First CB Sales

Hi everyone.. I hope this is a pleasant Sunday to all of you. I just arrived from church and now in front of my PC again to work and learn more about IM. I have a wrist injury for holding the mouse for 15 hrs a day and my wrist have a bandage now, but I'm still working and make sure to stretch my eyes, neck and hands every 2 hours. Anyway, I’ve been very busy creating blogs and promoting CB Products lately and hoping to have my sales on CB. I started promoting CB products this month and putting my time and effort to promote CB products. Days went on and my sales report is still at $00.00. Actually I am getting used to see those round numbers everyday and striving hard to make my sales.

Well, last Jan 20 is my lucky day, just a few hours after posting on my blog; I made my first CB sales. I really jumped, surprised and very happy to see my CB Sales Report is no longer $0.00 and I earned 75% commission. Now I am trying to repeat that sales and promote the products. No luck until today, I guess I need to learn more and learn how to pick a good CB product and find the right marketing strategy that will work for me to make this sale more regular and not just a one time sale.

I dropped some of my products with just 2-5% commission and focus on CB products with higher commission and experiment on some marketing strategies I've learned from other marketers. I realized it's not worth to put so much effort for 2-5% commission. I also find out (which I didn't do before) that in reviewing the sales page, it is important to always look for the tools that will help you promote the product. There are also product owners who will give you the privilege of having your own brandable PDF copy to help you in promoting the product. I am learning a lot here. Before I just pick a product on top of CB list and didn't even bother to look for other tools to promote the product. With my first CB sales I really read about the product, the reviews and make use of the available tools and a few hours I made my first sales. I find it hard to repeat that sales until now but I'm not giving up. It only means I need to try harder or be smarter, find the right product and marketing strategy that will give me a more stable and regular sales.

Well.. it's time to work again and continue my journey in Internet Marketing. Have a nice day to all of you.. Cheers !!!

I Made My First Sales

I already made six blog sites in two months and much as possible update them regularly. There are times I am thinking if I have a future in this IM since there’s nothing much happening in two months in terms of traffic and revenue, but I keep posting, thinking and discovering new ways to improve my websites and not giving up even if there’s nothing big happening yet.

I want to test the waters on Affiliate Marketing and tried blogger as a landing page. All I did was registered at Linkshare as an affiliate and searched products under Computer and Electronics categories with great deals and rebates. Products with lower prices compared with other companies offering the same products and with bonuses or free gift certificates. It takes about 1-2 hrs daily to research for the products, post on my blog, use pinging services and try various social bookmarking sites in promoting my blogs. I update my blog daily and at the same time enjoying it because I am learning a lot and starting to become a tech geek too and educate myself with the latest tech gadgets.

I’ve been doing this routine of researching, posting , pinging and promoting the site for 2 weeks now starting last Dec 30’2006 when I first launch my blog site. After almost two weeks, last Jan 11 at exactly 12 days after it’s launching I made my first sales on 2 items about $169.68. I can't believe my eyes when I saw my Linkshare report and surprised to see the figures and what’s even more surprising is that the following day, I made another sales at $79.99 and I thought wowww this is really great...

I only earned a small commission from Linkshare products but what’s important is that I made sales and I have good traffic and returning visitors on my blog site. I also started my affiliate program with other companies with bigger commissions and who knows one of these days I’ll get my sales from those companies.

It is a great feeling and it gave me more confidence to continue my journey in internet marketing. Yes, there are times I feel discouraged but I still keep trying, I always bear in my mind that most people quit when success is already within sight and I don't want to be in that position.

My Escapades with MYLOT a Paid to Post site Part II

I feel I need to write a Part II on this subject as I haven’t included these facts on my last blog. After my first day at Mylot I have no plans of putting up almost 24 hrs posting new topics or responding to existing topics there again as I have other things to do with my time and I have a lot of things to learn on-line. But I always have this curiosity about the topics on Mylot site and once in a while I want to brainstorm with other people there.

I visited my Mylot account again after posting my first blog here about pay to post websites and was surprised to see $2.67 earnings on my account. I found out that I didn’t just earn $0.83 for my almost 24 hrs posting but earned $2.67 because the site has 24hrs delay on updating member’s earnings. I just challenge myself and tried to achieve 100 posts on my first day there on the site to see how much I will make. You can maximize your earnings too by uploading pictures related to your discussion topics and through referrals.

As of now I just visited once in a while and make a few dollars then but I cannot afford to spend more than 20 hrs again on the site, unless I am a person with no other business on-line I guess I could do that. I earn around $1 a day and its good enough and let the earnings sit there and pile up and I could use it to buy domains and cover parts of my web hosting fee that I could use on my web marketing.

Mylot website is also a good site to brainstorm with other members regarding different topics and meeting people around the globe. If you are a writer you could get a lot of subjects there that most people ask. I visit the site once in a while make a few dollars there and meet people and then go back to my priorities which could give me more revenues.

My Escapades with MYLOT a Paid to Post site

In line with this Asia Earthquake where most of internet connections were affected and there are some inaccessible sites that I need to access for my Affiliate Programs plans , I gave it a rest trying and just surf the net on other ways to make money on line. I discovered Mylot a paid to post website where members are paid monthly for posting topics and responding on topics posted on the site. I don’t believe it, but through research and reading about Mylot website I found out that they are really paying members and I talked to some of the members too and it was confirmed they get paid. Some of them have 4000 plus posts on different topics, well one could not stay that long and post that much if not get paid. I joined and start posting to see what I will get. My goal on the first day that I joined is 100 posts but I end up having 70 posts only, because I also replied to almost all people who respond to my posts even without additional points to show my appreciation. I started posting at 3am and finished my 70^th post at 2am next day and I decide to stand up and retire because I already have backaches and I need to sleep.

That escapade brought me $0.83. Compared with my Adsense site, which took me a month to reach $6, that $0.83 dollars for almost 24 hrs of posting topics is much better. Although in Adsense if coupled with right marketing strategies in driving traffic on your website, it has more revenue potentials even while you sleep than any pay to post sites.

In paid to post, its very time consuming and you have to post all the time to earn. Well I stop it for a while to attend to my website creation and Affiliate Program plans but I’ll do paid to post once in a while because it’s a good site to brainstorm with people with different views and posting your own 2 cents plus it’s a good place to promote your own website and get traffic. You could not get rich on Pay to Post sites but you could earn few pennies but there are members there who claimed that through constant postings and referrals they could earn up to $1000 . I wonder how much time they put up posting there. Some made $3 in 3 months and some have $6 in only a matter of days. It requires a lot of time and those who have the time to spare visit the site and earn from there and gain new friends. Why just surf the net? Much better get paid for your opinions if you have a lot of free time.

There are really a lot of ways to earn on-line but you need to find out which will work for you and stick with it until you earn the big bucks no matter how much time is required. That experience with paid to post site is not wasted I have $0.83 to start with and will increase if I post there once in a while. One good things is that I was able to write a blog about it sharing my experience with you. This is one of those experiments I did on how to earn on-line.

Try your luck with Mylot it’s a good way to meet people and earn a few pennies. I still keep my account at Mylot and plan to post there at least 10 posts a day which will not prevent me from doing other things that I need to get done venturing into my IM plans and goals. I could say it’s a good, fun and exciting experience. Its not a waste of time to try it but still keep your priorities.

Many enterprises found themselves paralyzed without the Internet.

Internet Connection is too slow now and having problems so I just read the news and do whatever is available now.....

Earthquake knocks Asia back to phone age, and beyond

By Seth Mydans

Published: December 27, 2006

BANGKOK: It was a tsunami for the digital age, a collapse of the virtual world that radiated through much of Asia and beyond after an undersea earthquake late Tuesday off the coast of Taiwan.

People woke Wednesday to find themselves without e-mail or the Internet and, in some cases, without telephone connections, cut off from the real world around them.

The earthquake ruptured two of the undersea cables that are part of a communications fretwork that circles the globe.

Coming on the second anniversary of the Asian tsunami that took 230,000 lives, it was a reminder of the world's increasing dependence on communications technology. Financial companies and technology services suffered most directly, with banking and securities trading all but crippled. Operations from travel agencies to newspapers to schools struggled to maintain their routines.

"You don't realize until you miss it how much you rely heavily on technology," said Andrew Clarke, a sales trader in Hong Kong. "Stuff you took for granted has been taken away and you realize, 'Ah, back to the old way, using mobiles'" — an old way that itself is not so old.

In this time of rapid change, it is easy to forget how quickly innovations have become necessities, from mobile phones to the Internet to e-mail to instant messaging on both the computer and telephone.

"I'm completely dependent on the Internet," said Robert Halliday, an American writer based in Bangkok. "If the Internet goes down for half a day people can just stay in bed in terms of getting any work done."

On Wednesday he was stymied in trying to get information for a review he was writing of a Romanian DVD. It takes a moment to realize what a task that would have been just a few years ago.

Indeed, the words "instant" seems to have lost some of its edge. It has become the norm, and anything else seems agonizingly slow. The word "global" has shrunk to the size of a computer screen.

When Halliday's mother, a woman in her 80s, wants to reach him, she taps an instant message into her telephone from the United States. "All of a sudden," he said, "there's a message on the phone, 'Oh, you should be here, the azaleas are out.'"

Without e-mail, Ken Streutker, a Dutch-Canadian actor and producer in Thailand, had no way to arrange an airport meeting with a friend who was flying in to Bangkok.

"Now I'll have to stand there at the airport with the traditional handwritten sign and hope that someone notices," he said.

Many enterprises found themselves paralyzed without the Internet.

In Beijing, Wang Yifei, an independent television producer, sent instant telephone messages when her Internet connection was down."I had a horrible day," she said. "I've been complaining about this all day. This high-tech world of ours. It didn't happen in the old days. In the end I can't do anything."

In Manila, Abe Olandres, who owns and runs a Web-hosting company, just about gave up. He said he planned to try a Wi-Fi hot spot in a coffee shop after struggling at the office all day. "This is killing me," he said. For his customers, it may have been worse. When their service went down, they tried to reach the help desk, but it was down, too.

In Hong Kong, Niall Phelan, the creative director of APV, a media production company based there, said he usually received about 300 e-mails a day. On Wednesday, he said, he got none. Without e-mail, he was back to the old-fashioned way of communicating, by telephone, which greatly multiplied his work. "Usually, one e-mail is cc'd to lots of people," he said. "But, with calling, you have to contact all six involved people individually." With their work day disrupted, he said, "Most people I spoke to in Hong Kong today are just twiddling their thumbs." He made the best of it.

"What I did today was eight hours of filing," he joked. "I had a year's worth of paperwork. If the Internet is still down tomorrow, maybe I will finish it."

Even without the help of technology, work seems to have its own momentum.

Carolyn Mison-Smith, director of a language center in Singapore, found in the communications crash a concrete demonstration of the interconnectedness of the world.

"Cables all over the seabed," she said. "I don't know if your average dude appreciates that fact."

"Who puts them there and how long does it take and how many kilometers is it?" she said. "If they've got cords going all over the seabed I think that's fascinating. Who designs it all, who's the engineer that designs it and who are the laborers who go down and do that?"

My Questions and Experiments

I’m in limbo right now and stuck in $5 earnings after a month at IM and have a little traffic especially this last 2 weeks. I’m trying to find out what went wrong or what I need to do to duplicate or multiply that $5 I made. I know I achieved that $5 from socialbookmarking and posting on my blogs, but how can I multiply that? That is my big question now. I haven’t made a cent for 2 weeks now. I’ve been reading e-books (have downloaded quite a few free ebooks) and then visiting forums for tips and information. I don’t know where to focus now.

I am not a writer; I’m still learning and trying to write. Have visited writers’ forum and read e-books. Right now I don’t know what topic to write and end up writing this new blog. I’m planning to write about the products I want to sell as an affiliate. There are a lot of questions in my mind, most of them are about driving traffic to my website and I’m still doing a lot of experiments to find the answers.

These are some of the questions and experiments I did and still doing while I haven’t figure out what to do next.

• How about buying keyword ads on PPC Search Engine?
• How does this work? I’ve read about Miva.com in an e-book but when I visited forums, and read reviews on Miva.com which is formerly Findwhat (I wonder why they change their name) there are a lot of IM’ers who encountered problems having insignificant traffic from torrent sites and encountering click frauds. I’m still new and still haven’t experiment on this and don’t know if I will try this one.

• Will Banner Exchange Program drive traffic to my site?
• I register in a free exchange banner program and I didn’t see any drastic change in my traffic as of now and what is annoying me is that my site is a health related site and the banner being posted in my site are mostly not health related. I guess that is one disadvantage of banner exchange program, you have no control of the banner Ads that will appear on your own site. I have not removed the banner and still giving it sometime to drive traffic to my site and besides I cannot connect to my server now to edit my website, so I let the banner sit there for a while and see if it will work wonders in driving traffic to my site.
  

• Regarding Affiliate Programs, is there any other reliable affiliate networks than Clickbank? My country is not included in the allowed country to register in Clickbank, so what are my options?
• I have registered in Paydot.com. but their site is too slow, I don’t know if it has something to do with their server, but I still signed in and get some products as an affiliate there but haven’t made any sales yet. Commission Junction and Linkshare are highly recommended too, so I am planning to join there.
  

• Another Affiliates Program issues I have is:
• Do I need my own website to promote as an affiliate? I am on a tight budget now, and been thinking to create a sub domain on my health related domain but will it look good? Having a health related root domain and the sub domain will be about the products from Affiliate Programs. I’m still resolving this or might consider a blogsite to start with but of course I prefer my ownwebpage.com domain.
  

• Of course, my ongoing experiment is writing articles and to submit them to some of the respected article directories out there. Do I need an article auto submitter software? Well, I need to answer that if I already have 10 or more articles composed.

There are times I’m having this negative feeling and just stare on my computer and wondering what to do next to increase this $5 I have right now. I’ve been a victim of spammers too (so this is included in IM world.). Oh well, it’s been a month now and some have been here in IM for years before enjoying the fruits of their labor. It is true success will not happen overnight and there are a lot of work and experimentations to do but I do hope to find the answers and see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Social Bookmarking: Drive Traffic to Your Website

Social bookmarking was introduced to me through a forum. Just what I said before, read forums and ask people around here in the net who have the same interest or field as yours and there are people who are willing to share their knowledge.

I included Social bookmarking icons at the bottom of my blogs here even on the very first time I created this blog site. My mistake is that I did not fully utilized these websites or familiarize my self on how to use these social bookmarking tools until I was reminded again by another marketer a few days ago about the power of Social bookmarking in driving traffic to your web.

I only explore Stumbleupon before and it increased my page impression and clicks from 1 to 21 clicks as of this writing. I was very excited at first to see that improvement but I get depressed lately because the traffic and clicks slow down so I stopped doing it for a while. I never realized that I have to repeat what I have done in Stumbleupon in other Social bookmarking sites every time I have a new post in my blogs or in my website.

This is the advice from one of the marketers I met and reminded me of the power of Social bookmarking. This is exactly how the advice was written for me, he wrote it as a post and I guess he wants to make it public to help new marketers like me so I’m sharing it with you.

If you want traffic for your blog within hours or minutes try the following:
1. Submit your blog posts to newsvine, tailrank and reddit. Do this every time you have a new post
2. Claim your blog in Technorati.
3. Submit to as many blog directories as you could

Utilize the power of Social bookmarking and make social connections with other like-minded users and create massive back links to your website.