Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Learning a Lot About Becoming a Successful Blogger

It has been a while since I have posted on this blog. I felt I needed to do more research on becoming a better blogger first and have found out so much information! I can't wait to pass it along to you. As always, I encourage you to comment and offer feedback. We are all in this together and the more we share, the better off we are!

The more I learn, the more I make financially. This is an awesome journey, even the downs turn around eventually. And no mistakes are permanent in this business. If something doesn't work, try something else. And keep learning new ideas and ways by reading what others before you have done.

Basically, the main thing I have learned is online opportunities are everywhere! You just need to know where to look and how to do it. Anyone can go to Google and do a search for affiliate marketing companies. That's what I did and the sites were welcoming. But if you could cut out some of those steps by reading about someone else's experience, just think of how much time you could save! Doing research on the Internet can be time consuming. So, on that note, to cut to the chase...

You need your site structure to be ready. I'm sure you will tweak the design a little once it is up, but you should really consider how it looks. Take mine for example. I started with a template that had light green polka dots. Now I have tailored it to look more like my website, Here 2 Help Services, with dark shades of blue. Luckily, I did this in the first month, so not a lot of people noticed it, but consistency on certain aspects of a website matter.

Jumping into affiliate marketing without direction makes things confusing fast. A lot of people end up discouraged. I found out how confusing it could be the hard way by joining every free online money making idea I came across. It may have been free but I wasted so much time chasing pennies. And keeping track of it all was too much. So, I studied the programs that made me the most money and cut the others loose. I may add some more down the road, but now I need to concentrate on the ones that are working, content for my site, traffic to my site and more. My advice to you is to start with only a few. To save some time, you can check out my best free affiliate marketing opportunities article to see the features of my three top affiliate companies for publishers and advertisers.

Another important aspect of building an online business is traffic. Getting traffic to your website or blog is hard work. You need to work at it consistently to get the visits going. You might not need to continue working hard, but in the beginning, no one knows about you. You need to establish a presence on the Internet. This is most important. You can join all the affiliates you want, build a wonderful blog or website, and have the greatest content, but none of it matters if no one sees it. So how do you get them there? Find out my top 7 Ways to Attract More Visitors to Your Website or Blog.

I think small steps are best so I will end this here. Think about these concepts and apply them to your blog or website. If you have your own success tips, post them here! After all, we all can use a hand from time to time.

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Newsletters Keep You Connected to Your Customers and Are a Great Marketing Tool

I posted this article on my website also: http://www.here2helpservices.com/

In today's world, it isn't enough to offer good service or quality products. With the Internet so prevalent, consumers can shop anywhere. They no longer have to shop local so you can't rely on just local advertising. You need to establish relationships with your patrons. You have to stand out from the others and stay on their minds.

Having a newsletter keeps your customers involved with your business. It lets them know you care about them, you're active in what you do, and that you have something to offer. There are millions of websites and businesses out there. And if its one thing I know, once they are gone you may not see them again. Not because it isn't a good site. It's just hard to remember the sites you really like and to come back to them. Once someone leaves your website or even your brick and mortar store, they are gone. If only you had their email address to keep giving them information, keep them coming back, and keep them spreading the word about you.

Newsletters are a popular way of keeping customers interested in your company. And a lot of businesses have them in place already. To create a newsletter all you need is a mailing list, content, and the ability to send out the letter on occasion right? Pretty close. Granted these are the main ingredients but you need to consider each step and make sure nothing is getting missed, a wrong email address due to bad information, spam blockers, managing the address book, the subscribes and un-subscribes, and continue to run your business. There's a lot of time and planning that goes in to a newsletter when you do it yourself, but you don't have to.

AWeber is a professional communication service that provides the management , distribution, and education of newsletter marketing. They offer a lot of features that turn your newsletter in to a great marketing tool that you can analyze and improve through AWeber's features. Check out all the free help articles they provide!

Right now, how do you know that your customers are reading what you send them? With AWeber you can see the statistics for the number of people who opened your email, clicked on a link, or who just deleted your email without viewing it at all. This gives you excellent insight in to your viewers interests.

If you have more than one business, or campaign, that's okay! AWeber still will only charge you based on the number of subscribers. And it's so easy to manage the different campaigns with a simple click of the mouse. You can measure the interest of different events, newsletters, and more!

Of all the features they offer, I would have to say my two favorite are they take care of the entire subscribing/unsubscribing process and you are able to preset when your messages are delivered. This will come in handy if you go on vacation or just like to plan ahead. You can preload as many messages as you need and select the date they will be sent! Voila! You're done. Now you have time to focus on other parts of your to do list.

AWeber has it down pack when it comes to getting mail delivered to your customers. They have relationships that they constantly monitor to avoid emails being blocked from spam blockers. A lot of the newsletters I subscribe to get blocked and put in my junk mail. It is a never ending battle for emailers, but they help.

Some people hesitate when thinking about starting an email newsletter campaign for their website or business. They fear they can't get the content each week or month, but as AWeber points out, you already have most of it. And they show you how through tutorials and their own free newsletter. Here are some free aticles from AWeber.

Anyone trying to establish a relationship with their patrons, whether online or through a store front, should consider trying AWeber. Their 30 day $1 trial gives you time to try it out. Check out their templates to customize the look and feel of your weekly newsletter. Stand out! Be recognized! Get them to come back!
 

Monday, November 16, 2009

Turning the Financial Tables One Day at A Time

Hello everyone!

I hope your Sunday was a great one! I took yesterday off and you know what? I still got paid! It was small, at $.46 cents from Google Adsense marketing, but the day before that I made $6.24! Plus my affiliate programs have finally started picking up. It has taken a while but through impressions and at least one ad view and sale, I have made $10.91 for the month from affiliates and $10.22 from adsense. Thank you for visiting my site and blogs because I couldn't do it without you!

I know it seems pointless and slow going, but I write an article once, publish it, and that's it. I could stop right now and guranteee income from my efforts thus far. Of course I am not going to do that! I still have so much left to write, so much more inside of me. I have quite a few articles in the works and soon my content will increase which will increase my search results on Google.  Already I am turning the tables. And more and more people see my information. I hope it helps!

I would love to hear suggestions of what else you would like to see on this site as far as content. Make a comment!

Friday, November 13, 2009

Moving on Up

This morning I logged on to my account and there it was! $1.84. Where did that come from? They say there is no way to figure out exactly how you make the money from Google ads and they are right. I can have 100's of visits to my site and my blogs and make a penny. One penny or nothing. And today, only 20 visits and bam, $1.84!

Yesterday I sent out an email to an organization I am a member of, but that didn't return many results. I did have a couple people sign up for my free snapshot from the website so I know they looked it over. And I know that I now have a relationship with them. This is a positive step toward forming a loyalty between viewer and site.

At this point I have earned $3.98 from my website. Far cry from supporting myself with this site, but it is a start. And remember my theory from day one of my posts? When I first started out I made $.67 after 3 days. If I earned that every 3 days, I would earn almost enough money to pay for my website.

Take a look at the figures now:
I published my website on November 1 and have not added any more content (I will be very soon). It has taken me 12 days to earn $3.98. So in another 12 days, if I earn another $3.98, I will have made $7.96! That means my website is free since I only pay $6.95 a month through Bluehost. That means I made a profit!

It still isn't that impresive, but I think once all my new content goes in, the visits will increase even more.

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Technical Difficulties Are Expected

I have temporarily stopped working on my website. I am rebuilding it to provide a better service to my viewers. I want to give opportunity to leave comments on my articles and make it more interactive. I can get people to it, but they aren't staying on it. I wish there were no back buttons. So many people back out of a site instead of seeing what is offered on the inside of it. That is my dilemna. I have too many topics, according to the pros but I don't want to limit myself. I love to write about everything and this way I can!

Going forward with this attitude, I think my site will be a success. If I concentrate on adding content to the sections I have, I will build followers, for the various areas. Poetry for the poets, Alzheimer's for the caregivers and patients, business tips for new businesses trying to create a presence on the web, web design information for the designer or client, and other random writes that I liked and wanted to share.

Bottom line, it's my place. I want to feel comfortable in it and selling out my true self and what matters to me, wouldn't be right. I am my boss so it's my rules!

Monday, November 9, 2009

Made a Little Money from Adsense wtih Google

Yesterday I earned $1.46 from the website and Google Adsense. What a huge jump from $.67! I know it is going to take some time but I didn't realize the slow start to it.

I have decided to rework the site and change some of the menu items. I just don't like the feel of them.

Wednesday I am sending out a marketing tip to the River Valley Chamber members and I think this will help jumpstart the visits to my site.

I am reworking my ads, affiliates and content. I need more content! Anyone have suggestions of what they would like to see on the site or the blog?

Saturday, November 7, 2009

Slow Beginning Making Money Online - It's Okay

It has been one week since beginning this venture. Who am I kidding, it's been way more than a month developing the site... but only a week that I have been public and publish. I need to keep reminding myself that it's only been a week.

I don't know what I was expecting- that I would be able to pay all my bills in the first month, that I would be different than every other successful person on the Internet, that... what? Deep down, I do know it will take time but I am just impatient.

I feel like I am making the right steps:
- Created content I think people will like about Alzheimers, web design, poetry, business tips, reviews on products, and random other information.
- Told a few friends
- Signed up for my blogs to promote
- Signed up with social media marketing like Twitter and Facebook
- And now I am back to more content

It is an exciting experience and a little scary. At least I have my web designing to keep me busy (and financially secure) while I figure it out.
I would love to hear more suggestions from anyone reading this post!
Have a good day!