The beginning of July I found a marvelous new program by KSL and several other areas of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
This program is online and works with Zions bank and AAA Fair Credit Foundation.
They have created a program and website to help women fix the financial problems they are in.
I had great news yesterday. I have been selected as one of the first 10 finalists!
The 5 finalists will be announced in a week or so. Then the public will vote for the the 3 winners.
Each winner of this financial makeover will get professional financial help each month for one full year for free. They will blog about the situation they are in now…and how the advise is working each week for the full year.
I know for me, losing everything I own after devastating illnesses has left me living on a very low SSI disability income for quite a few years now. I am now healthy and getting an online business back up. However, I am not really sure how to pull myself out of this financial hole I am in.
I thought I only had a few small debts until I received a copy of my credit report this month. There are a lot of things on it that I thought were paid. So now, I find myself trying to jump out of a low income, into a new business, and learn how to pay off my debts, fix my credit and how to save money and plan for retirement at the wonderful age of 53.
I am hoping that using this new program will help me to get back on track financially.
I’ve been given a huge gift and miracle of good health again and now I want to keep it and keep myself from ever having to experience financial devastation again.
On the main site: www.imagineahappieryou.com I am doing their first week of challenges. So far so good! I chose to stop buying a pizza this next month as it is very costly. Even though it gives me quite a few meals it does cut into my food budget quite a bit. One of my only extravagances right now.
Another challenge this week was to go through your clothes and belongings and find things you do not use anymore and donate them to others.
As I am getting ready to move I was able to sort out some things that I did not really use and I gave them away as suggested. I’ve always enjoyed doing this!
Another challenge they have is to not spend any money for 1 whole day. This used to be a problem for me as I always seemed to need something each day. However, after not being able to work for a few years and having to learn how to live on $664 a month I prayed a lot and received a lot of help learning to only spend money a few times a month.
Another challenge they have is to take charge of your credit cards. I’m going to save this one and do it when my business is making money and I am able to get a credit card again : -- )
The 5th challenge is to have a plan. I have been studying and reading a lot of budgeting advise this last year that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints publishes, and also in LDS Living magazine. And I’ve been following it as I can.
Now I’m going to make a complete plan as they suggest on this site in challenge number 5.
You really should take a look at this site and program -- after reading it a lot I am so very impressed with it!
You can see it by clicking this image:
Here is a video about this new program from KSL news
Here is a wonderful video with Sheri Dew talking about this new program
As one of the 10 finalists I am being given a credit analysis with AAA Fair Credit Foundation in downtown Salt Lake City. After my appointment I’ll write an update. I am so excited to be able to receive this credit analysis and have some of my questions answered.
I’ll also write another update when I know the 5 finalists in the next week or so.
Go ahead…take their challenges and enjoy a tremendous sense of peace! I know I have : -- )
On July 9th my first case study site went live.
The first ranking for this site was at position 157 in Google.com. On on July 13th it was at 148.
Google places 10 websites on each page. The 157 number shows I’m way back in the listings. This happens a lot as Google.com reviews the new sites.
It can take between 1 to 2 weeks to get into the top first or second page of Google.com. For some keywords you can get ranked within a few hours.
In May Google.com did another major change and many long tail keywords, those with more than 2 words were falling back in the rankings for a period of time.
It is too early to tell if this first site will rank well or not. I have to wait at least 2 weeks. Then if it does rank on the first page I will monitor the sales for the first 30 days to see if this is in fact a buyers keyword as my research has told me it was.
As of today, July 15th, this first site is ranked for the main keyword at 148 in Google.com. 7 in Yahoo search engine. Bing has added this site to their search engine on July 13th. However, I don’t have a ranking yet on Bing.
My first backlinks have not appeared yet. I did them on 7-9-10 and 7-10-10.
Now on to the second site.
Well it has taken me a bit more time to put my first product based micro niche site up. I’ve run into the same issue I’ve had in the past. Which is organization!
Online businesses require a lot of technical know how if you are building them yourself. Which of course I am.
The biggest hurdle to getting my first 21 sites up is calculating how long each step will take so I can improve on my work time with each site.
The goal is to have well oiled master plan that I can follow for each niche site. This allows me to build the sites quicker and quicker while adding more quality to them as I go.
Over 8 years ago it was taking me about 2 weeks to get a website up. Then I learned about blogging and the wordpress platform. After a lot of practice and study over a few years I wittled it down to about a week to get a niche site up using wordpress.
Last month on a practice site I was able to get the first one up in 3 days. A great improvement. Mostly due to a combination of software technology that is new and a lot of practice and knowledge of what is working right now and what is not.
And now for the best news.
This week i was able to get my first of this first group of 21 micro niche blogs up in just under 3 hours!
Amazing the technology the Lord has literally placed at our finger tips.
I will be tracking and writing about how long each site takes me to get live and also tracking now long it takes to get ranked in Google.com search engine and then how long it takes to get onto the first page of Google.com.
Each of these sites will follow the basic business model I’ve adopted after a lot of testing and trial and error.
They are product based micro sites. Each having one main product or theme of products. Each is built around the popular keywords people are using today to find these products.
After the site is live I begin building more articles and back links in a program I developed that I rotate through each site. So I’m building sites each work day and also doing some backlinking and article writing each day also.
When the first results come in for each site I will put them in their own category under the Live Case Studies.
Sit back and enjoy!
After testing a few domains I’ve bought using micro niche keywords to build them around specific products, I’ve discovered the products I chose are more involved then the sample sites Brian Johnson gave in his videos.
So, I’ve put them on hold for a moment. The point to this whole type of micro niche building is to find products that have a lot of people looking for them, with low competition. There are a few other factors that Micro Niche Finder helps you to use, to really ascertain if the niche keywords are buying keywords and also keywords you can rank quickly for. Without having to build a large amount of back links to reach Google’s first page.
So after a lot of pondering, I decided to try some niche products from the company that Brian Johnson uses for his Halloween costume niches. He says he has used them for a few years and loves them. Judging by his very helpful videos I am taking his word on this.
I applied to be an affiliate to this online merchant. They sell costumes of all kinds, party supplies as well as party decor and a few other things.
After I signed up I received a very nice email from this merchant. They are very helpful and gave me a link to their affiliate resources center. Here I found the answers to all the beginning questions I had. And they also sent me a 2010 campaign calendar.
So I took the calendar and looked at what is selling now in July and into August. Then I went back to Micro Niche Finder and searched for quite a few hours in several niches.
The results were awesome. I found a lot of niche buying keywords that had domains available in them. Then I went to Google’s Insight tool online, which is free. I plugged each of the buying keywords that I uncovered into the insight tool. I picked the top 21 ranking buying keywords as far as highest searches right now. The insight tool shows you the search results in a graph form from the past few years.
You can select what time period you are most interested in. For this I wanted to find products that have sold well in July and August the last few years to give me a better idea of what will sell right now.
I wanted to narrow it down this way because I’m just getting this business off the ground after many years of not being able to work. So making an income as quick as possible is on the top of my list.
I am beginning my business right now today! Finally the searching and testing and research is over. For now anyway.
Now I’m going to time the different things I have to do to set one of these micro niche sites up.
When I tested a few of the other keywords it took me 3 hours to set the basic niche site up. The second one took only 55 minutes and the third on I set up in about 35 minutes.
This is crucial to see that it is indeed possible to set these sites up quickly. Later on down the line, I will outsource the basic site setup. However, right now with no budget other than the money to buy the domains, I am as usual doing everything myself.
After the basic site set up comes getting the products organized. Cloaking all the product affiliate links. Making a simple header with a picture or two on it. Finding out going links to help my visitors to the niche sites.
Designing the main page and then writing it and setting it up. Next comes a few posts and the small back linking routine I am honing now.
As I get each site up I’ll come back here and post how long it took to put up. What is included in the site as I’ve added a few little things to Brian Johnson’s layout. And when I launched the site.
Then I will start a new category here to show my results. First how fast I am getting these micro niche sites ranked on the first page of Google.com. And then also the stats of clicks and sales.
The first few sites will take a bit longer on the main page and posts to finish. My goal is to get each micro niche site up completely and live within 3 hours.
This first site will take the longest as I will be testing different ways of doing the main page, the out bound links, the product organization, affiliate links, etc.
I’m very excited though. After 10 long years, I’m finally healthy and able to start my own thriving online business again. And the research and ground work are finally behind me.
I’ll check back in a few days and let you know how long it took me to get my first micro niche site up and running.
Till then, have a marvelous week and Happy 4th of July!
After testing a lot of so called Keyword research tools available today online, I’ve finally found one that is working for me. It’s called
Micro Niche Finder. This tool is a breath of fresh air. I was able to begin using it right away. No long drawn out learning curve. The training video is to the point and very helpful in jump starting you.
So far I’ve uncovered several micro niches that look promising to start my product based micro niche sites on.
After the last few months the pattern I am seeing that sells consistently and is easy to set up and does not require long hours to maintain is in setting up micro niche sites.
Each site is a few pages long. It focuses on one main product. So I am helping consumers who are having trouble finding on this vast Internet what they want and need now. And I am connecting them to the best company for their interests.
I’ll be making money as a affiliate, however, I’m not selling information products or Internet marketing business products.
Using my years of entrepreneurial business experience I’ve turned to selling directly to consumers again. Online I’ve learned that trying to “sell” people products and services they are not looking for, today. Is in my humble opinion a big waste of time, money and effort.
There are literally millions upon millions of products people want to buy right now, today. So by simply placing my micro niche sites in front of the people looking for the products I’m selling…I have cut a lot of wasted time and effort out of this Internet marketing business model.
Do you remember what I said a post or two ago about one door closing and one or more doors opening instead? Well this is a good example of what I’ve experienced in my life before.
After I started testing Micro Niche Finder, I received an interesting email from the owner James Jones. I had signed up to his mailing list to see what else he was doing and to learn more about this incredible tool.
A very short time after I joined his mailing list he was talking about another marketer online who had put together a coaching program for building multiple small niche sites quickly in the Halloween niche.
Now, I’m not a really big fan of Halloween. However, the kids side can be fun. So I took a look at some pre-launch videos made by Brian Johnson. He is the developer of a coaching program called Halloween Super Affiliate.
I was pleasantly surprised to see the videos were not only original. They were direct to the point and actually walked me through the basics of the business model he used last year, 2009 to make a little over $20,000 during the Halloween selling time.
I am going to look at his example sites which he is still using today and also make notes from the videos. I have a few niche products I’m interested in so I’m going to go ahead and buy a few domains as well.
Well after a lot of reading and searching I discovered that the membership package I had signed up for was indeed a viable way to make a living online. However, even though it did provide some unique ways to cut down the labor intensive content production, it still entailed a lot more time on a regular basis than I am wanting to spend these days.
Now don’t get me wrong. I love working. I love writing and I love discovering new ways to make an honest living that I can enjoy doing. My point is at this time in my life I no longer “have to” simply earn a living to keep a roof over my kids heads so to speak.
I don’t have any young ones dependent on me living at home. I am free to now pursue the kind of business I will enjoy and that will give me the personal time I choose to have.
I love helping people and for me it is an essential element in any business I create. Therefore, when I sat down and listed the type of online businesses I would be interested in pursuing, I made sure to include my lifestyle and the things I enjoy doing. Like helping people and teaching in addition to my writing.
So I have closed the door on membership sites in general. And as always is the case in my life as one door closes one or more begin to open.
Along with the other research I’ve been doing, I’ve caught up on my studying what is working in the search engine marketing realm.
Today Google is very strong on original content, providing relevant content to what people are searching for. And many other points.
To test what types of back linking is working I set up a few small niche sites to test some automated software I’ve bought. I want to see what works for back linking right now and what does not before I launch my full business.
Over the last few weeks I’ve bought a number of programs all claiming to help you with keyword research and others that claim to help you with back links. As I’ve experienced before. None of these software programs or other programs I’ve bought and tested really work.
So far good old original article writing is still winning overall.
Then I discovered another niche marketing keyword research tool. I did some more research on the product and it looks a lot better than the others I’ve tried. This one does not have the usual hype around it. It explains what it does on the sales page very clearly.
So I’ve started to try this out as well. When I find the niche keyword research tool that really does help me I’ll be posting it here for you to find as well.
Okay, time to get back testing!
This membership product information has taken me a lot longer to read, sort and organize so I can utilize it easily. So far the information is newer. Which is a plus. The concept so far seems probable. In that I mean it seems as though it will generate a good income online.
One of the selling features is that this particular membership program claims to cut out all the lag time you have normally with content creation.
One of the downsides I’ve seen with membership sites is the large amount of unique content you have to supply for your members. Because, after all that is what they are buying. Information. How to do things online.
I’m still very early in this membership program so most of the material is outline oriented. I’ll have to wait to see the finer details to know if this is what I am looking for in an online business.
There is still a lot of hype around about membership sites bringing you a good income online.
I’ve built a membership site a number of years ago when I was hoping to be well enough to work again. I bought a membership site package from a “guru” as they call themselves. I usually don’t do that as I’ve learned through the years, most of the time they teach things they are NOT doing.
Well this time I went past my better judgment. I read so many good things about this person selling this membership package I threw caution to the wind and jumped in head first.
Well, I’m sure you can guess the outcome. It was a disaster. Instead of quick and easy membership sites I was bogged down in technical issues due to the person not ironing them out before he sold the package. We the dust settled, I was out a lot of money and saw some really awful membership sites going up from others who had bought the same package.
Now I don’t mean awful sites as not looking good. Oh you could grab some awesome graphics alright. I meant awful because the sites were all basically mini sites. Just a few pages to them and a membership area of information products.
I thought I had bought a robust membership program that would shave a lot of the technical website building time off my goals. I wanted a series of authority sites that also had coaching and teaching to them for my students.
I learned many very important lessons with this experience. From that time on I’ve bought programs only to “test” them and wrote the money off as business expenses. I have never expected any returns from these sorts of programs.
Instead, I buy them, study them, test them and learn what makes them tick. I see if they in fact work. And if they do…which today online is a Big If…I see if it is something I want to be doing and if it will provide me with the values based lifestyle that is so important to me.
After being away from things for a few years other than reading and studying different traffic generation techniques, I’ve decided to plunge into another membership site program to see what it’s all about.
So far the preliminary information is very detailed. I will get to reading it all and start to using it to test it to see if it indeed is workable.
This week has been mostly researching different internet business models. There are a lot of ways to make money online. However, I am a values based entrepreneur and I am looking for an online business that will support me and provide me the lifestyle I choose to live.
Years ago I thought nothing of building a business offline. Working night and day expecting when it was up and going I’d have more time for myself and family.
Those times never came. I tried many different kinds of businesses and though each one gave me a little more freedom and free time…none gave me the time I wanted for me and my personal pursuits.
When I first came online back in early 1997 I fell into the same cycle as many did. The promise of a better way to make a living and more time with family and friends lulled me into a state of virtual dream reality.
The first year online I discovered most people were looking for help getting their websites listed in all the search engines. So they could gain traffic and customers and make sales of their own.
Having been an entrepreneur for many years offline by that time, I knew how to look for the tools people wanted to buy. Or find the services they needed and offer them in an easy and economical way.
After my years of illness I am at the beginning again. And I love it!
With years of experience…both successful and non-successful I have the knowledge now to look at the business models, test them and read the results…all before you leap.
So far I’ve signed up to many different newsletters, read a lot in an Internet marketing forum. I’ve joined mailing lists and downloaded free reports. The research end to discovering what is working online now for both consumer and business.
Once I establish that I’ll be able to forge ahead.
After a few years of illness have kept me in the research and testing mode only…I was so excited to finally be healthy and getting my businesses back up online that I stayed up till very early in the morning.
My excitement fueled the never ending adrenalin that pulsated throughout my body.
Finally about 1 am or so…I started to settle down and get ready for some long awaited sleep.
I took one final look at the first two sites I had put up and…Wham! Hackers! Ugh!!
As I put the URL’s into my browser I was face to face with a hacker page…I couldn’t believe it.
After being an entrepreneur for over 30 years and an Internet entrepreneur for 12 years…I’ve learned there is one pattern I can always count on.
That’s the pattern of change and to welcome the unexpected.
Years ago as I was first starting my first few businesses in the brick and mortar world…these unforeseen events used to through me off balance for a bit.
Not anymore!
After a few hours of pondering I discovered what I had done to allow the hackers in.
So…I’m really glad they came for a visit…before…I built both sites up.
Always keep backups of everything! Always!
Then even in the rains that will fall, you’ll smile along the path to success and a better life for you and your family.
I will be building my new Internet businesses and detailing the steps right here on this blog. You’ll be able to watch me stumble, test, try…and succeed!
And then I’ll document each site when it is done in an easy to follow – paint by numbers – course.
So, follow my successful steps or read and enjoy and wait for the courses to follow. The choice is yours!
Have a marvelous day!