Fun day

All I ended up doing today was adding some link partners as another storm hit. And since I found out that someone's tv got fried last night (while they were watching it) during the storm, I'm very glad I unplugged everything and hauled ass over to a friend's camper. With the 2 dogs of course, because they freak as much as I do.. lol

So 4.5 hours later, I got home around 8:30 and now I'm exhausted and as soon as I find out who gets through on Canadian Idol I'm off to bed. Hopefully I'll be able to get up bright and early (but not TOO early) and get bunches of work done. Like maybe an article or 2?

So that's about it. Have a good one folks!

Tara :)

I'm back!

As it turns out, (remember that Queen of Murphy's Kingdom thing?) that when they came to set up the phone line on Monday that all the poles were full. They tried and tried to find somewhere, but in the end had to bury wire from the road outside the campground alllllll the way back to me. So finally at about 3 pm I got online. Over 300 emails, checking stats for 6 days and Adsense channels later, I'm a little slap happy but mostly caught up. And that was with an hour break due to a scary thunderstorm. I think that's what'll send me home if anything, because other than that, I'm doing great.

So, on to the a.m. stuff. My stats are fantastic for the last 6 days. MSN has really picked up my sites which has led to fabulous Adsense. I'm well over last month's total, my CTR is way up and while the amount per click are probably lower than a few months ago, I've had several great days and I'm sure that if it keeps up, next month I will start getting a check every month. I'm actually fairly close to it this month, and if I could have 1 more week (tops) I would've qualified for a check this month. Also, last month's check is about to be deposited into my account. No sales while I was offline (that would've just been TOO perfect, I know!) but I'm still a much happy camper, pun intended ;)

And now the slacking is over. I've got to get back to work tomorrow because I've done nothing since Thursday. Funny, without the net though I was going to bed much earlier. To be fair though, that could have something to do with dragging my ass out of bed at 8 am on Monday.. lol Wasn't impressed when they didn't start work until just about 3 pm. Not only for the lack of sleep, but the temp was in the 90's (over 30) and the humidex put it over 100 (around 40 or more) and I couldn't go cool off. Not to mention the a.c. just wasn't doing anything. But back on track tomorrow and Thursday because it's another long weekend in Canada and starting Friday, Eric's on his 1st week of vacation so I KNOW not much work will be getting done.

I guess that's about it - boy am I glad to be back online, and NEVER AGAIN will I go that long!

Tara :)

I swear, when I'm REALLY rich...

I'm going to pay for the people in charge of writing the algorythyms for MSN, Google and Yahoo to sit down and spill their secrets. Like many other people lately, Yahoo has been messing around with my rankings. Some that have been in place for over 2 months, not new articles. And now, suddenly this week, I'm sitting at #5 in MSN for travel accessories and pet memorials. I'm NOT complaining, but why all of a sudden (after I swear, MAYBE 5 searches a month from them) are my sites doing so well? It's frustrating as all get out, in terms of trying to understand what on God's Green Earth is bloody going on!

In other news, I got the home page and 2 product pages done for the new site. Inspiration suddenly struck at 2 am.. Don't ask.. lol 4 to go for the skeleton and then 5 to go to get the site live. Apart from all the other little tweaks, but those are more than half done I think. So most likely by the end of the 1st week of July it will go live. Then maybe a break on the new sites for a few weeks while I write my little heart out.

And in even bigger news, tonight will be my last sleep at home for a while. This will also be my last post until the phone is installed at the trailer, which will HOPEFULLY be Friday, but most likely will end up Monday. So... to all of you (if there are any of you) who live in Quebec, enjoy the long weekend! Everyone else, have a great weekend, and hopefully you'll get a short post saying I'm live again on Friday!

Tara :)

It's been a while

And I'm sorry to my loyal readers for the big posting gap. Time seems to have gotten away from me, and throw in a couple of early nights and camping days and it's already Tuesday!

I'm happy to report with the exception of yesterday, I've done at least a little bit of work since Friday. Still too much goofing off, and now this week packing, but things are getting done.

I bought a template from GoldenPineCone.com (Jewelry 200 brown) as well as I registered the domain name for the new site. It's not about jewelry.. lol Once it's ready, you know I'll release it here ;) I've also been up since an un-Godly hour this morning (thanks to the dog who wouldn't stop licking my feet at 5 am) and I've read/sorted/deleted my email, caught up on all my feeds, and done a whack of research on potential affiliates for the new site. And over the the weekend with still no internet I still managed to tweak the template, mainly fixing up the internal linking and naming the product pages. Very easy template to play around with. No content as of yet, but this one should be a bit of fun to write at least - if the research is any indication.

Hopefully with the little bit of time I have before we go down Thursday night (the next 2 Fridays are holidays here in Quebec) I'll get a bit of content done on all 4 sites. On the upside, it looks like we'll have phone service by Monday at the latest, hopefully Friday.

On that note, hope everyone had a great weekend, and I'll post more often, I promise :)

Tara :)

I've been slacking

In more ways than one. Not only have I done extremely little work this week, I haven't been here telling you about it! Mind you, I prefer to write something when I have something to say, and I haven't really.

I've added a bunch of link partners on both the pet and dog sites and I've done some more specific Wordtracker research for my next site. I'm gearing up to start that site. I need a template, and I'm trying to find a ready made one to save some time and money, but no one seems to have anything I like. So what I'll do is decide on GoldenPineCone template (which I actually love, I'm just lazy) and create my own banner with some pictures I've found. Once I finalize the keyword research (mining the smaller niches' keywords) I'll pick up the template and start writing.

I'm not sure yet if we'll be heading down to the trailer this weekend. My father is bugging us to go over and fix up the utility trailer that he's giving us. And he's bitching that he's doing all the work on it - after specifically saying that we were on our own except for the dry fitting of the new wood. LOL Daddies are funny! We're actually going out for dinner tonight for Father's day just in case we do go down to the trailer. Either way, my summer vacation doesn't begin this weekend. With everything being up in the air all week, I haven't prepared to go yet. So I'm hoping it will be next weekend.

That's pretty much it. See why I don't tend to write when I've gotten nothing done? lol

Tara :)

Oops, I went to bed

And forgot about a proper post. I gave up trying to stay awake around 10 last night. Which led to reading for a while, sleeping like crap and getting up around 9:30 this morning. And so far, I've managed to accomplish adding about 3 link partners to the dog and pet sites, and that's it.

Ok, that's not really it, but all that's tangible. I got information about adding a phone line and internet to the trailer, tried to cheer up a fed up and sick friend about her job, chatted with my mom to reschedule Father's day celebrations, read FeedDemon like mad and reorganized a couple small things on my goal page. For 3:15 pm though, it sure doesn't feel like alot.

It might have something to do with me downloading a whack of games to the laptop and actually playing one of them for at least an hour. Can't wait to find a crack for it and play some more... lol Very very addictive.

So now it's 3:18 with nothing on tv tonight stopping me from putting in a whole bunch of hours of work and not only do I not feel like working, I can't decide WHAT I'm going to force myself to do. I can't wait to have the net down at the trailer and actually get a bit of work done on the weekends because I get way off track with the relaxing.

Please cross your fingers that I get SOMETHING done other than goofing off! LOL

Tara :)

BJ's bloody book meme

Ok, here goes:

1. How many books do I own?

Not a clue. Probably well over 5000 over the years. I don't have a ton of room for bookcases and I often "lend" books so your guess is as good as mine. A LOT anyway - I'm a book-a-holic. At one point when I took the bus to work I would read 3-5 books a WEEK.

2. Last Book I Bought:

About 20 or so at a garage sale. I can't afford to support my habit with new books.. lol

3. Last Book I Read:

The last one I finished was Angels and Demons by Dan Brown, the prequel to The DaVinci Code. Both EXCELLENT books, although if you're Catholic (which I'm not) you might be offended. I'm currently reading a Jonathan Kellerman Alex Delaware novel, the 3rd one I think. The title escapes me and I left it at the trailer so I couldn't tell you what it is. Doesn't really matter, all of the Alex Delaware character books ROCK.

4. Five Books That Mean A Lot To Me:

Wow. Hard one. I guess all the Harry Potter books, and like BJ, all the Lucy Maud Montgomery books that I've read, which is most of them. The DaVinci Code, because I love the theme of the book and firmly believe in Dan Brown's version of the Holy Grail. All of my Maeve Binchy books because they're entertaining and usually heart warming with great morals. And my favorite author ever is Anne Rice, and my favorite book ever is Queen of the Damned. The storytelling is amazing, and they ROYALLY f*cked up the movie which depressed me to no end.

5. Tag Five More:

Well, I don't know many more bloggers than have already been tagged, but here goes:

Ottawa Information & SBI Blog
Mark's Diary of a Newbie Affiliate Marketer

More later on affiliate marketing ;)

Tara :)

Have a great weekend!

Short post...

What I got done yesterday:

• Submitted 2 articles to about 10 article directories before I got too bored to go on.. lol
• Signed up for the Value Exchange for the pet site.
• Spent 4 hours chatting with 4 lovely ladies, fellow affiliate marketers about a fun new site that WON'T be shared here.
• Cleaned up my disgusting desk.
• Sorted through article outlines for the ones I felt the most like writing. (didn't write any yet)
• Stayed up way to late watching old CSI's.

Today:

• Received my match list so emailed a whole bunch of potential link partners.
• Responded to 1.
• That's it.

In a few minutes we'll be heading down to the trailer. I can't wait to get there, it's stinking hot out and our pool isn't quite ready yet here so as soon as I unpack for the weekend it's off to the campground pool! So all y'all have a GREAT weekend and I'll see ya Monday-ish.. lol

Tara :)

What a great day yesterday

First the sale, then spending the commission money at a Party Lite party - which was more like a shower, we were SO rambunctious. At least half of us were drunk.. lol Tons of fun with lots of good friends, some new, some old. The poor consultant lost control about 2 minutes in! lol

So after I calmed down yesterday afternoon (about 3 hours later) I did actually get some work done. Site submission for the pet memorials site to minor SE's and some directories. And Eric finally edited the other 2 articles for the travel site, so the links for those are below.

Kids Luggage - Tons Of Adorable Options
Clothing Check List for Travel

What I need to probably do today is figure out which articles are decent enough for publication and submit them to some article directories which is my all-time FAVORITE thing to do - NOT. And sometime this afternoon BJ, Chrissie (who has an absolutely HILARIOUS blog) and I are going to talk about setting up a cool new (non-monetized) site. Purely for fun. Once we get it off the ground, I'll let you know about it. I should probably also set up a link exchange through SiteSell for the pet site.

At some point I'm going to have to get ready for camping tomorrow too. Hubby will be leaving work early again (there's a lunch for the graduating students that he should go to, but he hates it and will bail.. lol) so I won't have much time tomorrow. Luckily I had nothing clean to wear yesterday and already did my weekend laundry.

Exciting entry, huh? lol Not much to tell, sorry! lol

Tara :)

I MADE A SALE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG - someone bought something for $329.20 for which I got 10%. $32.92!!!! Not too shabby! It was from Magellan's, (my travel site) but I don't know what they bought. I don't much care either.. as long as they don't return it. But even if they do, I still MADE A SALE!!!!! LOL I'm a spazz, I know, but I was really starting to wonder if it was going to happen. Adsense is too easy, it doesn't feel like you've done any real work to get the money. And often, it's your friend who doesn't get it who clicks on it even though you TELL them not too. In case you're wondering, anyone who's online or at home or at work has been told.. lol

Here's hoping this is the first of many to come, and in 2 months I'll be laughing at what a freak I was today!

Tara :)

Well... Not all went as planned

I got 6 articles done, which I'm thrilled about. 4 are ready, the other 2 will be edited and live tomorrow. Didn't really get much research done for the new site though. Mind you, 10:20 pm is still quite early for me, so we'll see. Maybe tomorrow's articles will be product pages for the new site. Ok, I know I'm reaching.. lol Still, it's possible. That may be my new goal for the rest of this week, home/product pages and at least 5 articles. Maybe if I buy the template and get the banner done I could even go live within a week or 2. It's nice to dream... lol

Forgot to mention yesterday, I've decided that when I go down weekend after the coming one, I'll be staying for the summer. I may have to come back for a week for a friend's baby's 1st birthday, but other than that, I don't think I'll be back until September. I can't wait. Our good American friends down there have also graciously offered to pick up groceries or what not if necessary and will lend me a walkie-talkie in case someone tries to break in or I get scared or whatever. They may be raging alcoholics, but they are soooo sweet. Nicest drunks you'll ever meet, too! ;)

Here are the articles, including the 2 from the new site.

Go for a Personalized Pet Marker - There are Many Choices
Looking for a Truly Magnificent Tribute? A Wood Pet Casket Is the Way to Go
Bernese Mountain Dog Clothes - Not So Easy to Find!
Warm Dog Boots - Don't Leave Home Without Them!

Happy hump day!

Tara :)

What a beautiful weekend

Really hot, humid and sunny. I LOVE that - as long as there's a pool nearby ;) Got to hang out with some friends that I haven't seen in a while down at the campground. Discovered a LOVELY Cosmopolitain mix - just add water, I mean, vodka. It SAID 2 parts vodka to 3 parts mix... I think that's negotiable! lol

Nothing exciting happened while I was gone. High single digit earnings in Adsense over the weekend, still no sales. Got my first search on the pet site today. I've decided on what my next site is about and I'm doing some real research on it. I set up a program to create myself a banner from some pictures I've found. Now I just need to decide on the template - I'm having a hard time deciding between a few of them at Golden Pine Cone. Once I've decided I'll pick one up and start with the tweaking.

I've also come to the conclusion I need to set up a bit of structure to my days. It's too easy to slack off when I'm the boss.. lol So I'm going to try to work on research/tweaking the new site at least 2 hours a day, 2 articles per site, per day, get and keep on top of the emails I get, and especially in the next couple of weeks do directory and article submissions, my favorite thing EVAH. [end sarcasm]

And that's all I have to say about that.

Tara :)

What a sad day

Corey Rudl has passed away (thank you to many sources) and you can read what happened here.

Priya Shah of Marketing Slave has just lost her husband of 18 years.

My heart, sympathies and condolences go out to both their families, may Priya's husband and Corey's souls rest in peace.

It's been a bad year so far. I lost my beloved Grandmother; 2 neighbours (married couple I've known since I was 5 died within a month of each other); an old, very good friend of my mother lost her husband; a week after my Grandmother's funeral one of her oldest friend's died. I'll be glad to be out of 2005.

Tara :(

Forgive my ramblings, I'm a tired Queen

So if anything comes out spelt funny or doesn't make sense, bug off, I could've gone to bed @ 8 if it weren't for the fact I'd have been up @ 4 or 5 am, which is just WRONG.

Ok, so I know a lot of you have been checking in today waiting for the new site. The hubby thinks it looks great and we couldn't find any major booboos. One of the 2 merchants I've been waiting on finally gave me an answer - after I called them. It was an 800 number (nice touch for an indie) and I got an apology, they felt bad and were surprised they didn't get anything. The other one I'll call tomorrow unless I get up late and we leave for the trailer early.

In the meantime, to heck with waiting, I'm going to go live now. Say hello to my newest (brain)child, Pet Memorials Info. It's small and probably won't get to a typical Martell size as there's just not enough keywords. I found the niche when researching the dog/cat/pet site, which ended up being the Dog Info site. It seems to be a fairly untapped niche. Also very few merchants. But, I thought it was an interesting topic (albeit morbid) and potentially lucrative. I guess we'll see.

So the cat's outta the bag. Let me know (as always, constructive not rude, criticism) what you think!

Have a great weekend folks, if you're in the North East of North America, welcome to Spring - it seems someone forgot about us, but they just woke up and it should be a nice weekend, FINALLY! lol

Tara :)

Forgot to mention

There's a Yahoo News Story about the latest domain extention (tld), .xxx. Obviously, this is meant for adult oriented sites. There'll be a hefty price to pay though if you want one - $60 and ICANN thinks it should be ready for purchase this fall.

I don't know who'll buy them, but I hope all the porn sites do so we can easily identify them - and AVOID them! ;)

Tara :)

Ever heard of Google Guy?

Some of you who read this blog may not have heard of Google Guy. As you might guess, he's a Google employee and he will occasionally answer questions at the Webmaster World forum. To be honest, he could post other places, but this is the only one I know of.

Currently, there are 2 great threads going on where Google Guy is answering questions from the forum. I think these are a great read and a must if you're at all concerned about SEO and Google especially.

http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum30/29727-1-10.htm
http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum30/29720-1-30.htm

Enjoy, the 1st one is long!

Tara :)

P.S. I think I will go live tonight with the site, so keep an eye out later tonight or tomorrow morning :)

Boring couple of days

I haven't done anything tangibly productive since coming back - well, at least nothing I can show you, like articles or the new site. Which I promise is just about ready, I just want the hubby to bounce through it and see what he can see. My best 2 merchants still haven't answered emails I've sent which is a bummer, since they have some of the products I've already written about in articles. Hopefully before this site starts seeing a whack of traffic they'll answer. That's the biggest hold back for me going public. Any suggestions? Should I wait, or go forward? Yahoo tends to really like me and so far has me indexed VERY quickly, so even if Google holds off, I'll probably get a trickle within a week or 2. Things that make you go hmmm....

So other than tweaking both my Goal Starter page and the new site, here's what I've accomplished:

Made a huge list of which keywords I'll be attacking next for articles - I'd say at least 50-60 across all 3 sites.

Moved just about everything over to the laptop so I can work from it all the time to make sure I'm not missing something vital (like a 100 MB file) when I go to the trailer.

Did URL redirects to the proper pages (categories, like instead of index.html, dog-books.html) for my merchants on the product pages on both the travel and dog site. I'm hoping this will help convert my CTR into sales.

Added a Google search bar to one page to test it. No traffic to that page since I added it, so no news on that front.

Added a direct product link in one of my articles at Jon's suggestion to see if that helps conversion to sales.

Spent hours searching for possible new merchants for the new site with no luck. (even emailed a few last week and no luck there either)

Downloaded all the Affiliate Buzzes so that if I want to listen while on dial up internet at the trailer I won't wait for an hour and have crappy quality connection.

Pondered the fact that BJ had a fabulous day yesterday and my end result in Adsense would make most people cry.. lol

Checked out some of the motivational links on the Goal Starter page, deleted most, kept 1 and actually downloaded some stuff from it. Who knows when I'll get around to reading it though.

Had my own little dance of joy realizing that I way overshot my goals in Adsense this month - $57.03 unless I get a click in the next hour. My 3 previous months totaled don't even reach that - $1.12, $16.27 and $28.62. And I actually hit the $100 mark while I was camping a few days before I thought I would.

All in all, while it wasn't an exciting time, I got a lot done, and while writing this entry, I realized that I've had a great month. And while it's hard to discipline myself to work, being a natural slacker, I am getting better at it, and pray every night that I don't have to go out and look for a job in September, which is when I think I'll run out of my savings. I know I probably will, but maybe if I have a good number of sites up by then I can stretch it out longer. I absolutely LOVE working from home and making my own hours - not to mention not stressing if I don't accomplish everything I had wanted to do, because there's always tomorrow. At least for a few more months ;)

On that note, good night!

Tara :)