Tuesday, December 30, 2008

What is Your New Year's Resolution?


As the ball drops
and the seconds count down to the New Year,
do you know what you
New Year's Resolutions are?
It is said,
'how you prepare to ring
in the New Year,
sets the tone for the whole year'.
My resolution is
'to become better organized'
so that I can get
more done...
and thus..
make more money!
Here's a pretty good
article...that fits well with my
plans.

Friday, December 26, 2008

Weekly Update

I wanted to give a quick update on the projects I have
already started and let you know the latest results.
1. Odesk -- Still have yet to get an interview from the jobs I've applied and am well qualified to do. I have a feeling that, unless I lower my hourly wage, I probably won't get any interviews through this outlet. Since I don't want to commit to writing 100 articles for $25.00, (or something equally as obscene) I'm not going to lower my minimum hourly.
2. Surveys -- I have received about a survey a day from Vindale and have only made $2.00 in the past two weeks. Had I been willing to do surveys "credit card required" I had the opportunity, in that same time period, to do about $75.00 worth of surveys. I was just reluctant to get any charges that would have been difficult to reverse.

Thursday, December 25, 2008

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Niche Marketing

And...part 4 of my experiment...Niche Marketing.

Monday, December 22, 2008

Long Tailed Treasure

I am posting the only video I could find on Part 3, "Long Tailed Treasure", of my experiment.

Sunday, December 21, 2008

Bum Marketing

Part 2 of my Experiment is
"Bum Marketing"
Here is a brief overview via
You Tube.

Saturday, December 20, 2008

One Week Marketing

I don't know if any of you will find this
You Tube video for
"One Week Marketing'
of any help or not.
It is a program put together by
Pot Pie Girl
so I thought I'd share it
in the conclusion of
Part 1 of my Experiment.

Friday, December 19, 2008

How is Part 1 of the Experiment Going?


I've received several emails
to complete surveys, but only one
that was an actual cash offer, with no credit card required.
As I said...I personally steer clear of any that
require a credit card, because I don't want
to have to do an 'offer' that takes my
credit card information...that I have to cancel
within the trial period.
Something might come up...I might forget...
after the 'Project Payday' sign-up...
I just don't "go there".
The other offers were points toward cash and prizes...
again...I can't afford to give up 30 minutes
for points that just never seem to 'add' up.
To date....I have made $2.00 on Part 1 of my experiment.
I was supposed to get $2.00 for filling out my personal
information...but, that has never shown up.
I will continue to do the surveys...that meet my guidelines...
and we'll see if I ever meet the payout amount.
I have done a new Squidoo lens...I'll now do all
of the steps suggested to see how it goes.
I'll start on part 2 of my Experiment
after Christmas...I hope.

Thursday, December 18, 2008

A few notes...




I am going for programs that

are free or very low cost...of which Micro Niche Finder is neither...

however...

while it is possible to find the

information on your own, that the Micro Niche Finder offers,

it really would take weeks, months and maybe longer,

depending on the time you have available for

the research.

This tool costs less than $100

but, I still chose to show it to you because,

I think the time it saves,

and the opportunities it presents,

will more than pay for itself

in a very short period of time.

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Micro Niche Finder - Parts 4 and 5

Here are the last two videos in the 'Micro Niche Finder' series. If you haven't already seen the first three videos, go down to the two posts previous and watch them in order. They'll make more sense I think.




Micro Niche Finder - Parts 2 and 3

Here are the next two videos...in the Micro Niche Finder study.



LONG TAIL KEYWORDS

INTERNET MARKET RESEARCH


Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Micro Niche Marketing


It's difficult to know where to begin when first going
into any kind of work at home programs. What is real and what isn't.

The world of niche marketing is full of opportunity!
Choosing a carefully pinpointed niche market should be one of the first steps
that an internet business owner has to take.
A very common way of describing a niche market is,
a targeted group of individuals with very specific and similar needs or interests.
These people engage in similar activities and hence,
they would most probably demand the same goods or services to cater to their needs.
As I have shown in the picture at the beginning of this post,
there is a large circle...consider that the large department stores, magazine,
or whatever your area of interest lie...
it 'caters' to most of our needs...but usually not all...
that is where 'niche' marketing comes in.
You find that area that isn't being covered
and you cover it.
And, the little circles inside the larger circles...are gaps
in the market that can be covered yet again by smaller niche markets.
For instance...let's say you are really into herbs for healing.
You have the large chain stores that cater to the larger markets...
but you want to market 'the every herb cookbook'...
there's a niche....
now, within the cookbook niche...
you see that you might find a market for
consumers to 'grow their own herbs' for cooking...
so you come up with a
'herb gardening kit'.
Well...you get the picture...it's just an example and
I hope it served the purpose of explaining the niches that are
out there...and how they can be filled.
I have run across a tool that I want to share with you.
It is the

Micro Niche Finder is an indespensible tool to online marketing.
The program is simple and easy and comes with good training videos.
Micro Niche Finder is a great keyword research and keyword analysis tool, to find those all important keywords needed to perform optimization on your web pages.
While many marketing gurus recommend that you choose a topic
in which you have experience or interest in it is not really a requirement,
especially with the Micro Niche Finder.
Micro Niche Finder is a software which helps you to uncover profitable niches
you would never even think of.
There is a pretty good set of videos that explains
this tool quite well. Five videos total and I'll share the first
video here, with the others to follow.

Monday, December 15, 2008

How To Make Money Online -- Part 4

Build a Lens.
Head on over to Squidoo
and build your first lens.
The link I provided above is to the lens
"What is Squidoo - And What Can Squidoo Do For You?"
by PotPieGirl.
Just a few of the topics covered in this lens...
1. Can You Make Money With Squidoo?
2. What Are the Benefits of Squidoo?
3. Can Squidoo Help My Online Business?
4. I don't know How to Squidoo!
5. Squidoo Lenses For Sale
I will be honest with you. I do have ten lenses
that I haven't paid nearly enough attention to...
it's my problem with my
"Internet Attention Deficit Disorder"
Now that I'm a little more focused, I will be
giving my lenses far more attention as well as,
building new lenses.
I had gotten one lens into the top 100 in the
Arts category...good for traffic...which translates into money.
It's since fallen completely out, but I know
with a little love and attention I can get most of my lenses
more attention.
I do like this site...I personally just need to do better by it!

Sunday, December 14, 2008

How to Make Money Online - Part 3

Part 3...are some
'Do's and Don'ts'
1. Don't use your primary email address when signing up
for these programs, unless you don't mind your inbox
filling up with all kinds of ads and offers.
I've got an email address that I've set up JUST
for these kinds of programs.
I got it free through Yahoo.
2. Any offer that asks for "cellphone number only"...you
might want to avoid.
Sometimes they will put a monthly charge on your phone bill.
Easy to cancel, but I personally, don't want the aggrevation.
3. Don't 'Pay' Money to Make Money.
If it's not 100% free, then you might want
to avoid it.
4. Forums...If the sites have a forum...
visit it..daily if possible..
and participate.
You can find all kinds of
valuable sources and resources
on forums.

How To Make Money Online - Part 2


Part 2 does go
'hand in hand' with part 1.
It deals with referring other
people to the Survey Sites that I listed.
The Vindale Link I posted in Part 1
is actually a 'referral link'.
For every person that clicks on that link,
signs up at Vindale
and completes, at least, one survey...
I earn $5.00.
Take that times the number of people
who click the link, signs up, completes one survery
and I earn $5.00 for each one,
without really doing anything but,
1. signing up myself
2. including the link in this blog
I could sign up for all sorts of programs,
get my own referral code/link,
and receive money for everyone who
signed up through those links.
It sounds pretty easy...but, it will
take time.
But, that is Part 2...in a nutshell.

Saturday, December 13, 2008

How To Make Money Online


In all of the research I've been doing, I've contracted
Internet Attention Deficit Disorder...
I'm going along, researching, reading, and all of that...
the material I'm reading refers to (yet another) program
and I click onto the link and find myself immersed
in still more information.
Information OVERLOAD!
I only mention this as a 'word of caution'...I know
I make more sales from my online shops
when I direct my attention toward them, instead of
searching the site to see what else is out there...thus forgetting to
tend to my own shops until long after the best hours
for listing and relisting have passed.
It's the same with other forms of
Work At Home Online Programs. It takes focus to make money.
With that said...
and what I've learned from all of the material
I've researched from PotPieGirl...I'll start with the basics.
"How To Make Money Online".
=================
Per her suggestion...I am going to sign up
with a couple of online survey groups...
they are
This is the information I got from this group:

We will invite you to try a new product or visit a popular web site.
There are typically new opportunities every week.

If you are interested, you can request the product or visit the web site
and follow the evaluation steps. We will provide you with detailed steps on what to do
and what to evaluate.

After evaluating the product or web site,
we will invite you to fill out a simple online survey.
This is where you share your experience and tell us
how effective the product or web site was.
Your answers are completely anonymous.

We will add money to your Vindale account.
Every survey is worth real money, not points.
Typically, payment is between $5 and $75 per survey depending
on difficulty level and availability.
Every time your account reaches $50, we will send you payment.
When you sign up, you'll be able to earn $2.00 just for
filling in the information about yourself
and they have links to other
survey sites, if you think this is something you would
like to do.
The other survey site is
Since I signed up with them by going
through Vindale, I was taken to a page
that I filled out and then a survey for prizes.
I won't do many surveys to enter into contest for prizes,
I just don't have the time. We'll see what each
site sends me
and I'll post updates as they do.

Before the Experiment Begins


Before I began this experiment, I knew I needed to
set up this blog...as a "landing page".
I need to note what it is I am doing
in order to monitor the results of the experiment.
Please note, I may end up continuing to work one...maybe even all
of the programs I've selected...I know I need
more income
and I suspect that if you are following this
blog, that you do to.
Now that this blog is up and operational,
I've joined
BlogCatalog,
started making friends and joined 7 groups.
Unlike the other blogs I've been
writing...some for several years now...
I have been more selective in the groups I'm joining
and the friends I am adding (I'm adding 6 a day).
In the beginning, I am looking for groups, in which the members are
active and serious about the networking they are doing..
the same with friends.
People and groups with like minded interests.
Because I am being so careful in these selections,
it's taking a lot longer,
but I think it will be well worth it
in the long run.

Thursday, December 11, 2008

My 'Project PayDay' Mini Experiment



Originally, I was going to include Project Payday as one of the four programs in my main experiment.

I signed up, completed the 'offer', so I could get the Project Payday program for free. That ended up costing me $1.97 to pay for shipping for the 'offer', which I am still waiting to receive. Since, I had never completed any 'offers' before, I ended up signing up for two offers, instead of just the one, without even realizing it.

So then, I get two emails...one from each offer...stating that one of the 'offers' would be taking $39.95 every month out of my PayPal for their subscription. The other 'offer' would be taking $9.95 every month...oh my gosh...I signed up to have $50.00 a month to come out of my PayPal for programs I was only 1 to 10% interested in to begin with....I don't think so!

To be honest, I signed up for the PayDay program after reading a lot of great reviews, saying I would make anywhere from $50 to $250 within the first twenty four hours of signing up. And, I NEEDED the money!

Well....briefly speaking, to make the money I would have to sign up with traders who needed me to go out and complete 'offers'...just like the ones I'd completed to get into the program...when I completed so many, I would get paid from the traders ... provided I had done everything right. I needed to delete cookies, allow pop ups (and leave all pop ups open for at least five minutes), make sure I had all of my information correct (the slightest mistake would disqualify you and possibly get you banned.)

All I could see was my computer filling up with adware and spyware, slowing it up to the point that it wouldn't even run anymore.

Even then, I wasn't completely disuaded...but, I learned that in completely the offers, I had to use a credit card or a bank debit card...I could not use my PayPal card. To be honest, I find my PayPal card the safest form of payment I have.

If you don't take PayPal...then I don't do your program. That's my rule.

Oh yeah, I also called and cancelled those subscriptions...if they end up trying to get the money anyway, I will file a dispute with PayPal.

I wished I could find a "BBB" for internet businesses...maybe there is one, I'll have to research it!

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

About the experiment



My 30 day work at home programs experiment.
I am going to follow the FREE steps given for FOUR 'make money online' Programs.

A. PotPieGirl Programs

B. Bum Marketing

C. Long Tail Treasure

D. Niche Marketing Websites


Since I will be starting in mid December it will probably end up more like 45 days (because of the holidays), but I will be recording everything here on this blog, so you can read about it, or try it yourself if you like.
I decided to start now, instead of waiting until after the first of the year, because I need to make money from one, or all, of these programs...as soon as possible.

So, I'm keeping a positive attitude that these are viable programs that I can share with you all.

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Don't Fall for the "Such and Such is A Scam" Sites


I'm sure you've seen them..."'Such and Such Work At Home Program is a Scam'"..."don't sign up until you read this". They're out there, all over the place. Literally every single program I investigated had several sites out there with pretty much this same wording...substituting the 'Such and Such Work At Home Program' with the name of the actual program, of course.
Perhaps there really are some sites that are 'uncovering such programs as scams'...I've yet to find one that doesn't end up redirecting you to, either the program itself, or their own site 'so you can sign up for that program from there'.
I'm not saying that this is a sign that these programs aren't legitimate or valid...in fact, many of them look like something I would even be interested in...I'm just saying that the site is put up by someone wanting an affiliate sale for this program. There's nothing wrong with it...I guess. It's just that I've been 'misled' more than once, by clicking into these sites.
In some cases, I might go with a 'back door approach'. But, for some reason, I would have a problem signing up with the program through one of these sites. I'm not sure why, but it just bothers me. Maybe it's that 'you told me my shoes were untied, when they weren't'...then you said, "ha, ha...I got you to look."

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Is oDesk a real way to Work From Home?


I have signed up for oDesk, taken the tests, downloaded the monitoring software and applied for the jobs.
To date....no interviews, no bites, no favorites....nothing.
The jobs I have applied for...article writing (3), blog writing (2), fast turnaround content writer, graphic illustrator, and personal assistant (2).
All are jobs I am fully qualified to do and I think I'm a pretty fast and very thorough worker. But, I haven't gotten a nibble.
I decided to check the other candidates that had posted for the same jobs...a few were over qualified, some had similar qualifications, but most of the other candidates wanted far less money per hour than I listed (and I was using the median average of other jobs I have held and reducing that by 25%.)
I noticed there were quite a few providers, that had worked quite a bit, whose hourly rate was less than $1.50...some as low as 44 cents an hour. If you can work for that and make any kind of living, (though I think that only those workers who live in countries with lower costs of living would be able to make any kind of living at these wages), I know I can't pay many bills on those wages though.
Since I've yet to be hired, I can't honestly comment on what the work is like. I am going to keep trying to get a few jobs so that I can give an honest evaluation of this company.

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Are there really any viable Work At Home Programs?




I think I am like a lot of folks out there...I run out of money before I run out of month. I have to decide, usually based on what is fixing to be shut off first, who is going to get paid and who is going to have to wait. I have lived like this most of my life. And, quite frankly, I'm tired of it.
I'm far too young to just 'throw in the towel' and apply for assistance and far too old to put up with nonsense and scams. But, in order to sort out the good from the, 'not so good', I'll have to check out everything that, at least, looks like it might be viable.


Throughout my life I have been 'scammed' more than once, by work at home programs that seemed to be on the 'up and up'. I've done the assembly at home work, MLM and me have NEVER gotten along well. I've joined sooo many programs, based on excellent products, but impossible for the 'average Jane' to work.



I have already 'signed up' for a couple of programs, so that I can look into them further. They are, "Project Payday" and "oDesk".

I will let you know my findings as soon as I have more information.

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Work Hard For The Money


In today's economy, most people don't feel that they have the job security of spending the next 20 plus years with companies that appear financially solvent. If they really do have the finances, perhaps they are outsourcing many of their jobs to countries with less competitive wages. I know that the major insurance company I retired from is now outsourcing entire segments of their work force to countries that may not even offer their product. That means, fewer and fewer positions that can be filled by people who live in the states and cities this company have offices in. The company makes no apologies, after all.... It's about, economics.


Having the freedom of working from home, when the attitudes of so many of our corporate giants have cooled toward local workforce, looks more appealing every day. We have to be careful though, or we risk signing up with a program that promises the moon, takes our money and delivers little more than a nicely packaged packet of recycled materials, much of what we could get for free if we spent a little time researching on the internet.


I, personally, am staying away from the programs that promise returns that are just "too good to be true". Instead, I'm researching those programs which show more believable results and promise that I am going to have to "work hard for the money". These are programs that appear, on the surface, to be viable and practical. Certainly I wouldn't reject the possibility of, one day, being rich...who would??? But, I'm in a position that I need, realistic income, from hard work on a consistent basis. And, I don't have much money to invest in programs that might save me half the time for twice the results. Truth is, I've invested so much in my lifetime, that I've become a little skeptical and very reluctant.

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

What Is Your Brand?


What do you think comes to other people's mind when they think about you?
Is it positive, negative or indifferent?
Is it anything you've ever thought about before?
It's pretty important, that we develop and manage our own image, otherwise, we've opened the door and invited others to do this for us
and we lose control of how we are perceived by others.
The business of creating and managing ourselves and our image is called personal branding.
A brand is the relationship or perception something, or someone, holds in the mind of others, most often the consumer.
For example, when you think of Rolls Royce, what comes to your mind?
I would answer "top of the line" and "success".
A brand translates our unique 'salespitch', or what separates us from the competition.
If only to yourself, it should be a brief, memorable statement that identifies you to your audience.
It is important to remember that you don't go through life with just one Personal Brand. Depending on what you're communicating or selling and to whom, you can identify and communicate a Personal Brand that is right for each particular situation.
My 'brand' is much different when dealing with my local gallery representative, than it is when dealing directly with online collectors.
Write a brief (about 100 word)
statement about yourself,
who you are,
what you do (or sell).
What you WANT your brand to be!
Need more help?

Ready 2 Go




This blog is about
work at home program
that actually work.
At least, I hope they do.
So, I'm trying a few of them out...
to find out if they do or not...
and then I'll write about
what I find out...
right here.
But first, a very brief...brief bio about me.
I am considered a "senior citizen" by AARP's standards...
but I'm not old enough to collect social security
and won't be for a few more years.
I worked a "real" J.O.B. for most of my life.
I took 'early retirement'...and lost my shirt on the
penalties, fees and taxes...leaving me with
little more than the money to buy;
a digital camera, a computer and pay a couple of bills.
So..I decided to go 'online'...and make my money there.
For four years, all of my income has been made
from the internet but, in the field I have
chosen...I'm not quite making enough to make ends meet.
I do make sales...several times a week...but, I need
DAILY income!
When I started this blog, I knew I wanted it to
be about making money online.
But, I'm not an expert, I'm not an affiliate (yet) and
I didn't have much to share.
So, the blog was left, pretty much unattended, for about
six weeks.
Recently, I began an intensive study into the various
ways to make money online.
I found some programs that I think are viable
and others...well...I'm pretty skeptical.
I don't have any expendible income at the moment..
heck..that includes MOST moments...so
I decided to look at the programs that were
either FREE or very close to it!
Then, I decided to experiment with several of
these programs to see if they work or not...and record
everything I learn...on this blog...
to share with others.
I'm giving the experiment...six weeks...since
I think if there are any viable programs out there...I should
know something..or make something...within a
six week period.
So...stay Tuned...if you want to
see how the experiment turns out.