Working From Home Getting A Tan!

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This week, Londoners have enjoyed basking in brilliant sunshine and, as if overnight, my garden has become a jungle, requiring a skilfully wielded machèté to traverse it to the far end!

In the time it takes to blink, the lawn (using the term in its broadest sense) is knee-high, and new foliage is sprouting all around. Blossoms are readying themselves to burst, and I’m especially thrilled that my Magnolia is smothered in buds, as it didn’t flower last Summer.

A smattering of bluebells sprung up this year, but they’re now shrugging off their bright petals to reveal seed pods, which will soon drop, ensuring a more abundant display next Spring.

New life is profoundly inspiring, and a comforting reminder that every living entity renews itself, and that everything has its time.

Yesterday afternoon, I enjoyed a thorough physical workout, attempting to tame the backyard jungle, and today my arms, shoulders, back and legs all attest to how much I am in need of ‘away from the computer’ activities!

I’d just started to cut the grass, when it occurred to me to take a photo - my apologies for the quality.

[Click image to view enlargement.]

Below is a shot of the garden last Summer, after I’d started to knock it into shape.

[Click image to view enlargement.]

There was a spell yesterday when I took a break from hacking down the grass and pulling up weeds, and I sat in the dappled sunlight, listening to the melodic birdsong, and contemplating whatever came into my mind.

Then I realised how privileged I was to be seated in the sun, smelling the fresh cut grass and glimpsing the tiny frogs leaping about their newly-disturbed world.

I’m privileged to be working from home building my own online business. Internet marketing offers many options for making money online, however, my recent experience with blogging has taught me that many people start a blog thinking that they’ll be making money (a full-time living) by blogging alone — this is rare. Making money online with one blog alone is very rare.

Diversify. Your blog can be used as an internet marketing tool to help grow a mailing list, by offering a subscription to a newsletter, updates, or special offers. But don’t immediately start promoting products to your list, first you must gain people’s trust and respect — you have to convince your readers that they can rely on your opinion and recommendation.

They say that an internet marketer, actively promoting to his or her list, earns a minimum of $1 per month for each name on it. That’s why the internet marketing gurus with multiple lists of 50,000 plus are millionaires!

When you have established a reputation, you can email the occasional promotion — your own product, or as an affiliate marketer you could promote other people’s. But be careful. This is an area that’s been highly abused, and I don’t hold with daily mailings, promoting each and every ‘latest and greatest’.

Internet marketers practising this type of email vomit-a-thon in my Inbox don’t retain my name on their list for long. A surprising number do send too many mailings, which makes me wonder if they are making good sales, because people succumb to the pressure. I’d prefer not be making an income by annoying the contacts on my list, and I’d rather retain some dignity, too.

Recommend products that you have purchased, and genuinely consider to be quality and worth the bucks. Once again, I soon unsubscribe when I’m frequently sent recommendations for products from the marketer’s ‘good friend’ who has just launched some new something that he thinks I shouldn’t be without. Phoney, baloney.

Diversify. Develop your own product to promote or, as an affiliate marketer, you can save yourself a whole heap of effort, and earn generous commission, promoting other people’s products.

So many internet marketing strategies can be managed via auto-responders and, once set up, they require the minimum of maintenance. You could be making more money online by doing the same amount of work!

Step back from your blog, view the bigger picture, and apply leverage.

Reward Rebel

Popularity: 44% [?]

Making Money Online: Rinse And Repeat

Making Money Online: Rinse And Repeat

Products teaching Internet Marketing and Making Money Online are in plentiful supply. What surprises me is that so many of each week’s new launches have been written, developed or sourced by the same comparatively small group of online entrepreneurs.

Stop. Rewind. What am I saying? I’m not surprised.

These entrepreneurs tell us that they’ve worked countless hours developing the latest and greatest, for no reason other than that they’re fed up with seeing us – the ordinary guy making money online – given so much of the internet marketing picture, and then being hung out to dry. Altruism at its most heroic. What? Hasn’t it warmed the cockles of your heart?

Of course, these are the same internet marketing entrepreneurs who refer to a mailing list as a personal ATM, because they can withdraw money from it whenever they choose. They practically tell you to your face that they take you for a sucker, and such a stupid sucker that they can even tell you that they are doing it! I don’t think this is the type of online entrepreneur that I aspire to be.

Each new internet marketing product launched promises to be the one that will teach me everything I’ll need to know. They enthusiastically inform me that I require no technical know-how, copy writing skills, or indeed a functioning brain. Then they attempt to dispel any lingering doubts that I may be harbouring about my ability to undertake an online business venture.

Ker-Ching! Here’s the Paypal button!
Ker-Ching! Give us your hard earned!

Fast forward two to three months. The same entrepreneur emails me with their latest product, which promises to lead me by the hand to that villa in the Caribbean, before I can say… hold on. If their previous product was so mind-blowingly awesome, why would I be in need of another one?

Of course, in between times, there’s been a relentless deluge of email promos vomiting into my Inbox, which are about the “you can’t live without ‘em” latest and greatest offerings from the entrepreneur’s internet marketing friends. Somehow, they’re convinced that I won’t want to be without this product either, even though I may already have their own version of the same thing.

Fortunately, there exists a wide variety of methods of making money online, because in my opinion affiliate marketing has hit an all-time low. So many people are trying to jump on the bandwagon, it’s drowning in its own tsunami of hype and insincerity.

Making money online isn’t as easy as it used to be. Making money online in an ethical and dignified fashion appears to be the most difficult objective of all to achieve. But, dear god, if I ever start turning into one of these internet marketing leeches, I’ll flick off the switch on the modem for the last time.

I’m not a guru basher, well OK, I’m not usually a guru basher, well, apart from when I got a bit enrantified and wrote:

• Gurus Mutual Appreciation Society

and then I wrote,

• Trickery of the Gurus

Perhaps it’s best if I draw this to a close, after all, my adventure may find me networking with these very same internet marketing gurus at some point in the not-too-distant future!

So, mum’s the word…

Reward Rebel

Popularity: 5% [?]

Change

Nowadays in business, we have Change Management, which in turn requires Change Managers, as if Change is a recent development, a new technology for which people need guidance in order to accommodate it in their lives.

This is an instance of concept creation by marketing consultants, which has evolved a whole new managerial mezzanine.

Many people resist change, after all, it implies moving outside of the comfort zone, and this makes people edgy.

No-one is entirely comfortable with the unknown, but for some this manifests as an exciting, anticipatory frisson, whilst for others it’s an all-pervading sense of dread.

Change is the constant. Change is the one thing in life that can be relied upon absolutely not to change. It’s the ultimate paradox.

Change represents new experiences, speculative anticipation, and excitement, as we stretch ourselves to rise to new challenges. It’s possible to be happy in our day-to-day lives… a loving relationship, savings deposited in the bank, kids en route to university, smart motor vehicles adorn the front drive… life has been generous.

Stability and contentment are very valuable commodities, but they don’t set the world on fire. Sometimes things need a good shake-up, mix up the molecules, turn life’s template on its head, introduce change.

It’s the anticipation of a new experience that excites us and gets our blood pumping. We dutifully take our body to the gym, but what about exercising those wasted muscles — sight, taste, smell, hearing, touch and emotion – they all need a good workout, too.

Our very survival is dependent upon the ability to change when circumstances alter and make it necessary. Without change, life stagnates and dies. Change keeps us alert, both mentally and physically – the ability to think on one’s feet is a good indication of an ability to adapt.

Internet marketing is constantly changing, as it evolves in tandem with the technological developments that make it possible. When I started my online projects, I first learnt how to create static html web pages, with the intention of applying a standard business model, utilising one time offers and email promotions.

Then the whole interactive social networking phenomenon rudely shouldered its way into my life, and though I tried to ignore it, I was postponing the inevitable. If I didn’t adapt to accommodate these new aspects of online business, I’d fail.

So Reward Rebel was created, and I joined a multitude of social networking communities, with the cold-blooded intention of manipulating them to suit my business objectives.

This plan was ambushed by the disarming friendliness and altruism of the people who inhabit these cyber realms, and another adaptation was required. Change is a cycle, a flow, it’s the rhythm of life itself.

Take a step outside your comfort zone, “feel the fear, and do it anyway”.

Reward Rebel

Popularity: 12% [?]

Making Money Online and Blogging 3

Making Money Online and Blogging 3

On a number of occasions recently in comments, I’ve made reference to having rediscovered how much I enjoy writing. When Reward Rebel was born, it was as a vehicle with which I could learn and practise blogging technicalities, with a view to making money online. It was never really my intention to promote it and encourage visitors.

The first entries I posted are barely-edited private label rights articles, which served the purpose of providing content around which I could learn the fundamentals, so that I could then apply my new skills to niche marketing sites.

It was a surprise when I found myself hungrily searching for just the right word to evoke whatever imagery I was attempting to conjure up from thin air. This was fun! What’s more it was my blog, hosted on my server, so I could do whatever I wanted. The control freak geek’s ultimate wet dream!

Internet marketing and blogging are inter-connected, but they are also worlds apart. The affiliate marketing aspect of internet marketing is very competitive, and although there exist network marketing joint ventures, ultimately the leading webpreneurs are all competing to promote the same products to the same finite market.

They start to look a little ridiculous, as they each offer a more generous bonus than the last guy, in an attempt to bribe you into choosing to buy the latest ‘wonder product’ from their affiliate site.

On the other side of the coin, we have bloggers practically knocking each other out as they offer you their hand, to help pull you up!

The friendly, supportive nature of the blogging community was a refreshing surprise, and is in fact having a profound effect on the development of my present attitude to my online activities. I’ve welcomed the kindness of strangers, and in turn I’ve tried to give assistance wherever I’m able.

The discovery of blogging and the blogging community has been a real eye opener, and is without a doubt, a positive enhancement in my life. I’m enjoying the writing, the interaction, and the interesting new things I’m learning.

Everyday the adventure grows.

Reward Rebel

Popularity: 5% [?]

Making Money Online and Blogging 2

Making Money Online and Blogging 2

My last post appears to have hit a nerve in the blogging community, and overall the comments surprised me. The topic definitely warrants further discussion, so I’m devoting a second article to it.

When I became involved with online marketing, the first thing I did was create a squeeze page to start building a list, and then some sales pages, which I promoted with advertising, and a splash page on traffic exchanges.

At the time I was also involved in selling clothing through online auctions, and made full use of my Ebay ‘About Me’ page to market my digital product sales pages.

[A quick aside on the topic of peripheral marketing techniques — don’t forget to use your 404 and other error pages, otherwise it’s just wasted space. Pop up some ads or graphic marketing links on them. You have nothing to lose, but may very well gain an occasional Paypal payment notification that you wouldn’t otherwise have received.]

Anyhow, by this time, I was reading a lot about blogging and social networks, the whole Web 2.0 phenomenon. The logical next step was to start my own blog, and Reward Rebel came into existence. What I hadn’t really expected was how enjoyable it is, especially once you become involved in the blogging community as a whole. At the moment, I believe I’d continue blogging even if I were to quit internet marketing.

There are different types of blogger, from those who first start a blog, and then consider monetizing it, to the people whose blogs are genetically engineered to exist as a vehicle for making money online!

There is room for a comfortable middle ground, where an interesting blog containing enjoyable content, and helpful information and ideas, can also be actively marketing. The subscriber chooses to be included on a mailing list, and each communication should offer an ‘unsubscribe’ option. Personally, I don’t mail more frequently than once a week, and usually more like once a month, and many of my mails bear useful info and tips rather than promotions. Not every marketer is just trying to grab your money.

You know the old maxim, ‘the money is in the list’. It’s made to sound like some arcane magic elixir, if only we could get our hands on ‘the list’, we’d have everything our heart desires and be rich beyond our wildest dreams!

Yeah, well, not quite. The fabled list won’t make you rich by its existence alone, you do have to actually do something with it.

If you do choose to build a mailing list, avoid the mindset of treating your subscribers as though they are your property, or worse, your personal friends. They’re most definitely not. There are marketers who should know better, from whom I’ve received entirely inappropriate mailings.

Recently, I received one from quite a high profile name, an email about his daughter starting university soon, and how she needs all the help she can get with tuition fees. So he’s offering some digital product in return for helping her out. Global panhandling. This infuriates me, and I’m amazed that anyone has the bald-faced audacity to market at such a low-down, arse-sniffing level – and on such a massive scale! Although, I suppose if you’re going to do something, you may as well do it BIG!

For every blogger there will be a point of view, and it’s this element that makes it such a fun adventure, so enjoy yours!

Reward Rebel

Popularity: 8% [?]

Qassia Attracts Traffic to Your Website

Qassia Attracts Traffic to Your Website

I just wanted to follow-up on my earlier post about Qassia, because it appears people have been signing up without reading the importance of the first 36 hours post-registration.

Qassia is in beta testing and during this early period is offering very generous rewards for referrals, which is currently the only access to registration. For the first 12 hours after you register, you earn Qassia $500 per referral, for the following 24 hours, you’ll earn Qassia $200 per referral, and thereafter, it’s down to Qassia $100 per referral.

If you plan your email promo and/or blog posting before registering, you can optimize your earnings on referrals during this valuable period.

In addition, for every item of ‘intel’ that you submit, you earn Qassia $dollars, as well as earning for ‘screening’ other people’s ‘intel’. You can instantly get unlimited backlinks, as one is created with each item of ‘intel’ you submit. Plus the more Qassia $dollars you have in your account, the higher your blog or website ranks.

Entrecard was my first real involvement with a traffic network of any kind, and I’ve been pleased with the increased traffic to Reward Rebel, as well as having struck up friendships with some wonderful people. It was an Entrecard colleague, Jean Costa, who initially invited me to sign up with Qassia, and so I’m going to throw my hat in the ring.

Of course, it remains to be seen exactly how much can be accomplished with Qassia, but you can rest assured that I’ll let you know how things develop!

Enjoy the adventure.

Reward Rebel

Popularity: 4% [?]

An Invitation To Qassia

An Invitation To Qassia

Have you heard of Qassia yet?

It’s a brand new ‘intelligence’ sharing network currently in beta testing. If you have a blog or website, you can register it and gain both traffic and backlinks.

The aim is to submit your ‘intelligence’ or ‘intel’, which can be a helpful tip, or useful snippet of information, from which others may benefit. For each ‘intel’ you submit, another backlink is added to your website.

You can only register if you’ve been invited by a member, therefore, you are cordially invited to Sign Up at Qassia. Simply go to this page: http://rewardrebel.qassia.com/ and click the huge button to the lefthand side.

Qassia gives you credit for sharing your intelligence, and the more credit you earn, the better your websites will rank.

This program sounds to be me like it’s worth investing some time and effort into. It also claims it has the best ad revenue sharing system on the internet, but it would say that!

Welcome to the adventure.

Reward Rebel Review

Popularity: 4% [?]