Long-tail keyword searches increase in 2009

November 27, 2009 by John Dilbeck · 9 Comments
Filed under: Advertising and Marketing 

I’ve been seeing a trend of longer keyword searches in my sites’ statistics this year.

While most of the keyword searches that find something I write still are mostly 3 to 4 words long, I’m seeing lots more this year that are five or more words long.

I have been noticing this trend for a few months and wondered if it was due to the increasing sophistication of the people who normally read what I write or if it was a sign of average Internet users learning how to use the search engines more effectively.

Today, I found confirmation of this trend in an article on MarketingCharts.com:

Longer Searches Increase 3% in October 2009

At the end of the brief article, they bring up the possibility that longer search phrases may now be required to find what the searcher is looking for amid all the web clutter.

I hadn’t thought of that possibility.

I don’t have any facts to back it up, but I think that more people are learning that they can find what they want by using longer search phrases and that’s something we should think about when we’re doing our keyword research and writing our blogs, websites, articles, and anything else.

What do you think?

Have you noticed this trend in your site’s statistics?

Act on your dream!

JD

Tags: , ,

Top 15 things I have learned about affiliate marketing

November 25, 2009 by John Dilbeck · 7 Comments
Filed under: Affiliate Marketing, Network Marketing, Opinions 

I originally wrote this in July, 2007 on another of my blogs. That was back when my affiliate marketing business was growing and I was happy with the direction I was going.

Some of these points are just as valid today as they were then.

I have learned several lessons that I think may be valuable to anyone who reads this. You may agree or disagree, but at least give it some thought.

1. Anything that is a good value today will be a good value a year from now.

2. The more the hype, the less the value or longevity.

3. If it has a deadline, run away, don’t walk, run – in a zig-zag pattern.

4. Don’t send your valuable prospect away on first contact. Try to get their contact information so you can follow-up – yes, build your list. (I wish I’d done more of this.)

5. If you can’t understand the compensation plan after reading it twice, you may never understand it, so maybe it is best to avoid it.

6. Always try to get residual income rather than one-off commissions.

7. Try to get life-time customers.

8. If more than five people email you about something the same day, avoid it.

9. Spillover is a myth. It may happen now and then, but don’t depend upon it.

10. Earning money – no matter how you do it – is work. It takes longer than you think and it takes more creativity and effort. Nobody will do your work for you.

11. Don’t spend more than you can afford. Define your budget and stick with it. If your outgo exceeds your income, your upkeep will be your downfall.

12. Don’t go into debt to try to make more money. Pour a percentage of your revenue back into tools and marketing. As a result of this, I’m spending more on marketing every month than I made the first two years of online marketing. But, it’s all a percentage of income. I have no debt and I intend to keep it that way.

13. It takes a long time to start earning money with online marketing (unless you are very lucky or very good at what you do). It took months for me to earn my first commission check, and several more months before I got my second one. Now, I get checks from several companies every month. It did not happen overnight, but it can be done with perseverance, even if you make a lot of mistakes along the way.

14. Don’t pay attention to how much money someone is claiming to earn. There is a huge difference between gross and net.

15. Help others grow and advance, don’t take advantage of them just to get their money.

When I originally wrote this, I was doing a lot of testing with traffic exchanges and downline builders. I was actively promoting two MLM companies. Today, I’m doing none of those things.

So, the comments about spillover really have nothing to do with affiliate marketing, because they’re more appropriate to anyone involved in network marketing. I got so tired of getting emails telling me that some “big-hitter” was going to start promoting to his “massive” list and there was only so much time to get involved in his program if we wanted any spillover. To the best of my recollection, from testing several different programs, I think I received half a dozen people in my downline from spillover and never made a penny from it.

In every case, I lost money in the process. That’s why I no longer do any of that.

In regards to #14, it’s not just a difference between gross and net. Some people will actually lie to you! (Surprise!) Anyone with a graphics program can dummy an income statement.

I’m not saying that all of them are dummies or lies, but I know that some of them are. Don’t believe everything you read or see. Caveat emptor.

What do you think?

Agree? Disagree? Let’s talk.

Act on your dream!

JD

Tags: ,

Adsense Ads – A New Look

November 23, 2009 by John Dilbeck · 7 Comments
Filed under: Advertising 

A few months ago, I removed all the Google Adsense ads from this blog and some of my other sites.

Today, I decided to take a new look at how Adsense might perform on this blog.

There were a couple of reasons I removed them.

1. I could earn more from affiliate sales.

2. I didn’t like all the Get Rich Quick junk being shown in the Adsense ads on my sites.

When I put the Adsense Ads back on my blogs, today, I took a couple of steps to overcome the two items listed above.

1. I logged into Google Adsense and clicked the Adsense Setup tab. Then, I clicked on Competitive Ad Filter and entered the domains of the sites that I saw advertising my best-earning affiliate programs.

I’m sure this will be an ongoing process, but it’s not hard to do and takes little time.

2. Then, also in the Adsense Setup tab, I clicked on the Ad Review Center.

This was a new feature to me. I don’t know how long it has been available, but it was just what I was looking for.

They list a number of category filters and I selected seven of them (out of the maximum 8 that we can choose). One of the categories I filtered out of my ads was “Get Rich Quick.”

Since one of the things I keep writing about is to watch out for all these GRQ things that are all over the Internet, I didn’t want to be a hypocrite and have bunches of their ads on my pages.

So far, so good. I’ll keep watch over the types of ads that show and see what other tweaks will be necessary to show only, or at least mostly, the ads I want on my sites.

I got to thinking about this a few days ago, because – even though my affiliate marketing earnings have gone down this year – Adsense has continued to produce income on a daily basis. Not as much as I would like, granted, but I can’t earn if I don’t show the ads, can I?

I used to get a nice check from Google every month. This year, I’ve been averaging a check once every other month. I’d like to get it back to where I receive a nice check from Google every month, again.

I’ll be monitoring the performance of Adsense over the coming month or two and I’ll be tweaking ad types and placements to see if I can earn more on a regular basis.

It will be interesting to see how this works.

What about you?

How are you doing with your Adsense ads?

What have you been doing to improve the performance and therefore your income from them?

Act on your dream!

JD

Tags: , ,

SBI! Version 2.0 Now Available As Monthly Subscription!

November 22, 2009 by John Dilbeck · 1 Comment
Filed under: Sitesell and Site Build It, Webhosting 

Breaking news!

For years, SBI has been available only as an annual subscription.

For awhile, it has been possible to switch to monthly payments when it was time to renew after your initial first-year subscription of $299.

SBI! Monthly Billing Option

Now, you can subscribe to SBI starting with monthly payments of $29.99 instead of a lump-sum annual starting cost of $299.

Here’s what Ken Evoy, founder of Sitesell, had to say about this…

Times are tough. Money is tight. So demand for a monthly subscription format for SBI! has been high, according to the good folks who handle questions from the Web site.

I’ve always believed in an annual model, using the $299 as a reasonable way to make sure folks are COMMITTED. The Guarantee protects new SBIers…

… But the psychological impact of “$299″ and “1 year” sets the correct mindset. Now, though, I believe that we’re in a period where, with unemployment rates so high and cash so tight, more people are simply MOTIVATED. Period.

And more than ever, they want something real. So…

Starting now, your visitors have the option of paying $29.99 per MONTH for their SBI! 2.0 subscription instead of the usual $299 yearly price. Check it out at the Order Page.

This is a limited time “soft” launch, without the usual shout-it-from-the-rafters pomp.

Why?

We’re not sure about the level of commitment. So we’ll observe how they’re doing. Frankly (very frankly), we don’t market SBI! to collect cash like a cable company if people are not serious about really using it to build the kind of business that will change their lives.

In the coming weeks, we’ll be watching the commitment level of these new SBIers with great interest. If the monthly option results in less serious SBIers, the time limitation will expire.

Have you wanted to try SBI but couldn’t afford the initial annual fee?

If that’s true for you, now is the time to take advantage of this offer and start your SBI version 2.0 site with an initial investment of only $29.99.

Folks, that’s only a dollar a day starting from day one!

Now, I don’t know how this impacts the Thanksgiving holiday special offer, but I do know a good deal when I see one.

Let me caution you

However, before you jump on this, let me caution you that building a site with SBI version 2.0 is not like what you may have done in the past or what you may have observed others doing.

If you want immediate gratification, don’t subscribe to SBI. Go with a traditional webhosting package somewhere and throw up a blog. You can be publishing to your new blog in a few hours.

When you don’t get the success you expected, however, you may find that the initial instant gratification you felt is nullified by losing the one thing you can never replace – time.

Building an online business with SBI is different

You will not get instant gratification with SBI. This frustrates a lot of people.

Instead, if you take the time to read and follow the action guide, you’ll learn to use the tools that help you identify a niche with profit potential, plan the site, research keywords to help you get free traffic from the search engines, and then build an evergreen multi-tiered website according to the plan you developed while working within the SBI C-T-P-M system.

So, you’re going to have to invest some time up-front, reading the action guide and/or watching the action guide videos. Some people don’t like to do this, and they’re the ones who typically fail with an SBI site.

Sitesell contrasts the hare approach to the tortoise approach. Blogging and free websites, including sites like Squidoo and HubPages, are more for the hares among us.

SBI is for the tortoises. We like to research and plan something before we do it. We like the slow and steady approach. We like to learn from others how to build an online business using time-tested methods.

We don’t like to run hither and yon looking at every shiny red ball that happens to bounce by.

That’s why the tortoise is the mascot for SBI.

If you’re not going to follow the guidelines, don’t bother subscribing to SBI.

But, if you truly want to learn how to build an online business, I personally recommend SBI version 2.0 as the way to go about it – especially if you’re a beginner.

There are many advantages to SBI if you’re a grizzled old-timer like me who has built many websites using lots of different tools and platforms.

I have to admit that I have both tortoise and hare qualities and that I’ve done a lot of research using lots of toys. I think that I’ve been building expertise in learning all the different approaches, but, in truth, part of it may have been enjoying playing with the shiny red balls that bounced along the path in front of me.

Either way, I’ve learned my lessons and now I know effective ways to build websites that attract lots of visitors. While I admit that there are several ways to do this, I’m positive that the SBI method and the tools they provide are the best combination for the majority of people who want to build an online business.

All of my new sites will be built using SBI version 2.0. I’ve tried lots of others, but I recognize the best when I see and use it.

With the addition of Content 2.0 as a standard feature of SBI version 2.0, I don’t see any more advantages to blogging, unless you’re building a site based on news or other time-sensitive information.

Content 2.0 adds the interaction that we look for with blogs, such as comments, and also makes it easy for your readers to submit new pages to your site.

(I’ll be adding these features to both of my SBI-powered sites over the coming weeks.)

This interactivity ratchets up the effectiveness of SBI sites to a new level.

And, now, at least for a limited time, you don’t have to swallow hard and spend $299 up-front.

You can get started for only $29.99, payable as a monthly subscription.

If you can’t afford that, I really don’t see how you can afford to build an online business at all. Just give up one cup of coffee or a sandwich every day and that will cover the cost.

Of all the products and services I recommend, SBI version 2.0 stands at the top of the list. I’ve been a happy Sitesell customer for several years and don’t see any reason not to continue for a long time to come.

Try SBI version 2.0 for yourself. Get started today.

Act on your dream!

JD

Tags: , , ,

SBI version 2.0 $100 Thanksgiving Holiday Special

November 22, 2009 by John Dilbeck · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Sitesell and Site Build It, Webhosting 

Thanksgiving Day is coming up quickly and Sitesell wants to help you this year by offering their $100 Thanksgiving holiday special offer.

That’s right. From now until November 30, 2009, you can get a one year subscription to SBI version 2.0 for $299, or you can take advantage of the special and get two subscriptions for only $399.

Keep both for yourself if you want. (You have up to nine months from the purchase date to activate your second site – and renewals for that site start on that date.)

If you don’t want to develop two sites, you can go in with a friend and each of you save money by splitting the cost and effectively saving $100 for each of you for the first year.

Or, give one – or both – subscriptions to someone you care for. An SBI version 2.0 subscription will help them develop the skills necessary in the 21st century.

There are many reasons that you might want to take advantage of this special offer.

If you haven’t already done so, take some time and look into SBI version 2.0 today.

I have two SBI sites and I’m happy I do.

With all the new features that were added to SBI in the last year, you’re already getting a discount on what you would have paid this time last year.

For example, just from the value of Content 2.0, you’re already saving $100. Just a few months ago, there was an additional charge of $99 per year for adding the features of Content 2.0 to an SBI annual subscription.

In October, however, Sitesell announced that Content 2.0 is now available for all SBI subscribers, and the price is now included in the $299 annual subscription. That’s more features for your site and a DECREASE in price!

One of the beauties of SBI is that their technical staff of programmers, developers, analysts, and other propeller-heads are always finding ways to make the product better, and they implement these improvements behind the scenes. You wake up one morning and learn that you can now do more with your site, usually with very little effort on your part.

Another great feature is the members-only Sitesell Forum where SBI webmasters help each other succeed with their online businesses.

Did you know that some SBI webmasters get over a million unique visitors per month? It’s true. See for yourself. Go to the Sitesell case studies page and scroll down to read Elad Shippony’s case study.

Pay particular attention to his November 2009 update where he talks about getting 1.5 million unique visitors per month over his three main SBI sites.

Now, we all know that everyone won’t achieve these levels of success, and it certainly won’t come overnight. Elad has been building his sites for several years, but now it’s his full-time business.

Can you do this well, or better? I don’t know.

I do know that SBI offers the tools, training, support, and help from other subscribers so that you can succeed if you follow the time-tested action guide and build a site that sells.

Until you try it, I don’t think you’ll ever understand what makes SBI version 2.0 different from traditional webhosting.

If you already have experience building websites that have not succeeded for you, take a little time and compare SBI version 2.0 with traditional Windows or Linux hosting.

If you have no experience building websites, but you do have a strong desire to learn how to effectively earn money with an online business, then you owe it to yourself to start with SBI and not waste a year or more of your time learning all the things that you’ll need to learn when building a site using other techniques.

Still, as much as I love building sites with SBI, it is true that SBI version 2.0 is not suitable for everyone or every project.

The good news is that your investment in SBI is guaranteed. If you find it isn’t for you, you can get a refund.

Not sure if SBI will work for what you want? If you have a question about SBI you can call toll-free during normal business hours or fill out a form to ask your question. An experienced SBI webmaster will answer your question, at no cost to you.

Thousands of people, many with very little – or no – previous experienced have succeeded in building an online business with SBI. Now, version 2.0 offers even more tools to help you succeed.

Not everyone who tries will find the success they want, not even with SBI helping them, but I believe you have a much better chance of success by following the time-proven methods that you’ll learn when you subscribe to SBI version 2.0 and follow the action guide in building your business.

Even with SBI, there’s a lot to learn, or possibly un-learn, but I’ve been looking for years to find something better and I haven’t found anything yet.

See for yourself.

Give SBI version 2.0 a try. It is helping thousands of people around the world change their lives for the better.

Act on your dream!

JD

Tags: , ,

How much is enough?

November 16, 2009 by John Dilbeck · 11 Comments
Filed under: Affiliate Marketing, Musings 

I hope the subject of this post didn’t mislead you. If it did, I apologize right now.

I just didn’t have room to ask the real question I’m pondering this morning…

How much do you have to earn from something in order for it to be worth the effort?

That’s closer to what I’m thinking about.

My goal for my online marketing has always been to clear $100 per day for my efforts.

Since I don’t use pay per click advertising, and I no longer have upgraded memberships in the traffic exchanges (or even use them anymore), and I don’t use paid classifieds any longer, my only overhead is hosting, domain names, and a few services that are ancillary to what I’m doing.

So, it would seem that being able to clear $100 per day would not be too difficult. All I’d have to earn is about $110 per day and the goal would be met.

Still, it just isn’t working out that way.

I used to think the plan to follow would be to have 100 sites each earning a dollar a day. It sounds simple, but it never worked. Some of those sites were lucky to earn a dollar a month.

As much as I like the concept of having many little revenue streams that add up to one large revenue river, the reality has never lived up to the idea.

A couple of years ago, I thought I was well on the way, but things took a detour, as you already know, and I’m trending downward.

There are some reasons for that, I know.

1. I was earning profits by recommending the traffic exchanges and a couple of MLM programs. However, over time, I realized that this was just a treadmill and I was getting nowhere fast.

2. I was making a profit by recommending books and other products through Amazon.com, but they dropped me when the NC legislature passed the tax law this summer.

3. I was making a profit by recommending some ebooks that I used to think were valuable, but no longer think so, so I stopped recommending them.

4. I was earning money from Squidoo from publishing lenses, but that has been declining and I just earned the lowest amount I’ve ever earned from them for a month – just over $2.00.

5. I was earning nice checks from Cafepress.com for the designs I’ve uploaded, but that has declined since they started setting the prices they’d charge in the marketplace. Now, most of my sales are through the marketplace and, instead of earning $7 or $8 per sale, I’m earning closer to $2.50. I’m making more sales, but earning less money.

6. One thing that is really holding up for me, even though it’s still down from what I saw the last couple of years, is earnings from recommending Site Build It. The residuals for annual renewals are doing very well, but the new sales have declined quite a bit. Lately, I’ve been doing more work on planning what I’m going to do on my SBI-powered sites than I have been in promoting the service. But, I believe that it is a long-term strategy that will lead to increased profits in the long-run.

7. Google Adsense income has continued to do pretty well, even though it, too, is down from what I used to earn. Part of the reason is that I’ve removed it from some of my popular sites. I’m starting to reconsider that move and I may be adding Adsense ads back to some of my sites where I previously removed them.

So, those are some of the things I’ve been thinking about.

Then, over my first cup of coffee, I asked myself, “How much do I have to earn from something in order for it to be worth the effort?”

Now, I’m asking you that question, too.

If you promote something and it earns only a few dollars per month, or per year, is it better to just let it ride, because something is better than nothing?

If you think that is true, would you do the same thing in real life?

In other words, would you take a job that just pays $10 per month, rather than one that pays that much – or more – per hour?

If you would not, why would you settle for earning that much from a program online?

Let’s say that you’re earning $100 per month from a program, but you work 20 hours or more, per month, to keep it going. Is that worth it?

What if it only took a couple of hours to earn that $100? Would that be worth it?

Now, this is where you’d probably expect me to recommend something and pitch you on why you should buy it to help you earn more.

I’m not going to do that.

I’m seriously interested in your opinions and hope you’ll comment with your expectations, observations, and evaluations of what you’re doing and how well it’s going.

If I were still depending upon earning a living from affiliate marketing this year, I’d be nothing but skin and bones and living in a culvert or under a bridge somewhere.

I’m still earning a living from my online marketing efforts, but it’s mostly from helping local business owners in Murphy, NC promote their brick and mortar businesses online. I’m not earning what I want to earn, but at least it seems to be growing a little.

So, what’s your opinion?

How much do you have to earn from something for it to be worth your effort?

Act on your dream!

JD

Tags: ,

New Comments Policy

November 4, 2009 by John Dilbeck · 10 Comments
Filed under: Blogging 

(This is a follow-up to my post about comments: Why do I accept or delete comments?)

Today, I adopted a new Comments Policy for this blog.

It’s pretty straightforward and in line with things I’ve said before. I don’t think any regular reader of this site will be surprised.

It all boils down to a few simple principles: I want to know who you are, don’t use keywords in your comment link, play nice in this sandbox, and add to the discussion.

Starting today, no matter how good your comment is, if you use keywords in the link, *poof*, it’s gone. Deleted.

Use your name. I only want to talk to real people. If you don’t like that, please leave and go elsewhere, preferably offline.

Add to the discussion. The only reason I have comments active here is because I want to hear your view on the topic. I want to share what I know and learn from others.

If you want to leave a comment here, read the policy.

And, again, I want to thank all the other people who leave thoughtful, informed comments that add to the discussions and help us all increase our knowledge and skills.

Good discussions bring a blog to life and I’m very happy that there are some great people adding to the quality of this site. Thank you.

Act on your dream!

JD

Tags:

Art.com and AllPosters.com are great for affiliate marketers

November 3, 2009 by John Dilbeck · 4 Comments
Filed under: Affiliate Marketing, Art, photos 

I have been an affiliate with Art.com for several years and it has been a company I have enjoyed working with and earning from.

See their site: ART PRINTS – Art.com!

At one time, when I had a number of special interest “art stores” on JohnDilbeck.com, I was earning some nice commission checks and some were upwards of $200 for a month’s sales.

Right about now is a good time to promote art, posters, photographs, tapestries, and other things that are available at Art.com.

The holiday buying season is upon us and Art.com offers nice commissions on sales, especially for framed prints.

With everyone looking for great gifts, there is a very good chance that you’ll find something that fits your niche in the 100,000 items they sell.

In addition to good commissions on direct sales from your links, Art.com has a two-tier affiliate program and you can earn commissions from websites recruited from your links.

To sign up for their affiliate program, click the following button:


Visit Art.com

As an affiliate, you will be able to build lots of different links to individual products, live-store windows, virtual stores, banners and logos, search boxes, and text links.

AllPosters.com

Art.com and AllPosters.com are two brands for the same company. Each brand has a separate affiliate program and it may make sense to sign up for either or both brands, depending upon your niche and the market you reach.

As an affiliate, you can link to any page on the AllPosters.com site. For example, the following is a link to their home page:

Buy Posters at AllPosters.com

Of course, I would earn a commission from anyone who clicks on that link and makes a purchase. After all, that’s what affiliate marketing is all about, right?

They have about a half-million products that you can market and they’ve been in operation since 1995.

AllPosters.com, too, has a two-tier affiliate program.

The AllPosters.com Affiliates Program is a great way to make money with your website. Link to AllPosters.com and earn 20% of every purchase made by your site visitors at their website. If the visitor decides to purchase within 10 days of their last visit from your website, you’ll still earn commission on the sale!

You can link to AllPosters.com from a selection of over hundreds of thousands poster and art print images as well as poster stores and mini stores.

They have posters related to just about everything (e.g. movies, music, sports, art, animals) so no matter what the content of your site is, you will find images that are a good fit. It’s easy to sign-up, track your sales, and build links because the site generates all the HTML code for you.

Sign up today!

Both of these sites are great sources for revenue, if you reach people who are…

… interested in decorating their homes

… college students and young adults

… looking for great gifts to give.

What about you?

Are you an affiliate with Art.com and/or AllPosters.com? If so, what has been your experience with their products and affiliate programs?

Act on your dream!

JD

Tags: , , ,

Twitter Tools is not tweeting about new blog posts

November 3, 2009 by John Dilbeck · 17 Comments
Filed under: Blogging, Twitter, WordPress 

I just noticed that Twitter Tools, a plug-in that I’ve come to rely upon, is not tweeting about my new blog posts.

In fact, it appears that it hasn’t been working for the last couple of weeks.

I’ve been using Twitter Tools for some time on several of my blogs and have come to rely upon it. I wonder what’s happened.

One more thing to look into and see if I can fix.

What about you?

Do you use Twitter Tools? Is it working for you?

Act on your dream!

JD

Tags: ,

Some thoughts about affiliate marketing

November 3, 2009 by John Dilbeck · 15 Comments
Filed under: Affiliate Marketing, Musings, Sitesell and Site Build It, Success and Failure 

I was reading several blogs and forums where people were talking about how much money they earned (or didn’t earn) from affiliate marketing in October.

The more I read, the more I realized that I’m not doing as badly as I have been feeling.

After all, I earned a living from this for quite a few years, and, even if my income has dropped quite a bit over the last year, I’m still earning more than many people are.

Now, I know that sounds selfish and I hope each of you has greater success with your affiliate marketing efforts in 2010 than you’ve had in 2009.

What I’m trying to say is that I’ve been reading about many people who are working hard to earn something and still haven’t made any money at all. I can remember how frustrating that is. When you’re doing everything you know how to do and it isn’t producing any results, it can be a very difficult and disheartening experience.

I remember how happy I was to get that first commission check from Amazon.com quite a few years ago. Over the years, I’ve received checks from a number of companies and I still get a thrill when I endorse and deposit them.

Although they aren’t coming nearly as frequently as they used to, a few are still arriving and I’m thankful for each of them.

I’m wondering now if I’ve lost my way with affiliate marketing. At one time, I worked hard to send people to Amazon.com and looked forward to commissions from them. It was fun finding products and telling my readers about them.

Those were products that real people were interested in.

When I say “real people,” I’m talking about folks who aren’t interested in affiliate marketing. They were people who saw a link to something that interested them and they purchased it. Sometimes they purchased several things totally unrelated to what I was writing about and I earned a commission on each of those sales.

Now that Amazon.com dropped me after NC passed the new tax law this summer, I’m wondering if there is another company that would be a good substitute. I still love recommending books and some other consumer products, but don’t know of a good company with which I can work.

Do you have any suggestions?

As those of us in the United States get closer to our annual Thanksgiving Day holiday, I’ve been looking at things from a different perspective.

I think I’m over being stressed out about all the things that have gone wrong in the last year or so and I’m starting to focus more on what can go right over the coming year. I’m grateful that I’ve been able to hang on this year and now I’m setting my sites once again on prosperity instead of mere survival.

A year from now, I expect to be in much better financial shape than I am today, and to get there I’m going to have to create a new plan and work hard to achieve it.

One of the things I’ve identified is that this blog is not an income producer. Lots of people read it, but few purchase anything. Most of my sales come from sites that have absolutely nothing to do with making money online.

Years ago, I was advised by someone who knows a lot about online marketing and he said then, and it is even more true now, that the world doesn’t need any more websites and blogs about making money online, especially when the people building those sites are not very successful themselves.

I’ve talked about being interested in too many things for my own good, and not being specifically interested in a few things I could build a site around.

My brother, before he became disabled, loved drag racing. It was a life-long love and a few years ago I started building Georgia Drag Racing for him. He was working to write a book about the golden years of drag racing in the Atlanta area and was making great progress before he got to the point where it hurt too much to sit at a computer for very long.

So, that site has seen its best days and will be declining over time as less content is created. Still, surprisingly, it remains one of my best-earning websites, even though it has many links to Amazon.com that aren’t earning me anything and which I haven’t had the time or energy to remove.

It’s not at all about earning money online and I think that’s the key to its success. It attracts people who enjoy drag racing and they’re willing to spend money on their hobby.

I’ve watched as others have done the same thing. I know of people who have built successful, money-earning websites based on such diverse topics as dealing with insurance problems, telling Halloween and ghost stories, juggling, repairing computers, kitchen counter tops, organic gardening, hydroponic gardening, modeling advice, and dozens of other niche subjects that interested them and which they built into sites that produce a substantial annual income.

I have been trying to find a niche for myself in which I could do the same thing, but so far I haven’t found it.

At least, now, I know all the things I will need to do to build and publicize such a site if I can ever identify a topic that I can love and be willing to write about every day.

I’ve come close to such a niche, but it is not really what I’m talking about.

I love living in the mountains of Murphy, NC and I love the people, scenery, and pace of life here. I’ve been promoting the area and a few businesses off and on over the years and this year I’ve been concentrating on building Murphy Connections, a social networking site, and Murphy Gold, a site for promoting a few locally-owned, small businesses that are located in the Murphy NC 28906 ZIP code.

I’m starting to have some success with those sites and look forward to spending a lot of time working on, and improving, them over the coming months.

Another site that I enjoy, but whose earnings have dropped dramatically since I removed all the Amazon links is my Act On Your Dream! site.

Basically, I lost focus on that site, but I’ve been brainstorming a lot of ideas and now have a plan for updating that site on a regular basis. Now that Sitesell has made Content 2.0 free for all SBI sites, I’ll be adding more interactive features to it over time. In fact, I think that I’ll be blogging less as a result.

In fact, I’m going to be taking some of what I’ve written in my blogs and repurposing it on that site to see how it works.

Even though I’ve just gone through the worst 12 months of my life, I still believe that we can achieve what we want if we identify our goals, make good plans to accomplish them, and then put in the required work to make it happen. In as little as a year from now, we can make big changes in our lives.

I’m going to be acting on that belief.

What about you?

What do you think?

Is affiliate marketing working well for you?

Have you identified niches that are good income earners?

What company do you recommend as a substitute for Amazon.com?

I welcome your comments and look forward to discussing them.

Act on your dream!

JD

Tags: , ,