Well this is kind of a complex subject. Because done right it can give your site such a wonderful lift. A nice backlink which makes you stand out better for Google, and it builds a community rapport.

But done wrong it is really a detriment, and it can cause pain to yourself and to others. And you can look like a real jerk. A friend of mine on Factoidz where I also write,  has written a very informative article about blog commenting and what the four types indicate. I think you’ll find it interesting and helpful.

After commenting on so many blogs and reading and replying to comments on my own blogs and articles, it is safe to say that all blog commenters can be categorized into four groups.

*The other bloggers
There are more blogs than you can count out there and new ones are launched pretty much every minute. Even I started 3 new blogs recently. With so many blogs, come many bloggers. Commenting on other blogs might be a part of a strategy to get a link back to your blog, engage with similar-minded people, help build your own community, just say what you think or a combination of these.

But if … From: Blogging: The 4 Main Types of Blog Commenters This is a blogging article that categorizes blog commenters (people who comment on blogs) into 4 main categories and how each of these should be approached.

Technorati Tags: backlinks, Blogs, Google, Internet, internet marketing, Social information processing

What I have learned over the last few months is that you must test, test, test, Get yourself set up with Google Analytics, Be sure to do the url analytics, And see what works and what doesn’t work. And then make the necessary changes to try something new and then test and test and test some more.

And remember while you are testing, you are going to earn, maybe not as much as you would like, But definitely you will make some money.

But here is the thing, You can not create one blog, fill it with adsense and sit back and watch your bank account fill. It ain’t gonna happin!

So what I have been doing is building several blogs that I actually have a love for the subject of the blogs. This is important because you are not going to stick with something if you are not interested in it, at least a little. And blogging does require that you give it some attention occasionally. But another thing I have discovered is that you do not have to post every few seconds to your blog to keep it ranking well in Google.

The Big Guru’s told me that I had to post on the blog at least 2-3 times a week. At the very least, weekly. Well you remember from reading this blog, I am still working at the J.O.B. although I am happy to announce I have been able to cut back on a few hours. Which gives me a little more time to work online, but life still happens, and I am a woman. So my home, my family, my husband takes up enough of my 24 hours each day that I could not blog one, let alone all of my blogs 2-3 times a week.

I worried myself sick over my impending failure, due to my inability to be a “real” blogger. I was posting every few weeks on one at a time. That is what I could do. So that is what I did.

If you find a good keyword and make really good content, your blog will get some traffic. Good content is key. Good content will get you excellent adsense ads and that will get you more clicks.

Let me take you through getting your url channels set up so you can watch your adsense and begin your test, test, testing.

FIRST: Go to your Google Adsense account and click the Adsense Set Up tab.

SECOND: click the “Channels” under the Set Up tab. 

NEXT: click the “URL channels”, about 1/2 way down the page.

THEN: click “add new url channels”

Here, put the url of the page you want to monitor your ads. It will show up on your channel reports and you can see how active a page is for adsense and if the ads you placed there are working for you.

Don’t be afraid to switch out your ads. Try different configurations, color schemes, corner shapes or whatever. Just keep testing. You’ll be surprised what you learn, not to mention it’s just fun to see where the clicks are coming from.

Google Analytics allows you 200 total Channels  to track, so every page that you want to track how well your adsense is doing on, just add the url and analytics will do the rest.

So get on it, make some blogs, put some adsense on them, track how well they do in your analytics account and start making some money!

Technorati Tags: AdSense, AdWords, bank account fill, blog, Google, Google Inc., Human Interest, internet marketing, Statistical hypothesis testing, Technology/Internet, Vroom Framework, Web 2.0

One of the things that is really important about working from home is starting to make some money. If you spend day after day toiling at your new craft and you see nothing for your effort, you may become discouraged and give up.

DON’T DO IT!

You see this is one of those things that can get you in a lot of trouble with yourself. You must be able to see some progress. There are some measuring tools, like Google analytics or statcounter, which you can use to see progress. But money is number one.

When I first started I tried a few things. Remember I used to get over 200 e-mails a day from all the gurus lists that I was on. Each of them telling me just what it was that I needed to do, and what latest must have product I needed to buy, with money I had not yet earned. Well what did I learn?

Of course, I already told you to get off those lists! They are sucking you under, they are killing your productivity and they are breaking your spirit. Is that clear for you? I mean it.

But logically why is that the wise thing for you to do? Well, we have already spoken of in some length about time and how little of it you have when you are working at home. Remember, you are a mother or father, breadwinner, housecleaner, teacher, peacekeeper, and veterinarian. First of all, just when will you spend some of your precious online time reading emails that are truly just sucking the life out of your internet business?

And second of all, Every time you choose to try something new, you now have to invest your time and effort into learning it, getting together whatever you need to put it into play and then put it into practice. Now you are spending precious time to learn a new task, and you are not doing anything to advance your business that you have already established.

Remember, and this is key to your online success, so wait for it…

You need only three things to become successful online.

1. You need a product in a market that has buyers. (market/keyword research first, then product)
2. You need a place to sell this product (website of some kind, blog, lens, hubpage etc)
3. You need people to sell it to. (traffic)

Pretty easy huh? Well if you said yes to that question, you really need to rethink a thing or two.

No! it is not easy. But it is doable.

More on the details of the above later, but now we need to start seeing some money.

This is what I have been doing and I am starting to see some money. Squidoo.

Squidoo is a website that allows you to build a “lens” (the name they use to describe the website you build) The lens can be on any subject you like, writing about something you know and then expanding the lens into all kinds of fun interactive “modules” or pieces of your lens. It is great! However, this is not play time, you are an internet marketer. So if you want to use your lens to sell something so you will earn some money, keyword research would be good, and then build the lens around that keyword. You can also put as many links into your lens as you like pointing back to your main site if it has anything to do with your keyword.

That is an advanced thought. If you had taken the thirty day challenge you would know exactly what I am talking about. You still can, just go over to the Thirty Day Challenge and sign up. It is free! This is not an affiliate link, I get nothing but the count of the number of people taking the challenge through my link. So check it out.

But for now I just want you to focus on making some money. You can just build lens and not sell a thing. You see Squidoo has Google adsense on them and you can earn money from just that. Or if you put a Amazon or ebay module on your lens and sell something, you earn additional income. You have to tell Squidoo when you make your profile that you want to be paid cash or they will give it all to charity, so don’t forget that.

Now the catch here is that you only earn of percentage of the whole pot if your lens are ranking well. They need to be in the top 100 of your category. There is a ton of stuff you will learn when you sign up to Squidoo, which by the way is a FREE service. 100%! Getting them into the top 100 is the fun part. You have to be interactive and give a little. You know look at other people’s lens and vote on them and favorite them and duel on them. And join the forum, to learn from as well as to interact some more. All this behavior is rewarded by Squidoo. Plus your nicely ranking lens that are interesting and interactive can earn you some cash.

Some people on Squidoo are earning hundreds of dollars every month. Some even over a thousand. Could you use that? I know I can. Just to start reducing debt or replacing JOB income

Here is an example of one of my lens. CLICK HERE, and by the way, vote for it if you like it while you are there. I hope you will take the time to look into Squidoo, it has turned into a way to lighten the load for me, and it is fun, filled with genuinely nice people. And as an added benefit, well loved by Google. A win-win situation.

Until next time,

Susan

Technorati Tags: A Blog for Baby Boomers, Google Adsense, internet marketing, lensmasters, make money online, squidoo, squidoo lens, work from home

1.  Lack of confidence

2.  Everything from here to the moon demanding my time!

We’ve already talked at some length about what not to do when you are working at home in a previous post. Well I let most of those things cause me to lose focus this last month. Very disturbing when the teacher doesn’t even abide by her own rules. Well I tried, really I did. But anyone that works from home or even tries to start working from home will run into this. It is amazing how many things get in the way of your staying productive.

Now the wonderful thing is once you are actually making a living online. You will no longer even have this problem. I promise. It is getting established as a work at home entrepreneur that causes the problem.

Everyone in your life is so much more in need of your time and attention. And if anything can go wrong in your home it will. For instance, my precious dog, that I love with all my heart, out of the blue, developed separation anxiety. One day while I was at the hospital at my JOB, she ate my kitchen door frame. Both sides as high as she could reach. ATE IT! I am not exaggerating! Well for the next few days I was occupied with plaster and sanding and painting. What a mess. But it crunched into my internet time. See what I mean.  Thank goodness I don’t have human children. I can’t imagine the time consumption in that area.

The second thing was Lack of confidence. This one is more difficult to talk about.

I have been approached by so many different people that are well meaning and of course have the solution to my problems. But you simply can not afford to get caught up in that. Everyone is actually trying to make a living online. Just like you. And many many of them are wonderful people that really  do know what they are doing. But…it may not be the thing that you need to include in your online business. But how do you know?

Here’s the thing, it may actually be that whatever is being offered to you could be the best thing to ever come along since sliced bread. But if it is distracting you from moving forward with your business. It’s garbage, at least for today.

See, despite what they say about being your last opportunity and you’ll never see this offer again. So what? Internet marketing is always going to be there and it is recycled from time to time. What works works. It just gets packaged in a new box with a new ribbon ever so often. If you like research, check it out in the history of internet marketing.

That is what happened to me, I became afraid that I was going to miss out on some spectacular something or other. And remember what I told you about information overload?

It is paralyzing.

I was paralyzed. So I listened and read and watched and worried and basically did nothing. Then I read the most amazing Blog entry by one of my mentors that I sort of forgot about or at least pushed to the back burner, and it was like a two by four to the forehead.

Well, I am back. Here is my advice to you.

Please, please, please, choose one or two mentors, people that you just feel good about. People that have steered you right a couple times. And people that do not constantly ask you to open your wallet. Sure they have things to offer but you know it and you’ll take care of that when you can afford it and in your time.

You must decide on your business model. What method are you going to use to get traffic to your site? What is your site? What is your product? When you choose your mentor you will figure all this out. It will make sense to you. Model what you are going to do after someone who is already doing it successfully. That is all there is to it. Why re-invent the wheel? It rolls pretty good already.

Once you decide these things, don’t let ANYTHING distract you from moving forward. One of my mentors actually has a list of things for me to do, in order, and then boom things start happening. When I finally came back to my senses and followed that plan… Well, surprise, surpise…it worked.

Internet marketing is not hard, but it is necessary to be paid attention. You must work it. You must follow the steps. You must NOT be distracted.

I am seriously going to follow my own advise. I hope you do too.

To our success!!

Susan

Technorati Tags: internet marketing, marketing, work at home, work from home

I don’t want you to miss out on an opportunity that only comes once a year.

It is called the Thirty Day Challenge. It is a Free internet
marketing learning seminar that lasts literally 30 days. It is
intense training that is 100% free. You will not spend one penny.
It is put on by Ed Dale and Dan Raine, both very
successful internet marketers. They say they will take your money
11 months of the year but for one month they will give it all back
by teaching you how to make money online.

It is really remarkable. I took the challenge last year and I
thought my brain was going to explode because of all I learned.
It was really exceptional.

You would not believe the tools that are available for
FREE! and of course, the knowledge and know how that you learn is
amazing.

This is the fourth 30 Day Challenge and it starts August 1, 2008.
But Pre-Season started today. For the next 60 days we learn all
about the new tools for this year and all the things necessary to be
successful in this challenge.

I am telling you, some people from these challenges are now very
successful internet marketers that have quit their J.O.B.s. And now
they are assisting to put on the challenges.

Isn’t that what we all want?! To quit our J.O.B.

Well go on, check this out. You will not regret it.
If you are interested in becoming successful on line and quiting that J.O.B. you must
check this out.

The Thirty Day Challenge

Please don’t deny yourself the opportunity to learn
from the best.

The Thirty Day Challenge

To your success,

Susan Kaul,

Technorati Tags: 30 day challenge, 30DC, internet marketing, make money online, marketing, work from home

Then you open your email. Wow, you say, I have 79 new e-mails. Yikes. Of course, you did just join that latest giveaway and they had some great free downloads and all you had to do was give them your email address. That’s pretty simple.

So now you are on their lists. And they want you to buy something… anything!  The next greatest and latest, the best must have thing for your new internet business. Well, what are you to do? What if they are right? What if some of the stuff they are selling really would help you in some endeavor you are aspiring to? What if it might save you some time or effort? What if it really would let you become successful? Afterall, you do have a limited budget for growing your business.

So…you start opening and reading and clicking…

what do you mean 4 hours have passed!! I must get dinner, the kids will be home from school, the dog needs to be let out.

How could this have happened. I had a list!

Sound familiar. Well it certainly does to me. This has happened to me over and over. I love those giveaways and I have been around long enough to have gotten on a few lists that keep me informed of the next one coming. It’s free! You have to check it out.

Or do you?

Here is my take on this. There are just a few things you must do to make money on line.

• You need a product, be it yours, an affiliate’s or google’s (adsense)
• You need a way of contacting people, be it a blog, a website, email campaigns
• you need people to sell it to

These are the essentials, albeit extremely oversimplified.

So you know you have an idea of what you need to to do to accomplish this, remember you had a list, but distractions are killing your efforts. Day after Day, and week after week and soon month after month of your precious time away from diner, the kids and the dog keep slipping away and you are no closer to your dream of working from home.

What can you do?

Well there is something you can do. It took awhile, but I finally learned this and it has made a huge difference in my online life.

You must be aware you are being distracted!

That’s it! That’s the big secret! All the internet gurus know this secret, but they will not necessarily share it with you. They figure you’ll probably figure it out but until then they will continue to be part of the distraction.

So are you going to ignore your email. Tape it shut with duct tape so it can’t get you again. No, of course not. But…

Have a plan…a little better than a list. Here’s what I do.

1. I plan my time to do my online work every week just like a real work schedule.
2. I share this plan with my family. I, of course, made the plan with home life in mind so that no one is neglecte, not even the dog,  and everyone in the family can help me be successful by respecting the plan.
3. When I sit down to my block of time to work online, I have a designated 30-45 min of time to look at email. Now this means peruse. If you have 79 new emails. YOU MUST NOT LOOK AT ALL 79! You are going to have to good at glancing through them, prioritizing them and looking at the ones you feel are really important or interesting. You can always come back to this later and continue to clean it up while you are watching TV with the family with your laptop in use.
4. Here is where you list comes in. Nothing feels as good as being able to check things off your list. Let me repeat that. Nothing feels as good as being able to check things off your list. You feel like you are really internet marketing. You feel like this really is important and you are doing something toward your freedom from the JOB. You are really working from home. IT IS GREAT! Try it!
5. Work your allotted time for the day. Check off a thing or two from your list. Stand up feel proud and go cook dinner and oh, let the dog out.

Feel really good about yourself. You did it! You worked at your internet marketing business. You know you can’t help but be successful if you can behave as a professional and take your work seriously.

Give this a real concerted effort. You may not be perfect at it for awhile. It is really hard to get away from the email and distractions and it takes a minute for the family to fall inline. But it will happen. I promise. It did for me. It will for you.

Next time we’ll talk a bit about that next great thing, that must have something or other. Until then, please be good to yourself and keep working to quit your JOB.

Technorati Tags: A Blog for Baby Boomers, blog, blogging, internet marketing, marketing, quit your job, work from home

Well the point of telling you that is that I have only a certain amount of time that I can devote to my online business and that is one of the factors that can really sink you in the water.

You must be able to prioritize your life. You have to clean your house, do the laundry and do the shopping and if you have kids, well is there any end to it? See what I mean? Throw an actually JOB on top of all that and you can become undone.

The problem of working from home is that everything else becomes more important and demands your attention more than you “work”, and if something is going to be cut it is going to be your online work.

It’s a fact! I am living proof of this phenomenon. It doesn’t matter if you are male or female. The fact is you can only do so much with your 24 hours.

People won’t take your work seriously until you do.

Think about this. If we didn’t have our JOB’s and we were dependent on our online work for our income, how would you react then?  Do you see what I mean?

We MUST treat our online work as a business that can and does make us money. Otherwise we will always figure out a way to do something else and maybe fit this in someway or other. But without having a set pattern and an aggreement with ourselves and also our families,  that we will work this many hours on these days, no matter what!, we will find success extremely difficult.

Now of course, later when we are established and doing well, we can afford the luxury of being more relaxed and lenient with ourselves.  But not in the beginning.

I only just learned this in the last few weeks.  I was having serious information overload and reading so much that I felt like I could only chase my own tail.  I was never getting anything accomplished.

Well no more! I have  exercised some discipline in my efforts. I have organized my inbox so that I can look at things of interest when it is the appropriate time. Not when I need to get some things accomplished today. Do you see what I mean?

So make a contract with your self. Set up a schedule. Decide what you want to do and DO IT!

To our success,

Susan

Technorati Tags: internet marketing, make money online, work at home, work from home

I have done a huge amount of research on Google AdSense.  It has been suggested that this is the first and best way to get started making money online. I did so much research into how to do it, what was needed and where to get it, that I compiled it all into an e book. You can get a FREE download of Google Adsense for Baby Boomers by clicking on the link.

Anyway, you can see that I have put into practice what I learned. I am currently building a website that will be my home base for my new business.  Oh! that is another thing I learned.  Having a website although not essential, is very helpful. We are striving to make a living on the internet so it would be very helpful to have an internet presence.  The next thing you need is a Blog. Because it is essential for driving traffic to your site.

It all sounds so complicated and overwhelming. Well I’m not going to lie to you. It can be. but again, one thing at a time. I have discovered if I will  just devote my block of time, to accomplishing one thing at a time. I can keep moving forward.  I have put some excellent resources in my e book about  traffic and building web sites, check it out. Remember it is FREE.

till next time,

Susan

Technorati Tags: blogging, Google Adsense, internet marketing, work at home, work from home

You see these are the things that make us baby boomers. Memories of a time gone by. We should all be proud to be of that post war generation. A difficult time our parents suffered through to give us life. I am grateful, aren’t you?

But now it is today 2008. I am 55 years old. I am still working. Really hard work.   I have been working for nearly 40 years. I am a bit tired. I want something else for myself. But…

I have two mortgages, credit card debt and a life style that I enjoy and am not willing to give up. So I continue to work. Cost of living keeps rising. I can’t afford to take a driving vacation anymore because of the expense of gasoline. Food cost keeps rising. Gas and electric are higher than they have ever been. In the city I live in it costs $9.oo just to go to the movies. It used to be $2, remember??

I can’t afford to quit working. I’m too young to collect retirement or social security. But I am a bit tired, (did I mention that already )

So, recently I have begun exploring new ways of thinking. New ways of making money. Attitude changes. Paradigm shifting. I have been doing internet marketing. I should say most of this time (about 6 months) I have been doing internet marketing education.

Unfortunately, you don’t just start doing something with no knowledge base at all. So I started learning. OMG! I have never had more information overload in my life. School for nursing was a bit challenging. Learning how the human body works and why, and then how to fix it. You would think that would be intense, which it was. But this is amazing.

Here is the problem. There are some shysters out there. They are no more interested in your advancing on their turf, than the man in the moon. But they say they are. They say they want to help you and all you need to do is buy this and that and the other thing and in the next week you will be a millionaire too. Well, before you know it you are more broke than you ever were. It is shameful. It is even embarrassing as to how gullible I was.

But finally I got connected to some really awesome people who although they admit they are making a living online, they are also really interested in helping you do the same. It is also amazing how much FREE stuff there is out there to advance your effort.

And you know what I learned from these people. You must care about someone other that just yourself.

So that is what this blog is for. I plan to journal my journey into the world of successful internet marketing. I may make some mistakes but I will become successful. I also plan to share some things with any readers I may have. I have learned a lot. I have some good recommendations and can maybe even help you avoid some of the pitfalls.

You see we have two choices. Keep working until we are seventy. Or get out of the rat race now and start learning something new.

I am getting out!

If you want to comment on anything about baby boomers. Internet marketing, or share your own experiences or things you have found please do. Together we will move forward!

To our success!

Susan

Technorati Tags: A Blog for Baby Boomers, Didem, Food cost, Human Interest, internet marketing, internet marketing education, marketing, president, The Organ, USD, work at home, work from home