I am completely new to affiliate marketing - in that I have never done more than put an affiliates banner on a site. I’ve done a descent amount of reading on affiliate marketing and I have been researching the creation of niche stores.

Getting Motivated
So, I am finally getting motivated. It might be a little late to get in on the initial holiday shopping season, but after the new year people will be looking to buy again. Whether it be to help them with their new years resolution or to purchase a game or two to play on the new video game console they got for christmas. It’s time to stop reading and start doing.

Follow Along
I plan on documenting my process here at hargism.com - whether it is a success or a huge failure. Like I said, I’m new to the whole building a niche store thing. I’ll be doing some research and weighing my options on what software to use and how to gain traffic. There are a plentiful amount of resources out there that should be able to help me with my niche site.

Initial Planning
My idea is to take at least one domain I have that is just sitting there doing nothing and turn it into, not just a niche store, but more a niche site with the store built in. I’ll be going with more of a blogging setup for the site with integrated niche store elements like the eBay - seems to be the most popular option. I think setting it up like a blog will really help with the natural (free) search engine traffic, and will be more Google friendly (hopefully). This will allow me to create unique keyword friendly content to not only help drive traffic but also to hopefully provide the readers with something [of value] worth visiting the site for - and hopefully get them to come back another time.

I know the creation of content will be the hardest part for me. I can be a bit of a procrastinator when it comes to writting. But I am going to try my best to stay motivated. I know I’m going to have to create a list of daily goals in order to keep on task. It would be great to have a little be of extra income coming in each day/month.

Stay tuned for future post and feel free to give me any advice you have as I journey through building a niche blog store thing…

Popularity: 80% [?]

As I mentioned earlier I started my venture into pay per click marketing. So, here is an update on my PPC campaigns. There isn’t much to talk about - I’ve only had a few PPC campaigns up and running.

PPC Success or Failure
I told you I would talk about my results whether they were good or bad. Well, they weren’t good - as I expected. Out of the three campaigns I had up and running I converted one click for $1.58 - ouch. I’m still new to the game and learning - maybe my offers weren’t the best. I decided to start simple and just try to convert leads instead of actually getting people to buy something.

PPC Leads
Leads can be as simple as having someone fill out a form to submit their email address or they can be as involved as having people fill out 7 or 8 fields of a form. I thought driving traffic and converting an email lead would be easier than a sale. It didn’t quite workout this time - but I have to say I was pretty excited to see my first conversion - even though it was my only one.

My PPC Campaigns
Like I said I only ran 3 campaigns and only for a few days. So, maybe if I would have let them run longer I would have seen better results (but I doubt it). With the second campaign I ran I got 11,587 impressions and 334 clicks for a click through rate (CTR) of 2.88% - my average cost per click (CPC) was $0.17. This is the campaign that I received my conversion of $1.58 from. My third campaign I ran for a shorter amount of time than the first. I got 5,724 impressions and 136 clicks for 2.38% CTR with an average CPC of $0.15. Both of these campaigns were based off of events in the news and only ran for a couple of days. The first campaign I rand was a dud. I’ll talk about it in a second.

So, I was glad to see that my ads were getting clicked - but I need to work on getting better conversions (or getting conversions period). Most of the people clicked through to the page with the email submit - but only one actually went through with it. Maybe I need more enticing offers or maybe I should try sales. Really, I just need to put more time and effort into it if I want to make any money with affiliate and pay per click marketing.

My Findings

• Google AdWords - not a good idea for newer sites (or mine anyway).
  The site I was sending people to is fairly new - though it has plenty of content on it. This is where my 1st campaign comes in. I got a few impressions and then nothing, nothing, nothing. My quality score was too low and my ads weren’t running - and if they did they were probably on the 10th page or something like that.
• MSN AdCenter - I had a coupon for $50 for MSN AdCenter so I started using them for my 2nd and 3rd campaigns. It was simple to use and though MSN’s search probably isn’t nearly as popular as Google’s - I was able to get my ads seen by a descent amount of people.
• Tracking - I should have made a better effort to track what keywords and ads were doing better. Though I only let my ads run for a couple of days - it is very important to keep track of which keywords and which ads are getting clicks or getting conversions. Tracking is important.

So, there is an update on my venture in to PPC marketing. So far not so good, but I’m still learning and I haven’t given up on the idea that I can make money doing this. As a matter of fact I am working on a different way to promote affiliates (it’s nothing crazy new) and I’ll be talking about it as I build it and make it live.

Michael Hargis

Popularity: 60% [?]

For all you beginner bloggers (including myself for this blog)
It’s tough when you’re just starting a blog - when your blog is in its infancy - to stay motivated to keep writing posts. It might feel pretty lonely when you first start your blog - it’s like you are blogging without an audience. Once again it comes back to setting your goals and keeping your incentives in mind.

Write and they will come
Don’t stop writing - keep posting. Try to make it fresh and interesting content - content is king. If you stopped now all that time you have put in was wasted. Keep chugging away. Continue to read and follow the blogging tips of those that are already successful - they too had to start at the beginning. Some blogs grow faster than others - it depends a lot on the amount of time you put into it.

Keep promoting
Even if it doesn’t seem to be working - keep leaving quality comments on related blogs and get the word out about your content. Make this part of your routine - it can be hard to get motivated to do the promoting - add it your daily list of blogging tasks and just do it.

It takes time
Rome wasn’t built in a day - or some other catchy cliché. It takes time and effort to grow a blog - especially if you don’t have a high traffic site to promote through. It may seem like you are getting nowhere - stay with it. The first few months can be difficult - stay motivated and remember your end goals and incentives. If you want it you’ve got to put the work in.

So, don’t give up even if you feel like you are blogging without an audience - I’m there with this new blog, but I’m going to keep writing and keep promoting.

Michael Hargis

Popularity: 97% [?]

If you have ever taken an Economics class you probably know that incentives are the cornerstone of modern life. These days ‘modern life’ includes blogging and making money online. So, to keep up your blogging motivation you are going to need incentives. This is not exactly the same as setting goals (sometimes goals and incentives can intertwine). We all understand setting goals - you have something you want to accomplish and you work towards reaching it. Incentives are more like prizes. You’ve worked hard and met your goals - now what do you get out of it? Basically, incentives are the things that motivate you to reach your blogging goals. So, when you are working towards your goals, or especially if you are procrastinating, keep your incentives in mind - it will help motivate you.

Having incentives makes completing those little daunting tasks a little easier. Growing a blog, or making money online, is time consuming and even with all the organization and goal setting techniques out there the best motivation is realizing what you will be getting out of all your hard work. Whether it be making enough money to quit your day job, or making a little extra cash to add to your income - maybe you just want the recognition that the big bloggers get or a chance to network with a great group of people and grow a community around your blog. These are all incentives - they are things that make you work hard to met your goals and become successful.

So, if you are feeling sluggish, or lazy, remember what you want to get out of blogging and use that as motivation to work towards your goals. Use it to get you excited again - pumped up - it helps, I do it.

Michael Hargis

Popularity: 69% [?]

I’ve decide to take a venture into pay per click marketing. Why? Well, to learn about it and to have a chance at another stream of online income so I can make money online. I don’t expect pay per click marketing to be easy - in fact I’m am absolutely positive that I will not make money on my first few attempts. From what I’ve read pay per click (ppc) can be tricky - it can be a game of trial and error and keeping track of what works and what doesn’t.

What is Pay Per Click Marketing
Here is what pay per click marketing means to me: You know when you see those ads in search results on Google, Yahoo, MSN, or other search engines? People are paying to put those ads there and most all are paying Per Click which is where pay per click comes from. The marketing idea is to get people to see your ppc ad when the search, or in an adsense ad on some other site, click on it to visit your site, and complete some kind of action that makes you money. These actions can range from buying a product, submitting information, or just gaining page views to help increase your popularity and get advertiser for your site.

So, you want to make sure that your ppc costs are less than your products profit margin - in other words you make more from your product than you spend on your ppc campaign. Say you are paying $0.25 every time someone clicks on your ad and your product, or action, nets you $2.00 profit for each sale or action completed. Well, the ideal outcome would be that you complete a sale or action before the 8th click (the 8th click breaks even: $0.25 * 8 = $2.00) - these are just example numbers that I randomly came up with. Hopefully, you won’t have to pay $0.25 per click - that just depends on how much competition there is for your keywords. And you never know - you might convert on 3 or 4 clicks in a row and then get nothing for the next 8 clicks.

Of course, I wouldn’t jump into anything completely blind. I am new to ppc and affiliate marketing in general, but I have been doing some research - picking up some techniques and tips along the way. Hopefully I will be able to put them to use and make money online using pay per click marketing.

I’ll keep you up to date with my progress - good or bad - and let you in on any tips or techniques I find useful. You can learn as I learn. Hopefully I will be making money online using pay per click marketing withing the next few weeks (depending on how much time I can devote to it).

Michael Hargis

Popularity: 61% [?]

Well, I feel that I have a descent amount of content so far on this blog. So, the next step for me is to start looking for ways to promote the site and drive traffic.

The goal I set for myself last week was to post at least once-a-day Monday through Friday. I accomplished that and now have set new weekly goals. Here they are:

• Keep posting once a day Monday through Friday for this week
• Start promoting the blog to drive traffic here

Just basic goals to keep me motivated and blogging.

I shouldn’t have any problem posting each day - the thing I’m not real confident in is driving traffic. I’ve been doing some research and have found that most people list these few ways to drive traffic to your blog:

• Comment on other blogs with similar topics
• Post in forums with similar topics to your blog
• Write and post articles to article websites
• Social Media
• Create a Squidoo Lens

Traffic Driving Techniques

So, I can find blogs with similar topics as mine and post comments - the idea here is posting helpful comments or thank yous - No Spamming. Pretty much every blog that allows comments has a place where you can put in your website address. Then when your comment displays the name you posted the comment under will be link to your site. The idea is that people might read your comment and click the link to visit your site. You can use a keyword or two as your name if you want - I haven’t decided if I will yet because most comment links are ‘nofollow’ - to please Google. nofollow basically means that when Google crawls a site and sees a link with nofollow it will not count it towards that site’s (the site the link is pointing to) ranking. That’s how I see it anyway.

Forums can help drive traffic by adding your blog’s url to your profile and in your signature. In most forums they will allow you to have a link or two in your signature - which shows up at the bottom of every post you make in the forum. Once again, these links are probably nofollow - but the idea is the same as above exposure. You should try and post helpful information or intelligent questions. Don’t just go in and start posting junk to get your signature on a bunch of pages. People will notice that and will react negatively. If you post useful questions or responses you will get noticed in a positive way. Also, if you have a helpful post on your blog that might answer a question you might be able to point people in the forum to your site - it just depends on the forum rules.

Writing articles is another suggestion a lot of people make when it comes to promoting your blog, or site. The important thing to remember here is that you are not writing articles about your blog. You want to base your articles on a topic from your blog. The promotion technique here is that article submission sites let you post a link or two in a designated area at the end of the article. So, someone reads your article and they see your link at the bottom. Also, people are allowed to publish these articles on their websites but they have to keep the author information and the links intact - another chance for exposure.

Social media - digg, stumbleupon, del.iciou.us, and the all those other ones can help you attract attention to your blog. Getting your content on these sites can be difficult - you can submitted yourself if you want but I don’t know if I will do that. Still, if it has a place in your profile to put a link to your blog you might as well. Then, if you start making friends - or getting followers - they may visit your site. Plus, you are networking with other people which is always important.

Creating a Squidoo lens (page) is somewhat similar to the article method. If don’t know what Squidoo is check it out here: Squidoo. Apparently it has become a popular way to promote and the pages rank well in the search engines.

I’m going to start out with the first 3 for this week. My goal is to comment on at least 3 blogs a day and make 3 forum post a day. I’ll need to do some research and find a few blogs and forums to comment on - I’m sure that won’t be too hard. Then I’ll get started. I know this might be hard for me - I’m pretty conscious on what I post on other sites and forums. I don’t want to post worthless crap or sound stupid - which is why I am starting with only 3 a day for each. As far as articles go, I will write and submit 2 this week. I haven’t decided which sites and I’ll have to do some research to find out if I can submit to multiple article sites.

This next phase of my blog should be interesting. It’s something I’m not all that comfortable with but I need to do it in order to grow my blog - got to stay motivated.

Michael Hargis

Popularity: 100% [?]

No, I didn’t get some new bling - haha. This morning when I walked out the door I looked out and thought ‘oh it’s wet - must have rained.’ First step on the sidewalk and I did the ice dance - you know your arms flail and your feet slip back and forth. Luckily, I’ve always had pretty good balance and managed to keep myself up-right. I was pretty close to falling on my bum. I wish I could have seen my face - the ice took me by total surprise. I had no idea it was going to be slippery - a close call. Just thought I’d share that with you.

I’ll be posting something new later today - I’ve got some work to get done first.

Michael Hargis

Popularity: 41% [?]

Finally, my HostGator hosting is working. I’m not 100% sure but I think this it what fixed it…

No surprise here - it was by my own error that my WordPress site wasn’t working correctly with my new HostGator hosting service. It hit me last night when I was removing the current installation of WordPress and getting ready to reinstall it. I had downloaded WordPress and when I went to change the config file it became clear to me what I had done. When I installed WordPress the first time - I just copied another wp-config.php file I had and changed the database information.

Seems like a logical thing to do, right? So, what was the problem? Well, for a while now WordPress has added 3 different unique KEYs that need to be filled in the wp-config file. I forgot to change them - I left them the exact same as another WordPress blog that is already live. So, this time I made sure and generated new keys - viola it now works. A silly mistake that cost me quite a bit of time - the KEYs thing just slipped my mind. Anyway, I’m pretty sure this was the problem because when I uploaded the new WordPress files everything worked correctly. Yes!

Michael Hargis

Popularity: 44% [?]

First off, I really enjoy following Zac Johnson on his blog Inside the Secret Life of a Super Affiliate. It’s definitely worth the read if you are looking for information about affiliate marketing - from where to start to what techniques and affiliate programs you should use. Zac has done a great job sharing his knowledge with his readers.

So, yesterday Zac Johnson wrote a post called Your Job Sucks? Six Reasons to Be Your Own Boss Now! Wouldn’t that be great - I know there a lot of people who are doing it. But is it the right time for you to make the jump? Here are a few reasons why you should hold off on being your own boss.

1. Current Economy - Jobs are being cut right and left - businesses are going under and the economy is hurting. If you quit your job now and your work at home ventures fail - you may never get your old job back. This, of course, depends on your profession. It’s just something to think about - you need a back up plan in case being your own boss doesn’t work out.
2. Your Current Income - I’m not talking about what you are currently making at your job - I’m talking about your current money stream outside of your job. The income you are making now from your online ventures, or whatever you plan on doing once you quit your job. If you are thinking you can just quit your job and start making enough money to support yourself, and maybe a family, right away - you are probably wrong. You should have at least a couple months of income saved up to support you while you get your own business ventures running. Or better yet, they should be running while you are working and making enough money to allow you to quit.
3. It’s all on YOU - So, maybe you don’t have to mess with a jerk boss or annoying coworkers, but if you screw things up when working for yourself it’s all your fault. You can’t say, ‘I was just doing what my boss told me.’ There is no one to blame but yourself. Are you ready for everything to fall on your shoulders? Maybe that’s exactly what you want or need to get you motivated.
4. Benefits - one of the nicer parts of having a full-time job. At most companies, health care, dental, vision, 401K, stock options are taken care of for you. Things like these are great benefits of having a job in a company. This might be one of the hardest things to let go when quitting your job. It can be worked out though - your spouse might be able to put you on their insurance, you can get your own health insurance (can get pretty expensive), you will need to take the time to manage your own money and get in touch with accountants and setup your own retirement fund. It can be done - it’s just another thing to think hard about before you go on your own.
5. Taxes - Don’t forget about taxes. When you’re on your own it’s up to you, or your accountant that you hire, to take care of these things - they can get confusing.

This isn’t a give up and stay in the workforce post - it’s a be realistic about your future post. If your goal is to work from home and be your own boss then staying focused, motivated, and working hard can get you there. Just be realistic about it - or it could turn out to be a very negative turn of events in your life.

I know my goal is to work for myself and a lot of the reasons I want to work for myself are mentioned in Zac’s post - he makes some great points. I also know that I will need to be absolutely sure I can financially support myself when I make the jump from the 9 to 5 to working my own hours for myself. If you read Zac’s post Your Job Sucks? Six Reasons to Be Your Own Boss Now!, which I suggest you do, make sure to read the last paragraph of text. And don’t give up if being your own boss is your goal - stay motivated and work hard and it will happen.

Michael Hargis

Popularity: 71% [?]

Aren’t the holiday times great. You get to see family and friends, eat a lot of good food, and maybe receive a gift or two. All great things, right? Of course, but the holiday times are also extremely busy, and stressful, for most people. There’s the cooking, the cleaning, entertaining, Christmas shopping, and more.
With all this going on when do you find time to work on you personal projects? You can’t just push them all to the side and forget about them for a couple weeks or months. You still need to find some time for yourself and keep growing you sites, blogs, or whatever you are working on.
So, how do you create more time for your projects? It’s all about time management. You have to be efficient with the time you have and motivated to use it well.

A few tips to help manage your time when doing Holiday tasks:

Shopping

• Have a game plan - If you are going on a shopping trip, whether it’s to the mall or a string of stores and shops, having a plan can save you a ton of time. Start off with a list of gifts you need to purchase. Listing out what you need to get can speed things up drastically. Plus, if you don’t have a list you risk forgetting something - then you’ll have to go back to the mall again. Another part of planning your shopping excursion is knowing what stores you need to visit. This saves you from going into a store you don’t need to be in. Which saves you time and keeps you from browsing too much.
• Shopping online - (my personal favorite) Going to mall you have to deal the crowds, the stupid people (you know it’s true), standing in line to checkout, and not to mention what you want might not be in stock. Shopping online can save you time and you don’t have to deal with afore mentioned problems. Of course, you have to stay focused and not off browsing tons of sites. You also have to keep in mind that your purchases will have to be shipped to you - so plan ahead for that.

Cooking
I don’t know much about cooking but some simple motivational and organizational techniques can be applied to keep things moving…

• Get all ingredients together ahead of time
• Have recipes ready and organized
• Know how long each item takes to cook or prepare
• Think about you cooking space and how much you be able to cook at once

Family Time

• I say splurge on this. enjoy every min you can with your friends and family at gatherings.
  maybe try to meet with people in groups and not as much individually.

Holiday times and family are important, but so are your goals. Don’t forget about your projects, blogs, sites, etc. this holiday season. Keeping yourself motivated and managing your time will greatly improve your potential for successfully growing your blog even through the holiday season.

Popularity: 39% [?]