Working While You Travel

Posted on 31 July 2008 by Suzanne

Those of us who work from home enjoy the luxury of being able to set our own hours and work when and where we choose. With that also comes a lot of planning and responsibility. To be successful choosing your own work schedule still means you need to put in the hours necessary to be successful.I have traveled quite a bit over the past two weeks and although I was able to complete some of my work … there were some hurdles I ran into as well.The first weekend I brought my laptop but since most all of my time was spent out on the boat I didn’t really get to all of my “work.” I had high hopes of doing plenty of research and writing while I was gone but that just didn’t happen. I was able to assist customers and answer email via my Blackberry … but other than that it was a bust. Of course after the buckets full of Vodka/Redbull I doubt I was in any shape to work. LOL

Last weekend I went “home” to San Diego to be in my girlfriend’s wedding. I brought my laptop and figured I’d have plenty of time to be creative … but once again … I was just too distracted. Other than the wedding activities I was also busy seeing family and friends – playing tennis, wakeboarding, beach volleyball, nights out on the town … it was great … but again … not much was accomplished as far as work goes.

What I couldn’t predict was that I would not be able to use my wireless internet on my laptop (still not sure what happened there) and due to this I couldn’t pull my email down through Outlook. Next thing I knew my mailbox on the server was full and I stopped receiving email (from two accounts) completely. *sigh*

In hindsight, I would’ve prepared several blog posts and had them post through the scheduling feature on WordPress. I also would’ve checked into my email problem much sooner! I get about 100-200 emails on my main account … so I should’ve known much sooner there was a problem. Guess I was just in “vacation” mode.

Have you had a good or bad experience trying to work while traveling? I’d love to hear about it. *SmiLes* Suzanne 

 

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WordPress 2.6 Is Here – Simple Upgrade Instructions

Posted on 16 July 2008 by Suzanne

 Wordpress Logo

I don’t know about you but when it comes time to upgrade my WordPress blogs I get myself all worked up and stressed out. Time to back up all of my files and my databases up and make sure I follow the upgrade instructions to the letter … or else!

Well, this time I stumbled on to Alex’s blog post, How To Upgrade To WordPress 2.6 In 5 Minutes, and my upgrade was a breeze!

Read his post and follow the links he has to “The Instant Upgrade plugin for WordPress” by Alex Günsche.

The only instructions I would add after giving this a try is to have your FTP login and path information handy before you get started.

And if you’re wondering IF you need to upgrade your WordPress blog please do this right away. I had several of sites hacked at least a half a dozen times this past year and the first thing they pointed to as a security issue each and every time was my WordPress blog.

With that said, go give it a shot and please report back here and let me know how you did with your upgrade. *SmiLes* Suzanne

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Start Making Money with MarketLeverage Today!

Posted on 16 July 2008 by Suzanne

Every day I have someone emailing me or even calling me asking how to actually make money online.

I personally believe that one of the simplest ways to get started with an online business is to get set up with a good affiliate network.

Affiliate marketing is the business of marketing other people’s products and services in exchange for a reward – money! An affiliate network is a company that has made a business of matching up advertisers and publishers.

The advertisers are paying the publishers a commission to go out and market and sell for them. The publishers are those who specialize in the advertising and marketing of products and services on the internet … that’s us.

You will usually be paid per sale, per lead and/or per action. A sale is a completed sale of a product. Per lead is basically where you drive traffic to an opt-in page and your referrals sign up to find out more about the product or service. Per action is where your referral performs a certain action such as: filling out a survey, applying for something like a credit card offer, or signing up for something like a singles site. Some of these per action offers are free and some of them require your referral to pay something … like maybe a free learning CD but they pay the shipping cost.

MarketLeverage is one of the best affiliate networks I could find. They have hundreds of products and services to choose from and their affiliate support is second to none! They are making a name for themselves by truly caring about the “little guys” out there who are blogging their hearts out every day.

It’s absolutely free to get signed up and it can be done through their simple online application process.

Once you get signed up let me know and maybe we can help each other brainstorm for the best products and services to promote on our blogs.

Market Leverage – Start Making Money Today!

P.S. There’s a really cool contest that Jason (The University Kid) is hosting that is sponsored by MarketLeverage … you could win a Wii or a Flip Mino (oh … pick me! pick me!) so go check it out and tell him Suzanne sent you over!

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My BANS Profits for June 2008

Posted on 16 July 2008 by Suzanne

It’s time to post my EPN (eBay Partner Network) stats and profits for June 2008.

I have 3 active BANS (Build A Niche Stores) stores and I have been adding eBay links and auction widgets to a couple of my blogs. I made most of the earnings from 2 of my 3 stores and then a small amount from the eBay affiliate links I have out on my blogs.

Stats and profits: 1,757 clicks, 4 CRUs resulting in 4 ACRUs ($25.00/each), 179 bids, 42 winning bids, $103.86 in winning bid revenue and $100.00 from the 4 ACRUs … for total monthly earnings of $203.36.

BANS Profits June 2008

I spent some time in June optimizing my store pages but didn’t spend as much time as I should’ve writing new content. Specifically I need to write more articles to add to the stores and to submit to the article directories.

My goal with my BANS stores is to work up to averaging $100.00 per store. Now that I’m getting the hang of it and understand what it takes to make a store successful I’m getting ready to add 3 more stores. In fact, I think I’ll go ahead and set them up through the Pepperjam Network and see how I do.

As I’ve always said this is not a get-rich-quick scheme but with slow steady growth I can be making some decent money here soon. If you’d like to know more about BANS or learn about the other ways I make money online please just contact me and I’d be happy to help in any way I can.

Update:

Goal for September $800.00

August 2008

July 2008

June 2008

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To Follow or Not to Follow?

Posted on 14 July 2008 by Suzanne

U Comment I Follow Logo

I’ve spent more and more time on other blogs over the last few months and one topic I wanted to learn more about was this whole “To Follow or Not to Follow” discussion I keep running into. If you’re not aware, I’m referring to whether or not your blog’s comment section allows the search engine spiders to “follow” the links in your visitors’ comments or not.

Truthfully, I wasn’t even sure if my blog was set up to follow the comment links or not. LOL

Well, last night I was reading Kristine Wirth’s blog and her post “Talk is Cheap & Free Here” shed some light on the subject for me (thanks Kristine!).

I spent some more time reading about the follow/no-follow issue and I can tell you I definitely want my readers to be rewarded for taking the time and energy to leave a comment on my blog. Kristine’s post lead me to Randa Clay’s post where I got the link for the Do Follow Plugin for my WordPress blog. I’m also in the process of adding the very cool “U Comment – I Follow” logo that Randa designed to support this “movement” of bloggers who want to incent visitors and readers to leave their comments.

If you already follow my blog then you know that I believe in the importance of leaving solid, meaningful comments on the blogs you visit and read.

So … Do you follow? Why do you or don’t you use the “follow” or “no-follow” on your blog? I’d love to hear from you. *SmiLes* Suzanne 

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The MAGIC WORDS to Use in Goal Setting

Posted on 10 July 2008 by Suzanne

Do you know the “magic words” to use in goal setting?

If you’re reading this blog I’ll assume you have some goals you’d like to accomplish with your online business and I think this will help.

I’ve been in sales and sales management for over 20 years and I’ve done a lot of goal setting over the years. I’ve seen just how powerful it is to commit yourself to your goals – especially when you put them in writing. But be careful, because without using the “Magic Words,” it can be so powerful that it can actually be limiting.

I owned a pager and cell phone company for many years and I can’t tell you how many times we were running around like maniacs trying to get our deals closed on the last day of the month. We usually did hit our sales goal and it was almost eerie how often we would exceed our goal – within dollars of a $10,000 goal! But what I found out years later was that we were actually limiting our success with our word choices. 

I can’t help but wonder what our numbers would’ve looked like if we simply changed our goal from, “We are going to do $10,000 in sales in July” to “We are going to do AT LEAST $10,000 in sales in July.” Even more powerful would be, “We are going to do AT LEAST $10,000 in sales ON OR BEFORE July 31st.”

So when you are setting your goals for your business, be sure you incorporate those Magic Words (AT LEAST and ON OR BEFORE) into your goal. Here are some examples:

  • I am going to make AT LEAST $60,000 ON OR BEFORE December 31, 2008
  • I am going to make AT LEAST $5,000 ON OR BEOFRE July 31, 2008
  • I am going to post AT LEAST 30 new blog posts ON OR BEFORE July 31, 2008
  • I am going to have AT LEAST 100 RSS subscribers ON OR BEFORE July 31, 2008
  • I am going to loose AT LEAST 5 pounds ON OR BEFORE July 31, 2008

You get the idea … keep your goals specific yet open to EXCEEDING your goals. Type or write them out and post them somewhere you will see them daily.

A couple of my blogging buddies came to mind while I was writing this post. First, my friend Jay with DatMoney has a goal for his blog and online businesses to make AT LEAST $3,000 ON OR BEFORE July 31, 2008 so please go cheer him on. Then, I’d like to send you over to see my friend David at ProTycoon where he is offering an awesome Blogging Goal Tracker spreadsheet for free.

I would LOVE to see what you come up with for your goals – so feel free to post them in the comments. Sharing our goals tends to keep us more accountable too. It’s also great to partner up with one or two others to help each other stay on track. Anyone looking for a “pace partner” please let me know. *SmiLes* Suzanne

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Email and Name Servers and MX Records Oh My!

Posted on 10 July 2008 by Suzanne

Frustrated LadyMy main goal with this blog is to truly help others learn and expand their knowledge of how to make money online. I could spend all day everyday blogging about the different programs out there and how to research key words and such … but if you get hung up on how to do basic internet type of things you will find yourself paralyzed.

Ask me how I know this? That’s right … I’ve been there. This past week has been one of those “learning experiences” for me. You know the kind of experience I’m talking about … the kind where you feel like everything is going wrong and this is too hard and you’re going to just give up and go get a real job … in other words I had a big pity party.

Well, after hating (I don’t like that word much – but it seems appropriate right now) my hosting company for the better part of the past year I finally decided to get over my fear of change and move all of my sites to HostGator (and I’m so happy about that decision).

I do however keep all of my domain names with Go Daddy because their customer interface is easy to use and they have very good customer service. They also consistently have the best deals on domain name registration fees. Because my email address is part of my domain name I’ve also always used them for my email service too. That is not necessary … just something I’ve always done.

I am very cautious about change so when I started my “move” I only moved one site as a trial run … this blog. My main email address is attached to this suzannefranco.com domain and I knew enough to go in and change my domain name servers to point to HostGator … and I did so.

As soon as I pointed my name servers I noticed that I wasn’t getting any email from this domain name. I thought I might have to wait for the name server change to propagate which can take 24-72 hours … so I waited. Well, once the change went through still no email. I called Go Daddy and they told me that I would have to contact Host Gator and provide them with Go Daddy’s MX Records. Provide what? Are you kidding me? How long will that take? Another 24-48 hours?! OMG! I even tried logging in to my webmail and no dice.

After contacting Host Gator and providing them with the MX Records I again waited 48 hours … no email and no access. Yikes! It turned out that everything had been done properly but sometimes these “things” just don’t go through the switch properly and need to be pushed through. Well, that did the trick and I have my email back up and running.

You know I love to hear from you in the comments so let me know if you’ve had a similar thing happen or you have questions or ideas that would help me or other readers please post them here for us. *SmiLes* Suzanne 

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Purchasing and Pointing Your Domain Name

Posted on 07 July 2008 by Suzanne

When it comes time to purchase a domain name for your new website there are a couple of things you should know.

When I got started with my first website … well my first few actually … there were some things I didn’t understand that really confused me about domain names. I’m guessing there are others out there who are just as confused as I was so I thought I’d quickly explain what I’ve learned.

Visit GoDaddy.com Domain Registration at GoDaddy.com Hosting Plans at GoDaddy.com Web Sites at GoDaddy.com Security at GoDaddy.com
What is a domain name?
A domain name is a Web address, such as godaddy.com, that is linked to an IP address (which represents a physical point on the Internet). When someone types a domain name into a Web browser, the requested Web page displays.A domain name consists of a top-level and a second-level domain. A top-level domain (TLD) is the part of the domain name located to the right of the dot (godaddy.com). The most common top-level domains are .COM, .NET, and .ORG. Some other popular top-level domains are .BIZ, .INFO, .NAME and .WS. These TLDs have certain guidelines but are, for the most part, available to any registrant, anywhere in the world.The part of the domain name located to the left of the dot — “godaddy,” in this case — is called the second-level domain (SLD) name. The second-level domain name is the “readable” part of the address and refers to the organization or entity behind the Internet address. Second-level domain names must be registered with an Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)-accredited registrar.   

 
Copyright © 1999 – 2007 GoDaddy.com, Inc. All rights reserved.

Your domain name is actually separate from your website hosting. They are independent of each other. You can purchase your domain from your hosting company or from another company.

Because you want your website files to show up when someone types in your domain name you will need to make sure that your domain name is “pointed” to the hosting company where your files are hosted.


Go Daddy $6.95 .com sale 200x200For instance, I’ve always purchased my domain names from Go Daddy but I don’t necessarily use them as my only webhost. I like to purchase my domain names from Go Daddy because they are fairly inexpensive and their customer interface is very easy to use. If you run into something you don’t understand they also have awesome customer service.
 
Once you purchase your domain name you will need to go in and set up where you want that domain name pointed. The change you need to make is called the domain name server and it will be in the account where you purchased your domain name.
 
Log into your account and find the listing of your domain name/s. Click on the domain name you want to point and it should pull up a page where you can see the domain name server addresses. Before you can make this change you will need to get the name server addresses (there are two) from your hosting company. Once you have these you can fill them in and be sure to hit “save.” It will take between 24-72 hours for this change to take place.

I hope this was helpful. I love hearing from you so please post your comments below whether you have questions or you have something helpful to add to this post. *SmiLes* Suzanne

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Making the Most of Outbound Links

Posted on 07 July 2008 by Suzanne

Outbound links? You read that right … you know … the links you put on your site or blog to other people’s sites. I don’t know about you but I believe in doing the “right” thing whenever possible … and in karma! LOL

I’m going to share what I’ve learned about outbound links and hopefully it will change the way you link to others … and maybe how they will link to you too.

Linking to someone else’s site is a great way to share other sites with your readers. If you are telling others about someone’s site it’s best to make an actual hyperlink to their site whenever possible (as opposed to just mentioning the site).

If you’re going to take the steps necessary to link to someone it’s even better to take the next step and learn about the effective use of anchor text. The anchor text is the word or phrase you use that will actually link over to the other person’s site. The reason this matters is that Google (search engines) looks at the word or phrase you use as an indicator of what the site is about.  

For this blog you could link to http://www.suzannefranco.com and that would take your readers to my blog easily. If you wanted to help me out with the search engines you would use words instead of my URL.

So, now that you know what you should do let’s look at how to figure out the best words to use for the anchor text. If you know the person (and you have time) just ask them. You could say, “Hey, Suzanne I’m doing a blog post and I’ll be linking to you. What is the best anchor text to use?”

Another way is to go to the site and take a look the page title (meta title – not headlines). This can be found up in the very top left corner of the browser window. If the site owner has optimized their site there will be a key word phrase there. If you go to my blog you will see that my page title is “Money Making Ideas.” That would tell you that is one of the key word phrases that the blog is optimized for.

If you see something like “Home” … or even just the name of the blog or site you might go one step further and take a quick look at their meta key words and their meta description. While you are on their main page you will go up to your tool bar to the ”Page” and then to ”View Source.”  This will open up the code for that page in NotePad for you. You should be able to get some good ideas there.

If you are not in the habit of linking to others it’s a good time to start. Not only is it valuable for your readers it’s also good for your own status with Google. It’s rumored that Google takes in to account the number of outbound links when determining your page rank.

I personally like to be helpful to others … it’s just in my nature … even if it means a little extra work. I will also say that this method has “paid off” for me as far as my sites go too. I’ve had people see my sites and/or blogs in their traffic stats and when they go to check out my site and see that I “properly” linked to them it usually results in some type of business friendship that flourishes.

I love hearing from you so please comment below and let me know if this was helpful and/or if you have any other strategies that would help others with outbound linking. *SmiLes* Suzanne

 

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