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.

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.

Today’s post shows you a quick little method that you can use to either make a little extra Christmas spending money, or else really get your feet wet with making a bit of money online. Now, I haven’t done this myself because the truth is, I just have WAY too much else on my plate right now – but for those of you just getting started online, this is a very good way to give you some cash to start making a bit of headway.

OK – for those who have already picked up the “Make Money with Fiverr” guide, you will likely be better acquainted with some of these things. (If you haven’t picked it up yet, you can get it here…..) You don’t need to have read the guide however – but it will give you some extra tips to get more work.

For those who don’t know what Fiverr is, it is a marketplace where people can go to have jobs done for just $5. And, there is everything you could imagine that people are offering to do for $5! There are writers who are just getting started who are building clientale by offering articles, there are graphic designers who make very good money because a lot of people use Fiverr for website graphics – and there are even people willing to do some strange things like draw your logo on themselves for a day.

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.

The other day I mentioned a course I have been going through which focuses on writing for magazines.  Well, I have officially finished the course this week, and would like to give you a bit of a review.  There have been a few of my readers who have contacted me asking for more information about freelance writing for magazines, which I don’t feel I am qualified (yet!;-) to help with.  However, the course I am going to mention could be the answer you are searching for.

The course is called Write For Magazines E-course, and it is put together by the Renegade Writer, Linda Formichelli.  (If you haven’t read her book yet, get it.  It is a must-read for anyone just starting out.  You can get it on Amazon for peanuts – click here to get a copy.)

It is an 8 week course, which during that time will teach you how to research and choose a topic that will sell, come up with an angle that is interesting to the magazines, find experts to interview, how to interview them, go through the entire process of coming up with an outstanding query letter, learning little “tricks” of where to send them and then actually sending them out.

When I first got started online, I spent months – well, to be completely honest, maybe even years – going around in circles.  I bought every new shiny object that came along promising to show me the “secrets” to making money online.

Well – that didn’t happen as these shiny products promised me!  I would so often get started on something, only to be completely distracted by an email coming in from one of the hundreds of marketing lists I was on, screaming out that I “needed to have this next best thing!”

I know now that a lot of that is my own fault.  Lacking focus and direction is a very difficult thing to deal with when working online.  Because, the truth is, you are going to be faced with many new distractions every day.  New products being launched, new software being developed – tons of things that unless you absolutely need them to continue on the course you are already on, should be completely ignored.

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.