Get $25 for signing up with WidgetBucks this October

Posted on October 15, 2008

I’ve been using WidgetBucks on my blogs for many months now. They’re a fast growing ad network that allows you to place contextual ad widgets on your blog and make money from your visitors’ clicks.

They’re just now celebrating their 1st birthday by giving away a $25 bonus to new publishers during the month of October.

With the shopping season right around the corner, I’d say this offer is perfectly-timed to monetize your blog. By placing WidgetBucks ad widgets on your blog, your readers are more likely to click when they see an item that interests them.

Go check them out. Signing up is free and placing the widget on your blog is easy. Go Earn $$ with WidgetBucks now before October ends.

• Drive free, targeted traffic to your blog
• I’m done with BlogRush
• Increase your blog traffic
• Are you getting any clicks from BlogRush?
• Giving BlogRush a second chance

Get free web traffic and more

Posted on October 6, 2008

I signed up for Entrecard, half-expecting to get the same sorts of results I’ve had with the other web traffic programs I’ve tried before. Truth is none of them really worked very well for me. But with Entrecard, I was in for a pleasant surprise.

It’s a program where you visit and drop your calling card on participating blogs so the owner knows you’ve visited and then comes to visit you back, thus generating a flow of traffic.

I’ve been enjoying a steady stream of traffic from the word go. The nice thing is it’s not just traffic. Many of the folks who visit my blogs to drop their cards actually take the time to read my posts and leave comments. Now that’s really cool.

Each time you drop your Entrecard on a blog, you earn credits. With the credits earned from various means, you get to purchase ad spots on participating blogs which brings in even more traffic, and comments.

Another nice thing is most of the participating blogs are quality blogs which I actually enjoy reading. Be warned though, card dropping is addictive and sometimes I think I’m spending time I don’t have.

But I love the traffic, love that people are reading my blogs and leaving quality comments, and I’m not even getting paid to say this. Best of all, it’s free. So if you’re keen for more traffic, go check out Entrecard.com.

• How To Increase Targeted Web Site Traffic
• Promote Your Blog
• Get your blog’s Real Rank from Izearanks
• Target your site traffic
• Know what you’re buying

What have we done now?

Posted on October 3, 2008

I think I might just stop reading the news altogether. It’s too depressing this economic downturn. It’s hard enough for some of us to etch out a living online and now this.

We can forget about learning how to lose weight since we’re obviously going to need to tighten our belts here. I’m not complaining. Maybe I’m just a little tired of finding out there’s just been another round of Google smackdown lately.

None of my blogs were affected this time. In fact, I’ve had a couple of blogs go up in PR. But I know of others who’ve suffered another drop, hence less propensity to make money with those blogs.

Many of these people are work at home parents or single parents trying to make a decent living. I don’t like how their lifelihood has to depend on a number in a pagerank, know what I mean?

Were you affected in this round of rank spank?

• Get your blog’s Real Rank from Izearanks
• Roller coaster ranking
• Look before you leap
• What blogging break?
• The PR game

Too many public holidays?

Posted on October 2, 2008

I was surprised to read recently that some people complained about having too many public holidays. Are you kidding me? I love public holidays. It’s the only time I actually get uninterrupted hours to work on my home business.

But then again, of course there are certainly admin stuff that I can’t get around to simply because businesses are closed for the day. For instance, I was looking for some auto insurance quotes online. I found the information but now I have some questions and need to talk to someone there.

But since it’s a holiday, I can’t call them. Or get my banking done or go to the post office for that matter, know what I mean? So maybe those people have a point there. Public holidays are good but they can be disruptive too.

• Better returns from selling your endowment
• Spam and the lack of business ethics
• Tell them about your breaks
• Top up your auto insurance
• Banking on whims and fancies

Listening to learn

Posted on September 30, 2008

Frankly who has the time to read books anymore? I know I don’t because half the day, I’m running Mom’s taxi and the other half, I’m working online at my home business. I’m sure many of you are like me, trying to juggle family and business.

In fact, I’m finding it hard to keep up with what’s new and happening on the internet even though I’m online half the day. Lately I’ve turned to listening to downloadable audio books while I’m at the gym working out.

It’s a pretty good idea because that’s about the only time I can devote my entire attention to listening to the material in its totality and making some sense of it.

• Find your computer books online
• Take time out from business
• Hosted shopping cart software
• Kids’ stuff sells
• Whew, done upgrading

If you’re going to start, start now!

Posted on September 29, 2008

I’ve been reading that in times of an economic downturn, many people start looking for alternate and additional income streams. And since the internet is so convenient for many of us, this is where people are turning to most.

Frankly it doesn’t matter whether you choose to promote an affiliate program or to create a site teaching people about yoga or acne, the point is you have to get off your butt and get started.

I think that’s half the battle won. Many people have all the good intentions and are constantly talking about their plans, but they never seem to get started.

See, the sooner you get out there, the sooner that income is going to roll in. Besides, it’s not like you can start tonight and make a fortune by tomorrow morning.

There’s lots of things to learn, resources to check out, opportunities to explore and evaluate and decisions to be made in all aspects of a business. So if you have any plans at all to make more money, go get started now or you never will.

• Ride it out, don’t give up
• Keep on trying
• Moving forward
• Business then and now
• Getting off to a smooth start in business

Dare to be different, wear your ad

Posted on September 25, 2008

We’re headed for hard times ahead, I keep reading in the news these days. Yes, all gloom and doom but it doesn’t have to be all bad. There are always ways to make money if you try to think of new and more creative ways to market your business.

I think most of us are guilty of being too focused on online marketing. I think we should make an effort to take our marketing offline also.

Have you ever tried wearing your ad ?? Lots of big companies are in the habit of having their employees wear their company T-shirt. I’ve thought about coming up with my own funny t-shirts to draw attention to my website. What do you think?

• Get help with branding but don’t give up
• Leave a scent for your customers to follow
• Getting an outsider’s view of your brand image
• Dress for success (2)
• Marketing stories that sell (1)

Trim the unnecessary fat off your business

Posted on September 24, 2008

Those of us who are looking to make an income online often keep our eyes peeled for new business opportunities and income streams. When one comes along, we will sign up for it.

Trouble with many of us though is that after we sign up and implement it on our website, we often conveniently forget to monitor the results. Well, at least this is true for me. I don’t know about you.

So over a period of time, I find that I’ve accumulated more than my fair share of affiliate programs, etc and I don’t have time to keep track of their performance.

I usually only realize that I have one non-performing program too many when I add a new one. Then I have to start bringing out my fat burners as it were and trimming the fat.

If a program isn’t performing well, I might start moving it around to another spot of the site. Give it a few more months and if it continues to perform poorly, it’s probably just taking up precious real estate on your site.

You’re better off trying an alternative program and having fewer programs to manage.

• Another WAHM in the making
• Taking up a real estate franchise
• If you’re going to start, start now!
• An opportunity in personal development
• Freelancing on Real Estate

What’s your home office like?

Posted on September 23, 2008

When was the last time you cleared out your home office? If you ask me, I honestly can’t remember. I confess I’m not the most organized WAHM in the world.

But I promise I have a very good reason for that. The days just go so fast, too fast. I can hardly keep up with kids and home and so obviously something has to give.

I admit that if I were to even think about relocating my home office, it would definitely take a couple of moving trucks to transport all the stuff I’ve got. And it’s not all clutter, mind you!

What about you? Is your home office spick, span and clutter-free, or do you tend to accumulate stuff that you just know you’re going to use some day?

• What a cluttered desk is not
• reducing expenditure on office supplies
• Blog Templates - Two Columns or Three?
• Leaving my home office as is
• Home or office furniture?

A toy, not a necessity

Posted on September 20, 2008

DH was at the mall this morning, bright and early (earlier than the sun, in fact) at 5:00 am to get in line for the Playstation 3 which is only about 2 years late launching here! Okay, don’t ask me what it is about big boys and their toy craze!

Apparently the first person in the line this morning was a young woman who’d been waiting there since Thursday. Er, that’s two days ago. So I guess the craze isn’t limited to the big boys.

A Playstation isn’t even something that you absolutely must have, like a flash memory for your computer. It’s just a bunch of games, no big deal. Right ?

• Want to add some Flash to your site?
• Jack of all geeks
• Time for a memory upgrade
• Memory upgrade made easy
• Keep your computers working