I WILL make it!

Sunday, November 27, 2005

So here's what's new

Let's start with some old articles that hadn't been published:

If You Need A Gift For A Tea Lover, What About A Tea Pot?
Steak Gifts Are Easy And Cheap
Inexpensive Gourmet Meals - Cheap, Easy And Delicious!
Lamb And Meat Gifts - Unusual And Delicious
Mail Order Italian Meats - Delicious, Easy And Fun!
Steak And Lobster Gift Packs - How Do You Choose The Best Ones?

Besides that, I got caught up on all my link exchanges and emails, as far as I can tell. Linkmetro makes it easy since 90% of the link exchanges are C R A P. I had a few random ones too, most of which I discarded. I can't remember who it was, but they had a valid point - if you're going to bloody request an unsolicited link exchange, why the HELL haven't you put my link up first??? Anyway... lol That's about it. Slowly but surely I'm getting slightly less homicidal every morning, but I still can't wait until us "new hires" are taken off the "priority" queue (i.e. we get all calls that come in while the rest of the office sits on their hands unless it's busy). Once I'm off this queue, I'm hoping to get a 10-6 or 1030-630 shift which will allow me to sleep to a more humane hour, which will in turn allow me to perhaps not take a nap 4 out of 5 nights a week. And should THAT ever happen (sometimes I have my doubts) then maybe, just MAYBE I can get back to working on my sites.

At this point, the likelyhood of even being up to 6 is slim. But hell, the tradeoff of going to my first ever affiliate conference should be well worth it - even if just for "vacation" sake. I do expect it to be MUCH more than that though - meeting people I've been chatting with for ages, (can't WAIT to meet Andrea from GoldenPineCone - check out the templates! ) and Deb Carney who I met at EcomXpo (she doesn't blog) and the one and only Shawn Collins who created Affiliate Summit. I have to admit it though - lately, I just haven't even FELT like working on my sites. I'm kind of in the mindframe of "I'm ALREADY working!" - but this isn't going to get more money in. And more than I'm making now would be really handy, though I'm not complaining... just saying ;)

Let's see, on the not job/sites front, we put up our Christmas tree in the basement tonight. I'll post a pic as soon as the batteries are done charging for the digital camera. The kids (dogs and cats) are still as bratty and adorable as ever, I still don't want to kill Eric (only first thing in the morning, sometimes) and I still miss camping, but there's a while to go on that yet... lol Saw Lord of War and Harry Potter last week, both were great, but if you're a true Harry Potter fan (i.e. you've read the books, and more than once) you'll be dissecting what was missing and changed from the book - but it's better than the last movie :)

I guess that's about it for now. Maybe this week I can get some articles written for the 2 sites!

Tara :)

Thursday, November 24, 2005

Happy Thankgiving!

To all my American friends and readers, Happy Gobble Gobble day!

Tara :)

Monday, November 21, 2005

Affiliate Summit

Does anyone want to go? I know a way you can get a free pass, however you'll need to figure out your plane ticket to Las Vegas and the hotel is $139/night (half if you split it with me!) but hey, the ticket is worth $1500!

It will take about 15 minutes of writing, but I'm even willing to help - you just need to be free from January 8-10 (I'm checking out the 11th) for the conference. If you're interested in the free ticket, send me an email at support AT a1-travel-accessories.com asap and I'll give you the details.

Hope to hear from y'all soon!

Tara :)

Sunday, November 13, 2005

I swear I'm trying...

I managed to do a bunch of link exchanges and email responding this weekend, finally. And now, training is over at work and it becomes just a regular job, so it should be reasonably easy to get back to work this week. I'll have to go through all my keyword lists since they were basically torn up and spilled on and trampled upon over the last month, shame on me. That won't happen again.

With the month long break, there's just no way (even with outsourcing, which is getting postponed) I'll have 10 sites live in 1.5 months. I HOPE 7 or 8, but more realistically it will be 6. However, if I'm a little easier on myself, getting 10 live by my 1 year anniversary, around February 15th, is slightly more doable. We'll see, but you know what - they're MY goals and I'll adjust them if I want ;) Seriously, I'm happy with the money I'm making right now (it's on it's way up this month again... slowly) and if takes me longer to get what I want, so be it.

The good news is the reason the outsourcing is being outsourced: I'm headed to Affiliate Summit 2006, and I can't be happier. I don't think work is thrilled with the idea, but screw them, I'm on contract. So anyway, basically all available funds are being diverted to flight and hotel costs, not to mention shopping for some nice clothes to wear there :) If any of my readers are going, or know anyone who is (ESPECIALLY someone who needs a roomate) let me know, it would be awesome to hook up and say hi. Andrea from Golden Pine Cone Templates (and her hubby) are going, so if any of you would like to meet one of the NICEST (truly) people in affiliate marketing, go sign up now!

I guess that's about it for now. Here's hoping that now that training is over there will be a return to regular(ish) blogging and more importantly, WORK!

Have a great week!

Tara :)

Wednesday, November 02, 2005

I am still exhausted

I apologize for my lack of entries. I realize it's a crappy way to treat my loyal readers, and it's not from any disrespect, I assure you. It's from sheer exhaustion. Honestly though, the closest I've come to working since I started the new job (going very very well on a side note) is going through a scary few days trying to find a new friend I made through affiliate marketing, Chrissie. She lives near Fort Lauderdale and her area was very badly hit by Hurricane Wilma. She has power but no internet still, but there were several of us trying to find information before we finally heard from her towards the end of last week.

Other than that, I've managed to sort my email a little bit, but not much else. I don't have the energy at the end of the day between the lack of sleep and the volume of information I'm picking up in training. The stock market is interesting but daunting - and we're barely scratching the service. Life should be reasonably back to normal in the next couple weeks, so hopefully I can get back to working on new sites. In the meantime, being that this is mainly a blog about my travels through the affiliate marketing world, there's obviously not much to say. Even on a personal level I'm just watching a little tv and going to bed most nights.. lol So for a little while longer, there won't be much to say on here.

However, the least I can do is give you my October totals. The money was still down, but it's on it's way back up. But, thank goodness I got a job, because I wouldn't have been able to pay the bills December 1st either :) All told, unless I forgot something, I made about $315 last month. Nowhere near where I want to be, but it's better than nothing, for sure! I hope everyone else's totals were high last month too!

Back to Law and Order (oh how I love time shifting on the satelite dish!) and then back to bed! Take care and I'll see you soon :)

Tara :)