Will I Miss The 4 Minute Warning?

If the 4 minute warning is ever given, my partner hopes that we’ll be listening to the radio, and not watching TV, as he reckons we’ll miss what’s being said, as I’ll be too busy slagging off the appearance of the newsreader!

It’s true. I’ve frequently realised that I’ve not heard a word said, cos I’m pulling apart the unflattering hairstyle, poorly fitting jacket, badly applied makeup, seizure-inducing tie….. you get the picture.

There was a time when TV newsreaders followed guidelines restricting their attire to outfits that wouldn’t distract viewers from the news itself. Obviously, guidelines or not, people like me are hopeless cases.

Hey, I love fashion and clothes, but I’m a child of the TV age, and I’ve a short attention span. If an item doesn’t grab my interest fast, it’ll go for a stroll!

Of course, I have wondered what I’d do in my final four minutes — if I managed to actually hear the warning message. After all, there’s not a lot you can fit into just four minutes, is there?

Harris Fellman and Brian “Koz” Kosobucki have some tantalising suggestions for what can be accomplished in such a brief snippet of time, and have collated the best ideas into the aptly entitled creation, 4 Minute Money.

4 Minute Money incorporates videos, reports, marketing and SEO tools for each of the money making techniques, which are all clearly explained, including explicit instruction on how to put them into practice. First you get the information, then the tools to implement it, as well as video tutorials to ensure you get it right!

4 Minute Money - 7 Day Trial offers you the opportunity to try before you buy, and you’ll gain immediate access to:

4 Minute Money Guides
4MM Guide #1 - “Give People Money & Get Paid to Do It”
4MM Guide #2 - “Total Reciprocity – Get Paid to Ask for Nothing”
4MM Guide #3 - “The Automaton System: Robots Making You Money”
4MM Guide #4 - “The Insider’s Guide to Instantly Getting Your Own Free Labor, Products, and Money”
4MM Guide #5 - “4 Minute Traffic Tactics”
4MM Reading Instructions

4 Minute Money Tools
XConversions Keyword Tracker
Yahoo Answers Alert
Classifieds Watcher
Link Cloaker
Versus Keyword Generator
Coupon Keyword Generator
Email Form Creator With Stuffer
Coupon Finder
Coupon Link Pop-Up
Cookie Cloaker / Stuffer
Blogger SEO Tool
Gmail Auto Reply Checker

4 Minute Money Videos / Tutorials
Blogger SEO
Cookie Cloaker
Email Form
Keyword Coupon Generator
Link Cloaker
Keyword Versus Generator
Yahoo Answers Watcher

I’m certain this program will introduce you to new methods to substantially increase the income from your online business. You don’t have to take my word for it, you can take it for a test run now, visit 4 Minute Money - 7 Day Trial

I’m experimenting with some of the techniques myself, so let me know how you get on with it.

Reward Rebel

Reward Rebel posts new content every few days - stay informed about new posts by subscribing to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

My Time Is Valuable ~ Are YOU Wasting It?

Blogging is one aspect of my internet marketing business, and not a hobby or leisure activity. I have used Entrecard to promote Reward Rebel, and consider that it’s made a significant contribution to the site attaining its Google page rank.

Were it not for Entrecard, there wouldn’t have been anything like as much traffic, as many backlinks, or comments. There have been occasions when a comment has triggered an idea for a further post, too.

Reward Rebel joined the Entrecard Community back in November 2007 and although the degree of involvement has fluctuated, for the most part I’ve continued to network with individual members and drop cards routinely.

Recently, I’ve been ‘outsourcing’ card dropping duties to my partner! LOL But, most days I do a ‘personal’ batch of drops, commenting here and there as and when a post snags my interest.

Many sites display the Entrecard widget above the fold, or nearby, ensuring that it can easily be located and clicked.

Sometimes a blog will load without the widget materialising and, when this happens, I try to be kind, and click ‘reload’ but if it fails a second time…. ‘hasta la vista, baby!’

Sadly, too many blogs don’t appear to have given any real thought to the positioning of the Entrecard widget.

When I’m online surfing blogs and dropping Entrecards, it’s as part of the overall strategy to promote my website. My time has a financial value, and I don’t enjoy, nor intend, throwing away my potential earnings while I’m chasing around a website looking for the Entrecard widget.

It’s vital to position the widget where it’s easily – and quickly – located. I’d recommend you position the widget above the fold (on the opening screen, without scrolling down), and

1. Do NOT position the widget in some obscure spot down the page somewhere. Don’t delude yourself that it’ll entice people to read your articles, all it’ll do is make them click out, so not only do you lose that Entrecarder’s drops, you’ll gain a ‘bounce’ on your site traffic stats!

2. Do NOT position the widget amongst a cluster of 125 pixel square ads making it difficult to spot.

3. Do NOT fail to monitor how quickly your site loads – it should not take half a lifetime.

I personally loathe Blinx Ads obscuring site access, and they have instant B-O-U-N-C-E power!

Am I being too harsh? Do I sound like a bitch? If you think I am and I do, I’m certain that you aren’t involved in blogging as part of an internet marketing business.

Anyone managing an online business, or trying to make money online, will appreciate that every moment spent hunting for widgets to click is time that could be spent more productively elsewhere.

So, if you’re wasting my time, or anyone else’s, Stop It! My time is valuable and so is yours! Use it wisely and productively.

Happy blogging.

Reward Rebel

Blogspot Comments Settings

I’ve encountered quite a number of Blogspot sites on which the Comments settings remain as per the default, and this means that many people are unable to contribute to the topic under discussion.

The default setting for Comments on Blogspot sites is for ‘Users with a Google account’ (Blogger ID), however, this is frustrating for those of us who do not have, or do not like to use, a Blogger ID.

If you’re uncertain how your blog’s comments are set up, I’d like to recommend that you follow this exercise.

Sign into your Blogspot dashboard, and select Settings tab, then select Comments. For the second option down, ‘Who can comment’, you need to select the first option – ‘anyone’.

[Click image to view enlargement.]

SAVE your updated settings, and you’re away — it’s that simple.

Hopefully, you should now receive more comments to your blog than previously, so be prepared to respond to them all!

Of course, if you have a Blogspot site and don’t want any ol’ Tom, Dick or Harry commenting on your posts, you can completely ignore this.

Happy blogging.

Reward Rebel

Working From Home Getting A Tan!

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

Internet Business Guide Announces Winners

After some delay due to illness striking down both Marcus and his wife, the winners of The Internet Business Guide’s Contest have been announced.

Reward Rebel donated 5,000 ECs, which has been won by Amy Lilley Designs, and a copy of Reward Rebel LOOT goes to sezwho.multiply.com

I have sent congratulations to Amy via Entrecard, however, I have no contact details yet for sezwho, so if you’re reading this… contact me via details at top right of this page.

A rather nice surprise was discovering that I had won the DVD “Building An Internet Business From Scratch” by Marcus Hochstadt, a One Buck Wiki page at SiteHoppin Blog and a 10 card account at Send Out Cards so I’m stoked!

Congratulations to all the winners, and commiserations to those who weren’t lucky on this occasion. There’ll always be the next contest!

Reward Rebel

Google Page Rank 2 Attained

I am in celebratory mood. Why? Reward Rebel is basking in the glory of having attained a Google Page Rank of 2, and from little acorns….

The timing is amusing, as it has popped up like an exclamation mark at the end of my previous post!

Although I haven’t been considering quitting, I had been thinking about a subtle, discreet amendment to the site’s direction, as well as building on new keywords.

But no such thoughts are hovering now. A Page Rank is just what the site needed, to reassure myself and my readers that I’m a competent driver, and am steering in the right direction!

Whoop-diddly-doo!

Reward Rebel

Don’t Throw In The Towel!

As I often emphasise, blogging isn’t my ‘thing’, it’s part of my internet marketing ‘thing’ – a requirement of the modern online business.

During the past few weeks, I’ve been heavily involved in developing new projects, and haven’t been as active with Entrecard as I had previously been. However, during the past few days I have tried to allocate some time again to networking with the Entrecard community, as it’s been a good friend to this site.

To shake things up a little, I decided to open my Inbox and drop my card on blogs which had visited me way, way back when, but I was in for a surprise.

Within just a couple of days I have found myself time and again landing on a blog that hasn’t posted for anytime between several weeks and a few months.

When I first started building an online business, including blogs, I read about the high proportion of drop-outs after the initial 3-6 months. This is the first ‘wave’ of quitters I’ve personally witnessed, and it’s disappointing.

Did they just run out of things to say? Were they expecting to earn bucketsful of cash overnight? Have you tried making money online in the past and given up?

I’ve felt fed-up with it all sometimes, particularly the endless series of new technologies to get to grips with. I don’t have the residual funds to outsource, so when something needs doing, it’s me doing it, or it doesn’t get done!

I had to teach myself everything, and I’m proud of what I’ve accomplished so far, both in new skills and abilities, and the progress of my online business.

If you find yourself feeling like giving up, try to remember how you felt about making money online – whether via blogging or broader internet marketing techniques — back when you first became interested.

Remember your initial enthusiasm, and the plans you had for your life, which you felt an online business could bring to fruition.

Pick yourself up, dust yourself down, and start all over again. Keeping on, keeping on is the only way you’re going to succeed!

Reward Rebel