A Medley of Musings

Small things make me happy

2008-05-22T20:34:00.006-05:00

Today I found something I thought I had lost. There's a group of people that knit, crochet or sew hand made caps to give away to cancer patients. Since I also like to knit and crochet, and have made hats and other items on the knifty knitter, I'm hoping to join up with this organization. I was able to get a handmade knitted hat, for my own balding head. Since I have a passion for knitting and crocheting, I'd like to help out in this area towards other people struggling with cancer.

I thought I had lost the piece of paper with the contact info on it, so I was very happy to find it sitting near my computer. Guess that means I should get on my old PC more often then I have been. I never know what I'll find sitting nearby.

If you're a knitter, crocheter, or a sewer, or a knifty knitter item creator, and you'd be interested in this site here's the link: http://www.nwilliniosheadhuggers.org or you can send an email to inquire about it to: nwilliniheadhuggers @mac.com. I haven't looked at the web site yet, but am glad I found something to make good use of my various yarn balls, that seem to grow like rabbits.

Shopping

2008-05-22T20:25:00.004-05:00

I don't generally like to shop that much. When I do go shopping, I tend to want to do a lot of it all at the same time, so then I don't have to do it again for quite awhile. I was lucky to find out about shopping for clothes where all the money collected for items, benefits the Jewish Child and Family Services.

So I found great bargains of $5.00 blue jeans and tops, belts, and two piece tops, and a matching top and sweatpants. I came home quite pleased with all the things I had bought for $80.00. And it benefits others too. That's the way I like to go shopping.

An Attitude of Gratitude

2008-05-22T19:57:00.004-05:00

Oprah Winfrey and others often talk about getting an attitude of gratitude, or finding things to feel grateful about. Facing a life threatening illness as I have been, I'm finding all kinds of big and small things to feel grateful about. That's also a direction I hope this blog will head towards from time to time.

I'm grateful that the Doctors are willing to let me stay overnight in the hospital to get my chemo treatment, so I don't have to take an ambulet or taxi home. I'm grateful to have that extra day to sleep and chill out, so I can drive myself home afterwards. After having 3 hours of chemo on May 20th, I only had to stay one extra day. Last time I had to stay two extra days. So I view that as an improvement. And I grab on to any improvements I can find no matter how small or insignificant they might be.

So far this time around I'm not feeling nauseousness or like I need to vomit, as I have before. And that indeed is something to be grateful about, and also an improvement I'm adding to my list.

They are spoiling me, and making it difficult to leave to go home!

While staying in the hospital isn't always ideal, still I get fed pretty good meals there, Better than what I would cook for myself. I probably sleep better then I do at home. And I get visited by the nurses and other caring medical people, when I'm starved for attention. Plus I get to watch TV and eat in bed at the same time. Who could ask for more? Whether it's watching Oprah, The View, or classic TV like Ponderosa or Leave it To Beaver. I can play with the hospital bed settings, raising and lowering my head or my feet as need be.

Now if only I could persuade them that their hospital gowns need a fashion upgrade. Has anyone seen my pajamas with the enclosed footies, and you know the ones, they have the back door covering, that buttons and unbuttons for easy access? Snug and warm and comfortable. I'll opt for Charlie Brown and the Peanuts gang for my footsie, back trap door pjs that are warm and wonderful.

Blog Interupted

2008-05-22T19:32:00.003-05:00

I didn't see the movie Girl Interupted, so I don't know if that can compare at all to my Blog being interupted the way it has been. But with cancer illness, hospitalizations, needing to stay in a rehab nursing home type facility for a few weeks, doctors appointments, overnight stays in the hospital for chemo treatments, sometimes needing to sleep for 12 hours at a time, I guess it's no big surprise that my blog is feeling quite neglected and ignored.

Maybe I should just start all over again. Nah. It'll take me too long to figure out how to set it all up again. So now that I probably have no readers whatsoever well here I am again. So if you want to learn how NOT to build a successful money making blog, try reading this one! :-)

Two months later, I'm finally getting back to putting a blog post up. I've missed my blog! Hope I can remember everything else that goes with it. Still it's nice to know my blog is calmly sitting here waiting for me, when I do get back to it. My blog is far more patient than I am! Well hopefully I can build up my reader relationship, if I had any readers to begin with by starting all over again. Who knows what I'll be blogging about this time around.

The Secret Ingredients Please!

2008-03-26T12:06:00.004-05:00

So what exactly is in them? Exactly what kind of ingredients, chemicals, tars and nicotines, and addictive substances do cigarettes actually contain that I've been inhaling into my body for over 30 years? I'm sure I could do extensive research, to actually find out, those ingredients, but humor me here. Go take a look at a pack or carton of cigarrettes.

There is NO ingredient list whatsoever on them! I've searched and searched. There's the surgeon generals different health warnings. There's a UPC code, there's the location where they are produced in West Virginia. There's some small stamps on the plastic outer wrapper, thanking me for the monetary contributions I've been making to my state and counties taxes by my buying cigarettes.

There's even a description, that one pack contains 20 Class A Cigarettes. Well thank God for small favors. I sure wouldn't have wanted to have been spending all those years smoking some kind of inferior Class B or Class C addictive substances, now would I?

There's even a description that tells me what smooth rich taste these cigarettes have, and a polite request asking me not to litter. But I can't find an ingredients list anywhere!

Doesn't that seem kind of odd to begin with? No ingredients listed whatsoever? Cigarettes have to contain something don't they?

A box of crackers, a jar of peanut butter, a can of soup, all list some kind of list of ingredients on their labels. Many of those might be some kind of preservative. Many I might not have ever heard of, or know what they are or what they're supposed to do or not be doing for me.

I might not ever make those kind of radical eating life changes where I will never again put emulsifier soy lecithin into my mouth, but at least I know that pack of hard candies, I've been substituting for cigarettes contains that emulsifier soy lecithin, whatever that is. But at least I can still choose not to ever have a butterscotch hard candy again, knowing, that emulsifier soy lecithin, is included on the ingredients label. I might not have a clue what emulsifier soy lecithin actually is or what it's doing or not doing for me, but at least I know they're part of those butterscotch candies, and hopefully emulifier soy lecithin adds to the taste and flavor of those hard candies, I'm enjoying.

I have to wonder how did the makers of Cigarettes get away with listing no ingredients whatsoever on their packaging for so long? Even things that aren't supposed to be swallowed or ingested contain a list of ingredients or poisen control centers or places to contact or things to do if someone swallows that diswashing detergent by mistake.

But Cigarettes have no ingredients listed at all. None, nada, zero, nothing. So you don't even have any idea at all what you've been inhaling, or even if you've been been inhaling the same things over time. Those chemicals could have been removed, replaced, revamped, remade, revoked, reoffered, and I wouldn't know what was in my cigarettes from 10 or 20 years ago, anymore then I know what ingredients there are in cigarettes today.

I know good cooks have their secret ingredients, they might not ever reveal in their recipes, but how is it, that every single ingredient in a pack of cigarette appears to be a secret ingredient? What's up with that?

That original cook, must be some high up official or something, with a whole army of security and intelligence people, hanging around them all the time. All those cigarette ingredients must fall under some sort of category like, "Stricktly Classified Ingredients". You don't have high enough clearance for a "need to know basis", or maybe it's just the tobacco industry's way of saying, "You really don't want to know... what we put in our products. So stop looking for silly things like a list of ingredients on the side of the pack or carton. We aren't about to tell you anyway!"

I haven't ever researched this either but I wonder if any politician in history has ever just flatly refused to accept political monetary sponsorship from tobacco companies, simply because there are no ingredients listed whatsoever on their packages? Or for other areas that produce things of questionable value, such as alcohol, tobacco, or guns.

I'm sounding too much like my late father. Tobacco, alcohol, guns, big money industries, that politicians badly need to fund their political campaigns. But as this old former hippie of 55 years of age, I might not ever get another chance in my life to protest these kinds of things, so I'm taking this blogging opportunity to protest them now!

Even a cleaning product that isn't supposed to be be swallowed, inhaled, or consumed by anybody, contains a list of ingredients, in case that mistakenly happens to somebody. But Cigarettes somehow remain exempt from having to list any kind of ingredient list at all? How did that ever happen, through history, and why does it stilll happen today?

I hope that alone, might give someone something to think about the next time that temptation sneaks up on them to light up a cigarette. So what kind of ingredients did you say are in a cigarette? Oh yeah that's right, you didn't say, did you?

It's not like cigarettes are like a box of cracker jack with a toy surprise inside of them or something. Some unknown surprises we would all be better off living without, especially when we don't have a clue exactly what kind of wonderful chemical surprises that pack or carton of cigarettes contains?

Hope that makes somebody pause for a second, while it's becoming harder for me not to preach from the pulpit about cigarette smoking.

Oh those twisted, tempting, evil, masquerading things known as....

2008-03-26T10:37:00.010-05:00

I'm not going to go into preaching mode about the hazards of cigarrette smoking. Most people are aware those health hazards exist, without my having to say a word about them. Most of us so called "adults" don't generally learn much from the mistakes others make before us anyway. Many of us are still stubborn or stupid enough, that we end up having to learn it all the hard way ourselves anyway.

When I first started smoking at 19 years of age, there were no cautions on the packs and cartons of cigarettes back then. There were no indications of just how addicting tobaccco can be, and how hard it can be to quit smoking. There were no dire indications, no warnings from the surgeon general back then as to what kinds of future health problems smoking cigarettes could cause anybody.

I'm not even sure I knew who the surgeon general was, when he did make his presense known to me, or what his words of warning exactly meant to me anyway back then. I wouldn't have listened to him, or to anybody else either at that point, if someone had told me back then the things I'm paying the price for now! So now I'm one of those who is having to go through all of this the hard way. The very hard way!

But maybe I'll say one thing here that will somehow reach somebody out there! Maybe somebody, some young person, someone out there, might read this. Someone might be thinking about trying cigarettes, or maybe someone wants to quit before they reallly get started and get addicted to them, will read something I'm writing here, that gets their attention, that strikes a responsive chord with them. That at least gives them serious "food for thought" about this addictive substance.

Speaking of "food for thought" maybe someone will decide it's better to trade that phyical demanding need for nicotine, for something like a banana, a tangerine slice, or even a chocolate chip cookie, instead of the chemicals that cigarettes provide.

Oh the amazing cravings I'm having now. Cravings for truly "exotic" foods, like baked potatoes, with sour cream, cheese, and green peppers, or apples dipped in carmel. A junk food junkie like me? Suddenly having these cravings for things that might actually have vitamins, minerals and other good things in them, that might actually be good for me to eat? What in the world is going on?

I guess so many years of smoking on those twisted, tempting, deceptive, masquarading little cigarettes must have left my body having these strange physical cravings for all those vitamins, minerals and nutrients, my body must have not ate for way too long a time.

Who knows what will happen if I should start going through some kind of green pepper withdrawal, or I just can't seem to get quite enough of those little cherry tomatoes, that I just want to keep popping into my mouth and devouring. There might be even more "exotic" foods I've never even tasted before, that suddenly sounds good, or even just tempt me to give them a try for the first time ever.

The grocery stores are on alert now! They have been warned! Security is standing by, armed to their eyebrows with avocados or lentil beans.

I might be seen browsing grocery aisles, I never dared to venture into before. I hope those stores can supply with me some kind of lesson plan? Because I might now find myself having to learn for the first time ever, how to actually cut a kumquat, or the only proper way to participate in eating pineapple.

It boggles my mind, at the foods I might have some kind of craving for, that I've never had before, and don't even know how to eat it, let alone how to cut it.

My Cats Know

2008-03-25T00:38:00.004-05:00

My cats know. I don't know how they know, but they know, that something's different. Something's changed with me. But I've often felt animals were smarter then people to begin with.

Skitzy seems like she's gotten her fur trimmed up somehow. And Cole doesn't seem to protest so much if he's left in only the one room with me. Neither seem to protest as much now that they don't get to run through as much of the house as much as they did before. Now it's becoming a daily rotation of what cat is left in what room, instead of an hourly rotation. Somehow they seem to know that's the best I can do for them right now. They don't complain. They just know. I don't know how they know, these things but they do.

Skitzy seems to have more different kinds of protests, as if to say to me, if something happens to you, what happens to us? Maybe it's her way of pleading with me, to try to get better, healthier, stronger. To do what I'm supposed to do, even when I don't want to, don't feel like it, when not doing it seems easier, or not worth the fight ahead for me.

Cole seems to accept it. Sometimes only wanting to put his dignified black head upon my knee, and to watch me carefully and often with his ancient and wise green eyes. He watches me close. They both share their cat blinks with me, guardingly and lovingly.

And I cannot control the splash of angry messy tears, that so often now needs to fall upon my face, unbidden, unasked for, but I certainly cannot say these tears are uncalled for or unwarranted. And not from even a point of needing to feel sorry for myself, but just to get the pain out, the tears out. Because they are there too, and they need to come out of my eyes, to be communicated like so many uncontrolling splashes on my face, just like my words need to pour out of my brain and my heart now. So I write, so I cry, so I blog, and sometimes I smile and laugh, and sometimes there's a glimmer of hope, no matter how small or insignificant it might now seem

My two cats, they know all this. I don't know how they know, but they do.

My Birthday Blog Message

2008-03-24T23:59:00.003-05:00

Today is My Birthday. Today I'm 55 years old. Today I don't take it for granted any longer that I'll make it to 56 or 65 or 82 years old. Today I'm just happy to have made it to 55 years old so far. Anything beyond that might just be icing on my birthday cake of 55 years old or young depending how you look at it.

In some ways I think I was born to blog. I wrote poems, short stories, and various journals of my thoughts, long before it was popular to call it blogging. Starting at about 16 or 17 years old. I still have those notebooks. Can't bear to throw them away.

Some of those life laments I had at 16 seem so trivial now. I wonder why I was bothered by those things at all back then, but I was. Some of the writing seems poor and trite, and certainly needed growth and development. Has my writing improved in 39 years? I'd sure like to think so. :-)

But my writer's ego probably won't let me view it any other way, though, even if my writing hasn't improved with age, like fine wines and words are supposed to with time.

Here's a poem I wrote about this need to write, to "blog" through the years as I've done, before "blog" was even a recognizable word.

OLD AND DUSTY NOTEBOOKS

Old and dusty notebooks
That I took down from the shelf
My old forgotten writings
From my younger, yearning self.

Scribbled penciled musings
Of what my life had been about
Words faded now so much with time
That I can barely make them out.

Words in inks of different colors; black, green, red and blue
I’d used to write at different times
Notebooks filled with colored words
To write my youthful prose and rhymes.

Stories and poems from so long ago
The times I felt so misunderstood
Before my older eyes, they seemed so trivial to me now
Back then I must have thought those poems were good.

I look back on those writings
And a pattern now appears
Loneliness, heartache and loss
How often love had left me through the years.

The people that I once had known
In time we grew apart
Reflected and forgotten in those notebooks
They held the secret writings of my younger heart.

Angry letters I’d written
Rants and rave I never sent
Accumulated years of worn out words
I read in awe, surprised, amused
At all the time I’d spent.

My life’s recorded episodes
heartfelt musings, angry feelings, even wit
Pages filled with badly sketched out sweaters
That someday I had planned to knit.

Classroom notes and cartoon faces
Lists of things I’d planned to do
Written reflections that time erases
Were captured in those pages too.

The things I’d forgotten, the names and the places
How my writing had changed over time
Like a lost treasure found, those notebooks held
Forgotten gems of my prose and my rhymes.

Old and dusty notebooks
That I put back on the shelf
Years of written memories
From my younger, yearning self.

Remaining Unlisted

2008-02-24T23:06:00.012-06:00

In Affiliate Marketing, one of the things many people recommend doing, is building a list. In fact they say to build two lists. People keep telling me the money is in the list.

One list is supposed to include my prospects. Those people who have expressed in interest in some of the products or services I'm trying to sell and promote. The other list includes those people who have moved from being prospects, or potential customers, to becoming actual customers. Those who have actually decided to part with their money to buy one of those products I've worked hard to promote.

So far both my lists are rather small. In fact they don't exist at all. Maybe I'm missing something here. Lots of people say, building those lists is a requirement, but I don't have specific details how I'm actually supposed to go about doing that.

I've joined two different safe lists. I've unsubscribed from one, and may soon unsubscribe from the 2ND one. In both cases I could only send out my promotional email one time a week.

I can't put these people on my two lists of prospects or customers, because they come from those original safe lists to begin with. Their email addresses, have something like "no reply" behind them. Or they have something that includes the safe list's name in their email address. So it isn't a direct email address, for me to be able to send them anything at all.

The same problem exists from the classified ad and community site that I joined, as a free member there. The people who paid to join that website, can much easier send me and many other people, email marketing messages about things that they're promoting. But as a free member, I don't have the same options as the paying members there have. And the same problem applies. Their email addresses come internally from that classified ad and community site, so I can't add those people to my lists either.

I tried to send something out manually to a number of people. It took some time for me to do that copy and paste thing, and I only sent it out to a small number of people. While I've looked at auto responders, I haven't gotten one yet. I'd prefer getting a free auto responder right now rather than paying for a service, I may later find, I'm not using or seeing any financial benefit from. What's the point of my having an auto responder, if I don't have anyone on my list to send anything to?

I'm not yet ready to develop my own newsletter or email course, to send out to other people. I have enough problems staying current with this blog or trying to write more articles, let alone doing even more writing of on ongoing newsletter to send to all the people on my non-existent lists. See my post about Disappearing Time. Well not yet having an auto responder, will save me time, not having to figure out how to use it.

Where are those names and email addresses supposed to come from that I'm supposed to be placing on my two lists?

Maybe if I had been more aggressive, I should have added the email addresses from the few inquires I received, about the products I'm tried to promote. Those inquiries came from the free classified ads I placed.

How excited I was to open those emails, when the subject line told me, that someone was actually interested in learning more about a product I was promoting. Only to find out those emails were from other affiliate marketers trying to promote their own products to me.

Or how about the few comments I've received on this blog so far? I guess I could have added those names to my lists. But they were also coming from a similar place that I was. One was an affiliate marketer, who recommended a good site for me to join, which I haven't done yet. The other was from a brand new blogger, just as I am. That's been the extent of my prospective customers so far.

It's nice to meet up with people I have something in common with. It just doesn't help my list building skills very much. There's an area, that doesn't seem logical to me at all, to be sending my email marketing promotion to other affiliate marketers or web site owners.

The affiliate marketers are trying to do the exact same thing that I'm trying to do. So while we might make each other aware of new products and services, the chances that we will actually buy anything from each other seem to me to be slim and none.

The web site owners, who are members of those safe lists or that classified ad and community site, are promoting their own web sites and products. Once again I'm on a shoestring budget, so it's highly unlikely I'll be buying any of their products. At least not until I actually make some money doing this, which hasn't happened for me yet,

I don't want to add my friends and family to my lists. My family might start asking me questions I'm uncomfortable answering. Such as how much money have you made? Or how much time have you spent doing this so far? Or they might make comments like, you're doing what? What about all the decluttering you're supposed to be doing? When are you ever going to get a real job? Then their next comments to me will probably be something like, don't email me this stuff anymore. So I'm doing my part to avoid potential family conflicts.

I don't want to email my friends about products, they probably don't need, won't use, and can't afford to spend the extra money on anyway. I also don't want them to feel obligated to try any of the things I'm promoting, just because we happen to be friends. I think that will be a real good way of my losing their friendship or at the very least, having them get good and aggravated with me for emailing them with my promotions in the first place.

Some time back people were commenting, on how you could input your own or other people's phone numbers into Google's search box. Other info would come up, from that telephone number search, like the person's full name, address, etc. The people I learned about this from, weren't too happy, that Google, had put this into place.

Their concern was that the address could then be entered into map quest, and the less desirable people of the world, like criminals, perverts, child molesters, could obtain exact directions to people's houses, from map quest.

My phone number is unlisted, but sure enough when I entered it into Google's search box up popped my full name and address. My phone number is unlisted for good reasons, and I want to keep it that way. It should be my choice, if I want to give it out to anybody, rather then Google deciding they're going to do it for me for anybody in this vast Internet world to look at.

The reach of Google is far greater then my local phone book, where my name and phone number don't appear. Fortunately there was an option to have my phone number removed. Now when I enter it into Google's search box, no information appears about me at all and I like it like that.

With that being said, my phone number remains unlisted now. As for my attempts to be able to place anyone, on my prospect list or my customer list, in those areas I also sadly remain unlisted as well.

Disappearing Time

2008-02-24T22:36:00.007-06:00

It's amazing to me that 14 days have passed by, since the last time I wrote anything to this blog. I find myself thinking about Judy Collin's song, "Who knows where the time goes", and how did this last two weeks go by me so fast? It seems as I get older, each year, flies by faster then the one before. I feel time slipping away on me, and I know I waste a lot of it.

So what was I doing the last two weeks? Well occasionally I do need to do things like dishes, laundry, pay bills. Sometimes I just want to relax by watching TV. Often I find myself reading all kinds of things that catch my eye, and before I know it, I've spent several hours doing that.

And of course my game addiction kicked in. There's only one game I tend to play a lot. It frustrates me, that I can only get through 3 or 4 levels each time, before I run out of time (there's that word again). But I keep playing anyway, hoping one of these times, (and again) I'll actually be able to proceed through several different levels. I can't figure out how some people have such outrageously high scores there. I guess I have to accept I'm just an average player and probably will always be an average player. But I still like playing it.

I've also been trying to declutter around here. Don't really want to do that, but I have to get rid of stuff for various reasons.

Why haven't I posted anything at all in those two weeks? Sometimes my writing runs dry. New ideas to write about, seem to be taking a break from popping into my head. I keep a list of articles I hope to write for Helium someday, as well as a separate list of things I want to blog about here. It's a scary thought that my list of topics to blog about isn't growing as large or as fast as I'd like it to. Some of the topics I've already blogged about here.

I'd much rather have a longer list of potential blog topics, then feeling like I'm catching up with it. I think part of the problem is the name of this blog. Since my blog posts are no longer only about affiliate marketing, my blog title of The Affable Affiliate doesn't seem to fit my blog anymore. I'm still working on coming up with a catchy new blog name, that would be a better fit. Eventually I'll come up with something that fits these wide range of topics. But your ideas, or suggestions, comments and feedback are always welcome.

In Search of A New Name!

2008-02-10T18:58:00.000-06:00

It's been suggested that I should focus this blog on the specific target audience I'm trying to reach. I know that's good advice. But I like diverting off on those side roads from time to time. I'm not quite ready to start separate blogs for all the different topics I might want to blog about.

While this Blog started out about Affiliate Marketing, it's now become an assortment of different topics, including posts about my cats, writing, blogging, crafting, and various miscelleaneous musings of my oftentimes cluttered and confused mind.

I have a difficult time believing that some Affiliate Marketers might not also be pet owners, or that they might also enjoy writing. Or that some writers might like to craft. So in that way, one category could be related to another one. Well it's a bit of a reach I admit, but we don't all fit into one little box, or one little category, so why should my blog posts, or published articles have to be categorized that way? Besides if I started a separate blog for all these different categories, I wouldn't get much writing done. I can anticipate a big headache coming my way, at just the thought of doing that.

I like to write or blog about a variety of topics. I've started to categorize some of my different published articles. So if you have an interest in reading my articles about Affiliate Marketing, or cats, or knitting, they now each have their own separate category heading.

Of course that means The Affable Affiliate might no longer be the best title for this Blog. I've yet to come up with an alternative creative title. My creativity in that area, seems to have currently gone on vacation. So if you have any suggestions, as to what a better appropriate title might be here, I'm eager to know what they might be.

You're always welcome to leave your comments and feedback, suggestions and tips here on this blog, whether it's currently named The Affable Affiliate, or some other name that it might become, that is yet to be determined.

The Sting of Rejection

2008-02-10T15:01:00.000-06:00

I recently started to submit articles to The People's Media Company, otherwise known as Associated Content. This is another writing site I put off joining. How exciting when one of my very first articles, Knitting Without Needles was accepted for publication there. I even received an offer of $6.04 for it to be published.

This was the first time, that I received money into my Paypal account, except for the small test deposits that Paypal and Google initially made to my account. But I've frequently paid out money of my Paypal account. I hoped to see more money coming in for me, instead of the money that so quickly goes out!

No $6.04 isn't a vast fortune, but it's a start. I've also been writing at Helium, another online writing site for some time. So far none of my articles earned me $6.04 immediately. But at Helium, my articles earn a residual income. That means as long as I stay active on the site and Helium stays in business, I'll continue to receive some small amount of income from all my published articles.

I've finally gotten to my first $25.00 payout from Helium. Granted it took me several months to get there, but now my earnings are building there, towards my second $25.00 payout.

Many, not all, of my articles have received high ratings from other writers at Helium. My very first published article there achieved a #1 rating, and I'm proud to say it has remained at #1 to this day, even though the number of writers, who wrote to that particular topic has doubled, from when I first submitted it.

I was about to rush in and start declaring the virtues of Associated Content. I started thinking if I even made $6.00 on each article I submitted there, soon I would have surpassed that $25.00 much quicker then I was able to do so far at Helium.

With the excitement of receiving my first payout from Associated Content, I quickly submitted 3 more articles. Rejected, rejected, rejected.

I wondered what was so bad about my writing this time around, when Associated Content, had accepted my article before, but wouldn't accept them now.

In comparison, at Helium my articles get published immediately, unless I'm starting a brand new topic, that no one else has written to yet. Then Helium needs to approve it. But articles that I submit to already established topics at Helium, never get rejected. Perhaps Helium has spoiled me because of that.

Still having my articles rejected by Associated Content, isn't much different then if I had submitted them to a brick and mortar publishing house, as opposed to an online writing site. I just had forgotten what that rejection feels like. The possibility certainly exists that the brick and mortar publishing house would have rejected my articles too.

As I looked again at my articles at Associated Content, I couldn't see much wrong with them. It's hard to get my writers ego out of the way and look at things from Associated Content's viewpoint. It's hard not to take it personally when your writing is rejected for various reasons.

But Associated Content will allow me to change the way I've submitted my articles, instead of waiting and hoping for an upfront payment, like that $6.04 I was so excited to receive. They have what's called Performance Payout. For every 1000 views of one of my articles, that I've submitted towards Performance Payout, I'll earn $1.50.

I'm trying to stop listening to my bill collectors laughing at me in the background.
One article that I've submitted for Performance Payout at Associated Content has already gotten me 9 page views, and I haven't yet done much to market it to the masses of people who I know are just dying to read what I write about!

I only need 991 more views to that page before I'll hit that great big payout of $1.50!

Right after I received that $6.04 payout, I was tempted to start singing, "I'm in the money!" I was guilty of counting my chickens before they hatched; guilty of jumping the gun, or putting the cart before the horse. I guess I better not yet count on making my quick overnight fortune from the articles I might submit to Associated Content. The articles that might get rejected.

I supposed I should thank Associated Content for bringing me back to earth, and giving me a reality check, but I'm not yet ready to do that. I'm still feeling that sting of rejection from them.

I sure don't want to believe that it was a fluke that they accepted my first article for publication and for payment. I sure don't want to think that Associated Content won't accept any future articles from me that I might submit there. It might take me awhile to get over this feeling of being rejected from Associated Content. And who can I talk to to protest their actions? How can I try to reason with them, and get them to see the error of their ways in rejecting my three articles as they did?

If you as my reading audience, decide to read any of my published articles at Helium, or at Associated Content, you'll be helping me to earn a little bit more money in either place.

For you it's free to read those articles. Doesn't cost you a thing to go look at them, from Helium or Associated Content. Both sites are free to join, if you also feel a need to write. I'd love to invite you in as a writer at either place, and obviously that might benefit me as well.

But if you read any of my articles from Helium or Associated Content, you'll be helping out this starving writer. You'll be easing the sting of rejection I received from Associated Content. It might take me all of a day or so to get over it!

As for me, I'll try not to spend my $6.04 all at once!

The Emails I No Longer Read

2008-02-08T16:14:00.000-06:00

When I first joined a safelist, I read practically every email that was sent to me. I found many other sites that are helpful, that I would not have otherwise known about. I spent a lot more time reading then writing. Now there's some emails I just don't look at at all anymore.

Like the ones that tell me I'll make a large amount of money in a short amount of time, with little work needed to accomplish that task. They just have a feeling of unreality to me. Tell me I might make $100.00 and I'll look at your link. But tell me how I'll be making $30,000 or some other outrageous amount, in half an hour, and I'll quickly be hitting the delete key, without reading your email at all.

As I got behind in reading my emails, sometimes I'd sort them by subject. There I could easily see when I had several that had the exact same subject line. Delete, Delete, Delete. I realize these are probably coming from web site owners trying to promote their sites, but after awhile I'm not going to keep reading the same email over and over again. And if I'm not reading it, and I'm new at affiliate marketing, do you really think those more experienced then I am, will keep reading the same old, same old emails?

You need to change things up once in while. You've probably gotten so used to just letting your autoresponder handle things for you automatically, that you forget how boring it can get to me your reader, to see the same email that you just sent me yesterday. If you're not going to change the contents of your email, then maybe you shouldn't send them to me as often. The delete key has now become my best friend.

Then there's the emails that got goofed up. Instead of addressing me as Hi Jan, they address me as Hi Firstname! When did I change my name? Why didn't anyone tell me I did that? And why do I have the same Firstname as everybody else on your list? They provide me with amusement value.

There were also emails, that seemed to be a bit behind the times. They'd say something like now that the holiday season is upon us. I don't think they were referring to Valentines Day. So hello, it's February now! Better pack up your out of date emails about the holidays, so you can start sending them out again next November or December.

Even with another safelist I've joined, I've learned how to work around it. I open my email in Mozilla Firefox, then I open several tabs. As those emails are loading, by the time I get back to the first tab, the 15 or 20 seconds I'm supposed to be staying at that link from that email has passed, and I've collected more credits, for when I send out my once a week promotional email.

I still don't have any kind of list to speak of, but at least I have lots of credits there. They may come in handy some day.

Affiliate Marketers are marketing to other affiliate marketers, which seems to defeat the purpose of those safelists. I don't think too many of them will buy the products I'm trying to promote to them, anymore then I'll be buying from them.

And you have to wonder, if I'm reading less and less of those promotional emails, and I'm relatively new at all of this, then how much is anybody else reading all those emails?

The Abbreviated Version

2008-02-08T16:07:00.000-06:00

It’s now become common practice to abbreviate things. I don’t know where this idea first started or why. Perhaps there just wasn’t enough room across the paper, or invoice forms, so a shorter abbreviated version became a more efficient way of doing things. Then there’s all the time that can be saved in reading the abbreviated version.

Maybe if writers had to meet specific minimum word or character counts, it became faster and easier to write things in an abbreviated fashion. If they used the full written word instead of the abbreviated version, maybe they’d go over that suggested character count, and their writing wouldn’t get accepted and published. Or they might appear long winded if they didn't abbreviate some of their words. They might appear like they're trying to fill up their copy or padding their articles.

Think how much more time the cavemen might have had to spend if they had to chisel out the full words on their tablets of stone, or on the cave walls of their homes. Spending time chiseling out words like Doctor, Junior, or even longer words like Corporation, or Television, could have become an all day event back then.

It had to have been much faster, much more time saving for them, if they abbreviated those words to be Dr., Jr., Corp., and TV. Oh that’s right, they didn’t have Television back then. The Corporation of Cavemen, Limited, or should that be The Corp. of Cavemen, Ltd, probably went out of business a long time ago.

You see abbreviations in many different areas, and they become the accepted way of writing things. Refrigerator became fridge. Super Sonic Transport became SST. Long Playing Record Albums got abbreviated to become LP. Those are record albums of music that actually used to get played on record players or turntables back in the day. Then along came 8 tracks, cassettes and CDs.

The abbreviation for CDs could mean either Certificates of Deposit, or Compact Discs. How do you know which meaning someone else is referring to? That depends on the context where you read that abbreviated word of CDs. In areas of finance it would probably refer to Certificates of Deposits. While if you're reading about music, chances are good CDs there would refer to the discs that musicians have recorded their music on.

Maybe CDs actually means music that makes money to be deposited somewhere, to combine both possibilities?

Instructions for knitting and crocheting patterns are written using standard abbreviations for those two crafts. Those instructions might look like a foreign language if you're not familiar with what those abbreviations mean.

In some areas people become so accustomed to using abbreviations, that they start to take their use for granted. They forget, that someone new to that particular area, may not have any idea what those abbreviations stand for. Those readers might be standing there scratching their heads, wondering what in the world is that person talking about or referring to? They might not even be able to understand the sentence, if they don’t know what some of those abbreviations actually mean.

With the growing use of computers and the Internet, abbreviated expressions such as lol, rotf, brb, become commonly used and well known by many who use them in instant messages, emails, message boards and forums.

In the area of Affiliate Marketing, you might see abbreviations such as: html, href, B2B, ROI, CSS, or WYSIWYG just to name a few.

But what if you don’t know what all those abbreviations stand for? As new words become created, the online dictionaries, might not recognize that word as something, that many of us commonly use. Many times, my spell checker will highlight the word blog, or blogging for me. It politely suggests to me that perhaps I meant to type bog, or log, or ogling instead of the words blog or blogging, that I did type, and actually meant to type. So back off spell checker!

If you don’t know what certain abbreviations might mean and that writer hasn’t decided to enlighten you about them, then where do you go to look up the meanings of those unknown abbreviations?

I could perhaps do some research, for the abbreviations I’m not very knowledgeable about, but right now I'm not going to do that. Some people might end up sawing logs, or snoring in the back rows of my reading audience if I did that here. I know you’re out there somewhere, my reading audience that is.

I thought I'd have some say so about where my blog would be located, when those burly blog movers came around to place my blog at it's current location. Who knew, that my blog would be placed on some rural road out in the middle of nowhere, where little if any traffic ever passes by. But I will persevere. It's just a matter of time before you discover my blog on this untraveled road it must have been placed on. I still hold out hope that you will become part of my reading audience.

Back to the topic at hand. If I researched and wrote a post here as to what the actual definitions of html, B2B, CSS, or WYSIWYG, stand for, that writing might be rather dry and boring. That certainly isn't the type of impression I want to leave with my current or future reading audience!

So I propose to write my own creative version of those abbreviations.

Html on my B2B, could mean Hold The Mustard, Lettuce on my Burger to Burger. Or Maybe html stands for Have To Make Land, or Have The Monster Leap or Help The Man Leave. Maybe ROI, really means Relish, Onions, Indigestion or Really Over It! CSS probably stands for something like Could of, Should of Said or Cats Spit Synonyms.

Maybe rotf, really stands for Revenge Of The Frogs, or Right On The Forehead, instead of rolling on the floor. Perhaps WYSIWYG once meant Words You Submit Irritate Writers Youth Groups or Why You Should Instantly Water your Geraniums, or Wrap Your Senses In Wickedly Yearning Gazes instead of What You See Is What You Get.

But think how much time would it take you to read things, or to write them, or to come up with creative versions, like I’ve tried to do here, if we wrote words without abbreviating any of them. Look at all the time I’ve saved you now!

I hope you use that extra 2 minutes and 47 seconds wisely and well.

The After Effects of a Cat Fight

2008-02-08T15:55:00.000-06:00

There are times when changing things isn’t such a good idea. After I made the mistake of trying to reintroduce my two cats Skitzy and Cole to each other, I would have been better off if I had left things the way they were.

I have no choice but to go back to my cat rotation system, and my cat separation system. For awhile, after their cat fight, when it was Skitzy’s turn to be out, and Cole was confined behind a closed bedroom door, Skitzy went under my bed, and wouldn’t come out. Before she would freely run through the rest of the place, scampering along the top of the couch, in the living room or she’d plop down in my lap to help me with my latest knitting project, or curl up to nap in the recliner.

I couldn’t even entice her out, when I opened a can of wet cat food. Usually she’s eagerly waiting to be served. The only way to get her out from under my bed, so Cole could have a turn roaming about the place, was to move the bed. Disgruntled Skitzy went to the bedroom, she knew she would be confined in for awhile. Before she’d run in there voluntarily, as if to say to me, ok I’ll let him have his turn at being out and about for awhile.

Of course how many cats in America, or anywhere else for that matter, have the luxury of having their own room? They should both be grateful that they weren’t being confined to the small area of a bathroom or closet or a cage.

Cole is a lot bigger then Skitzy, and more aggressive, towards her, Skitzy would have gotten the short end of the deal if I left them to their own devices.

No when it was Skitzy’s turn to be out and about, she wasn’t taking advantage of it, because the only place she wanted to be now, was under my bed. Cole was becoming the only cat that I could pet or play with, as Skitzy made herself unreachable to me.

One day I was able to get a hold of her, and we watched ice skating together on TV. I think she enjoyed hearing the music that the female skaters, were doing their routines too, as well as the attention she was getting from me. It was a pleasant time for both of us. I had missed not being able to stroke her soft fur, or hear her purrs of contentment.

After their cat fight, I noticed that Skitzy seemed to be walking gingerly. She made sounds of discomfort when I tried to touch her tail, or her back paws. I saw a few clumps of fur on the floor. Then I saw there was a gash on the underside of her tail.

I’m afraid to even attempt to reintroduce them again. Since I had heard that Cole didn’t get along with the cat from his previous home, I had hoped his aggression would be less, with Skitzy, after he was neutered. And I had kept them separated for so long, that maybe it was impossible to reintroduce them now.

Sadly I’m now starting to contemplate that things might be better for all three of us, if I start to find Cole another home. I’ve grown attached to him as well. I hate the idea, that he might have to get shuffled off to yet another place.

He’s a sweet cat to me, and he talks quite a bit. Maybe Cole just needs to be the only reigning cat, of his cat residence. Maybe Skitzy needs to be the solo cat living here as well.

The ironic thing is I got Cole, to keep Skitzy company after Misty died. There was no way of knowing then that things would turn out the way they are now.

If only I could convince Cole, that it would be much more in his own best self interest, to leave Skitzy alone, and to start treating her with the cat courtesy and respect that she deserves to have.

But cats, like humans, don’t always get along with each other or like each other. I wish I knew what they were both thinking about all of this. I wonder if at times, if they had previously been telling me, to stop keeping them separated and let them work things out themselves as cats do.

Still the hissing, snarling, spitting I heard from them both, the keening noises I heard from Skitzy when I did let them out together, never sounded like just a friendly little cat tussle to me. It sounded much more intense to me, then two cats just playing, or having an occasional cat spat or disagreement with each other. Maybe it sounded much worse to me, then it ever was to either one of them.

But if Skitzy was getting injured, from these cat fights as she now appeared to be, I certainly didn’t want that to continue., .

I feel a rip to my heart at the thought of having to find Cole another home, so I’m back to my cat separation system and my cat rotation system. I know it’s not greatest solution for the three of us, though they both seem to accept that at times they are going to be confined to one room for awhile. I’ve read that other people have had to keep their cats separated

I wish I could find another way, to make this a peaceful two cats, one human household for all three of us. Maybe if I hadn’t tried to reintroduce them to each other, it wouldn’t have become as big a problem to me, as it is now.

While often making changes can be a good thing, there are other times when it’s better not to change the way things are, and to just leave well enough alone.

My Obsession Is Showing

2008-01-24T13:29:00.000-06:00

I vowed I would limit my time on the computer today. I thought I'd only stay on here for a few hours while having my coffee, and then I'd go pursue other things. Of course I tell myself this everyday. But I swore to myself that today, would not be one of those 12 to 16 hour days that I've frequently been spending on this thing.

Right now it's only been about 7 hours or so, but I was hoping to only be spending 3 or 4 hours here today, and so far I'm not sure I'm accomplished a thing. But wait, there's still hope for me! Maybe I actually can escape the tight grasp that the Internet seems to have on me. Maybe I can get off of this thing while it's still daylight, and actually get a few other things accomplished.

You mean, there's more to life besides my computer and the Internet?

The problem is I'm still trying to learn about things, regarding Affiliate Marketing and the benefits of submitting Articles to different directories. Of course as a newbie at all of this, I have to spend some time reading, so I can learn what's recommended, but I can't seem to stop reading.

It's like I'm starved for information. I've become obsessed with reading as much as I can, and obsessed with learning what my next step should be. So who has time, to write anything? Oh yeah, that's right I'm supposed to be doing that to. Since that's the thing I enjoy the most, is the actual writing. But then I've read that you can't just focus on the writing, you have to focus on the marketing part of things too. Something else I have to read about, since I've never done it before in order to learn how to do it.

Maybe it's been so long, since I fed my brain anything new to learn about, that's I've become like a kid in a candy store. The addiction kicks in. The obsession takes over. Give me more info. I need to learn more about how this works, or why that doesn't work.

As much as I like Mozilla Firefox, I think it's adding to my computer addiction and obsession. Because I can open one topic in one window, then open a whole bunch of subtopics in different tabs within that same window, and pretty soon, I've got a whole lot of open windows, with a whole lot of open tabs, that I think I want to read or look at.

It starts with my wanting to read articles other people have written about Affiliate Marketing, or blogging, or writing and submitting articles, or learning what's needed for copy writing. I'm trying to learn from those who appear to have had some success at doing it. Then within one of those topics, I find something else that looks interesting. I click on that link, and before you know it, I've clicked on so many links, that I find myself dazed, and confused, as to what I should look at next. I not only lose all sense of time, I lose focus as well.

I'm one of those people, who tries to read a great deal about a site, to see if it's right for me. I must have a fear of commitment. Today along with all those other links I was opening on different topics I went to explore PayPerPost.com, and Payu2Blog.com. I thought here's a couple of sites where they'll pay me to do what I'm already doing now. Except that no body's paying me, at least not so far. That seemed pretty cool.

Well after looking at several different pages on PayPerPost.com, just as I was finally ready to actually sign up with the site, I discover that they require that my blog be active for 90 days. Well since it isn't yet, there didn't seem much point in signing up with them right now. But of course I learn this only after I've already spent a great deal of time, reading how different things work on the site.

So I move on the PayU2Blog, only to discover that I'll have to wait a few days to see if a representative will approve my blog, before they'll let me join. They might. They might not. If they don't approve my blog, they've already warned me, that I might not hear anything from them, due to the increase in traffic. So why don't you all get off of the Internet Highway. Go take a break, go do something else for awhile, so that I can get through.

Filled with disappointment, that I couldn't get immediate blog gratification at those two sites, I shut down my many open tabs, I closed my many open windows. It was getting pretty cold in here anyway.

I thought I could sign up at either or both of those sites, and then read more of what I needed to read, and within a short amount of time I'd be happily posting my first blog post at one of those sites, and then I might even earn a buck or two. Nothing seems to be easy to set up. In some ways the Internet makes things more complicated, and certainly more time consuming.

In addition I was trying to get an RSS feed subscription set up here, as well as signing up with Technorati which required more reading, and more going back and forth between those sites and my blog. Then I'm trying to link things up to Adsense Ads, get the needed script copied over to my blog, and after awhile I became so confused, I just had to stop doing it.

For all I know I might have linked up my RSS feed to some other site, that will pay me to blog that I can't recall looking at. Maybe I've linked up things that ended up somewhere else. And that web site owner or blogger is now scratching their heads, wondering how in the world did that strange link end up on their site? It's mine. Yep. That's right! I misplaced my links somewhere. Would you mind just sending it back to me?

I may not have any traffic coming to my blog just yet, but when I actually do get some, at least I'll be somewhat prepared, for that overwhelming response I'll be getting of all the people who I know just can't wait to read my words of wisdom from my blog. Mine and how many millions of others?

As they used to say on that TV Sitcom, Friends, it became a matter of my tired brain, just trying to take in "Too Much Information."

All I can say is it's a good thing I like to read. But I didn't expect I'd have to be reading so much, or that so many hours would so quickly disappear while I was stuffing my brain with more information then it could reasonably be expected to handle.

An unseen force must have taken hold of me. Something unknown to me must have convinced me that I needed to read just one more article, then one more after that, and one more after that. Something must have taken hold of me, that said go ahead click on one more link, and when you get to that page, you know they'll be a dozen more that you'll feel it will be absolutely necessary that you must read them all right now.

Maybe I can learn to tame that need I seem to have to learn and read more about so many different things. My brain has rebelled, and said that's it. I've had it. I can't absorb anymore right now.

So if you'll excuse me, I believe my obsession is showing.

Good Site Recomendation

2008-01-24T00:57:00.001-06:00

There are quite a few sites where you can cloak your affiliate links. The reason you want to cloak them, is because your customers may bypass you and buy the products you’re promoting directly from the parent company. Other people could cut off your affiliate links, and substitute their own links. Then you might lose your commissions. In adddition, some people are reluctant to buy products from an affiliate marketer.

One of the sites I like a great deal makes it easy to cloak your links. The site gives you options to add a new link, or to manage the links you’ve already set up. You can also create new ads as well as managing your pre-existing ones. Then you can easily edit things, or change the wording of your ads later.

The screens for creating your cloaked links or your ads are set up well. They’re easy to maneuver through, and self-explanatory as to what information you’ll need. Once you’ve typed in your ad, with your cloaked affiliate link in place, you can then preview what it will look like. You want to make sure it will fit into the space provided. If not go back and make more changes or if you like the way it looks, then after clicking a few links you ad will be saved. Newly created ads need to be approved by the staff first. After approval, your ads will start cycling through.

What I like about this site is that you ads are viewed multiple times. This is beneficial as it increases your possibilities of generating more sales, as opposed to a classified ad site, where the ads are static.

The ads are displayed in a flyin window. Your ads cannot be blocked from being seen. The flyin window will display 3 ads and you earn 10 credits from your ad being displayed. The ads you created will then display on the flyin window when other members' links are clicked! You continue building up credits, when you go back to cloak more links, and continue placing more ads on the site.

You can join the site as a free member, or as a paying member. The amount of credits you earn increases a great deal, if you join as a paying member. You also earn more credits when someone clicks on the ads of your referrals.

You earn 10 credits every time one of your ads is clicked on. You earn an additional 5 credits every time someone clicks on one of the ads of your referrals. Then you get an additional 3 credits for each ad clicked for level two, from the people, that your referrals brought in. You can earn an incredible amount of credits this way.

Paid members have the added advantage of using HTML ads, while non-paying members are limited to black text within their ads. As a paid member, you can use different fonts and colors, have graphics on your ads or create banners. Not only will your credits increase as a paid member, and increase even more through your referrals, but also your affiliate commission is twice as much as those who join for free. But it's a good site for those on a limited budget, as you can also build up a large number of ad credits here.

The site has a very good promotional area, which means you can place your cloaked affiliate links on your blog, your website, in forums, or any number of places where you usually promote your products. The site will track the number of clicks you get on each of your links, as well as tracking conversions, and signups for you. Email support has responded to me quickly. You also have an email inbox on the site.

The only negative I have to say about this site, is about the flyin box. While from an affiliate marketer's standpoint it's a great concept that the box which has 3 different ads appearing on it, doesn't close, can't be blocked and just doesn't go away. But I could see how this might get annoying from a prospective customers viewpoint.

In fact that's how I ended up signing up for this Site. No matter what I did, how I scrolled through the main page I was looking at, or how many times I clicked with my mouse, I just couldn't get the flyin box to move, so I could read the initial page I was on. Finally in frustration, I clicked on the different links, in order to get it off the main page I was viewing. Of course then as I started reading more about it, I could see why this would become a very useful product to have.

There have been times, when I've needed to again look at a site, that I was promoting, that I had cloaked with this program. I needed to double check that the price and the bonuses hadn't changed from the last time I looked at it. At times I've had to reload the page using my original link, instead of the cloaked one so I could again view those details.

However, the area where you manage your links shows both your original link and what it became as a cloaked link. You have the choice of having your ads appear in a viral format, or not. For programs that I’m an affiliate member of, it’s at times been advantageous to not have my ads appear in a viral format, as it does block part of the page that I want people to look at.

So other then that one negative aspect of this site, I’d highly recommend this site for cloaking your affiliate links. It’s easy to use, and your ads get viewed multiple times, which helps increase your traffic and your potential sales. It has a good stats tracking area, email support, and other benefits. Whether you join it as a non-paying member or as a paid member, it's well worth joining this site.

New Marketplace: Benefits for Vendors

2008-01-22T05:05:00.000-06:00

There is a new online marketing company with thousands of products and services. They carry both digital and physical products. This company was developed by internet marketers, with benefits for both the vendors and for affiliates.

Some of the benefits for vendors are that the site is Integrated with PayPal. As a vendor you’ll have the choice of being able to mass pay your affiliates each month either through PayPal or by check.

You can sell your own products, ebooks, software or services, or have the companies affiliates sell your products for you, or build up your own team of affiliates. You determine your own suggested retail price for your product, whatever you want that price to be.

There is no pre-approval required for your sales pages or your thank you pages. Your products do not become the property of the merchant. There are detailed fee schedules listed on the site, and tools available to help your affiliates. You can place an affiliate sign up page on your website, track the statistics of your affiliates, as well as tracking your own statistics and your campaigns.

There are vendor discounts as well, where you will get 25% more for your money.

The site shows comparison fees to two other marketing companies, and this company’s fees appear to be much lower then the other two are.

There’s an active forum, and help desk support available.

The Vendor accounts are free. If you want to add multiple product lines, to your Vendor account, they are only charging a onetime lifetime activation fee of $29.00. You’ll then be able to get unlimited product lines to add for life. This price may soon be increasing to $49.00.

To learn more about this company, and the other benefits they offer that I haven’t listed here, please click on the link below.

http://www.virallinktracker.com/vlt/links/7428

New Marketplace: Benefits For Affiliates

2008-01-22T04:50:00.000-06:00

There is a new marketplace that’s 100% free to join! This company was developed by Internet Marketers, with benefits for both vendors and affiliates.

As an affiliate for this company, you can earn up to 80% sales commissions, by linking your customers to the products and services available in the Marketplace. You can place both your affiliate link and the links to the products you’re selling to your customers, on your web page.

Your links and promotional tools are all available from the Vendors affiliate tools when you select the product. From there you can track all your stats. There are quite a few statistics listed including your profits for today, the last 7 days and the last 30 days.

There are both digital and physical products available in several different categories. When you’re looking at the products you want to promote there are several links under each product. You can get more info on the product, see the sales pages, view the Vendors Profile, and even contact the Vendor directly.

There’s an active forum available as well as help desk support.

The Site is integrated with PayPal. Your commissions will be paid each month by the Vendors. The Vendors can do this by a Mass Pay feature where the Vendor chooses whether to pay you each month through PayPal, or by check.

There is a detailed fee schedule listed on the site. It also gives you comparison fees that are charged by this company as compared to two other marketing companies. This company’s fees are significantly lower then the other two they’ve shown on the site.

In addition, you are allowed one free vendor account to sell your product. If you want to add multiple product lines the fee they are charging for Vendors is a onetime lifetime activation fee of $29.00. Then you can get unlimited product lines to add for life. However that price may soon be increasing to $49.00.

To learn more about this company, and other benefits that they're offering, please click on the link below.

http://www.virallinktracker.com/vlt/links/7428

Cats Go Round

2008-01-21T18:11:00.000-06:00

I thought if perhaps I slowly reintroduced Skitzy and Cole to each other, maybe we could finally have the peaceful two cats, one human household that I longed to have. I pictured myself contentedly typing away on the computer, while they both were free to go into all areas of the house. Then I would no longer have to keep them separated. Maybe I could finally put an end to my separated cat system, and my cat rotation system.

Maybe they'd get along better now. They were both older. They both knew the other cat lived here. They both lied down in front of the closed door the other occupied. I thought they were telling me, why don't you just let us be the Cats we are, and we'll take care of things in our own way.

Cole was neutered now. Much of that testosterone would be gone, and his aggressiveness surely would have diminished by now.

I had to plan this carefully. I closed my bedroom door, because I knew Skitzy likes to go under my bed. If Cole followed her there I wouldn't easily be able to get to either one of them to stop the cat fight if it happened. Skitzy would be let out first to freely roam the house. Then I warned her that I'd be letting Cole out. I had my trusty water bottle in hand. I was prepared to break things up if I needed to do that. I steeled myself for the spitting, hissing noises that I soon might be hearing.

Cole slowly came out, requiring much petting by me after having been left in the bedroom over night. Skitzy was hiding somewhere.

Cole looked at me, as if to say, I'm trying real hard to be a good guy cat here. I'm trying to behave. I was proud of him. He seemed to have no interest whatsoever in seeking Skitsy out. I'm sure that he could smell her, as Cats' have a much stronger sense of smell then humans do.

Cole went on to explore the room that Skitzy's often kept in. He advanced to where her food was. I knew he'd eat it if he got the chance. So there I was standing there with a Spray Bottle of Water in One hand, and Skitzy's food bowl in the other. How was I going to fend off any potential cat attacks like that?

It finally occurred to me to put Skitzy's food bowl down. And if Cole ended up eating it, I would replenish it for her. I wasn't about to let her go hungry, and putting her food bowl in the fridge didn't seem like a good option. I might forget I left it there.

I've now had to keep the bag of cat chow inside a plastic grocery bag. Knot it loosely and then keep it hidden away in a cabinet. Even at that Cole has managed to get the kitchen cabinet open, tear through both bags to get to the cat chow. While I'm certainly not starving him, in fact he's gained weight, if he wants more cat chow, he seems to find a way to get it. I haven't yet been able to stop him.

Cole continued exploring the room, that Skitzy gets kept in. Skitzy made herself visible to me by crouching near the garbage can in the kitchen. So there all three of us were, in this L shaped formation, with me standing in the corner of that "L" between the two of them, armed with my spray water bottle in hand watching the two of them to see what would happen next. I started wondering how long I would have to remain on cat guard patrol like this.

It was if we had some kind of two cats, one human standoff. I started to think maybe this can work after all. Cole had been out for a few minutes, and he didn't initially go after Skitzy or even try to seek her out. Then Cole came down the hallway where I was at. He even ignored Skitzy for awhile and sniffed at other things.

Then Skitzy moved, Cole went after Skitzy and all hell broke loose. I couldn't keep up with them, armed as I was with my trusty spray water bottle.

Maybe it wouldn't have happened again if Skitzy hadn't dashed off. Yeah right. Like that's a natural thing to expect a cat to do. To not move at all, to just stand still! Like that was ever going to happen!

Cole had Skitzy trapped in one of the closets of the bedroom she's often forced to occupy. My spraying him with water, didn't seem to phaise him in the least. He wasn't about to move from the closet. He laid there a foot away from her, just waiting for her to make her move. Skitzy was curled up hissing and starting her dreadful keening noises again. Skitzy was looking at me desperately as if she was saying to me "Help Me! Save Me! You're supposed to love and protect me from this brute of a cat. You're the one who brought him into this house! Do something!"

Skitzy dashed off with Cole in gleeful pursuit. They got my bedroom door opened, which doesn't close very well to begin with, and after more hissing and spitting they both ended up under my bed. Exactly what I was trying to prevent. Both of them in a corner under my bed where I couldn't see them, and certainly couldn't reach either one of them, to grab them or to squirt them to to try to put an end to the cat fight, spitting, hissing, keening noises I was now hearing once again.

My heart was racing like it was about to come flying right out of my chest. I pounded on the bed in frustration, and fear for how this might turn out for Skitzy, and how she'd feel about me in the future at my having left her to fend for herself against Cole. There wasn't much I could do about any of this. I was just a frustrated, ineffective, helpless, scared human after all. Things had not turned out as I had planned.

My hopes for a peaceful two cats, one human household vanished as quickly as they had come. Then Cole casually strolled out from under my bed. He looked at me as if to say, "What did you really expect would happen?" He sure didn't have that look on his face now, that said I'm trying to be the good cat you want me to be. Instead he looked rather smug and extremely satisifed with himself. This time he was looking at me as if he was saying, "Hey, I'm just doing what comes naturally to me! What in the world is your problem, human person, who doesn't seem to have a clue about normal cat behavior?"

Casually he made his way out of that bedroom and into another one. Skitzy remained under my bed.

About a week ago, Skitzy and Cole somehow ended up in the same closed bedroom together. Everything seemed quiet, and peaceful while I went in search of Skitzy wondering where she had ended up hiding. I was very surprised to see her occupying the same room at the same time as Cole. I can't for the life of me figure out how that happened. As soon as I came into that room and opened the door, then the hissing, spitting, snarling started.

So maybe all this chasing, all these terrible noises I can't bear to listen to are all being done for my benefit. Maybe it's some scheme the two of them concocted to have their dubious version of cat fun with me their human counterpart.

I think they've both got my number. I think they both know exactly how to play me, and how to push my soft spots to their fullest advantage.

As I type this, Cole and I now occupy the room with the computer, while I type away with the bedroom door closed. I'll have to entice Skitzy out of hiding, by bribing her with canned cat food. Then her and her food will get placed in the bedroom she is often forced to occupy and then Cole will get his turn to be let out to freely roam the rest of the house.

After awhile Skitzy will get bored with it. She'll sratch at the bedroom door to be let out. Cole will then be placed in the bedroom with the computer, with the door closed and then it will be Skitzy's turn to freely roam the rest of the house, or to go into hiding, somewhere as she now so often does.

And so we're all three carrying on, just exactly as we were before. My Separated Cat System and my Cat Rotation System continues to be left in place. At least until I can figure out what my next move might be, in simply wanting to live in a peaceful quiet two cats, one human household.

Two Cat Household

2008-01-21T16:17:00.000-06:00

I own two Cats, or they own me. I got Skitzy my small sweet female cat, as Misty another cat that we had, started getting older. Misty, a tabby, was with us for a good 16 or 17 years. Bringing Skitzy into the house, I felt was about the continuing circle of life. Misty made some unhappy keening noises at times, but for the most part she didn't seem to have a major problem with Skitzy coming into the household.

Skitzy didn't go after Misty, but pretty much just left her alone. They didn't fuss and fight with each other. In fact at times, they were sleeping near each other in the separate cat beds I had bought them.

Skitzy is a tortoiseshell cat. She's sweet, somewhat shy, very gentle and likes to occupy my lap while I'm trying to knit. She's like a ballerina cat, the way she softly, gently puts her paws down. It never got to a point where Misty and Skitzy cuddled with each other, or licked each other but at least they seemed to tolerate each other.

Sometime after Misty died, I wondered if Skitzy was bored being in the house all by herself. I felt she had gotten used to having another cat around. She came to me from a household that had another cat there.

Along came Cole. I thought Cole would keep Skitzy company, and give her companionship that I thought she might have needed after Misty died. I thought they would play together and happily chase each other around from time to time. They were closer in age to each other then Skitzy had been to Misty.

Soon began the snarling, the hissing, the spitting between the two of them. The mad dashes by the two of them through different areas of the house. The disturbing sounds of two cats fighting, that were hard for me to listen to, and even harder for me to ignore. Those noises probably sounded much worse to me, then they might have been to either one of them.

Skitzy then started going into hiding, looking over her shoulder whenever she went to use the litter box, or go to eat. As if she was checking out if it was safe for her to pursue those activities. Cole's a lot bigger than Skitzy is.

Often he seemed to trap her in a corner, though he didn't appear to actually be hurting her. But just sort of waiting, daring her to move, so he could chase after her again. What was worse were the keening noises that Skitzy started making when Cole got too close.

She sure didn't sound like a very happy cat to me, glad to have the company of this new cat I had brought into her territory. At times I think she gave me looks of hurt, confusion, and that I had somehow betrayed her by bringing Cole in.

And Cole seemed to become a type of Bully Cat, towards Skitzy though he is very sweet and affectionate to me. Before I gave him a home I had heard he didn't get along with the other cat residing there. Maybe Cole just needs to be the Solo Cat of his cat household.

People told me this aggression on Cole's part might ease up once I got him neutered. Skitzy was spade, so I couldn't figure out what kind of sexual scent she might be leaving that would be attractive to him. But Cole was just doing what comes naturally to a Young Male Cat, who wasn't yet neutered. Basically going after anything that moved. Skitzy moved. Cole went after her.

I then started my separated cat system. I'd keep one cat in one bedroom, while the other got to roam the rest of the place. I rotated this to try to make it fair to both of them. It was difficult for me to logically think this through, in the mornings before the coffee had kicked in. I'd put one cat in one bedroom, and then realize he or she needed fresh food or water, or their litter box needed to be cleaned out. Then I'd have to sneak in and out to accomplish this task. I'm sure both cats had a good laugh at my silly human disorganization, before the caffeine had its desired effect on my addled brain.

I initially thought about naming Cole, who is all Black with incredible green eyes, Nat KinK Cole, since he had a KinK in his tail. It's a good thing I didn't. Cole started attacking his tail, going after it in a frenzy. He scared me when he started these attacks upon himself. Soon part of his tail became fur bear, and bleeding.

Sometimes he started hissing at it or hissing at me. I wasn't quite sure which. Since Skitzy was in another room. That only left Cole, Me and his battered tail for him to be hissing at. Obviously something about his tail was bothering him.

Off to the Vet, where Cole finally got the neutering he needed, as well as having to have part of his tail amputated. He came home wearing a collar, so that he couldn't go after the bandage on his tail. At that point I was told by the Vet to continue keeping them both separated until Cole recovered from his surgeries. Cole would have an animal hospital smell attached to him when he first came home and Skitzy might freak out at seeing Cole wearing his Collar. I can't say I'd blame her for that, as he looked like an Alien Cat with it on.

Poor guy had a hard time wearing that collar. He bumped into things, or his collar would get caught on something, that I'd have to free him from. He couldn't groom himself with the collar on. At times it didn't seem like he could eat very easily. He'd get the corner of his collar caught under his water bowl, and spill the water.

This wasn't his fault. He couldn't help it. It was frustrating for both of us. Skitzy at one time, looked at me, looked at him, with his collar and his amputated tail, as if she knew something wasn't quite right. I would take the collar off of Cole for awhile so he could have an easier time at eating his food, and give himself a good grooming session. But as soon as he started going after his tail, the collar went back on him.

When it was Cole's turn to freely roam the house, and Skitzy was safely in another bedroom, Cole stayed close to me as he followed me through the different rooms of the house. As if he knew I would need to act as his guide, since he couldn't use his whiskers for that purpose, while having to wear that collar.

Cole being the smart cat that he is, managed to get the Collar off himself, by chasing madly through the house. Somehow with the chair and table legs he came up against, the collar came off, and Cole again attacked his bandaged tail. Back to the Vet we go. Now the majority of his tail had to be amputated.

Cole came home again. He now looks like a small Bobcat, with just a small stub of black tail left. But at least he is no longer having his frenzied attacks towards his tail anymore. This time for his 2ND episode of tail amputation recovery, he had a collar on that would be much more difficult for him to get off, and even if he attempted it, he wasn't able to accomplish this the second time around.

My separated cat system continued. It was as if I owned two cats, but owned them one at a time. Yet each of them would lie in front of the bedroom door that the other cat was occupying at the time. Skitzy voluntarily would dash into the bedroom, that she has to often occupy. As if to say to me, I don't like this set up very much, but at least I know I'm safe in here, and that Cole can't get to me, as long as you keep the door closed. Of course when she's getting bored with that, she's scratching at the door to be let out, and my cat rotation system starts all over again. Cole gets put into another bedroom, Skitzy then gets let out to roam the rest of the place.

This would all be so much easier, if I had some sort of Cat Revolving Door in place. But it's not a great situation for any of us.

If I'm on the computer, which I am a great deal of the time, I can't really keep an eye on the two of them, so I continued on with my separated cat system. I knew I was keeping them separated more for my sake then for theirs. I didn't want the additional stress of having to break things up, if they should get into another cat fight, while I was on the computer. In addition, I couldn't always remembers where I had last left the spray bottle of water to cool things down between them. I think I could have learned how to deal with the hissing and spitting noises in time. But it was Skitzy's keening noises I had the hardest time listening to.

Maybe I just should have enclosed myself in one room, with a good pair of headphones on and let the two of them figure things out. I felt like I would be setting up Skitzy to be attacked by Cole. I wasn't seeing trails of blood droppings or clumps of fur left behind. But those noises...they were heart wrenching to me. They were too difficult for me to listen to, and impossible to tune out.

If Cole and I are both enclosed in the bedroom where the computer is, and Skity's out in the rest of the place, the room that Cole and I are in gets incredibly warm, while the rest of the place seems to get very cold. Now I have to make increased trips to turn the heat down, turn the heat up, or at times just turn the heat off altogether for awhile, until the bedroom with the computer in it cools down.

This was becoming a crazy way for all three of us to live. I had kept them both separated for so long, I didn't know how to undo it anymore. I knew something had to change.

To be continued:

Change or Stay The Same?

2008-01-21T15:02:00.000-06:00

It's been recommended to me, that I shouldn't divert off topic the way I have been doing and get my blog more focused to the people I'm trying to target. I know this is good advice. I know it makes sense.

Yet I have a hard time doing it. I don't want to remove my post about my Cat Cole, or the one I wrote about the toys I've created. Neither of those topics might have anything to do with Affiliate Marketing, though Cole taught me that sometimes you have to say no, which I was able to relate to Affiliate Marketing.

It was a bit of a stretch I admit. But that's what immediately came to my mind that cold and snowy night when he was meowing insistently at the back door. Having to say no to Cole and the other cat, as well as having to say no to many of the things being offered to me by other affiliate marketers.

As for my toys, I'm proud of them. I'm proud that I made them, and actually finished them. I'm proud of the fact that I actually got into the 21st Century and was able to upload those pictures that other people might enjoy looking at.

Part of me feels I should remove those pictures of My Mini-Me Doll and Rolly the Octopus from this blog. Part of me feels I won't be taken very seriously with pictures like that appearing here.

Maybe it's the little kids voice in me, that's saying "But I don't want to take them down!" I like seeing them here when I sign in here. They make me smile when I see them greeting me, when I first enter my blog. Maybe they'll make other people who might look at this blog from time to time, smile as well. Maybe there's nothing wrong with a bit of silliness appearing on my blog from time to time, as well as everything else that might end up landing here.

I actually want to add more pictures of my toys here. Maybe it's also the part of me that is generally just somewhat rebellious to begin with. That doesn't quite want to do things the way it's recommended, even though I know it's a great recommendation.

Isn't there room for diversity? Isn't it possible that other affiliate marketers, or other people who might be reading my blog, could also be pet owners? Isn't it possible that some of them might even enjoy crafting in their spare time, and might enjoy seeing a few pictures of my hand made toys here?

Maybe I just don't want to have to categorize my blog posts, other people or myself, into tiny little boxes. I suppose I could say this could be part of my spillover into other areas, not exactly related to Affiliate Marketing.

Besides this might give Google some variety in the AdSense Ads they might be placing here, because of my having different keywords, that relate so far to cats, crafts, writing, as well as affiliate marketing. I wouldn't want Google AdSense to get bored if their spiders have to look at the same keywords over and over again.

OK I'm justifying my diversionary tactics for myself. I admit it!

It was also recommended that I start separate blogs for each different category that I might blog about. Target one blog to cat owners, another to crafters, another to writers, another to affiliate marketers. Or else I should just make my blog a hodge podge of different things that I'm going to be blogging about, which so far, seems to be the direction this one's heading in.

Good Grief! It took me quite a long time to get this blog up and running. I spent hours making up my mind about what colors, fonts, I wanted and the placement of things. I put off starting a blog for quite some time, because I felt it would be a time consuming task.

If I start a different blog for each different category that comes into my overcrowded and disorganized mind, I might not get much writing done. And what if I only end up with 4 posts about cats, 7 posts about crafts and then I can't come up with anything more to blog about on each specific topic? Then I'll have a whole bunch of mini-blogs I'll have to keep track of, each of them perhaps not having much content?

Now it's occurred to me that probably I should change the name of my blog since it doesn't seem to be about The Affable Affiliate, and since it is becoming a hodge podge of this and that. Actually I initially wanted to title it Jan's Promo Place. But when it came to also having to come up with a link name/address for myself, I thought people might remember Jan's Promo Place easier then they would remember The Affable Affiliate.

So as you can see, things did not end up exactly the way I thought they would. If I was having that much trouble trying to figure out which should be the name of my blog, and which should be my http link address, just think how much trouble my brain will have coming up with several more new blog names, and addresses? Not to mention that I'm not that thrilled with the concept of moving to begin with or having to set things up at a whole new location.

If I change my blog's name from the The Affable Affiliate to something else, that could also mean, I'll start getting 404 errors or some other kinds of errors from Google. Because I'll have to make changes in other places behind the scenes. At this point I don't want to spend the time figuring out how I go about doing all of that.

Right now I can't come up with another creative name for my blog, that might be more appropriate for the diverse topics I've already started blogging about. I'm just not getting that light bulb coming on for me right now, or that creative bolt of lightning, that says to me, Aha! This is what you should rename your Blog. Maybe it'll come to me in the future, maybe it won't.

Until it does, this blog will remain titled The Affable Affiliate, it'll still be located at http://janspromoplace.blogspot.com. This blog will probably contain some posts from time to time that appear to have nothing at all to do with Affiliate Marketing. I won't guarantee I can always accomplish it, but I'll do my best to tie in my unrelated blog posts somehow. That might not just be a bit of a stretch, it might become a major reach. Be that as it may.

As the writer of this blog, I obviously feel a need to have those unrelated posts appear here once in awhile.

Should I change things here or have them stay the same? They were great recommendations and I appreciate it that someone took the time to give me that good advice. I know I should be following them, but I just can't yet bring myself to remove my unrelated posts about Cole the Cat, or the posts or the pictures of my hand made toys.

So for now things are staying the same, if and until I can come up with a creative name for this blog that would be more appropriate.

Nothing is Simple!

My Hand Made Toys

2008-01-19T02:17:00.000-06:00

While this Blog is titled The Affable Affiliate, it's time I diverted off of the main road for a bit. Since The Affable Affiliate is located at Jan's Promo Place. That means I can promote all kinds of things. I think it leaves my niche wide open. I think I can promote whatever I want to promote, and furthermore I intend to do just that.

So I guess in a way I'm promoting me right now. That's right! You read that correctly. I'm engaging in a form of shameless self promotion. Do I hear your surprised intake of breath? Ok you can exhale now.

As you can see from some of the titles of my submitted articles, some of them have to do with the yarn crafts of knitting, crocheting and the Knifty Knitter, so this post is about that particular topic. And since I've already listed articles I've written in that area, I don't think I'm drifting too far off topic.

Or else I'm justifying for myself, the occasional need I have to impulsively travel down some unknown side road. I used to like doing that while driving my car, before the price of gas became so high, so why shouldn't I do it with my blog from time to time?

I'm slowly but surely getting into the 21st Century. I developed pictures in August, 2007. I even had them put on a CD. Well yesterday I finally got around to uploading those pictures from the CD's I got in August of 2007. I sure don't want to rush into these things. Procrastinators of the World Unite.

It was a lot easier then I thought it would be. Then I enjoyed watching the screenshow of my pictures. And of course I got into cropping the pictures, and seeing what all the different effects would do.

Well one of the CD's included pictures of the different stuffed animals, I had hand made. From there I advanced to a group on Yahoo, that I had joined some time ago, but hadn't actively participated in. This group is called Joyful Toys. It's a group of people who make toys by way of knitting, crocheting or using the Knifty Knitter, which is a set of 4 circular knitting looms. I enjoy making all kinds of hand made items. But I think making toys and stuffed animals are my favorite items to make. Those critters come to life for me, once they're all put together and I put the faces on them.

I'm proud to say I got the pictures of my stuffed creations uploaded to a photo album in that group. I've been wanting to do that for a long time. I've often lurked and looked at the cute creations other people had made, but I had never posted any of my own.

I have another printer with scanning capabilities, but it's currently not connected to my hard drive. It also seemed more complicated, and required more reading then I often felt like doing, on that particular topic.

But with a CD, I open up the tray, put the CD in the slot, close the tray, and within a few minutes my pictures were appearing on my computer screen. How cool is that? How simple, how quick, how incredibly easy. Sometimes I just love modern technology, when things go as smoothly as loading those pictures did.

Considering I have a whole gang of computer gremlins that reside in my computer, and delight in making my computer life more difficult, those pictures appearing that easily was like a breath of fresh air to me. Maybe all the computer gremlins were napping at the time. Or could it be they've finally vacated my computer to go mess with someone else for a change? You don't know how many times I've heard those computer gremlins laughing at me in the background at all the mischief they so delight in creating for me.

Right now my computer starts up with immediately wanting to search for something. It didn't do that before. So far I haven't found a way to stop that search from appearing when I start my computer, but fortunately I can click out of the two search boxes that now appear at start-up. I believe my computer gremlins are responsible for making that search request appear so suddenly on my computer. It couldn't be something I must have clicked on, that I don't remember doing, and now I can't find it, since I can't remember what I may have done, so I can change it back to how it was before. So I can only conclude it's because of the computer gremlins that reside in my computer.

I'm grateful that my computer gremlins, gave me a break when it came to getting those pictures on my computer. I enjoy looking at the many stuffed animals I've made. They seem happy that at last they can now be visible to the world.

So this post might not have anything to do, with Affiliate Marketing. It won't tell you how to earn money, it won't give you a free ebook to download and read, it won't point you in the direction of a dozen different web sites or products I'm recommending. It isn't even about the things I find difficult or confusing about Affiliate Marketing.

I'm proud of the stuffed animals I've made. I'm proud of myself for actually getting their pictures on the computer and then into a photo album from Yahoo's Joyful Toys Group at last. I'm delighted that maybe others might look at the pictures of my hand made critters from time to time.

So if you have kids, or if you're a kid at heart, who likes keeping that kid alive within you, then maybe you'll go take a look at my pictures. I'm not sure how it works, if you have to join Yahoo in order to see them.

Looking at the pictures of my stuffed animals, won't earn you more money. It won't get your more downline referrals, it won't be a about a product you need to know more about.

Buy maybe it will awaken the little kid in you. Maybe those pictures will help you forget your troubles for awhile. Maybe my pictures of my cute and cuddly hand made stuffed animals will put a smile on your face and fill you with as much delight as I get from making them.

But you'll never know if you'll get that warm and fuzzy feeling, unless you take a look at them.

http://ph.groups.yahoo.com/group/joyful-toys/photos/browse/8bee

Mozilla Firefox

2008-01-14T16:57:00.000-06:00

I put off downloading Mozilla Firefox, for some time. Often after I’ve downloaded something, some of my other computer programs seem to go haywire. I didn’t want that to happen to me again.

Finally, I decided I’d give Firefox a try. Within two days of my downloading and using it, I wanted to give it a five star review. But I thought that might come across like I was lavishing false praise on it after using it for such a short amount of time. Then I got sidetracked. The Internet often has that effect on me.

Now that I have been using it for about a week or two, I can’t help but tell you how much I really like using this innovative Internet Browser. I’m one of those people, who likes to have many computer windows open all at the same time.Sometimes I’ve gotten a message that says, I’ve reached the limit of how many windows I can have open all at once. Even computers reach their limits I guess!

I figured I was multi-tasking, by having so many windows opened all at the same time. I’m still on a slow dial up connection. So while one program was getting opened, why not have the others that I wanted to look at, get themselves started in that procedure?

The problem I often had in doing that was that when they were all minimized, I couldn’t distinguish one open minimized window from the others. Then I had to go about restoring many of them, so I could find the one I actually wanted to look at right then. In addition to that, sometimes, my browser not only moved at a crawl, but it would come to a full blown stop.

I couldn't scroll through any screens. Clicking on my mouse keys many times, didn’t get anything moving for me either. Everything just came to a standstill. All I could do was sit and wait, until one of my many windows finally got opened enough so I could look at it.

I have a hard time just waiting, sitting there doing nothing! So, of course I used my time wisely, improving my skills at playing a game of cards, like Spider Solitaire or Free Cell, while I was waiting for those breezes to blow on me, from the many windows I wanted to open.

Sometimes I got a message that AOL was no longer responding to me. It was as if I had given AOL a major headache, by wanting it to open those windows all at the same time. So AOL got even with me, and said, that’s it! I’ve had it! I won’t open one more window for you now. I won’t even keep on opening the windows you already requested that I open. So there!

Then AOL would decide it needed to take a break and go lie down for a while, because of the excess strain I must have put on it. It just disappeared, since it was no longer responding to me at all. I guess AOL has its limits too of how much it will take from me.

With Mozilla Firefox, I can open things up in several windows. Within those open windows I can then open up several related links in different tabs.

Say I’m looking at a site about different cities I want to travel to on vacation. Then I can open up some tabs as to what hotels or airfare might cost to that specific location. I can then open up another window for my second choice of locations, and then open tabs that relate to that second destination. I can then open up a third window with its related tabs about what the predictions will be for the weather next week, where I live. Then I can more effectively dream about that nice warm sandy beach I want to be lying on, when that snow and cold arrives here.

Everything stays better organized with Mozilla Firefox. Being able to open tabs within the windows, lets me easily click on links that relate to the main topic. I don’t have to figure out where they’re now located when I’ve minimized them at the bottom of my screen.

Mozilla Firefox, lets me rearrange my bookmarks in whatever order I want them to be. It asks me if it should remember my passwords for me. How can I say no to that polite and helpful request? My brain is already overcrowded as it is. My memory isn’t that great to begin with. Much better, that Mozilla Firefox remembers my many different passwords for me, so that I don’t have to.

As I looked more at the website, I found myself liking Mozilla Firefox, even more. It was developed by a grassroots community. A diverse group of people from all walks of life, from different parts of the world, who are devoted to enriching people’s lives by preserving choice and innovation on the Internet!

This is a not-for-profit organization, unlike many other things on the Internet that are only motivated by profits, or shareholder value.

They built Firefox to keep people safe online. If a critical bug is discovered, they make it public knowledge, so it can be fixed as soon as possible. Because it’s an open source, they have an entire community of users, from around the world, constantly, working, improving and updating, Mozilla Firefox to make your web browsing a safer experience.

You can customize it for yourself, because the people who developed it don’t subscribe to the viewpoint, that one size fits all. It has spell check, and search suggestions. You can view your live RSS web feeds for current news, your favorite blogs, or to keep an eye on your auctions!

It has a lot of features I haven’t yet learned how to use. The only thing I now regret, is that I didn’t download Mozilla Firefox much sooner.

The Story of A King, with a Kind and Giving Heart

2008-01-14T16:23:00.000-06:00

Sometime back, Cole my male cat was meowing quite insistently at my back door. Cole is an all black cat, with incredible green eyes. He seems to think this should carry some extra weight with me, and that he should have more advantages then my smaller female cat Skitzy does, who has lived here longer.

Now it’s possible since he was previously an outdoor cat, before he came to live with me, that he had this sudden desire to go outside to romp, and play once again. But it was cold and snowing out there! And whether he likes it or not, as long as he’s living with me, he is now an indoor cat. I wasn’t about to put on my coat, hat and gloves to chase after him, by letting him go outside. Nor was I about to be consider the possibility of my having to call the fire department. That wasn't going to be an option, if I had let him out, and then he decided to get himself comfortable on some high up unreachable branch of a tree.

But he was quite insistent with all his meowing. Cole is one of those cats who talks quite a bit. I haven’t yet figured out what all his Cat Speak language is supposed to mean. I can only hope we’ve established some sort of communication where at times we have some understanding of each other.

Then he started in on me, with that pitiful cry. If you’re a cat lover, or even an animal lover, you know what I’m talking about. That pitiful cry is that meow that pulls at your heart. It’s the one that’s hard to resist, and frequently I agree to whatever it is Cole wants when he uses that pitiful meow on me.

It’s definitely not the same meow that says he’s hungry, even though he’s already doubled my cat food chow bill. He’s put on a few pounds, since he's lived here, so needless to say he’s definitely not starving around here. It’s not the cry that says “Hey Person, who is supposed to love and care about me. It’s about my Litter box! Get with it will you already!” It’s not even the meow that plaintively asks, “When are you going to get off of that darn computer and pet me and play with me?”

No this meow was much more insistent. I picked him up, and cautiously opened the inner back door to see if there was something going on onside. Then I heard it. Outside on that cold snowy night was another cat nearby also giving forth with it’s own version of that pitiful and plaintive cry.

While it’s certainly possible Cole, who is neutered, just wanted to go out and chase down that other feline, who was invading his territory. Perhaps he needed to prove once again, that he is indeed the Reigning King Cat of our block. And that he would not look kindly on any other cat invading the territory of his distinguished Cat Kingdom, no matter what the weather might be like outside.

But more I got the feeling that he was saying to me, “Aren’t you going to do something about this? Aren’t you going to let that other cat in from the snow and cold, so it can get warmed up?”

I felt like his pitiful meows were saying “I was once an outdoor cat too! I know what it’s like to have to fend for myself in the cold, and snow, or to have to seek shelter from the rain. I know what it’s like to have to find creative ways to find food for myself, living with the harsh realities of that cold outside world. I’ve been there, remember? I had to do it myself not too long ago before I adopted you, as the person being most suitable for caring for me on the inside.”

His heart wrenching meows had taken on an intensity all their own. Now I was hearing a harmonious duet of pitiful cries from both him, and that cat that found itself outside on that cold and snowy night.

What does any of this have to do with affiliate marketing? Well, sometimes you just have to say NO!

No, Cole, I can’t afford to take on the care and feeding of a third cat right now. No, I can’t read another email, look at another web site, or click on another link right now. No, Cole, you don’t get along with Skitzy that well now. So why would either one of us believe you’ll easily get along with a third cat?

No, I can’t afford to buy your recommended affiliate program for $197.00, $97.00 or even that one, that is “reduced for a limited time” to only $47.00. Yes I know if I don’t pay my $47.00 to you, right this instant, I’ll lose my chance forever, at joining your program that guarantees I’ll make thousands of dollars in a very short amount of time, with very little effort needed on my part.

I guess I’ll just have to take my chances that I’ve missed out on yet another great opportunity that will drastically change my life forever. I’ll just have to say NO to it, right now, though it fills me with much regret.

But I have to tell you. It was much harder for me to have to say no to Cole and his insistent plaintive cries that night. It was much harder for me to have to say no to the desperate meows I was hearing from that other cold Kitty, who somehow found itself outside on that cold and snowy night.

I had much more regret having to say no to both of those cats, then I have had, in having to say no to some of the programs being promoted to me by other affiliate marketers.

My sweet cat Cole, with his beautiful green eyes, and his good, loving and generous heart, who now has my vote, as the Coolest King Cat of our particular Cat Block, taught me that cold and snowy night, that sometimes you just have to say no, whether you want to or not!

And sometimes having to say NO, even when you may not want to, is not an easy thing to do.

Internet Marketing: A Beginners Perspective

2008-01-05T18:36:00.000-06:00

SUBMITTING ARTICLES PART 2

Another thing I don’t understand is that when anyone places an ad in any other medium other then the Internet, those places expect to be paid for providing that service. Whether that’s placing a classified ad in a newspaper, buying a radio spot, or having a commercial appear on TV.

Sometime back I tried some of those get paid to read email programs. While I don’t know what the going rate is today, back then I was being paid fractions of a penny for the advertising emails I did read. Since I wasn’t easily able to get people as my referrals to those programs, it took some time before I could even reach the minimum payout required from some of those sites.

When I calculated my hourly rate, I would have done better working at my local fast food place. But I couldn’t go to any of my local stores and ask them to give me change for a penny. Yet I was being paid less then one cent, to read those emails.

No, it’s not rocket science to spend some seconds reading those get paid to read email advertisements. I didn’t expect to make thousands of dollars doing that. But I also didn’t expect that my rate of payment, would be fractions of a penny. In some cases I had to look at several emails, before I actually earned my first penny. Reaching the minimum amount, before I could get to payout, seemed very far away back then.

Newspapers, radio, and TV charge accordingly for the ads they allow people to place there. The large TV networks are paid quite well, if a commercial is aired, during an event such as the Super Bowl.

When writers submit an article to a brick and mortar publication, they are hoping that the publisher will agree to publish their article, and will compensate the writer accordingly. If that publication accepts that article, poem, or short story, they might pay the writer in contributors’ copies, if the publication isn’t very well known. Other larger publications are willing to pay money, if they agree to publish your writing.

How did the Internet, which is still in many ways a young and growing form of communication, become a place, where Affiliate Marketers and Writers often aren’t paid for their efforts? Why is it not only recommended, but also almost expected, that writers will submit their articles for free publication?

Many Affiliate Marketers don’t receive any money for the programs we’re trying hard to promote, until someone actually buys those products. Being paid strictly on a commission basis, seems like a hard way to make a living, from what I’ve experienced and learned about Affiliate Marketing so far. How did things become so different regarding the Internet, as compared to what newspapers, magazines, radio or TV do?

The Internet is amazing, with the worldwide reach and potential that it has. Not too long ago, if we wanted to communicate with someone in a different location, from where we lived, we could do that either with long distance phone calls, or by sending them a letter through the U.S. post office. We didn’t have the ability to send an Instant Message, like we can today. The letters I sent to someone living in a different city, or a country then I do, never arrived as quickly as email now does.

But I wonder how we’ve strayed so far, from that old philosophy “That there are no free lunches.” Affiliate Marketers don’t get paid, until someone actually buys the other peoples’ products that we work hard to promote. Writers are now expected to submit their articles for
free publication, and we’re told to submit them to as many places as possible.

When did things change so drastically? Where was I when that happened? I guess I must have missed that memo. But I’m doing my best to comply with things the way they are now. I’m willing to follow the submission guidelines, as stated at various Article Publishing Sites.

I hope by following these ever changing rules, I might actually earn money someday, from the articles I work so hard to write. I’ve read from many different sources from different people, more experienced then I am, who have stated that I could earn money submitting my Articles to different Publishing Sites. They said that could happen for me, and I believe them.

So perhaps I’m not only naive because I do believe those written endorsements, as a way I hope to eventually make money on the Internet today, but as I've mentioned a few times before, I’m also new at all of this.

Internet Marketing: A Beginners Perspective

2008-01-05T18:12:00.000-06:00

There’s a lot of areas regarding Internet Affiliate Marketing, that I still don’t know much about. Some of it I find rather confusing.

SUBMITTING ARTICLES PART 1

It’s been recommended that I submit some of my written articles to different Article Publishers. Many people have indicated that I can earn money by doing this, but I don’t understand exactly how that works.

I admit that I have a hard time, wrapping my mind around the concept that I’m supposed to allow my writing to be published for free. Apparently if I submit my articles to as many publishers as possible, that will help to increase my by-name recognition. I don’t understand how submitting my articles to multiple publications for free, will later lead to my earning money, either through the writing of my blog or from those published articles.

My blog is new. So far I’m promoting other people’s products or web sites. I don’t have any products of my own to promote, except for my writing ability. I don’t yet have products I can resell, or give away to anyone who might be reading my blog.

I feel like I’m missing something here. How does it go from point A, submitting my articles for free publication, to point B, earning money in the future, from those articles? People say you can earn money by doing this, but nobody explains the details of how that actually happens. I’m one of those people who needs to know the details.

Other people hold a different viewpoint about submitting your articles to as many publishers as possible.

"So what does that mean for that article you wrote and submitted to 50,000 publishers… It means that it did just that – it was submitted to 50,000 publishers. You do not know who it was submitted to, whether they are a respected website, whether they actually have any reasonable amount of traffic, or even if they will publish your article without your permission. You have no
control over what happens to your article."

Mark Daoust, goes on to say that this is not what publishers want from the writers who are submitting to them. He indicated that it’s not in the writer’s best self interest as well.

“The idea of submitting an article to as many publishers as possible is obviously contrary to what a publisher is looking for. At the same time, though, it is also contrary to what you should be looking for. The secret to writing successful articles starts with a simple concept: you want to control who publishes your article, and you want to help promote that article. If an editor chooses to publish an article and sees that it was well-received (and brought in a lot of new traffic), they will be more inclined to publish future articles from you…A properly written, distributed, and promoted article can be far more effective than any other form of marketing, and far more cost effective.”

A web site owner might need content for their web site, but he or she, might not want content that’s already been circulated widely over the Internet. A publisher would prefer that one specific article from a writer, is not being submitted and published by many other publishers.

As a writer, I’ve put in time and effort writing that article, to be as well-written as I can make it. That not only includes the writing itself, but proofreading, editing, and revising my article, before I submit it anywhere. I may have needed to research my topic, before I even put my fingers on the keyboard.

These days, with so many people blogging and writing, it certainly seems there’s much more writing competition for all of us to contend with.

My article might be viewed by some people, as nothing more then a long written ad, for something I’m promoting. Many Article Publishing sites don’t allow the writers’ to place direct links to the items we’re promoting, within the body of the article itself. The writers are allowed to include a link to our blogs or web sites, within the Author’s Resource box at that publication site.

But I feel I’m making my potential customers take extra unnecessary steps. First they hopefully read my article about whatever it is I’m promoting. Then they’re supposed to travel back to my blog. Once they get there, they need to find the link to the product I’m promoting as mentioned in my article. Then when they click on that link, they’ll finally be getting their first look at what I’ve been trying to promote to them all along.

It seems like I’ve sending my potential customers on a long scenic route, with a few extra detours thrown into their Internet Highway travels. If they get lost or it’s dark out by the time they arrive at whatever it is I’m promoting, they’re probably going to expect that I’ll be putting them up for a night or two and that I’ll be feeding them as well.

I've found reading what more experienced Affiliate Marketers recommend to be quite helpful. I just want it to make sense to me. So far submitting my Articles to a large amount of publications for free, doesn’t seem logical to me, but I'm willing to give it a try. Maybe someday I’ll have discovered all the missing pieces I now have with this Article Submission writing puzzle.

But for now, I’m new at all of this.

Source: “The Misunderstood Marketing Method” By Mark Daoust, from
http://www.homebiztools.com/marketing-method.htm

Internet Marketing: A Beginner's Perspective

2008-01-05T14:15:00.000-06:00

My new journey into things I’ve learned so far about Affiliate Marketing continues.

WEB SITES AND BLOGS

Some sources said it was necessary, that I have my own web site, while other things I read said it wasn’t a requirement. No wonder I’m confused. At first, I thought I wouldn’t really need my own web site, as I was promoting other people’s products.

Starting my own web site intimidated me. I knew it would take time to get it set up, with the colors, fonts, style, and placement of things the way I wanted it to be. I could see myself easily getting bogged down with all those details. And after doing all that, it might not work right, since my knowledge about html and the other high tech stuff is rather limited.

I soon realized that I had no central location, where that mass of internet humanity would be flocking to my web site, just to see what I would be promoting next, or what I might even be ranting and raving about from time to time. I decided to start a blog, which did take time for me to set up, but I’m now glad I have one.

The only thing is, now that I have my brand new blog, I don’t think I’m getting much traffic, if any. My blog must have been placed on some rural road somewhere. No one told me, I wouldn’t be able to pick the location for my blog. I thought I’d just be able to direct the blog movers, to what I thought would be a good location for my brand new blog, on that vast extensive Internet Highway. I sure didn’t expect that my Blog would be placed in the middle of nowhere.

So what’s my next move? Am I supposed to stand in the middle of the road, trying to flag down whatever few cars might pass by, so that maybe somebody, anybody, might stop, take a look at my blog, and buy a product from me that I’m promoting there? Is begging an option?

In addition, I don’t yet have any items I’m directly trying to sell myself, except for those potential hand made affiliate cloaks I’m thinking about knitting or crocheting. As an affiliate marketer, I’m promoting other people’s products, and not any of my own.

So if anyone visits my blog, and clicks on my ads, at best they might go visit, a program I’m affiliated with. Even if they sign up under my cloaked referral affiliate links, they might just sign up for the free versions of the programs like I did, and I still won’t earn any money by them doing that.

As a writer, I’m glad I now have a blog. Especially since there are few restrictions about what I can blog about or how long or short my blog posts are supposed to be. In school, I had to write my essays about the topic the Teachers assigned me. At an online writing site, where my writing first went public, I had to get my writing to within their suggested guidelines for both a minimum and maximum word length to my articles.

Now having my own Blog, I can blog about whatever comes to mind. It feels freeing and empowering to be able to do that.

Then there are the recommendations that you’re supposed to write to a specific “niche”. With all the time I've already spent setting up my very first brand new blog, not much writing will ever get done that way. I guess you can expect that I will probably divert off that specific “niche” topic I’m writing about, from time to time.

As a driver of my car, I often enjoyed going off on some unexplored side road, just to see where that road would take me. Why should blogging on the Internet Highway, be all that different from those spontaneous side trips, I used to enjoy taking in my car?

Since my web site link is currently about promoting things, that leaves my “niche” topic
wide-open doesn‘t it? I could promote my two cats, deep-dish pizza, the weather, even myself from time to time. This is Jan’s Promo Place, after all.

Maybe I’ll need to get more specific? Maybe I’ll need to narrow it down more, as to what my specific blog “niche” will actually be? Well I kind of like having my particular “niche” be wide open and spacious, like the rural country road, my blog seems to be currently residing on. I like being able to promote whatever it is I want to promote.

Right now, it seems to be working well for me, but as I’ve mentioned to you before, I’m new at all of this.

Internet Marketing: A Beginners Perspective

2008-01-05T13:53:00.000-06:00

I continue learning more things, with my new journey into Internet Marketing.

AFFILIATE LINKS

It seemed obvious to me, when I started looking at my own affiliate links, that I was trying to promote something or other. Once again, I had to wonder why anyone would buy from me, when my affiliate links were practically shouting out to anyone who looked at them, that I was trying to sell something to somebody.

Then I discovered the many different sites that “cloak your links”. This protected me from the possibility that my future potential customers would bypass me. Seeing my obvious Affiliate Links, they might buy whatever I was promoting, directly from the parent company instead of buying it from me. If I didn’t cloak my links, it was possible that other devious internet users could replace my affiliate links with their own. There go my hard earned commissions that I hadn‘t even earned yet!

Here's one of the programs I like to use for cloaking my Affiliate Links.
http://www.virallinktracker.com/vlt/links/4898.

Granted the links that contain words like “sign up to be my affiliate slave” “buy from me now or else”, “I’ll make money, you might not” are dead giveaways that other affiliate marketers are creatively cloaking their links.

We often wave or honk our internet car horns at each other, as we pass each other on this vast Internet highway we’re all traveling on. There goes another affiliate marketer, who is cloaking his or her affiliate links just like I am. We’re all members of the same big team after all.

I must be a “hard sell” as I’m not easily willing to part with my money. And considering that I haven’t earned anything yet, in my new adventures of Internet Marketing, it might be near impossible for some of those other affiliate marketers to convince me to buy their products.

At least now, I’m less likely to lose those commissions that I haven’t even earned yet. My affiliate links, are proudly wearing their lovely new cloaks. They come in a variety of sizes and colors.

Plus my links and I could use that added warmth. We’re in the middle of that cold, snowy, season here, fondly known as winter. There can be ice, snow, rain, slush, and extreme wind chill factors where I live. I sure wouldn’t want to present ice cold, numb, frostbitten affiliate links to anyone. I don’t think that would go over too well, with my future potential customers.

It’s been recommended that I should have my own product to sell. Maybe I should pick up my knitting needles and my crochet hooks, and start knitting my own hand made cloaks designed to fit a wide range of affiliate links. I’ve got plenty of yarn and different colors to choose from. I have a love for both knitting and crocheting.

My hand made cloaks, will be warm, practical, colorful, and reasonably priced. I’m sure I’ll soon be overwhelmed by the amount of people, now rushing to my blog, wanting to buy a handmade cloak, from me to protect their affiliate links.

I’m glad that my precious affiliate links will now be wearing their nice warm cloaks of protection. They’ll still be wearing them even when it’s 90 degrees outside, and high humidity in the summer time.

I don’t understand why there would be so much protest about having to wear those lovely affiliate cloaks, in warmer weather, but I’m new at all of this.

Internet Marketing: A Beginner's Perspective

2008-01-05T13:10:00.000-06:00

In my continuing new journey in Internet Marketing, here’s some other things I’ve learned so far.

CLASSIFIED ADS

Many of the classified ad sites were free to join. Some I only had to register with in order to frequent their web site. Others I could place an ad without registering there first. This would be good if I wasn’t going to be placing too many ads too often, but that seemed to defeat the purpose of trying to promote things frequently.

I got very excited when I received a few email responses to my earnestly written ads. The subject lines said things like “I saw your ad!” or “Question about your product?” Well of course I immediately had to read and respond to those emails, thinking I might soon be making my very first sale.

Only to find out, those emails were from other affiliate marketers, once again promoting something to me. They knew I wouldn’t hesitate to open those emails, with those misleading subject lines. They weren’t at all interested in what I was trying to promote.

It’s not nice to get a newbie’s hopes up like that! Especially when the bill collectors are rapidly gaining on me.

One classified ad site seemed quite extensive. It must have been recommended to me, from one of those links I must have clicked on, from one of those emails I must have read, that I must have gotten from one of those members of that safe list I had joined. This could be the beginning of the Affiliate Marketing House that Jan is trying to build.

This classified ad site had a number of services available for both their free members and their paying members. Some of these services included an email account, a traffic exchange, the ability to start a blog or web site, from that Classified ad Site, or the option of becoming an affiliate member there.

This wasn’t just about placing some classified ads somewhere, but this was much bigger than that. This was a community where I could learn from others, and share my new and growing knowledge and experiences with many of them.

I’d recommend you take a look at this Classified Ad and Community Site.

http://www.virallinktracker.com/vlt/links/5016

Shortly after I signed up there I quickly received over 40 requests to become “friends” with other members there. I’ve never made so many friends, so quickly in all of my life. That sure didn’t happen for me in high school! At last I had finally achieved that lifelong dream, of quickly becoming “popular” with many other people, and I didn’t even have to make much effort at achieving that popularity. I agreed to join that Classified Ad Site, and shortly after that, I had over 40 people requesting to be my new online "friend".

It kind of reminded me of campgrounds, with many Recreational Vehicles, (RV’s) parked in that one location, one right after the other. Campers are usually friendly people, as many of these people seemed to be from this site that not only allowed you to place your classified ads there, but had a large supportive community as well.

So what, if many of the other campers parked at that site, had air conditioning, satellite tv, and screened in porches on their RV’s. While I only had an icebox, no fridge, a portable radio, no tv and a fly swatter with my camper, and no screened in porch.

I mean… so what if many of them had already sold 100’s of items, had years of experience in Internet Marketing and were now enjoying early retirement at their luxurious beach homes, while I hadn’t yet sold one item. They still were requesting my friendship. I was honored. I was grateful to accept those offers of friendship from so many people, who didn’t know me at all.

Never mind, that a good majority of the people were once again promoting something to me, in the requests they were sending to me to be my “friend.” What else should I have expected from a campground, …I mean a web site that is a community based classified ad site, of other affiliate marketers and web site owners. I could smell the hamburgers cooking on the barbecues. I could hear the beer caps flying off of the bottles. I couldn’t wait to join them at the campfire my first night there.

Of course the Internet deffinition of a “friend” is rather odd to me to say the least. I found myself wishing that there were other labels available I could’ve chosen, depending how it fit each individual. Such as “total stranger”, “major player”, “super salesperson”, “practical joker”, “evil twin”, “outright enemy”. At least I could have classified the individuals better, until some of them actually became my new online “friend”.

I’m glad to have found this site. I hope I’ll learn more there about Affiliate Marketing there. I hope that I actually will become good online friends with some of the people residing at this RV park… I mean that Classified Ad and Community Site that I joined.

I believe deep within me, it is possible to make money by typing from my home computer. I’m willing to spend the time, learning and reading more about it.

But I couldn’t be expected to learn it all at once could I? I couldn’t realistically expect I’d quickly see those large promised amounts of money rolling in for me, as much as I wanted that kind of instant gratification.

After all I was new at all of this.

Internet Marketing: A Beginner's Perspective

2008-01-05T11:37:00.000-06:00

As a newcomer to Internet and Affiliate Marketing, I admit I still have a lot to learn about how all of this works. I paid for a program, that has given me extensive, detailed, step-by-step information, how to go about trying to do this for myself. You can take a look at the program I joined here.
http://www.virallinktracker.com/vlt/links/4886

There are still many areas that I don’t know much about or even what my next steps are supposed to be. Here’s a look at some of the things I’ve experienced so far.

SAFE LISTS

The program I paid for, recommended that I join safe lists. A safe list is a listing of other people who have opted in to receive information about that specific topic. In Affiliate Marketing, as a member of that safe list I could send email advertisements, promotions or newsletters to other members about web sites, products, or services that I’m promoting. Those emails are not considered to be Spam, since everyone agreed to receive that information, when we “opted in” by joining that safe list.

Since I’m doing this on a limited budget, I joined one safe list as a free member. Soon I was receiving a large amount of emails, that other members wanted to promote to me. These were emails hoping I’d sign up, join this program, click on that link and most important of all, pay for the products that other affiliate marketers were promoting to me.

As a non-paying member of this safe list, I was allowed to post one promotional email ad per week. That didn't seem quite fair. It soon became an unbalanced ratio of emails I was receiving versus, what I was allowed to send out. I’m receiving fifty or more emails a day as opposed to my one promotional email I could submit each week. What’s wrong with that picture?

Nobody told me how much time I’d be spending reading those many emails. Many did lead me to learning about other useful products and programs that I would never have known about. But soon, I asked to be removed from that safe list. I couldn't’t keep up with all the emails I was receiving daily. And that was from only one safe list.

What would have happened if I had signed up with several of them? It might have caused an email explosion at my email address.

It also made it difficult for me to find the emails I might actually need to look at, such as someone inquiring about actually buying one of the products I was promoting, for instance.

Affiliate marketers, seemed to be promoting their products to other affiliate marketers. Was this the way Internet Marketing was supposed to work? Didn’t that leave out a large portion of 0f the population, who weren’t affiliate marketers, who weren’t promoting anything?

It seemed to me, that as affiliate marketers, we were spending our time and efforts promoting to each other. Why would the other members of that safe list buy any products from a newcomer like me, when they were doing the exact same thing that I was doing? They also had more experience doing it, then I did.

I’m sure there are some positive benefits to signing up with safe lists. I certainly learned some helpful things, and learned about products and services I would never have known about or even where to look for them. But I was spending more time, reading those emails and clicking on all those different links, and less time writing my own promotional ads or articles.

I’ve read that you’re supposed to start building lists: one about your potential prospects, and another list of your customers, who have actually purchased a product or service from you. I just don’t quite understand how other affiliate marketers would fall into either one of those categories, when they’re doing the exact same thing that I’m trying to do.

Maybe I’ll have one of those “light bulb” moments, when I have a clearer understanding of all the benefits I can receive my being a member of a safe list. I haven’t yet had that “aha” moment however.

I’m still learning how Internet Marketing works. After all, I’m new at all of this!

I Was Safe, Now I'm Out!

2007-12-31T04:44:00.000-06:00

The source I paid for to learn more about Internet Marketing, suggested I join a safelist, which I did. But since I'm trying to do this on a very limited budget, I joined one safelist, as a free member.

I was allowed to promote one ad per week there. But the paying members were able to promote so many more daily. I was receiving tons of email everyday. With an appoximate ratio of 50 emails per day being sent to me, as opposed to my 1 permitted ad per week, this didn't seem quite fair to me.

No one told me I'd have to do that much reading, when I first signed up for all of this. Pretty soon I just couldn't keep up with reading all those emails anymore.

This also left me confused. Were all the affiliate marketers, just promoting their products to other affiliate marketers? Was this the way it was supposed to work? I had to wonder why would they buy the products I'm trying to promote, when their promoting their own things, and hoping I'll buy from them. Seems to me, that's a rather circular method of trying to get sales.

How about, if you buy five products from me, and maybe I'll buy one product from you? What, you don't like those odds? Well I didn't think much of the 50 to 1 ratio I was getting. Perhaps we can barter? Get 10 of your friends to look at my blog, or click on my cloaked affiliate links, and I'll read one of your ads, and even go visit the web site your promoting. I won't promise you I'll sign up with it though. I already seem to have signed up with more things then I can reasonably keep up with now.

I admit, I learned a great deal from some of those emails I received. Some people, pointed me to products I would never have known about, if I hadn't read those emails. I joined a few other programs, from the recommendations I got from the other members of that safelist.

But soon I had to request that I be removed from the mailing list of that safelist. There were just too many emails flooding my email address. It now makes me reluctant to join another one. Yet it seems to be what's recommended by many people, to get traffic.

In addition everytime I now put my name and email address down on a form, for a program I want to learn more about, it seems I'm appearing on yet another email list. Then I start receiving email, from things I don't recall ever signing up for. I didn't think I was agreeing to that, when I just requested they send me more info to my email address. It's getting to the point where I have to go through my email almost daily, in order to get things deleted, or to find emails that I might actually be waiting for.

Like a message that someone's finally bought one of the products I'm trying to promote. Begging people to buy one of my products, might be an option, I haven't yet totally ruled out.

I'll consider joining another safelist, if someone can convince me of the benefits I'll actually receive by joining one. I wouldn't mind joining another one, that at least gives me credits for reading the emails or ads of other members. I spent a lot of time, reading through all those emails, checking out different web sites, and I was still only able to place my singular ad once a week after all that.

It seems I should be rewarded for all the emails I voluntarily read. I'd like to get something back from spending my time doing that. It also became very obvious, very quickly that some people were sending the same email promotion out, over and over again. I could see the duplicate subject lines, that were coming from the same person. They soon became the target of my ever faithful delete key.

Which also makes me wonder, if I wasn't that interested in signing up for that product the first or second time I read that email, why would people think, my interest would drastically increase with reading the same thing, several more times after that?

I realize these things are sent out by an autoresponder, one of those gadgets I haven't yet gotten. But it seems to me other affiliate marketers might get more responses if they changed their subject lines from time to time, and even periodically changed the message in the body of the text. Otherwise I think that delete key, will be getting a lot more action, and not just from me.

Of course this is just a perspective from someone new at Affiliate Marketing. You're most welcome to add your comments, thoughts, suggestions, on any of the topics I've blogged about so far, as well as things I'll be blogging about in the future. Perhaps there's something about the way safelists work, that I just don't understand yet.

Your feedback is always welcome and appreciated.

Why I Love Blogging!

2007-12-31T04:21:00.000-06:00

I never thought I’d see the day, when I was actually blogging. My previous blog post as to “Why I’m not a Blogger” written in May of 2007, might help you understand why I wasn’t quickly jumping on the blogging bandwagon.

I think the idea of trying to start a blog intimidated me. I knew you couldn’t just start writing something somewhere, and that would be all you’d need to do with it, ever. I think what scared me was the amount of time, I’d have to spend just trying to get one set up. And I was right about that.

I certainly got bogged down, in trying to get my new blog set up. Setting it up, took me much longer than I thought it would take. That included getting the search engines to start searching for my blog, setting it up the way I wanted it to appear, in color scheme, fonts, and placement of things. That didn‘t even include the actual writing, proofreading, editing, or revising of my blog posts.

But now I have to say I love Blogging. I’m happy I took the time to set it up, to get it the way I wanted it to be. There is something very freeing and very empowering, about being able to write about whatever I want to write about, with only a few restrictions being placed on me. The areas of profanity, or objectionable material in many different categories aren’t really the things I want to blog about to begin with. So I’m good with those particular restrictions being placed on me.

In school, I could write an article but it had to be whatever topic the teacher gave me to write about. When I joined an online writing site, my articles had to be within a specific word length, and be written about a certain topic. I actually found that quite helpful. I could find a topic I thought I could write about and then proceed. Sometimes that was much easier then trying to come up with ideas to write about, all by myself.

But with blogging, I can cover all kinds of topics if that’s what I want to do. There’s no restrictions on minimum or maximum word length. It’s not too likely I’ll write short posts very often, as brevity doesn’t seem to be my style. Nor do I want to make them so long, if someone were to look at the length of my blog posts, it would scare them away before they even began reading anything.

I like that I can write short or long posts, as the mood hits me, or as the topic might require. I can include a poem once in awhile. I can write in a serious manner, or write something sarcastic, tongue in cheek, and what I hope my readers might view as humorous.

I’m sure blogging on certain topics will take me off track from time to time, from the main idea of what this blog is supposed to be about. Or the topic might not fit in with that particular “niche” I’m supposed to be zoning in on. Well that’s another thing I like about blogging. My blog itself doesn’t require that I create several different blogs to write to different niches, different topics.

I’m not saying I’ll totally discount or ignore that good suggestion to write to a certain niche, and why it’s probably a good idea to create different blogs for different niches.

But while driving my car, I often found myself diverting off onto some unfamiliar road. Taking a drive down a road I’d never traveled on before, just to see where it might take me. That’s how life goes sometimes. You never know when you might get sidetracked or have to take a detour, during your travels through life.

Why should blogging be any different then life?

Why I'm Not A Blogger

2007-12-31T04:01:00.000-06:00

I wrote this in May of 2007. Now that I’ve ventured into this blogging journey, my opinion of blogging has obviously been revised. So the following article is either the thing that started it all for me, or the thing I’ll have to blame it on, now that I’ve become just another crazed and obsessed blogger!

It might come as a shock to many people, but I don't write to a blog. At least not yet I don't. I can hear you now, laughing and pointing and telling me to finally get with the 21st century.

What if I run out of things I think are important enough to blog about? What if no one ever reads what I blog about? My blog could just sit idle and lonely in internet space somewhere, just sadly waiting for somebody, anybody to pay it a visit once in awhile.

Or worse, what if no one can locate my blog, or they get lost while they're searching for it? I'm sure I gave them good directions how to get here but there's a lot of distractions on the internet highway these days. It’ll probably be dark outside, before they even reach my blog. Then they'll be too exhausted to want to visit it. But now I'll still have to feed them, and put them up for a night or two, as any good hostess would do.

I’ve heard it's better if you get a lot of traffic coming to your blog in order for it to be successful. Do I have anything to say about what location my blog will get placed in? What if it’s located on some far off rural road somewhere, where no one might ever find it? Am I supposed to stand out in the middle of nowhere, trying to flag down the small amount of Blog traffic that might pass by, just to get somebody to stop, pull over and read my blog?

Other people keep saying you're supposed to write to a specific niche. But my mind doesn't quite work that way. I might want to write about many different things. Knitting, cats, peanut butter and jelly, songs or TV shows I like, just to name a few. Would that mean I'd have to create a separate blog for each of the various and mundane topics that find their way into my too cluttered mind?

Now that I’ve actually created my very first blog, that would be a large and time consuming task. I spent a lot of time, picking out my template design, and my color scheme for the one blog I currently own now! I’m still playing with it, moving things around, putting things in, taking them out.

If I were to do that for every different category I might want to blog about it’ll never get done. So since my blog is about Jan’s promo place, it seems to me there’s all kinds of things that can be promoted, which makes it a rather large, and very spacious type of niche. That leaves me lots of room to blog about all kinds of things I might want to promote, as well as some things I don’t understand at all, or even the need to occasionally rant and rave about something. It all comes under that “niche” topic of promoting, well more or less.

I've read people can make money by blogging. I'm sure not opposed to that. But if I got a lot of traffic to my blog, then all the fine folks in the nice quiet rural community where my previously undiscovered blog might reside, might get mad at me. It used to be a nice, quiet and peaceful place, before my blog became famous. Now it's just filled with traffic, pollution, and blog tourists cluttering up the place.

Then I've read you have to get your blog noticed in the search engines. What happens if the search engine develops a nasty oil leak? It could be days, maybe even weeks before a qualified search mechanic can get around to fixing those problems for me. Is it my fault that somebody else was fooling around in there, while they were searching for my unknown blog? Am I going to have to pick up the tab for that search engine repair? Well how am I supposed to make any profits from blogging, if I have to now pay the search mechanic to fix the search engine that my blog depends on?

I’m sure the hourly rate for search mechanics must be astronomical, since it’s a pretty specialized field. Not to mention basic maintenance costs, like periodically needing a search engine tune up. There's probably a lot more search engines than there are competent search mechanics around to fix them. That means delays in my being able to continue blogging, until that search mechanic finally gets around to me, and fixes whatever the problem is with my search engine.

But I have to admit it a Blog intrigues me a great deal. I might just have to go in search of a blog that suits my rambled thoughts and flexible fingers. It's located at the intersection of Route 99 and Highway 21, in the town of Anywhere, Internet Country. When you're passing through, be sure to stop by. We'll put our feet up, order pizza, drink lemonade, play some music, talk and joke and just enjoy the day.

Maybe It's Just Me

2007-12-28T12:57:00.000-06:00

WEBSITE DESIGNS PART THREE

There must be another trade secret I don’t know anything about. All those testimonials, many of which often appear on a kind of yellowish, gold background. Maybe black type reads better on that color? I admit this particular shade isn’t my favorite color, but then I get skeptical if those testimonials are for real.

It wouldn’t be too hard to convince your family, your friends, and some of their friends, to put up a picture of themselves on your website. Add a few nice testimonial words, about your product or service, especially if you’re paying for the pizza and the beers later on.

There’s so many wonderful colors to choose from. Why did this particular shade of yellow become the most popular choice for all those testimonials? I’ve seen a few sites that had a light blue background, and another with a burgundy background, with white type on it, that really looked nice and caught my eye. That yellow background for those testimonials is getting boring for me to have to keep looking at.

I’m starting to think those web sites are all owned by the same person or company. They just changed the name, rearranged some of their text, and put in some different dollar figures in those popular green and blue graph bars. Or else there was an incredible sale going on at the time for these particular web sites.

I can hear the bargaining going on now. As long as you meet certain conditions, you can buy this website and own it forever and a day, at half price of what we’d normally charge you. Those few conditions you can easily meet, include, that the typed hyped text would be pretty similar from one web site to the next. You must use blue and green graph bars, to show people how much money you’ve made. Sell your product, service, offer for $47.00 only. Do not charge anything more or anything less then $47.00. All testimonials must be presented on a yellowish gold background.

Or else they’re all the members of the same secret exclusive club, that you can only join if your pay your $47.00 to them.

Maybe I just don’t easily part with my money. But I also keep hearing a few quotes echoing in my head, such as “Buyer Beware!” or “There’s a sucker born every minute!”

So if the blue and green bar graphs, that consistent $47.00 price so many of these sites are charging, and that same old yellowish gold background for their testimonials, haven’t convinced me to buy their products, I wonder how many other people aren’t convinced?

Variety is supposed to be the spice of life isn’t it? Maybe those website owners need to change things from time to time, to give me, as just one of their viewers something different to look at every now and then. Try a pink, and purple polka dotted background, or a price of $37.92, just to shake things up once in awhile.

If you do that, it will give me a few new topics to write about. Like how in the world did someone come up with a price of $37.92, and why not price that product at say, some even round number, like $47.00? Or your pink and purple polka dotted background is making my eyes cross, and giving me a headache. But it’s still an improvement over that same old tired yellowish gold background I kept seeing for all those testimonials.

But maybe, it’s just me, who finds myself questioning things like this!

I'm a Bit Skeptical

2007-12-28T12:26:00.000-06:00

WEBSITE DESIGNS PART TWO

My skepticism rears it’s questioning head at times. I’m skeptical that the checks I’ve seen on some websites, that people claim they’ve earned are for real. I also find myself, quickly deleting the email ads I often receive that state I’ll earn several thousand dollars in just a week. It just has a feeling of unreality to me, or not being believable to me, before I even look at the web site.

I’m not saying that’s not possible, that perhaps a small minority of people have made that kind of money, on the web, but for me it just seems too far beyond my reach to even consider looking at that web site to learn how I too, can make that kind of money, with almost no effort at all. Thank goodness for the power of that delete key on my keyboard.

With all the new technology available, I don’t think it would be too hard to scan a real check into the computer, and change the amounts to be anything I want them to be. Now you get to see that check made out to me for over $3,700.00 for just one week! And I didn’t have to do very much work to earn that kind of money, at least according to some of these web sites.

Then I multiply that $3,700.00 by 52 weeks in a year, Create a few more spreadsheets, and a few more graphs, showing you how I easily made over $193,000.00 for the year. Impressive isn’t it?

People can put up a picture of someone, cut out that person’s head and replace it with the head of a donkey if they want to. I’m sure there’s many people who are quite capable of creating these wonderful pictures on the web, that have incorporated cut, paste, crop and rearrange, for my viewing pleasure.

And what’s with that $47.00 price? I seem to see that specific price on a lot of websites I’ve looked at. Why are so many people selling what’s supposed to be many different products at $47.00 each? But no one is competing to get customers, to sell their similar product, for $45.00 or $49.99? That seems a little odd to me.

Even gas stations try to get customers into their station, by changing the price that’s listed on their signs. One gas station’s sign indicates the price is $3.03 for a gallon of regular gas, while across the street it’s $3.01 a gallon, and the one a block down is selling their gasoline for $3.05 a gallon.

Maybe the owners of these $47.00 websites don’t feel they have to compete against anyone else selling a similar item. I’m starting to think there’s some sort of secret code regarding that $47.00 fee, that maybe I’m still too new to know about. I wish someone would clue me in as to why $47.00 is such a popular price for so many of these websites.

Website Designs

2007-12-28T10:47:00.000-06:00

PART ONE

Have you ever noticed that some of the web sites wanting you to join their program or buy their product tend to look pretty much the same? Many of them seem to have a graph with blue and green bars. These are supposed to reassure me, of how much money they’ve made from this product, before I part with any of mine.

It's not to hard to create those graphs. I’ve done it myself in a spreadsheet, when I was using different colors for a striped sweater I was knitting. I was easily able to put in blue and green color bar graphs of varying lengths, and transfer them to my word processing program, where they all lined up nicely in one column. From there I threw in a weeks worth of dates and then, I threw in a few random dollar amounts. Then my blue and green bar graphs looked pretty similar to those I've seen on so many websites.

With the random dollar amounts I just tossed in there, and inputting dates from Dec. 1, 2007 to Dec. 7, 2007, apparently I made a total of $3,722.53 for that one week alone. I can only wish! Or at least in my dreams I must have made that much. Multiply that weekly amount, by 52 weeks in a year, and I guess I had a very good year financially this last year, and didn't even know it. I guess if I actually made that kind of money, I'd probably have a top notch accountant on board, and he or she would be keeping track of all my wonderful earnings.

That means I made over $193,000 for the year! You believe me don’t you? So what are you waiting for? Why aren’t you signing up for this product immediately?

Maybe I’m as skeptical as most, and more cynical then some. But putting up this kind of information to potential buyers or customers, doesn’t convince me that the owner of this web site, actually made that kind of money. Not when I was easily able to create a similar graph, using my system of randomly selecting some dollar amounts in a spreadsheet.

I have nothing against blue and green bar graphs. I think they’re great colors separately or together. Maybe they just happen to be the favorite colors of the daughter of the CEO of these web sites, and maybe that’s why those blue and green bar graphs appear so frequently, so many times, in so many different web sites.

Wearing a Cloak of Protection

2007-12-25T01:28:00.000-06:00

CLOAK YOUR LINKS!

I started looking at my own affiliate links, and it soon became obvious to me, that other people could easily tell I was just another affiliate marketer. The suffixes of the links contain the names of the companies, where I research products, web sites or services that I’m trying to promote.

Those links are practically shouting out, well here’s yet another affiliate marketer, and a newbie at that, who is trying to sell you something! So why would potential customers buy anything from a newbie like myself?

That’s what occurred to me anyway. What didn’t occur to me was that:

“Many dishonest people will do anything they can to prevent affiliate marketers from getting their commission for their hard work. When people see a link that they recognize as an affiliate link they might cut your username off and buy directly from the website or even worse, they might replace your username with theirs and take your commission. Also, some people might be uncomfortable clicking on a link they recognize as an affiliate link….”

Well there go my hard-earned commissions that I haven’t even earned yet!

Your affiliate links are visible for everyone in the Internet World to see. For all of you do it yourselfers, Hannes Johnson, at http://www.selfseo.com/story-13929.php even provides the instructions and the codes if you want to cloak your links yourself. He also provides a list of sites that will cloak and protect your affiliate links for you. Many of those sites are free to join.

I’ve tried a few different sites. With some sites, I wasn’t sure if I should add my cloaked links to a traffic exchange when I didn’t yet have my own web site. Was I just wasting my ad credits by posting them in traffic exchanges?

I can’t yet afford to buy more ad credits as I’m trying to do this on a shoestring budget. Well let’s get real! There is no budget! I haven’t yet made enough money to even buy a new pair of shoestrings that my old, tired, worn out shoes could badly use.

One of the sites that I really like, not only cloaks your links, it tracks your ad campaign and helps increase your traffic. The ads fly in over the main page that you’re viewing. They can’t be blocked from being viewed by your potential customers.

In fact, when I first saw the fly in ads, I ended up clicking on one of the ads, or the web site link itself, more out of annoyance, then anything else. Those fly in ads just wouldn’t go away, no matter how many times I clicked my mouse, or tried to scroll through the page.

Then as I looked at the site and read more about it, I found myself getting excited about it. From an affiliate marketer’s perspective, it automatically increases the visibility of your ads. Your ads rotate in with everyone else’s. In a classified ad site, your ads are static, they just sit there, waiting for someone to come around and look at them, which might or might not happen.

At this site, you get ad credits every time your ad is viewed and you accumulate more ad credits from your referrals. They have email support, which I’ve found to be very responsive to any questions that I had. They didn’t even have any problem with their egos, when I made a few suggestions to them. Sometimes as a user of a site, you can see things that don’t work quite right, or that could be improved on, that the computer programmers and web site designers aren’t always aware of.

It’s easy to set up my links and ads, which as a non-technical computer user, is something I really appreciate. I love seeing how many times my ads have appeared, and watching that number increase every time I visit.

Take a look at this site for yourself. It’s a great way to cloak your links and gives you and your website business, the protection you need to have. Then you don’t have to worry about losing your hard earned commissions, and you can start earning the income you deserve to have!

Source: From an article titled:
“How Cloaking Your Links Can Save You Both Time and Money”
Posted by Hannes Johnson on: 2006-05-03 20:36:30
http://www.selfseo.com/story-13929.php

I've Got Questions! Who's Got Answers?

2007-12-25T01:08:00.000-06:00

I joined some sites that emphasize the benefits of joining a traffic exchange. I'm promoting other people's web sites, products or services. Some of the things I've read, said I have to have a web site. Other sources said I didn't need one. But no one told me if it was an absolute requirement to have my own web site, when I'm promoting other people's items, and not my own.

So I placed some ads in a few of these traffic exchanges. I figured maybe I’ll get traffic going to those other web sites and someone will buy one of the products I’m promoting, and I’ll happily earn my very first commission!

I wondered if anyone would see my promo ads, even though I didn’t have a web site of my own? It seemed to me I didn’t really need one, since I was busy promoting other people’s stuff.

But was I wasting my valuable ad credits, when I didn’t actually have my own web site for people to look at in these traffic exchanges? And how would I ever be able to close the sale, when I was pointing other people in so many different directions? I didn’t know which sites anyone might stop at, whether it was for a badly needed pit stop, a lunch break, or even just to stretch their legs.

So here I was, giving directions to other people’s web sites, with no idea where the drivers might end up or even if they got lost along the way.

Besides the thought of creating my own web site intimidates me! All that technical stuff I don’t have a clue about. Then there’s the things that can easily go wrong in even trying to build my own site and all the delays that creates. I can feel a major headache coming on before I even begin. Plus I’m frequently plagued by a wild gang of computer gremlins, who delight in creating mischief for me and my computer, behind the scenes. They’re the biggest source of my frequent computer headaches!

But a Blog?!! Now that’s something I think I can handle. So here I am! I’ve written a few articles here and there. I know how to type! How hard can it be to type up some blog posts every once in awhile?

People talk about finding your “niche”, and now I can promote all kinds of things from my very own blog if I want to. I can promote some cool sites I’ve found helpful, some free ebooks I’ve read, some products other people have recommended that could even be the next big thing.

I can even promote my two cats, the weather, myself and a whole slew of other things, if I want to. It’s my blog, after all isn’t it? I should be able to promote whatever I want to promote. Talk about having a wide open niche? Hey, it works for me!

Well it seems my blog is located on a road that hardly anybody ever travels down at all. Maybe I should head out into the middle of this road I’m on, and try to flag somebody down, to get them to stop and look at the all the different things I'm promoting.

I’ve lost all track of time. Have I really been sitting here for hours? It seems more like days, maybe even weeks, and hardly any cars have driven by me, on this old deserted side road that my blog just happens to live on. Well so much for all the traffic I had hoped to get!

I’d still like to definitively know, if it is it an absolute requirement to have my own web site, when I’m promoting other people’s stuff? Does anyone have an answer to that question? I’m sure other inquiring newbie’s, would like to know that answer as well!

If you know the answer to that question, well you know where to find me. I’ll be sitting around, chilling out, losing track of time, waiting for an occasional car to come by me, on this not very well traveled road, that my blog and I now live on.

You Can Lead, But I Might Not Follow

2007-12-25T00:53:00.000-06:00

Ok, I admit it! I’m new at all of this Internet Marketing thing. I’m still in the early stages of the learning curve phase. The web site that I joined, which is giving me the information how to do all of this, suggested that I place my promotional ads in free classified ad sites. Some of the sites even tracked my results.

Then I started getting a few inquiries. Someone is actually now asking about one of the ads that I’ve placed. How Exciting! The subject line of the email they sent me said something like “I saw your ad“,or “Question about your product?” I thought wow, now if only I can convince this person to buy it. I might actually make my first sale!

Then what do I discover when I open the email? It’s another affiliate marketer wanting me to look at his or her product, and they aren’t at all interested in mine.

It’s not nice to get a newbie’s hopes up like that, especially when the bill collectors are rapidly gaining on me! It’s not nice to get me all excited with those misleading subject lines.

You know darn well, I'm going to open that email when it looks like someone is interested in a product I'm promoting. What’s even worse is using your response to me, to promote your own stuff!

You know who you are! You’re probably the same people who keep leading on your significant other and never make a commitment!

Well congratulations! You’re now made it to the list of things that

Bug Me!

This Is Not A Scam!

2007-12-24T23:49:00.000-06:00

TYPING FROM HOME

This site will give you extensive information on finding different ways to earn money typing from your home computer.

One area is Internet Marketing. They give you the companies to go to, where you can find all kinds of products to promote. Then they supply you with a listing of both free classified ad sites, and those you have to pay for, where you can submit your promo ads.

There are different sections, such as how to get paid to write articles, where to submit those articles, or how to earn money by blogging. There’s a list of companies that might hire you to do virtual or telecommuting work from home.

Each section gives you detailed step-by-step instructions. They provide screen shots and have email support available. Their responses to my email questions, have been made within a few hours, or by the next day. I’ve gotten ebooks, and software, included in the $49.95 fee that I paid, that I have downloaded that have been informative and/or timesaving.

Following the steps they listed led me to other sites, and other people who recommended other things, that I would never have known about. As someone new at trying Internet Marketing I wouldn’t have known what a safe list was, or where to find one, if it wasn’t for this site. While they don’t guarantee what kind of income you will make, the certainly do provide you with an extensive area of sources to seek out ways of earning money from your home computer.

Before I joined, I decided to email the company just to see if a person and not an auto responder would reply to me. Sure enough within a few hours someone did reply to me. I debated with myself for some time if I should spend that $49.95 or not.

What finally convinced me to join? Some people feel that anytime you have to pay money for any product or service that it must be a scam. Someone spent some amount of time and effort putting together that information you’re requesting. It makes sense that they won’t just give it to you for free! While more scams have certainly occurred because of the anonymity of the Internet, most of us don’t walk away feeling we’ve been scammed when we purchase an item from a store in the mall.

I recalled three other instances where I had paid money to join a site or to receive more information. I was even able to recently access one of the sites, even though I paid for it several years ago. It amazes me that I was actually able to find my User ID and password, that I had created back then.

The third site, I haven’t been able to locate on the web recently. Probably because they expected you to only promote their company. I of course, didn’t know that until after I had sent my money in. But even in that case, they gave me the information, they said they would give me. It just wasn’t a task well suited for me.

After recalling those other times I decided to take that leap of faith. The site tells you up front that this is not a get rich quick scheme. You’re not required to only promote this company, or even to promote it at all. But I’m sure they won’t mind if you do like it well enough to promote it, which is why I’m writing this blog post about it now. I like the site, I’m promoting the site!

With all the detailed information they’ve provided me, I feel it is well worth the money I’ve spent there. I like that someone is taking me by the hand and telling me: These are the steps you need to take. This is what the screen will look like when you get to this site. These are the things you'll need to fill in; these are the fields you can skip.

The Site is Scam X Certified, and they offer 100% money back guarantee, if you’re not satisfied with their product within 60 days of signing up. If you’re looking for a variety of ways, to work from you home computer, with each section giving you detailed step by step instructions, then I strongly recommend this site.

http://www.virallinktracker.com/vlt/links/4886

It Begins With Writing

2007-12-24T23:06:00.000-06:00

For me it starts with the writing. I’ve been writing poems, short stories, and journaling at times for many years. In April of 2007, I joined an online writing site. This is the first time any of my writing went up for public viewing. Prior to that, it was only viewed by family and close friends, if they saw it at all.

At this site, I became more confident in my writing abilities. It offered me a wide range of topics to write about. I liked looking at different categories, and picking out a topic I wanted to write about. In school I got to write about one topic, and one topic only. And that was whatever the teacher decided that topic would be for the whole class.

But writing at this site, was like having a teacher giving me a choice of different topics to write about. I like having choices! I don’t have to worry about grades, like I did in school or getting it done by a specific deadline. That of course generated my own ideas of other things I thought I could write about.

Now I keep a list of those ideas that I want to write or blog about as they come to me. As a writer, I need to, no actually I have to write, (or type) those ideas down, in a long growing list in my Word Processor. If I don’t type it, save it, when it first occurs to me, chances are good it won’t stay in my memory for very long. Then later I’ll be kicking myself, thinking I wanted to write about a particular topic and now I can’t remember what it was.

Besides I’d much rather assign the task of remembering the things I want to write about to my computer. It puts much less strain on my all already overcrowded tired brain. My computer does it’s job faithfully and well. It never complains that I’ve giving it too much information or that I’ve overloaded its computer brain. It just calmly and quietly stores it away. Of course my computer also expects me to remember what specific file I stored my list in. That’s hard enough for me to recall let alone all the different possible writing topics, the list contains.

Having that list of topics that peaked my interest or curiousity in the past, gives me something to fall back on, when my writing ideas run dry. Somedays it’s hard to find a topic on my own that I want to write about. It's a back up plan when my creative muse calls in sick, takes an unscheduled day off or goes on vacation.

I got constructive feedback from other writers at that site, who seemed to like the things I wrote about, and my style of writing. It’s great to hear from someone I don’t know at all, telling me they laughed till they cried, when they read something I wrote that I hoped others would view as humorous.

I know I intended my article to be funny when I wrote it. But just because I think it’s amusing, sarcastic, tongue in cheek, or a thousand other ways to describe my writing, doesn’t mean my readers will see it that way. Feedback like that validates me. It makes me feel less alone.

It confirms that at least one person out in that big old world seems to agree with me. We both thought my article was humorous. Great minds do indeed think alike!

The members and the staff in the forum of this site, have been very helpful in answering my questions. I’ve been away from the site for awhile, as my knitting addiction seriously kicked in. I looked at all my different color yarn balls, and had to pick up my knitting needles. Now that I’ve completed my patchwork sweater, it’s back to writing again.

I miss that site. I miss my good online writing buddies. The site is growing, expanding, and always adding new things for the writers there. And they listen to the writers! We're free to share our thoughts, our suggestions in the Members Forum. It's also a great place to go when we just need to vent. They often change things to suit the writers based on the feedback we give them in the Members Forum.

So before I begin on any kind of blogging journey, the first place I feel I absolutely have to promote is this online writing site. That’s where I finally got my courage up to let my writing be viewed by the public eye. That for me, is where my new journey into blogging, and Internet Marketing, truly begins!