I’m pretty much staying away from Clickbank and make money stuff so Amazon and eBay are the main merchants I link to.  I’ve been creating niche blogs and my next step is to look into selling some of my sites.  I don’t want to be the person that has hundreds of sites to manage and host.  I plan on getting focused on just a few blogs on subjects that I truly have an interest in.

Anyway, I’ve been neglecting this blog, but I have been continuing to do my affiliate marketing activities.  I am slowly (yes still crawling along) making progress.  It took me forever but I cashed my first clickbank check this month.  I have taken a break from clickbank and I’m not actively promoting any info products at the moment but I have been earning commissions on Amazon and eBay too.

I know a lot of people are ticked off at Squidoo for their policy change that trashed lenses in niches that were profitable for lots of internet marketers.  I don’t blame anyone for not wanting to deal with Squidoo anymore but I do want to mention that it isn’t a completely useless platform for marketing.  It just isn’t the free-for-all that it used to be.

I think Squidoo is really great, like exceptionally great for marketing physical products.  I have had several lenses that I wasn’t paying any attention to, age and slowly make their way to page one of Google.  All of a sudden I’m getting sales from lenses I made years ago (before I knew anything about marketing at all).  So to get started with physical products, I think Squidoo is the best.  It’s free and most physical items shouldn’t trigger their spam filters at all.  I also think that they are an easier sell.  Personally, when I want to buy something online I am looking for a specific item; never is my first thought, “Is there an ebook on this I could buy?”

Of course the commissions aren’t as great but I find the process of creating content to be easier.  I don’t want to have to convince people that they want something.  It’s much easier to direct them to the thing they know they want.

That reminds me of another thing I wanted to write about today.  I am about to purge and focus on what I really want to do.  I am no longer going to make web pages about topics that do not interest me.  I am no longer going to put “work” into projects I don’t care about.  The whole reason for wanting to do this stuff is the idea of freedom.  Freedom to do what you want with your time.  If I am in “work” mode and dreading my “internet work” there’s no point in even pursuing this.

So starting in the recent past I’ve made this resolution.  Real blogs only about stuff I’m really interested in.  Ok, I never was a fake blog person anyway but I do have some sites that I’m not interested in.  This will be better for me because writing content and maintenance on my sites will be something I truly want to do.  I’m sure it will add some authenticity to my sites as well and save me money in domain names.

This purge applies to my offline life as well.  There’s too much clutter.  I have to get rid of the stuff that is just hanging around and taking up space or wasting my precious time.

My great experience with MNF is part of what convinced me to buy this product.  I think I paid $97 for MNF and I was surprised to find out that the original price for this software was $14.99, the same price I paid today for The Ultimate PLR Article Collection.  So price and trust in the creator was my motivation for buying.

Honestly, I’ve only had the product for a few hours so I haven’t even begun to get into everything that is possible with it.  I have however already used one of the articles on a blog of mine.  The articles are not unintelligible gibberish like low-level PLR can be.  The read naturally and in plain English without keyword stuffing.

When you click the link there is a video demonstrating how to use the software and possible ways to make money with the content.

James Jones offers lifetime free updates on his software.  So those folks that got Micro Niche Finder at $14.99 have the exact same access that I do when I paid six times as much.

Yes, I will be including my affiliate link so if you buy this product today through this blog I will get a commission.  To get the introductory price you have to buy before midnight Sunday (less than two days left).

My big fat affiliate link for The Ultimate PLR Article Collection.  While we’re at it here’s one for Micro Niche Finder.  It’s not $15 but it’s worth it.

I’ve been very proud of myself because I am seeing measurable progress. I have some sites on the first page for their target keywords. I’m making a little bit of money every day. Now, I know it’s just a matter of being consistent in doing the things that work and staying away from activities that don’t earn me money.

Personally, I waste too much time stat checking. I noticed that it’s easier not to check when I feel like I’m making money. Maybe I like torturing myself watching zeros and waiting for them to be something else. I think I iwill have to impose a limit on the time I spend doing this; maybe once a day at the most.

I also left Wealthy Affiliate. I am glad that I found it and what I learned there but I was finding it hard to justify paying for every month. I’ve got other things I can spend $40 a month on. I still think it’s a great place to start out but I no longer think it’s the best path for an absolute beginner.

Why the change of heart? I found a program I like better and if I could go back and choose between the two this other program would be the path I choose. It’s what I’m doing now.

From now on I am not promoting any internet marketing courses except for the one program that I am using and I’m really impressed with. Actually, I haven’t promoted it at all yet but if you see an ad on my blog it will probably be for that and nothing else.

If I do have a 30 page site it will be built up from a mini site that is already performing. I know so much more about niche research now and I know that my large site was not built on a very good foundation.

I’m writing this post to declare a goal of 10 new sites a month.

Ten sites should be completely reachable for me. Another goal for December is to reach $100 in adsense revenue. Adsense wasn’t something I went after really until now and it’s nice to see a few dollars in my account.

Wish me luck.

I really need to get organized quickly. It’s becoming a necessity because I am doing so much and I need to know where I am and where I’m going.

I’m following a very specific set of lessons right now. I’m not going to mention them until I get the results I’m looking for.

Another thing I have been focused on is conditioning my mind. I have known the importance of this for a long time but I had not put much effort into doing it. I am now setting definite goals and making steps toward achieving them.

My blog looks different now. I have some kind of error that is not letting my change my sidebars. Changing themes hasn’t helped either. Does anyone know what the problem can be?

I am staying away from internet marketing stuff and huge websites for now.  Like I mentioned before, one thing I have learned from the 30 page site that I built is not to put all of my energy into a niche I haven’t tested on a smaller level.  There is really no need to do that when I can put up a squidoo lens or blogger blog or even a mini-wordpress site and test the results.

Things are improving and I am learning to work smarter.

Anyway, I really want to test out my new plugins and that’s the main reason for this post.  Leave me comments if you ever feel like it.  It seriously makes my day.

I have reached my maximum submissions at EzineArticles and I’m hoping for platinum status.  My fingers are crossed but I won’t be surprised if I don’t make it because I have heard that if you have had articles rejected at all in your first 10 submissions that it hurts your chances of getting platinum.  So we will see…  I’m a little ashamed that I only have 10 articles submitted up to this point.  What have I been doing for the past seven months?

Hmm.  Wealthy Affiliate is having a huge affiliate contest that I’m thinking about joining.  I’m just thinking about it because I don’t know if I want to split my attention right now but it could be interesting to really dig into a WA campaign.  For awhile I wasn’t even using WA while I was trying to get my site together.  I even considered canceling next month until I read some things in the forum that got me motivated and I referred a new member (thanks for using my link if you’re reading this). 

I think WA has become like a security blanket to me.  I have so many other resources I could use that would keep me busy for awhile but I don’t want to let go of WA.  I really feel that my membership there was instrumental in my first sale and getting me on the path to a full-time income (still working on that one).

Yep, just keeping it moving.  I’m so proud of myself for the past week’s work.  I’ve gotten a lot done.

I went through the Bum Marketing Method when I first got started in internet marketing.  I had no idea about article writing and I could see how it could work but I didn’t really get it.  The material in PAWS brings back those lessons but it really fills in the blanks on how to implement them.

Reading this book has got me thinking about all of the articles that I have on my website that are just dry content.  Am I going to rewrite all of that?  Probably not if I can manage to make any sales out of it.  It may have to be done but I won’t know until I start getting enough traffic to those pages.  Since I’m working on the off-page SEO now for my site, I will definitely be using my new techniques in the articles and blogs I use for backlinks.  I’m excited!

I am procrastinating again today.  There’s a test I should be studying for.  I seem to get so much more internet work done when I have school work to do.