Someone at Entrecard has been moving the goalposts, or else they can't count.
The guidelines say quite clearly that there have to be 5 posts within a 3 month period. A few days ago I received an email from admin that they had deleted one of my other blogs that had been in existence and on entrecard for barely 6 weeks.
They say 'quality posts'. The definition of 'quality' is nowhere to be found except in negatives about what you CANNOT have (like nudity, hatred, illegal download links and so on) and my blog doesn't fall into any of those categories, in any way shape or form.
There is another vague and ambiguous rule that talks about affiliate links. My blog had ONE affiliate post and a number of other links that gave additional information about the product.
Nor have I been notified either directly by a reader or by Entrecard that there has been any complaint about content or posting frequency - this action has come totally out of the blue.
While some sites are allowed to stay on Entrecard indefinitely even though they have no widget, mine gets deleted without warning although it had a valid widget on there from day 1. If I find a site without a widget or with content I consider boring or trivial, I just move on. I don't write angry emails and say it should be removed. From now onwards if I find ANY reason to object to a blog I come across, I'll do it, and those without widgets are going to be top of my list.
Entrecard's direct response was non-existent, so I moved my enquiries to the forum. The answers I got were very far from satisfactory. They have now blocked the original URL, so I have created a new blog, imported all the posts and will eventually put it back in my links list. But not just yet.
I have big issues with the way that Entrecard define and apply their rules, especially the 'quality' definition, which IMO should be totally removed. It is the opinions of the Entrecard COMMUNITY that is the measure of whether a blog belongs there or not.
They have categories for both Internet Marketing and Make Money Online - and others that have a high proportion of blogs which promote one product or a whole array via affiliate links. Why have these categories, then remove a blog because it is alleged to have affiliate links in more than 50% of its posts - which incidentally was never the case. Hot Choc Profits promotes a single product, but the affiliate link only ever appeared once, the other links are informational.
I have changed the content of the posts around a bit today, putting all the links in just one post.
However there is another issue which I think may have prompted the attention of Entrecard's admin in the first place. I made the first post on Hot Choc Profits sticky by changing the date to one a long time in the future, Now, if they have some automated checking mechanism, it may have triggered a report that there were not 5 posts in the last 3 months.
I've seen 'how to' for making Wordpress posts sticky, but not for Blogger - other than the date change method which I never really liked.
My fledgeling business really needs the attention that Entrecard can supply and the only reason I hadn't posted more often is that I have had a very bad dose of flu and I'm also suffering from depression. I haven't done a lot of dropping, posting or even been online that much at all for a couple of weeks.
If you have asked to advertise and not had a reply, I'm sorry. Ditto, if you have dropped and not had a drop back for a while. I've had ads pending for weeks and weeks till I have deleted them and no response or apologies whatever from the blog owners. My average response time for ads on any of my Entrecard linked blogs is less than 3 days. I have an automated acceptance for people who have advertised with me before.
In conclusion, I would appreciate if visitors here would visit Hot Choc Profits and say in a comment whether in YOUR opinion it deserves to carry an Entrecard widget. Thanks and a very Happy New Year!
Monday 29 December 2008
Sunday 21 December 2008
Grab a spot,advertise your blog and plant a tree
Hmm. Don't know if I've been suckered here, but its a nice idea anyway.
I have bought a spot on a site called http://www.bloggersmosaic.com/ The idea is that some of the advertising revenue goes towards planting trees but the owner is not specific about the amount or percentage he is giving to this, just going on 25 spots per tree. Now if he stuck to the original costs of a spot these would be VERY expensive trees. At the current discounted price it is not so bad. I can't help thinking he is making a tidy profit though.
To gauge the effect of this, I can check my Adgitize page views I suppose and also entrecard drops. There is no affiliate program involved.
The up-side is that if he does what he says, and keeps the page going indefinitely then it is going to be very low cost and worthwhile advertising. In my case, with several blogs on the go, it could do something for all of them since they are all cross linked. It is a one off, not a monthly cost
The concept is the same really as the old pixel ad sites, but at least here you can SEE the photo avatars for each blog and pick the ones to visit that grab your eye. Mouse over the spots and you can see a 'tool tip' or slogan that the advertiser has put to attract visitors.
The down side is for those clickers who don't use entrecard/Adgitize or similar to encourage regular rather than one off visits, you are solely reliant on your content to make people return. So it had better be good. The first test will be to see if my paid for spot makes it on to the updated site tomorrow - they claim to have your link there the next day. (PS It DID - and I got a nice comment from Bloggersmosaic owner too).
Now I've had time to click on existing spots, t's a little disappointing that not all of them lead to real blogs. Some of them are just ordinary websites and the worst of those are just a page of ad links. Hopefully the owner will make a rule about this so the site is really worth visiting to find more and more interesting new blogs to read.
I also found a Yahoo Answers lookalike called Mahalo which supposedly pays you to answer - that is if the questioner is offering a tip. Again, seems to be no affiliate link. Worth a go, but only a once a day visit methinks or I will be stretching myself and my creative juices too far.
I have bought a spot on a site called http://www.bloggersmosaic.com/ The idea is that some of the advertising revenue goes towards planting trees but the owner is not specific about the amount or percentage he is giving to this, just going on 25 spots per tree. Now if he stuck to the original costs of a spot these would be VERY expensive trees. At the current discounted price it is not so bad. I can't help thinking he is making a tidy profit though.
To gauge the effect of this, I can check my Adgitize page views I suppose and also entrecard drops. There is no affiliate program involved.
The up-side is that if he does what he says, and keeps the page going indefinitely then it is going to be very low cost and worthwhile advertising. In my case, with several blogs on the go, it could do something for all of them since they are all cross linked. It is a one off, not a monthly cost
The concept is the same really as the old pixel ad sites, but at least here you can SEE the photo avatars for each blog and pick the ones to visit that grab your eye. Mouse over the spots and you can see a 'tool tip' or slogan that the advertiser has put to attract visitors.
The down side is for those clickers who don't use entrecard/Adgitize or similar to encourage regular rather than one off visits, you are solely reliant on your content to make people return. So it had better be good. The first test will be to see if my paid for spot makes it on to the updated site tomorrow - they claim to have your link there the next day. (PS It DID - and I got a nice comment from Bloggersmosaic owner too).
Now I've had time to click on existing spots, t's a little disappointing that not all of them lead to real blogs. Some of them are just ordinary websites and the worst of those are just a page of ad links. Hopefully the owner will make a rule about this so the site is really worth visiting to find more and more interesting new blogs to read.
I also found a Yahoo Answers lookalike called Mahalo which supposedly pays you to answer - that is if the questioner is offering a tip. Again, seems to be no affiliate link. Worth a go, but only a once a day visit methinks or I will be stretching myself and my creative juices too far.
Bukisa, a new place to write
A big thanks to my friend over at The Green Ninja for pointing me in the direction of Bukisa as a new place to write for profit.
My blogging income is increasing and I am really enjoying what I'm doing. At a difficult time of my life I have found something fulfilling and at least some of my readers seem to find it entertaining.
I do occasionally duplicate content between my own blogs, but would not do it anywhere else.
Google can detect it and you may lose Page rank. However, what you CAN do is write closely related articles and cross reference them.
For instance, I might write about techniques for cooking with chocolate in one article for Xomba, and refer to another in Bukisa which explains the process by which cocoa beans become the familiar product we know and the other uses to which the by products are put. In another article on my Today.com blog, I could give a specific recipe and again, cross reference to the other two.
The format may be a little different to what you are used to as a blogger. On Bukisa you can include video in your posts and indicate that when you index. Text and video items are easy to distinguish and there is a good indexing system to find what you are interested in.
You can also refer your friends, and earn extra revenue from their contributions. It is a visually pleasant and well organised site and I know I am going to enjoy this extra revenue stream.
My blogging income is increasing and I am really enjoying what I'm doing. At a difficult time of my life I have found something fulfilling and at least some of my readers seem to find it entertaining.
I do occasionally duplicate content between my own blogs, but would not do it anywhere else.
Google can detect it and you may lose Page rank. However, what you CAN do is write closely related articles and cross reference them.
For instance, I might write about techniques for cooking with chocolate in one article for Xomba, and refer to another in Bukisa which explains the process by which cocoa beans become the familiar product we know and the other uses to which the by products are put. In another article on my Today.com blog, I could give a specific recipe and again, cross reference to the other two.
The format may be a little different to what you are used to as a blogger. On Bukisa you can include video in your posts and indicate that when you index. Text and video items are easy to distinguish and there is a good indexing system to find what you are interested in.
You can also refer your friends, and earn extra revenue from their contributions. It is a visually pleasant and well organised site and I know I am going to enjoy this extra revenue stream.
Thursday 18 December 2008
Give yourself this e-book for Christmas
Many e-books I've bought, or downloaded totally failed to deliver, but today I happened on a real winner.
There are many, many e-books about how best to exploit moneymakers like Adsense and Clickbank, but none I've ever read are as helpful or explicit as Project QuickCash.
Within a very few minutes, I was able to follow the instructions and identify some of the main reasons that my past efforts had not been successful AND how to do it properly.
I've learned more really useful techniques just this afternoon from reading this book than I have since I first started trying to make money online. It just cannot be missed.
It is on discount at the moment (till 24-Dec-08), so grab it at the cheapest price while you can.
Just click on the banner and you'll find out how to get your copy and make money from it yourself. Just a hint, don't take the first price you are offered, try to leave the page first!
There are many, many e-books about how best to exploit moneymakers like Adsense and Clickbank, but none I've ever read are as helpful or explicit as Project QuickCash.
Within a very few minutes, I was able to follow the instructions and identify some of the main reasons that my past efforts had not been successful AND how to do it properly.
I've learned more really useful techniques just this afternoon from reading this book than I have since I first started trying to make money online. It just cannot be missed.
It is on discount at the moment (till 24-Dec-08), so grab it at the cheapest price while you can.
Just click on the banner and you'll find out how to get your copy and make money from it yourself. Just a hint, don't take the first price you are offered, try to leave the page first!
Sunday 14 December 2008
Apologies to my regular droppers and visitors
I messed up in a big way yesterday. I was trying to install a new template and it all went very pear shaped. Ended up with a load of widget placeholders with nothing in them. Have been working hard to get everything back to normal today and waiting for some instructions from the author of the template to correct whatever I did wrong.
Next time I'll play with one of my other blogs that only has a few widgets to mess up :-(
The biggest regret was losing all the list of blogs I read regularly and really like. I'll get them back piecemeal, but the first one to get added to my new list is actually a new (to me) blog I found while on Linkreferral today.
Enjoy this http://myretirementchronicles.blogspot.com/
Next time I'll play with one of my other blogs that only has a few widgets to mess up :-(
The biggest regret was losing all the list of blogs I read regularly and really like. I'll get them back piecemeal, but the first one to get added to my new list is actually a new (to me) blog I found while on Linkreferral today.
Enjoy this http://myretirementchronicles.blogspot.com/
Tuesday 2 December 2008
Adgitize works!
OK, OK, so it isn't a fortune moneywise, but Adgitize got me a bucketload of visitors last month and with 4 blogs on the go, I ended up close to the top of the leaderboard for points.
NOt without a little effort though. Adgitize rewards those who post regularly very well in terms of the revenue share, and all my blogs got some attention.
I can absolutely recommend it as a place to advertise your blog. The price of a couple of coffees can buy you a month's advertising which can easily come back to you via Adsense or people joining the affiliate businesses you offer - here's my latest one - a business based on Healthy Chocolate - what nicer way to make you a living!
For those who 'do' Entrecard as well, you can use the same 125 x 125 widget image that you use there, for your Adgitize ad.
More than that, it got me acquainted with some very useful, thoughtful and entertaining blogs that I might well not have found otherwise.
NOt without a little effort though. Adgitize rewards those who post regularly very well in terms of the revenue share, and all my blogs got some attention.
I can absolutely recommend it as a place to advertise your blog. The price of a couple of coffees can buy you a month's advertising which can easily come back to you via Adsense or people joining the affiliate businesses you offer - here's my latest one - a business based on Healthy Chocolate - what nicer way to make you a living!
For those who 'do' Entrecard as well, you can use the same 125 x 125 widget image that you use there, for your Adgitize ad.
More than that, it got me acquainted with some very useful, thoughtful and entertaining blogs that I might well not have found otherwise.
Friday 28 November 2008
Today's quickie moneymaker
Discovered a little gem that you can use to make money on your blog or website
Linkshowoff is a little widget with slots that people can buy at a price you set to advertise their link.
Yes, I know you can do this for free with entrecard, and for a small amount with Adgitize, but you can advertise here or on any of my other blogs for just $1.
If you decide to add Linkshowoff to your blog, you'll get paid for your ads, and also for referrals - good isn't it! Payments are made via Paypal.
The ads stay on the widget until they are 'bumped' off by newer ones. However, you can expand the size of your widget to run up to 20 links at a time, so advertisers could get excellent value for a really tiny amount.
Please check on the green Linkshowoff banner to check it out and scroll down the sidebar to see how it looks. You'll have a choice of colours to work with your blog colourscheme.
Linkshowoff is a little widget with slots that people can buy at a price you set to advertise their link.
Yes, I know you can do this for free with entrecard, and for a small amount with Adgitize, but you can advertise here or on any of my other blogs for just $1.
If you decide to add Linkshowoff to your blog, you'll get paid for your ads, and also for referrals - good isn't it! Payments are made via Paypal.
The ads stay on the widget until they are 'bumped' off by newer ones. However, you can expand the size of your widget to run up to 20 links at a time, so advertisers could get excellent value for a really tiny amount.
Please check on the green Linkshowoff banner to check it out and scroll down the sidebar to see how it looks. You'll have a choice of colours to work with your blog colourscheme.
Monday 17 November 2008
So you don't believe CHOCOLATE CAN BE HEALTHY?
Prepare to change your ideas! What I am about to tell you about can give you more antioxidant weight for weight than any other healthy food you can name - even the so called super foods and drinks you may have heard of!
Yesterday afternoon I went to a presentation for this business which is opening in the UK in January and I was absolutely BLOWN AWAY.
It sits beautifully with my other businesses and I know that I can make this one work for me and my team and I would just LOVE you to join me on that team.
The details can be found at http://www.ukchocolateteam.com/ but before you flip over there, please read on.
We currently have an absolutely unique opportunity to take a position completely free and find out about the product and the business. What I have seen about the product, company, the training, the compensation is fantastic.
If you later decide it isn’t for you, no problem, but if you DO, you will be in the top ‘layer’ of my team and well positioned within the whole of the UK to start recruiting. My sponsor is just TWO levels away from the top of the whole UK organisation.
If you would like to be involved, you need to contact me IMMEDIATELY via the email on my profile.
Signing up is a special procedure at present because they are still getting the UK legalities tied up. To be in my team, you need to go through that route.
As soon as you have your ID and understand the temporary conditions in place, you can start to get YOUR team in place for the UK launch and that can include US, Canadian, Japanese, Australian and New Zealand folks. US and Canada are fully launched, the others are also set to come on-stream shortly.
Remember, all you are doing at present is registering an interest. There is absolutely no obligation and no cost.
If you would like to contact me to ask for more information, please do so via
http://www.jennyfletcher.ws
You can also see my brand new blog for this venture at http://myukchocbiz.blogspot.com/
I have copied this post across so you can get all the details there too!
Yesterday afternoon I went to a presentation for this business which is opening in the UK in January and I was absolutely BLOWN AWAY.
It sits beautifully with my other businesses and I know that I can make this one work for me and my team and I would just LOVE you to join me on that team.
The details can be found at http://www.ukchocolateteam.com/ but before you flip over there, please read on.
We currently have an absolutely unique opportunity to take a position completely free and find out about the product and the business. What I have seen about the product, company, the training, the compensation is fantastic.
If you later decide it isn’t for you, no problem, but if you DO, you will be in the top ‘layer’ of my team and well positioned within the whole of the UK to start recruiting. My sponsor is just TWO levels away from the top of the whole UK organisation.
If you would like to be involved, you need to contact me IMMEDIATELY via the email on my profile.
Signing up is a special procedure at present because they are still getting the UK legalities tied up. To be in my team, you need to go through that route.
As soon as you have your ID and understand the temporary conditions in place, you can start to get YOUR team in place for the UK launch and that can include US, Canadian, Japanese, Australian and New Zealand folks. US and Canada are fully launched, the others are also set to come on-stream shortly.
Remember, all you are doing at present is registering an interest. There is absolutely no obligation and no cost.
If you would like to contact me to ask for more information, please do so via
http://www.jennyfletcher.ws
You can also see my brand new blog for this venture at http://myukchocbiz.blogspot.com/
I have copied this post across so you can get all the details there too!
Wednesday 12 November 2008
Are you a Xombie yet?
Most of you who read this will already be bloggers and may already write articles as well.
If you are not yet publishing your articles on Xomba, have you been asleep? This is one site you really need to be involved with, especially if Adsense is one of your income streams. The articles and useful/interesting links (Xombytes and Xomblurbs) that you publish will earn you a 50/50 split of the income from the Adsense ads that surround the item when it is viewed.
Last night the site admin ran an online workshop/chat session in which some of the plans for a forthcoming major upgrade were set out. You can read the transcript of the session here.
Maybe you have looked at Xomba before and didn't like the layout or appearance? It seems that they have taken this on board and are set for big changes, incorporating many of the suggestions they have had from regular users.
For current Xombies, I have a tip. As I surfed through my Entrecard drops, I was often finding something of note worth writing about or posting a link, I'd make a note then lose it or just forget to post something good.
So, I started making a habit of opening up a Xomba tab before I got into Entrecarding so I could just jump across and do a post, or draft a brief Xombyte for later completion. I've done substantially more in the last day or two which ultimately means more money.
In last night's session everyone wanted to know how to generate the most income. Read the transcript carefully because it will help you in this respect.
Then when you've done that, go take a look at the 'Users by points' list and from there, to list the articles written by those who have generated the most points. Work out what keywords their items are based on - that should give you some help.
Here is where you can sign up to Xomba. Check me out (jennysue19) and make me a Xomba buddy.
If you are not yet publishing your articles on Xomba, have you been asleep? This is one site you really need to be involved with, especially if Adsense is one of your income streams. The articles and useful/interesting links (Xombytes and Xomblurbs) that you publish will earn you a 50/50 split of the income from the Adsense ads that surround the item when it is viewed.
Last night the site admin ran an online workshop/chat session in which some of the plans for a forthcoming major upgrade were set out. You can read the transcript of the session here.
Maybe you have looked at Xomba before and didn't like the layout or appearance? It seems that they have taken this on board and are set for big changes, incorporating many of the suggestions they have had from regular users.
For current Xombies, I have a tip. As I surfed through my Entrecard drops, I was often finding something of note worth writing about or posting a link, I'd make a note then lose it or just forget to post something good.
So, I started making a habit of opening up a Xomba tab before I got into Entrecarding so I could just jump across and do a post, or draft a brief Xombyte for later completion. I've done substantially more in the last day or two which ultimately means more money.
In last night's session everyone wanted to know how to generate the most income. Read the transcript carefully because it will help you in this respect.
Then when you've done that, go take a look at the 'Users by points' list and from there, to list the articles written by those who have generated the most points. Work out what keywords their items are based on - that should give you some help.
Here is where you can sign up to Xomba. Check me out (jennysue19) and make me a Xomba buddy.
Monday 10 November 2008
Monday morning quickie - don’t just advertise, ADGITIZE !!
This month a new player has given you a new way to monetize your blog.
ADGITIZE not only pays you for advertising, but also encourages you to post new material and rewards you for page views as well as ad clicks.
What you are paid depends on the success of the whole enterprise and your own efforts – your points are changed into cash on an exchange rate mechanism clearly explained on the site.
You can be an advertiser, a publisher, or simply an affiliate – you will also gain points for referring new members.
Look on my blog sidebar - you'll see that the ad format is a simple 125 x 125 pixel image and you can choose to publish single or multiple units.
Great idea, get in now and watch your points grow as you bring in all the bloggers in YOUR personal network.
Thursday 6 November 2008
Thanks to Phydeaux for my Label Cloud
Every blog needs labels so that visitors can find info about things they are interested in.
The standard blogger way of doing things is clumsy and unattractive and also results in a very long page if you blog about a lot of different things.
As I wandered around the blogosphere I saw some better implementation methods and decided to take a look at how it was done.
I found Phydeaux gave very clear instructions. Although it may look a little daunting for the non-techie, it is really very easy, and I had it all done within 10 minutes with no errors.
To make it easy to find the bits of code I needed to work on in the template, I cut and pasted the whole thing (without widgets expanded) into notepad. DO NOT try and open notepad and then open the XML file you saved and work on it.
DO NOT work on the notepad version and then cut and paste back to Blogger - JUST use your notepad window as a reference to find the right lines to add to or change.
WIth those small warnings, you should find it a breeze. Tweaking to get the colours harmonized with your blog palette and font is similarly easy, once you have the basics in place.
The instructions are not on Phydeaux's main blog - visit that here.
What would be useful would be to know if the positioning of your label cloud has any implications for Adsense. Perhaps someone can enlighten me.
The standard blogger way of doing things is clumsy and unattractive and also results in a very long page if you blog about a lot of different things.
As I wandered around the blogosphere I saw some better implementation methods and decided to take a look at how it was done.
I found Phydeaux gave very clear instructions. Although it may look a little daunting for the non-techie, it is really very easy, and I had it all done within 10 minutes with no errors.
To make it easy to find the bits of code I needed to work on in the template, I cut and pasted the whole thing (without widgets expanded) into notepad. DO NOT try and open notepad and then open the XML file you saved and work on it.
DO NOT work on the notepad version and then cut and paste back to Blogger - JUST use your notepad window as a reference to find the right lines to add to or change.
WIth those small warnings, you should find it a breeze. Tweaking to get the colours harmonized with your blog palette and font is similarly easy, once you have the basics in place.
The instructions are not on Phydeaux's main blog - visit that here.
What would be useful would be to know if the positioning of your label cloud has any implications for Adsense. Perhaps someone can enlighten me.
Sunday 2 November 2008
Adsense mistakes and warnings
Like any blogger or website owner who uses Adsense, I'm always looking for ways to improve my click-throughs and income.
There is so much info out there about how best to optimize your blog or website for Adsense I am getting thoroughly confused.
For instance, should you put lots of labels for every post you make?
I have, however, found a couple of blogs and sites that are genuinely helpful which I'd like to share.
They are:
http://adsenseaddict.com/
http://www.keywordcountry.com/
http://ezinearticles.com/ (search for adsense articles)
http://www.xedant.com/index.php
http://www.problogger.net/
One absolutely dire warning - I received an email from someone recommending an 'Adsense exchange group' - like the traffic exchanges but with the idea that you visited other people's blogs and clicked on the google ads and they did it for you - no suggestion that you were visiting for any other reason. Google does know about this and they WILL detect unusual patterns of clicking on Adsense links and sudden increases. Don't have anything to do with this kind of pimping for click-throughs.
Now for my daft mistake. When I signed up for Adsense, then added other sites later, I forgot to add them to my list of 'authorized sites' to carry ads with my publisher ID. I don't know how much revenue I've lost like this.
I have corrected it now, but also noted that in the 'unauthorized sites' list, http://www.blogger.com appeared - this is your blogspot dashboard area. I don't know WHY this happens, except it is where you create your Adsense gadget units.
Hopefully I will now see a rise in my Adsense earnings when my account picks up the updates.
There is so much info out there about how best to optimize your blog or website for Adsense I am getting thoroughly confused.
For instance, should you put lots of labels for every post you make?
I have, however, found a couple of blogs and sites that are genuinely helpful which I'd like to share.
They are:
http://adsenseaddict.com/
http://www.keywordcountry.com/
http://ezinearticles.com/ (search for adsense articles)
http://www.xedant.com/index.php
http://www.problogger.net/
One absolutely dire warning - I received an email from someone recommending an 'Adsense exchange group' - like the traffic exchanges but with the idea that you visited other people's blogs and clicked on the google ads and they did it for you - no suggestion that you were visiting for any other reason. Google does know about this and they WILL detect unusual patterns of clicking on Adsense links and sudden increases. Don't have anything to do with this kind of pimping for click-throughs.
Now for my daft mistake. When I signed up for Adsense, then added other sites later, I forgot to add them to my list of 'authorized sites' to carry ads with my publisher ID. I don't know how much revenue I've lost like this.
I have corrected it now, but also noted that in the 'unauthorized sites' list, http://www.blogger.com appeared - this is your blogspot dashboard area. I don't know WHY this happens, except it is where you create your Adsense gadget units.
Hopefully I will now see a rise in my Adsense earnings when my account picks up the updates.
Friday 31 October 2008
Why GDI is the business YOU have been looking for
Blogging here has brought me a number of new customers in all my core businesses, but some of you still need some more encouragement and convincing!
One way or another you’ll all be thinking about sending greetings cards to your nearest and dearest in the next couple of months, for the best way to do it see my previous post under the link above.
Now, let’s talk about GDI! GDI will give you a web domain with the suffix .ws, hosting for your website to go under that domain and a great business opportunity all for $10 a month – the price of a few cups of cappuccino.
Why should you join GDI with me rather than any of the thousands of other GDI affiliates out there?
That’s easy. Join through me, and I will build you a one page lead capture site with a mail form that returns data to an email box of your choice. It can be the mailbox associated with your GDI account or any other. Cost – NOT A PENNY!
GDI are about to launch a brand new webmail service so you don’t have to forward your domain’s email or bring it into a mail client like Outlook or Thunderbird.
You will, by the way, get more than one mailbox associated with your GDI domain, so your whole family can have one or more email addresses and you decide for each one whether you collect it by webmail, forward it to something else or collect in your mail client.
You can use your one page website to get new potential customers for anything you choose, the background image can be exactly what you want, we will work together to achieve it.
After your potential customer has completed the mail form, you can go to a second page with some simple text saying thank you, or re-route them to your blog for example, or to an affiliate site of your own choice.
I can also quote for creating a website like My Greetings To You. GDI hosting does have some limitations as to what you can include on your site, but will be fine for basic needs.
Many people just use their .ws domain to cloak their GDI affiliate site, or other affiliate site. I think this is not a good idea - sure you get something that looks individual, but all the more disappointing when the visitor finds out its just an affiliate site behind that carefully chosen personalised domain name.
However, if its the unique and unusual domain name you want, then go ahead - its your choice!
One possibility that might get you good traffic, is to choose a domain name that is a mis-spelling or mis-typing, lots of people will search using the name without the suffix for example. You get the idea... beware of blatant cyber-squatting though which could get you into trouble.
So, what does GDI pay? For every customer you bring to GDI, you get $1 per month in commission, so you’ll need 10 customers to cover your costs – EASY!
This special website building offer is my personal way of adding value to the business – it isn’t a standard feature of GDI.
You'll get your first week with GDI free, while you find out all about the opportunity and what it can do for your income - that applies to every new joiner.
So, check out my GDI site and sign up today - I'll be in touch as soon as I see your registration - thanks and have a great weekend.
An alternative to joining just GDI is to join via this site which can really put your recruiting 'on steroids' - .
One way or another you’ll all be thinking about sending greetings cards to your nearest and dearest in the next couple of months, for the best way to do it see my previous post under the link above.
Now, let’s talk about GDI! GDI will give you a web domain with the suffix .ws, hosting for your website to go under that domain and a great business opportunity all for $10 a month – the price of a few cups of cappuccino.
Why should you join GDI with me rather than any of the thousands of other GDI affiliates out there?
That’s easy. Join through me, and I will build you a one page lead capture site with a mail form that returns data to an email box of your choice. It can be the mailbox associated with your GDI account or any other. Cost – NOT A PENNY!
GDI are about to launch a brand new webmail service so you don’t have to forward your domain’s email or bring it into a mail client like Outlook or Thunderbird.
You will, by the way, get more than one mailbox associated with your GDI domain, so your whole family can have one or more email addresses and you decide for each one whether you collect it by webmail, forward it to something else or collect in your mail client.
You can use your one page website to get new potential customers for anything you choose, the background image can be exactly what you want, we will work together to achieve it.
After your potential customer has completed the mail form, you can go to a second page with some simple text saying thank you, or re-route them to your blog for example, or to an affiliate site of your own choice.
I can also quote for creating a website like My Greetings To You. GDI hosting does have some limitations as to what you can include on your site, but will be fine for basic needs.
Many people just use their .ws domain to cloak their GDI affiliate site, or other affiliate site. I think this is not a good idea - sure you get something that looks individual, but all the more disappointing when the visitor finds out its just an affiliate site behind that carefully chosen personalised domain name.
However, if its the unique and unusual domain name you want, then go ahead - its your choice!
One possibility that might get you good traffic, is to choose a domain name that is a mis-spelling or mis-typing, lots of people will search using the name without the suffix for example. You get the idea... beware of blatant cyber-squatting though which could get you into trouble.
So, what does GDI pay? For every customer you bring to GDI, you get $1 per month in commission, so you’ll need 10 customers to cover your costs – EASY!
This special website building offer is my personal way of adding value to the business – it isn’t a standard feature of GDI.
You'll get your first week with GDI free, while you find out all about the opportunity and what it can do for your income - that applies to every new joiner.
So, check out my GDI site and sign up today - I'll be in touch as soon as I see your registration - thanks and have a great weekend.
An alternative to joining just GDI is to join via this site which can really put your recruiting 'on steroids' - .
Hi Entrecard Buddies etc.
I have now got my second blog 'Pushing the Angry Button' Entrecard enabled and I hope you will all visit.
Although I say it's about being angry about things that happen in the UK, it's not quite that parochial and USA readers will find a few comments about the candidates for their upcoming election.
Anyway, hope you all enjoy it - you know if you drop, you'll get one back !
Although I say it's about being angry about things that happen in the UK, it's not quite that parochial and USA readers will find a few comments about the candidates for their upcoming election.
Anyway, hope you all enjoy it - you know if you drop, you'll get one back !
Saturday 18 October 2008
6 Degrees of Separation welcomes non-US members - at last
I joined the social network 6 Degrees of Separation quite a while ago now, but haven't been promoting it because till recently they had no way of paying non-US members.
I can tell you it made us feel very second class and not wanted.
Now, although it still doesn't work for everyone everywhere, they have decided to implement Paypal while they find a 'long term solution'.
But wait - is all perfect yet? Well actually no! What they have said that is we won't get any referral money for any non-US members for the time being. They don't seem to have any good reason for this, and have deleted a number of forum posts where members have tried to get answers which isn't very good policy.
Plus, they are proposing to charge some additional fees on every referral payment which appear to be over and above the fees Paypal charge the paying organisation per payment and are not charged to US members,
I'm going to continue to promote for the time being, but there are some tough questions that have to be answered by admin before I am really sure that it is worthwhile. If you are a US resident, entitled to open a bank account there, please sign up with 6DGR here
http://www.6dgr.com/index.php?mode=join&ref_id=15018
I can get a referral fee for you and you will get one for every other US resident you recruit.
If you live ANYWHERE else in the world, you can choose to sign up now and hope that you'll eventually get paid for the people you refer who are not in the USA.
I like the site, and I'm meeting some good people there, but the admin need to be a little more open and transparent about why they are discriminating like this.
I can tell you it made us feel very second class and not wanted.
Now, although it still doesn't work for everyone everywhere, they have decided to implement Paypal while they find a 'long term solution'.
But wait - is all perfect yet? Well actually no! What they have said that is we won't get any referral money for any non-US members for the time being. They don't seem to have any good reason for this, and have deleted a number of forum posts where members have tried to get answers which isn't very good policy.
Plus, they are proposing to charge some additional fees on every referral payment which appear to be over and above the fees Paypal charge the paying organisation per payment and are not charged to US members,
I'm going to continue to promote for the time being, but there are some tough questions that have to be answered by admin before I am really sure that it is worthwhile. If you are a US resident, entitled to open a bank account there, please sign up with 6DGR here
http://www.6dgr.com/index.php?mode=join&ref_id=15018
I can get a referral fee for you and you will get one for every other US resident you recruit.
If you live ANYWHERE else in the world, you can choose to sign up now and hope that you'll eventually get paid for the people you refer who are not in the USA.
I like the site, and I'm meeting some good people there, but the admin need to be a little more open and transparent about why they are discriminating like this.
Thursday 16 October 2008
Please click............
If this is the ONLY day you ever do it, please click in memory of my friend, Dee Munday.
Dee's funeral was today 16th October 2008. She died of heart failure following 3 bouts of cancer that started off with breast cancer.
Help to stop this happening to another woman by clicking on the Breast Cancer link on my sidebar, each click will help to pay for a mammogram.
Thank you so much. If you like, comment here that you clicked. It would help so much to know how many clicks for mammograms were done here which might help save a life in the future.
You could also help by donating to Macmillan Cancer Support - Dee's wish and on her funeral order of service.
Dee's funeral was today 16th October 2008. She died of heart failure following 3 bouts of cancer that started off with breast cancer.
Help to stop this happening to another woman by clicking on the Breast Cancer link on my sidebar, each click will help to pay for a mammogram.
Thank you so much. If you like, comment here that you clicked. It would help so much to know how many clicks for mammograms were done here which might help save a life in the future.
You could also help by donating to Macmillan Cancer Support - Dee's wish and on her funeral order of service.
Tuesday 14 October 2008
How NOT to treat customers
Something you have to learn immediately in business is that the customer is always right (even when they are wrong) and what you NEVER do is to upset a long standing existing customer to the point they go to your competition.
One of the UK's largest mobile (cell) phone companies has really got me angry today. Read about it on my other blog Pushing the Angry Button. And if you were thinking about a change, I'd advise you to give O2 a miss, because its clear, they really don't give a damn.
One of the UK's largest mobile (cell) phone companies has really got me angry today. Read about it on my other blog Pushing the Angry Button. And if you were thinking about a change, I'd advise you to give O2 a miss, because its clear, they really don't give a damn.
Saturday 11 October 2008
Problems with entrecard today etc.
Entrecard's server is very sick. Been trying to drop on all my regulars since last night, but now won't even login.
So I guess I am going to have to concentrate on other things till it comes back.
Having signed up for a second Linkreferral account for the blog, I was pleased to get some reviews very quickly.
As I go through blogs and sites each day, a very large number have Adsense as I do, but I'm wondering if people really make the huge sums they claim from it. I don't say I click on ads on EVERY site I visit, but I do a significant percentage on the sites I visit each day and I don't seem to be getting the same treatment. :-(
What I'm wondering is if Adsense recognises the tags in each blog post as it does keywords in a web page as well as the text itself when it is selecting ads to display. The ones I see on my site and on my blog seem rather limited and boring. I'll have to do some more research and make some changes to get some more varied subjects in the ads.
So I guess I am going to have to concentrate on other things till it comes back.
Having signed up for a second Linkreferral account for the blog, I was pleased to get some reviews very quickly.
As I go through blogs and sites each day, a very large number have Adsense as I do, but I'm wondering if people really make the huge sums they claim from it. I don't say I click on ads on EVERY site I visit, but I do a significant percentage on the sites I visit each day and I don't seem to be getting the same treatment. :-(
What I'm wondering is if Adsense recognises the tags in each blog post as it does keywords in a web page as well as the text itself when it is selecting ads to display. The ones I see on my site and on my blog seem rather limited and boring. I'll have to do some more research and make some changes to get some more varied subjects in the ads.
Friday 10 October 2008
Better or worse for online business?
Listening to the dire news from around the world about crashing stockmarkets I wondered what effect this is going to have on those of us who make their living via the Internet.
I came up with two possible and completely opposing answers.
One is that it will be very good for us all. If conventional businesses close their doors and people can't get another job, they may well turn to the net for earning opportunities. And, what is more it is up to all of us to see they get ethically treated and led into honest and real opportunities with real products and not scams. That is one of my 'missions'.
The other side is that as people tighten their budgets they may decide that they cannot afford the cost of the monthly subscription to a particular online business, however small.
So, what I think we have to do is to review what businesses we are promoting and see how appropriate they are to the economic conditions.
I will be keeping all three of mine. GDI is such a tiny outlay per month when you consider what you get and if folks are looking to do business our way, they will want domains and hosting and also to look to those of us who can do it, to create websites for them and explain the art and science of promoting, advertising and monetising.
Plus, I will be continuing to sell on ebay (despite their fee hikes) and to promote and extend my web design skills.
I still get some disbelief from UK friends when I tell them that Sendoutcards is cheaper than going to Clintons or similar card shops even though the cards are posted in the USA. But it's true!
And even in the deepest recession, you'll still want to send cards for occasions and holidays. So why not save yourself the trip to the shops (fuel, parking) and possibly another one to the post office by doing the whole job from your PC.
There will always be those people who manage to find a way to make money even in these desperate times. Those people will want to spend some of their lolly on travel and holidays, hence why I am keeping Travelencia in my portfolio.
I would love to hear my readers' opinions on how we shall do over the coming months, and how we can recession-proof our businesses, so come on - get your commenting fingers out.
I came up with two possible and completely opposing answers.
One is that it will be very good for us all. If conventional businesses close their doors and people can't get another job, they may well turn to the net for earning opportunities. And, what is more it is up to all of us to see they get ethically treated and led into honest and real opportunities with real products and not scams. That is one of my 'missions'.
The other side is that as people tighten their budgets they may decide that they cannot afford the cost of the monthly subscription to a particular online business, however small.
So, what I think we have to do is to review what businesses we are promoting and see how appropriate they are to the economic conditions.
I will be keeping all three of mine. GDI is such a tiny outlay per month when you consider what you get and if folks are looking to do business our way, they will want domains and hosting and also to look to those of us who can do it, to create websites for them and explain the art and science of promoting, advertising and monetising.
Plus, I will be continuing to sell on ebay (despite their fee hikes) and to promote and extend my web design skills.
I still get some disbelief from UK friends when I tell them that Sendoutcards is cheaper than going to Clintons or similar card shops even though the cards are posted in the USA. But it's true!
And even in the deepest recession, you'll still want to send cards for occasions and holidays. So why not save yourself the trip to the shops (fuel, parking) and possibly another one to the post office by doing the whole job from your PC.
There will always be those people who manage to find a way to make money even in these desperate times. Those people will want to spend some of their lolly on travel and holidays, hence why I am keeping Travelencia in my portfolio.
I would love to hear my readers' opinions on how we shall do over the coming months, and how we can recession-proof our businesses, so come on - get your commenting fingers out.
Interlude for Haiku Friday
I refuse to get depressed. I have debts (gas, electric, council tax) which I really can't ignore for much longer, my skanky absent husband is still refusing to pay his share of the mortgage, but I know with effort, dedication and some work, I can survive. If nothing else, its a nice day and the sun is out. I have friends, I have a (silly) cat who loves me. There is food in the freezer and the last of my tomatoes in the garden. I'm not going to starve and I have reasonable if not perfect health.
Life isn't perfect but I have things to be thankful for. Most of all I have friends.
Life isn't perfect but I have things to be thankful for. Most of all I have friends.
It is also Haiku Friday so for the first time here goes
markets drop and drop
my investments may be lost
But I still have love
Thank you Christina at http://amommystory.blogspot.com/ for introducing me to Haiku Friday
Tuesday 7 October 2008
Adsensibility
It's a day for learning - I didn't realise that I could have more than one Adsense box on my blog - the rules let you have up to 3 on a page.
This actually came from a tip on Adsense itself. Check your monthly reports and you'll find that you get some tips to improve your visibility and clicks and therefore your income too.
My two tips were the multiple ads and also to add Adsense for search. My account covers my website http://www.mygreetings2u.ws/ as well, and a search box at least ONE of the pages on that site could work well.
I'll get around to that later in the day. It's lunchtime, I desperately need a caffeine hit and I have an ebay item to get in the post. Plus a whole load of new stuff to create listings for. Pity I can't have Adsense on my ebay shop!
Langstone Collectables
This actually came from a tip on Adsense itself. Check your monthly reports and you'll find that you get some tips to improve your visibility and clicks and therefore your income too.
My two tips were the multiple ads and also to add Adsense for search. My account covers my website http://www.mygreetings2u.ws/ as well, and a search box at least ONE of the pages on that site could work well.
I'll get around to that later in the day. It's lunchtime, I desperately need a caffeine hit and I have an ebay item to get in the post. Plus a whole load of new stuff to create listings for. Pity I can't have Adsense on my ebay shop!
Langstone Collectables
Your blog needs both!
As I've been traversing Linkreferral and Entrecard, I've noticed that a lot of them have one or the other, but the really 'savvy' ones have both.
What is special about Linkreferral is that it allows a written review - read yours carefully and think about them. What are people saying that they like about your blog? What should you add/leave out?
Entrecard gets you the visitors, but you have to keep them if the monetising aspects of your blog are going to work. OK, you aren't going to keep the ec accumulators who use a bot to drop on 300 blogs a day. They don't have time to think about your content and they don't care.
If you are lucky, the folks that visit from Linkreferral AND have entrecard will drop on your widget because it's natural for them.
The really interested ones from entrecard - probably the ones who you've commented - will, if they like what they see, will review you on Linkreferral. Either way your ratings will go up, more of your posts will get seen and hopefully you will get more customers.
It's an organic viral thing - make the most of it.
What is special about Linkreferral is that it allows a written review - read yours carefully and think about them. What are people saying that they like about your blog? What should you add/leave out?
Entrecard gets you the visitors, but you have to keep them if the monetising aspects of your blog are going to work. OK, you aren't going to keep the ec accumulators who use a bot to drop on 300 blogs a day. They don't have time to think about your content and they don't care.
If you are lucky, the folks that visit from Linkreferral AND have entrecard will drop on your widget because it's natural for them.
The really interested ones from entrecard - probably the ones who you've commented - will, if they like what they see, will review you on Linkreferral. Either way your ratings will go up, more of your posts will get seen and hopefully you will get more customers.
It's an organic viral thing - make the most of it.
Friday 3 October 2008
First quickie of the day - Linkbacklink
Linkbacklink is a friendly little blog that will boost your Google ratings and your popularity by giving you a backlink.
It is explicitly for blogs rather than websites and will also give you a short review when you have linked to it.
It's free so go on, help yourselves to a little free publicity!
http://linkbacklink.blogspot.com/
It is explicitly for blogs rather than websites and will also give you a short review when you have linked to it.
It's free so go on, help yourselves to a little free publicity!
http://linkbacklink.blogspot.com/
Wednesday 1 October 2008
Entrecarding to the best effect
In the first few days after I discovered Entrecard, I was mainly browsing and dropping on blogs in the same category as mine.
However, I have now re-thought my strategy.
Some of the blog owners that might well be interested in the products I offer through my online businesses (as users, not necessarily distributors) are in other categories completely.
Particularly so with SendoutCards, the business I showcased earlier in the week. This is a great business to be in as a distributor, but also has the retail accounts for folks who just want to use the service. People love real cards, why not send them from your PC - so easy and so many to choose from!
So, if you are new to Entrecard, think about your target market both in terms of your drops - and potential return drops - and also where you are placing your advertising.
You might be pleasantly surprised where your next new customer comes from!
Have a nice day :-)
However, I have now re-thought my strategy.
Some of the blog owners that might well be interested in the products I offer through my online businesses (as users, not necessarily distributors) are in other categories completely.
Particularly so with SendoutCards, the business I showcased earlier in the week. This is a great business to be in as a distributor, but also has the retail accounts for folks who just want to use the service. People love real cards, why not send them from your PC - so easy and so many to choose from!
So, if you are new to Entrecard, think about your target market both in terms of your drops - and potential return drops - and also where you are placing your advertising.
You might be pleasantly surprised where your next new customer comes from!
Have a nice day :-)
Just briefly...a personal interlude for the 1st of the month
Maybe because it is the first of a new month, I feel totally DIFFERENT as a person as I have the past few days and possibly I've learned something about myself that will help me in the future.
I have spent a lot of hours sitting at my PC in recent days, but have also been out and about. Over the weekend we had some real Indian Summer weather, calm and sunny and I took the chance to get out for a drive in Barbarella before the rain sets in again as it surely will later today. The pressure map for the Atlantic (I'm a bit of an amateur forecaster) shows close isobars over the UK for the next few days and we shall have brisk northerly winds.
My route on Sunday took me across to Chichester A27, up towards Midhurst A286 then A272 for a few miles towards Petersfield before turning off onto country lanes and back home via Harting, Funtington and Westbourne. Note to me - go and check that tyre that was softer than the others and make sure it has stayed up.
Yesterday I had one of my little offline jobs - I do mystery shopping. It was threatening rain so I took the Golf rather than the Se7en to Littlehampton. No, it's a mystery, I'm not telling you who I visited. Today I have to go to Southampton later - 2 jobs, and tomorrow Steyning and Chichester.
I always enjoy Littlehampton, and I treated myself to a visit to Julian Graves which is a lovely shop selling all kinds of dried fruits, nuts, spices and herbs. I am now stocked up to make my Christmas cakes - or at least one of the recipes. I have to think about the other ingredients and work out if I have all the fruits for the Caribbean one and get them soaking in rum very soon. I had a talk to the shop lady about a spice mix I use in my cooking called ras-el-hanout and about the recipe for the cake I will be making with what I bought. I'm going to write her a note later and send her the recipes I mentioned - might help to get JG to stock the full Seasoned Pioneers spice range.
So what is this 'different person' thing. Well, on Monday, I felt quite ill all day. I was getting nausea and dizzy spells. My friend Sib suggested I hadn't been eating regularly and yes, that might have been part of it. But this has happened before, and in the dizzy spells I get almost visions of awful things that could happen in my life. The scary stuff is that some of those visions came true. Monday night/Tuesday morning, I stayed up on the PC till the early hours. It was gone 4am by the time I went to bed. Slept in a bit yesterday and felt better.
In the past few years since I split with my husband I have suffered from depression very badly off and on. One of my frustrations is that I cannot voice my anger at him or at the other people who were involved in that situation. Last night I was watching a TV programme on anger management AND there was also a radio thing on the same subject at the same time which I'll have to catch up on. Bad timing BBC. Griff Rhys Jones explored some of his anger problem talking to a Buddhist monk who taught him some meditation techniques.
Although I would say that my faith is basically pagan/Wiccan, I also have deep leanings towards Buddhism and one of my favourite books is The Art of Happiness by the Dalai Llama. What I have resolved is to try and 'drain out' this anger through meditation, and try to leave it behind me. Most people who go to anger management counselling seem to do so because their anger is external and directed at other people. Mine is VERY internal, but I now realise, is doing me just as much damage.
And now I am reminded of Kipling's poem If. 'If you can fill each unforgiving minute with sixty second's worth of distance run.....' Lots to do today online and offline and I will feel so much better later if I can finish the day with all my tasks done. Have a good day all.
I have spent a lot of hours sitting at my PC in recent days, but have also been out and about. Over the weekend we had some real Indian Summer weather, calm and sunny and I took the chance to get out for a drive in Barbarella before the rain sets in again as it surely will later today. The pressure map for the Atlantic (I'm a bit of an amateur forecaster) shows close isobars over the UK for the next few days and we shall have brisk northerly winds.
My route on Sunday took me across to Chichester A27, up towards Midhurst A286 then A272 for a few miles towards Petersfield before turning off onto country lanes and back home via Harting, Funtington and Westbourne. Note to me - go and check that tyre that was softer than the others and make sure it has stayed up.
Yesterday I had one of my little offline jobs - I do mystery shopping. It was threatening rain so I took the Golf rather than the Se7en to Littlehampton. No, it's a mystery, I'm not telling you who I visited. Today I have to go to Southampton later - 2 jobs, and tomorrow Steyning and Chichester.
I always enjoy Littlehampton, and I treated myself to a visit to Julian Graves which is a lovely shop selling all kinds of dried fruits, nuts, spices and herbs. I am now stocked up to make my Christmas cakes - or at least one of the recipes. I have to think about the other ingredients and work out if I have all the fruits for the Caribbean one and get them soaking in rum very soon. I had a talk to the shop lady about a spice mix I use in my cooking called ras-el-hanout and about the recipe for the cake I will be making with what I bought. I'm going to write her a note later and send her the recipes I mentioned - might help to get JG to stock the full Seasoned Pioneers spice range.
So what is this 'different person' thing. Well, on Monday, I felt quite ill all day. I was getting nausea and dizzy spells. My friend Sib suggested I hadn't been eating regularly and yes, that might have been part of it. But this has happened before, and in the dizzy spells I get almost visions of awful things that could happen in my life. The scary stuff is that some of those visions came true. Monday night/Tuesday morning, I stayed up on the PC till the early hours. It was gone 4am by the time I went to bed. Slept in a bit yesterday and felt better.
In the past few years since I split with my husband I have suffered from depression very badly off and on. One of my frustrations is that I cannot voice my anger at him or at the other people who were involved in that situation. Last night I was watching a TV programme on anger management AND there was also a radio thing on the same subject at the same time which I'll have to catch up on. Bad timing BBC. Griff Rhys Jones explored some of his anger problem talking to a Buddhist monk who taught him some meditation techniques.
Although I would say that my faith is basically pagan/Wiccan, I also have deep leanings towards Buddhism and one of my favourite books is The Art of Happiness by the Dalai Llama. What I have resolved is to try and 'drain out' this anger through meditation, and try to leave it behind me. Most people who go to anger management counselling seem to do so because their anger is external and directed at other people. Mine is VERY internal, but I now realise, is doing me just as much damage.
And now I am reminded of Kipling's poem If. 'If you can fill each unforgiving minute with sixty second's worth of distance run.....' Lots to do today online and offline and I will feel so much better later if I can finish the day with all my tasks done. Have a good day all.
Thursday 25 September 2008
Even more ways....
My new friends on Wozone and Blogcatalog are doing great things for my site stats - thanks guys and for the chats on Skype too.
Another great little promoter came my way via a visit to a LinkReferral site.
Entrecard lets you put a 'business card' on your blog. When other Entrecarders visit, they can 'drop' their card and you can reciprocate or simply go looking for interesting blogs to read.
These services are much more personal than the usual traffic exchange and I'm thinking that they are going to be more effective in the end. You feel more of a relationship with the person whose blog or site you are looking at and/or reviewing and tend to read it more than you would if you were just going for straight hits.
In the end, if you are recommending genuine products and services you WILL win customers because people will trust you just that little bit more and will remember you. I try to use the same pic of me across all my sites. It may be a couple of years old, but it is clean and colourful and I'm smiling!
That's all for today - just a very brief post because I want to get some new things on ebay and I'm out later on. Want to know what I sell? Go to my ebay shop!
Another great little promoter came my way via a visit to a LinkReferral site.
Entrecard lets you put a 'business card' on your blog. When other Entrecarders visit, they can 'drop' their card and you can reciprocate or simply go looking for interesting blogs to read.
These services are much more personal than the usual traffic exchange and I'm thinking that they are going to be more effective in the end. You feel more of a relationship with the person whose blog or site you are looking at and/or reviewing and tend to read it more than you would if you were just going for straight hits.
In the end, if you are recommending genuine products and services you WILL win customers because people will trust you just that little bit more and will remember you. I try to use the same pic of me across all my sites. It may be a couple of years old, but it is clean and colourful and I'm smiling!
That's all for today - just a very brief post because I want to get some new things on ebay and I'm out later on. Want to know what I sell? Go to my ebay shop!
Wednesday 24 September 2008
You need a website anyway - try GDI
Every business needs a website, and it amazes me that some people just don't do their homework on what features they need before signing up for domains and hosting deals.
I joined GDI principally for the business opportunity, but their domain purchase and hosting rates are not unreasonable even if you weren't promoting it.
It's true that GDI doesn't offer all the technical features of many hosting companies, but to be honest a basic and simple site won't need them.
When I first joined, it was through TeamGDIPro. This was a good concept, but it's founder Patric Berkan just seemed to run out of steam and lose interest. So now I am promoting GDI directly and via two sites that combine GDI referral with a bunch of traffic exchanges. This is experimental and I am looking at and considering alternatives.
The 'combination' sites will also work very well for you if you are already in GDI - I don't have a problem with this, though they try to tell you to sign up again, just put in your existing GDI ID, no problems. Read on down for the URL's
Far too many GDI'ers just waste their domain name and space by just 'parking' it or re-directing to an affiliate site, either for GDI itself or some other opportunity.
The best network marketing advice I was given and will pass to you is that YOU are the brand, so use your hosting space to build a site that will create that personal brand. It can be built around advice, as mine is, or built around a specific opportunity.
Let's say you are promoting a health and wellness product. Not something in my portfolio, but there is plenty around to choose from. Why not create a 'personal trainer' site describing your particular training and health routines and diet and build in the recommendation to your product.
Or your business may be based on selling a niche product on ebay, so provide information about that niche, whatever it happens to be and link to your listings or ebay shop (or even someone else's listings, but more of that in a future blog).
Of course not everyone has the skills, time and inclination even to use the GDI sitebuilder software let alone create their own site from scratch. So ask me! Tell me your ideas and let me quote. If you are going to be on my GDI team anyway, you will get a VERY competitive price. If, by chance your requirements go beyond the hosting capabilities of the GDI servers, I have other solutions to offer.
Direct link to GDI http://www.freedom.ws/gdijennyfletcher
Via the3Cashmachine http://www.the3cashmachine.com/signup.asp?username=jennysue19
Via GDI Income Team http://www.gdiincometeam.com/p.cgi/4236/
I joined GDI principally for the business opportunity, but their domain purchase and hosting rates are not unreasonable even if you weren't promoting it.
It's true that GDI doesn't offer all the technical features of many hosting companies, but to be honest a basic and simple site won't need them.
When I first joined, it was through TeamGDIPro. This was a good concept, but it's founder Patric Berkan just seemed to run out of steam and lose interest. So now I am promoting GDI directly and via two sites that combine GDI referral with a bunch of traffic exchanges. This is experimental and I am looking at and considering alternatives.
The 'combination' sites will also work very well for you if you are already in GDI - I don't have a problem with this, though they try to tell you to sign up again, just put in your existing GDI ID, no problems. Read on down for the URL's
Far too many GDI'ers just waste their domain name and space by just 'parking' it or re-directing to an affiliate site, either for GDI itself or some other opportunity.
The best network marketing advice I was given and will pass to you is that YOU are the brand, so use your hosting space to build a site that will create that personal brand. It can be built around advice, as mine is, or built around a specific opportunity.
Let's say you are promoting a health and wellness product. Not something in my portfolio, but there is plenty around to choose from. Why not create a 'personal trainer' site describing your particular training and health routines and diet and build in the recommendation to your product.
Or your business may be based on selling a niche product on ebay, so provide information about that niche, whatever it happens to be and link to your listings or ebay shop (or even someone else's listings, but more of that in a future blog).
Of course not everyone has the skills, time and inclination even to use the GDI sitebuilder software let alone create their own site from scratch. So ask me! Tell me your ideas and let me quote. If you are going to be on my GDI team anyway, you will get a VERY competitive price. If, by chance your requirements go beyond the hosting capabilities of the GDI servers, I have other solutions to offer.
Direct link to GDI http://www.freedom.ws/gdijennyfletcher
Via the3Cashmachine http://www.the3cashmachine.com/signup.asp?username=jennysue19
Via GDI Income Team http://www.gdiincometeam.com/p.cgi/4236/
Linkreferral and other free traffic sources
Linkreferral is bringing me so many new visitors at present, I am seriously considering the value of the time I spend on other traffic exchanges. I will be budgeting my time according to usefulness in the future!
In the course of viewing other people's sites I hit on two very useful new resources, and from one of those came a third. (Things seemed to go in threes yesterday, very spooky).
The WOZone is a social network for website owners - that is UNIQUE websites, something that represents you and what you make and do. Now, if I was to do a comparison, I think I would find most of the people on Wozone also promote via Linkreferrals. See my point? WOzone will boost your Linkreferral stats even higher and help keep your site up in the LR ratings.
Now - look right. What do you see. No, not the Google ads, but you'll help my Adsense earnings if you do click - thanks. Below that, you'll find a little widget from BlogCatalog that I've just installed. When I'm through with this post, I'll be popping off to the catalog and earning myself some visits back here from my fellow bloggers.
The links you'll need.
The Blogcatalog - http://www.theblogcatalog.com
The WOZone - http://www.thewozone.com/
LinkReferrals - http://www.linkreferral.com/adwel.pl?oldrefid=180133
In the course of viewing other people's sites I hit on two very useful new resources, and from one of those came a third. (Things seemed to go in threes yesterday, very spooky).
The WOZone is a social network for website owners - that is UNIQUE websites, something that represents you and what you make and do. Now, if I was to do a comparison, I think I would find most of the people on Wozone also promote via Linkreferrals. See my point? WOzone will boost your Linkreferral stats even higher and help keep your site up in the LR ratings.
Now - look right. What do you see. No, not the Google ads, but you'll help my Adsense earnings if you do click - thanks. Below that, you'll find a little widget from BlogCatalog that I've just installed. When I'm through with this post, I'll be popping off to the catalog and earning myself some visits back here from my fellow bloggers.
The links you'll need.
The Blogcatalog - http://www.theblogcatalog.com
The WOZone - http://www.thewozone.com/
LinkReferrals - http://www.linkreferral.com/adwel.pl?oldrefid=180133
A personal interlude about literature, food and friends
One social network is a great place to promote another. I recently joined 6 Degrees of Separation (6dgr). They are claiming to give you a very generous $4 per referral, but there is a slight hitch. They don't have a payment gateway for anyone outside the USA and I'm getting a lot of comments that people won't join unless they can see a way to get paid - in short, they think it could be a scam.
I see their point, but this is what I'm telling them. Go and join anyway. There's a forum inside where you can add your voice to the clamour for an international payment gateway that doesn't require us to mess around sendiing documents in the mail. They are being rather snotty about Paypal and Alertpay and the like. If Paypal is good enough for millions of ebayers worldwide, it should be good enough for them.
6dgr is definitely for grownups. I use Facebook and Yuwie, but I'm also aware that they are aimed at the 'younger end of the market'. Get in there and invite your friends.
I actually drafted this post yesterday. It was a spooky kind of day even for superstitious old me. Within the space of an hour and a half I ran into 3 friends I'd not seen in a good while, even though we live very close. After the second, I was quite certain there would be a third and sure enough there was!
Havant is a small UK South Coast town shopping centre, although it draws from quite a wide area. In recent months several coffee shops and cafes have opened, to the point I would have thought that there was just too much competition.
For just a coffee and a quiet atmosphere, my choice is Caffe Nero. This coffee-shop chain IMO beats Costa, Starbucks and the rest of them for the quality of its food and coffee - perhaps it's the excellent training they give their staff, in working the espresso machines and for customer service.
This morning, I met a friend for a traditional English breakfast at Ninos which is a new cafe in North Street, Havant, next door to the Six Bells pub. It was generous, well cooked and tasty. They do takeaway sandwiches as well and I highly recommend it. It is clean and attractively decorated and the staff are welcoming and helpful.
One of the friends I met is Lucy Flannery who is the director of the Havant Literary Festival which happens this weekend (25th-28th September 2008). The area is associated with a number of internationally known authors and writers past and present, including PG Wodehouse, Nevil Shute and modern crime writer Pauline Rowson. All of them will feature in the festival events together with many more in different venues around the town.
Links -
Havant Literary Festival - http://www.havantlitfest.hampshire.org.uk/
Pauline Rowson - http://www.rowmark.co.uk/
6DGR - http://www.6dgr.com/index.php?mode=join&ref_id=3558
Caffe Nero - http://www.caffenero.com/
I see their point, but this is what I'm telling them. Go and join anyway. There's a forum inside where you can add your voice to the clamour for an international payment gateway that doesn't require us to mess around sendiing documents in the mail. They are being rather snotty about Paypal and Alertpay and the like. If Paypal is good enough for millions of ebayers worldwide, it should be good enough for them.
6dgr is definitely for grownups. I use Facebook and Yuwie, but I'm also aware that they are aimed at the 'younger end of the market'. Get in there and invite your friends.
I actually drafted this post yesterday. It was a spooky kind of day even for superstitious old me. Within the space of an hour and a half I ran into 3 friends I'd not seen in a good while, even though we live very close. After the second, I was quite certain there would be a third and sure enough there was!
Havant is a small UK South Coast town shopping centre, although it draws from quite a wide area. In recent months several coffee shops and cafes have opened, to the point I would have thought that there was just too much competition.
For just a coffee and a quiet atmosphere, my choice is Caffe Nero. This coffee-shop chain IMO beats Costa, Starbucks and the rest of them for the quality of its food and coffee - perhaps it's the excellent training they give their staff, in working the espresso machines and for customer service.
This morning, I met a friend for a traditional English breakfast at Ninos which is a new cafe in North Street, Havant, next door to the Six Bells pub. It was generous, well cooked and tasty. They do takeaway sandwiches as well and I highly recommend it. It is clean and attractively decorated and the staff are welcoming and helpful.
One of the friends I met is Lucy Flannery who is the director of the Havant Literary Festival which happens this weekend (25th-28th September 2008). The area is associated with a number of internationally known authors and writers past and present, including PG Wodehouse, Nevil Shute and modern crime writer Pauline Rowson. All of them will feature in the festival events together with many more in different venues around the town.
Links -
Havant Literary Festival - http://www.havantlitfest.hampshire.org.uk/
Pauline Rowson - http://www.rowmark.co.uk/
6DGR - http://www.6dgr.com/index.php?mode=join&ref_id=3558
Caffe Nero - http://www.caffenero.com/
Monday 22 September 2008
Indian Summer profits
We were all thinking that the summer had passed us by here in the UK. Endless days of pouring rain and high winds and no chance to do anything outside.
So I turned my attentions back to online profits and came up with a number of valuable tips and insights I'd like to share with you.
I completed the rewrite of my 'personal branding' website and set about letting everyone I knew about it. As I mention on the Resources page on the site, the only leads service I currently used is Triple Your List. The free version only gives me a few new names per week, but they seem to be responsive and keen on snapping up any new opportunity I offer.
I noticed when I was reading traffic exchange emails that some people were adding their email addresses and sometimes Skype contact details too. I'm very polite when I contact them, I say I've visited their website that they were advertising in the mail and could I have some additional information please. Of course I include an invitation to visit my website too! At the end of the email is an optout if they don't want any more email from me. Mostly people don't bother to opt out, so they stay on my regular mailing list.
I mail my Triple Your Listers and 'harvested' addresses once a week. A new Triple Your Lister will get a welcome mail as well - with all my business websites and this blog listed.
I also re-discovered the huge value of Linkreferrals - kind of by accident. GDI's own sitebuilder has a built in stats feature. However, GDI decided that they would replace their sitebuilder with a very inferior product that also trashed any existing pages, which was what led me to re-develop the site. BUT their hosting service does not have the stats feature enabled so I had to add my own hit counters.
About the same time, I had a notification from Linkreferrals that someone had found and reviewed my site, even though it had slipped down the ratings a lot. Of course I had to go and review theirs too and I thought that a little work might get me some visitors. Was I right! An amazing increase in hits on every page of the site over the weekend.
Now just a hint here. While doing the standard 30 site visits a day will hike you up the ratings, and put your site nearer the top of its category list, you need to do a little more work. If you find a site you really like (or really hate!) review it! And if it's going to be something you'll want to revisit - like the one with the yummy chocolate recipes I found - add it to your favourites list. If someone reviews you, review them as soon as you can. If you aren't strong on grammar and spelling, write your review in Word first and cut'n'paste into Linkreferrals. You will get extra credit for well written reviews.
Just before I close up this post, I should mention this. In my email was an offer to download a free report with a moneymaking potential just for giving it away. I was very sceptical, who wouldn't be, but that little report has not only done what it promised, the method it used has set me off on a whole new project.
More to come very soon on my other profitable discoveries - keep watching me!
PS - The weather has taken one of its typical UK Indian Summer turn-arounds with several sunny days with light winds, although the nights have been chilly. I've been able to garden and go sailing and my grapes and tomatoes are ripening nicely.
So I turned my attentions back to online profits and came up with a number of valuable tips and insights I'd like to share with you.
I completed the rewrite of my 'personal branding' website and set about letting everyone I knew about it. As I mention on the Resources page on the site, the only leads service I currently used is Triple Your List. The free version only gives me a few new names per week, but they seem to be responsive and keen on snapping up any new opportunity I offer.
I noticed when I was reading traffic exchange emails that some people were adding their email addresses and sometimes Skype contact details too. I'm very polite when I contact them, I say I've visited their website that they were advertising in the mail and could I have some additional information please. Of course I include an invitation to visit my website too! At the end of the email is an optout if they don't want any more email from me. Mostly people don't bother to opt out, so they stay on my regular mailing list.
I mail my Triple Your Listers and 'harvested' addresses once a week. A new Triple Your Lister will get a welcome mail as well - with all my business websites and this blog listed.
I also re-discovered the huge value of Linkreferrals - kind of by accident. GDI's own sitebuilder has a built in stats feature. However, GDI decided that they would replace their sitebuilder with a very inferior product that also trashed any existing pages, which was what led me to re-develop the site. BUT their hosting service does not have the stats feature enabled so I had to add my own hit counters.
About the same time, I had a notification from Linkreferrals that someone had found and reviewed my site, even though it had slipped down the ratings a lot. Of course I had to go and review theirs too and I thought that a little work might get me some visitors. Was I right! An amazing increase in hits on every page of the site over the weekend.
Now just a hint here. While doing the standard 30 site visits a day will hike you up the ratings, and put your site nearer the top of its category list, you need to do a little more work. If you find a site you really like (or really hate!) review it! And if it's going to be something you'll want to revisit - like the one with the yummy chocolate recipes I found - add it to your favourites list. If someone reviews you, review them as soon as you can. If you aren't strong on grammar and spelling, write your review in Word first and cut'n'paste into Linkreferrals. You will get extra credit for well written reviews.
Just before I close up this post, I should mention this. In my email was an offer to download a free report with a moneymaking potential just for giving it away. I was very sceptical, who wouldn't be, but that little report has not only done what it promised, the method it used has set me off on a whole new project.
More to come very soon on my other profitable discoveries - keep watching me!
PS - The weather has taken one of its typical UK Indian Summer turn-arounds with several sunny days with light winds, although the nights have been chilly. I've been able to garden and go sailing and my grapes and tomatoes are ripening nicely.
Tuesday 16 September 2008
Go visit please
It has taken a while, but th e new site is now thoroughly launched and is getting a good flow of visitors.
Haven't played with Google adsense before - apart from on here, but am about to experiment with it on the new site.
I have stepped up my ebay selling again. Bought some nice goodies at the last Emsworth auction - Poole, Wedgwood amongst others and they are already on my ebay shop at http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Langstone-Collectables
Something altogether spooky happened yesterday and it is far from the first time.
In 2003, my lovely Mum passed away. Each year, on or about my birthday or hers I have either had a little win on the lottery or on premium bonds. This time it was the bonds - two cheques for £50 each. Thanks Mum - you might have known that I have some bills to pay, but will also make a little donation.
Haven't played with Google adsense before - apart from on here, but am about to experiment with it on the new site.
I have stepped up my ebay selling again. Bought some nice goodies at the last Emsworth auction - Poole, Wedgwood amongst others and they are already on my ebay shop at http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Langstone-Collectables
Something altogether spooky happened yesterday and it is far from the first time.
In 2003, my lovely Mum passed away. Each year, on or about my birthday or hers I have either had a little win on the lottery or on premium bonds. This time it was the bonds - two cheques for £50 each. Thanks Mum - you might have known that I have some bills to pay, but will also make a little donation.
Monday 11 August 2008
No Pie in the Sky from me
I haven't been very busy looking after my various online businesses this last week. I haven't even been online as many hours each day.
I really needed a break to re-focus on what I am doing and what I want to achieve for myself and the people I hope to bring into my businesses.
Every year my sailing club hosts a training week for our junior members. We aim to get even the least experienced on the water and confident to take the helm and we achieved that aim. After 5 days of 2-3 hour sessions on the water and some onshore training, some who had never been on their own in a sailing boat before, had progressed from the beginners to the improvers group and were eager to race their companions.
The smiling faces at the end of each day were my reward. All I did was to drive one of the club boats, lay a few race marks and do a little on shore teaching about basic racing rules and the flags and sound signals used to start races.
Now it is late Sunday night and I feel refreshed and I am looking forward to getting back to work tomorrow with some new ideas and plans.
This is the message I want to get across to anyone reading this blog. If you come to me via my websites and ask what opportunities you might join to make some money online what you will not get is 'pie in the sky'.
I've been there, made mistakes and learned lessons. My 'portfolio' of online businesses is based on products and services that people really want and use. For instance, everyone sends greeting cards for birthdays, holidays and occasions such as Christmas, anniversaries or simply to keep in touch with friends, work colleagues and even customers of their businesses.
Secondly, almost everyone starting any business, online or offline will want a website with a domain name and hosting. So why not acquire those things in a way that will also make you money?
And then there is travel. Despite increasing costs and environmental pressures, millions of people still want to see other parts of the world or need to travel for business purposes. My third business is based on a new travel company that is currently still in 'partial launch'.
Around those primary businesses float a selection of advertising and promotional tools, some of which are also moneymakers in themselves.
Just occasionally I might take a punt on something that I think might give me some short term gains - I'm on to one at the moment, but I'm only testing the water for at least the next month before it gets added to my personal website. If it doesn't come up to the mark, then I will cancel my subscription and forget all about it.
Another task for the coming week is some work on my personal website. I originally built it using the sitebuilder that GDI supply. Unfortunately they have replaced it with a vastly inferior product. Fortunately I have the skills to rebuild it myself and have had one or two design ideas buzzing around my head all week.
Meanwhile you can be looking at the 'old' personal website as there is a considerable amount of information on there which you can use and think about. Feel free to contact me and ask me anything you like about the opportunities.
http://www.mygreetings2u.ws
Don't bother spamming me. I have excellent spam filters on all my email accounts and it won't even be seen, let alone read.
So, to return to 'pie in the sky' - it isn't on the menu here. Have a safe start to your new week and I'll post more news and info in a day or two.
I really needed a break to re-focus on what I am doing and what I want to achieve for myself and the people I hope to bring into my businesses.
Every year my sailing club hosts a training week for our junior members. We aim to get even the least experienced on the water and confident to take the helm and we achieved that aim. After 5 days of 2-3 hour sessions on the water and some onshore training, some who had never been on their own in a sailing boat before, had progressed from the beginners to the improvers group and were eager to race their companions.
The smiling faces at the end of each day were my reward. All I did was to drive one of the club boats, lay a few race marks and do a little on shore teaching about basic racing rules and the flags and sound signals used to start races.
Now it is late Sunday night and I feel refreshed and I am looking forward to getting back to work tomorrow with some new ideas and plans.
This is the message I want to get across to anyone reading this blog. If you come to me via my websites and ask what opportunities you might join to make some money online what you will not get is 'pie in the sky'.
I've been there, made mistakes and learned lessons. My 'portfolio' of online businesses is based on products and services that people really want and use. For instance, everyone sends greeting cards for birthdays, holidays and occasions such as Christmas, anniversaries or simply to keep in touch with friends, work colleagues and even customers of their businesses.
Secondly, almost everyone starting any business, online or offline will want a website with a domain name and hosting. So why not acquire those things in a way that will also make you money?
And then there is travel. Despite increasing costs and environmental pressures, millions of people still want to see other parts of the world or need to travel for business purposes. My third business is based on a new travel company that is currently still in 'partial launch'.
Around those primary businesses float a selection of advertising and promotional tools, some of which are also moneymakers in themselves.
Just occasionally I might take a punt on something that I think might give me some short term gains - I'm on to one at the moment, but I'm only testing the water for at least the next month before it gets added to my personal website. If it doesn't come up to the mark, then I will cancel my subscription and forget all about it.
Another task for the coming week is some work on my personal website. I originally built it using the sitebuilder that GDI supply. Unfortunately they have replaced it with a vastly inferior product. Fortunately I have the skills to rebuild it myself and have had one or two design ideas buzzing around my head all week.
Meanwhile you can be looking at the 'old' personal website as there is a considerable amount of information on there which you can use and think about. Feel free to contact me and ask me anything you like about the opportunities.
http://www.mygreetings2u.ws
Don't bother spamming me. I have excellent spam filters on all my email accounts and it won't even be seen, let alone read.
So, to return to 'pie in the sky' - it isn't on the menu here. Have a safe start to your new week and I'll post more news and info in a day or two.
Sunday 3 August 2008
Intro stuff - sharks and scams
My name is Jenny Fletcher, I am 57 years old and an ex IT professional.
Why ex? Because the IT industry chucks you on the scrapheap if you are over 50 and not a senior manager, plus the UK Department of Work and Pensions are so inflexible they can't give you focussed and personal re-training to get you back into a technical IT post, however low paid and junior.
So I decided to go it alone in the dangerous and shark infested waters of network marketing.
At first I made all the mistakes that everyone makes, but now, it is beginning to make sense and come good.
So, I would like to pass my experiences on to those who are wondering if there is anything out there except sharks and scams and maybe help others avoid some of the traps that I fell into.
Why ex? Because the IT industry chucks you on the scrapheap if you are over 50 and not a senior manager, plus the UK Department of Work and Pensions are so inflexible they can't give you focussed and personal re-training to get you back into a technical IT post, however low paid and junior.
So I decided to go it alone in the dangerous and shark infested waters of network marketing.
At first I made all the mistakes that everyone makes, but now, it is beginning to make sense and come good.
So, I would like to pass my experiences on to those who are wondering if there is anything out there except sharks and scams and maybe help others avoid some of the traps that I fell into.
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