I WILL make it!

Thursday, July 28, 2005

Busy Bee

Sorry for the lack of posts this week, I suddenly got a mad working kick going and took advantage of it. I've been working almost non-stop since Sunday night on link exchanges (about 50 across the 3 sites), writing articles (7 done, 3 to go) and signing up for merchants, fixing up links, double checking content, etc. Basically all the annoying little things. Almost there though. Having friends and family go through the site to point out any problems, waiting for a couple more merchants to get back to me and then, maybe, this weekend I'll post the site here. Being as it's Thursday though (no one will probably answer over the weekend) and tomorrow being my birthday and all probably not too much work will be done. So, check back, but don't worry about it too much until next week :)

As for the financials, I did make a sale of about $17 USD. And Adsense is suddenly going crazy with the last 4 days being over the double digit mark. Not $50 over the double digit mark, but a nice enough amount for me. A few more days and I'll tell you ;) Let's just say enough that a friend did some math and at my current rate of growth he figures I'll be at 1K/month in about 2 months. That would be fantastic as I think that would be enough for me to stay home. It would be tight, but the bills will get paid with that amount. And if it hits between now and mid September, I may be able to get away with not looking for another job. I sure as hell hope so because I'm WAY too used to staying "home" now. I just wish it was summer year round because I love it here :) That and I can't wait to be making enough so that Eric can quit his job too.

So, I guess that's about it for now. As soon as I can I'll post the new site here for you. Have a great weekend!

Tara :)

Sunday, July 24, 2005

It's been an interesting weekend

Very full of drama. I'll spare y'all the details, but Friday saw me fighting with a boater and the office here, and Friday night saw my best friend have a huge fight with her aunt and grandmother which has most likely severed their relationship permanently. Saturday was a little nicer. We went to go get propane for the BBQ and there were 3 gorgeous little kittens there, and even Eric was in love with the one that cried and then tried to climb him. I'm working on him to get the little guy called Lucky. He hasn't agreed yet, claiming that 2 cats and 2 dogs are plenty. I don't agree. lol

Still no work being done whatsoever over the last few days. I could maybe get some done tonight as I had a wicked headache earlier and took a nap to get rid of it. It's now just after midnight and I'm wide awake. I STILL have 7 articles to write and then I'm good to go. I just need an afternoon of peace.. I don't see it happening too soon.

So that's all that's new and exciting here. I tell you, it's never boring here!

Tara :)

Thursday, July 21, 2005

Link Dump Time

As much as I wish I could tell y'all that I've been busily at work, that would be a lie, something I actively avoid doing. What I really need is a gorgeous day where both of my parents spend the day at the beach or the pool so I can have some peace. Otherwise they're here talking to me or watching tv and I can't work. I love them, and I love having them here (the food quality has improved dramatically! Ok, the company is nice too :) ) but I'm not getting anything done. Of course, after Eric's vacation I had a good feeling not much would be done. Oh well, I suppose I should enjoy my time down here too ;)

As of this writing I have slightly more than doubled last month's Adsense earnings and there are still 10 days to go. This is a first for my Adsense account. So far, I come thisclose to doubling the previous month, but miss by a few dollars. If I can maintain my average per day (unlikely to happen based on the last few days) I should finish the month close to $300. With last month's total being thisshort of $100, the deposit I receive in August will be very nice and will either make a great dent on my credit card or 2 car payments. Either way, much helpful.

So here's where the title comes in. I decided to do this entry based on some fantastic blog entries. 1 is by BJ who has found something incredibly useful as usual ;) Go check out her blog for more details as I don't want to steal her thunder.

Some of you probably know Jenstar, I believe she posts at Webmaster World, which I don't visit as I am already too easily distracted, she is usually WAY ahead of everyone else in terms of Adsense and Adwords information. She made 4 posts today that ALL need to be read by anyone with an Adsense account. Enjoy :)

Here a few other goodies I put aside in my Feed Demon for future use that you may enjoy also. You may want to bookmark some of these.

http://www.marketingchick.com/checklist/
http://awebbiz.com/blog/archives/2005/07/14/internet-marketing-tips/
http://www.homebusiness-websites.com/myarchives/2005/07/are_you_a_zombi.html
http://superaff.com/archives/2005/07/05/choosing-a-domain-name/
http://superaff.com/archives/2005/06/21/a-motley-mix-of-freebies/
http://www.voasi.com/2005/06/adsense-pissing-you-off-alternatives.htm
http://superaff.com/archives/2005/06/02/cloaking-affiliate-links-small-amount/

That's about it. Have a great weekend!

Tara :)

Tuesday, July 19, 2005

Two new links

I don't have too much to talk about these days. Adsense is ok, not spectacular, no new sales and with the 'rents here, not much work is being done. Actually, all I've done is catch up on some link exchange requests.

As a matter of fact, not only did I complete those, but I've put up 2 new blog links on here - one, Vicky from Desperate To Be A Housewife who's blog I love reading, and Randy's Humble Affiliate Marketing Programs Blog which I discovered thanks to BJ.

Go forth and read much blogs!

Tara ;)

Thursday, July 14, 2005

NOT lots to say today ;)

Haven't done that much in the last few days. Tried my hand at designing a header for my new site, discovered that I suck pretty bad, and got Andrea at Golden Pine Cone templates to design one for me. It's beautiful. I can't wait to show it off for you, hopefully by the end of the month.

Honestly, it's just been too damn hot to do much of anything. The laptop puts off crazy heat too, so anything that required alot of thought was out of the question. I did get a bit of mindless work done, like researching more closely which merchants I'll use as there are TONS for this niche. It's again, not a very tight niche - I could probably do individual sites for each of the product pages. But that's me, I like doing big sites. I just need to finish them eventually!

Adsense keeps climbing, and Monday was a killer day, which gave me great hope for Tuesday. Tuesdays have been by far my best day since the site started getting a bit of traffic. Well, this week it was Monday. Not complaining by any stretch. I beat my best day by almost double. I can't wait to see what happens when this new site is ready to start getting some traffic :)

So that's about it. Have a great weekend!

Tara :)

Monday, July 11, 2005

Lots to talk about today

Let's start with only the single most amazing deal for hosting I've ever seen. Not to say I don't love eMax, because I do, they're still the best in my opinion. On the other hand, everyone says it's good to diversify your hosting packages for many reasons. And at this price, you can't go wrong! I'll just give you the best part - for the rest of the information, visit BJ's blog, she is the amazing person who decided to let the world know about this. How's $9.24 for a domain and ONE YEAR OF HOSTING sound to you?!? That's the deal! I couldn't find a way to choose the domain later, so before you head over to buy (and why wouldn't you?) have a domain name ready. To be honest, I have no need for more hosting, eMax covers my needs - but hell, a domain for $9.24 is still a great deal.

There's a product that I've been using since I started that I think every affiliate should have. It's called Roboform. I never thought about promoting or even talking about it before, because when I first started this blog, I was naively under the assumption that my readers were James Martell followers. I know this is not the case as some of my closest buds aren't. JM suggests to use this in one of the first chapters of his book. The reason I'm talking about it today is because the thought actually crossed my mind this morning - I LOVE Roboform! Now, this IS an affiliate link, I won't hide that, but no worries, the payouts aren't huge, I won't get rich from this, but I figure since I'm taking the time to tell you all about the wonderful service, heck, why not get $.05 here and there? ;)

Alright, so we know how often you need to enter passwords or your address or even your credit card information on a daily basis when logging into our various affiliate networks, right? Imagine just clicking a button and having all the information filled in? Sure you can use the AutoFill feature on Google's Toolbar, but how much can you really edit it? With Roboform you can enter anything you like, change it as often as you like and even have multiple entries for the same website. It even passwords your passwords so no one can get in. If you decide to try it out, you'll have 30 days (I believe) with the full features. After your free trial is over, you can still use it, but you're limited to 10 passcards (login/password), which is plenty for some - I thought it would be plenty for me. If you opt to upgrade though, all your previously saved passwords return and you get unlimited passcards to use. I think it was all of a few hours before I opted to upgrade.. lol So, if you want to save time when surfing the web, Roboform will definitely help!

Ok, now about affiliate marketing. I now have a total of 3 sales this week - 2 from the travel site, 1 from the pet memorials site. Nothing spectacular as the totals of all 3 are around $12, but it still gives me lots of hope about things to come. Oh, and Adsense is doing AMAZINGLY well - I'm extremely close to last month's total, I'd say I'll hit it today or tomorrow. *** Correction, done - and I'm now in the triple digits for the month. Which is awesome. And if all goes well with the new site I'm working on, you might see it later this week. Because of some external problems with it though, it's more likely to be next week. Either way though, very soon.

On a personal note, I'm alone again this week as the hubby's gone back to work, so hopefully all the articles I need to get done on the new site will happen, as well as at least 2 each for my other sites. While I still (and probably never will) don't love being alone at night here, (very, very dark and the coyotes howling don't help) I like it when it's quiet during the week, I get so much more done! Alas though, as of Friday my parents arrive for what's known in Quebec as "Construction holidays", the last 2 weeks of July. Probably at least 50% of Quebec is on holiday then and my parents opted to spend their vaca here because they couldn't find a campground they liked that was still taking reservations. So likely after Friday not much work will get done again by virtue of 2 dogs and 2 adults being under foot, or rather, under my feet.. lol So hustle time is NOW!

Have a great week folks!

Tara :)

Thursday, July 07, 2005

What I've been up to

Ok, so yesterday we went home to feed the cats and do some laundry (there's a laundromat here, but why pay?) and I brought my laptop with me. I miss high speed! *sniff* I ended up finishing the last product page for the new site. Now I need to get the header done, 7 articles (1 for each product I'm targetting) and a few tweaks here and there and I'll be live. End of July, max, is the target date. HOPEFULLY, end of next week.

So, just as an update, I did crack double digits on Tuesday, and with the affiliate sale I made, the total for the day was close to $20. And again yesterday (no sales) I cracked the double digits in Adsense. I was telling Eric earlier that the way Adsense keeps gaining momentum (and with of course the launches of new sites) I'm not caring so much whether I get sales or not. In 7 days I've already made more than half of last month's total. And with the launch of the new site shortly, it's just going to keep growing. I think, honestly, that while perhaps Mr. Martell does very well with sales, it seems my income will be mainly Adsense based. Because even with fairly low traffic (I'm averaging 20-30 visits per day, and even hit 52 on Tuesday!) on the travel site (lower on the others, of course) I'm doing very well in my opinion. No complaints here, other than I need to put up more sites!

So, time to watch American Justice on A & E and then back to work time!

Tara :)

Tuesday, July 05, 2005

Here's what's new and exciting

It seems I forgot to tell you about last month's Adsense earnings. Close, but no cigar. $94.57 for June. Had it been a 31 day month, I would've gotten a check for June. I will get one at the end of July for sure (I hit the $100 mark by the time I got up on Friday) and I would be quite surprised (at the rate I'm going so far this month) to not hit $100 for just July. As it stands today, I'm having my best day in terms of amount (very close to double digits for the first time!) and the day isn't over yet.

I also got my 2nd sale today! Another Magellan's sale from the travel site, though much smaller than the first, $5.30 CAD. I wish CJ would show WHAT they bought. On the very cool side, this now puts me over the minimum amount for payment at CJ, so I should be getting a check from them too!

And on the not so thrilling side, I got 2 more product pages done yesterday with 1 to go. So once that product page and 7 articles (1 for each product page) are ready, I'll be live. Certainly by the end of July, hopefully next week. It's hard with Eric (and myself, I guess) on vacation to get a lot done, so I haven't set myself any real goals.

And I just have to say to whoever's in charge of the weather - can we be done with the rip-roaring thunderstorms???

Tara :)

Saturday, July 02, 2005

Not much to say

Before the hubby got here Thursday afternoon, I got a couple of product pages written and got some more link partners up. I also fixed a mistake that someone on the AP board noticed. That's it. Since he got here, I've been relaxing. Then yesterday my best friend and most of her family got here (I'm quite close to all of them) and so it's just been talking and relaxing with them. Also, since the hubby's on vacation this week, I'm fairly sure not a ton of work will be getting done. That's ok though, guilt free relaxation isn't bad either.

Forget about getting anything done this weekend though with my parents here too, and my monkeys (see the attached picture) there's barely any room to move and I have to keep getting up from my desk to let people by.. lol That's ok though, I love this! I think part of the reason I wanted to come camping for the summer was to extend these weekends. Sadly, these people all have to work, so they leave on Monday (well, except for my friend's aunt who has 3 young children - there's only 3.5 years difference between said friend and her aunt) and then it will get quieter.

So, to all my Canadian readers, happy belated Canada Day! And to my American friends, Happy Independance day, I'll be down in the U.S. celebrating with you! Tara :)