Home Office Organization–21st Century Style

Archive for the ‘Resources’ Category

If you’re reading this post, you may have noticed a widget in the right-hand side bar under the Technorati bookmark link entitled “Traffic Rank”, the website name, some numbers and the words “powered by Alexa”. This is the Alexa traffic ranking widget.

Why should you put a widget on your own web site even though it may demonstrate negative social proof for awhile? Because it gives your page a more accurate Alexa rank.

Alexa’s ranking system collects data from the Alexa toolbar that people can download to their browsers. The tool bar sends data back about the pages that person visits. Since it is based on toolbar information, the only time it gets information is when someone with a tool bar gets on the internet. This isn’t an objective way to determine a website’s actual rank.

You can get around the tool bar problem by installing the Alexa widget on your web site. The widget collects data about your web site’s visitors and sends it to Alexa. Still, your rank is skewed because there are a lot of people sending in data from their tool bars that don’t know your site exists. But it is far less skewed than if you didn’t have the widget sending data from your site.

Why is Alexa Rank important? Many sites use Alexa Rank, skewed or not, to determine how much they may be willing to pay you to advertise on your site, whether they want to link to your site, and it may have some affect on your Google page rank. I’m not sure about that, but Google has very sophisticated proprietary algorithms that use vast sources of data to calculate your web site’s page rank, and those algorithms are continuously updated and refined. Since Alexa is a player in the page ranking game, I would be very surprised if Alexa rank had nothing to do with Google page rank. That just my opinion, but I believe it’s based on more than just a guess given what I know about Google and how it operates.

Your Google page rank will often determine if you are noticed by the A-list web sites in your market niche. It is also a factor when you are seeking advertising and other methods of monetizing your web site or blog.

I recommend going to Alexa.com and clicking on the “widgets” button in the menu bar, getting the HTML code for the widget of your choice and installing it on your site. You will find your Alexa rank a few weeks after widget installation is much better (meaning lower) than it was when you first put the widget up.

Technorati Tags: Alexa Rank, Alexa Widget, Google page rank, website ranking, website statistics

If you enjoyed this post, please subscribe to my RSS feed!

Whether you have an online or bricks and mortar business, adding simple videos to your site or blog will increase your sales conversion anywhere from 20% to 47%.

This link to StomperNet’s Stomper Vision free video by faculty members Mark Stewart and Brad Fallon will give you a 20 minute overview of how home-produced videos on amateur equipment will improve your sales conversion. Click over and watch it now.

There are 2 more free videos on this site as well, and I encourage you to watch them when you get a chance. I also encourage you to sign up on the StomperNet email list because their free material is worth a fortune.

Just for the record and to be totally up front with you, I’m not a member of StomperNet, Stomper Vision or any other StomperNet program. I only partake of their free information right now because I just don’t have the money to join them. I am not an affiliate for StomperNet either, so if you watch this video and decide to join Stomper Vision, I will not get a commission.

I’m working on acquiring a small, easy-to-use video camera to start making home-made videos for my blogs, including this one. Money is tight for me right now, but I’m making saving for a camera a priority because it makes such a huge difference in sales and in building relationships with your readers and visitors. I hope you’ll do the same and soon!

Sherri
Making branching into video a priority

Technorati Tags: increase conversion, increase sales, Video, video and building relationships, video and conversion, video and sales

If you enjoyed this post, please subscribe to my RSS feed!

Anyone who does anything in the e-commerce or internet marketing arenas has heard of Mike Filsaime. I’m going to pick on him in this article pretty heavily, but what I’m about to say applies to a lot of other big-name internet marketers out there. Mike is extremely successful, there is no doubt about that. His products are useful and helpful and he makes millions of dollars a year. Good for him and good for any regular person who used one of his products to make a living or even get rich.

But from day one of my experience with Mike Filsaime, I’ve had an uncomfortable feeling about him. That feeling is present whenever I watch, listen to, or read something from some other big name internet marketers, or Mike clones as I call them. Whenever I watch one of Mike’s videos I feel a really hard sell going on, even if he’s not actually selling anything. I feel he appeals to ego and to people’s materialistic desires more than focusing on the benefits of the product. I also have a slight feeling he is condescending by having to talk to us regular folks. I see the hint in his eyes, the expression on his face and I hear it in the tone of his voice. Remember when you’re mother used to say “don’t use that tone with me”? That’s what I feel like telling him.

That’s fine and it’s good marketing because people buy based on emotion a lot more than logical decision-making. I say “a lot more” instead of “always” because there are still a fair number of folks who have a specific need, save  the money for the purchase and then buy it with cash. I’m also glad to say the number of these logic-minded, cash buyers is increasing.

Personally, I hate to go shopping. I don’t shop, I buy. I’m one of those people who plans purchases, looks for bargains and saves cash to make them. I’m very likely to get up and leave when someone is trying to sell me something I didn’t plan to buy. I’ve only bought one used car from a car dealership, and only because they had the car I wanted at the price I thought was more than fair. I’ve only owned three cars (I’m 47), and two were purchased directly from the previous owners in private sales.

I bought one of Mike’s free offers where you pay the shipping for one of his high-demand products. In the process of paying for the shipping, I was taken through a sales funnel that defines “up-sell”,”down-sell” and “one-time-offer”. I was offered so many products before I got to the end that I lost count. A 5-minute process to get a product I was interested in took an hour. They were all one-time-offers, meaning I’ll never see them again. You buy right then or never. I was more than a little ticked off, but then realized I had just learned a very valuable lesson about a process I don’t like and won’t use.

A few weeks ago I received a phone call from one of Mike’s staff. I was on his list from the product I’d purchased and this guy was offering Mike’s coaching program to me. First off, he didn’t identify himself or his organization before he asked to speak to me. That was a hint it was a sales pitch. I had to ask who he was and who he was with. During our conversation he looked at a few of my blogs and told me I gave away too much content for free and to stop writing content and produce a product to sell. He also said I needed to build my list, and I do.

When I told him I was a recent Blog Mastermind graduate, he didn’t listen to me and told me to stop producing so much free content, develop a squeeze page and start selling something. Internet marketers as a group just don’t get blogging for some reason. They seem to be adverse to the idea of plenty. They tend to give as little away for free as they can get away with, and then they push to sell something.

Part of what he said is correct. I need to develop a product, write a sales page for it, build my list and sell the product. Or do something along those lines with affiliate products. But he completely discounted what I have spent the past 7 months of my life working on, blogging. I’m not here for the fast sell. I’m here to write, to build relationships with my readers, and eventually make a decent living doing it.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t like being told I’ve just wasted 7 months of my life doing what I enjoy and making some income from it. I also don’t like being told I should drop what I’m doing and sign on to Mike’s $5000 coaching program to start making tens of thousands of dollars per month. I just don’t buy the get-rich-quick thing. It plain doesn’t work for too many people no matter how many thousands of dollars they’ve spent with mentors with various schemes. If a style doesn’t fit you it probably won’t work for you either.

When I told the guy I couldn’t afford $5000, he immediately offered me $1000 down and $4000 due after I made my first $30,000 online. When I told him I couldn’t afford that, he offered me $500 down and $4500 due after I made my first $30,000 online. I didn’t sign up because I can’t afford $500 right now either. I’m not sure the program will still be available when I do have $500, but I wouldn’t spend it on this program.

I’ve spent the last couple of weeks trying to unsubscribe from Mike’s email lists and I’ve unsubscribed from 4. I just got another email from one of his lists today, and I have to unsubscribe from that one, too. How in heck to do you get off this guy’s list??? I find this really aggravating.

I’ve also been trying to unsubscribe from his print magazine that I get in the mail. That has been a huge runaround. When I signed up for my free issue, they gave a phone number to unsubscribe if I didn’t find it worth my money. At $29.99 per month, I didn’t find it worth my money. $360 a year is more expensive than buying the Wall Street Journal at the newsstand every day, and believe me, this magazine doesn’t have even a tenth of the content of the WSJ. This magazine wasn’t for me. It’s not where I picture my online business going. I gave it a real shot and even paid for one month to see if the second issue was better. It was about the same quality. The magazine may be just what someone else needs, but not me. So why does it have to be such a chore to unsubscribe? And they won’t give you a refund if you’re trying to unsubscribe but are billed before they “straighten it out”.

To me, that’s just bad business. Mike, take my cash now because you’ll never get it later with your tactics.

Even with the above experience, I couldn’t put my finger on why I don’t like Mike until I watched the video launch of his new product, ReviewCrusher. In this particular video, Mike goes over his background from his previous full-time job back in 2002 to the present. It was intended to give him credibility for anyone who doesn’t know who he is. In this short resume he revealed his previous career before he became an internet marketing guru. He was a car salesman at one of the largest car dealerships in the U.S.

Now I know why I’m uncomfortable with him. He’s a car salesman. Of all the types of sales people on this earth, I have the lowest opinion of car salespersons. To me they are the scum of sales, though there are a lot more jobs that are much scummier than being a car salesperson. Debt collector is at the top of my scummiest jobs on the planet list.

I also don’t like his sales tactics. He seems to have brought his car sales ruthlessness with him onto the internet. He does scarcity marketing. You have to buy it right now before they run out or it will never be available again at this low price. Or, if you buy now you’ll get this ridiculously low price (or you just pay the shipping), but if you wait the price will triple or quadruple. That’s just not my style.

I don’t dislike all internet marketers who are just as successful as Mike. John Reese, the guy who wrote the Traffic Secrets program in 2004, launched BlogRush, and just released Traffic Secrets 2 this month, is a completely above board, honest guy. He offers valuable, free content and then he offers his product at a reasonable price without a scarcity tactic. Buy it now, buy it later, never buy it; it’s available whatever you want to do. And the price won’t go up.

My Blog Mastermind mentor, Yaro Starak, is very successful also and doesn’t practice hard selling or scarcity. He did take Blog Mastermind off the market for 7 months to rewrite it, but it’s back as of July 29, 2008 and won’t be off the market again until it needs a substantial update. But then I’m sure it will be right back. Anyone who wants to become a blogger or become a better blogger can sign up for Blog Mastermind whenever they’re ready to do it. Yaro’s blog, enterpreneurs-journey.com, is about 3 years old now, and has a huge amount of free content. That’s what we bloggers do. We write and publish on our blogs and hope people will stop by and read it. For free.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think Mike is a scam artist or dishonest. He sells valuable products, he makes a legal living and helps others make a good living as well. But his marketing style just doesn’t fit me and I don’t like it. Judging from the product I did pay the shipping for, Mike is not above selling you something that’s not quite as valuable as it seemed on the surface. He doesn’t practice under-promising and over-delivering. He uses a lot of hype and the value of the product just isn’t as great as I would have expected from someone who is so highly thought of in the internet marketing industry. I’ve found that to be true with other internet marketing gurus, like Keith Wellman, Marc Horne, and Hollis Carter. I just got another free product where I paid the shipping from Jeff Mulligan, and with my prior experience so far, I have low expectations and haven’t made the time to watch the DVD or go through the book. Maybe Jeff will be different. I won’t know until I go through that package. I may be pleasantly surprised, but I’m not motivated to make it a priority.

I guess I’m more used to Yaro’s style of giving a heck of a lot away and then over-delivering on what he does actually sell. Maybe it’s just a blogger’s mindset versus a hard-core internet marketer’s mindset. I don’t know. But I do know Yaro Starak and John Reese are a lot more my cup of tea.

I know that when I work with someone I’m not intrinsically comfortable with, I feel I’m selling out doing what they require I do to work with them. I’ve left offline jobs because of this and I refuse to buy back into it online just for a quick buck.

When you are looking for a mentor, you need one with knowledge in your business niche, and you need someone whose ethics match yours or you won’t be comfortable learning from them.

Have you had similar or different experiences? Please tell your story in the comments.

Sherri Joubert
Just trying to stop being underwhelmed by the overwhelming amount of information that keeps flying at me.

Technorati Tags: car salesman, down-sell, hard-sell, john reese, Mike Filsaime, one-time-offer, up-sell, who I don't like him, Yaro Starak

If you enjoyed this post, please subscribe to my RSS feed!

Watch the following new free videos and get a first-hand look over Yaro’s shoulder on exactly how he makes his living blogging. You can view the videos at the following link:

Show me the money!

I hope you’ll watch. If you like what you see and are ready to start blogging, there are links on the video page that will take you to the Blog Mastermind enrollment page.

Thanks,

Sherri

Technorati Tags: Blog Mastermind, free videos, Yaro Starak

If you enjoyed this post, please subscribe to my RSS feed!

Whoever said blogging can’t make BIG money had not heard this story.

Yaro Starak interviewed his previous student, Alborz Fallah, who is the owner of caradvice.com.au - a car blog for Australians, which was valued at $5 million dollars and generates close to $50,000 a month.

You can listen or read (or both) the interview here -

Million Dollar Blogger

Alborz started his blog like most people, sitting at home, writing content each day outside of the time he spent at his full time job. His blog grew, he started making money and he just kept working.

Eventually he was approached by people who wanted to buy his blog. He said no, until someone came along who only wanted to buy a share in the site and help it continue to grow. Alborz agreed and
his blog immediately went from part time hobby, to full time business.

Today Alborz’s blog has full time employees, he travels to Europe to test some of the most prestigious cars in the world and it’s fair to say he is living a dream - making big money writing about a topic he loves.

In this interview you can hear Alborz talk about how he grew his traffic, how he brought on investors to help grow his site and what’s it like being in charge of a multi-million dollar blog.

It’s worth listening to this interview because you can learn some key things to help with your own quest to make a profitable blog, for example -

- How Alborz chose the topic for his blog is a
great lesson for anyone else out there struggling
to come up with a blog topic

- The search engine advice Alborz offers is
powerful yet simple and will immediately help your
own blog get more traffic, if you follow it

- The story of how investors came on board to take
Car Advice to the next level is unique, but
definitely worth hearing because it shows how you
can grow a blog from just making a few hundred
dollars, to making six or seven figures a year.

The interview is available for instant download in MP3 or text transcript. Here’s the link again -

Million Dollar Blogger

Yaro released this audio to inspire people to believe what is possible with a blog.

If you want to follow in Alborz’s footsteps, consider taking on Yaro as your blog coach and join his Blog Mastermind coaching program and you might just become the next Alborz.

Speak soon,
Sherri

Technorati Tags: alborz fallah, Blog Mastermind, million dollar blog, mp3, podcast, Yaro Starak

If you enjoyed this post, please subscribe to my RSS feed!

In preparation for the launch of the new Blog Mastermind, here is the link to the new, free video, Conversion Blogging.

It’s absolutely free with no obligation. You just click on the link above and watch the video. It’s 33 minutes long and packed with great content on making money with your blog, so you might want to grab a coffee or something and get comfortable.

After the video, you have the opportunity to enter your name and email address to subscribe to the Blog Mastermind email list and get the link to the second video. The new Blog Mastermind will launch one week from today, so you will get a fair amount of email from Yaro over the week.

During normal periods, however, Yaro doesn’t abuse your time by sending you a bunch of senseless email. I was on his list long before I signed up to take the course and I’ve only stayed on two lists for the long haul. The other list is the Thirty Day Challenge. Yaro always provides great content worth reading. The emails are formatted for easy reading, unlike many of the emails you’ll get being on other’s lists.

Here is the link again: Conversion Blogging. Click on over and watch!

Technorati Tags: Blog Mastermind, Blog Profits Blueprint, Conversion blogging, Yaro Starak

If you enjoyed this post, please subscribe to my RSS feed!

For those of you eagerly awaiting the reopening of Blog Mastermind, your wait is over. Yaro Starak is launching the new and improved Blog Mastermind course on July 29, 2008. It was supposed to reopen in June, but there were some content issues that Yaro wanted to fix before launching the new program.

Later today, July 22, Yaro is launching a new free, two-part video series about blogging. Check back here for the link to the free video. Part I requires absolutely no commitment on your part. You don’t even have to give your name or email address to watch it.

To see part 2, you will have to opt-in to the email list by giving your name and email address. You can remove yourself from any of Yaro’s lists by scrolling to the bottom of any email and clicking on the unsubsribe link. Yaro uses AWEBER, as do I, and AWEBER has a very firm committment to the CAN-SPAM act, so unsubscribing is easy and you won’t be harrassed about it should you subscribe and then decide to unsubscribe later.

In the meantime, please download and read the Blog Profits Blueprint. It’s available free as a pdf file and as an audio at the following banner link:

Details

There are always details involved whenever you embark on learning something new.

• The course is 6 months long and you receive weekly lessons.
• The course costs $97 per month for 6 months and then it stops.
• You can purchase the entire course up front for $497. That’s an $85 savings just for paying in advance.
• If you pay up front, you get immediate access to all lessons and materials.
• If you pay monthly, you have access to the lessons and materials up through the months for which you have paid.
• Blog Mastermind will not be closing again, so anyone can join at any time they choose. There is no rush and no scarcity. Get the Blog Profits Blueprint, take a month to read and digest it, and then consider the course. It will be available when you are ready.

If you are brand new to blogging and don’t know how to get started, go to Become a Blogger.com to learn how to set up a blog for the first time.

Here’s to your blogging success,

Sherri Joubert
Still a student of quality blogging

Technorati Tags: Blog Mastermind, Blog Profits Blueprint, blogging course

If you enjoyed this post, please subscribe to my RSS feed!

Free targeted traffic to our niche sites is what we all want, and using Web 2.0 to our best advantage is the way to get it. We want organic growth in the search engines, especially Google, and we want it as fast as we can get it. But that’s the trick. You can’t artificially grow organic traffic. But you can speed up that organic growth by diligently using Web 2.0 consistently.

Web 2.0 is the key to any online business’s success, whether you plan to make a part-time income to supplement a regular job or a full-time income to replace that dreaded J-O-B.

Web 2.0 also works for offline products and your local, bricks and mortar business. You can have a web presence for very little money to drive in additional sales. Local customers tend to research online and then go to the store to make the purchase. Why not have your store available for that online research and have customers come in to make there purchase at your store? You don’t have to make sales online if you don’t want to. Just being on the web to provide product information will drive more traffic into your local store.

How much should a web presence cost? For $9.95/mo in web hosting and $12 or so per year for your domain name ($132 per year), your local business can have a website to drive traffic in your door. If you’re paying substantially more than $132 a year for a website, you’re getting ripped off. Find a local blogger to help you set up a hosting account, get your domain name moved and start a website using WordPress software. WordPress software is free and a local WordPress blogger will likely help you get set up and show you around WordPress for substantially less than your local website design firm.

Many businesses are paying hundreds of dollars a year just for hosting a site they don’t understand and can’t change. Getting that site developed may have cost hundreds to thousands of dollars as well. Having changes made is yet another big expense. Cut your budget with a WordPress blog!

How do you learn about Web 2.0 and how to use it?

With a bundle of great resources to teach you Web 2.0 and how and where to use it to your best advantage!

In the Web 2.0 Resource Bundle you get 4 Current and New Web 2.0 and Social Media Products in One Package for One Remarkably Low Price!

• “Resource Explosion”  ($17.77 value)
  
• “Web 2.0 Resource Bible” ($37 value)
• “Social Media Traffic 2.0″ ($10 value)
  
• “The Ultimate HubPages Guide” ($10 value)

The entire package is only $47.77!

The going rate for most e-books is $97.

I don’t like to spend a bunch of money on e-books and digital information products. But when you can get a bundle of e-products and resources you really need at a 34% discount, and not spend more than you normally might at Amazon or Barnes & Noble, that’s a good deal.

So if you need to learn about Web 2.0 this is the resource bundle to buy!

Web 2.0 Resource Bundle

This package was bundled by Professor Ron Capps, a premier writer of private label rights (PLR) products you can purchase and then resell under your own brand.

Technorati Tags: bargain, bundle, Resources, Web 2.0, Web 2.0 Resources Bundle

If you enjoyed this post, please subscribe to my RSS feed!

Most of us are working from home to make a living, whether online or offline. Many of us are using our computers to help generate extra income, and a lot of us use the Clickbank affiliate program to market information products.

Clickbank is great, but it has many limitations and restrictions, especially when it comes to commissions paid to affiliate marketers. I use Clickbank, but I haven’t had much business from them. They just don’t carry the products that would sell well in my niches.

Enter PayDotCom. Mike Filsaime, the well-known internet marketing guru, figured there had to be a better way to do what Clickbank does without all the restrictions and limitations.

PayDotCom is FREE to sign up with the affiliate program and you can immediately start marketing products from their site and earning better commissions than with Clickbank. Their marketplace is HUGE, so finding appropriate products for your affiliate sales is easier.

OH! - They also have their own affiliate program that pays you COLD HARD cash just for sharing PayDotCom with people like I am doing with you…Clickbank doesn’t have an affiliate program of its own at all.

What if you want to sell your own information product?

If you have an information product for sale, you can sell it on PayDotCom as well.

They give you cool tools like BLOG WIDGETS, and they even have an advertising program to help you get traffic to your site.

If you want an ARMY of affiliates to sell your products for you, they also allow you to have Free placement in their marketplace!

Even better… If your product becomes one of the Top 25 products in its category in the marketplace (not that hard to do)…then you will get Free advertising on the Blog Widget which is syndicated on THOUSANDS of sites World Wide and get Millions of impressions per month.

Get your FREE account now…

PayDotCom.com

Thanks,
Sherri

P.S. - Make sure to get your Account NOW while it is Free to join.

Technorati Tags: Affiliate Marketing, PayDotCom, PayPal, Sell Products Online

If you enjoyed this post, please subscribe to my RSS feed!

Ok, that wasn’t as hard as I thought it was going to be.

Once I upgraded all the plugins the page content came back. Since the home page still worked, it had to be a problem with the page.php file. I went through the tags and found I was missing one “</div>” right before the template called the sidebars. I put the tag in and it was fixed!!!

Yeah! I don’t have to change WP templates!

Technorati Tags: News Blue 0.1, WordPress 2.5.1, WordPress Theme

If you enjoyed this post, please subscribe to my RSS feed!