The Making of an Internet Entrepreneur

In an effort to get more eyeballs to my site, I joined a few traffic exchanges. Over time, some proved to be worth the effort and others were not so effective. One of the best ones so far has been ClickPirate . I've gotten a steady stream from them. I also like Traffic Swarm , the traffic is more targeted since users get to pick which site they want to view. I dropped Traffic Soldiers and Top Surfer because neither one of them sent many hits my way. And Top Surfer bombards your inbox with emails from its members. Any recommendations for good traffic exchanges?

Guide to Internet Income has added the following blogs and sites. Be sure and check them out. Lots of good info for making money online. AdSense Articles 24x7 - The ultimate online information directory about AdSense that leaves no question unanswered. Make Big Money Online Turn Your Blog Into a Money Making Machine The Million Dollar Experiment Get your site or blog listed by clicking here

Guide to Internet Income got its first blog submission. Yay! http://www.guidestointernetincome.com/related_sites.html Get your blogs listed too by visiting the above link. Merry Christmas everyone!

I've gotten a few requests for link exchanges and wanted to clarify - if you want to get your blog listed on Guide to Internet Income, you'll have to go the submissions page on the site. Click here to be taken there. If you just want to exchange links with my blog, comment here. Thanks all!

One of the free ways to build traffic for your website is to post to forums and place a link in your signature file. I've been testing this out in a forum I recently joined and I can tell you that it works. Hits to my site have increased steadily and about 50% have come from this forum. The added bonus is, I get paid to post! It's not much, I've made about a buck over there but considering I'm promoting my website and getting paid to do so, it's all good, lol. If you want to check it out, follow this link . BTW, if your blog is about making money, get it listed on my site Guide to Internet Income .

Well, here it is. Still a lot of tweaking to do, but I've at least got the basics down and am satisfied enough to go live. Comments and suggestions are always welcome. Just be gentle, it's my first time, lol. Thanks to all of you who've been following the progress. I'm excited to see how it develops and whether or not it will actually generate any income. Time for some traffic generation. I'll keep you all updated. " GUIDE TO INTERNET INCOME "

Okay, this is just hilarious. I actually got one of those dreaded, "It has come to our attention that invalid clicks or impressions have been generated on the Google ads on your site(s)." Why do I find this so funny? I HAVEN'T GOTTEN ANY CLICKS FOR THE LAST TWO MONTHS!!! Yep, my account has remained at $4.59 pretty much since I started this blog, lol. I'm beginning to wonder if they send that email to everyone after a couple of months as a scare tactic, lol. On another note, things are slowing down at my real world job so I'll be able to spend time on my website. Seems there's always something to add.

So I'm checking out various programs to join to monetize my website - Text Link Ads, Linkshare, AdBrite, etc.. All these sites require your social security number. Ummm, I understand why - the government wants their piece of the pie, but my little lock icon that tells me the site's secure doesn't show up on some of these sites. Anybody else have a problem with this? I'm a bit paranoid about putting my SSN out there. I did it for Commission Junction but I was not happy about it. Stupid thing is, when you sign up, with CJ, they email you a tax form that you have to fill out, sign and mail/fax to them anyway, so what's the point of asking up front? Does anyone know, is there a way to see if a site is secure before inputting info?

Just a few more pages to add to my website. It's soooo slow going as I am now 'employed' but I am determined to get it done. Signed up with Commission Junction. I was surprised that I was accepted immediately. I guess I just figured they'd want to review the site before they take you on, like Google does when you sign up for AdSense, but nope, got my password in my email box within a few minutes of hitting the 'apply' button. Took a quick peek at the advertisers there. There are a lot to choose from. Should be good. I hope you all are doing well. If anybody out there is venturing into making money online and would like to exchange links, comment!

Well it looks like I'm not going to make my deadline afterall. This new job's taking up a lot of time that I normally have to work on my site. Then of all things, I got called in for jury duty, lol. It's a conspiracy I tell ya. Trick or treat everybody!

Added an Amazon store to my site. It'll be interesting to see how it fares. Still have a couple of pages that I have to write introductions for. Development has slowed down since I've now started training for the job I recently got and have to divvy up my time among that, my site, this blog, and my offline life. Plus, Blog Soldiers is having a contest so I try to surf while I work on my site and of course, that slows me down. But hey, it's Friday and it's all good. BTW, added a new friend to my blog network. Check him out. Always down for a link exchange. Everybody have a great weekend!

I got approved to be an Amazon.com affiliate for my new website. Books work well with the content of my site so I'm hoping that that will generate some income. My site is far from completed, but I read somewhere that you shouldn't wait to publish it - don't ask me the reasoning because I don't remember. It really doesn't hurt that my site is imperfect at the moment because I don't have any traffic anyway, lol. Going to wait until I'm satisfied with the basics of it before I do any kind of promotion. Moving right along and on track to be done by the end of this month.

Anybody out there know much about domain parking? A fellow blogger left a comment below wondering what he could do to get traffic to his parked domains. I had read somewhere that traffic to parked sites were the result of typed in urls. Anybody have any tips or knowledge to share?

I just uploaded my webpages. They looked beautiful on my son's computer but when I went to view them on my laptop, they were all messed up, lol! I lost some of my formatting, had to scroll sideways to see the whole page . . . so not what I wanted. I guess I have more tweaking to do. Anybody out there know offhand - is there a code that will make the page fit no matter what screen size or resolution the user uses? Or are there standard measurements? I may end up having to buy another book. Maybe I just should have let someone that knows what they're doing design it for me. Guess that's always an option. :-)

Well I signed up with Yahoo! to have my site hosted. Didn't bother looking around for other hosts. There are probably cheaper ones out there but I didn't want to go hunting them down. Besides, Yahoo's a big company and I don't anticipate having too many issues with their servers being down and stuff. Decided to take the rollover effects off my navigation button. They were pretty and all, and maybe I'll try to re-insert them at a later date, but trying to get them to work was taking too much time. And since I've now started training for my other position, I can't devote as much time to developing my site. I also decided to buy the .net domain for my site. For $10 a year, it's a cheap investment.

Was working on my website last night and my computer locked up. Didn't get back to it until this morning and now I find that my nav bar isn't working and my template's jacked up. Tried to fix it this morning but I can't seem to figure it out. Something's wrong with the javascript and since I'm learning all this on the fly, I'm having a heck of a time finding the broken code. So I'm a little discouraged right now. I need a break. Think I'll go for a drive. You all have a nice day.

Thanks to Mike and Martin for being the first on my blog network. Visit their sites for more ideas on making money from the internet.

I managed to get a lot done on my website over the weekend. I'm finally happy with the template and got the rollover effects on my navigation bar working. Have started adding content and it's very time consuming. Still shooting for the end of this month for completion. On another note, this blog has gotten more traffic since I signed up with Blog Soldiers. I haven't come across too many blogs that are similar in content to mine while I've been surfing with them but the ones that I do, I'll comment and hopefully be able to exchange links with.

I came across this ad on another site for Blog Soldiers . It's a way to get traffic to your site. And let's face it, no traffic means no profit. So I signed up. I have to admit that I did see a jump in my page views. No change to my bottom line, but more eyeballs. Hey you out there, stop and say hello. If any "surfers" have blogs or sites about making money and want to exchange links, email me or comment. Thanks!

About a month ago, I realized we needed a second income. I have a Bachelor's degree in Nursing but have been out of the rat race for over 10 years. Well, I worked awhile doing laser treatments last year, but anyway. I went online to craigslist and checked the jobs under the medical section. One caught my eye - "medical records reviewer . . . . after training will work from home." How perfect would that be? So I hit the 'reply to' link, wrote up a little cover letter, attached my resume and hit 'send.' About an half an hour later, I got a message in my inbox with contact information and a request to call to talk about the job. So I did and the next thing I know, the lady is asking if I'd like to come in and meet the staff. What?! Did I just get a job offer? So I go into the office and meet with this lady a few days later and she says, "Welcome aboard," shows me around and introduces me to the staff. I just got a call from the perso...

Still working on my template. For some reason, my nav buttons disappear when I preview the page in a browser. I think it has something to do with Explorer not liking java scripts. Hope I can figure it out because I really like the nav bar. It's got rollover effects and drop down menus. More importantly, it frees up my left and right columns for ads. Working on it every day. I think it'll be good once it's all finished. From the looks of things, that could be a while from now, lol.

Since I've narrowed my income producing method to one particular endeavor, I've decided to rename my blog. Better describes what I'll probably be blogging about for now. Still working on my webpage template. Added a navigation bar with cool little rollover effects and drop down menus. Took me the better part of this morning to get it done, and I'm not even sure it'll work right since there are javascripts involved, but time will tell. Think I'll go play some poker. TTFN (ta ta for now, lol)

Teaching myself webpage design - hypertext markup language, cascading style sheets, java scripts, etc, all the things you have to know to create a website. It hasn't been easy and I've had to start over a number of times, but I've managed to create a template for the basic layout of my site. I'm sure I'll have to tweak it once I start adding content but it's a step forward. Whoever said making money online was easy must have hired this stuff out. It's tough!

I added the Google search bar today. It's another way to monetize your site. I think the way it works is, if you use it to search from my site and then click on one of the featured ads in the search results, I get a little sumthin sumthin. Go ahead and try it! Oh and thanks for your support, lol.

So I'm trying to build a website. It's very difficult and I wish I had the money to just hire someone to do it for me. It doesn't need to be fancy or anything, just basic and clean. Anyone out there in the biz looking for work? I can pay you from my AdSense account which is up to a whopping two dollars, lol. It might be more if I worked on getting traffic, but this other site has most of my attention now. Obviously, the Rich Jerk Walkthrough is on hold for now.

So over the weekend, I decided to upgrade to Blogger beta because it's supposed to have added features which make tweaking your webpage easier - not. I lost all the links in my sidebar, lost my guestbook, even initially lost my AdSense ads. I have to re-do all of them and I am not a happy camper. On a brighter note, I've come up with an idea for a website that I'm really excited about. I've purchased the domain name, brainstormed content and am now thinking about site layout. I think I might just go out and buy a book, will save me countless hours of surfing the net for info.

A whole, wait for it . . . . . . . 16 cents! Woo hoo, better than nothing! Have to read the fine print, but I'm thinking about giving away a couple copies of The Rich Jerk ebook to people who want to come along for the ride. Would be more fun to go through this in real time with someone else. Any takers? Prefer a stay at home mom like myself who is really interested in working the program. I don't think I have much traffic right now and I may be talking to myself but, if you're out there and are interested, comment.

After checking out the top four affiliate networks that RJ recommended, I ended up signing on with only one. Clickbank was the easiest to sign up for and also seemed to match my site content the best. Commission Junction, BeFree and Linkshare seemed to have more commercial and brand name companies who just wouldn't fare well on my little website (and if they don't fare well, I make no money). I mean, c'mon, even if I had those cute little swish logos plastered on my page, no one visiting my site is going to buy Nike shoes from me, lol. I guess the lesson to be learned here is: Keep in mind your site content when choosing your affiliate network and programs. Now that's my own advice there. In the Rich Jerk , RJ says to just find the top paying programs from each affiliate network and join those that convert the best. That to me seems like a waste of time because like I said, no one visiting a site about making money on the internet is going to click a Home Depot link (o...

So this Rich Jerk dude says it worked for him, let's see if it'll work for me. I'm going to go through his chapters one by one, implementing his methods as I go. Let's see if "RJ's" promises ring true. In his opening lines, he says, "You can begin using these strategies for immediate results, with minimal effort." Yeah? we'll see. Chapter 1A - Creating an Affiliate Website that Sells Like Crazy [For those of you that are new to the term, there's a very good definition of "affiliate marketing" on Wikipedia (I've included a link to it in my articles section] Here, RJ lists no less than 13 affiliate networks that you can join. His top four are Clickbank, Commission Junction, BeFree, and Linkshare. Being the perfectionist that I am, I'm going to have to research these a little before I sign up with any of them. I'll let you know which ones I've decided to join and why in my next post. Ta ta for now.

If you've ever researched making money on the internet, you've probably come across "The Rich Jerk" ebook. I downloaded it, read it, and am posting a short review: Though the author's writing style may not be suited to everyone's taste (he really does live up to his title), the book delivers very informative internet marketing strategies that have been tried and tested. You'll learn how to create successful websites, drive traffic to your site, make your own ebooks to sell to the masses . . . there's even a chapter dedicated to wholesale buying and selling on Ebay. Some of his methods might raise an eyebrow or two, but if you're out to make money, these methods work. I've already begun implementing some of them myself. If you're interested, you can get a copy by going here.

The thing is, I'm a bit of a perfectionist. If you've been here before, you'll notice the new colors, much more pleasing to the eye. Probably going to make a few changes to the links as well. Once I'm satisfied with that, I'll get back to the business of making money ;-) Oh, I also added a guestbook. Get free web tools here Be the first to sign it! It's over there by my profile pic. Let me know I'm not alone. Anyone?

Well I've spent the better part of the morning trying to add AdSense stuff to my site. It really is time consuming since I'm learning HTML on the fly. Shame this site doesn't really exist, lol. I need a break! No wonder people create 'affiliate in a box' programs like this one .

As I've been searching for information on how to make money via the internet, the term "Affiliate Marketing" repeatedly shows up. So I check it out and apparently it's another avenue I can use to bring in the money. "Affiliate Marketing is a popular method of promoting web businesses in which an affiliate is rewarded for every visitor, subscriber and/or customer provided through his efforts. It is a modern variation of the practice of paying finder's-fees for the introduction of new clients to a business. Compensation may be made based on a certain value for each visit (Pay per click), registrant (Pay per lead), or a commission for each customer or sale (Pay per sale), or any combination." Read the full article here . Lots to do, lots to do. So much for making money the easy way. This is work, lol!

So I'm all excited about getting approved for AdSense. I'm checking out the little box of ads Google has placed on my site and find some links that I'm interested in. Like one called, "Building a Blogging Empire For Profit." Since profit is exactly what I'm after, naturally, I want to visit the site. The irony of it all is - it's against AdSense rules for me to click on that ad. I think that's hilarious. I mean I understand the reasoning behind it, but I find it funny nevertheless (didn't I tell you I was a little off-center). So I have to open a new window and navigate to the site to discover that it's an ebook selling for $19.95, not bad, but I want to make money, not spend it, lol. Probably a negligible cost if it saves time but since I'm a stay-at-home mom with teenage kids, time I've got. It's money I need, lol. If you want to check it out Click here

This is great! There is so much information out there it's crazy! In addition to learning how the internet money making machines work, I'm learning HTML too. Now let's see if I can actually create a link to one of the articles I read about AdSense. What is Google AdSense? Yay, that worked. Now here's the site I used to figure out the code. HTML: An Interactive Tutorial for Beginners - Learn to Code HTML! Pretty cool stuff. I just want to take a minute and give a shout out to all the nice people out there who share their knowledge with the rest of the world. You guys rock! Well, I know I'm going to come across a lot of useful stuff. If there's something particularly pertinent, I'll link to it in my post. Otherwise, I'll place it on another page called Articles and Info which I've created a link to under my Link section. We having fun yet? Lol, I really am!

I just checked my email account and it's official - my site was approved for AdSense! I'm so excited, lol. I've been scouring the internet for advice . . . there's so much out there. Takes forever to read through, but knowledge is power. Hopefully, I'll be able to figure out how to link to some of the stuff I find useful. Then you guys can make money, too! And away we go . . . .

Ok so you all know how this blog is about making money the internet way, right? Right. And of course one of the first things I do is sign up for an AdSense account because right there on the sign up page for Blogger.com is this cute little pic with the words " Quick Cash " above it. So I'm just pleased as punch about what I've done because I figure the bucks will start pouring in, right? Wrong! You see, I decided to do a little research on AdSense and came across an e-book, "AdSense Revenues Exposed." My site actually has to get approved. Approved? Whatever happened to "easy?" It's practically a virtual interview. I better get to studying. I wonder if I can re-take if I don't pass? *** Big, heavy, drawn-out sigh ***

Alrighty then, so that was easy - signing up for AdSense. Apparently, Google will place little ads on your site and pay you when people click on them. Brilliant, lol. I am so underway. ;-)

Actually, I have begun . . . by starting this blog. In fact, I kind of remember Blogger.com saying something about . . . something. Better check that out. BRB.