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Quick note - Colin just let me know the price will be going up by Saturday, so it's your last chance to save $27 on The VEO Report.

That's it, off to bed and then off to the trailer tomorrow, but hopefully I should be online. Have a great weekend!

Tara :)

eComXpo

Hey all, quick reminder that eComXpo is coming up next week, the 4th-6th (Tuesday to Thursday) and it's free for everyone to attend! I made some valuable contacts at the last one, and learned so many new things, I couldn't wait for this one. I was bummed that I might have to work through it (thankfully not a problem now!) but even if I'd had to (or you do) you can replay the presentations anytime during the 3 days.

I get no money from this, I just thought everyone would like to know about it. It's a pretty good substitute to an offline conference, so go check it out!

Tara :)

It's official!

I am jobless!! Woooooooooo hoooooooooooooooooooooooo! Funny thing is, while I was off "sick" Monday, the other 4 who started with me got offered permanency. I'm happy for them since that's what they want, but as far as I'm concerned, good riddance to bad rubbish. I basically quit via voice mail. Of course, as usual, the supervisor wasn't there, so she called me back, cleared up a few details and it was over. In less than 10 minutes. Kind of anti-climactic. But it's done. No official word on Eric's new job yet, but we know the contract is being drawn up, so hopefully this week.

So, I've caught up on laundry finally (only took a week!) and mostly packed for the weekend. Going to have the phone and internet turned on tomorrow (dialup for a few weeks - have to go in to fill out paperwork to pay thru the nose for high speed) and then start making lists to get myself caught up. Because right now, I don't really know where to start. So much to do with old and upcoming sites that it's a little overwhelming. And in my time off I've done a lot of ebook reading too, so that's all swirling in my head. But now, I've got all the time in the world. And I can't wait to get back into the WAH groove.

Don't forget Colin's book will be going up soon, possibly as soon as this weekend, and there won't be much if any warning, so if you haven't got The VEO Report yet at $39.95, you should get it before it goes back to $67. It's still worth it at $67, but hey, we're all trying to save money :)

I guess that's it for now, but with more work going on there will be more blogging going on :)

Tara :)

Prices going up soon...

I've heard about 2 products who's prices will be going up shortly. One is Colin's book (in the next few days) and Dr. Andy's Keywords Results Analyzersince he's releasing version 2 very shortly. I haven't spoken much about KRA but I use it all the time - it's so handy for sorting through the massive keyword lists I generate. Seriously, I end up often with 2K-5K keywords most of the time. It's $67 right now, but once you buy you get free updates for life. So if you've been thinking about picking up KRA, you'll want to do it very soon.

Not much to talk about in the last 2 weeks. We're still waiting on news about Eric's job (hopefully tomorrow) and in the meantime I've decided I'm quitting as soon as we hear he got the salary he asked for. This allows me to become a housewife, once I add my income from my sites. Other than that, I've been cleaning up the house a bit ('rents plan on visiting Easter weekend to drop off their old dryer) and getting ready to go camping. It's a smidge early (season only starts May 1st technically) but they're predicting beautiful weather for next weekend, so if it's stays the same forecast, I'M GOING CAMPING!!!! lol Can you tell I'm excited? No real work being done lately, just a few articles being written/rewritten. I'm staying home from work tomorrow though (and hopefully from now on!) so that should change shortly.

That's about it. I lead a very boring life ;) Have a great, prosperous week!

Tara :)

Latest Revenews article from Colin

(This is going to be somewhat of an I heart Colin post, so if you're not into the Colin love like myself, too bad for you and just skip this one ;) )

Ok, so I've refrained from posting about Colin anywhere for a little while now. Mainly because I felt like I would be talking to a wall on the forums, but I also didn't want to burn you guys out on him either. However, with the latest (great!) VEO newsletter, the latest Allan Gardyne newsletter and a few posts in Allan's forum, (http://associateprograms.com/discus/ftopic15748-45.html, http://associateprograms.com/discus/ftopic16580.html) not to mention Colin's latest Revenews post, I felt it was time.

First and foremost, to the people who made the really dumb comment (obviously directed towards me and others who support Colin) about whether or not "i--love--colin.com" was available - you'll be happy to know it is. But you know what? I'm not about to register it. I do love Colin - he's a great guy and someone I'm happy to call a friend. I also think what he has to say about SEO and building sites and so on is on the ball - whether or not you agree is your opinion. And if you want to keep blindly following James Martell's system which MANY angry customers will tell you DOES NOT WORK ANYMORE, feel free to go register I-love-James-martell.com - that's available too. But hell, Colin will tell you that when we talk, I'm as honest with him about ideas he bounces off of me as he is with me.

And while it may SEEM like I have the same blinders on as when I first started in this business (which caused me to be a staunch follower of Martell until I learned I wasn't doing everything wrong, which is why I thought my sites weren't doing well) I most certainly don't. The VEO Report isn't perfect, nor does it offer all the answers. No one product does - in affiliate marketing or anything else in life. But I think it does address many issues that JM followers have been wondering about, and if you speak to former followers of Martell who've read the VEO Report, they'll tell you their eyes are wide open now and they thought the book was worth every penny. And most did not buy it through my affiliate link, which as I've said, I don't really care. I'd rather you bought it through someone else's link or none at all rather than not buying it - period. Because I think it has great info that we can all use. But hey, it's just my opinion, that I'm entitled to, just like you're entitled to yours.

Ok, off that soapbox for now. As I said in an earlier post, I would let you know about the work situation, which, believe it or not, has deteriorated further. As it turned out, they didn't force anyone on to the early shift or the late shift... the early one was done away with and the late one was split between 5 of us, that is until a coworker fell on the sword and took it full time - for 3 days until they decided it wasn't working. After he had just purchased a public transit pass for $63. And so, if the undecideness isn't bad enough, here's the latest in the saga of my job. I called our "helpline" (a senior coworker) to take a supervisor call. I had been given information when I first started that we weren't to refuse them, and she was polite and friendly with me until I questioned her refusing to take the call, since it wasn't a "legitimate" supervisor call. Then she turned into a real bitch. Turns out she was allowed to refuse it. Funny thing was - she was fine until I questioned her - but I got a verbal warning 2 days later because at the beginning of the call, I said the reason the client wanted a sup was because he wanted to know "why the hell" something hadn't been done. I was quoting him, and this person KNEW that. But though I was polite and she was a fucking bitch (very rude in words and tone of voice) I "set the tone" by saying "why the hell" - WTF??? Oh, and it gets worse.

So fine, after a little sit down about the fact that we ARE supposed to refuse sup calls when it's not for a good reason (fine, not what I had been told, but fine) I get another one 2 days later. I go see my team leader about the situation before it escalates, but I'm essentially told, go tell him the answer, BE FIRM, no sup call over this situation. So it escalates, he asks for a sup and I say no. Don't I get in MORE shit - for refusing to pass him on - because it involved a lot of money and because the guy asks for higher (he wanted a general manager) I should have somehow GUESSED that in this case, yes, it was to be transferred to a supervisor. (Who had JUST FUCKING TOLD ME to refuse it - and I had told her the money involved!!) But see, in this case, it was my fault for saying, I'm sorry, I can't transfer you to a supervisor who's just going to tell you the same thing. Which is what I was told to say. So people, unless you are psychic, don't go work for this company. They have offices all over the world. If you're about to apply for a company that deals with stocks and has computer in the name, email me first, I'll tell you if you should stay away or not. Because this is typical of the whole company.

Another little winner situation? They make everyone who starts later than 9 am (about 6 of us, some starting as late as noon) come in for 9:30 or 10:00 for a "town hall" meeting with the president. Big important meeting, should last for a half hour, can't miss it. (Of course, it was ok for our team leader to miss it since she started at noon, but I digress..) Said meeting which I came in a half hour early for lasted 5 MINUTES, if that. Just to tell us we bought another company, which happens more often than I change my underwear, I swear. So some people came in 2 HOURS early (not to mention screwed appointments they had made, since this was "soooooo important") for a 5 minute, useless meeting. Starting to get the picture here? Oh, and more changes coming this week, including removing our helpline (sorely needed, much info lacking on our intranet) and putting in a booth - manned from 10-3. Great. So if it wasn't bad enough that anyone who called after 5 with an usual problem had to be told to call back in the morning, now everyone outside of 10-3 will. Did I mention the call centre is open from 8:30-8? So 5 hours of 11.5 will be covered if you need help - which is multiple times per day, unless you've been there for more than 5 years. ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Ok, let's see, other than all that crap, there is a teeny bit of good news. I've caught up on some ebook reading while it's been quiet at work (not often these days) and I'm looking forward to not working to play with PPC a bit. It's still a scary concept, but not as bad as I thought. Also got a few articles written/rewritten that still have to be edited. And on the VERY good news front, Eric is interviewing on Tuesday for a job that will pay enough for me to quit my job if he gets it. His chances are pretty good - his former coworker works there and really wants Eric, plus Eric already interviewed there but turned down a different job that involved traveling 60% of the time. Really interesting place, great pay, 3 weeks vaca and stock options, which I'm now intimately familiar with and know that this is a GREAT thing ;) So, here's hoping they're just interviewing (since it's a different boss this time) for the sake of looking good and that I know by the end of next week, or better yet, by the end of the interview on Tuesday. Because I can't tell you how much I want to just grab my stuff, extend my middle finger at management and leave. It's nice to have dreams... lol If that job doesn't happen, "only" 24 days left to work. Seems like 24 years sometimes...

And on that note, hopefully your weekend is going well and you're making lotsa lotsa moolah. I've been having a good sales month so far despite losing 2 sites, but Adsense is down, of course. Such is life... one site will be replaced as soon as I have a bit of time and can decide on a domain. Anyway, that's all folks, ttys!

Tara :)

What a week, or if you're using Emax hosting - DUMP THEM NOW!!

Ok, I was planning on posting my February revenue when I was done with dinner on Thursday night. No sooner did I pick up a huge knife and make the first cut into some veggies for salad, my phone rings. It's Emax. Telling me they've cancelled my account. Not to mention taken control of the 2 domains I registered for them. (Side note - I read recently on someone's blog (I can't remember whose, sorry!) to never have both domains and hosting with the same company. Believe me now when I say this is true!!) The reason? A charge back on our credit card. A little back story - about mid February, Eric said to me that there was a double charge on his credit card from Emax. So while I was looking into it, he called his credit card company and asked (ASKED!) what to do if we can't work it out. They said they'd send us some paperwork to file a charge back. (Meanwhile on March 5th we STILL don't have this paperwork.) Apparently they went and filed this charge back.

Now, it was legitimate, Emax charged me for registering a domain that was never transferred to them (we tried twice) and with the hours I work it's virtually impossible to reach them. Having had issues before and knowing their ticket system is just for technical issues I wanted to CALL them. I should mention this charge was applied in January and yes, they did credit me back, miraculously (they pointed out the date while on the phone) MARCH 2ND - THURSDAY - the email was received but not read since, HEY, I have a job to go to, I deal with email at night after work. Either way, it was too late since the chargeback had already been filed unbeknownst to us.

So after him repeating to me several times the consequences of a chargeback ($35 fee plus higher merchant fees for life) and me repeating I was unaware it had gone through and that since he had already cancelled my account I certainly wasn't going to pay the $35 (he said that I didn't have to!) our conversation degenerated into a screaming match since he would listen to me. He just kept repeating the fees without proposing any kind of solution (I honestly don't understand the point of the repeating, it was really weird) I finally got sick of trying to talk over him and told him finally to fuck off and hung up. (I was shaking at this point and we were going nowhere. The account was cancelled and he wasn't going to reactivate it.) He THEN called right back and told me his lawyer would contact me for the $35 and hung up on me.

So I rushed around like mad trying to find a new host. This time, I didn't care if I was paying more for it but I was getting 24/7 VOICE (phone) support included. When I have a problem, especially with technical stuff I don't fully understand I want to TALK to someone about it. Is that too much to ask? (It is with Emax - now even if you call their tech support they have a message that says fill out a ticket first... argh) So I finally decided on Host Gator.

So far I'm very happy with them. They have CPanel (which was another requirement since I'm used it now), shopping cart stuff (not well versed but I will be!), Fantastico (I wanted for a few apps), .htaccess access (finally starting to learn how to use it and I could never get it to work on Emax since they messed with my stuff so often), unlimited domains (you'd think I'd learn, but I like to manage everything, or almost everything in one place) , autoresponders and tons more. I probably could have gotten away with the "Baby" package, but since I plan on growing my next site to be huge and possibly have a shopping cart and database on it, I wanted ALL features available, so I went with the "Swamp" package at $14.95/month. I think I'd rather pay more for great service, and I've read good things about them from other people.

So all that said, learn your lesson from me. Dump Emax NOW. I sugarcoated a lot of the bullshit I went through with them (problems EVERY SINGLE TIME I added a new domain, to which their automatic response was "it's a FrontPage issue" unless I bugged them to actually LOOK. FYI - it was not ONCE a Front Page issue!) for the sake of playing nice. I refuse to play nice anymore. And I almost hope their lawyer contacts me... a) because what a WASTE of money, for $35! and b) my uncle is a lawyer.. I'll get free advice and perhaps file a counter claim for lost income. Since they've now stolen 2 domains I'm daily losing money on one of them. They can keep the dog domain though, I have barely paid for hosting, let alone the domain, that was a dud site from the get go.. lol (Not to mention I'm in Canada and they are in the U.S.) And btw - even if they did credit the domain registration charge, I'm still out for a month's hosting that they DID charge and I'm not getting.

And to be very honest, yes I'm PISSED about the whole thing, but if I'm philosophical about it, I have just been waiting to be out of a job to switch hosting companies anyway, since it wasn't something I really wanted to do after work, know what I mean? So anyway, if you sent an email between Thursday afternoon and Saturday afternoon to support AT a1-travel-accessories DOT com, please resend it because I didn't get it.

Ok, on to income.. well, it was a crappy month. I made a little more than last month I think, but that was from promoting 1 specific product which netted me over $120 in comissions. If it hadn't been for that I would have been very poor indeed. So here's the total: $380 (approx, as usual), which also includes doing some VA (virtual assistant) work for someone. Better than I had hoped for at the beginning of the month when I saw the awful totals, but obviously less than I would've liked. I'll just have to get working on the new site. Though to be quite honest, I've come to the conclusion if I get work done during the week, awesome, but if not I'm done with feeling guilty about it. My job is very draining due to the repetitiveness of it and the stress with dealing with a bunch of incompetent morons in management. In case this never occured to anyone else, NEVER take a job where your department has been in existence 3 years. Or maybe it's only at my company... but wow, they can't make a decision that sticks longer than a month to save their freaking lives! Frustrating to say the least!!

And at this point, I've no doubt bored you to death, so I will stop, wish everyone a GREAT week (can't be as bad as mine has been! lol) and may March be the new month to beat!!

Tara :)