Click here to test drive Earn1KaDay!

I realized that I often mention different sites I use, or places I frequent to learn more about how to make money online – and one of the places I mention alot is Earn1KaDay.  I also realized that while I talk about it alot, maybe I haven’t really given any of my readers an indication of what all is inside this exclusive membership site, not to mention the internet marketing training they will find once inside.

I have been online for over 5 years, and in those years, I have spent more money than I care to even think about on wasted products and programs that promised to give me the answers I needed.  And, that includes spending money on membership sites that just didn’t deliver what they said.

I would start out with a membership site full of excitement, but after one or two months, I would realize that everything they promised just wasn’t being delivered.  There wasn’t the sense of community and often trying to find answers to any questions that came up was pretty much impossible.

Luckily for me though, I took a chance on just one more membership site in May of 2007.

Click here for your copy of 5 Bucks a Day...

See, I had purchased and read a book called 5 Bucks a Day, by someone named Dennis Becker.  He wasn’t anyone I had heard about at that time, but the book looked like it would be an interesting read.  And, like many others I have talked to who have read that book, it actually changed their lives in the sense that they stopped trying to find that “holy grail” of internet marketing, and helped them to sit down and finally start making some money.

Not alot at first, which is the premise behind the book.  Without giving too much away, it essentially talks about how the author started taking simple strategies and put them into practice every day until he got to where he is now – which is exactly where everyone who is starting in internet marketing wants to be.

It is no fluff, and it isn’t full of empty promises.  And, it has been a real eye opener for so many of us.

So – back to May of 2007.  Dennis Becker, the guy who had written 5 Bucks a Day, sent out an email saying he was starting a little membership site for anyone interested in joining.  It would be geared towards showing simple strategies to follow, teaching different methods that people could use to start making money online.  And, it would hopefully take us from making 5 bucks a day to the $1000 a day mark.  (And, just so that you know, there are alot of people in this membership site who have hit that goal….)

I figured I’d give it a try because he seemed like a pretty good guy, and “one of us” – not one of the unapproachable “gurus” that ran many of the other sites I had tried.

And, as you realize now, that was over 4 years ago now and I have been a member since the beginning.  I have never canceled, and it is the one place I do go to regularly and feel a part of a community.

It isn’t like so many of the other internet marketing communities and forums.  It is a lot more than that.

You aren’t afraid to ask questions in there.  You will never be told to use the search function – if you are, they will most often give you the direct link to another thread that can help you.  The people genuinely help each other and feel a loyalty to all members.  In fact, most of the people in there will tell you that once they join, they wouldn’t dream of leaving.

There are some of the “bigger” names in IM inside too who, along with Dennis, offer real valuable advice and knowledge.  There are special deals only for members of E1KAD.  And, Dennis picks up tons of material that we can use to grow our businesses – either through reselling, using as PLR or even just to learn from.

The wealth of information that is available in there is absolutely unbeleivable – but that isn’t even the best part of the membership.  It is the genuine help each member gives to others.  The little tips here and there that can make such a difference.

There is not one person inside this membership area who feels they are above anyone else, and that shows through in every post that is made.  There is a group of people who really help each other and who want to see others succeed.

It is one site that I can honestly say has made one of the biggest impacts to my business.  The knowledge I have picked up, the material I have been able to use, the tricks and tips that people openly share, have all been “mushed” together to give me so much more than I could have ever found if I had kept going along the path I was….(buying every WSO and new product being offered promising untold riches….).

And, that is why I talk about it as much as I do.  And, why I felt it was time to finally give it the honest review it deserves.  Because it is the kind of site that can do more for your business than anything you could imagine – but too many people are afraid they will be burned by another product that is “overhyped”.

Well, I can honestly say that this is one community that I am sure most of the members can say has attributed in one way or another to their success – no matter what level of success they have achieved.

**If you would like to read the book that got all of this started, you can pick it up by clicking here……5 Bucks a Day

**Or, if you would would like to take the Earn1KaDay test drive, click here….you will get access to everything for just $2.95 for a whole 10 days. There is no better deal out there than that!  And, the price you will then pay each month after is nothing compared to what you will get out of it.

But, make sure you get in and ask questions if you have any.  Read through just some of the information that is there – really get a good understanding of what all is included, because even though there are a ton of downloads – there is so much more you will get from the members area.

Well, the past few weeks have been a ride.  I have been feeling guilty for neglecting this blog in the madness of everything else I am trying to do – so the truth is, I actually posted the site for sale a couple of weeks ago.  It was a decision that was incredibly hard for me to do, because I have spent so much time building the site to this point.

But, I just felt I wasn’t giving it everything it deserved.  See, I was having a hard time knowing where to focus the site which led me to put off posting as a way to maybe avoid trying to decide where to go with it.

When I started this site, I had plans for it to be an “everything” site – including every possible way a mom could make money online.  And, for awhile, that was where it was going.

However, over the past year or so, I have realized that as I go in my own directions – it is easier for me to focus on discussing what I am doing myself.  So, that would be affiliate marketing and Internet Marketing in general.  That is what I love – and that is what I do.

I have also made my living through freelance writing online – so that is another thing I feel confident talking about and helping with.

When I realized I couldn’t possibly give honest help with all of the other stuff – telecommuting, direct sales – anything else really, I wasn’t sure how to bring the blog into just the direction I wanted.

Finally, after getting some offers for the site – I realized I wasn’t really ready to sell it.  I just couldn’t bring myself to do it.

So – what I am going to do, is from now on focus on what I know.  And what I am sure I can help others with.  I won’t have daily online job listings, or information on direct sales business (other than whatever was posted previously).

From here on in, the site will focus on Internet Marketing, with strong emphasis on SEO, affiliate marketing, article marketing, and every aspect of it that I have personally had success with.  Anything else would be just too hard to offer when I don’t have a great deal of experience with it myself.

I will still have the occasional bit of information about freelance writing – because that is another subject I have knowledge in, which I feel I am able to help other moms with.  And, I believe it is a very good way to get your feet wet online – and making some money to put into your IM business.

I love Internet Marketing – and I look forward to helping every one of you learn what you need to be successful online.  If you have any questions you would like me to try answering, then go ahead and comment.  I will do whatever I can to answer in a future post.

And for now – I am so glad I held onto my “baby”.  I don’t think I could have ever felt good about letting this site go.  So there may be some changes in the site over the next few days.  And then, this can be your site to come to if you are a mom (or anyone else for that matter;-) and you want to learn more about Internet Marketing.

So – I have been a member of Bring the Fresh for a few months now and I have been busy putting all of the information they offer to work.  And, I have to say that I am starting to see results – slowly and steadily a couple of sites that I have put together with their strategies are moving up and hopefully soon, the income will increase.

I have to admit, there are some strategies that I wasn’t able to do to the extent that I would have liked.  Some of the things would have required a bit more money than I have available right now to automate – and the truth is, even though I have tried to the best of my ability to do everything I could on my own, there are just not enough hours in the day sometimes to do it all.

My overall impression of Bring the Fresh has been completely positive.  Kelly and Mike go above and beyond to help everyone – and the community that is inside the membership area is incredible.  I didn’t think it was possible to learn anything “truly” new in IM after being around for so long.  So often when you buy something it is rehashed material put into new words.

But BTF isn’t like that.  There is some stuff that really is common sense – but they put everything together in a format that shows you how and why you need to do some of these things.  You can’t just build a website and then hope people will find it – then move onto a new one.  And sadly, that is too often what people are doing.

We are taught to find that perfect niche.  Look for the one that has hungry buyers, with tons of searches in Google every day.  Build a site, throw up some affiliate links and you will be rich in a week.

Well – it doesn’t really work like that, and if that is what you are being taught, then you need to stop.

Finding the niche and building the perfect site will mean nothing if you aren’t getting traffic to your site – and that is where BTF focuses.

I have nothing but good things to say about Bring the Fresh – so if getting traffic is something you are struggling with, then by all means – give these guys a chance to show you what you need to do.  It is refreshing to actually log in to your Awstats and see visitors coming to your site!!

And as for me – time to get back to work on getting the traffic!

Happy New Year!

*If you go ahead and get your own membership at Bring the Fresh – when you buy through my link, contact me through the form on this site with your Clickbank transaction number and I will send you out a couple other reports about getting traffic.  They are pretty good little reports full of some of the basics to getting traffic to your websites – without the confusion:-)  And yes, the link above is an affiliate link – so I will get a few dollars for referring you to the site.  Not enough to retire on, but hopefully it can keep my chocolate supply stocked up;-)

Sign up for Bring the Fresh today!

OK – so I have been diligently going through all of the material in the Bring the Fresh Full Disclosure area, and I have to tell you, I haven’t even got to the half way mark! Here is what I am finding so far:

There is ALOT of information in there. But – if I am going to be completely honest in my review, I have to admit that videos are not my favorite teaching method. I know that there are alot of people out there who believe that video adds value and they would rather watch a video than read about it.

These videos are great – don’t get me wrong. And they need videos for the method that they have chosen to teach. Everything is over the shoulder watching them do exactly step by step what they do every day. Which is great – but I also like to have a Cliff’s notes version to print off and use. After watching a few videos, it is easy for me to forget points that were taught in one of the earlier videos, or want to go back and clarify something, but I can’t remember which video it was in.

And – there are ALOT of videos (I think I have mentioned that, haven’t I?;-) It might take me another couple of months to see everything. But, to be fair, I have been trying to build a few sites along with the videos so that is taking time too. I wanted to try working along with it because it would take awhile to get through everything and I figured it would be a good idea to start getting some sites up and ranked.

Anyway – as for the content, it is incredible. It really is. What is incredible I think is that there really isn’t anything earth shattering – alot of what they are teaching is stuff I had heard about, but the way they do it just makes so much more sense. I am afraid I am just as guilty as everyone else who has been online for any length of time who keeps thinking that magic bullet is out there.

Bring the Fresh pretty much takes you by the hand and shows you the work you need to do. It isn’t hard, and it isn’t rocket science (as they keep pointing out…), it just takes some basic SEO concepts and a bit of work.

And, they do show little tricks and strategies to help – things that I am kind of wondering if maybe some of the other “guru’s” neglect mentioning because of fear that once people learn about them, they won’t need to buy any more of their “learn how you can make money overnight” products.

I am very happy with my membership so far – I am learning how to get back to the basics and put in the effort for good SEO. I have learned that many of the sites I have put up in the past just didn’t have the right search volume, or the proper SEO – which is why they never seemed to be getting where they needed to be. So now I am focusing on the methods they are teaching and I am already seeing results.

If you want to join me in learning about choosing niche markets and getting your sites ranked, go now to Bring the Fresh.

Well, I took a couple extra days longer than expected to post back.  But, I went ahead and signed up for the program I was talking about, and I have been spending alot of time going through just a small fraction of the material.  And, truth is – I got kind of focused on the material because it was…how would I describe it….kind of like that book you read that you can’t put down.  I got watching videos and reading stuff, and wanted to keep going.  I am nowhere near getting through everything, but I wanted to post back on what I have found so far.

OK – so I guess it is time to mention the name of the product.  It is called Bring the Fresh, and it has actually been around for almost a year now I think.  I remember when it came out and I thought – “great, another product put together by a couple of ‘guru’s’ who will charge an arm and a leg and forget about the little guy that is still struggling to see their first dollar online”.  The price is a bit higher – it is $97 for the initial membership.  It gets you access to over the shoulder videos and action steps to take in getting your sites ranked and bringing traffic to your websites.  (Which of course, is the absolutely most important part of online marketing.  You can have all the best offers, and fancy bells and whistles on your site – but if you don’t have traffic, what is the point?)

But, I went ahead and purchased the Full Disclosure membership.  It is going to cost me $67 a month for the next 6 months – and then I will have complete access for life.  I thought about waiting and going through all of the basic material first, but I decided to challenge myself.  I need to make the $67 to pay for the monthly membership strictly from what I learn in the Bring the Fresh training – so I need to make that before the next monthly payment goes out.  I thought that by challenging myself, I would put more out there.

So far – here is what I have found:

When I originally went to the salespage – Bring the Fresh – there wasn’t really anything that jumped out at me in particular.  All the salespage is really, is a great big testimonial from Travis Sago (the Bum Marketer).  I wasn’t completely “in love” with the salesletter, and the truth is, if I came across it on my own, I likely wouldn’t have felt justified to shell out $97.   (Just my opinion – I am sure they have tested and it must be converting…)

But, I had heard alot of talk and murmerings on Internet Marketing forums, and review sites.  I heard some marketers who I follow and have alot of respect for giving it pretty good reviews.  So, since I had already pretty much decided I was going to give it a try, the salesletter wasn’t a big deal to me.

What DID clinch the deal for me, was when I used the contact form to ask a few questions about Bring the Fresh.  I sent it in, and I even mentioned that even though I was sure I wasn’t going to actually be speaking to Mike or Kelly (the “guru’s” behind the program), I was hoping that whoever I did talk to would be able to give me some answers.

I was pretty surprised when I heard back from Mike himself.  I have contacted quite a few “guru’s” in my time, and I don’t remember ever hearing from anyone other than their support team!  And while I am sure that alot of what he wrote back to me was prewritten, (understandable when they likely get asked the exact same questions hundreds of times) there were specific answers in there that at least let me know he had read my email and was responding to me.  So – that was a big plus in their favor!

Anyway – I went ahead and bought my membership at the end of last week.  There is a lot of stuff in there, let me tell ya!  But, if you don’t like watching videos, let me warn you.  There are ALOT of videos.

These videos take you over the shoulder watching these guys as they work – which is remarkable.  Truth is, I am not a big fan of videos.  I find that there is a lot of extra stuff that takes time up – where if I was reading, it would take me less time.  But, I see the reason for needing videos when I start watching them.

They seriously take your hand and guide you through EVERYTHING!  I was fast forwarding through a lot of the stuff in the beginning when they were setting up WordPress and forwarding domains etc. because I already know how to do that.  But, for beginners, I thought that was a very nice touch.  So many times you get a product and it tells you to do these things, but don’t show you.

As for Mike and Kelly – if you haven’t heard who they are, let me give you some background.  Kelly Felix is the guy responsible for the “Rich Jerk”.  If you have been involved in internet marketing for awhile – even if you haven’t – you will likely have heard about him.  He has made millions of dollars on the internet, and I have to say watching him in the videos is a bit of an eye-opener.  You would expect him to be this larger than life, complete “know it all”, but that isn’t what he comes across as at all.  In fact, as I was watching his first few videos, I was kind of surprised to see him making little “mistakes” and pretty much working exactly how I work myself.

And Mike Long is responsible for some pretty well known launches in IM, and was apparently involved in some big money making projects.  He definitely knows his stuff too, and together they bring a lot of knowledge to the table.

The thing is, alot of the stuff they are teaching isn’t ground breaking or brand new – and I already knew alot of the SEO stuff.  But, it is their method and ideas that give you those little “aha!” moments.

There is an active forum where both Mike and Kelly are involved – and there are a lot of others who are willing to give a hand.

So – I guess so far, I am impressed, however I am still not 100% sure that everything is worth the full price.  (It is definitely worth the $97 – just going to hold out on my opinion of the 6 month membership payments….)  I will keep working at it, and let you know.

If you would like to sign up, and go through some of the learning material as I do, go to Bring the Fresh and get started.  If you want to learn SEO and how to simplify things – then it is a very good choice.  I don’t know if you need the Full Disclosure yet – unless you are sure.  Try the basic membership first, and if you think you want to learn more at that point, upgrade your membership then.  (When you originally pay, they give you the option to upgrade – and you might feel like that is your last chance to do so.  It isn’t – you can upgrade at any time even after you have gone through all the Basic material).

Stay tuned!  I am working on a couple of sites following their methods and will report back as soon as I see some results (or lack of….).  I feel a bit more confident now in what I am doing affiliate marketing wise thanks to the videos, so hopefully I will be able to start putting everything together.

(*Remember – if you do decide to purchase the program through my links, I will get an affiliate commission.  But, as always, I do not promote anything that I don’t think is worth the money – which is why I am being honest in letting you know that I don’t know yet if the Full Disclosure membership is worth it or not.  Since I haven’t gone through it all myself, I can’t honestly say.)

OK – for those of you who read my blog regularly, you likely notice from time to time lately that the look changes.  Yes – it is supposed to be doing that, because I am somewhat of a perfectionist when it comes to some things, so I have been trying new themes out to see how they look and feel.  So – don’t be alarmed if you come here one day and everything looks different than it did the last time!  I think I have settled on one design that I like, but feel free to leave a comment or let me know if you see one you really like, or even one that you really hate!

I am about to start reviewing a product that I am going to pick up today.  It is a higher priced product ($97), so I wanted to start going through it myself to let my readers see some honest feedback about how it works.  I have bought so many different products over the years, and some have taught me a little, some have taught me absolutely nothing but how to throw my money out the window.

New Case Study – Marketing Online

So I thought I would like to try doing something I haven’t done on this blog before.  I am going to get a product that I have heard very high reviews about, and I am going to start from scratch using the methods in it.  I will be completely honest in what I say about it – in fact, I have already spoken to the creator and told him I am going to be doing a review about it on my blog.
I am impressed so far – because I received a personal reply from him answering some questions I had about the product before I order.  Not many “guru’s” will do that – I have been around long enough (over 5 years) to know that for a fact.

I am not going to tell you what the product is yet.  I am going to pick it up later today and start going through some of the material.  I will post tomorrow with some of my thoughts.

This is something that will be of interest to anyone who wants to learn more about how to make money using the internet.  It is for those interested in affiliate marketing, blogging, SEO – really anything that has to do with marketing online.

Freelance Writing for Magazines Course

And, for those who have written to me to let me know that you are interested in learning more about freelance writing, don’t forget that you can now get a copy of the Freelance writing on the Web guide here.  But, if you are interested in learning more about freelance writing for magazines – then I have some good news for you too!

I know I had quite a few of you contact me saying you would like to learn more about magazine freelance writing.  Because I have been making money with freelance writing online for awhile now, I thought I would like to try being published.  The pay is WAY more for the work you do, and you can write about topics that are actually of interest to you.

I have been taking a course for the past few weeks with a freelance writer who has been published in many magazines, and who is well known in the freelance writing world.  I am going to do a review of that course as well for those who are interested.

So – that is what is in store on my blog for the next few weeks.  If you are wanting to share in the case study of the program I am picking up today, or if you want to be sure to catch my review on the freelance writing course, then I hope you will be sure to subscribe to my blog so that you can get updates!

I hope that we can all learn together – and I can share some of what I feel about the courses to help you out. I am looking forward to getting started!

Well, I have now got a couple of sites up following the Amazon auto-updating plugin model.  While it is nowhere near enough time to really judge how things have worked out, and I really don’t have enough sites to really get an accurate picture – I do want to let you know my results so far.

As I had mentioned in a previous update – I had 2 orders within just a few days of finishing up the first site.  I have had a few clicks here and there since then.

Meanwhile, I had built another site – this one using keywords for my domain name, after doing some keyword research to choose my niche.  This site is taking a little longer to get the traffic to it, simply because it is new.   The first site was one I had for awhile, so it was already getting some traffic.

I have had 2 more orders yesterday on my first site – so in total, I have had 4 orders out of about 80 clicks.  And I think I should also mention – I have really done nothing to promote these sites yet.  I am going to do some social bookmarking and link building – but really, up until this time, I have done nothing.

That isn’t a very bad conversion rate at all, when you consider conversion rates on some digital products.  So, for anyone who doesn’t think using Amazon is worthwhile with the lower comission rates, remember – you have the trust factor with Amazon that you just don’t have anywhere else.

It is so much easier to make a sale through Amazon simply because everyone has heard of it, they trust it – and many people have even already purchased through them.  And, although it seems that so many people complain about the commissions for Amazon, really it is on par with many other companies that offer an affiliate program.  The thing you need to remember is that with physical products, there are many other costs involved for the merchant – they have had to pay for the product at cost, then there are all the other costs with running a business, such as paying employees, overhead and everything else.  So, of course a physical product simply cannot offer the commission structures of a digital product.

But, in my opinion – when you are working with the trust factor of Amazon, not to mention their incredible upsell sequence they offer – it is just much easier to convert visitors to buyers with Amazon.  2 of the 4 purchases I had were for things that I hadn’t put on my site, the customer was just picking them up to add on to their order while they were buying the original product.

So – if you were to get enough sites out there, or get enough traffic to your sites with Amazon feeds – I really do think this is a very viable money stream to add to your affiliate marketing efforts.  I know I am getting a few more sites put up this week – I will let you know after a few weeks how things are going.

Meanwhile, go ahead and get your own Amazon sites set up!  The sooner you start building them, the sooner you will see just what possibilities there are!

Here is the link to my original article, which outlines what kind of model I was using.  There are some links that you can use to get information on keyword research, choosing a niche, setting up a WP site – everything you need to get started.

Affiliate Marketing Case Study – Step One

Affiliate Marketing Case Study – Update

I would love to hear your own experiences with Amazon, or your thoughts on using Amazon as a possible revenue stream!

I just wanted to do a quick post here today, as I am busy doing some more sites.  But, I had to come and let you know my results so far!

After just one day of having the Amazon plugin installed, and completely redoing my site…….I had 3 orders through Amazon!  I only had 6 clicks – but 3 of them ordered!

I was so surprised – and I know that it does help that I was already getting traffic to the site, but it still isn’t a large amount – averaging about 40 a day.

Because Amazon doesn’t show any amounts until the order is actually shipped (I believe), I didn’t see until today what I had even made.  It isn’t a huge winfall by any means – only $8 and some change – but seriously….if you can’t see the potential in this, then I don’t know what to say!

Get enough of these sites out there working like this every day, and you will start to see something building up that will continue to make you money every month.

So – I am back to work now on another site to start building up my niche blog real estate!

While I have actually been doing Affiliate Marketing for awhile – I know that there is still a lot I need to learn, so I decided to do my own case study of a method that I am trying.  Basically, it consists of setting up niche blog sites – taking a lot of information from a man who has seen quite a bit of success with this model.  You can get access to a ton of free information and videos outlining every single detail of getting set up at www.supersimpleblogging.com

I already know how to set up a blog and had a pretty good idea of keyword research already, but I still picked up some very good tips that I didn’t know about.  I didn’t watch the videos about installing the WordPress blogs or anything like that, but for those of you who are just starting out, and who have no idea of how to do any of this stuff – trust me, there is no better resource out there.  He literally walks you through every single step.

Anyway – I am kind of adding some of my own twists to it, but for the most part, I will be doing things as outlined by him.

The first blog I decided to do, was actually one I have had for awhile but hadn’t done anything with.  It is a site about cats – so following with this model, I decided to use Amazon to display products that people would be interested in.

In the course, he says to find a keyword rich domain name, which this blog isn’t, but I wanted to do something with it, so thought this would be a good one to start with.  It is already getting traffic to it, has been indexed and has some age, so I thought that would be an advantage – even without the keyword domain name.  The site is www.aloveforcats.com

The first thing I did, after I decided I was going to try using Amazon for most of these sites, was get a plugin that would make my work a lot easier.  I know that a lot of people say that Amazon is a waste of time, because their affiliate commissions are so low, but my thinking is that everyone knows about Amazon, and has already likely shopped with them – and they already have that trust factor, so it is easier to convince people to purchase.  Plus, they have a ton of stuff to choose from – more than just books – so it makes setting up niche sites very simple.

I will likely still do some sites using Clickbank products – because the payouts are very good – but for now, I am setting up these Amazon sites.

If some of this seems foreign to you, or if you are confused about any of it – I do really suggest you sign up and start going through some of the videos he provides – very informative information that you can use in all areas of Internet Marketing.

So!  I had mentioned getting a plugin which pulls in Amazon data.  I did some research, and ended up going with one provided by a fellow Warrior at the Warrior Forum.  The plugin is www.wpzonbuilder.com.  It is very simple to use, and it seems to be working very well.  It was affordable too, and if you are planning on doing a bunch of these sites, this is the most cost effective and simple way of getting them done.

Once I got the plugin set up, I started doing some more keyword research.  I already had an idea of keywords I would be targeting, but I went through and did some of the things I learned about in the videos – and found some more.

Then, I simply set up my categories, and started adding the products through the plugin.  It took me a matter of maybe two hours, from start to finish – and a lot of that time was me having to redo some things that I did wrong (I forgot to add categories to some of the products – so I had to go and redo that).

But, everything went fairly smoothly – and I am pretty impressed so far.  I have it set up now that more products will be added over the next few weeks – and meanwhile, I am moving on to the next step today, which is building some links, submitting my sitemap and some other necessary tasks to get the traffic built up that is coming in.

I hope you will follow along – and give me a kick every now and then if I am falling behind!

And, go ahead and sign up at www.supersimpleblogging.com – like I said, it is completely free and you are going to learn a great deal about affiliate marketing and some of the more technical things that might be holding you back from starting.

Enjoy!