I am SO frustrated anymore I could just scream!

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WTF? :confused:

Maybe I'm too old to figure out all this stuff... you know, like you can't teach an old dog new tricks?

I just haven't been able to get ANYTHING going with ANY of my sites! It took me almost two years just to get my old site up to $150/month so I could sell it for a mortgage payment and get rid of the hosting fees that I couldn't afford anymore.

What gives??

Every new thing I try I'm hearing, "This is the last thing you'll ever have to do..." Right. Months later...nothing. I'm so tired. And I absolutely cannot afford to keep buying this and buying that, subscribing to this and subscribing to that. My disability check just won't go that far after paying the mortgage!

The last thing I bought was Bring the Fresh. Great program! Not one sale yet, months later. But I can't afford the Full Disclosure, can't afford to invest in the link juicer, don't have the money to keep buying up domain names, etc. So while I did learn some new stuff about Market Samurai (the free version) and Clickbank, I'm still not making any sales because I can't afford to take anything I've learned to the next level. I have no cash for all of these monthly subscriptions at $17/mo here, $37/mo there, it's just not happening.

We (husband & me; both on disability) pay for one monthly hosting fee that allows us unlimited domain names, but I can't afford to keep buying domain names!

Maybe I'm just one lousy Internet marketer when it comes to trying to do all of this by myself with the free stuff because I simply do not have the cash to keep investing in this or that to take anything to the next level. And I can't afford to pay anyone to do it for me either because that would just be another payment.

I've thought of rewriting and repackaging all of my articles into PLR packages, but then I'd have to find a FREE way to market those too and nothing free has worked for me yet, so why would that?

Maybe I need some kind of a schedule or step-by-step plan on "how" to use all of the genuine FREE tools to make "something" work.

Meanwhile, my primary site (bookmarks) is slipping in Alexa rank and traffic, and Google even zero'd out my PR2 rank on all of my most visited pages! What's up with that??

I'm just really blown away by everything right now and my frustration level's getting beyond control.

Anyway, that's it. Thanks for letting me vent. :-/

(As an aside, I even keep 15 ads fresh on craigslist for my bookmarks, I have an ad on eBay's free classifieds that I keep renewed and my husband posts flyers around our area; and I check craigslist gigs every day in every major US city... )
#anymore #frustrated #scream
  • Profile picture of the author Johnny Optimo
    If you got your site making $150/month, what was stopping you from doubling your efforts and making $300/month?

    Also, you may not be needing to buy so much... what's the need for buying so many domain names?

    I think your best bet is to create stuff that people REALLY WANT rather than stuff that's just designed to sell. You already know how to make money in IM, it seems like you just need to focus your efforts one one thing, stick with it for a long time and see what happens.
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    • Profile picture of the author ksmusselman
      Originally Posted by Johnny Optimo View Post

      If you got your site making $150/month, what was stopping you from doubling your efforts and making $300/month?
      Time and a mortgage payment unfortunately. I was able to sell the site for my asking price which = a mortgage payment. Believe me, I wish I didn't have to sell it but at the time, it was really the only asset I had to help us keep our house.
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      • Profile picture of the author onSubie
        Originally Posted by ksmusselman View Post

        Time and a mortgage payment unfortunately. I was able to sell the site for my asking price which = a mortgage payment. Believe me, I wish I didn't have to sell it but at the time, it was really the only asset I had to help us keep our house.
        Is it the kind of site you could rebuild on another keyword rich domain?

        If you built it once and got traffic and sales, couldn't you just repeat that process for the same site on a new domain?

        Mahlon
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        • Profile picture of the author ksmusselman
          Originally Posted by onSubie View Post

          Is it the kind of site you could rebuild on another keyword rich domain?

          If you built it once and got traffic and sales, couldn't you just repeat that process for the same site on a new domain?

          Mahlon
          Unfortunately, no, because it would violate the terms of the sale - non-compete.

          I'd already started the bookmarks site before I sold the other site so whatever content I'd already used on the bookmarks site was fair game but my agreement was that I'd not build a competing website.

          And I've pretty much been doing the same things that I did when I built the other site - however - the other site was 180+ content pages monetized with AdSense. The current site is a product site so I only have AdSense on the strictly article pages, not on the bookmarks themselves.
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      • Profile picture of the author dark witness
        Originally Posted by ksmusselman View Post

        Time and a mortgage payment unfortunately. I was able to sell the site for my asking price which = a mortgage payment. Believe me, I wish I didn't have to sell it but at the time, it was really the only asset I had to help us keep our house.
        The most important thing is the knowledge gained from building the site and knowing what you did to make money from it.

        You may have sold it, but you didn't sell that knowledge. So hang in there, buy a new domain, build a new site get it making money sell it again, or scale it up and make more money from it monthly.

        Stop buying stuff...totally stop. I know how much of a trap that can be, I have been making that very same mistake the last few months. I have but every tool, ebook, coaching, you name it.

        tell yourself; Time to stop buying, time to stop learning! time to start doing, time to start making proper money.

        Unsubscribe to all those email lists you have been on, they distract you and try to sell you more stuff.

        most of all, don't give up! there are guys making money doing this internet thing. just regular guys, if they can do it... YOU can do it!

        it's hard, especially when there are financial presures, but it does pay off like anything you put time and hardwork into.
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    • Profile picture of the author ksmusselman
      Originally Posted by Johnny Optimo View Post

      You already know how to make money in IM, it seems like you just need to focus your efforts one one thing, stick with it for a long time and see what happens.
      I think this may be my "problem..." IM ADHD. :confused:
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      • Profile picture of the author blueorca17
        Originally Posted by ksmusselman View Post

        I think this may be my "problem..." IM ADHD. :confused:
        This is the problem with most people when they go into IM. I had to FORCE myself to stick to a consistent plan before I became successful. Remind yourself of WHY you want to do it, and what the pay-off is going to be for you when you finally start to make the money that you want to make with IM. Or maybe it's not the money, but the lifestyle. The face that you won't have to worry about money for retirement or that you can rest easy knowing that your kids won't have to pay for your funeral out of their own pocket if you kick the bucket (if you have kids that is). Maybe you want to travel the world for the rest of your life... maybe you want to have the freedom to join an international men's choir. Whatever it is...the key to success in IM is to TAKE ACTION and have PERSEVERANCE and to find a PERSONAL motivator that will keep you focused. If you're not willing to put in the time or work that's necessary to be successful (reading for hours on this forum, or spending time building sites, or spending money on testing PPC campaigns), then you you won't make it. Period.
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      • Profile picture of the author Patrick Batty
        Originally Posted by ksmusselman View Post

        I think this may be my "problem..." IM ADHD. :confused:
        Hey Karen..
        I know the feeling.. I'm ADHD and think a awful lot of internet marketers suffer from this too.. leading to endless projects, plugins, wso's etc.

        ADD or ADHD can totally sabotage IM.

        I wrote about it on my blog a few days ago..

        The only way to be successful at this is to get some very serious focus.
        All the best,
        Patrick
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        • Profile picture of the author PhilB
          Originally Posted by Patrick Batty View Post

          Hey Karen..
          I know the feeling.. I'm ADHD and think a awful lot of internet marketers suffer from this too.. leading to endless projects, plugins, wso's etc.

          ADD or ADHD can totally sabotage IM.

          I wrote about it on my blog a few days ago..

          The only way to be successful at this is to get some very serious focus.
          All the best,
          Patrick
          I agree about focusing. Clearing your head for 30 mins a day helps - no pc/ phone/ tv. (It really does) Come up with a plan. Keep testing and re-moulding the plan until you find something that works. Then outsource as you can afford is mho.

          'To Do' lists help too :-)
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  • Profile picture of the author Michael Meaney
    I gotta agree with Johnny..

    You're doing something that's working, so scale it up.
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    • Profile picture of the author ksmusselman
      Originally Posted by Mick Meaney View Post

      I gotta agree with Johnny..

      You're doing something that's working, so scale it up.
      This is all I did with my other site to get it to start making $150/mo just in AdSense, so I just need to do MORE of it with my current site to make more bookmarks sales? It's all free. :confused:

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  • Profile picture of the author tristatemedia
    a graet coach that i am using now is chris farrel....teaches through video.....very simple....
    he build a list and sells the to the list...........
    everyone claims it is the best way to make money. it does make sense....
    so no seo etc. etc.
    i figured i throw that outhere, i am not an affliate of chris farrel yet but i will be
    good luck
    god bless
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    • Profile picture of the author ksmusselman
      Originally Posted by tristatemedia View Post

      a graet coach that i am using now is chris farrel....teaches through video.....very simple....
      he build a list and sells the to the list...........
      everyone claims it is the best way to make money. it does make sense....
      so no seo etc. etc.
      i figured i throw that outhere, i am not an affliate of chris farrel yet but i will be
      good luck
      god bless
      Thanks.
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      • Profile picture of the author Mark Andrews
        Banned
        Do you want me to tell you what your problem is?

        Shall we get to the root of the matter?

        Nothing personal, just 5 minutes out of my schedule to help a perfect stranger with his current problem.

        No punches pulled... as I said this isn't personal.

        You've got information paralysis. You're hopping from one product to the next. Acquiring a little knowledge here. A little knowledge there. Trying this out for a week or more. Then trying something else out. But what you're not doing is joining all of the dots together so your jigsaw puzzle is left incomplete.

        So what do you do? You look for more of the information which you think you need. And off you go again on another buying spree. "Ooh look! Something shiny!" Like an ostrich running around helter skelter here and there. "Oh wow! Look at this. This might actually be what we're looking for."

        Your pain, your frustration is lack of focus. No plan.

        And it's hurting you massively. You're doing this to yourself. Caught up in the dream of making money but not actually implementing anything into a plan of action.

        Or sticking with it. Following it through. "Oooh look! Something shiny!"

        Stop! going off on tangents...

        Discard everything you've been taught so far. It's all clutter in your mind. It's weighing you down emotionally. It's holding you back. Get rid of it.

        Make a contract with yourself that you're not going to open any of that stuff that's sitting on your hard drive until you've sorted this out once and for all.

        Now, let's get you down to the basics. And stop looking for some magic push button solution.

        Bring you back to reality...

        Being in business, it's not about flitting around trying this out, that out, any which other product out or information presented out.

        It's about having a simple plan. And knowing your goals.

        So tell me, what do you want to achieve by month end? Come on, end of June. What do you want to accomplish by then?
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        • Profile picture of the author ksmusselman
          Originally Posted by Pete Walker View Post

          Do you want me to tell you what your problem is?

          Shall we get to the root of the matter?

          Nothing personal, just 5 minutes out of my schedule to help a perfect stranger with his current problem.

          No punches pulled... as I said this isn't personal.

          You've got information paralysis. You're hopping from one product to the next. Acquiring a little knowledge here. A little knowledge there. Trying this out for a week or more. Then trying something else out. But what you're not doing is joining all of the dots together so your jigsaw puzzle is left incomplete.
          I love it... exactly. Information paralysis and flitting around. Bingo.

          Originally Posted by Pete Walker View Post


          Your pain, your frustration is lack of focus. No plan.

          And it's hurting you massively. You're doing this to yourself. Caught up in the dream of making money but not actually implementing anything into a plan of action.
          You're hitting the nail on the head here...

          Originally Posted by Pete Walker View Post


          Being in business, it's not about flitting around trying this out, that out, any which other product out or information presented out.

          It's about having a simple plan. And knowing your goals.
          And I am absolutely HORRIBLE at planning. That is one of my all-time major weaknesses. If I was to be tested, I'd probably come out positive for adult ADHD (which is why I never built out my transcription business to a full fledged virtual assistant business!). At the same time, I am nowhere near in the position to pay for a VA for myself.

          I'm not afraid to admit it because at my age, 50+, I finally had to accept that this is just how I am. I do not multitask. Multitasking = anxiety and panic attacks (part of me being on SS disability actually).

          Originally Posted by Pete Walker View Post


          So tell me, what do you want to achieve by month end? Come on, end of June. What do you want to accomplish by then?
          Here it is...

          My whole intent with the bookmarks when I launched this business was to get it to making at least one $100 sale/day - that was a year ago and I'm still working on that. But that's where all the other stuff (my bullet points) came in - trying to get the traffic to make that $100/sale per day. I've made $350 in one week a couple of times over the last year, but then it dries up for months at a time and I'm back to square one.

          So I've been trying to find other ways to build traffic besides article marketing, Twitter, Facebook, a DEAD ZERO opt-in list, but again - information paralysis.

          Through Alexa, I have a handle on "who" the traffic is (i.e., gender, age, education, income), but I get lost when trying to figure out "where" they are and "how" to get to them without spending more money on more traffic generation tools and techniques. And I just can't afford to outsource this stuff.

          So yeah, then I get frustrated and look at other ways to make money and now I'm just a mess.

          Weddings is a broad niche, yes. I knew that when I got into it. So I carved it down to just the favors, but then I broadened the bookmarks out to other "niches" because after a year, the weddings were getting hard to conquer.

          But the bottom line, I want to be selling at least one $100 bookmarks order per day. That will get me in the clear to where I can build up the hockey site so I can sell that and turn my ksmusselman.com site into a PLR sales site.

          And I know I need to do just one thing at a time, but even just figuring out what that one thing is has me going bonkers. Do I concentrate on traffic, link building, list building, more article marketing, etc. etc.? :confused:

          But back to answering your question. What I want/need/must do:

          #1. Get the bookmarks business making a decent income; at least one $100 sale/day;

          #2. Get the hockey site in the position to sell it for a nice profit (that wasn't supposed to be my site in the first place; see the About Me on that site);

          #3. Repurpose ksmusselman.com for PLR sales in the wedding niche

          Those are my intentions. Each site is started and has content. Now I need to focus on #1 until it's where I need it to be. But getting it there is where I get mind-boggled with what FREE traffic generation, link building, whatever, needs to be done.
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          • Profile picture of the author VanessaB
            Originally Posted by ok123 View Post

            Well, the best solution to do is to have separate money accounts for your IM endeavors and other things in life. And i do not mean actual money accounts but maintaining a separate notebook or record of some sort.

            Then you need to ensure that the net total of the outgoing money ( money you spend on WSO's, tools, hosting, domain buys and other such expenditure ) and incoming money ( money you earn from IM ) is always positive.

            So, how do you do that. One of the suggestions given above is selling PLR.
            I find that the easiest money to balance your IM spends can come from Fiverr gigs and other outsourcing sites like odesk and freelance.

            Once you have this regular income, pick one method e.g. take amazon affiliate marketing or clickbank affiliate marketing. Spend the next three months on one method only.

            As you have said, you have ADHD, it is difficult to focus on one thing. Remember, one benefit of having ADHD is having HYPERFOCUS also. So channelize that energy and focus on one method.

            I bet you will have your own success thread in six months.
            My mother has ADHD, with the same anxiety symptoms that the OP expresses the post I quoted below...I've worked with a lot of people with ADD/ADHD and one common denominator I have always found... is the inability to 'organize their thoughts' that was never taught to them in early childhood.

            Information Overload IS the ADD/ADHD of Internet Marketing.

            And it's the inability to 'organize' that information in your 'thoughts' that prevents you from 'connecting the dots.'

            Think about this... if you head over to the community college and decide to take some classes, you're going to open up the course catalog. Now imagine you see 'Trigonometry' and you think... 'that sounds good. I can become a math whiz...' but then you see this little * (asterik) next to the course and you discover that the little asterik indicates that you need "Algebra" as the pre-requisite course to take Trig.... (Algebra is the basis for ALL higher maths because it's purpose IS to teach you how to organize your thoughts for those higher maths.)

            I organize all my 'information' that way... by looking at what 'pre-requisites' I would need to put any new information into 'action.'



            OP,

            Originally Posted by ksmusselman View Post

            I love it... exactly. Information paralysis and flitting around. Bingo.



            You're hitting the nail on the head here...



            And I am absolutely HORRIBLE at planning. That is one of my all-time major weaknesses. If I was to be tested, I'd probably come out positive for adult ADHD (which is why I never built out my transcription business to a full fledged virtual assistant business!). At the same time, I am nowhere near in the position to pay for a VA for myself.

            I'm not afraid to admit it because at my age, 50+, I finally had to accept that this is just how I am. I do not multitask. Multitasking = anxiety and panic attacks (part of me being on SS disability actually).



            Here it is...

            My whole intent with the bookmarks when I launched this business was to get it to making at least one $100 sale/day - that was a year ago and I'm still working on that. But that's where all the other stuff (my bullet points) came in - trying to get the traffic to make that $100/sale per day. I've made $350 in one week a couple of times over the last year, but then it dries up for months at a time and I'm back to square one.

            So I've been trying to find other ways to build traffic besides article marketing, Twitter, Facebook, a DEAD ZERO opt-in list, but again - information paralysis.

            Through Alexa, I have a handle on "who" the traffic is (i.e., gender, age, education, income), but I get lost when trying to figure out "where" they are and "how" to get to them without spending more money on more traffic generation tools and techniques. And I just can't afford to outsource this stuff.

            So yeah, then I get frustrated and look at other ways to make money and now I'm just a mess.

            Weddings is a broad niche, yes. I knew that when I got into it. So I carved it down to just the favors, but then I broadened the bookmarks out to other "niches" because after a year, the weddings were getting hard to conquer.

            But the bottom line, I want to be selling at least one $100 bookmarks order per day. That will get me in the clear to where I can build up the hockey site so I can sell that and turn my ksmusselman.com site into a PLR sales site.

            And I know I need to do just one thing at a time, but even just figuring out what that one thing is has me going bonkers. Do I concentrate on traffic, link building, list building, more article marketing, etc. etc.? :confused:

            But back to answering your question. What I want/need/must do:

            #1. Get the bookmarks business making a decent income; at least one $100 sale/day;

            #2. Get the hockey site in the position to sell it for a nice profit (that wasn't supposed to be my site in the first place; see the About Me on that site);

            #3. Repurpose ksmusselman.com for PLR sales in the wedding niche

            Those are my intentions. Each site is started and has content. Now I need to focus on #1 until it's where I need it to be. But getting it there is where I get mind-boggled with what FREE traffic generation, link building, whatever, needs to be done.

            My whole intent with the bookmarks when I launched this business was to get it to making at least one $100 sale/day - that was a year ago and I'm still working on that. But that's where all the other stuff (my bullet points) came in - trying to get the traffic to make that $100/sale per day. I've made $350 in one week a couple of times over the last year, but then it dries up for months at a time and I'm back to square one.

            So I've been trying to find other ways to build traffic besides article marketing, Twitter, Facebook, a DEAD ZERO opt-in list, but again - information paralysis.
            Article marketing, Twitter, Facebook... all short term traffic generation strategies. You're using them the wrong way. Short term traffic strategies are best used to collect data... (namely, the optin)....

            Instead of paying a monthly subscription fee to a site that's teaching you to get FREE traffic, take that same monthly fee and apply it to an ADVERTISEMENT in a TARGETED market, that renews on auto, like those subscriptions, every month, and your ad STAYS PUT... and you leverage the publisher's traffic!

            Thirdly... I haven't looked at your site, so I don't know if you're even building a list, but if you're not, that's another mistake, for more than one reason, the first being that you're not leveraging the short 'bursts' of traffic you get from those 'free marketing strategies like articles, Twitter and Facebook,'. Second reason, you're ignoring the 'cross promotion' opportunities of having a list by thinking that you want to and can sell your product and your product only and make $100 a day. Maybe it can, maybe it can't... but you haven't so far, and that can be attributed to either not having a big enough market, or not having enough traffic, but with the time restraints and short term results you can get, from free traffic generation strategies have not yielded the results you want, so pay for the advertising to get the traffic and build the list anyway, so you can cross promote other products to reach the $100 and anything else is 'gravy.'

            Finally, as has been said already...you need to concentrate on generating INCOME... build websites for other people, write articles for other people, sell PLR packets... generate the cashflow... keep what you need and reinvest the rest into paying for things that GET RESULTS and make you profits.. NOT more SH*T trying to convince you can do everything for FREE.

            You can't.

            Once you accept that, you'll find that most of the confusion will lift, and the profits will come much faster, and much easier.
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        • Profile picture of the author Black Hat Cat
          Banned
          Originally Posted by Pete Walker View Post

          Do you want me to tell you what your problem is?

          Shall we get to the root of the matter?

          Nothing personal, just 5 minutes out of my schedule to help a perfect stranger with his current problem.

          No punches pulled... as I said this isn't personal.

          You've got information paralysis.
          That's a problem, not the problem. The main problem is she's living in a house she can't afford. Fix that problem, and a lot of these other issues will take care of themselves.
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    • Profile picture of the author jwmann2
      Just devote your time to one website with a lot of potential. Trying to market multiple websites is a lot of work. Do you have Google Analytics? That can tell you where the majortiy of your traffic is coming from and then you can devote your efforts to that.
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  • Profile picture of the author travlinguy
    There's an old saying that goes, pick a horse and ride that horse. Sounds like you've got too much going on. You mention that you have some articles you could rewrite and offer as PLR. That's an excellent business model. There are kids who come to this forum and within a month are doing just that profitably.

    Why not you? You say you have a bunch of sites. Create your PLR article packs and place them on one of your sites. Put a link in your sig that points to your offer. Sell enough to get some money to offer them here. There are a couple of places you can do that. Continue writing fresh new material every day and put together more PLR article packs and offer them.

    Stay focused. While you do this forget everything else. Ride the PRL article horse. Simple.
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    • Profile picture of the author VanessaB
      Originally Posted by travlinguy View Post

      There's an old saying that goes, pick a horse and ride that horse. Sounds like you've got too much going on. You mention that you have some articles you could rewrite and offer as PLR. That's an excellent business model. There are kids who come to this forum and within a month are doing just that profitably.

      Why not you? You say you have a bunch of sites. Create your PLR article packs and place them on one of your sites. Put a link in your sig that points to your offer. Sell enough to get some money to offer them here. There are a couple of places you can do that. Continue writing fresh new material every day and put together more PLR article packs and offer them.

      Stay focused. While you do this forget everything else. Ride the PRL article horse. Simple.
      Charles is right, (but Charles... you just gave the OP another CHOICE, LOL)... OP... I have felt your pain... but here's a 'clue': The 'last thing you'll ever need' is directly to related to what you already have...

      Sure, building a list and selling to the list is a GREAT model... but to that, you need to know how to build a list... what niche to build it in, how to set up a site, get a product for that site to give away, an optin page, an auto responder... and then how to get the TRAFFIC to that optin page..

      The good news is... if you can do all that, then you have all you need to make anything else work! (Well, just about anything else...)

      Sure, selling PLR is a good model too, but if you want to actually make sales, that PLR has to be on topics that people are buying, and WHERE you can **oh no... it's the A word again... ADVERTISE it!

      OP, I used to fall for the 'it's the last thing you'll ever need' pitches too. Then when the product told me I had to set up a WordPress blog and use x, y, and z plugins... I realized I had to learn THAT to make THIS work...

      So, being the anal retentive control freak that I am, I broke down all the skill sets in a chart... with 'levels...'

      (Think about it like this... if you went and signed up for college courses, you'd look at the course catalog and see 'pre-requisites'... so if you wanted to take let's say Trigonometry, you'd have first have to take Algebra, because it's the 'base' for the higher maths.... same rules apply to any type of education...)

      The 'excpetions' to the rules when it comes to business is this:

      You need to HAVE a site to promote, so the pre-req is to build the site. Of course, if you have the funds to outsource that, it' not a necessary skill to learn, and of course, you will always have 'weaknesses' and eventually you will have to offset that weakness by outsourcing the task associated with it, but if you need to earn an income NOW, and you have no money to invest, you should be learning the 'basics', (and you can learn most of them for FREE just by searching here, and Youtube. Only search Google as a 'last resort.')

      Of those basics, you're going to find something you're good at, that comes easy to you. This is a strenght, capitalize on your strength. Make a model out of it.

      If building nice looking sites is something that you're good at and it comes easy to you, offer to build sites for people.

      If doing research is something you're good at that comes easy to you, offer your research assisting skills (niche research, keyword research... etc)

      Find what YOU are good at, that comes easy to you, and offer that first... to get some income coming in, then reinvest that income, and some time, into learning the more advanced skill sets.

      Once you have 'income' (cashflow, accounts receivable) you have an 'asset' and then you 'leverage' that asset to create more assets, and assets that produce the 'passive income' (make money in your underwear).

      I'm going to PM you a link to two videos I made that explains how I broke the skill sets down, and how I was able to use them to determine if the 'new best thing' was something I had the pre-requisite skills to put into action. If I didn't... I didn't buy it...

      BUT... let me add, that once you learn the basics, it becomes REALLY easy to master the advanced skills, much faster too.

      And thanks to the WF and Youtube, it's really easy to master the basics very quickly.

      -Dani
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      • Profile picture of the author Mark Andrews
        Banned
        No offense but what she doesn't need right now is even more information.

        What she does need is to sort out the source of the problem.

        If this isn't sorted at the root, they'll just carry on the way they are and keep going around in circles.
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        • Profile picture of the author ReachOneMedia
          Originally Posted by Pete Walker View Post

          No offense but what he doesn't need right now is even more information.

          What he does need is to sort out the source of the problem.

          If this isn't sorted at the root, they'll just carry on the way they are and keep going around in circles.
          100% Agree with you.

          The worse move you could make is listening to other people opinions including mine!

          Find a coach with proven track record... Follow only one person and do whatever he's telling you to do for a whole year (even if you don't believe that what he said will work) Don't forget that your actual belief didn't seem to work very well so listen and do it.

          Asking a question here is asking for 150 different answers and that won't help you getting out of your ditch.

          One coach...one project... one year of total dedication to that project

          come back here to share your success story

          my 2 cents

          J
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          • Profile picture of the author Isaiah Jackson
            I have to say as heart felt as this is I really enjoy the feed back from every one here, see your not alone in this you got people here on this forum who know how you feel with the not making sales it happens to all of us just don't beat yourself up about it push through it all the people here have gave you some really good ideas and advice you should follow what they are telling you
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        • Profile picture of the author ksmusselman
          Originally Posted by Pete Walker View Post

          No offense but what she doesn't need right now is even more information.

          What she does need is to sort out the source of the problem.

          If this isn't sorted at the root, they'll just carry on the way they are and keep going around in circles.
          I'm running in circles all right!!! I log into StatCounter and look at my bookmarks site's stats and I'm like, okay, I'm getting over 100 hits/day. Where are the sales?

          So I think okay, I need more traffic because not everyone is buying wedding favors all the time, let alone bookmarks, which is why I branched out, so I could try and build a list where if someone buys bookmarks for a wedding, they may want to have some later for a birthday party or a memorial service; they can refer them to their friends for the same thing. I mean, they're pretty much all purpose and price-wise, I'm beating my competitors hands down.

          So I thought I'd try my hand at video marketing for traffic but I got all confused with that and can't afford to buy anything to help make that happen.

          List building, but what to offer for a freebie sign-up incentive?

          Link building, but I'm not doing link "exchanges" anymore and I'm not doing paid directory listings.

          Social media, I've already built a Facebook Fan Page and automated my Twitter account.

          Blog posting - SO time consuming! And where would I start considering my product is across the board?

          Maybe I just need to take a vacation...
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      • Profile picture of the author ksmusselman
        Originally Posted by DanielleS View Post

        You need to HAVE a site to promote, so the pre-req is to build the site.
        Actually, this part is already done. I have the site; I need more traffic to make more sales.

        Originally Posted by DanielleS View Post

        Find what YOU are good at, that comes easy to you, and offer that first... to get some income coming in, then reinvest that income, and some time, into learning the more advanced skill sets.
        I've been doing that with my transcription skills for the last five years. In fact, I built and sold a website all about how to start a general transcription business; I have an ebook on my site about that, but that niche seems to have dried up from what I can tell in my research so I'm glad I sold that site. I still sell an ebook every once in a while though.

        Originally Posted by DanielleS View Post

        Once you have 'income' (cashflow, accounts receivable) you have an 'asset' and then you 'leverage' that asset to create more assets, and assets that produce the 'passive income' (make money in your underwear).
        That was the intent of the transcription site but it didn't pan out. :confused:

        Originally Posted by DanielleS View Post

        I'm going to PM you a link to two videos ...
        Unfortunately, I have no access to the PMs yet because I'm not a paid member...soon, though. Next big sale.
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        • Profile picture of the author MerlynSanchez
          I don't know how you marketed your transcription services but I can tell you that the market HAS NOT dried up.

          Information marketers are always looking for someone to transcribe their teleseminars and audio programs. I belong to several discussion lists where at least once a week someone asks for the name of a good transcriber.

          Here are two options:

          • Grow your transcription business and add a few other VA services. I would recommend this if it's something you really like. I have worked with VA's who started out charging $15 per hour and are now charging up to $30 per hour.
          • Concentrate on your book mark business. Danielle and Kay have given you excellent advice. There are free autoresponder services, or paid services which allow you a certain number of subscribers before they charge. You can also market this business off line which probably be a lot more effective than what you're doing online right now.
          Good luck,
          Merlyn



          Originally Posted by ksmusselman View Post

          Actually, this part is already done. I have the site; I need more traffic to make more sales.



          I've been doing that with my transcription skills for the last five years. In fact, I built and sold a website all about how to start a general transcription business; I have an ebook on my site about that, but that niche seems to have dried up from what I can tell in my research so I'm glad I sold that site. I still sell an ebook every once in a while though.



          That was the intent of the transcription site but it didn't pan out. :confused:



          Unfortunately, I have no access to the PMs yet because I'm not a paid member...soon, though. Next big sale.
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          • Profile picture of the author ksmusselman
            Originally Posted by MerlynSanchez View Post

            I don't know how you marketed your transcription services but I can tell you that the market HAS NOT dried up.

            Information marketers are always looking for someone to transcribe their teleseminars and audio programs. I belong to several discussion lists where at least once a week someone asks for the name of a good transcriber.

            Here are two options:

            • Grow your transcription business and add a few other VA services. I would recommend this if it's something you really like. I have worked with VA's who started out charging $15 per hour and are now charging up to $30 per hour.
            • Concentrate on your book mark business. Danielle and Kay have given you excellent advice. There are free autoresponder services, or paid services which allow you a certain number of subscribers before they charge. You can also market this business off line which probably be a lot more effective than what you're doing online right now.
            Good luck,
            Merlyn
            Thanks Merlyn!

            I stopped marketing heavily because the niche didn't seem to be getting that many searches anymore as far as people looking for information on getting started doing general transcription. But if the need for transcriptionists hasn't dried up, maybe I should look at that niche again. :rolleyes:

            Now, I wouldn't mind adding clients to my transcription service until I get the bookmarks business built up more. I hate doing it, but according to one of my long-time clients (who's really dreading the day I retire from it completely), I'm too good at it to discount it as a source of income. But managing a crew of other typists isn't up my alley. I did it; hated it even more than doing the transcription myself! ROFLMA

            I did lose a couple of clients when the economy bottomed out and one other client when I raised my rates (you'll have this), but yes, I still do transcription an another income stream.

            As for other VA services in the bucket, it depends on what pops up. Like housecleaners that "don't do windows," I don't do phones , so customer service is out. But I know Excel pretty well as far as setting up stuff and I used to have a client I did some basic VISIO stuff for as well. I pretty much started downsizing my VA services a while back when my other website started making some money.

            So I guess I should put up a new page on my transcription website to include transcription services for marketers, huh? I also know PowerPoint pretty well.
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    • Profile picture of the author Kay King
      Girl - you need a wakeup call.

      Yes, that a good list of "what you can do" - but so what? There are 2 dozen types of juice drinks in the grocery - but I don't buy them all. I don't drink them all. I don't like them all.

      I look at the list you posted - and I only do about 5 of those things. I ignore the rest of them. Why are you jumping to the next thing or what others are doing - instead of doing your OWN thing?

      Define what you do well - where you interests lie - and stick with those particular areas. It doesn't matter what someone else does - it doesn't matter how someone else tells you to do it.

      BEAR WITH ME - You had an excellent idea with your hockey sticks site and you've obviously worked on the site. But it needs work - it needs design - it needs writing tightened and better organized - it needs TLC but has good potential. Here are some points to consider:

      1. It's a popular niche - kids and adults love hockey - hockey equipment costs a LOT of money and is outgrown every season

      2. You were worried about using hyphens - that doesn't matter at all. Yes, "someone" has the un-hyphened version - but they have a crap site on it so no competition for you.

      3. You can use that ONE domain name and add sub-domains to cover hockey safety pads, helmets, anti-concussive headgear, jerseys, gloves, practice goals. You can pay for one domain at $10 per year and have a half dozen sub-domains that all get visitors.

      4. The articles on the site have some good, relevant information - BUT you have mixed giving info on the subject with SEO importance and writing for keywords - and the results are not easy to read. Write for the sports niche - not for the IM niche.

      5. Streamline your writing and tighten it up. On the mentioned above you have sentences that go on and on. One I noticed has 64 words in it! Over 20 of those words were 3 letters or less. That's fluff and rambling - outline your posts to cover the specific points and then connect those points with other words. Keep sentences sharply focused and easy to read.

      6. Use bullet points when you have a list of "what you need" - makes it easier to read and looks better, too. Justify your right margin to make the site look smooth and professional and add more white space so it doesn't look crowded.

      I'd get rid of the dates on this blog - what's the point? Dates mean the blog looks "old" if you stop posting. This particular site is one you can optimize and let it run - adding some new products on occasion. Get rid of "rank my blog" and the ad for business cards.

      You have all the tools in place you need to make this one site a good money site. The errors are small and easily corrected. This is not only an evergreen niche - it's a growing niche.

      Consider a plan that is simple and doable - for example:

      For $45 each month:

      Pay for a reseller hosting acct at HG
      Buy 2 domains per month
      Build those new sites

      At the end of one year you could have 24 niche sites all making money and if using evergreen topics, those 24 sites will need only occasional updating and some linking/writing to keep them profitable.

      Focus your attention on the design/readability/monetization of the sites you are building and keep the "writing for keyword phrases" on the back burner. Keep the first person writing but TALK to your visitor instead of talking AT him. Be clear, concise, and focused on the topic.

      You can do this - but you have to stop following what everyone else is talking about or trying. You know more than you realize and all you need is the basic knowledge you have. Put on blinders and put in earplugs if you have to - don't let shiny trinkets keep taking you off track.

      I hope this makes sense to you - this is stream of consciousness writing but damn, girl, you need a wakeup call. You can do this - but look at YOUR stuff and forget what "others" are talking about. Truth is, many of the things talked about here as "methods" are suggested by those who don't have the basics skills YOU have.

      kay
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      • Profile picture of the author ksmusselman
        Originally Posted by Kay King View Post


        BEAR WITH ME - You had an excellent idea with your hockey sticks site and you've obviously worked on the site. But it needs work - it needs design - it needs writing tightened and better organized - it needs TLC but has good potential. Here are some points to consider:

        1. It's a popular niche - kids and adults love hockey - hockey equipment costs a LOT of money and is outgrown every season ...
        Would you like to buy it? Seriously, the hockey site wasn't even supposed to be my site. I really don't know anything about hockey other than when I used to watch my son play what feels like a lifetime ago (he's 30). This was supposed to be HIS site but I ended up with it and I really don't have the intention of keeping it long enough to build it out that far.

        Originally Posted by Kay King View Post


        Focus your attention on the design/readability/monetization of the sites you are building and keep the "writing for keyword phrases" on the back burner. Keep the first person writing but TALK to your visitor instead of talking AT him. Be clear, concise, and focused on the topic.
        This is what I tried to do with my bookmarks site.

        Originally Posted by Kay King View Post

        You can do this - but you have to stop following what everyone else is talking about or trying. You know more than you realize and all you need is the basic knowledge you have. Put on blinders and put in earplugs if you have to - don't let shiny trinkets keep taking you off track.

        I hope this makes sense to you - this is stream of consciousness writing but damn, girl, you need a wakeup call. You can do this - but look at YOUR stuff and forget what "others" are talking about. Truth is, many of the things talked about here as "methods" are suggested by those who don't have the basics skills YOU have.

        kay
        Thank you for your vote of encouragement!
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    • Profile picture of the author stevenfabian
      Originally Posted by travlinguy View Post

      There's an old saying that goes, pick a horse and ride that horse. Sounds like you've got too much going on. You mention that you have some articles you could rewrite and offer as PLR. That's an excellent business model. There are kids who come to this forum and within a month are doing just that profitably.

      Why not you? You say you have a bunch of sites. Create your PLR article packs and place them on one of your sites. Put a link in your sig that points to your offer. Sell enough to get some money to offer them here. There are a couple of places you can do that. Continue writing fresh new material every day and put together more PLR article packs and offer them.

      Stay focused. While you do this forget everything else. Ride the PRL article horse. Simple.
      Excellent advice in my opinion. There's this syndrome that people always chase the latest and greatest stuff instead of just committing to one thing and sticking with it. While it may not be such a big problem in the initial stage, after two years you should definitely pick ONE thing and RUN with it.

      It doesn't necessarily have to be PLR and selling that, but you mentioned you managed to earn 150 per month with a site you sold. I think nothing can stop you from duplicating that again and the best part is that this time it won't take you nowhere near that long, since you're already familiar with the process.

      Whatever you do, just don't quit. Remember the saying: It's darkest before dawn. If you don't quit, you'll be one step closer to freedom (or whatever it is you want). If you quite, that's all... Game over.

      I hope that helps,
      Edward
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  • Profile picture of the author ARVolund
    Stop chasing butterflies.......

    Stop paying monthly payments on any tools until you are making a profit. While some of them will help you be more productive you do not need them. There are a lot of tools out there that are free or available for a one time fee.

    Stop joining programs.......There is way too much free info out there to keep spending money you do not have on programs .


    Pick a couple of the sites you now have and start improving them until they are making some money, move onto the next ones until you have gone through all of them.

    Then go back to the beginning and start again. See how many ways you can monetize each site to maximize what you already have.

    Once you think you have all your sites making as much money as possible you can either keep them or sell them and move onto the next project. Figure out how many sites you can manage without losing your mind and build to that number. Once you reach it you look at your sites and sell the bottom 25% and replace them with sites that you think will make more. Do this every few months and your average income per site will gradually increase without adding to your workload.
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  • Profile picture of the author ReachOneMedia
    Looks like you are buying a lot of shovel to try to find the gold...

    Concentrate on one of your many shovel and start digging then when you find gold stop digging further and just make the hole wider and wider.

    Simple!

    J
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  • Profile picture of the author joeho
    calm down, what you need now is to focus on the one thing that make you money.
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  • Profile picture of the author steveduval
    Originally Posted by ksmusselman View Post

    • article marketing
    • affiliate marketing
    • seo optimization
    • link building
    • social media
    • yahoo buzz
    • facebook
    • twitter
    • opt-ins
    • autoresponders
    • clickbank
    • amazon
    • blogs
    • content websites
    • one-page sites
    • authority sites

    WTF? :confused:

    Maybe I'm too old to figure out all this stuff... you know, like you can't teach an old dog new tricks?

    I just haven't been able to get ANYTHING going with ANY of my sites! It took me almost two years just to get my old site up to $150/month so I could sell it for a mortgage payment and get rid of the hosting fees that I couldn't afford anymore.

    What gives??

    Every new thing I try I'm hearing, "This is the last thing you'll ever have to do..." Right. Months later...nothing. I'm so tired. And I absolutely cannot afford to keep buying this and buying that, subscribing to this and subscribing to that. My disability check just won't go that far after paying the mortgage!

    The last thing I bought was Bring the Fresh. Great program! Not one sale yet, months later. But I can't afford the Full Disclosure, can't afford to invest in the link juicer, don't have the money to keep buying up domain names, etc. So while I did learn some new stuff about Market Samurai (the free version) and Clickbank, I'm still not making any sales because I can't afford to take anything I've learned to the next level. I have no cash for all of these monthly subscriptions at $17/mo here, $37/mo there, it's just not happening.

    We (husband & me; both on disability) pay for one monthly hosting fee that allows us unlimited domain names, but I can't afford to keep buying domain names!

    Maybe I'm just one lousy Internet marketer when it comes to trying to do all of this by myself with the free stuff because I simply do not have the cash to keep investing in this or that to take anything to the next level. And I can't afford to pay anyone to do it for me either because that would just be another payment.

    I've thought of rewriting and repackaging all of my articles into PLR packages, but then I'd have to find a FREE way to market those too and nothing free has worked for me yet, so why would that?

    Maybe I need some kind of a schedule or step-by-step plan on "how" to use all of the genuine FREE tools to make "something" work.

    Meanwhile, my primary site (bookmarks) is slipping in Alexa rank and traffic, and Google even zero'd out my PR2 rank on all of my most visited pages! What's up with that??

    I'm just really blown away by everything right now and my frustration level's getting beyond control.

    Anyway, that's it. Thanks for letting me vent. :-/

    (As an aside, I even keep 15 ads fresh on craigslist for my bookmarks, I have an ad on eBay's free classifieds that I keep renewed and my husband posts flyers around our area; and I check craigslist gigs every day in every major US city... )
    It sounds like to me you are information overload, to many thing going on.
    My advise would be to work on the site that's making you $150 a month, forget about everything else and just work on that.

    You don't say if you have a list, building your a list is where your income will come from. One of the ways that I use to build my list is through a blog and it's FREE. I write an article and post it to one of my blogs and the free directories, this brings in a good amount of opt-ins. Write articles on what you have been doing the points and the bad points.

    Whatever you do Don't Give Up, all your work will be for nothing.
    Take a time out, then come back and forget about all the next best things out there.
    You Can Do It.

    To Your SUCCESS

    Steve
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    Read the rules - affiliate template sites not allowed.

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    • Profile picture of the author derek55
      Originally Posted by steveduval View Post

      It sounds like to me you are information overload, to many thing going on.
      My advise would be to work on the site that's making you $150 a month, forget about everything else and just work on that.

      You don't say if you have a list, building your a list is where your income will come from. One of the ways that I use to build my list is through a blog and it's FREE. I write an article and post it to one of my blogs and the free directories, this brings in a good amount of opt-ins. Write articles on what you have been doing the points and the bad points.

      Whatever you do Don't Give Up, all your work will be for nothing.
      Take a time out, then come back and forget about all the next best things out there.
      You Can Do It.

      To Your SUCCESS

      Steve

      i agree with u steve
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  • Profile picture of the author VanessaB
    Originally Posted by ksmusselman View Post

    • article marketing
    • affiliate marketing
    • seo optimization
    • link building
    • social media
    • yahoo buzz
    • facebook
    • twitter
    • opt-ins
    • autoresponders
    • clickbank
    • amazon
    • blogs
    • content websites
    • one-page sites
    • authority sites

    WTF? :confused:

    Maybe I'm too old to figure out all this stuff... you know, like you can't teach an old dog new tricks?

    I just haven't been able to get ANYTHING going with ANY of my sites! It took me almost two years just to get my old site up to $150/month so I could sell it for a mortgage payment and get rid of the hosting fees that I couldn't afford anymore.

    What gives??

    Every new thing I try I'm hearing, "This is the last thing you'll ever have to do..." Right. Months later...nothing. I'm so tired. And I absolutely cannot afford to keep buying this and buying that, subscribing to this and subscribing to that. My disability check just won't go that far after paying the mortgage!

    The last thing I bought was Bring the Fresh. Great program! Not one sale yet, months later. But I can't afford the Full Disclosure, can't afford to invest in the link juicer, don't have the money to keep buying up domain names, etc. So while I did learn some new stuff about Market Samurai (the free version) and Clickbank, I'm still not making any sales because I can't afford to take anything I've learned to the next level. I have no cash for all of these monthly subscriptions at $17/mo here, $37/mo there, it's just not happening.

    We (husband & me; both on disability) pay for one monthly hosting fee that allows us unlimited domain names, but I can't afford to keep buying domain names!

    Maybe I'm just one lousy Internet marketer when it comes to trying to do all of this by myself with the free stuff because I simply do not have the cash to keep investing in this or that to take anything to the next level. And I can't afford to pay anyone to do it for me either because that would just be another payment.

    I've thought of rewriting and repackaging all of my articles into PLR packages, but then I'd have to find a FREE way to market those too and nothing free has worked for me yet, so why would that?

    Maybe I need some kind of a schedule or step-by-step plan on "how" to use all of the genuine FREE tools to make "something" work.

    Meanwhile, my primary site (bookmarks) is slipping in Alexa rank and traffic, and Google even zero'd out my PR2 rank on all of my most visited pages! What's up with that??

    I'm just really blown away by everything right now and my frustration level's getting beyond control.

    Anyway, that's it. Thanks for letting me vent. :-/

    (As an aside, I even keep 15 ads fresh on craigslist for my bookmarks, I have an ad on eBay's free classifieds that I keep renewed and my husband posts flyers around our area; and I check craigslist gigs every day in every major US city... )
    THE #1 Thing I See Wrong Here:

    The last thing I bought was Bring the Fresh. Great program! Not one sale yet, months later. But I can't afford the Full Disclosure, can't afford to invest in the link juicer, don't have the money to keep buying up domain names, etc. So while I did learn some new stuff about Market Samurai (the free version) and Clickbank, I'm still not making any sales because I can't afford to take anything I've learned to the next level. I have no cash for all of these monthly subscriptions at $17/mo here, $37/mo there, it's just not happening.
    Maybe I need some kind of a schedule or step-by-step plan on "how" to use all of the genuine FREE tools to make "something" work
    Forgive my bluntness... but you're paying for things to teach you how to do things for FREE....? Do you not see the 'disconnect' there?

    Instead of spending money to learn how to not spend money, spend the money advertising to sell what you've already got!

    STOP investing in things that are supposed to teach you how to do sh*t for NOTHING... that's a MYTH. You can START in this business, with and for no money, but you are not gonna GROW that way.

    Where can you sell your PLR? Right here on WF.

    That $17 and $37 your spending on memberships... spend $20 on a classified ad to sell your PLR... spend $37 on a War Room Membership...

    Turn your articles into MP3's and videos... spend $40.00 on a WSO and sell them in the WSO section.

    Put a link in your sig...

    Spend your money on an AUTO responder, collect contact info from your buyers on the download page so you can mail them new offers BEFORE paying to post a classified or WSO... so you can email them affiliate offers.

    Spend $3.99 on Warrior Plus and sell WSO's an 'affiliate', to your LIST....

    You're going to have to spend money... spend it on ADVERTISING to sell what you have to sell! Ad placements and auto responders.

    But for God's sake, please, stop spending money on information on how to do everything with no money.

    Spend the money on an AD... make a small profit, reinvest some of it. THAT is BUSINESS.

    -Dani
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    • Profile picture of the author Kay King
      I think this may be my "problem..." IM ADHD.
      No! I'm virtually slapping you upside the head at the moment - feel it?:p

      Got a problem? Deal with it - go over it or around it or put in a drawer and forget about it. If you need to build profitable sites and earn an income - you can't afford excuses.

      Excuses make you say "I can't" or "I'm not good enough" - they make you weak when you need strength. IF you are ADHD, work with the problem and find ways to outsmart yourself to keep going. The alternative is to sit whining and do nothing - you are more than that.

      kay
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      • Profile picture of the author VanessaB
        Originally Posted by Kay King View Post

        No! I'm virtually slapping you upside the head at the moment - feel it?:p

        Got a problem? Deal with it - go over it or around it or put in a drawer and forget about it. If you need to build profitable sites and earn an income - you can't afford excuses.

        Excuses make you say "I can't" or "I'm not good enough" - they make you weak when you need strength. IF you are ADHD, work with the problem and find ways to outsmart yourself to keep going. The alternative is to sit whining and do nothing - you are more than that.

        kay

        YEAH! What Kay said!
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  • Profile picture of the author ok123
    Well, the best solution to do is to have separate money accounts for your IM endeavors and other things in life. And i do not mean actual money accounts but maintaining a separate notebook or record of some sort.

    Then you need to ensure that the net total of the outgoing money ( money you spend on WSO's, tools, hosting, domain buys and other such expenditure ) and incoming money ( money you earn from IM ) is always positive.

    So, how do you do that. One of the suggestions given above is selling PLR.
    I find that the easiest money to balance your IM spends can come from Fiverr gigs and other outsourcing sites like odesk and freelance.

    Once you have this regular income, pick one method e.g. take amazon affiliate marketing or clickbank affiliate marketing. Spend the next three months on one method only.

    As you have said, you have ADHD, it is difficult to focus on one thing. Remember, one benefit of having ADHD is having HYPERFOCUS also. So channelize that energy and focus on one method.

    I bet you will have your own success thread in six months.
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  • Profile picture of the author palmer9999
    Hello, I feel your pain. A lot of IMers are making $$$ well so they say but in reality they are not! What I would say to you. how do intend on making more money buy buying more domains?? You should really have just bought one domain worked on that for about a month or 2, then if you started making money from it, move on to the next domain or work even harder.

    I think its pointless buying and buying and buying domain names. Your probably barely making enough to cover the re-registration costs! Let them go if they are not making money and keep the ones that are.

    Also get a job! Sorry not to be mean or anything but you are doing it the wrong way.
    You work and do IM on the side until you are making enough money to leave your job and continue IMing... If you have been doing this for 2 years and have had such little success its time to seriously have a think about what you are doing wrong.

    In 5 years time will you be posting here going "Still frustrated"

    I don't mean to sound rude by any means, I am just saying it as it is.
    I wish you good luck as well.
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    • Profile picture of the author ksmusselman
      Originally Posted by palmer9999 View Post

      Hello, I feel your pain. A lot of IMers are making $$$ well so they say but in reality they are not! What I would say to you. how do intend on making more money buy buying more domains?? You should really have just bought one domain worked on that for about a month or 2, then if you started making money from it, move on to the next domain or work even harder.

      I think its pointless buying and buying and buying domain names. Your probably barely making enough to cover the re-registration costs! Let them go if they are not making money and keep the ones that are.
      No, fortunately I haven't bought a bunch of domains, thank goodness. Whew! And my primary domain/website I've been working on for over a year now. The others I've been working on for almost six months each.

      Originally Posted by palmer9999 View Post

      Also get a job!
      That's not an option unless I work from home. I'm on permanent disability; i.e., "unemployable" by any "traditional" standards, so I have to work from home or not work at all.

      Originally Posted by palmer9999 View Post

      Sorry not to be mean or anything but you are doing it the wrong way.

      You work and do IM on the side until you are making enough money to leave your job and continue IMing...
      I've been doing general transcription from home for the last five years so yes, I have been working while doing "IM" on the side. Unfortunately, my transcription business and my husband's business both took real bad hits during the last economic crash and neither has recovered, as has happened to quite a bit of people (explosion of mortgage foreclosures, bankruptcies, etc.).

      Originally Posted by palmer9999 View Post

      If you have been doing this for 2 years and have had such little success its time to seriously have a think about what you are doing wrong.
      Which is why I posted here!
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    • Profile picture of the author MerlynSanchez
      She can't get a job; she's on disability.


      Originally Posted by palmer9999 View Post

      Hello, I feel your pain. A lot of IMers are making $$$ well so they say but in reality they are not! What I would say to you. how do intend on making more money buy buying more domains?? You should really have just bought one domain worked on that for about a month or 2, then if you started making money from it, move on to the next domain or work even harder.

      I think its pointless buying and buying and buying domain names. Your probably barely making enough to cover the re-registration costs! Let them go if they are not making money and keep the ones that are.

      Also get a job! Sorry not to be mean or anything but you are doing it the wrong way.
      You work and do IM on the side until you are making enough money to leave your job and continue IMing... If you have been doing this for 2 years and have had such little success its time to seriously have a think about what you are doing wrong.

      In 5 years time will you be posting here going "Still frustrated"

      I don't mean to sound rude by any means, I am just saying it as it is.
      I wish you good luck as well.
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  • Profile picture of the author rhodah
    focus,focus,focus!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    base on what you said,it seems to me that the only problem you have to fight with.is lack of focus. to succeed in any thing you are doing you just have to be focus.atleast you've been making money online all you need do is to be focused,and be disciplined do not just jump on an offer anyhow
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  • Profile picture of the author coach
    So many people here are in the same place.

    Thank you for the courage to speak up.

    First, let me say what no one here will say, not everyone is cut out for this business.

    You may not be.

    It's okay.

    There's something that WILL work for you.

    Consider taking the Kolbe.com assessment. It's costs a little money but well worth it.

    That said, it sounds like you've been exposed to the popular "IM" teachings.

    You should know that the popular teachings are not decided to create independent entrepreneurs but dependent masses who will buy the next thing. What the business opportunity market needs is people with a day job and a dream. Now that the economy is stressing the day job-ers, what you teach has actually got to make people money or they stop buying.

    ---
    Observations
    ---

    Here are a few things to consider:

    (1) Immediately create a new gmail account to use for subscriptions.

    Keep marketers OUT of your personal email.

    Marketers are masters at creating dis-satisfaction.

    If you listen to 99% of "gurus" in the space, you will constantly feel off center, like there is something else you need.

    If you're subscribed to hundreds of newsletters through your current email, set up a new email address for personal use. Make the current your subscriptions and monitoring email address. Only look at this email address once a week.

    Get the gurus OUT of your personal inbox.

    (2) Get a REAL coach.

    Most marketers are NOT effective coaches.

    They CAN tell you the mechanics they have used. That's what they're good for, showing you the mechanics of what they've done to make money. Helping you do it in your own business and life is a completely different skill.

    Coaching is NOT a membership site or mastermind group, its NOT a monthly or weekly call, its a process of unlocking and developing people. (I buy everything and I can tell you that most of what passes as coaching is messing people up.)

    Coaching is a calling. It's something you're SENT to do. Most are NOT sent, they just went. Some of you reading this will appreciate the reference.)

    This is important: the vast majority of marketers don't teach you what they ACTUALLY do, and when they do teach it, there are holes that the average person can't fill in. It's these holes, and not explaining things in a step-by-step way people can follow that keeps people stuck and frustrated.

    For example, I've run what people here call an "offline" agency since 1998. There are only 3 to 5 real secrets in the "offline" business. It took me a decade of frustrating trial and mostly error, and thousands of conversations with business people to it figure out. You will NEVER see what I know as a WSO - NEVER. Like all masters, I'll pass it to my children and a few select proteges who value me and what I know enough to invest their lives learning with me.

    The only consistent GURU SECRET is "pick a niche, create your own products, partner with other gurus in your marketplace, everyone builds a list, sell each others stuff to the masses/outsiders."

    But this is not guru bashing, I is one.

    (3) Techniques are NOT a business.

    Most of what people teach is an isolated technique they've used to make money. Nothing wrong with this. And, the trouble with techniques is that they stop working.

    Focus on the fundamentals that never fail, build a real business --- or get a day job and continue to dream.

    (4) "What am I passionate about?"

    There are a LOT of people earning a good living online.

    The ONE thing they all have in common is PASSION.

    They are irrational, and on some days insane in their position.

    You've gotta ask yourself, what will you CUSS someone out to defend.

    Hint, it ain't adsense income.

    What are you passionate about?

    Focus on that topic.

    Evangelize the world.

    (5) Upset some people.

    People who spend money in your niche are looking for leadership.

    To be heard, you must take a position.

    Taking a position will create a polarizing effect in the market: some will love you, a lot of others will hate you.

    It's the nature of being a "public figure" in your market.

    P.S. I love my haters - they fuel me. In fact, if they knew me better, they would hate me more :-)

    (6) Use a platform that's non-designer dependent.

    This is why I use and recommend WordPress. You can do 90% of what you want to do without relying on outside help.

    (7) Create consistent content.

    The key to this find your preferred content creation platform. For example, I can write, but the platform that works for me is video (I have the videos transcribed).

    What works for you?

    (8) Decide how you'll monetize your content.

    Create your own products.

    Sell other peoples products.

    Play the publisher money game. (ads, cpa, etc.) - you need to be organized with great project management skills for this

    Lead generate and sell offline.

    etc.

    (9) Build a list of FANS.

    Notice I said "fans," versus subscribers.

    I have tens of thousands of free subscribers.

    The only people who open and respond (read "buy") to my email are my fans.

    Google "Kevin Kelly 1,000 True Fans." A useful read.

    (10) Tell your fans that buying what you recommend, and through you, is a way to "thank you."

    This was a turning point in my email marketing.

    I explained the value of the research, training and coaching. Then gave my members choices, for active people, pay membership to get everything plus the stuff for members only or for the hobbyist, buy what I recommend to "thank me."

    80% of my fans will only buy through me, regardless of the bonuses offered by others.

    (11) Map out what you will communicate and recommend over the next 9 months.

    Then, stay on plan regardless of the new thing that come up.

    Whatever market you're in, start with the basics or beginner content. Teach a solid foundation then teach the leverage points in the business. Explain everything on a eighth-grade level. Almost no one teaches this way. When you do, you'll develop a super loyal following.

    (12) Make a $1.

    The idea here is to start where you are and focus 80% of your time making money versus learning about making money. You already know more than 99% of the population.

    For example, know how to set up a Wordpress blog. Find a niche, create or license a video and sell it to them. I just did this in a weird market, I sold a gazallion of a private label video at $39 a pop. People in the market are raving about it... most here are trying to sell the same series on TradeBit for $2.97.

    I hope this helps.
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  • Profile picture of the author kb24
    I don't know if this will help since you have gotten alot of advice here. But there is a step by step guide out there called the newbie workbook.. its a guide that will show you what to do for 30 days its mapped out for you.. so you can't get confused..
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    • Profile picture of the author ksmusselman
      Originally Posted by kb24 View Post

      I don't know if this will help since you have gotten alot of advice here. But there is a step by step guide out there called the newbie workbook.. its a guide that will show you what to do for 30 days its mapped out for you.. so you can't get confused..
      I'll see if I can find that. Thanks!
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      • Profile picture of the author ksmusselman
        I just want to thank EVERYONE for all of their help and suggestions and ideas and encouragement.

        I stepped back, took a breath (after using my inhaler ROFL), and regrouped.

        I really do believe I can make this bookmarks business work. I get so many compliments on it and I'm always monitoring my competition, so I just need to STAY FOCUSED on that one area a while until it is where I need it to be and stop being so impatient.

        Time just seems to be going by so fast and where I think I've spent enough time on one thing to make it work, I really may not have spent anywhere near the amount of time I need to.

        Sooooo.... my plan of attack, my new schedule, using the skills I have on hand, which are all free, should drive interest and traffic and produce sales if done consistently.

        This is what I came up with. Basic, simple, and from what I've read, makes sense and it works:
        Monday: Blog commenting
        Tuesday: Write a new article or blog post
        Wednesday: Distribute the new article/blog post
        Thursday: Directory listings
        Friday: Work on new videos and/or a new ebook
        Saturday - Sunday: Days off
        Rinse and repeat.

        And since I have a variety of themes, I can choose a variety of blogs; for instance, wedding favors, baby showers, bridal showers, different types of parties, etc.

        And I would think back links should come just by keeping myself out there, right?
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        • Profile picture of the author Mark Andrews
          Banned
          Send me an email, address below and I'll help to sort you out.

          The offer is there.

          Will you take the action?...

          It's a simple step, just an email. And nothing to sell you. I won't even try. I promise.

          What you will receive is just the facts to move you from point A/ to point B/.

          One very simple step each day, one step at a time.

          See you soon...
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          • Profile picture of the author ksmusselman
            Originally Posted by Pete Walker View Post

            Send me an email, address below and I'll help to sort you out.

            The offer is there.

            Will you take the action?...

            It's a simple step, just an email. And nothing to sell you. I won't even try. I promise.

            What you will receive is just the facts to move you from point A/ to point B/.

            One very simple step each day, one step at a time.

            See you soon...
            Baby steps. Email sent.
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            • Profile picture of the author Mark Andrews
              Banned
              Originally Posted by ksmusselman View Post

              Baby steps. Email sent.
              Nothing arrived yet, just checked the spam folder too, nothing in there either.

              Would you like to resend?

              Kindest regards,


              Pete
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              • Profile picture of the author ksmusselman
                Originally Posted by Pete Walker View Post

                Nothing arrived yet, just checked the spam folder too, nothing in there either.

                Would you like to resend?

                SmokingHotCopy@gmail.com

                Kindest regards,


                Pete
                Just resent.
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                • Profile picture of the author Mark Andrews
                  Banned
                  Originally Posted by ksmusselman View Post

                  Just resent.
                  Arrived safely.

                  Just replied.

                  As I said I'm just taking an hours break after which I'll be right with you.

                  Best,


                  Pete
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        • Profile picture of the author VanessaB
          Originally Posted by ksmusselman View Post

          I just want to thank EVERYONE for all of their help and suggestions and ideas and encouragement.

          I stepped back, took a breath (after using my inhaler ROFL), and regrouped.

          I really do believe I can make this bookmarks business work. I get so many compliments on it and I'm always monitoring my competition, so I just need to STAY FOCUSED on that one area a while until it is where I need it to be and stop being so impatient.

          Time just seems to be going by so fast and where I think I've spent enough time on one thing to make it work, I really may not have spent anywhere near the amount of time I need to.

          Sooooo.... my plan of attack, my new schedule, using the skills I have on hand, which are all free, should drive interest and traffic and produce sales if done consistently.

          This is what I came up with. Basic, simple, and from what I've read, makes sense and it works:
          Monday: Blog commenting
          Tuesday: Write a new article or blog post
          Wednesday: Distribute the new article/blog post
          Thursday: Directory listings
          Friday: Work on new videos and/or a new ebook
          Saturday - Sunday: Days off
          Rinse and repeat.

          And since I have a variety of themes, I can choose a variety of blogs; for instance, wedding favors, baby showers, bridal showers, different types of parties, etc.

          And I would think back links should come just by keeping myself out there, right?
          So,
          • Still relying on 'free' traffic generation strategies that offer only short term bursts of traffic, with...
          • Still no optin on the page, to collect data and sell product and cross promote on the back end...
          • Still no mention of a decision to stop paying for memberships to pay for that autoresponder and/or a targeted ad?
          This thread should be stickied as "why people charge money for information.'

          -Dani
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          • Profile picture of the author ksmusselman
            Originally Posted by DanielleS View Post

            So,
            • Still relying on 'free' traffic generation strategies that offer only short term bursts of traffic, with...
            • Still no optin on the page, to collect data and sell product and cross promote on the back end...
            • Still no mention of a decision to stop paying for memberships to pay for that autoresponder and/or a targeted ad?
            This thread should be stickied as "why people charge money for information.'

            -Dani
            I'm confused with this post.

            • Yes, I do have to rely on free traffic generation strategies.
            • Yes, I do have an opt-in page on my site and my blog. If people would sign up then I could offer them deals on my other bookmarks for other occasions than what they originally purchased them for.
            • No, I'm not paying for any memberships right now at all except for my hosting, so why would I want to make a decision to stop paying for something that I'm not paying for in the first place?
            • And no, I'm not paying for an autoresponder right now because no, I can't afford it.
            ???
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            • Profile picture of the author ShayB
              Originally Posted by ksmusselman View Post

              • And no, I'm not paying for an autoresponder right now because no, I can't afford it.
              If you go with GetResponse.com, they do have a free option. (I think you can have up to 100 subscribers for free.)

              It's what I started with.

              Hope that helps.
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              • Profile picture of the author ksmusselman
                Originally Posted by ShayRockhold View Post

                If you go with GetResponse.com, they do have a free option. (I think you can have up to 100 subscribers for free.)

                It's what I started with.

                Hope that helps.
                Yup! That's who I have. I just sent out an introductory newsletter the other day to my customers as a reminder that there are other ways to use bookmarks besides just for favors. And I directed them to the free, uncustomized, generic ones I have that can be downloaded and printed out.
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              • Profile picture of the author scrofford
                Originally Posted by ShayRockhold View Post

                If you go with GetResponse.com, they do have a free option. (I think you can have up to 100 subscribers for free.)

                It's what I started with.

                Hope that helps.
                Listwire also offers a free autoresponder.
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            • Profile picture of the author VanessaB
              Originally Posted by ksmusselman View Post

              I'm confused with this post.

              • Yes, I do have to rely on free traffic generation strategies.
              • Yes, I do have an opt-in page on my site and my blog. If people would sign up then I could offer them deals on my other bookmarks for other occasions than what they originally purchased them for.
              • No, I'm not paying for any memberships right now at all except for my hosting, so why would I want to make a decision to stop paying for something that I'm not paying for in the first place?
              • And no, I'm not paying for an autoresponder right now because no, I can't afford it.
              ???

              "I can't".... needs to change to... 'how can I?'

              That is a MINDSET problem....

              Several people, and myself, have already told you...

              SELL PLR packs... I even told you where, how and how much it would cost.

              Sell the service of building websites for OTHER people...

              Offer a writing service...

              Pick one and do it to sell enough to make the money to PAY for an autoresponder and pay for advertising instead of screwing around with the wrong tactics, used in the wrong, which have already proven not to work with what you're trying to do.

              I looked at your bookmarks blog and didn't see an optin, so sorry if I missed that... and since I didn't see it, I don't know what it is, so I can't comment on whether or not it's even a good one because Mailchipm won't let you promote affiliate products and there's another mindset problem...

              You think the autoresponder is only to try and sell more of your bookmarks, instead of thinking about selling that market OTHER THINGS they might be interested in as well as or besides bookmarks...

              -Dani
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  • Profile picture of the author EvcRo
    My rules

    - never buy information, every piece of it can be get for free, no exceptions.
    - buy services after testing method on my own time expense
    - buy softwares
    - buy workforce only after i tested on my own time the methods.
    - test very small scale every method before throwing money at it.

    I think its a good safety net.
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  • Profile picture of the author shaunyb1
    Originally Posted by ksmusselman View Post

    • article marketing
    • affiliate marketing
    • seo optimization
    • link building
    • social media
    • yahoo buzz
    • facebook
    • twitter
    • opt-ins
    • autoresponders
    • clickbank
    • amazon
    • blogs
    • content websites
    • one-page sites
    • authority sites

    WTF? :confused:

    Maybe I'm too old to figure out all this stuff... you know, like you can't teach an old dog new tricks?

    I just haven't been able to get ANYTHING going with ANY of my sites! It took me almost two years just to get my old site up to $150/month so I could sell it for a mortgage payment and get rid of the hosting fees that I couldn't afford anymore.

    What gives??

    Every new thing I try I'm hearing, "This is the last thing you'll ever have to do..." Right. Months later...nothing. I'm so tired. And I absolutely cannot afford to keep buying this and buying that, subscribing to this and subscribing to that. My disability check just won't go that far after paying the mortgage!

    The last thing I bought was Bring the Fresh. Great program! Not one sale yet, months later. But I can't afford the Full Disclosure, can't afford to invest in the link juicer, don't have the money to keep buying up domain names, etc. So while I did learn some new stuff about Market Samurai (the free version) and Clickbank, I'm still not making any sales because I can't afford to take anything I've learned to the next level. I have no cash for all of these monthly subscriptions at $17/mo here, $37/mo there, it's just not happening.

    We (husband & me; both on disability) pay for one monthly hosting fee that allows us unlimited domain names, but I can't afford to keep buying domain names!

    Maybe I'm just one lousy Internet marketer when it comes to trying to do all of this by myself with the free stuff because I simply do not have the cash to keep investing in this or that to take anything to the next level. And I can't afford to pay anyone to do it for me either because that would just be another payment.

    I've thought of rewriting and repackaging all of my articles into PLR packages, but then I'd have to find a FREE way to market those too and nothing free has worked for me yet, so why would that?

    Maybe I need some kind of a schedule or step-by-step plan on "how" to use all of the genuine FREE tools to make "something" work.

    Meanwhile, my primary site (bookmarks) is slipping in Alexa rank and traffic, and Google even zero'd out my PR2 rank on all of my most visited pages! What's up with that??

    I'm just really blown away by everything right now and my frustration level's getting beyond control.

    Anyway, that's it. Thanks for letting me vent. :-/

    (As an aside, I even keep 15 ads fresh on craigslist for my bookmarks, I have an ad on eBay's free classifieds that I keep renewed and my husband posts flyers around our area; and I check craigslist gigs every day in every major US city... )

    Hi..

    We've all been there... the fact you are posting about it is good. You haven't quit.
    I agree on the focus thing. Dont give up. Pick one thing or get a mentor, it could be the best thing you ever did.
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  • Profile picture of the author veenafurtado
    When you made money from one site -
    u just have to use the same principles -
    and make money from other sites.

    Y r u giving up?
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  • Profile picture of the author HigherPrThanGod
    It might be time to let the house go and go rent something much more affordable.

    There's nothing wrong with restructuring your life so you can live off of less.

    Get rid of (sale or let them come get it) any cars you're financing.

    Get a loan from a friend/family member for $2-3k for a car and pay it off in a year.

    You'll own the car free and clear in a year and not have any payments to make on it.

    Get rid of any $100+ cell phone bills and get a NET10 cell phone and use their $100 6 month plan. Yeah, I said $100 for 6 months.

    If you have a revenue problem, you have to reduce spending.
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    • Profile picture of the author ksmusselman
      Originally Posted by HigherPrThanGod View Post

      It might be time to let the house go and go rent something much more affordable.
      That is not an option. We were only one month behind and only that one time; I sold the website and that took care of that. Besides, with the rents around here, my house IS more affordable than renting!

      Originally Posted by HigherPrThanGod View Post

      There's nothing wrong with restructuring your life so you can live off of less.
      Oh, been there-done that. We restructured when my husband went out on disability, then again when I lost my job due to a disability and yet again with the economy crashed. But really, the mortgage was only a problem that one time. We've since restructured as much as we can without pretty much living in a cardboard box.

      Originally Posted by HigherPrThanGod View Post

      Get rid of (sale or let them come get it) any cars you're financing.
      Did that. We have no car payments.

      Originally Posted by HigherPrThanGod View Post

      Get rid of any $100+ cell phone bills and get a NET10 cell phone and use their $100 6 month plan. Yeah, I said $100 for 6 months.
      Did that. We even got rid of our house phones in lieu of Magic Jack so we don't even have a phone bill.

      Originally Posted by HigherPrThanGod View Post

      If you have a revenue problem, you have to reduce spending.
      Did that - do that - have been doing that. We have no credit cards, no loans, etc. What I don't have the money for is consistent spending on all these IM programs, so I need to market my business with free stuff; free autoresponders, free this, free that. The only things I will not sacrifice in the name of IM is my house, my Internet and the cheap hosting we have for our websites. Everything else is monitored and budgeted as well as anyone can do. We're pretty much old pro's at the restructuring stuff. But hell, even the best of us get hit unexpectedly, you know? Doesn't mean you have to give up everything.
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      • Profile picture of the author HigherPrThanGod
        Originally Posted by ksmusselman View Post

        That is not an option. We were only one month behind and only that one time; I sold the website and that took care of that. Besides, with the rents around here, my house IS more affordable than renting!



        Oh, been there-done that. We restructured when my husband went out on disability, then again when I lost my job due to a disability and yet again with the economy crashed. But really, the mortgage was only a problem that one time. We've since restructured as much as we can without pretty much living in a cardboard box.



        Did that. We have no car payments.


        Did that. We even got rid of our house phones in lieu of Magic Jack so we don't even have a phone bill.



        Did that - do that - have been doing that. We have no credit cards, no loans, etc. What I don't have the money for is consistent spending on all these IM programs, so I need to market my business with free stuff; free autoresponders, free this, free that. The only things I will not sacrifice in the name of IM is my house, my Internet and the cheap hosting we have for our websites. Everything else is monitored and budgeted as well as anyone can do. We're pretty much old pro's at the restructuring stuff. But hell, even the best of us get hit unexpectedly, you know? Doesn't mean you have to give up everything.
        If you've done all of that, maybe you're doing better than you realize?

        We all have bad days, weeks and months. I'm just now, this year, starting to hit my groove but that's because I think my goals are more realistic than they've been in the past.

        Some are saying you should "scale it up". One thing I would say to that is, Sometimes you've squeezed as much as you can out of a market and it might be best to move on. It may, in fact, simply not be as profitable as you'd like. Let it do it's thing, while you go into another niche, then another and then another.

        When I first got into internet/affiliate marketing I bought a lot of bad domain names. I enjoy watching them expire. Then I go and quietly register good ones. Oh and as for not being able to afford new tools - then don't buy anymore.

        When your really needing money, I always tell people to post a local ad on Craigslist with your cell phone/magic jack number and your skill. I have posted on there for computer repair/help on site and made several hundreds that way. If the dollar did not suck so bad, and gas prices were lower I might still be doing it. Just something to think about.

        Good luck
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        • Profile picture of the author ksmusselman
          Originally Posted by HigherPrThanGod View Post

          If you've done all of that, maybe you're doing better than you realize?
          Well, my husband just informed me that we really aren't too far off; the mortgage and all of the bills are paid with our SSD; we just need $ for the emergencies. You know, you make a decent sale and the car finds out? :rolleyes: Or in my case, I was just diagnosed with asthma and so now I need to pay for two extra prescriptions that are not cheap.

          Originally Posted by HigherPrThanGod View Post

          Some are saying you should "scale it up". One thing I would say to that is, Sometimes you've squeezed as much as you can out of a market and it might be best to move on.
          I was wondering about that until I got a call from a woman who said she was still waiting for her order - that she ordered from MY COMPETITOR. So I went to my competitor's site and I'm thinking, well, if SHE'S still making sales, then I need to do something more with my site so I can get HER sales.

          Originally Posted by HigherPrThanGod View Post

          When I first got into internet/affiliate marketing I bought a lot of bad domain names. I enjoy watching them expire.
          ROFLMAO!!!

          Originally Posted by HigherPrThanGod View Post

          When your really needing money, I always tell people to post a local ad on Craigslist with your cell phone/magic jack number and your skill.
          I keep 15 ads active on Craigslist at all times. I stopped posting my transcription ads on there because most of the time people just post their projects before looking for someone, so I'm on CL 2-3 times a day looking for gigs that I can do for some cash. Some days I get lucky...

          Originally Posted by HigherPrThanGod View Post

          Good luck
          Thanks!!
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    • Profile picture of the author ksmusselman
      Originally Posted by EntrepT View Post

      It's easy to get overwhelmed. Te internet is full of promises and false things that will lead you from the path of success. Narrow your vision and develop a low information diet.

      Go trap shooting for an afternoon, and take all of your frustrations out on the blue rock. You'll wonder why you hadn't done it sooner.
      I'll be heading back to the gym with aquatic exercises.
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  • Profile picture of the author ksmusselman
    Originally Posted by Chris Kent View Post

    Something also worth doing is checking your stats.

    I never even used Clickbank Analytics for years. I thought my web stats were enough

    One night I started to use it. I sorted by hops. I was blown away where most of my hops and sales were coming from even though I thought I knew from scanning my tracking IDs live.

    It showed me that one or two things I had tried were actually doing quite well. So I scaled up in those areas as much as I could and brought more money in.
    Thanks Chris - however my Clickbank sales are showing 00000000 ROFL
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    • Profile picture of the author Bob Banfield
      Some great advise from the field of experience. If you're making $150/mth you're making $150 more than most people. Just bear that in mind.

      Listen to what these great Marketers are telling you and take ACTION. Once you stay focused you'll find it gets better.

      I haven't been in IM very long and I produced my own product from learning information I got on a course. I've learned the practical side of putting together a product and where things felt daunting, like here comes a "masive learning curve", I had no choice but to stay focused. To give it 100%.

      The spin off is the confidence in your abilities you feel to be able to stay focused and get things done.

      I turned off the WSO email notification, which helped a lot in not being distracted. You can always check in anytime if you need more info.

      I've been told and I've read it's better to focus on one product and do upsells and backends to increase revenue. Make it more attractive to affiliates so they sell more for you.

      I hope this has helped and good luck in all you do.
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      • Profile picture of the author ksmusselman
        Originally Posted by Bob Banfield View Post

        Some great advise from the field of experience. If you're making $150/mth you're making $150 more than most people. Just bear that in mind.

        Listen to what these great Marketers are telling you and take ACTION. Once you stay focused you'll find it gets better.

        I haven't been in IM very long and I produced my own product from learning information I got on a course. I've learned the practical side of putting together a product and where things felt daunting, like here comes a "masive learning curve", I had no choice but to stay focused. To give it 100%.

        The spin off is the confidence in your abilities you feel to be able to stay focused and get things done.

        I turned off the WSO email notification, which helped a lot in not being distracted. You can always check in anytime if you need more info.

        I've been told and I've read it's better to focus on one product and do upsells and backends to increase revenue. Make it more attractive to affiliates so they sell more for you.

        I hope this has helped and good luck in all you do.
        Thanks Bob!

        I told my husband, on the way home from the gym this morning, that my sole focus right now is advertising my "Transcription Services for Internet Marketers" in as many places as I can because that's what's going to bring in the cash to enable me to move my bookmarks business to the next level.

        As soon as I get a couple of paying clients, I can place the listing here too. For now, I managed to get three of the "spun" ads listed on craigslist, one on eBay free classifieds and I'm hitting as many other free classifieds places as I can right now.

        And after every listing is live, I Ping it.

        Oh, and I added it to my StumbleUpon account.

        I also made the listing my static page on my blog and a prominent page on my website, it automatically Twitters every day and it's posted on Facebook.

        I've always said that transcription was one of the fastest ways I knew how to make money quickly. But I've lost sight of that over the last couple of years because I got bored with it. I've never stopped doing the corporate gigs because I can literally make a couple thousand bucks in a couple of weeks 3-4 times a year just doing transcription.

        So that's my "leverage" (as was mentioned in an earlier post). I have to bite the bullet and use the skills I'm really very good at in order to earn the cash I need to move what I really "want" to do to the next level.

        And on that note, back to listing my ads for "Transcription Services for Internet Marketers."

        Have a great day!!
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    • Profile picture of the author capitalalchemy
      Hey

      Don't get low -- you are where I have been and I understand. I neglected to look at my small successes. Do you realize that probably 90% of folks can't make $150 a month from anything online?

      Here's the mistakes that you made, and I say this openly because I made the same ones.

      1. You didn't realize how successful you were.

      2. You probably were expecting too much too soon. (You have to grow the income online and it takes a lot of work for very little in the beginning - which is why many people don't stick around in this business).

      3. You didn't take that $150 a month and reinvest it into your next venture.

      4. You let your private financial life consume your online business. You HAVE to separate them.

      5. You were making $150 a month so you knew enough, but kept buying guides and make money products, instead of buying products to do reviews on.

      6. You didn't use leverage and let your emotions consume you.

      Although everything I just said will piss you off, I know the nature of this kind of hurt and frustration more than a lot of people (trust me). You were sitting on a gold mine and you didn't even know it, you just didn't see it through, but try again and I promise that it's possible.

      If I were you, this would be very inspiring to hear
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      • Profile picture of the author ksmusselman
        Originally Posted by capitalalchemy View Post


        Although everything I just said will piss you off, I know the nature of this kind of hurt and frustration more than a lot of people (trust me). You were sitting on a gold mine and you didn't even know it, you just didn't see it through, but try again and I promise that it's possible.

        If I were you, this would be very inspiring to hear
        Nope - not pissed off at all! One other thing you need to keep going in this business is a thick skin and perseverance.
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    • Profile picture of the author gvsridhar171
      One of the finest threads I have come across in the recent times in WF. Pull out great ideas given by so many warriors and make an e-book using your own language and sell it for $17.

      Your problems will be solved no sooner you do this. This is simply amazing stuff.
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      • Profile picture of the author ksmusselman
        Originally Posted by gvsridhar171 View Post

        One of the finest threads I have come across in the recent times in WF. Pull out great ideas given by so many warriors and make an e-book using your own language and sell it for $17.

        Your problems will be solved no sooner you do this. This is simply amazing stuff.
        Now there's an idea!
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        • Profile picture of the author Nightengale
          I wasn't going to reply to this thread since it's so old. But since the OP is currently watching/responding to this thread, I guess I will.

          Clarity is a HUGE part of IM success.

          IM is actually pretty simple: you can sell only one of two things:

          1. Products
          2. Services

          That's it!

          And selling products or services online happens in the same basic way for everyone, no matter what they're selling:

          Traffic > Opt-in page > Autoresponder series (or e-zine) > Sales page

          That's it! It's just that simple. (We IMers tend to overcomplicate things.)

          But no matter what your niche is, or whether you're selling a product or a service, do you know what your business model is?

          A business model is the framework or skeleton of your business. Essentially there are three types of online business models:

          1. Membership-based model

          A membership-based business model allows you to build a community of people (your members) who are as passionate about your subject as you are. Your membership fees can be monthly or annual, but either way, you're building recurring, passive income.

          There are a lot of resources and information out there to help you build a membership-based business if you're interested in doing this.

          2. Product-based model

          Selling products allows you to maximize your time and effort by selling items over and over again. This can be hard goods or it can be information products. Information marketing is it's own business model under the product-based model. Information marketing allows you to take your brain to the bank by creating a product ONCE based on what you know and selling it over and over again.

          Affiliate marketing falls under both models. You can choose to market either products or services as an affiliate.

          3. Service-based model

          Selling services can be great for 1) generating quick cash (as in the case of article writing or video producing) and 2) establishing your expertise and getting testimonials.

          However, in the long run, your goal should be to offer services at a PREMIUM. The biggest advantage of IM is LEVERAGE. You're able to leverage your time, money and expertise exponentially online. We all have just 24 hours each day. Time to get ruthless about what you expect for those hours you spend in IM each day. Expect more of yourself and more from your business friends, clients, partners, etc.

          What results are you getting for those hours you spend online each day? Ultimately, your services should be at the bottom of your funnel and cost the most since they involve your time and personal attention. (We all have a limited amount of time each day.)

          The fun (and confusion) comes in with all of the endless mix-and-match possibilities of the above models. If you're just starting or still struggling to make money, keep it simple:

          Pick just ONE!

          1. Pick ONE niche. (Something you're interested in and know something about.)

          2. Pick ONE target market for your product or service. (Who will buy what you're offering? The more specific you are, the more you narrow it down, the more successful you'll be.)

          3. Pick ONE business model.

          Now that you're clear about what business you're in, FOCUS! (And stop buying any info not related to your niche and target market, period!)

          F -- Follow
          O -- One
          C -- Course
          U -- Until
          S -- Successful

          And remember: build a list, Build a List, BUILD A LIST!

          In IM, it's easy to put the cart before the horse. Take a deep breath, step back and consider what type of business you're REALLY want. Don't worry about getting traffic or buying that expensive traffic product until you know 1) what your business model is, 2) what niche you're in and 3) WHO your target market is!

          Successful business people will tell you that MARKETING is more than half the effort that's needed for success anyway. So pick a niche, target market and business model. Then spend most of your time and effort marketing it.

          If you DON'T have a solid plan or system, THAT'S when it's hard. A good system will shave YEARS (and save you big $$$) off of your learning curve

          That's why I recommend investing in at least one good, comprehensive IM course (or mentor who will give you such a system) instead of jumping from one $37 e-book to the next. A lot of people here complain about not being able to make any money. But neither are they willing to invest in their business. (Buying a random bunch of $37 e-books doesn't count.)

          The best thing I ever did was invest in a comprehensive IM course aimed at REAL business owners, not just other IM wannabes. Yes it was $1500. (It's no longer available.) But it was truly some of the best A-Z IM info I ever bought. Everything else I've learned (from the $37 e-books) since has simply been plugged into this system.

          Get a solid plan or system and then work the plan!

          Hope this helps!

          Michelle
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    • Profile picture of the author PattC
      I agree with Trista, about the Chris Farrell Membership, yes it is $37 a month, but there is free hosting, a free ebook on setting up a website, and tons of support from other members. Well worth the price.

      I've learned things that would have taken me ages if I just Googled.
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    • Profile picture of the author luane
      I would take the interest "hockey" that you profited or whatever site it was that you sold and make another one. Then point all the free sites to it - Squidoo, Hubpages, Scribd.com, etc. and write your heart out. That won't cost you a dime. When you find a product that sells, write more articles. Articles still work and you can go to Fiverr and hire someone to spin it and send it out to hundreds of directories to save you time. I found it usually takes about a month sometimes to see results, but you will see which products sell consistently and then focus. I bought a WSO that showed that if you find one hot product that sells, you can build a business around it.

      I have done the same thing you did, and when I began to focus on the passion I loved (writing and publishing on Kindle), the money began to roll in.

      You can do this.

      You know so much more than you think you do.

      Don't give up.

      The internet is leveraging hundreds, thousands and millions of eyeballs that no one else has a clue about so they go back to a 9 to 5 job.

      Your have learned VERY valuable skills. Reward your successes mentally.

      HAVE NO FEAR and keep moving forward. When you awake and have a brilliant thought
      about that ONE niche, keep working on it. You will see results if it is a evergreen niche where people buy. Give people what they want, not what YOU think they want.

      If you stay focused, you will WIN and then be able to help others WIN too.

      That is the secret - F O C U S.

      Back to work for me - HI HO.

      I admire your "venting" and I ask for help when I need it as well. No shame there.
      You are to be commended for sticking to it this long!

      Kristie
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    • Profile picture of the author kia123guy
      Its hard to get your first sales but once you do and start to figure out what is working for you, scale it up. It took me almost a year to start making any money online and now its a vacation fund for my wife and I. Im not rich by any means but it sure does help.
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  • Profile picture of the author JeffHylands
    Many others on here have perfect answers. People who have yet to see success are open to those emails promising the next big thing. These marketers know this that's why they are getting richer. You don't need every tool out there. The tools you currently use, do you know them in and out? Do you know what they can and will do for you if your dedicated to let's say one website?

    If you and your husband work on separate websites that's fine, but you could do the work double time if you invested your time and money onto one project. Once you are getting results for that site maybe outsource a few things so it starts running on auto-pilot. Ignore all the latest tools and marketing that is in your inbox and just work. Many people spend more time researching and watching these latest marketing programs instead of working on their project. They may give you hope, but that only goes so far, I think working and making a weekly or daily schedule on what your going to do will be better for you guys.

    There are programs that have a timer on them. If you need to set hours on just working, no email reading, no facebook, ect. You will see the results you want putting all your efforts onto one thing first. Not everything succeeds but that's how you will know, your only two people no reason to be worried about my so many domains.. It'll do you no good if the other ones you paid for are not making money ether.
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  • Profile picture of the author Robert M Gouge
    If this is your main site in question,

    The Bookmarks Blog

    I think the site is very nice. However, aside from the sidebar advertisements (which I didn't even notice at first. Visitors are fairly immune these days to standard advertising) you're really not pushing much.

    Some suggestions:

    1. Put your facebook like button at the end of posts, not the beginning. Why would someone "like" something before they've had a chance to read it?

    2. Get rid of the 'Statcounter' button on the bottom of your site. I use StatCounter also and they have an invisible option. This is a traffic leak. Use the invisible counter.

    3. Focus on what you want to sell better. The first two adverts I see on the sidebar are for Coffee and Business Cards. These do not relate to the content of your blog well at all.

    4. Integrate your advertising with your blog posts. Doesn't matter if its adsense or a wedding product, use your posts to do some selling. Like I said above, visitors these days tune out most standard advertising methods. This is why I didn't even notice your advertisements at first.

    Your posts are the main show of your blog and I don't see any advertising at all in any of them.

    5. Make your blog work for you.
    Get rid of any and everything that isn't beneficial to your site in some way. Have a purpose for everything you put on there. Create content around your money makers.

    Got a newsletter? Advertise it. Make a whole page dedicated to listing the great benefits of joining your list and slap that in your navigation and mention/link to that page in your blog posts. You don't have to have a 100 page ebook to get people to join. Just highlight what the newsletter is about. Make your visitors want your emails, make the emails they will receive your "free product" to get them to signup.

    Making free content posts? Really push the social sharing of these free posts, make them work for you. Something as simple as "Good friends share! Don't forget to share with your facebook friends!" with a "Like" button right there or a twitter button or whatever. Try to make your free content work for you in some way.

    For example, take a look at my site Robert's Review Blog - Internet Marketing Product Reviews. Getting Past The Hype, One Review At A Time. - It's still fairly new and only has a handful of content, but just about every single clickable thing on my site benefits me in some way.

    Yes, it's easier to do that with a review site, but the idea is the same. You want to make your blog work for you. Don't just give things away for the sake of giving it away. This includes information, freebies, whatever. Even a simple suggestion to "like" the post you just made is better than just putting it up there without some kind of purpose behind it. Get creative and give your readers a call to action.


    Blah, got up to get some coffee and lost my train of thought. Anyway... hope some of these ideas help. Best of Luck.
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  • Profile picture of the author Easy Marketer
    Sounds like it takes a long time for info overload to stop.
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  • Profile picture of the author txconx
    I'm over 50. I have ADD. I've had a transcription business.

    So we have a lot in common.

    Stop buying stuff. If "Bring the Fresh" was so great, why didn't you make any money? I have a policy where I don't buy ANYTHING until I have exhausted all FREE resources and I feel the only thing that will get me past the hump is something that's being sold. And I avoid anything that smells like "we're making money telling people like you how to make money."

    If you spend money on anything, make it a one-month subscription to Lynda.com, then beat the hell out of the learning tools there. In one month, you can master Excel, Word and a couple other common programs to the point where you could offer VA services. It's less than $30/month for a standard subscription and you'll benefit more from that than you did from "Bring the Fresh," I'll bet.

    Learn how to manage your ADD. I'm not going to tell you how I manage because I've found the solutions are just as different as people. Whatever system works for you to keep you focused and on task, develop it and stick to it.

    Consider subcontracting work from other transcription services. When I ran a transcription service, the toughest part was finding competent people to do the work. I have also seen people here at WF asking about transcription services, so make sure everyone knows that's what you do. Make the most of LinkedIn and Facebook and other free networking tools.
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    • Profile picture of the author ksmusselman
      Originally Posted by txconx View Post

      I'm over 50. I have ADD. I've had a transcription business.

      So we have a lot in common.

      Stop buying stuff. If "Bring the Fresh" was so great, why didn't you make any money? I have a policy where I don't buy ANYTHING until I have exhausted all FREE resources and I feel the only thing that will get me past the hump is something that's being sold. And I avoid anything that smells like "we're making money telling people like you how to make money."

      If you spend money on anything, make it a one-month subscription to Lynda.com, then beat the hell out of the learning tools there. In one month, you can master Excel, Word and a couple other common programs to the point where you could offer VA services. It's less than $30/month for a standard subscription and you'll benefit more from that than you did from "Bring the Fresh," I'll bet.

      Learn how to manage your ADD. I'm not going to tell you how I manage because I've found the solutions are just as different as people. Whatever system works for you to keep you focused and on task, develop it and stick to it.

      Consider subcontracting work from other transcription services. When I ran a transcription service, the toughest part was finding competent people to do the work. I have also seen people here at WF asking about transcription services, so make sure everyone knows that's what you do. Make the most of LinkedIn and Facebook and other free networking tools.
      Actually, I have never been diagnosed with ADHD but if my doc ever wanted to test me for it, I'd probably be pretty close. I'm very impatient and I do have an anxiety/depression disorder for which I've been on medication for many years.

      But anyway, yes, finding a good team to work with is such a pain. I had a small handful of extremely talented typists working with me on several large projects for one of my clients. And hated every single second of it. LOL Trying it out as a team manager is what prompted me to go into another line of work because at the end of the day, I had headaches, nausea, indigestion, insomnia, etc.

      I used to be able to type till the cows come home but lately I've had to limit my time to one audio hour per day, and not manage other typists. LOL

      And so while I still do pick up some transcription jobs here & there - I'm registered with Thumbtack, NCH and a few other places, plus my website at ksmusselman.com - the largest projects are the corporate quarterly earnings seasons, and pharma companies are my niche, this is not what I want to continue to do. I only do it because I'm good at it and it pays the bills, but I can't wait to build another source of income, (for example, from the ebook I wrote about starting a general transcription business), so I can finally sell my foot pedal once and for all. LOL
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  • Profile picture of the author rickyponting6
    Just keep the hard work up, you will be proud of yourself one day!
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  • Profile picture of the author scrofford
    Originally Posted by ksmusselman View Post

    • article marketing
    • affiliate marketing
    • seo optimization
    • link building
    • social media
    • yahoo buzz
    • facebook
    • twitter
    • opt-ins
    • autoresponders
    • clickbank
    • amazon
    • blogs
    • content websites
    • one-page sites
    • authority sites

    WTF? :confused:

    Maybe I'm too old to figure out all this stuff... you know, like you can't teach an old dog new tricks?

    I just haven't been able to get ANYTHING going with ANY of my sites! It took me almost two years just to get my old site up to $150/month so I could sell it for a mortgage payment and get rid of the hosting fees that I couldn't afford anymore.

    What gives??

    Every new thing I try I'm hearing, "This is the last thing you'll ever have to do..." Right. Months later...nothing. I'm so tired. And I absolutely cannot afford to keep buying this and buying that, subscribing to this and subscribing to that. My disability check just won't go that far after paying the mortgage!

    The last thing I bought was Bring the Fresh. Great program! Not one sale yet, months later. But I can't afford the Full Disclosure, can't afford to invest in the link juicer, don't have the money to keep buying up domain names, etc. So while I did learn some new stuff about Market Samurai (the free version) and Clickbank, I'm still not making any sales because I can't afford to take anything I've learned to the next level. I have no cash for all of these monthly subscriptions at $17/mo here, $37/mo there, it's just not happening.

    We (husband & me; both on disability) pay for one monthly hosting fee that allows us unlimited domain names, but I can't afford to keep buying domain names!

    Maybe I'm just one lousy Internet marketer when it comes to trying to do all of this by myself with the free stuff because I simply do not have the cash to keep investing in this or that to take anything to the next level. And I can't afford to pay anyone to do it for me either because that would just be another payment.

    I've thought of rewriting and repackaging all of my articles into PLR packages, but then I'd have to find a FREE way to market those too and nothing free has worked for me yet, so why would that?

    Maybe I need some kind of a schedule or step-by-step plan on "how" to use all of the genuine FREE tools to make "something" work.

    Meanwhile, my primary site (bookmarks) is slipping in Alexa rank and traffic, and Google even zero'd out my PR2 rank on all of my most visited pages! What's up with that??

    I'm just really blown away by everything right now and my frustration level's getting beyond control.

    Anyway, that's it. Thanks for letting me vent. :-/

    (As an aside, I even keep 15 ads fresh on craigslist for my bookmarks, I have an ad on eBay's free classifieds that I keep renewed and my husband posts flyers around our area; and I check craigslist gigs every day in every major US city... )
    Quit trying everything new. Start with one thing and get it going well and then add another technique. You can't do it all at once like that, you'll lose your mind!

    Seriously, if you try to do it all at once you will just end up with a mess. Start slow and with one method only.
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  • Profile picture of the author glennda
    Wow, this is the most helpful thread I've ever read!!

    I am close to what you described. I have recovered from depression, been on paxil for panic attacks for 4 years. I getting back on my horse and I'm going to reread all the valuable information given to you here.

    Seriously, thank you everyone for your heart filled advice. I will use it too because I as well am in a situation.

    Recently separated, unemployed and have been working on websites for about 2 years.

    Blessings to all
    Brenda
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    • Profile picture of the author ksmusselman
      Originally Posted by glennda View Post

      Wow, this is the most helpful thread I've ever read!!

      I am close to what you described. I have recovered from depression, been on paxil for panic attacks for 4 years. I getting back on my horse and I'm going to reread all the valuable information given to you here.

      Seriously, thank you everyone for your heart filled advice. I will use it too because I as well am in a situation.

      Recently separated, unemployed and have been working on websites for about 2 years.

      Blessings to all
      Brenda
      My heart goes out to you! Seriously! I raised both of my kids by myself and made it through that so I should be able to get through this too with more work.
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  • Profile picture of the author timpears
    When I read the OPs post, it looked like I was looking in the mirror, almost. I had one success and sold it as I thought I know how to do it and I need money for Christmas, so I will sell this site and build another one. That is what I get for doing my own thinking. I never could get another site approved in Google News. Christmas was worth it though. Since then I have been floundering around, living on my disability and spending a few dollars each month to try and make a go of this.

    Here is a thought though. You have articles, so I take it you can write. Sell some articles to generate a few dollars each month to invest in domains and maybe a tool if you need it. My guess is that you have everything you need, other than maybe domains. But you could do it without buying domains if you used the Web2.0 sites for your marketing platform. But it is always best to own your own platform and not be subject to the whims of third parties.
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  • Profile picture of the author gbarrows31
    Here is what you do my friend, "Brand Yourself".. I mean that..
    Start Fresh, create all new accounts; every account you ever created, make a new one dedicated you and what you can do for people. If people like you they will follow you, and if they follow you, they will buy from you.. Create a list, be good to that list and it will be good to you.. Don't ever spam your list, keep this list as if its gold.. Don't blow it.. you have one shot at your brand, and one shot at a Great list.. Don't sell, be honest, talk about your struggles, stuff people can relate too..

    This is as solid advice as I can give you.. forget about the get rich quick, and start producing information that people will fall in love with and that's "You"

    Blessings,
    Geo...
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    • Profile picture of the author ksmusselman
      Originally Posted by gbarrows31 View Post

      Here is what you do my friend, "Brand Yourself".. I mean that..
      Start Fresh, create all new accounts; every account you ever created, make a new one dedicated you and what you can do for people. If people like you they will follow you, and if they follow you, they will buy from you.. Create a list, be good to that list and it will be good to you.. Don't ever spam your list, keep this list as if its gold.. Don't blow it.. you have one shot at your brand, and one shot at a Great list.. Don't sell, be honest, talk about your struggles, stuff people can relate too..

      This is as solid advice as I can give you.. forget about the get rich quick, and start producing information that people will fall in love with and that's "You"

      Blessings,
      Geo...
      Thanks Geo! I might just do that with my ksmusselman.com site and blog, where my logo is simply just my own initials.
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      • Profile picture of the author midasman09
        Banned
        After a GREEAAT Day (Father's Day, 2011) where I had my family, kids and grandkids GIVING ME....hugs, kisses, adulation, gifts, cake...LOVE....I took a break before beddy-bye to sit down and see what's going on on WF and came across this thread and....I feel COMPELLED to "GIVE" to this person and....instead of making it private with a PM....I felt like GIVING to many by posting 2 of my "Money-Makers"...OUT IN THE OPEN FOR ALL TO SEE!

        First Off (I'll refer to you as "KS")...KS....instead of you trying to create something you "Think" others MIGHT WANT....then trying to find a way to "Sell" it.....why not think about;
        1) Finding out WHAT they want...
        then...
        2) Sell it to them with an enticing offer!

        (Note: I've DONE the following many times so this is NOT conjecture)

        Now...you live in a veery Small Town in PA however, the nearest big town is Reading...so....let's take a look at Businesses in Reading (you could apply this to businesses in your area HOWEVER....let's go where there's Good Competition in any niche)

        Let's look at "SERVICE Niche's"! Services that make a Good chunk o change from each Job. Businesses like "Roofers" or "Plumbers".

        WHAT do these businesses WANT?

        They WANT more business from their WebSite and maybe a "Better Image"

        1) A "DOMAIN NAME that will HELP them get more business and...make them "Appear" more "professional! "Marketing" has to do with "Appearance" and "Image".
        So...let's take a look at some Domain Names in the Reading area that could do this for them.
        If we go to my favorite Domain Checker (www.BustAName.com) and enter "ReadingRoofer" or "ReadingPlumber"...we see that those domains are taken BUT...."ReadingDiscountRoofer" or "ReadingDiscountPlumber"? ARE OPEN (as of today) Would these domains give them a "Better Image" of cause potential customers to WANT to Call them? Probably!

        Or....what about..."ReadingsBestRoofer" or "ReadingsBestPlumber"? Those are also open in the Dot Coms (never use anything other than dotcoms)

        Now...go to www.NameCheap.com and register these names for $2.99 a year!

        Then...Google "Reading Roofer" and "Reading Plumber" and send emails to the first 10 businesses listed!

        ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ +++++++++++++++++++
        Subject Line: Can You Handle More Customers!
        Body: Hello....I'm an independent Internet Consultant. I've found that Key Domain Names can Boost your business and get more people to Contact YOU!

        I have registered the domain...www.ReadingDiscountRoofer.com I believe this Domain will give people a "Good Reason" to Phone YOU rather than a competitor... in this "Down" economy where people are Looking For Deals!

        This Domain Name is now "For Sale" and I have sent this email to TEN (10) Roofers in the Reading, PA area.

        I will sell this Domain to the first Roofer that contacts me.

        My name is KS Musselman and my phone # is 555-1234
        ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ++++++++++++++++++

        That's it! When they call....the first thing they'll want to know is "How Much?" I've found $360 a Year....$30 a month is a GOOD number! Not too "Cheap" and not too expensive.

        "LEASE" the domain to them for $360 a year! (Initially, just make up a "Mickey-Mouse" agreement spelling out that YOU own the Domain and they are Leasing it for X$ per year)

        Note: You could also do the same with; "ReadingsBestItalian(Greek, Chinese, French etc) Restaurant.com" or...what about plain ole; "ReadingsBestRestaurant.com"....ALL open as of Today!

        Now....onto #2 Money-Maker;

        "WEBSITE ANALYSIS" or "Why Their Website is NOT Rated Higher on Google"

        KS....I've found that many biz owners nowadays "Know About" and are "Concerned About".....their Position on Google. So....if that's what they want...let's help them GET IT! PLUS....put some SERIOUS MOOLAH into OUR Pockets!

        1) Type "Reading Roofer" in Google!
        Up comes MANY listings. Click to Page 2. There you will find;
        "www.ZimmermansRoofing.com"....www.RoofingReading.com and "www.TileHurstRoofing"....as 3 examples on pg 2.

        Now....these biz owners would like, or, even WANT to "Know How To Get a Higher Spot on Google for the Keyword..."Reading Roofer" (or Roofer In Reading)

        So...what you are going to do is
        a) SHOW THEM THE REASONS WHY (there are Many) THEIR WEBSITE IS ON PAGE 2 FOR THE KEYWORD "Reading Roofer"
        and
        b) WHAT THEY CAN DO TO GET A HIGHER POSITION!

        Ok....KS....what I'm about to reveal to you is something that will SHOCK YOU...the first time you see it! (it did me) COMPLETE...SPECIFIC THINGS WRONG WITH THEIR WEBSITE AND.....(hold onto your hat)....EXACTLY WHAT THEY CAN DO TO CORRECT IT AND....GET THEM A HIGHER POSITION!

        FREE TO YOU!

        Go to this website; www.MetaFever.com/Free-seo-report

        In the blank box...type in the website of one of the roofers on pg 2 (www.ZimmermansRoofing.com)

        You will then see the "Loading" symbol and....in a few minutes BANGO, WHAMMO....up comes a HUGE page full of "Stuff" that...
        NEEDS TO BE CORRECTED on THEIR SPECIFIC WEBSITE!

        KS...you will not believe the DETAILS that comes up and....it's ALL FREE to you!

        So....armed with this info....you can Sell it to the Roofing Co! for, I've found a "Good" price is $497! Heck....the stuff here is GREAT and...you can also...offer to do the corrections FOR THEM...for another $500....or...just sell them the Report and let their webmaster make the corrections.

        Here's an example of an email you could send them;

        ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ++++++++++++++++++
        Subject: Why is your website on Page 2 of Google!
        Body Copy: Hello....my name is KS Musselman and I'm an Independent Internet Consultant. I noticed that your website is NOT on the first page of Google. It's back on Page 2, BEHIND many of your competitors for the Keyword, "Reading Roofer"!

        Consumers are "Lazy" these days and usually don't go to the 2nd page!

        YOU ARE LOSING BUSINESS! I can help you get your website IN FRONT of many of your competitors...and get MORE BUSINESS!

        I provide a "SEO ANALYSIS" Report that spells out Specifically What is Wrong with your website and WHAT YOU MUST DO TO CORRECT IT for a better position!

        This can result in a big increase in Search Engine Rankings and... Help You Get More Business from "Lazy Consumers"!

        Call me ASAP!
        My name is KS Musselman and my phone # is 555-1234
        ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ++++

        KS...what we are doing here is "Appealing to their GREED Glands"!

        Nobody likes to be "Behind" their Competitors!

        So....I have freely GIVEN you some Info I TRULY BELIEVE can help you! The emails are just Samples I've used. You can change them to your liking.

        Now! It's UP TO YOU!....to take the Bull By The Horns and Go Out and DO IT!

        The above is easy and simple and again....it "GIVES PEOPLE WHAT THEY WANT!

        Best of success to you and....let me know if you give the above a go!

        Don Alm
        Note: If you or any readers here find the above of Value...send me a "Thank You". I like "encouragement" and "appreciation".
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        • Profile picture of the author ksmusselman
          Originally Posted by midasman09 View Post

          After a GREEAAT Day (Father's Day, 2011) where I had my family, kids and grandkids GIVING ME....hugs, kisses, adulation, gifts, cake...LOVE....I took a break before beddy-bye to sit down and see what's going on on WF and came across this thread and....I feel COMPELLED to "GIVE" to this person and....instead of making it private with a PM....I felt like GIVING to many by posting 2 of my "Money-Makers"...OUT IN THE OPEN FOR ALL TO SEE!

          First Off (I'll refer to you as "KS")...KS....instead of you trying to create something you "Think" others MIGHT WANT....then trying to find a way to "Sell" it.....why not think about;
          1) Finding out WHAT they want...
          then...
          2) Sell it to them with an enticing offer!

          (Note: I've DONE the following many times so this is NOT conjecture)

          Now...you live in a veery Small Town in PA however, the nearest big town is Reading...so....let's take a look at Businesses in Reading (you could apply this to businesses in your area HOWEVER....let's go where there's Good Competition in any niche)

          Let's look at "SERVICE Niche's"! Services that make a Good chunk o change from each Job. Businesses like "Roofers" or "Plumbers".

          WHAT do these businesses WANT?

          They WANT more business from their WebSite and maybe a "Better Image"

          ...

          Best of success to you and....let me know if you give the above a go!

          Don Alm
          Note: If you or any readers here find the above of Value...send me a "Thank You". I like "encouragement" and "appreciation".
          Big Thank You for this information! I just copy/pasted it all into a note file! Believe it or not, I was thinking about doing something like this a couple of years ago because our area - Berks County to be specific - is really behind the times technologically. I'm also in talks with 2-3 business owners here about starting a new chamber just for small and home-based businesses so I'd have another outlet for this type of service.

          I'm going to hit those sites you mentioned to analyze why my own site isn't on the first page of Google yet because I would think that would make a better impression, right?
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          • Profile picture of the author Kay King
            I'm going to hit those sites you mentioned to analyze why my own site isn't on the first page of Google yet because I would think that would make a better impression, right?
            I have to say I think you missed the entire portion of meat in this thread. If you look back over your responses it's the same mindset of being excited over talking about, analyzing and looking into some "new" ideas and topics.

            Your problem all along has been a failure to stay with a project or site long enough to get it to profit. Nothing wrong with going offline - but how do you sell sites to business if you can't create a profitable site reliably for yourself?

            You had a transcription site - gave up on it because your own analysis told you it wasn't going to succeed (but it well might have in time)

            You were excited about a site on hockey sticks and I can see you put work into it - but six months later you are ready to drop it rather than improve it

            You are sold on your idea of a bookmarks site - and I think $100 a day from that one site is an illusion. "Bookmarks" is a keyword used by a lot of porn sites which is something to get around when using SEO. "Bookmarks" has a different meaning for the internet generation. Kindle is going into public libraries next year - will "laminated bookmarks" be in demand? I can see it being evergreen and bringing in some money here and there - but not as a steady source of income.

            There is a lot of excitement in the "planning" stage - but there's no money in the planning stage. You have to execute the plan for a site or business completely - and that's the part you are dismissing.

            Good luck to you - I hope one of these ideas is a wakeup call for you.

            kay
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            • Profile picture of the author Mark Andrews
              Banned
              Originally Posted by Kay King View Post

              ...and that's the part you are dismissing.

              Good luck to you - I hope one of these ideas is a wakeup call for you.

              kay
              She's not dismiising it. You also seem to missing the point a little bit Kay as are a lot of people on this thread. And I say this with all due respect.

              Whilst many here are trying to be helpful and kudos to them for that, they're missing the point.

              ADHD is a two pronged problem, first there is the problem of maintaing attention for any length of time and secondly this is compounded by a certain degree of hyperactivity.

              Hence the jumping around from one thing to the next but not actually seeing anything though to it's natural conclusion.

              You can't just wave a magic wand and say it's all in the head. Whilst this may be true to a certain extent this is still a recognized illness and this needs to be taken into account.

              Pointing the finger telling her she's dismissing the advice on offer simply demonstrates a lack of empathy for her position. Where she finds herself at.

              It's not got anything at all to do with the OP needing a wakeup call. If the remedy to all cognitive behavioral problems was to simply tell people to get a wakeup call, well the notion itself is utterly absurd. This kind of thinking although well intentioned gets no one anywhere.

              What we need to do is to take these factors into account and devise a plan of action which fits within the boundaries and limitations of this illness as enacted and perceived by the individual actually experiencing these problems.

              One persons ADHD symptoms and interpretation mentally are not the same for everyone. Which requires a unique plan of action which engages emotionally with the individual concerned on a scale which they not only find interesting but can also scale up one simple step at a time. This will take time and patience for both coach and the individual wishing for change in their life. One must be respectful of their feelings and take what they're going through into account.

              This is a stepping stones process not some magic pill solution which the OP has obviously been trying to date, without much success.

              Simply throwing more and more information at the the OP with the intention of helping her but not taking these symptoms into account, whilst the hyperactivity part of the mind will engage with these ideas, such is the sheer amount of information presented that very quickly we'll be back to square one as the attentive part of the mind loses it's focus and concentration.

              Throwing around too much information (which is already a huge part of the problem anyway) will not bring about the desired effect and change in circumstances.

              It's a case of gently placing all of this to one side, recognizing it's importance but temporarily discarding it to develop a plan of action which reflexively her mind can cope with and engage with on a more proactive level.

              I hope you take this into consideration Kay.

              Kindest regards,


              Pete Walker
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            • Profile picture of the author ksmusselman
              Originally Posted by Kay King View Post

              I have to say I think you missed the entire portion of meat in this thread. If you look back over your responses it's the same mindset of being excited over talking about, analyzing and looking into some "new" ideas and topics.
              Actually, getting my own sites in order is something I should have been doing all along, regardless of what I choose to do as my primary focus, which right now is applying what I do know how to do so I can generate the cash I need, and making sure that people can find my transcription site is going to be crucial to generating that cash.

              Originally Posted by Kay King View Post

              Your problem all along has been a failure to stay with a project or site long enough to get it to profit. Nothing wrong with going offline - but how do you sell sites to business if you can't create a profitable site reliably for yourself?
              I have no intention of selling websites! However, I can help people get their current sites to the first page of Google because I have been successful at doing that with four sites already. And since my one site was making $150/mo, that was a successful website that I was forced to sell. But it was making a profit every month, and that was just with AdSense.

              Originally Posted by Kay King View Post

              You had a transcription site - gave up on it because your own analysis told you it wasn't going to succeed (but it well might have in time)
              No, I didn't "give up" on that site. I actually took that site to the #1 and #3 positions on Google and it was also making AdSense cash, then sold it for a nice profit so I could move into a new field that I felt would be more profitable. And it was. And I only concentrated on that one wedding site for almost two years until my financial situation forced me to sell it, but I've never "given up" on any of my sites.

              Originally Posted by Kay King View Post

              You were excited about a site on hockey sticks and I can see you put work into it - but six months later you are ready to drop it rather than improve it.
              No, I've never been excited about that hockey site. My SON was excited about that hockey site. "Yeah, mom, let's do it!" Then he went back to work and now has no time for it. That's the only reason I have it. :rolleyes: I don't know a thing about hockey! There's no excitement in that site at all.

              So no, I'm not just dropping the site after six months. The stupid thing just sat there with nothing on it but "Welcome" and my son's face for the first four months after it was registered because I had my own site to work on. And in the last two months I've brought it from 3,xxx,xxx Alexa to 1,259,xxx. But instead of just "dropping it," I figured what the heck, might as well see if I can do "something" with it.

              But that site, even if I do decide to keep it as some type of a cash asset with affiliate links, eventually everything will have to be outsourced because frankly, I don't even want it unless it is going to make some money. At the same time, I don't have the time or desire to work in an industry that I know nothing about.

              In fact, if someone gave me a cool offer for it, I'd sell it rather than have to deal with it because it does have potential - for someone who has an interest in the sport.
              [/QUOTE]

              Originally Posted by Kay King View Post

              You are sold on your idea of a bookmarks site - and I think $100 a day from that one site is an illusion. "Bookmarks" is a keyword used by a lot of porn sites which is something to get around when using SEO. "Bookmarks" has a different meaning for the internet generation. Kindle is going into public libraries next year - will "laminated bookmarks" be in demand? I can see it being evergreen and bringing in some money here and there - but not as a steady source of income.
              "Bookmarks" isn't the main keyword or key phrase. And my targeted traffic isn't in the "Internet generation." My targeted traffic is 45+ years old and for the most part, still pretty much "old school" when it comes to reading.

              But physical books and reading aside, "Wedding favor bookmarks," "bookmark wedding favors," "wedding bookmark favors," "bookmarks for wedding favors," "memorial bookmarks" and "memorial bookmarks for funerals" are just a few of the longtail key phrases for my site, all of which I rank on the first page of Google for, so there's been a lot of work and thought put into that site concept since its launch.

              Can it make $100/day? I believe it can, regardless of Kindle. There are still thousands of searches/month for "cheap paperback books" and "paperback books," and I'm ranked #5 and #9 on Google respectively for those phrases. Not "everyone" wants a Kindle. Cheap Paperback Books and the Advantages Over Electronic Readers

              There are still over 2700 monthly searches on Google for "bookmarks for books" I'm #5 and #10 on Google for that phrase too.

              But Kindle and reading aside, bookmarks aren't just for books. I've made most of my sales so far in memorial bookmarks and bookmarks for anniversary, and I've made a couple of sales for graduation favors, etc.

              As for the site on the whole generating $100/day, I also have two wedding and party favor affiliate shops set up for income besides just the bookmarks, and wedding favors and party favors are very profitable once I have the right amount of traffic coming in.

              So right now I'm not getting nearly enough targeted traffic to make the sales and I need some cash to make the investments to get the traffic. But yes, I'm not just sold on the idea, I love the idea. The entire concept was based on research and the amount of people who are still actively searching for the above longtail key phrases. I know I can make that business work. But I need to beat out my competitors and get more traffic.

              Originally Posted by Kay King View Post

              There is a lot of excitement in the "planning" stage - but there's no money in the planning stage. You have to execute the plan for a site or business completely - and that's the part you are dismissing.
              I haven't dismissed anything beyond the planning stages on any one of my sites; I've just gotten lost as to where to turn next in the execution beyond getting initial sales and getting my sites to the top spots in Google (and Yahoo, and Bing and Ask).

              What I have dismissed is realizing that I do have skills that I can use to earn the cash to take my main sites to the next level. And that's what this whole thread has helped me with.

              Originally Posted by Kay King View Post

              Good luck to you - I hope one of these ideas is a wakeup call for you.
              kay

              My "wake up call" is realizing that I do know how to get a website to the first page on Google; realizing I can type and transcribe and research and write articles. It's also helped me realize that I have to pick one thing out right now to make the money and then I can use that money to invest in the wedding favors and bookmarks business.

              So if I have to continue to do those things in order to bring in the cash to invest in paid services to help get that bookmarks business more traffic and sales, then that's what I'll have to do, which means working on my ksmusselman.com site and optimizing it for transcription and "let me help you get to the first page of Google" consultant business.

              But it doesn't mean giving up on my bookmarks business by any means. I can still make some sales even if I just do one article a week on my blog while devoting the rest of my time applying my skills in the area that will bring in the immediate cash.
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  • Profile picture of the author Jake Gray
    Stick with something that actually works. From this thread, I see that
    you are all over the place. Not only will you save your time, but you can
    focus 100% on a thing or two instead of a dozen. The ratio works out
    when you have two things to focus on rather than 12 different other ones.

    Start building a list with some free provider such as GetResponse.
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  • Profile picture of the author Andrea Wilson
    I also experienced the same thing when I thought that everything was so good. I kept on trying, hopping endlessly on every hyped product. Now the answer is not always in the new product, sometimes it is in what you already knew and what you like to do.

    Lack of knowledge in some stuffs is just normal no one can be a know-it-all. However you can always hire somebody who knows better and it really cost less than spending your own time learning.

    Andrea
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  • Profile picture of the author dagaul101
    First off, don't give up just get, it takes time depending on the niche, but I would focus on what you did to get your primary site to $150 a month, and try and scale what you did on that site with your other sites, it takes time, and its unfortunate that IM always try to make their products sound better than it actualy is on many occasions to get that sale
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  • Profile picture of the author tekman
    First off you are being pessimistic. I don’t have extra money, I’m on disability, and I have a mortgage payment. You could be in Africa with no food, clothing and starving. Try to live life optimistically. Internet marketing is not stable, just like most businesses, sales go up and down. Most businesses fail. America is run by rich capitalist and most of the population works to make these few rich. This is how it is, get use to it. The social class structure is open for anyone to become rich, but this is not easy and most successful people had road blocks, failures, and years of hard work before they made fortunes. Just realize that internet marketing is always changing and what makes you money one day may not the next. SEO takes time. I started back in 1998 and have done all types of sites, traffic sources and made up to $600 some days and $0 others. So, I got tired of it, got a job, taking classes at a college and researching ways to get back into internet marketing. This business is a roller coaster just like life.
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  • Profile picture of the author Rose Anderson
    First, there are a lot of of us over fifty on this site so don't feel alone (barely over, of course).

    Have you tried guest blogging on wedding planner sites?

    Also, have you done any marketing to churches? They use bookmarks for Mother's and Father's Day gifts, for VBS, and many other events.
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    • Profile picture of the author ksmusselman
      Originally Posted by Rose Anderson View Post

      First, there are a lot of of us over fifty on this site so don't feel alone (barely over, of course).

      Have you tried guest blogging on wedding planner sites?

      Also, have you done any marketing to churches? They use bookmarks for Mother's and Father's Day gifts, for VBS, and many other events.
      Hi Rose ~ I'm in the "barely" over 50 range myself, although my 5th grandbaby is due to arrive in just a few short weeks.

      Yes, I've done postcard marketing to churches and I have a postcard on the bulletin board at our church, nothing yet. I even had a woman call last year asking for a brochure, postcards and business cards to pass around to her church for upcoming weddings, funeral services, etc. but never got any business.

      Our area is tough; the entire market is tough actually, and 99% of my clients are out of state, and I've even made two large sales out of the country - Ontario and the UK; both paid expedited shipping!

      As for blogging and doing guest posts, I haven't pushed that too much yet and I need to work that into my schedule also. I'd love to just outsource a lot of the marketing part of the business so I can just be designing and making the bookmarks. I believe that will come in time.

      The business is there; the customers are out there; I just need the cash to invest in finding and targeting that market.

      And that's where my transcription and other assets/skills are going to come in. I have to focus and concentrate on hyping up my other website - General Transcription & Home Business Information from Musselman's Online Publishing - get on the ball and start generating some moola.
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      • Profile picture of the author Kay King
        My "wake up call" is realizing that I do know how to get a website to the first page on Google; realizing I can type and transcribe and research and write articles. It's also helped me realize that I have to pick one thing out right now to make the money and then I can use that money to invest in the wedding favors and bookmarks business.

        YES! That's exactly the attitude and mindset you need! You are saying "I can this - and this is how I will go about it" - and not a single "but" or excuse in that paragraph. You go, girl!


        Whilst many here are trying to be helpful and kudos to them for that, they're missing the point.

        ADHD is a two pronged problem, first there is the problem of maintaing attention for any length of time and secondly this is compounded by a certain degree of hyperactivity.
        What is happening is several successful marketers are offering advice based on their own area of expertise and experience - and that doesn't miss any point the OP has made. She's free to pick and choose the advice that suits her.

        The OP is on disability payments which would infer under the care of doctors. She said later in the thread she has not been diagnosed as ADHD. That makes it a non-issue to me.

        Lack of focus can be a lack of business organization or of time management or a personality trait - problems to be examined, addressed and solved. We all have challenges of some sort - and we have to move past them to get where we want to go.

        kay
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        • Profile picture of the author ksmusselman
          Originally Posted by Kay King View Post

          YES! That's exactly the attitude and mindset you need! You are saying "I can this - and this is how I will go about it" - and not a single "but" or excuse in that paragraph. You go, girl!
          Hence the change in my Signature file below. Thanks for the encouragement!
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          • Profile picture of the author Kay King
            LOL - I see multiple streams of income in your future. That'll be a nickel, please:p
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            • Profile picture of the author ksmusselman
              Originally Posted by Kay King View Post

              LOL - I see multiple streams of income in your future. That'll be a nickel, please:p
              Aahhh, Robert G. Allen. I had his series of Multiple Streams of Income series back when they were still on cassette tapes!
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  • Profile picture of the author txconx
    If you're going to put Google ads on your transcription site, you might want to block other transcription services. I personally wouldn't put Google ads on at all, but that's just me.
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    • Profile picture of the author ksmusselman
      Originally Posted by txconx View Post

      If you're going to put Google ads on your transcription site, you might want to block other transcription services. I personally wouldn't put Google ads on at all, but that's just me.
      Thank you!!! Yes, I can put a block on my competitors that pay for ads so they don't show up.
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  • Profile picture of the author MikeE516
    I know exactly how you feel. When I first started out with IMing I tried doing everything that came to me. In the end I was stretching myself too thin for my knowledge.

    Focus on just a couple ways to promote products and your sites. Become an expert in a couple fields instead of the whole industry. Once you have a grasp on a few things and can levage your time, leap into other fields to help grow your business.

    Mike
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  • Profile picture of the author Brad789
    KS -

    Brad here. I agree with the other posts - the thing that stands out in your writing is you are doing a lot all at once.

    Pick some area that has some interest, some drive, some attraction for you and really focus for six months. Redouble is such a tough word if you don't have an idea how you got to the "double" it is hard to decide how to "re" - if you get my drift.

    You have a lot of experience based on what I just read. Experience will win out over lack of focus. Just point and click and stay on target.

    Don't scream - make it fuel for driving you to your success. You have come so far - just three feet from gold - stay the course. Most of us will tell you it is persistence that will pay off.

    Absolutely all the luck possible to you. My hat is off to you even with your challenges in your life - you stand head and shoulders above so many who don't or worse yet won't even try. Remember Teddy Roosevelt's maxim it is easy to criticize it is something else to get into the ring and try.

    Better yet remember what Rocky said even in the autumn of his career - it isn't how many times you get knocked down -- it is how many times you get up! Just plan to get up one more time than you are knocked down. I for one will give a loud cheer !

    Keep at it you are the greatest!

    Cheers !
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  • Profile picture of the author andynathan
    IM really comes down to consistency. I know this was brought up a little before, but the fact is that everyday you do the same thing until you are successful. It looks like you were reaching that success before, so now take the lessons that took you two years to learn earlier and replicate it quicker.

    I have a blog that I post everyday for. I learned a lot about seo and article writing along the way.

    I am taking those lessons into new sites that I set up that will grow a lot faster, because of my experiences with my blog.

    Sounds like you are two feet away from gold, so keep digging.
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  • Profile picture of the author Rob Bright
    hey,

    dont give up no need as you are alreadu successful, not just at the level you wanted.

    It sounds to me that you are trying to do too much of everything and spreading yourself too thin, concentrate on one marketing strategy until it is working and put most of your time into marketing your business.

    Having said that, if money is tight, have you thought about becoming a freelancer for other marketers? I.e writing articles for a fee or doing odd jobs like addign Facebook friends etc? That could get you some cash to invest into your buisness.
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    • Profile picture of the author ksmusselman
      Originally Posted by Rob Bright View Post

      hey,

      dont give up no need as you are alreadu successful, not just at the level you wanted.

      It sounds to me that you are trying to do too much of everything and spreading yourself too thin, concentrate on one marketing strategy until it is working and put most of your time into marketing your business.

      Having said that, if money is tight, have you thought about becoming a freelancer for other marketers? I.e writing articles for a fee or doing odd jobs like addign Facebook friends etc? That could get you some cash to invest into your buisness.
      Thanks! And yes, I just put up a new page on my site to do transcription, etc. for other marketers, which you can see in my sig file below. I also have some PLR articles to rewrite/repurpose to promote that for getting some clients and gigs.

      I'm also meeting with three very prominent people/personalities in my local area to discuss starting a new chamber here for small/home-based businesses which will help a lot too.
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    • Profile picture of the author Latsyrc
      This thread has been helpful for me personally because I suffer the same problem. Old thread or not, ADD or not, many internet marketers experience this problem of staying focused so there is a lot of useful info in this thread.

      Right now I am trying to determine what site to work on also. My problem is I have a few general sites with several topics, so I am trying to figure out how to market the site with it being so broad. Although all of my sites cater to women in general, so I guess I could start marketing to women.
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      • Profile picture of the author ksmusselman
        Originally Posted by Latsyrc View Post

        This thread has been helpful for me personally because I suffer the same problem. Old thread or not, ADD or not, many internet marketers experience this problem of staying focused so there is a lot of useful info in this thread.

        Right now I am trying to determine what site to work on also. My problem is I have a few general sites with several topics, so I am trying to figure out how to market the site with it being so broad. Although all of my sites cater to women in general, so I guess I could start marketing to women.
        I know what you mean by having a site that's very broad and also one that caters primarily to women. My bookmarks aren't just for "weddings" specifically, but at the same time, my primary audience and buyers are women.

        So I had to "stalk" my competition to see where they're getting their links from, what blogs they're active in, what directories they're listed in, etc.

        I'm still at a loss about building a list. So I put an opt-in box up - who do I target? In fact, NONE of my top competitors have newsletter signup boxes on their sites. In this industry, who do you target? What's their incentive for signing up for a newsletter?

        For example. A woman comes to the site looking for baby shower bookmarks. She's married, her friends are all married, etc. She's not going to opt in to a list with an incentive to get something that's wedding related.

        If a young woman stops by the site looking for wedding bookmarks or bookmarks for her kids' graduation, she's maybe not even thinking about babies for another ten years so a baby naming ebook isn't going to be any incentive for her to opt in to a list.

        So I thought about doing a contest and I run into same problem. What do you give away that's going to suit everyone?

        And even the age range of my visitors crosses generations. Grandmas have purchased baby shower bookmarks or wedding bookmarks and even graduation bookmarks for their grandkids. I don't think she's going to want the same contest prize as the young newly engaged woman stopping by for her wedding bookmarks.

        A woman who's married with a new baby isn't going to want to win a prize for wedding planning software.

        And I've had some suggestions about setting my sites up as a "membership" type site where people have to create an account before they can order something. I don't like that idea! If they're only there for baby stuff, why do they need to create an account? It's just an extra two-three-four steps to the process. I'm not Amazon or Vistaprint. :rolleyes:

        So I can really understand why you can get confused about where to target and how. I'm still trying to figure that out!

        Now, I could split the whole thing up and have a crapload of bookmarks sites, each targeting a specific niche, but do I really want to do that, especially since the designs can overlap? I mean, I could... but I'm just wondering if it would be a big waste of time and money to have a bunch of little bookmarks sites all over the place instead of one site with options. :rolleyes:
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  • Profile picture of the author draede
    wow, there are a lot of posts here. anyway heres my tip DO ONE THING AND DO IT WELL
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  • Profile picture of the author GeorgR.
    You are confused because you think there are "many, new things out there which you need to try". The clickbank sca...uhm i mean vendors are always good at making people believe that would be the case.

    In reality, the things which really are making money are the "old", established and proven WORKING things. There is no mystery about it, its mostly hard work and learned skills applied RIGHT.

    For example, in my case, my main focus is keyword research, making sites and then bring the sites up in Google. (Whatever means it takes).

    The basics of this are relatively easy to learn (using keyword tools, adwords keyword tool etc.)...then writing content, making sites...link building.

    NOW....i would not be able to sell this "system" on clickbank as the "newest money making secret just revealed"...because its ANYTHING BUT THAT.....with the difference that it WORKS while the hyped up systems usually don't.

    For me, IM is actually almost like a science, with numbers and variables...and coming to logical conclusions.

    Example: I find a keyword which has 2000+ daily searches. I make a site and rank the site for this and some more related keywords on page #1 in Google. LOGIC alone tells me this simply MUST make money since i get the traffic. Once you get the traffic, the rest is testing what converts best. (Adsense, CPA, Clickbank etc.)...or heck you can even flip the site(s) once it got traffic.
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    • Profile picture of the author ksmusselman
      Originally Posted by GeorgR. View Post

      You are confused because you think there are "many, new things out there which you need to try". The clickbank sca...uhm i mean vendors are always good at making people believe that would be the case.

      In reality, the things which really are making money are the "old", established and proven WORKING things. There is no mystery about it, its mostly hard work and learned skills applied RIGHT.

      For example, in my case, my main focus is keyword research, making sites and then bring the sites up in Google. (Whatever means it takes).

      The basics of this are relatively easy to learn (using keyword tools, adwords keyword tool etc.)...then writing content, making sites...link building.

      NOW....i would not be able to sell this "system" on clickbank as the "newest money making secret just revealed"...because its ANYTHING BUT THAT.....with the difference that it WORKS while the hyped up systems usually don't.
      "Confused" was an understatement!!!

      I'm okay now though, thanks to everyone here helping me get my head back on straight.
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  • Profile picture of the author Alexis Kenne
    I think you should focus on what is productive and multiply the revenue.Doing too many things at the same time is not wise. You end up burning yourself. It's good you went through that experience.From now on Focus focus focus on what works and perfect it.
    Later use the profit to leverage another productive site by outsourcing because you can't do everything by yourself.
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    • Profile picture of the author ksmusselman
      Originally Posted by KAB View Post

      I think you should focus on what is productive and multiply the revenue.Doing too many things at the same time is not wise. You end up burning yourself. It's good you went through that experience.From now on Focus focus focus on what works and perfect it.
      Later use the profit to leverage another productive site by outsourcing because you can't do everything by yourself.
      Exactly. I just put up my new craigslist ads for my transcription services this afternoon and already have one client lined up!!
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  • Profile picture of the author eastwest97
    Hi Karen:

    You have brought to light a ton of advice that is helpful to so many people...for that, I thank you.

    One thought about the bookmarks. You live in PA in an area that has tons of colleges (private, public and trade schools) within a hundred miles or so of you. I would go online and find an email address for the admissions counselor and offer to sell college bookmarks for their bookstore and/or incoming students. My daughter is leaving in August on a basketball scholarship and she received several packages from coaches and admissions counselor that ranged from pencils to erasers to yes even one bookmarker. It is a great giveaway for orientations. If you want, you could even go to using college humor for the bookmarks, to sell in the bookstore. Something like:

    - A college professor is someone who talks in other people’s sleep
    - 80% of the final exam will be based on the one lecture you missed and the one book you didn’t read
    - If you are given an open-book exam, you will forget your book.

    Each bookmark could have the schools logo, mascot or even some tips for freshmen or studying on them. I bet you could make a killing with that. If you already do this, I may have missed it on your sight but it seems like it geared towards weddings and showers.

    Just my $0.02.

    Sydney
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  • Profile picture of the author Channing
    Banned
    As far as domain names go, you should just stick with one domain if you cannot afford to buy anymore - a really broad generic domain or non-word brand domain and short - and just create relevant subdomains for your sites. You can name those subdomains anything you want and target any keywords with the subdomain you want. It's the best route to take on a budget. Cheers.
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  • Profile picture of the author Johnny Optimo
    Wow, you got quite a strong response here - be sure to keep us updated, I'm pulling for you!
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  • Profile picture of the author msmir75
    I understand totally where you are coming from. I also have ADHD and you can seriously spread yourself thin if not managed but it can be managed. I used to hop from one opportunity to the next and nothing came out of it. I finally said enough is enough and now I am focusing only on TWO things (my business and my book) that have the potential to bring in cash. I did cut unnecessary costs and it has helped a lot. Now I have more money for advertising. You need a plan and determine what is the most profitable thing for you and stick with that like many others have already said. If you do that and come for advice on how to make money on that and focus strictly on that you will be fine. And yeah as far as info goes, do a Google search because you will find loads of it for free!! I made that mistake too I promise it can be managed because even though I still have my days where I cannot get my head straight.. I am doing much better than I did before I finally faced up to what I was doing wrong and determined what would work best.

    Mir
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    • Profile picture of the author ksmusselman
      I really appreciate everyone's feedback!!! I still have to make up a schedule but just from using onlywire.com and SocialMonkee.com and doing a couple of pages from each site a day with each tool, I've noticed a difference in traffic. AND I have a higher PR on some of my pages.

      My wedding favors blog was accepted into an advertising program and the combination of four blogs has earned me about $95 in the last couple of weeks with blogvertise.com

      I've signed up with some free PLR sites that are reputable and I'm going to work on putting together some things for each site using some PLR. AND, I'm reworking some "old" videos into new videos with pdf files that go with them and I'm going to market those.

      I still haven't gotten any solid leads on the transcription despite heavier marketing, but my husband's made a couple of good sales as a result of my extra push on his sites. So at least one of us has gotten somewhere quickly of late.

      So I definitely still need to make up a schedule of what I'm doing when, what site or what tools will get used on what days, etc. and then I'll start feeling a lot better about it all.

      But seeing just shy of $100 waiting to be paid out as a result of only four blog posts is encouraging.
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      • Profile picture of the author Chris Sorrell
        Just sell things that people want and don't require too much persuasion to do so like physical products for instance. Much easier than trying to convince people to buy ebooks they've never heard of through a few articles or blogs here and there.

        Obviously there's Amazon, but some quick searches will yield plenty of other networks where you can earn money through 'real' products rather than over hyped digital stuff.
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        • Profile picture of the author ksmusselman
          Originally Posted by Chris Sorrell View Post

          Just sell things that people want and don't require too much persuasion to do so like physical products for instance. Much easier than trying to convince people to buy ebooks they've never heard of through a few articles or blogs here and there.

          Obviously there's Amazon, but some quick searches will yield plenty of other networks where you can earn money through 'real' products rather than over hyped digital stuff.
          Yup! That's what my bookmarks are - real, genuine, physical products. Custom printed designs on cardstock, laminated with tassels, shipped all over the world.

          What I need to do is make enough sales during the hot season, which is always bridal/wedding season, so it offsets the down season.

          I've never had a whole lot of luck with the digital stuff, although I've sold a few of my transcription ebooks over the last couple of years. I need to overhaul that ebook too.
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  • Profile picture of the author MBDirect
    I see there's been no activity on this thread for 9 months. Don't know whatever happened with you but did you offer services on Fiverr as some suggested? IMHO you could really build something there -- at least a paying foundation - then go back eventually to your existing enterprise. You have too many talents and have gained too much knowledge to give up, and Fiverr requires no expense.

    All the best to you,
    MBDirect
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  • Profile picture of the author fenixpro
    Yup. Fiverr gets a lot of bashing, but if you know what you are doing as a seller and buyer it's a wonderful place. AND, just one of many gig sites. Lot's of potential.

    Yes, how is your situation now? Weren't you asking about your bookmark site on another thread a few days ago?

    I'll tell you that for me, whether in IM or in 'real life', establishing and maintaining focus is a real challenge and a real key to getting anywhere. I actually force my self to follow certain systems and structures that I've customized for my self because I know they keep my on track and hold me accountable.

    Oh and one more thing as an impression I had while skimming this thread...
    What a wonderful thing that you or me or anyone can post here and have a presence here on WF and get tons of not only encouragement, but even practical advice and steps towards progress.
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    • Profile picture of the author ksmusselman
      Originally Posted by MBDirect View Post

      I see there's been no activity on this thread for 9 months. Don't know whatever happened with you but did you offer services on Fiverr as some suggested? IMHO you could really build something there -- at least a paying foundation - then go back eventually to your existing enterprise. You have too many talents and have gained too much knowledge to give up, and Fiverr requires no expense.

      All the best to you,
      MBDirect


      Originally Posted by fenixpro View Post

      Yup. Fiverr gets a lot of bashing, but if you know what you are doing as a seller and buyer it's a wonderful place. AND, just one of many gig sites. Lot's of potential.

      Yes, how is your situation now? Weren't you asking about your bookmark site on another thread a few days ago?

      I'll tell you that for me, whether in IM or in 'real life', establishing and maintaining focus is a real challenge and a real key to getting anywhere. I actually force my self to follow certain systems and structures that I've customized for my self because I know they keep my on track and hold me accountable.

      Oh and one more thing as an impression I had while skimming this thread...
      What a wonderful thing that you or me or anyone can post here and have a presence here on WF and get tons of not only encouragement, but even practical advice and steps towards progress.
      Thank you both for your followups!

      Yes, I had another post here a couple of weeks ago about my bookmarks site. The traffic's been pretty good; close to 200 uniques/day but the sales aren't there. So I just did a complete overhaul of my website this week to make it more sales friendly.

      And then right after I made that post, I sold $600 between three orders in two days.

      I've been "stalking" my competition while overhauling my website so we'll see how things go now with that.

      And yes, Fiverr's been good to me. I just earned my Level #1 and added an Extra to one of my gigs.
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  • Profile picture of the author goosefrabah
    Originally Posted by ksmusselman View Post

    • article marketing
    • affiliate marketing
    • seo optimization
    • link building
    • social media
    • yahoo buzz
    • facebook
    • twitter
    • opt-ins
    • autoresponders
    • clickbank
    • amazon
    • blogs
    • content websites
    • one-page sites
    • authority sites

    WTF? :confused:

    Maybe I'm too old to figure out all this stuff... you know, like you can't teach an old dog new tricks?

    I just haven't been able to get ANYTHING going with ANY of my sites! It took me almost two years just to get my old site up to $150/month so I could sell it for a mortgage payment and get rid of the hosting fees that I couldn't afford anymore.



    What gives??

    Every new thing I try I'm hearing, "This is the last thing you'll ever have to do..." Right. Months later...nothing. I'm so tired. And I absolutely cannot afford to keep buying this and buying that, subscribing to this and subscribing to that. My disability check just won't go that far after paying the mortgage!

    The last thing I bought was Bring the Fresh. Great program! Not one sale yet, months later. But I can't afford the Full Disclosure, can't afford to invest in the link juicer, don't have the money to keep buying up domain names, etc. So while I did learn some new stuff about Market Samurai (the free version) and Clickbank, I'm still not making any sales because I can't afford to take anything I've learned to the next level. I have no cash for all of these monthly subscriptions at $17/mo here, $37/mo there, it's just not happening.

    We (husband & me; both on disability) pay for one monthly hosting fee that allows us unlimited domain names, but I can't afford to keep buying domain names!

    Maybe I'm just one lousy Internet marketer when it comes to trying to do all of this by myself with the free stuff because I simply do not have the cash to keep investing in this or that to take anything to the next level. And I can't afford to pay anyone to do it for me either because that would just be another payment.

    I've thought of rewriting and repackaging all of my articles into PLR packages, but then I'd have to find a FREE way to market those too and nothing free has worked for me yet, so why would that?

    Maybe I need some kind of a schedule or step-by-step plan on "how" to use all of the genuine FREE tools to make "something" work.

    Meanwhile, my primary site (bookmarks) is slipping in Alexa rank and traffic, and Google even zero'd out my PR2 rank on all of my most visited pages! What's up with that??

    I'm just really blown away by everything right now and my frustration level's getting beyond control.

    Anyway, that's it. Thanks for letting me vent. :-/

    (As an aside, I even keep 15 ads fresh on craigslist for my bookmarks, I have an ad on eBay's free classifieds that I keep renewed and my husband posts flyers around our area; and I check craigslist gigs every day in every major US city... )
    So I see you are having some success. You definitely learned from your experience to make 5$ a day. So take what works, pick one thing and go.

    Choose one of these, just one and stick to it for a new site.
    [*]blogs[*]content websites[*]one-page sites[*]authority sites


    Try finding a good product that you yourself would buy based on their pitch.
    [*]clickbank [*]amazon (has everything, why not mix it up and get money from both)

    Now pick one way to promote your site. You found success, build on exactly what you did on your other site. You know what mistakes you made and that is half the battle.

    Stick to your plan, trust me this is the biggest reason people fail. Find a route and go. You have information overload! I did too. Just do your thing and go, keep at it and do not divert from YOUR PLAN that worked for you with your 150$ site.
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  • Profile picture of the author gojiberryman
    Originally Posted by ksmusselman View Post

    • article marketing
    • affiliate marketing
    • seo optimization
    • link building
    • social media
    • yahoo buzz
    • facebook
    • twitter
    • opt-ins
    • autoresponders
    • clickbank
    • amazon
    • blogs
    • content websites
    • one-page sites
    • authority sites

    WTF? :confused:

    Maybe I'm too old to figure out all this stuff... you know, like you can't teach an old dog new tricks?

    I just haven't been able to get ANYTHING going with ANY of my sites! It took me almost two years just to get my old site up to $150/month so I could sell it for a mortgage payment and get rid of the hosting fees that I couldn't afford anymore.

    What gives??

    Every new thing I try I'm hearing, "This is the last thing you'll ever have to do..." Right. Months later...nothing. I'm so tired. And I absolutely cannot afford to keep buying this and buying that, subscribing to this and subscribing to that. My disability check just won't go that far after paying the mortgage!

    The last thing I bought was Bring the Fresh. Great program! Not one sale yet, months later. But I can't afford the Full Disclosure, can't afford to invest in the link juicer, don't have the money to keep buying up domain names, etc. So while I did learn some new stuff about Market Samurai (the free version) and Clickbank, I'm still not making any sales because I can't afford to take anything I've learned to the next level. I have no cash for all of these monthly subscriptions at $17/mo here, $37/mo there, it's just not happening.

    We (husband & me; both on disability) pay for one monthly hosting fee that allows us unlimited domain names, but I can't afford to keep buying domain names!

    Maybe I'm just one lousy Internet marketer when it comes to trying to do all of this by myself with the free stuff because I simply do not have the cash to keep investing in this or that to take anything to the next level. And I can't afford to pay anyone to do it for me either because that would just be another payment.

    I've thought of rewriting and repackaging all of my articles into PLR packages, but then I'd have to find a FREE way to market those too and nothing free has worked for me yet, so why would that?

    Maybe I need some kind of a schedule or step-by-step plan on "how" to use all of the genuine FREE tools to make "something" work.

    Meanwhile, my primary site (bookmarks) is slipping in Alexa rank and traffic, and Google even zero'd out my PR2 rank on all of my most visited pages! What's up with that??

    I'm just really blown away by everything right now and my frustration level's getting beyond control.

    Anyway, that's it. Thanks for letting me vent. :-/

    (As an aside, I even keep 15 ads fresh on craigslist for my bookmarks, I have an ad on eBay's free classifieds that I keep renewed and my husband posts flyers around our area; and I check craigslist gigs every day in every major US city... )

    My advice to you would be to sign up for traffic swarm. They are one of the most respected internet marketing companies on the net at the moment. They have over 500,00 members and climbing. It would be nearly impossible not to make at least a few sales from their membership program. I wish the very best for you and your family.
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  • Profile picture of the author Ralf Skirr
    Originally Posted by ksmusselman View Post

    • article marketing
    • affiliate marketing
    • seo optimization
    • link building
    • social media
    • yahoo buzz
    • facebook
    • twitter
    • opt-ins
    • autoresponders
    • clickbank
    • amazon
    • blogs
    • content websites
    • one-page sites
    • authority sites
    WTF? :confused:
    It's one of the big misconceptions that an internet business or any small business needs to do all these things.

    The truth is: it's neither doable nor very successful.

    Instead of trying to do every internet marketing tactic under the sun, focus on 1 specific way to make money, and execute that continously and massively.

    For example, at the end of your list you mention 4 types of web sites. Don't do it. Decide on one site only, and build and promote that 1 site.

    It's amazing how much easier life gets, once you focus on one business model, AND how much better your results are getting when all time, energy and money is used to build one thing well, instead or spreading yourself to thin.
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    • Profile picture of the author ksmusselman
      Originally Posted by Ralf Skirr View Post

      It's one of the big misconceptions that an internet business or any small business needs to do all these things.

      The truth is: it's neither doable nor very successful.

      Instead of trying to do every internet marketing tactic under the sun, focus on 1 specific way to make money, and execute that continously and massively.

      For example, at the end of your list you mention 4 types of web sites. Don't do it. Decide on one site only, and build and promote that 1 site.

      It's amazing how much easier life gets, once you focus on one business model, AND how much better your results are getting when all time, energy and money is used to build one thing well, instead or spreading yourself to thin.
      Progressing... I posted a few days ago about my primary site for wedding, etc. laminated bookmarks and got some really good feedback on that. So I'll be monitoring the effects of the complete website overhaul. The traffic is steadily increasing on that site, so I need to "retrofit" the site to make it more sales friendly. I'm going to try to find that post so I can get some feedback on the new site design.
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  • Profile picture of the author indianweddingcard
    Can you help me in seo of my site ?
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    • Profile picture of the author ksmusselman
      Originally Posted by indianweddingcard View Post

      Can you help me in seo of my site ?
      Hi!

      Since yours is a sales site like mine, sometimes it's hard to do on-site SEO because there's not much content on the sales pages themselves.

      What I did was created content - article pages - that were SEO optimized and had text links back to the sales pages. You might want to check out the other thread I mentioned in this one for tips on improving your site. http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...nversions.html

      The one thing I did notice in the page source code is that the site is kind of "upside down." In other words, your navigation is showing up before the actual content. When I used a different css and div layout for my site, thereby putting the content ahead of the images and navigation, I saw an immediate improvement in my rankings because the spiders found the content first and not the navigation. Just a suggestion.

      I'm not a PRO by any shade of the imagination; I'm only suggesting what's worked for my site being in a very competitive industry such as weddings.
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  • Profile picture of the author WarriorDiscount
    Well maybe you need to take a break for a moment..take a vacation, after tat you really need to get focus that work, only ONE, Peroid!!!
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  • We all get frustrated, what I like to do is get someone who is outside take a look inside for me, that has always worked (every single time!)
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  • Profile picture of the author tgray
    ksmusselman I have read every post here and all are very interesting and the Warriors have given you and I will add anyone who is reading this thread a lot of great ideas. I know I learned a few things. I am a Newbie and don't know much but I have lately been chasing the newest WSO's and buying left and right mostly about Amazon and Facebook super software yada, yada bla, bla. I just want to share with you a site I was lucky to find where you can get all the marketing tools you need for $9.95 per month including autoresponder, personalized landing pages for any business. a video spokesperson to walk on YOUR WEBSITE to encourage your prospects to take the next step in looking at your business. Interactive Flash Movie Presentations Lead Capture Pages You get to choose which page you want to use, AND will get your very own website URL to go with it. So you can drive as much traffic to your business as you want! As soon as your prospect submits their information on YOUR lead capture page, they are automatically directed to the replicated website of YOUR company or anywhere else YOU want to send them. Plus, an email is automatically sent to you to let you know that you had a visitor!

    All these killer tools and more. Worth taking the tour.
    I'm still new to this forum and don't know yet how to put in signatures or links at the bottom and the program would not let me put in a exact link in the body here so until I figure it out here is a puzzle to get my link.

    Just put the w's if front, . after tgray and a . before com.

    Check it out for FREE here.. tgray stiforppro com

    Hope this helps keeps your cost down with these great tools.

    Regards

    Tom
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    Regards,
    tgray

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  • Profile picture of the author Shaolinsteve
    I have had my times of going for something that I thought was going to be successful, then your left in the middle of the IM field, clueless and dissapointed why it's not working out.

    Things will work out at some point. I believe everyone has their breakthrough
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  • Profile picture of the author Rob Maggs
    Hi,

    I can appreciate your frustration because it is just so typical, statistically I've read that only 5% of Internet Marketers make money online...but why is that?

    There are many reasons and here are my findings:

    Firstly, you need to plan...if you don't know where you're going, where do you expect to get? You need to treat your online business exactly as you would when starting a business in the offline world. Put a business plan together and work out where you want to be in the short and long term. I always recommend Dennis Becker's "5 Bucks a day" to newbies, it's the book that turned things around for me and got my thinking on the right track. Learn to FOCUS and to see a project through to completion, test each strategy you use fully and if it works, rinse and repeat.

    There is also a lot of information to take in, so many people offer you an instant overnight solution and this has led to confusion. People believe that they can set up a site today and make money tomorrow. This is possible, I've done it in the past on the free blogger platform, but this is not typical.

    You need the right mindset and also be able to master many skills, because in the early days it is not possible to take on outsourcers because you don't have the finances. Also you need to be psychologically in the right place and to have some faith, I have seen people failing because they are expecting to fail and are self-sabotaging.

    If you can't afford it don't buy it! It's too easy to buy every new shiny tool that offers the answers to all your problems, I know because I frequently purchase products, and more often than not, I'll never even look at it, or if I do it may be in months time.

    Be careful with subscriptions, these can bleed you dry, if purchasing products see if you can get a lifetime license and cancel any subscription you are not utilizing fully, or seeing a return from.

    Try to focus on a couple of sites rather than a multitude, gone are the days of autoblogging, there are some sneaky ways of not alerting Google, but with the introduction of the Panda update...low quality dupe content is definitely a no,no.

    I believe if you focus on building a couple of really good quality sites you'll make much more than you will from a ton of low quality spammy sites. For example, I run 2 sites in earnest and I enjoy high traffic and a recurring income. The sites are based around my passions so they are a pleasure, rather than a chore to run.

    Traffic has never really been a problem for me, in the past I've done bum marketing and still make sales to this day from sites I haven't touched in years. It's amazing how little you need really to rank, you need a good understanding of SEO, I think that is a prerequisite, you need to have something people want, be able to passionately write about the subject and to get backlinks to establish your site's authority. You'll need to build your list and create good relationships with your followers, this works so well. Get to know people, be helpful, I think this business is pretty much Karma based. Once you have established trust then it becomes easy to sell.

    Only ever sell products that you personally use and are receiving benefits from. I never promote anything that I haven't reviewed. Why destroy the trust you have built with your buyers by offering them anything less than brilliant? I have people on my list who email me, thanking me for the recommendations I have made, this means a lot and shows that I'm doing things right.

    In conclusion, build a network of people who you can trust and with whom you can share knowledge. Start a Skype group and communicate with these people in real time, this is not unlike business networks in the offline world. Sometimes you can trade skills, or JV with the people you meet and this can lead to a lucrative living online.

    Keep working at it and you'll get there, I've been working online since 2002 but it's only over the past couple of years that I have got to the point where I'm making much more online than I did in the offline world.

    If you really want success and put the effort in I'm sure you'll get there

    Cheers

    Rob
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  • Profile picture of the author NLwarrior
    Like Rob says, get a focus! You're doing way too much. I'm only doing SEO and starting do Adwords soon, and this brings me good money each month.

    Focus and plan for the coming 4 months
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  • Profile picture of the author Noel Cunningham
    Hey - you mentioned that one of your sites is making $150 per month... Why not sit down and analyze everything about that operation and find out exactly what brings in the money... Then repeat that process with other websites, could you repeat that success in a different niche?? You bet you can!!

    It can be very overwhelming in IM with then endless amount of information out there but try to keep focused and have a plan. Don't try and do too much at once, find the one thing your successful at and repeat it over and over
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  • Profile picture of the author Cataclysm1987
    KS Musselman. Have you read this thread?

    Perhaps you should. Sounds like you are open to working hard but just not making the ROI you really want. That's a shame considering how easy it is to make money with certain services if you just get yourself out there and start marketing hard.

    The service that poster used to make 4k a month wasn't some fancy system. It was just writing articles. If you're doing all this crazy stuff to fill your SEO websites and hub pages with content, then I'm pretty sure you can do something similar to that to make a few thousand per month if you work hard.

    Consider adding that to your portfolio of ideas to make money with, then funnel whatever cash you have left over to make even more money from your mini sites.
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    • Profile picture of the author ksmusselman
      Originally Posted by Cataclysm1987 View Post

      KS Musselman. Have you read this thread?

      Perhaps you should. Sounds like you are open to working hard but just not making the ROI you really want. That's a shame considering how easy it is to make money with certain services if you just get yourself out there and start marketing hard.

      The service that poster used to make 4k a month wasn't some fancy system. It was just writing articles. If you're doing all this crazy stuff to fill your SEO websites and hub pages with content, then I'm pretty sure you can do something similar to that to make a few thousand per month if you work hard.

      Consider adding that to your portfolio of ideas to make money with, then funnel whatever cash you have left over to make even more money from your mini sites.
      Thank you for the link to that thread. A very interesting article and great advice for those who can "write on demand" and sometimes I envy those who can. And honestly, I thought about doing that decades ago, especially after acing two journalism courses in college. Before the Internet, I read and studied books on syndicating columns, writing for other people, etc.

      I've bought countless books and tried all of the "tricks of the trade" on how to write fast, etc. I even recently bought Tiffany Dow's awesome program on writing PLR; she's a writer I really envy! Oh to write like Tiffany! (only in my dreams LOL)

      However, (rather than saying BUT) - one of my weaknesses is not having the ability to "write on demand" about things that other people are interested in but I have no knowledge of or interest in myself. My cheap-hockey-sticks website is a prime example of that. I own the site but hockey is my son's thing, not mine. And even though I drew from memory for the few articles that are on that site, I've done nothing but struggle with it from day one.

      I can write like the wind if it's something that I'm interested in, but when it comes time to writing for other people? Well, I'll be honest - I suck at it, to put it bluntly. If I have no passion for the topic, it shows dramatically in my writing. And that's not what people want.

      Even my own PLR site is faltering because I just haven't been able to bring myself to sit down and write about stuff I don't know about and I'm not interested in. I've known this since college though and I finally accepted the fact that even though I enjoy writing - it must be about a topic that I enjoy and have an interest in or nobody's going to want to read it! ROFL

      I even aced a course with Writer's Digest but I struggled through it when it was something I didn't know or even care about.

      So in my opinion, if it's going to take me two days to crank out one or two articles because I need to force myself to be interested in the topic, I'm not going to have that many clients lined up because it's going to take too long to crank out the material. It's like doing a gig on fiverr that's going to take you an hour to complete. I'd be working for $1.25/hour!

      I envy the writers that have even more of a passion for writing than I do and can write about anything at all with conviction and passion and churn out 15+ articles in one day. I still haven't figured out how to turn out that many articles in a day even when it's for my own site let alone for a client list.

      Oh, and I've been writing since I was a kid... I'm not ashamed to say I'll be 54 yrs old this year so I learned and accepted the fact 30 years ago that writing for a living wasn't going to be in the cards for me. If I was going to be in business for myself and earn a decent living, I was going to have to pick a different industry.
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  • Profile picture of the author tylerlam
    Hi Ksmusselman,

    Let me tell you I was in the exact place you were in about 1 year ago. I was unemployed for 6 months and about $5,000 in debt. I was 1 month away from having to sell my car. I looked to internet marketing as a source of getting some income and was continuing meeting dead ends. My first 2 websites were utter failures. So I kept reading and buying WSO in the hope I will find this big secret and they were all crap in the end. My big change came when I decided to stop reading and just start building. Now I have a full time job as a web developer and have 2 sites making consistent income with barely any work. I have 6 more sites on the way that is built on the same concept and have different ideas that I have plans for six months down the line. All you need is 1 site that works and then learn from it.

    I know it might sound shady but you can even rebuild that site your sold last year and make it even better. You know it makes money so why not just replicate it again! But I think you are on the right track though with all the other user comments, just don't give up!
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    • Profile picture of the author ksmusselman
      Originally Posted by tylerlam View Post


      I know it might sound shady but you can even rebuild that site your sold last year and make it even better. You know it makes money so why not just replicate it again! But I think you are on the right track though with all the other user comments, just don't give up!
      I've actually thought about doing that... I think I have two more years on the non-compete clause yet and then I could. But do I want to? hmmm

      I have taken some of the articles I wrote for that site and did complete overhauls on them so they were 500% unique and used them for the wedding favors articles on my bookmarks site. I know more about keyword research and building site now than I did then too.

      So yeah, I could do that and recreate the passive AdSense income that I had going on that site. But I'd pick a new domain name and article names and stuff and carve the niche down some. I think my old site was actually a bit too broad and not very interactive. And it's in an extremely competitive niche.

      But I have given it some thought.
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  • Profile picture of the author magiccashlady
    As a Coach who deals with ADHD (Attention Deficit Highly Distracted) I can relate to you, not the unsuccessful part but buying and paying for things that I had no time to implement. So take all the advise from the previous warriors and start with the top priority. If you have not made a consitent amount of money online its because you are not marketing effectively or enough on a consistent basis.

    I would suggest working with one method and track track track, tweek tweek until its right.

    AND stop worrying about money and think about how your products or services will help others.

    When I did this over 5 years ago because of a mastermind group I was in, I went from breakeven to tripling my income (no need for #'s just know it's true)

    Plus I changed my negative thoughts to more affirming thoughts and continued to work in a postive space and improved on my focus day after day. Like today, Im going to make relevant post to be more active in the warrior forum. It's a small goal and time consuming but at the same time. I set a goal, taking action now and when it is accomplished moving to my next move.

    Be consistent and using free marketing effectively will bring you traffic and results. Just keep it up. Build your list and ask them what they want or do test inside of warrior forum to see what you can offer this community.

    Ive been contacted and actually made connection within warrior forum that brought me addtional income just last week. NEVER EVER Give up.
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  • Profile picture of the author ericbryant
    Get a coach, get into a training system, no matter what it takes. If you have to do a weekend part time job to get $500 or $600 to sign up for Jason Fladlein & Wil Matthos coaching, just do it. You'll be glad you did. Things will turn around quickly.
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  • Profile picture of the author Mike Ogbin
    So many people are so frustrated as a result of not focusing in doing one thing. I was also done this.

    The thing that I did when I was frustrated and losing control. Is that I create a separate account with just $50 for my Online Business. I start doing small things to people and getting a small fee from them. I opened accounts in Fiverr and Similar sites to get some money for growing up my online business from the money that I got.

    Please avoid the "get rich quick scheme" craps that full the net. Believe in yourself and never give up because life is more enjoyable when you see it with a positive Thinking.
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  • Profile picture of the author seobro
    I learn this on Ebay back in the 90's. Basically, if you want to sell you need images. Pictures have to clean, sharp, and crisp. Other wise people will not but your product or service. Keep your mind focused on selling your item to the consumer. That means no excess copy. Get to the point fast and issue your call to action as in BUY now!
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  • Profile picture of the author averagemom
    yep! it's a long hard road. The learning curve is huge and on top of that I end up buying everything they say is the "next best thing". But then, I stopped the madness, stopped the buying and took a step back to analyze my situation. I jumped into a different realm from affiliate marketing but still making money online program. Now, I am back to affiliate marketing with a whole new outlook on how it's supposed to be done. And I'm not going to buy any new ebooks. Only useful plugins or software for my wordpress site that helps make the process of creating my sites a bit easier.
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    I don't do adsense, wordpress, amazon, or clickbank affiliate marketing anymore.

    I've moved on to something better. At least for me.
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  • Profile picture of the author simonkoen
    I know exactly how you feel, it is way beyond frustration, it all changed for me after I became part of this very good strategy . You can get FREE info below.



    Click Here
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  • Profile picture of the author geraldsoh
    You need to focus on one thing at a time. There are many ways to earn money online. Find your strength and interest, then work on it! All the best!
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  • I hear you. That is alot of stuff. You have to simplify it. This is what works:

    1) Build your list!!!
    2) Create products
    3) Have affiliates promote your products and build your list for you by making sure they make lots of money.

    "You can get whatever you want by helping enough people get whatever they want"
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    • Profile picture of the author Big Rob
      Originally Posted by Resale Rights Ninja View Post


      "You can get whatever you want by helping enough people get whatever they want"
      I think this is the magic we are all looking for.

      I can commiserate with the OP. I still battle the BSOS ( bright shiny object syndrome) everyday.

      The best advice I can give is to start creating your own products.

      You can even create a product on BSOS !

      Wait, I take that back! Nobody steal that!

      Behave!
      Rob
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  • Profile picture of the author Scott Newman
    This sounds like a broken record for alot of people trying to market online... with all the tools, tactics, strategies and automated software, you'd think we all would be making a hefty income in sales. All my struggles initially came from just learning and get others to help through outsourcing and other providers.

    Then was the depending on others to deliver for me and to me suprise most did not! lol - I'm sure you understand! Now it was on to the learming curve... ftp, hosting, html code, autoresponders, courses, courses and more courses.

    Today, building a content network in a niche and trying to driven various traffic sources. My hat is off to all the "start from scratch" marketers that try to persevere!!

    Good luck guy and keep truckin on...
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  • Profile picture of the author Tadresources
    I can understand why you're frustrated, but like many other posters said, you're already doing something right, so all you have to do is get that to the next level. A great product would make all the different IMO.
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  • Profile picture of the author Brendan Carl
    You should definitely check out Alex Jeffreys's coaching program. I bought the WSO for 27 dollars on this site, and it is definitely worth every penny. I just started my blog last week, I already have a couple posts, and am focusing on driving traffic. His coaching videos provide extremely clear instruction, and most of all, he inspires his students to take action with a very clear direction and focus. No more product hopping - I do not even feel a desire to buy anything anymore. I already have what I need.

    Not to promote one product or anything... I've just had experience with his coaching.
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  • Profile picture of the author WinstonThaler
    ksmusselman,

    Does this below sound a lot like you...?

    You've gone to Bring The Fresh, you've learnt SEO about onpage SEO, and backlinking methods on offpage SEO...

    You've learnt about setting up sites to rank in keywords with low competition usually below 100K SEOC based on market research software like Market Samurai or Micro Niche Finder...

    You're going for affiliate sales... You're trying to sell on Adsense, on Amazon, on Clickbank products... or even Ebay...

    This sounded exactly like the situation of a few of my students - and if they can break the barrier and earn a consistent income, then it's obvious that you can, too.

    They have a system that has...

    [X] No painful or mind-blogging SEO - That means you no longer have to fidget around with buying chunks of articles, thinking about PR and link juice and how to go around Google's head like a ninja...
    [X] No more article marketing.
    [X] No more content websites, one-page, authority sites.
    [X] No more affiliating on Clickbank, Amazon, Ebay, CPA, Adsense.

    You've seeked the help of others - and sometimes you even *expect* the kind of comments you get: Either from product communities that you've bought into, or free communities like the Warrior Forum...

    They go on about "Shiny Objects", "procrastination"... But yeah you know it all. You know about "Information Overload" too.

    Blimey, you're screaming in your head quietly... "I know all that, but I can't fix that!"

    You know what? You just need a right mentor. If you have all that money to invest in some course and *try* to figure it out, I'd rather you pay for some good investments like in a brilliant, long-standing mentorship.

    I know other Warriors here who coach for free like me. (Note: I'm not self-advertising myself - In fact, my students need to pass my requirements before they even get mentored.) Really, there are great Warriors in here who will help you out for free.

    Just stop with the baloney and poppycock cycles!

    You know how rejuvenating and hopeful the start goes... and then when that flame of enthusiasm dies off with no results... You just go back to that "flat, hopeless" zombie-mode.

    Don't worry - many started out like that.

    Regards,
    Winston
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  • Profile picture of the author genuine86
    I can relate to this. I've tried so many methods and I'm still not creating any significant income. However, I will never give up until I make it.
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    • Profile picture of the author philhunter
      Originally Posted by genuine86 View Post

      I can relate to this. I've tried so many methods and I'm still not creating any significant income. However, I will never give up until I make it.
      Sticking to one method until you are making a substantial income is best IMO, flitting from method to method will only waste time, you need to find something that works and become the very best at it before moving to something else.
      Signature
      **Brand New Hot New Clickbank Launch** Earn Over $108 Per Sale + Rebills - Click HERE For All The Details!
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  • Profile picture of the author IMWarrior0
    Some great advice there guys like everyone says stay focused, focus is the key
    it is so easy to be overloaded on the net "pick a horse and Ride that horse"
    hey Bcarl6 Im on the Alex Jeffreys Marketing Course as well highly recommended good to see other people on this forum.
    Good Luck
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  • Profile picture of the author smartiewriter
    Hi Ksmusselman,
    I have been doing internet marketing for 5 years and have a lot of trial and error experiences like yourself. I could give you some personal feedback on what few things have actually made me money and which ones wasted my money. You can PM me if you like.
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  • Profile picture of the author Hayley McKeever
    Hi there! You sound just like me a year ago! Listen, I know it's been already said but I'll add my two pence for you. You are definately concentrating on too many things at once. I was the same - I was trying to build a site, do facebook & twitter, write articles, design a blog and on and on.... to be honest I got nowhere fast. In 6 months I only managed to get 1 subscriber. So I decided to stop and take a break and start again. I looked at my goals and decided on the reasons why I was doing what I was doing. Then I did a lot of research and decided to find a good mentor, and a training program which meant I had a step by step plan to follow. And thank goodness I did! One of the main points of the training is to pick ONE form of marketing and stick with it until it is bringing you results. After just one week, with just a small amount of effort I had 3 subscribers! No great shakes, but I figured it was a start and what I was doing was working, so I just had to keep going.
    I really hope this helps you. Good luck with all your efforts!
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  • Profile picture of the author loi77
    I can honestly understand the frustration of the OP, I believe many people are in the same boat.

    The Gurus don't have your best interest at heart. Their goal is to have lots of people in your situation so they can promote their products non-stop. For them, this is an evergreen niche.

    I used to be like that too. Now I have a coach to help me FOCUS as others have said. It has definitely made a tremendous difference.

    Stick to 1 method and master it.

    All the best,
    David Loi
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