I can make it work. Even if its and extra $100 a month, I would be happy. That is my first goal. I don’t care if it takes me hundreds to attain that, I will. Let me tell you that all the info I have learned in that last month has been insane. ALL the info came from the 3 blogs I read. These blogs have an enormous amount of free info to get anyone started. Peep out my blogroll. Thats it yo. What I do is take all those blog posts and guides and make my own AM guide. I take what they say and interpret it into terms I understand. Make it work for me.

Please Don’t Get Stuck on Google!

Internet Business April 29th, 2008 Say Something (0)

Is it laziness? Is it narrow or closed mindedness? Is it lack of direction?

Maybe I’m just lucky. I stumbled upon the right information online early in my online business to avoid this pitfall… For some reason, people think when you have a website, there is only one way to promote them and make money. And that’s why they will ultimately fall someday!

Gee, I get all this Google traffic and make some good money… And then one day Google changes something in their Algorithm and their business is toast… I know it’s cliche, but don’t put all your eggs in the Google basket. Not even just Google… but search engines in general.

The reason I brought this up today is because someone called anything other than SEO (Search Engine Optimization) a fad… Wow.! The reason he said that is because I said that Webmaster’s have to evolve and think outside to the Search Engine box. And I guess there are types of websites that thrive in the Search Engine environment or don’t care if they make money… and that’s fine. But if you want to make a living online and make some money, you have to expand your horizons.

The things I was suggesting are not fads. These are techniques and ideas the are tried-and-true methods that have been used for years to make a lot of people a lot of money… People (that I know) have made millions of dollars online without ever giving Search Engines… and even Pay Per Click advertising… any attention at all. They don’t care. They don’t need them. I’m not going to get into all the different ways you can make money or get traffic without search engines in this one post, but they are out there…

Don’t think I’m saying I don’t think search engines aren’t a good way to get free traffic. They are! At the very least though, go after multiple engines… don’t get stuck on Google…

I think long term. There are things you MUST do to protect your long term objectives. Just worrying about SEO isn’t going to secure that.

SEO Stuff… Submitting to Search Engines is a Waste of Time…

Internet Business April 28th, 2008 Say Something (1)

Sumitting to search engines is largely a waste of time and money. I spent a lot of money submitting to search engines in my early days before I was told that I was being robbed… Many submit sites claim they are going to submit your website to 150,000 or more search engines. That’s bogus. There are only a handful of SEs that are worth worrying about. The rest are spammers…

Search engines use spiders or crawlers to crawl the net to find sites on their own. They do this by following links from other sites.

Repeated submissions to the search engines will not help. SE’s will rank the most important and relevant sites first and not those the submit repeatedly. If submitting to search engines did help, everyone would be doing it… They’re not.

A moderator in another forum I hang out in put it best:

“So why do search engines have a “Submit URL’ form?
The only reason I can think of is that its a public relations exercise. You feel good that you have actually done something after having submitted. Keep in mind that the ’submit a url’ is probably a bit like the ‘close door’ button on the elevator — it doesn’t work either, but you still push it.”

They are also used because often clients expect it. The clients expect it that’s why you’ll see a lot of web designers and SEOers have to offer submit services because they may not get the biz if the client sees another with the service… Submiting has been so Hyped up that it’s a hard battle to win.

I strongly feel many website submit services are a scam. They’re just taking your money for something that isn’t necessary…

So How Do You Get Indexed by Search Engines?

Links to your website. And to rank well the more important and relevant those links are the better. If you’re just starting out, submitting to directories is a perfect place to start…

You will get spidered quicker and more often if you get links to your website. Much faster than submitting. And you can find a lot of FREE directories.

For any site I put up, one of the first things I do is submit to as many directories as I can. Because some of the directories (not all of them) get spidered all the time. When a search engine’s spider goes through a website, it follows links off of that website.

So let’s say you have a directory that you submitted to that gets hit by the spiderbot daily, well as soon as your link gets added to the directory the spiderbot will pick it up and follow it to your website…

It may not do a deep crawl right away, but eventually if you create enough content it will… content is important. The bots feed off of it and will visit more often if you add fresh content frequently.

I’ve used this strategy very effectively. I get visited daily by the SEs. And the best thing about it is that it’s free. A few years ago I spent $50 per month for a service to submit my website… wasted money.

It does also help to put your URL in your signature of any Public Forums you’re in. The SE’s crawl forums like crazy as well…

BTW, there is nothing wrong with it; it’s a common practice. I’m even in forums where they actually encourage you to place your products or new deals etc. in your sigs. It’s beneficial for the community as a whole. I may need what you’re offering…

DMOZ is important, but don’t get obsessed with it. A lot of people get angry or freak out about not getting listed. If you do, it’s a bonus.

Submit your site only once. If you submit again you are sent to the back of the line. There is no guarantee you’ll even be listed.

I really believe that it is better to get one way links to your website (not recipricol). Search Engines like Google use inbounds to weigh how important your website is. If people are linking to your website naturally, that’s a very good thing. Recipricols are artificial and I think SEs can pick up on that…

One of the best way to get links is to create content that people want to link to… that’s sound simple, but it’s very important. I have pages designed just for that purpose.

I know you asked how to submit to SE’s etc., but it really is a waste of time and money. And time and money is precious in this biz. SEO is not just about keywords, density, and meta tags. Your linking strategy is one part of the formula. There are really no shortcuts. You just have to take a systematic approach and hopefully your website offers something the SE’s eat up.

The Beginning… Patience.

Internet Business April 14th, 2008 Say Something (1)

Image via Wikipedia

I’m always running into keywords that Google won’t give a chance. I normally don’t waste much time with them and try to find other niche keywords and phrases… OR I take that keyword and tear it a part (misspellings, etc).

Sometimes depending on the keyword there is a lot of competition for that keyword… maybe Google has some sort of maximum that it will allow in one keyword market (someone else might be able to answer that better than me)… which is probably just as well because it would be tough to try and get on top of a pile of 50 or 100 other affiliates bidding for that same keyword.

So my first guess is that you need to research some other keywords and keyword phrases. Study your competition. There is a learning curve. I am just starting out, so I have many campaigns I need to set up until I finally find some profitable ones… Heck, I am still learning how to build landing pages.