Managing Passive Income

Yesterday, I went back over last months "Brain Dump". I made a few additional notes, but overall was pleased that my wants/needs/goals were still the same, and that everything is moving in the right direction. It helped me to confirm the current task list and short-term goals, and was very motivating.

I'm ready to buckle down, streamline, and take things to a new level. I'm locating my "money leaks" and also looking hard at expanding the potential on current streams of income.

One of the first things that I am doing is to pause all of my current PPC (pay-per-click) campaigns on Google Adwords. Admittedly, they need some work and I know that I have a few money leaks there, for sure. For example, one of my favorite merchants changed from a CPA model to a CPS several months ago. What this means is that I no longer get paid "per lead", but now only "per sale" - meaning that a visitor converts to a paid customer.

I went from spending $300 to make over a thousand in a month's time, to spending $300 and barely making ANY commission. It was worth testing - now it's time to dump it. I paused ALL of my Campaigns, and began by replacing this one with an offer from another merchant. More options, more keyword potential, much higher payout.

I am starting this campaign on a small scale - adding new Ad Groups one at a time, after exhaustive keyword digging. Very focused, very specific ads... and with my fingers crossed ;)

The other Campaigns that I have paused, I'd like to sit down and go over. Since I dont have the time to do that right this minute, they will just remain paused until I get to them - one at a time. Some are decent money-makers, but could stand some tweaking... and some have a lot of potential, and would just require putting a bit more time into them.

I've also been thinking about promoting my new affiliate site via PPC. Not the site in general, but specific categories or pages. It will give me an opportunity to test conversions on the traffic - from a variety of sources. One keyword may convert better than the other, obviously - so I plan to test them one at a time, and then adjust my optimization for that page if necessary.

It will also give me a good idea of "what's hot" now that the holidays are behind us - as keyword research tools, at this point, only tell us what people were searching for during the month of December...

While I am analyzing all of this data, and tweaking my PPC Campaigns to maximize their potential, I will continue to work towards gaining new Inbound Links... updating RSS Feeds... building the Mailing Lists... etc.

I am finding that it works best for me to set aside ONE HOUR each day to work on maintaining my income sources. It only takes a few minutes to update a feed, submit several articles, tweak a marketing campaign, sign up for a new affiliate program, gain a couple of inbound links, etc. In one hour, I can generally maintain all of these things - and also spend some time on additional research.

It's a good rule for consistent growth.

Even "Passive Income" requires maintenance. Some people mistakenly believe that it means you "work once" and then never have to work again. Not true. While I can generally spend a day or a week setting up a source of income, and then enjoy a profit from it for 6+ months... there comes a time when you have to change it, add to it, or replace it.

And it stands to reason that the more you put into it, the more you get out of it. Obviously, you can extend the life of a "stream of income" by continuing to feed it ;)

The people who enjoy a nice, fat Passive Income will tell you straight out that they worked hard to achieve it. And the majority of them will tell you that they still work. Most not out of necessity, but out of passion - continuously increasing their gross income in the process.

It's a good lifestyle - freedom, flexibility, security, and more. You work because you want to. You completely control your environment. Limitations and boundaries disappear altogether.

For anyone interested in Passive Income, I would highly recommend:

The Myth of Passive Income $39

I read this book earlier this year, and the words and the stories really stuck with me. Passive Income has been a personal goal of mine for some time now. While I did meet my financial goals for 2004, in the process I realized that if I could double or triple my income once... I could certainly do it again. And again.

This is not about earning a ridiculous income. Or being frivolous with money. This is about one single mother to two growing kids that is setting out to secure the future for her family.

I have lived paycheck-to-paycheck. I have lived without a paycheck. I know what it's like to struggle, and I've worked HARD to get to a place that is comfortable - both financially and emotionally.

... And I dont plan to move backwards from here ;) There are things to consider, such as: emergency funds, college tuition, retirement and more. I think life has proven to most of us that we cannot take anything for granted.

My Favorite Fortunes

My son came home today, from his 10-day visit with his father. As planned, we met up in Chattanooga and then headed over to Chef Lin's for the buffet (all-you-can-eat sushi, mmm!). It was a nice trip and a great lunch, and then we celebrated Christmas with Zack when we all got home this evening.

When I sat down here at my desk for a quick check on the email & forums, I pulled my Fortune out of pocket and taped it up on my wipe-off calendar... beside my other favorites. Today's said:

Your Principles Mean More To You Than Any Money Or Success.

That one made me smile :) Other recent favorites:

Do not let great ambitions overshadow small successes.

You have an iron will, which helps you succeed in everything.

It is better to have a hen tomorrow, than an egg today.


Fortunes are just fortunes - nice sayings on little pieces of paper, handed out randomly. But they're fun... and one that hits home is always worth saving and reading over and over :) On that same note, have a look at my Horoscope for the day (I'm a Gemini):

This could be the culmination of all your hard work. You've been looking forward to this moment, but what lies beyond it seems just as real. Move on without pausing. Take a deep breath and take the plunge.

I dont "live by" my horoscope, and mostly just consider them "fun" - but it's sure nice when things line up to give you positive messages for the day!

Looking Towards The New Year

I've got my work cut out for me for the coming year, and for the last few days it's been swirling around and around in my mind - not yet settling down into a definitive plan. A plan of action, that is. Obviously it all has to be done, and that's the "plan" - but how, and when, and in what order... that's what I need to focus on.

My primary goal for 2005 is to buy a house. Having never purchased property before, I am learning a lot as I go. For example, my "dream home" at $159,900 - on a 30 year loan at 5.75% interest - will actually cost almost $336,000 all said and done. I had no idea that I would be investing more than double the price over the life of the loan - Ouch!

Even a first-time buyer's loan only drops the interest rate by half a percent. Anyway, I did find out what it would take to buy this house, and am in the process of taking care of all of those details. I also spoke with the agent again, who said we have at least 60 days to decide and close - so there's no rush. And that I am also welcome to "submit an offer" - a price I am more comfortable with - and she will do her best to help me get the best deal possible... or work with me to find another home in the county.

All good news! So things are moving along very nicely in that area. Work is going good, as well - keeping me busy, and moving forward at a very good pace. There is much to do yet, such as year-end accounting and preparing taxes, re-organizing my office for space & efficiency, planning out my strategy for the coming year, etc... in addition to the usual daily tasks both at home and in the office.

Fortunately, I'm not in a panic over any of it - no feelings of stress or pressure caving in on me at the moment. I'm in almost an eerie calm, working consistently towards my smaller goals each and every day... and feeling confident that I'm moving in the right direction.

Still, I'd like to get all of these plans and goals more firmly rooted in my mind - time tables and strategies outlined that I can feel comfortable with, etc. Short term, I have covered. I know exactly what I need to do. Long term, my goals are clear - but I really need to sit down and outline my strategy to reach them.

Whatever it takes to keep them from floating around in the back of my mind all day - distracting me from the task at hand. Usually putting it all down on paper will do the trick... out of my mind, and onto the paper - where I can look at it, deal with it, change it if I need to...

So that's where I'll start.

The Countdown Is On!

There are 5 days left in the year - including today. Five good solid work days before 2004 ends, and 2005 begins. I plan to work hard this week, in preparation for the new year, towards both personal goals and business goals.

This past week was particularly productive, in both areas. I went through all of the clothes in the house, and managed to find two huge bags of clothes that the kids had outgrown - and organized the rest. Albert dropped the bags off at Goodwill for us, along with a box of things that had value but that I was never going to use. I'd held on to this stuff for years (literally) thinking I would have a yard sale, or sell some of the things on eBay... but it just felt like a good time to get rid of it all and move on.

I have to say, Albert has been a big help around here lately. After years of taking care of things on my own as a single woman and a single mother... it's nice to have a good man around that is willing to help out. From yardwork to baking pies, he's a "handy man" in just about every area of my life :)

He's also been helping me in the office lately, as this is his off season with his own work. We managed to add thousands of products to my affiliate site this last week, and gain quite a few good Inbound Links.

The other day he said to me "I'm done with this - what do you have next?", and I just looked at him blankly. He said "I knew it! I've worked myself right out of a job, haven't I?"... LOL. He caught on fast, and I'm really impressed with the results.

While he was working on the updates to the affiliate site, I have been working on my new template for SSWT. I should have had this done a long time ago, but I've just been working on it a bit here and there in the background. There is A LOT of content, so it's been a lot of work to re-organize it all into the new template... not to mention that I've changed the template a dozen times since I started. LOL. Thank goodness for SSI :)

Anyway, I've decided to turn a big part of this project over to him this week, while I work on other things. My goal is to have the new template running live by January 1st - and with his help, I believe I may be able to pull it off. That will free me up to actually *write* the new content I want on my site, which is the part I enjoy, and also to work on other things that need to be finished up this week.

It's great to see him doing so well with this, and really understanding it all. He's been following my forum and taking an interest in my work over the last year, but it's just now all coming together for him. As we work, I generally explain the "why" behind what we are doing, and the goal for the project as a whole.

It's nice to know that anyone - with a little help - can do this type of work on their own within a few short weeks. It's my goal, to offer that kind of help, through my newsletter and website, and I sincerely hope that there are many others out there that are taking it and using it to build their own successful e-businesses.

That's my whole point in doing it. And I believe that all of the new info and updates for the coming year will be an even bigger help to those just getting started, and to those that are working hard to reach a new level with the site(s) they already have.

I plan to go out of my way in 2005 to help as many people reach success as possible! I'm very much looking forward to it :)

Back to Work! Sort of...

I had such a nice holiday, and really enjoyed the days off this week. It was nice to hang out with the family, cook with the kids, and enjoy gifts from each other. We decided to go ahead and open gifts on Christmas Eve instead of waiting for my son to return, and then we'll open gifts with him on Wednesday night.

We're all looking forward to that... and of course, to hitting that all-you-can-eat buffet in Chattanooga again when we make the trip to pick him up ;)

I got a very unexpected surprise on Christmas Day: a phone call from the realtor! She apologize for calling on a holiday, but had just received the paperwork on the house I was looking at, and wanted to let me know the price right away.

$159,900

My jaw dropped! WOW - It is a *steal* for this house!! To refresh you, it's a 3-story log home on 4 acres with a swimming pool. Nice, huh? :) A dream home, for sure.

On my side is the fact that interest rates are at an all time low on property here in Tennessee, and that real estate is just not selling right now. Also that I expressed interest in the property before it went on the market, and asked for an "as is" price.

The price above includes some minor work - they are cleaning the carpets, spot painting and repairing the lattice. It honestly looked brand new on the inside - absolutely gorgeous. I think the home is only around 5 years old.

The price did not include fixing the swimming pool - which needs a new liner. No problem, as I can get that done at cost ;)

It really made my day to get the call... and to hear the price was so low! I'm going to head up to the bank on Monday morning and find out what it will take to qualify for the mortgage. I have no idea what to expect, or what I may need to do in order to qualify, as I've never bought property before - and have virtually no credit. But I'm determined to find out, and to do whatever it takes to put myself in the right position!

Motivation? YES! So while my work week doesnt officially start back until Monday morning, we are putting in a few good hours here this afternoon expanding the affiliate site and researching potential categories to add.

I took a look at the search engines this morning, and was really excited about the results. Yahoo has more than doubled the number of pages they have indexed from the site - and my pages are doing exceptionally well in Yahoo. Not so hot in Google so far, but not bad - and ranking very well for obscure (specific) searches. I am sure they will do even better over time.

As for Yahoo - to give you an example of how well the site is doing there, the main page ranks just over 100 for a VERY general and competitive term. Considering how new the site is, I feel it's just a matter of time before we can rank in the top ten for the main term that relates to this site. And THAT is exciting news!

I've always done very well with Google, and not had a lot of 'luck' with Yahoo - so this is really interesting to me, and I feel a good model to work with to help other sites I manage rank better on Yahoo. My new SSWT template, for example, should do a lot better in Yahoo than it ever has before. Without hurting my rankings in Google, of course - which is the goal ;)

I'm off to do more keyword research, and land a few good Inbound Links - I hope you're having a great weekend, and enjoyed a very nice holiday!

Looking Forward to the Time Off!

They are forecasting snow for us here in Tennessee tonight. I'm not sure how much, but I hope it's pretty when we wake up in the morning. It would be nice to have a white Christmas :)

I'll be taking off work on both Friday and Saturday, as I imagine most are. I am really looking forward to the downtime, and to just enjoying my family - good food, gifts and all the fun that comes with the holidays.

It will be nice to spend two whole days eating and playing and talking... and just taking it easy. I may even read a bit... or catch a few good movies ;)

This has been such a productive week so far - even in just three short days - that I am not going to worry at all about taking the time off this week. It will be a nice break. Lots of updates to the sites, client work & emails behind me already... and I'm feeling really good about how this year is winding down.

I am tired tonight, but we're working late tonight here in the office, adding several new very large sections to my affiliate site and adding in another merchants products too. I'm very excited about the potential with this site, and all of the new pages we've added this week so far. Sales have slowed way down, but I imagine that is because most of the shipping deadlines for holiday delivery are passed... and I expect orders will be on the rise not long after Christmas is over.

I have a few things to finish up before I can call it a day, so I'm off. I hope you're staying warm... or enjoying the weather where you are!

InstantBuzz Stats

In my last post, I mentioned that I had just installed the InstantBuzz Toolbar. That was 10 hours ago (this morning), and I honestly havent given it a second thought until now.

I just went to check my stats, and it says that it has shown my Ad 189 times! That's not bad for the first half a day... and doing nothing at all outside of the few minutes to install it and check out the Welcome email.

I'll have to check with Andre and get a link to our Stats to see how many (if any) of those views resulted in a click-through to the TIID site. I added "?instantbuzz" to the end of the URL so it would be easy to track visitors from the toolbar.

I'll keep you posted!

Ok, Already!

It's all the rave, right? You hear about it in every other email lately. I'm talking about: Instant Buzz. (If you havent heard about it, you havent checked your email lately - period)

I had resolved to ignore it, along with all of the Christmas deals, simply because I was busy with my current marketing plan - not to mention my holiday plans. And this is what I said to the last few people that asked my thoughts on it - just that it came at bad timing, and the over-promotion left me with no desire to introduce it to my own subscribers.

However, I got a message from Henrik Flensborg this morning with an invitation to join Instant Buzz, and on a whim decided to give it a shot. Henrik is a very good friend, and needed 4 more sign-ups within that hour to reach a certain level. That's "relationship marketing" at work for you - I couldnt turn him down ;)

I have to say... I'm impressed with how easy it was to set up. What they say in all of those emails is true - it literally only takes 5 minutes to have it up and running, your ad showing and all.

It will be interesting to see the results. I pointed my ad to www.TurningIdeasIntoDollars.com , which has a decent conversion rate. I felt like this would be a good match for those using Instant Buzz, and I'm also interested in seeing if this traffic converts as well as the traffic we've sent to that site in the past.

The Invitation System is interesting - they dont allow mass promotion, so you dont get an affiliate or referral link. People have to actually find someone that has an account at Instant Buzz, and request an Invitation from them. Or you can send Invitations to people you think may be interested. But it costs you in credits to do so - which keeps those invitations very selective.

I think I have 29 credits at the moment - I assume this number will change throughout the day. So if you do want an invitation, I'd be happy to send it. (I would need to know your first name, last name and email address)

And that's about all I know at this point. It will be interesting to see if it results in traffic and sales... or not. Prior to installing it myself, I would have voted on "or not" - but I have to admit that the little toolbar has a certain appeal.

Maintaining A Content Site

It requires a little work. My recommendation is to just commit yourself to at least an hour a day towards development and marketing - whether this be adding new pages, updating current pages, seeking out new affiliate programs or link partners, etc.

This is working out very well for me, in addition to outsourcing. If you have a willing family member, you can easily put them to work on repetitive tasks or teach them to do specific updates. The key word there is "willing" LOL. My son hasnt been quite so willing lately, but fortunately it is Albert's off season with work and he agreed to help me out for these next few months.

The updates and new pages keep the spiders visiting frequently, and create more "landing pages" that will get indexed by the search engines for a different set of keywords. The more pages you can get indexed the better - as you will be able to reach a wider market with slightly different terms or more specific terms.

I'm also updating the product feed (RSS) several times a week - usually once a day. I've stopped promoting strictly holiday items there, and am listing more general (but seasonal) items... and will soon begin Valentines Day promotions shortly after the first of the year.

Sales were slow this past week - we're up to 12, now. But I'm happy with having landed a dozen sales in the first month or so. These are good results, in my opinion - and I anticipate the site will do VERY well in 2005 as it settles into the search engines.

There are now 117 pages indexed by Google, and 36 pages indexed by Yahoo. (Yay! Finally!) There is only 1 page indexed by MSN - and it's the RSS Feed. MSN Beta, however, has 49 pages indexed.

My stats show that the bots or spiders are really active on my site now, and that someone is subscribed to the Feed through bloglines (very cool!). Moving along real nice...

As for Adsense, so far only 2 click-through's. I'm not complaining, though - I'd rather visitors click through the product links ;)

The top 20 search terms used were very interesting. One phrase brought 4 visitors in from the search engines, and my page was ranked #5 in Yahoo and #31 on Google.

There was another phrase that brought 4 visitors, and that page was #3 on Google and I couldnt find it in the top 100 at Yahoo (probably not indexed yet).

Another phrase that brought in 3 visitors was #8 on Yahoo and not in the first hundred listings at Google.

Interesting...

Anyway, so far so good - and we've added 23 pages to the site this week already :) That should keep the spiders happy!

Sushi & Mistletoe

This weekend was super-busy with shopping, gift wrapping and traveling. I found some really good deals, had a lot of fun, and we even had our first real snow of the year!

On Sunday I took my son to meet his father, so that they could spend the holiday together. We meet in Chattanooga, but my favorite part of the trip is going through Monteagle. It is absolutely gorgeous, no matter what time of year you are passing through. A favorite for the kids as well...

After Zack left with his father, Albert and I hit a big sale at the shopping center and I grabbed a few more gifts and some new jeans and house shoes for myself. Then we had lunch at the chinese buffet - a place I always like to stop when I'm in Chattanooga, and it has an all-you-can eat sushi bar. Mmmmm :)

My fortune cookie said: Do not let great ambitions overshadow small success.

Nice, I thought. And good advice...

As we were leaving there was a van there in the parking lot, selling fresh Mistletoe out of the back for a dollar. There were a lot of cars driving through, so I imagine they did very well that day! Albert explained to me where it came from (the tops of trees) and that they shot it out - then wrapped a little ribbon around each twig, stuck it in a baggie, and sold it. Neat.

Looking it up, though - it's interesting what Mistletoe is, and makes you wonder how many people know that when they hang it in their homes at Christmas. What made me curious was that the lady said that it was poisonous, and to keep it out of reach of children and pets... and then Albert pointing out that it grew in the tops of trees. "Any kind of tree, or certain kinds of trees?" was my question - and we honestly didnt know.

Here's the link we looked at if you're curious too:
http://www.christmas.com/pe/1327

I have lots of emails to catch up on after a fun weekend, so I'm off to finish up for the day. I hope your week is getting off to a great start! Mine is :)

Data Recovered - Finally

What a week! In addition to work, there was the laptop going down on Monday - along with it being the last week of school for the children, temperatures dropping down into the teens, and holiday shopping & planning to do. I feel just a bit scattered this morning - LOL - normal I guess...

Nothing one more cup of coffee can't cure ;)

I called HP to speak with them about my laptop. The only option was to do a "system recovery", which would wipe all of my data and take the system back to factory specs. And if that didnt work, they would send me a new hard drive.

Fortunately, Paul was reading my blog, and emailed detailed instructions on how to remove the laptop hard drive, plug it in to my desktop system, and pull the data over.

Paul - I can't thank you enough for taking the time to do that!

Of course, my new Dell didnt have a place to hook it in, so I had to hook it in to my other desktop system (an older custom-built machine). Wouldnt fit... so I ran uptown and grabbed a converter kit, and I was in business. Then we enabled Networking and I was able to drag the data over to the computer I actually use.

Done. Data restored. WHEW :)

I had to do a lot of rearranging and cleaning here in the office - everything had to be moved to accomodate the "computer surgery", and of course dusted in the process. A good thorough back-up completed, too.

All in all, a successful recovery - and plenty more accomplished to boot!

Now that I have that behind me, we're working on the "system recovery" for the laptop. It will either boot to a fresh install, or HP will send me a replacement drive. Either is fine with me, now that I have my data :)

So it's back to work for me. A little catch-up, some re-organization of files, and I'm good to go! Fortunately, Albert is helping me out with the system recovery and working on reloading all of my programs to the laptop (fingers crossed he'll get that far) so that I can focus on catching up today.

It's nice to be back up and running! :)

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Spam Control

The past 24 hours has been SPAM HELL. I set my email up on my Dell desktop system, so that I could continue working until I decided what to do about the 'sick' laptop. I managed to get all seven email accounts set up and working - which meant remembering them all, and then remembering the passwords and set-up info (lol - after all of that running in the background for almost a year - you tend to forget the details!).

And then came the TIDAL WAVE of spam

Oh geez. I had forgotten about all of the rules and filters that I had spent so much time setting up. That perfect combination that kept my Inbox clean and viagra-free. *sigh*


Step One: Set up my spam arrest account. This little gem is a SAVE, as it requires confirmation from the sender before being delivered to my Inbox. All unconfirmed email (aka JUNK) sits on a remote server, which I can check if I like. I use spam arrest on the email account I've had for 5+ years - some clients still use it, but it's no longer my primary address... and it is the main source for spam emails. As in over a thousand a day! But like I said, a few clients do still contact me through this address, so this is the best solution.

Step Two: Set default email to "fail". Often, spammers will send out email to anything@yourdomain - because default email (email with no account already set up) generally forwards to your primary account. It's wise to set this up to go "into the blackhole" or to "fail" (which will cause it to bounce). This is a MAJOR source of junk mail with one of my email accounts, so this cuts out a lot of the clutter.

Step Three: Set up Rules or Filters. Right now I am using Outlook Express (yuck!) as that is what was installed on this system - and I didnt plan to be working here for long. If I decide to keep the email over here, I'll probably download Eudora. Anyway, for everything that sneaks through - I use "Rules" to filter it straight to the Deleted folder. I start with the basic list of "bad words" and anything to do with pharmacies and colleges, and then add to it as offensive messages arrive. I usually do a quick scan of these before a permanent delete, but this keeps the nasties out of my Inbox.


That covers all of the basics for me, and puts me in a good position to begin sorting through my legitimate email. Which, it turns out, is still A LOT.

On my laptop, I have 30-something directories set up for email to filter into automatically. Newsletters, updates... you name it. Obviously I dont have those set up in the "temporary" Inbox... so everything just piles right in together.

I had no idea I was still getting half of it. LOL. Hmm - time for a little maintenance! Newsletters that just dont hold my interest anymore - most of which have transformed from info to promo. Updates from sites I no longer frequent, etc. And too, this is forcing me to really trim down even further - and decide what I can live without.

This is a good thing. Getting organized, trimming out the extras - setting things up to run as efficiently as possible. I like that!


And... after sleeping on it, I decided I'll call HP this morning and have them walk me through using the Recovery Disks - or whatever they suggest to repair windows, but keep my data. I just bought this laptop 8-10 months ago, so it should still be under full warranty.

I need the data. I say that, but the truth is that most things can be recovered - with a little work. And what can't, probably doesnt need to be. With a really good memory, decent records, and an unorganized - yet useful - set of backups... I can certainly get by. But I do need to get the system back up and running at the very least - I miss my mobility!

Wish me luck ;)

Computer Crashed... Now What?

I had a great weekend. I laughed, played, worked, watched a great movie and ate junk food. Then I worked on a few things last night, played a quick game of Literati on Yahoo, and shut everything down... and of course, straightened my desk in preparation for Monday morning.

This morning, when I got to my desk and popped my laptop open, I got nothing. Nada. Wouldnt boot. Hmm. Tried again. No luck.

Ack!

It's not dead - it just wont load Windows. It gives me an error message about an 'unsuccessful attempt' and reverting to 'last known working configuration'. It won't boot normally, and it won't boot in safe mode. Lovely. ALL of my email, client data and work files are on the laptop - not to mention my entire contact database.

A back-up would be nice right about now, don't ya think? :-]

My most recent back-up is not recent enough. Lesson learned. Okay - so I just closed the laptop and turned around to the desktop. Five minutes later I had Outlook Express (yuck) configured and was back in business. Fortunately, I can remember most of my passwords - and even know who some of the emails were from that I received over the weekend, but didnt get a chance to respond to. So I'm not that far out from recovery. Besides, this is temporary - I'll get the laptop up and running again - or in the worst case, get the data transferred.

What's so odd about this whole situation is that I feel... well, at a loss for what to DO. Usually, Monday mornings are already laid out for me - all of my tasks are in my Inbox, and associated with the messages and files that I have there. Client updates, accounts that need my attention, messages to respond to, etc etc etc.

Now here I sit with a practically clean slate, and only 5 emails in my Inbox. It's WEIRD. As in, almost eerie. LOL

Anything urgent will find it's way back to me - and I intend to have my data back in my hands fairly quick, so I'm not going to stress over anything. Instead, I think I'll take this opportunity to finish up a few projects that I do have access to... which is enough to keep me busy this Monday morning.

And if I run out of things to do, I could always tear into this office and totally rearrange and organize it ;) Not to mention the accounting...

The timing is very ironic, but very very good. It's forcing me out of my normal routine... and steering me straight into my challenge. I'm off - I'm going to see just how many gallons of lemonade I can manage to get out of this lemon! ;)

The "Secret" Site

My new site (yes, my "secret" site *grin*) made two more sales this weekend... for a total of 8, now. I'm VERY pleased with this first month online, as the site isnt even finished - yet it's already converting visitors into buyers!

I was just looking at my stats, and noticed that two visitors arrived on the site from the same search phrase. When searched on Google, my page is in the #1 spot! The search was for a specific product on that page, and of course the search phrase (name of the product) was bolded in the description of my listing... very nice :)

Another of the pages was #12 on Google (that's #2 on the second page) for a search phrase that also brought in two new visitors. It's really interesting to grab these phrases out of your stats, and then do the search yourself to get an idea of what those searchers are seeing.

One thing I noticed is that most of the competing pages have terrible page titles. That is actually something I gave a lot of attention - doing my best to encourage a click by the Title alone. Fortunately, even though I'm working in a very competitive market... most of the competing sites are not owned by webmasters or internet marketers. I am sure they are experts on the topic itself, more so than I... but I still feel as if I have a huge advantage.

Copywriting and SEO are both great skills to learn in depth - but I'm finding more and more that "SEO Copywriting" is super-important. Because while you do want your keywords in the Title bar of your web page... you also want that title to be visually appealing to the people that are searching those terms. And you need it to entice them to click on YOUR page, rather than a competing page in the results!

Not always an easy combination - but taking the time to be creative and put some thought into it (yes - across hundreds of pages) - - can really pay off!

Anyway - I managed to get a whole slew of relevant inbound links this week... and we added 5 or 6 new sections to the site, which is probably around 50 new pages. I want to RULE the SERPs on this topic... and I plan to ;)

2005 - The Year of Opportunity

If you havent yet downloaded it, and read every single word... drop everything and go grab John Reese's latest issue of Marketing Secrets (PDF format - free):

http://www.marketingsecrets.com/120904.html

John talks about:

- the major shift in Internet Marketing
- who is going to rise to the top in 2005
- new challenges to expect in the coming year
- how to dominate a saturated market

... and A LOT more. This is one to print & save ;)

A Huge Dose of Motivation!

I'm on a mission to accomplish my little mini-challenge... and today, I got a huge dose of motivation! After reading Mike Litman's latest email, this couldn't have been more timely.

First, I'll have to let you in on a few details: I date The Pool Man. Yes, that's right - "single work-at-home-mom" doesnt mean "single woman". I've been seeing Albert for just over a year now, 14 months I think. He's tall, handsome, thoughtful and funny... and he's my best friend in the world.

Our first year was a tough one. And I dont say that lightly. Imagine a single, independent "barely 30" mother of two. Maybe a little too independent after almost 5 years alone, and definitely career-driven and very highly motivated. Throw in the fact that she's completely homebound with a 92yo Grandmother to care for full-time, and two children that have been her whole world for years.

That's me.

In walks The Pool Man. Easy going, very little responsibility, flexible work hours... and raised in a small town where most women - well, aren't like me. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not placing blame on either of us... I'm just saying that the first year was a *huge* adjustment for us both.

Through it all, though, we were absolutely mad about each other. And after finally giving up and throwing in the towel just before our first anniversary... we went out to celebrate anyway, and ended up having the time of our lives every single minute for two straight months afterwards.

Which brings us to today.

Albert invited me out to go measure a swimming pool with him. It's in the mid-30's here today with a light drizzle (brrr!), but the estimate was for a real estate company that needed a new liner put in the pool before they could sell the house.

I threw on some old jeans and a sweatshirt, and off we went. It wasn't far - maybe 10 minutes from town - but it was outside of town on a back road, and sitting on 4 acres.

After we got the measurements, I decided to take a look around. It was cold, but the location was fabulous... and I just couldn't help myself. It was a log home, and really reminded me of "lincoln logs" - green trim and all.

It was obvious they were doing some work on the outside. The lattice in the front needed to be replaced (one or two bad spots), and there was a fire burning out on the other side of the driveway... so they must have been doing some clean-up (not to mention the new liner for the pool).

The basement door was open, so I decided to take a peek inside... Nice garage. Also a bedroom added on to the ground floor (with 3 closets), and what appeared to be an office - complete with a built-in book case along one whole wall.

Hmm.

Up the stairs... which led to the main floor. Through the door and to the left was a living room with a high-ceiling. Beautiful light fixture. Hard wood floors... a fireplace. Gorgeous. Absolutely breathtakingly gorgeous.

I did a complete walk-through, taking in all of the features and counting the bedrooms and bathrooms in my mind as I went. The kitchen was somewhat small, but very nice - lots of cabinets... and a bar facing the dining room. In the dining room was a bay window overlooking the pool, and french doors that led out to the wrap-around porch.

Two bedrooms on the main floor - both were nice. One larger than the other. And then I went on up to the 3rd floor... which is where I fell IN LOVE with the place. Upstairs was one master bedroom, with a huge walk-in closet (complete with built-in shoe racks and shelving!)... and a bath with double sinks and a jacuzzi tub :)

There was also a small "loft room" with modem connections upstairs - obviously a private little spot for a small desk and personal computer.

Through the whole walk-through, I could envision living in that house - seeing my children in the pool from my kitchen. A big cushy couch in front of the fireplace in that living room... setting up my computers in the huge office downstairs with the built-in bookcases (and fireplace, too, I should add)...

{sigh} It was Incredible!

I told Albert to get a price on the place - before they finished fixing it up. All of the work is being done on the outside, and I imagine it would really inflate the price. So he made the call when we returned, to get an "as is" price.

Unfortunately, they didnt have the price yet - they were still waiting on the deal to go through on their end. But she did take his number, and assured him it would be "considerably less than $200k" :)

Even if it's not this house, there are plenty of others... and the seed has definitely been planted in my mind. I'm 31, going on 32, and I'm ready to buy my own house and "settle down". I'd like to settle into a home that I can work from, raise my children in, and know that it's the place I'll be staying. For as long as I want to be there.

All of this just got me more motivated to work on things here at home! While it would be easy to up and move and "start fresh" in a new home - and as tempting and exciting as that would be - I am (and always have been) of the mindset that "you can't have *more* until you take care of what you have *now*".

I feel very strongly about this, and this is how I've raised my children. You can't have new toys if you can't take care of the toys you already have. It just makes sense.

So I'm setting out to "prove myself worthy" of a new home. My own house. First... I have to get this one in good shape - organized, fixed up... you name it. Next, I have to set aside some money. Enough for a good downpayment - which is going to take some saving.

And I'm going to want new furniture, of course - furniture that matches a beautiful new home :) Who wouldn't?!

So this means a step-up in my income, and a serious saving plan. On top of a more organized home, with less clutter and with everything in it's place. It's time to streamline, automate, outsource... and work hard.

I can see myself in this home. I can feel it. And this is definitely giving me that "sense of urgency" from which to work. Having a goal this big - a reward this rewarding - dangling in front of my nose really motivates me!

So this is it. I am going to ATTACK all of my mini-goals and put myself in a position to buy my own home in 2005. Period.

I can do this. I feel good about this. And I absolutely cant wait to make that move!

(and if the opportunity comes up for me to get into this particular house - sooner than expected - I will bust my ass to MAKE it happen!)

A BIG Secret Of Successful People

Talk about timely! The latest from Mike Litman:

-------------------------

Hey Lynn!

It's Friday at 4:47pm EST and I want to share with you a 'secret' of mine that has helped me live my dreams at 30 years old.

This 'secret of success' is one I've learned throughout the years from mentors of mine.

A few of these people run businesses that do over 150 million dollars a year in revenue.

Here's the deal.

Most people and (I used to be like this) for 7 plus years are very passive.

They're always passive at their jobs.

They go for their dreams very 'safely'.

They 'La De Da'' through life.

They 'hope' something good happens.


>From my experience, this is not the right attitude for success. ‘No way, Jose'.

Let me share with you an ACTION of success.

Let me share with you a PERSPECTIVE of success that I've seen through people who are living their dreams, both personally and financially.

**Successful people ACT from a sense of URGENCY.

Let me say that again.

**Successful people ACT from a sense of URGENCY.

There's an URGENCY to accomplish tasks.

There's an URGENCY to live their dreams.

There's an URGENCY to get things done.

They're ATTACKING vs. WAITING.

Big difference.

Huge difference.

You have to go to dreams with a SENSE OF URGENCY.

None of us are going to live ‘till 150 years old.

You have to ignite that part of you that can CATAPULT you to GREATER productivity and ACTION.

Ask yourself:

If I was going to act from a sense of URGENCY, what 2 actions would I take today?

Write them down and then DO IT.

Come on, YOU can do more than you EXPECT of yourself.

GRAB a copy of 'The Power of Concentration Success System' because it will help you CREATE this mindset for you to SUCCEED.

http://www.powerofconcentration.net/

You can do it.

YES, you can!

Are you ready or really ready to make your next 7 days awesome?

I thought so, let's go!

Have a GREAT weekend and never give up on your dreams! (It took me 7 years to find my focus, it's not over until you quit).

Talk to you soon.

Mike Litman

P.S. If you haven't grabbed this system of mine to help you, I'm not sure what you're waiting for :} You grab it for 'peanuts' and with the 30 day training, you'll see huge changes in your life. Financially as well.

And there's more.

Sprint here and grab it, you'll have it in your hands next week.
http://www.powerofconcentration.net/


Have a great weekend! ~ Lynn

A Clean Slate For '05

I woke up this morning and just *knew* my decision on how I want to close out this year and begin the new one. I was up in the air on that earlier this week - undecided about if I really wanted to kick it into high gear and accomplish some business goals, or just enjoy the holidays and glide through these last few weeks...

It's a personal choice kinda thing - I dont want to push myself past my limits, or create any unnecessary stress. Especially not during the holidays. But at the same time, I was starting to get fidgety and really felt like I needed to get myself prepared to kick off 2005 on the right foot.

So here's what I decided: For the next 3 weeks I am going to focus on organizing, streamlining and rearranging - everything!

And I mean *everything* :) From my physical desktop to my three 'virtual desktops', cleaning out the refrigerator, rearranging my office, getting the accounting in order for the year, having the carpet cleaned, updating my address book - you name it. The challenge is ON!

Of course, I will still work towards my business goals and maintain my 'usual' routine, but in all of my spare time I will work towards getting completely organized... and be ready to kick off 2005 with a clean slate!

It's really amazing what can pile up on you in a years time. Accounting (ack!). And you should see my address book - I've stuck so many business cards and pieces of paper in it, that I had to give up and chuck it all in a file in my drawer to keep it together! My desktop(s) - um, it's really, really bad (LOL). I call it my "organized mess".

As for my computer, you can't even SEE the desktop anymore for all of the icons! And the rest of the house... well, every room seems to have its 'corner' - and I'm just in the mood to turn this place upside down :)

This is going to feel GOOD - and make my life so much easier once it's accomplished. And there's nothing I like better than a well-deserved sense of accomplishment!

I'm not going to waste any time prioritizing, or planning - I'm just going to dig in, and make a concentrated effort towards my goal every single day for the next 3 weeks...

Super Verbs In Your Copy

I was just reading Karon Thackston's latest issue of Business Essentials Ezine, in which she talked about using "Super Verbs" (versus just plain old verbs) in your copy. Some of the examples she gave were:

Accent - emphasize, underscore
Break - smash, crush, demolish
Eat - consume, devour, feast
Forgive - pardon, excuse, overlook
Hate - detest, loathe, despise
Imagine - envision, conjure, conceptualize
Improve - enhance, refine, perfect
Jump - leap, lunge, bound
Learn - discover, grasp, comprehend
Like - admire, adore, cherish, delight in
Make - create, engineer, design
Promise - vow, swear
Reveal - manifest, unveil, disclose


This is GOOD stuff... certainly gets the creativity flowing, doesn't it? It's a well known fact that using Verbs in your titles and headlines works much better than using Nouns, so it makes sense that these "Super Verbs" could really engage your readers throughout your copy!

Karen has a great little guide titled How to Increase Keyword Saturation Without Destroying the Flow of Your Copy. I've also read her SEO Copywriting course - and both were really impressive. I particularly liked her Guide on Keyword Saturation (aka Keyword Density) as it teaches some very creative ways to include your keyword phrases within your copy without sounding "odd".

Like I said, I find her work to be very impressive. You should definitely get signed up for her free Ezine, at the very least ;)

The Tortoise And The Hare

In the classic children's story we're taught that "slow and steady wins the race"... and for some reason this has been on my mind for the last couple of days as I have been going over my business & marketing plans.

I have a couple of lingering goals, still on the task list, and I'm trying to decide if I really want to kick things into high gear and end 2004 with a BANG... or just continue to work steadily towards those goals. I'm actually making great progress in several different areas, and still have plenty of free time on my hands to enjoy the holidays - so I'm not sure I want to mess with that balance.

On the other hand, I'm itching to really jump ahead. I think it's just the fact that I know I CAN, or maybe I'm just up for another good challenge... Maybe I'll just take it one day at a time and go with the flow - see how I feel. It may just be that I can squeeze in a few extra things here and there ;)

As for the new site, Yahoo! Slurp and MSN Bot are finally making their way over to crawl. It looks like a total of 7 visits between the two in the last couple of days. All three engines now have my feed listed, and Google is showing a total of 79 pages indexed. I think we've added 30-something pages to the site this week, and of course I'm updating the Product Feed daily.

Things are moving along very well there. Still only 6 sales to report, but I'm happy with this first month so far.

I have a programmer looking into my software project - finally :) We spoke several weeks ago, and this is a project I don't want to rush, so I'll wait until I hear more from him before doing anything else with it. I already have the domains registered, the pricing worked out, and an outline of the sales copy...

I have the revamp of the entire SSWT site that I am working on, and to tell you the truth - I am sitting idle on that project. This is one I'd really like to get completed, so I may work a good 30-60 minutes towards this project into my morning routine. Honestly, I think I just got sidetracked with the new site, the holidays, and the projects I was completing for my clients.

No worries - I'll get back on it, and probably have it running live by New Years ;)

I guess more than anything I'm just thinking out loud here... trying to organize and prioritize and figure out how I want to end this year. It's been SUCH a good one - in so many ways. Maybe I should just take it easy and glide through these last few weeks... and then really hit 2005 wide open.

After all, there's no real race here - and no way to lose. I like that!

So maybe I'll just wake up tomorrow and see how I feel - and go from there...

Man, I love being in control :)

Queen for a Day

I am in absolute HEAVEN right now, and I'll tell you why:



^ This is what arrived by Fed Ex this morning :) :)

Inside were "six gourmet chocolate dipped strawberries, two divine cookies and four exquisite hand decorated truffles" from Shari's Berries. OH MY GOSH - you would not believe how GOOD this stuff is! Everything about it is absolutely beautiful - right down to the gold metallic packaging! And the chocolate.... mmmmmmmmmm

A huge THANK YOU to Shari Speer for this thoughtful gift! It was a big surprise, and it really made my day :)


(a candy bar will *never* be the same! :p )

Hi Mom!

Let me just clarify upfront - this is not one of Gary Halbert's assignments (LOL). If you missed his Teleseminar with Michel Fortin earlier this week, you can listen in at: http://www.askgaryhalbert.com/seminar.htm .

A word of warning: If you have children around, use headphones!


Actually, I just wanted to say "Hi Mom" - literally! When I talked to my mother on Friday, she told me that she reads my Blog. And I have to tell you... that really made my day :)

So Mom, if you're reading along, I just wanted to say THANK YOU for supporting me in everything that I am working towards!!

The Sales Continue...

There were two more sales on the new site this evening. Let's see - that makes a total of 5 now, right? This last one was the biggest yet, which is good because commission is a percentage of the sale ;)

So far this weekend we've added one new section (11 pages), and gained 3 more Inbound Links. I say "we" as I have some help in the office this weekend - admittedly, a lot of playing and just a little working. *grin*

Anyway, I'm planning to get another whole section added this evening, and work on more Inbound Links. I am working my way down both the internet directories and RSS directories at the moment.

Counting the sales on this new site is fun for now... but I look forward to when they are less of a trickle, and more of a flow. I am feeling really good about this project - confident that the site will do well in the coming year.

Weekend Success Tip

Mike Litman always sends out the most profound messages with such timely information. I have never opened an email from him that didnt totally blow me away! Check out his latest:


A Success Tip For The Weekend

Hope you had an AWESOME week!

I want to share a quick tip with you. I had one of my coaching clients come to town today and we had lunch.

He was asking me how I’ve been consistently able to build myself and my business.

I thought it was a solid question and I thought about it for a few minutes.

Here’s the answer I gave him.

I make MORE decisions than most people.

Let me explain.

Your next level in your life is always preceded by a decision.

Usually, this decision is a stretch and is uncomfortable, but it needs to be done.

I’m going to talk more about this in an upcoming newsletter, but most people are too indecisive for massive success.

When you’re indecisive, you end up talking about the same stuff for months, sometimes longer. You need to always be UPGRADING YOUR CONVERSATION.

How do you do this?

When you make a decisive to stretch yourself, with it a new conversation begins.

Here’s an example:

Bob wants to set up a website. He’s been talking about it for 6 months.

Sam wants to set up a website. He understands that he doesn’t have to get it right, he just has to get it going - and his site is up in 7 days. Now, Sam UPGRADES his conversation. No longer does he have to talk about setting up a site, now he talks about getting visitors to his site, making money with his site, etc…

Bob is still talking about his site.

The more proactive decisions you make in your life and business, the more you’ll grow and the more money you’ll make.

I’ll go into more depth with this in an upcoming ezine because it’s so important to your success.

Have a GREAT weekend and let’s make the rest of December AWESOME!

Mike Litman

----------------

*You can get on Mike Litman's mailing list by ordering his Free 60-minute CD, which comes with a copy of his best-selling book "Conversations with Millionaires". (Only $6 s/h) Excellent stuff!

Best Internet Directories

This is a great (must-see) article for those of you that are hunting those Inbound Links:

http://www.accordmarketing.com/tid/articles/best-internet-directories.html

There are some great resources included, so hopefully this will be a big help to you in establishing a good handful of links back to your sites!

A Quick Update

This is just a quick update on the new site I am working on, for those of you following along. I was looking over my stats this evening, and found that there have been a total of 672 "visits" to the site. Obviously a few of those would be me :}

According to my stats program, most of these are 'uniques' - a visitor may be counted twice, though, if they visit again after the 'timeout period' (which is set to half an hour). So certainly over the last few weeks, I could account for a handful of those 672 visits.

I could probably guess that around 72 of those visits were me, as I've been working on the site and double-checking the pages online after each update. Possibly more, but we'll go with that to make the math easy. Considering there have been 3 sales, that would amount to a .5% (half a percent) conversion rate.

Not so great, but the stats are skewed, and more time will tell truer numbers...

The good news is that Google has indexed even more of the pages - 78 pages, now, to be exact. Very exciting! While I was looking at my stats, I clicked over to see the search terms that visitors are using to find my pages. One of those search terms was a 6-word phrase, that included 3 "stop words". My page ranked #21 for that phrase, which is the #1 spot on page three of the results...

Not top ten, but obviously good enough to get the click ;)

I added the 9 new pages the other night that I mentioned in a previous post, and added a couple of new posts to the 'product feed' (RSS) this morning.

This evening I submitted the product feed to Yahoo!'s news section at: http://add.yahoo.com/fast/help/us/news/cgi_feedback/ (I didnt realize you could submit RSS Feeds manually to Yahoo - thanks to Paul Short for sharing that with me!)

... But, the pages still aren't indexed by Yahoo or MSN. Is there any way to speed up this process?

Great 2-Tier Affiliate Program

I just located another great 2-tier Affiliate Program. I really love these - and for two reasons:

1) You can recruit 2nd Tier affiliates and earn $$

and 2) If one of your visitors decides to join the program and then order through their own affiliate link... you still earn a commission for the referral!

The affiliate program is for Online Marketing Secrets Uncovered, and is a not an ebook - but a big package that is shipped out! I would compare this to Traffic Secrets, except much less expensive ;) In fact, it may be a great promotion for you to offer to those that were interested in TS, but not willing to fork out the thousand bucks.

It comes with a 3-ring binder containing the Step-by-Step Guide, a spiral bound manual and four separate CDs... delivered right to your front door via Fed Ex.

Click here: Online Marketing Secrets Uncovered, and then scroll all the way down to the bottom of the sales letter, and click the "affiliate program" link.

Just above that link, you'll see an opt-in box where you can join their mailing list - I highly recommend it! What you'll get is a collection of highly detailed case studies on very successful (and well-known) people. The first of which was a case study on Mike Litman!

In their first email, I read about the day that Mike Litman *became* a #1 best-selling author, and also how he generated over $31,000 in sales in just 24 hours!

So there you have it - a great new affiliate program, and a load of really cool Case Studies!

Enjoy ;)

Wouldn't It Be Fun?

The car was frosted over when I went out to take the children to school this morning... so I guess winter really is about to set in. The weather has been so nice up until now, that it was hard to believe that Christmas was only a few short weeks away. But this little cold snap really did it's job of getting me in the mood ;)

The weather here in Tennessee is actually very mild, so "winter" is only around for maybe 6-12 weeks, with two or three good snows. And this cold spell is really just a fake, as it won't turn cold here for another month (give or take).

Still, it's time to pull out those winter coats while I'm locating the Christmas decorations... and turn the house upside down for the change of season. Even though this only has to be done twice a year, it's something I really dread. It would be nice if you could have a "winter closet" and a "summer closet" and then just push a button and they would rotate :p

All that aside, I'm really looking forward to the holidays. This year my son is going to his father's, and my daughter will most likely go to her grandmother's (on her father's side) to celebrate with all of her cousins and aunts and uncles. I'm always flexible, so that they can spend time with family they dont get to see so often, so this year we are going to celebrate Christmas together on New Years.

We've done this before, and it's quite fun! You get to stay up late to ring in the New Year - lots of fun, games & snacks... and the countdown, of course. And then wake up and open presents the next morning, followed by a big family dinner in the formal dining room.

Since the kids probably won't be home on Christmas Eve, I am planning to go with Albert to deliver gifts for a few hours that evening. He told me just last week that they were calling for volunteers, and that's something I've always wanted to do -but never had the opportunity. Even if my daughter decides to stay home, I know she would enjoy doing this with us - so it should be fun, regardless ;)

And then - well, you know what happens right after Christmas, right? Yes... everything goes on sale!! Not just a little sale... but almost all of the merchandise is marked waaay down :) And that is when I plan to do my Christmas shopping ;) LOL - cool, huh? Definitely one of the better perks to my combo-holiday plans!

I think I'm going to have to get the tree up, and put on some holiday music, before I can really get in the mood to sit down and finish my Christmas Cards. I absolutely love to send them, and of course I really love to receive them!

I'll tell you what - I won't even hint around about this, I'll just tell you straight out. My mailing address is printed at the bottom of every newsletter issue that I send out... so since you have it, I would really love to get a card from YOU! And if you would be kind enough to send me your mailing address, I would really love to send you a little holiday cheer from ME :)

Just to make it easy, here's everything all in one spot:

My email address is Lynn@SelfStartersWeeklyTips.com

And my mailing address is:

Lynn Terry
109 Rebel Hill Street
McMinnville, TN 37110


Wouldn't it be fun? I think so :)

Google Sends Buyers

My newest site is still not indexed by Yahoo or MSN, but Google is obviously sending buyers my way as the 3rd sale was recorded today!

They are showing 46 pages of the 100+ page site indexed so far. According to my stats all of the visitors are finding their way to the site by using obscure (detailed 3-4+ word) phrases. This is good - this is the type of searcher I was hoping to reach ;)

I landed a new Inbound Link today from a highly relevant website, and am in the process of adding a new section to the site (9 new pages). I should have that done before the night is out.

So far, so good!