One of the advantages of running a business that turns over a lot of money is that you get very good service and support. Now I have closed that account and opened a new one I am back to standard support.
This whole morning has been wasted trying to find someone at my bank who knows what a letter of credit is.
I have found a sweet product in China so I'm going to import it to sell on ebay to get a bit of cash in hand but as always lots of obstacles in my way. Fingers crossed I get it all sorted out today.
Friday, 30 October 2009
Wednesday, 21 October 2009
A bit quiet eh?
I have been quiet on my blog as you may/may not have noticed. This is because I am putting together a proper business plan.
I found that by jumping in feet first I ended up doing a juggling act and certain areas got over looked. So I have taken a pause to write everything I am going to do in detail and create step by step instructions for everything before hand.
This will hopefully allow me to address any issues before I run into them and allow me to give step by step hand outs to any outsourcers I use.
I am about 20 pages into it so far and it is really helping me. It is funny how there were things I thought I had worked out 100% but when it comes to writing it down there were still a few things to iron out.
I can't recommend doing this highly enough. Before you understake a project, write down everything you will do in detail. Then from this create a schedule of what you need to be doing each day, and from that work out deadlines and milestones so you can keep on track and get the project finished.
I am also using the free version of http://www.project2manage.com/ aswell as Google docs for collaboration purposes and to track progress.
I found that by jumping in feet first I ended up doing a juggling act and certain areas got over looked. So I have taken a pause to write everything I am going to do in detail and create step by step instructions for everything before hand.
This will hopefully allow me to address any issues before I run into them and allow me to give step by step hand outs to any outsourcers I use.
I am about 20 pages into it so far and it is really helping me. It is funny how there were things I thought I had worked out 100% but when it comes to writing it down there were still a few things to iron out.
I can't recommend doing this highly enough. Before you understake a project, write down everything you will do in detail. Then from this create a schedule of what you need to be doing each day, and from that work out deadlines and milestones so you can keep on track and get the project finished.
I am also using the free version of http://www.project2manage.com/ aswell as Google docs for collaboration purposes and to track progress.
Sunday, 4 October 2009
Quality Takes Time
One of my sites that I put together on the quick with outsourced articles has now got some rankings and targetted traffic so I have gone back over it to monetize it.
The first thing I did was properly read the outsourced articles. I know I should have done this first but I just wanted something up so I could get it to rank.
I had expected to just tweak it a bit, but after readining it the whole site will need an entire re-write.
Last couple of days I have been re-writing the site and adding some custom graphics. I have to say its turning into quite a nice site, in a few more days it should be almost complete and I will be very surprised if it doesn't start to make me money very soon.
Now I have got a few sites up there, I think I will write the onsite content myself and just use outsourcers for the SEO fodder articles. When some money starts coming back in I will higher a more expensive writer to handle onpage stuff but I don't feel comfortable doing that until I start to receive some affiliate pay-checks in the mail.
The first thing I did was properly read the outsourced articles. I know I should have done this first but I just wanted something up so I could get it to rank.
I had expected to just tweak it a bit, but after readining it the whole site will need an entire re-write.
Last couple of days I have been re-writing the site and adding some custom graphics. I have to say its turning into quite a nice site, in a few more days it should be almost complete and I will be very surprised if it doesn't start to make me money very soon.
Now I have got a few sites up there, I think I will write the onsite content myself and just use outsourcers for the SEO fodder articles. When some money starts coming back in I will higher a more expensive writer to handle onpage stuff but I don't feel comfortable doing that until I start to receive some affiliate pay-checks in the mail.
Sunday, 27 September 2009
Over Reactions
It seems to me that the majority of the warrior forum live in a constant state of caffeine fueled panic.
At the smallest thing you get pages of angry/worried/perculiar messages from people thinking its the end of the world.
The last over reaction was the FTC saying they could go after people for fake testimonials. I am sure this was a move to try to give them some more power against con-men and not to persecute blog owners. Just imagine how hard it would be to prove a testimonial is fake, and how much the court case would cost them. This legislation probably will effect less than 0.1% of internet marketers yet it has let to a constant stream of crazy posts from people convinced if you alter a testimonial you are going straight to jail. So far I am yet to hear of a single case going to court.
Now the latest fury is over Google's side wiki. People are calling it "Evil" and recommending people ban all google toolbar users from their site.
WHAT NONSENSE!
It's like a paying customer walking into a shop but you refuse to serve them because their mobile phone has some software on it you don't like.
Lets get one thing straight, I am not a fan of side wiki. It is too easy to spam negative comments at people. But guess what I am doing now? Well, I am spamming positive comments at my sites. So far on every site I have been to I am the first person to leave a message.
The truth is that only a small percentage of your visitors will bother to check it out, and I doubt people will take much stock of it as it is so easily abused either way.
Another thing, this is not new. There has been software out there that does this for years, the only difference now is that it is incorporated into the google toolbar which it very widespread.
Bottom Line: If side wiki effects your bottom line then you have some weak ass marketing. Go to the library and read some REAL marketing books and stop wasting your time with step by step get rich quick ebooks.
At the smallest thing you get pages of angry/worried/perculiar messages from people thinking its the end of the world.
The last over reaction was the FTC saying they could go after people for fake testimonials. I am sure this was a move to try to give them some more power against con-men and not to persecute blog owners. Just imagine how hard it would be to prove a testimonial is fake, and how much the court case would cost them. This legislation probably will effect less than 0.1% of internet marketers yet it has let to a constant stream of crazy posts from people convinced if you alter a testimonial you are going straight to jail. So far I am yet to hear of a single case going to court.
Now the latest fury is over Google's side wiki. People are calling it "Evil" and recommending people ban all google toolbar users from their site.
WHAT NONSENSE!
It's like a paying customer walking into a shop but you refuse to serve them because their mobile phone has some software on it you don't like.
Lets get one thing straight, I am not a fan of side wiki. It is too easy to spam negative comments at people. But guess what I am doing now? Well, I am spamming positive comments at my sites. So far on every site I have been to I am the first person to leave a message.
The truth is that only a small percentage of your visitors will bother to check it out, and I doubt people will take much stock of it as it is so easily abused either way.
Another thing, this is not new. There has been software out there that does this for years, the only difference now is that it is incorporated into the google toolbar which it very widespread.
Bottom Line: If side wiki effects your bottom line then you have some weak ass marketing. Go to the library and read some REAL marketing books and stop wasting your time with step by step get rich quick ebooks.
Thursday, 24 September 2009
Sleepless Nights
I have fell back into the groove of making sites and promoting them. I have the IM bug bad and I am burning the midnight oil every night. Think I may turn into a vampire soon if I don't start gettig some sun soon lol.
My rankings are looking very promising now. I am creeping up the list on some highly searched terms. I am noticing that wordpress blogs seem to get a lot of junk traffic, I understand better now the posts from people who think they are getting 100 a day to look at their site but no sales. On one day, one of my niche blogs recorded 700 visits, but i think only about 10 of them were human. This could be due to the amount of directories I have been submitting to. They could be checking the link works or being scraped by spammers.
Now that I am starting to get traffic I need to monetize it which is always the tricky part. I got a load of work ahead of me but it feels good to be doing what I love. I have made a few good contacts recently also and I am discussing various business ideas with them.
Getting the temp ban in such a cocky way from the WF has made me not want to contribute there any more or submit guides. I will go back there eventually I guess but for the time being it is a good thing as I am focusing on getting things done.
My rankings are looking very promising now. I am creeping up the list on some highly searched terms. I am noticing that wordpress blogs seem to get a lot of junk traffic, I understand better now the posts from people who think they are getting 100 a day to look at their site but no sales. On one day, one of my niche blogs recorded 700 visits, but i think only about 10 of them were human. This could be due to the amount of directories I have been submitting to. They could be checking the link works or being scraped by spammers.
Now that I am starting to get traffic I need to monetize it which is always the tricky part. I got a load of work ahead of me but it feels good to be doing what I love. I have made a few good contacts recently also and I am discussing various business ideas with them.
Getting the temp ban in such a cocky way from the WF has made me not want to contribute there any more or submit guides. I will go back there eventually I guess but for the time being it is a good thing as I am focusing on getting things done.
Sunday, 20 September 2009
I Got Banned!
But at least they gave me a reason. I used the phrase "trigger happy mod".
Here is what I see when I look at the site:
"You have been banned for the following reason:
Blame the "trigger happy mod""
Can't say I am upset. They have the authority there. I had thought the thread posed a good value and interesting reading, although I guess that is not what their main concern is. The main focus I guess is to keep the buyers desperate and control what information they are exposed to.
I am not here to rock the boat. I think my ban will eventually lift and I will continue to read the forum but I won't be submitting any more tutorials or how to videos.
Here is what I see when I look at the site:
"You have been banned for the following reason:
Blame the "trigger happy mod""
Can't say I am upset. They have the authority there. I had thought the thread posed a good value and interesting reading, although I guess that is not what their main concern is. The main focus I guess is to keep the buyers desperate and control what information they are exposed to.
I am not here to rock the boat. I think my ban will eventually lift and I will continue to read the forum but I won't be submitting any more tutorials or how to videos.
$1,000 challenge
OK, so I am about to make a post to the WF. I truly believe this is a valuable post but I think that 1 or 2 of the moderators there with various agendas might not want it to see the light of day. The post is in no way self promotional but I thought I would video me making the post incase it gets deleted so here it is.
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