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% [?]

King Kong Of Contests!

Marcus Hochstadt of Internet Business Guide has whipped-up the King Kong of Contests!

Reward Rebel is contributing 5,000 Entrecard credits and a copy of Reward Rebel Loot to the jaw-dropping array of prizes that’s up for grabs in the Hochstadt.com Party Contest!

Take a look for yourself:

Consultations, Products & Services

• Max from SiteHoppin gives 10 Beer Stock Pages worth $20-$100 each = $200-$1,000 PLUS 50 One Buck Wiki pages worth $20 each = $1,000, altogether making it to a whopping $2,000!
• Martin Russell from Word of Mouth Marketing gives 50 (!) accounts of 10 cards each at SendOutCards.com worth $25 each = $1,250!
• Gary Evans from Law of Attraction Secrets gives 10 (!) of his Manifest A Miracle systems worth $97 each = $970!
• Marcus Hochstadt from Internet Business Guide For First Class Progress gives respectively 1 of each of his 4 DVD products worth $100 each = $400 PLUS one 2-hour Multimedia Coaching Session worth $300, altogether making it to a $700!
• Debbie Lane from Wisdom Hypnosis gives 7 of her Living The Lucky Life! audio CDs worth $23.77 each = $166.39 PLUS a personal 1.5 hour Hypnosis Session by phone worth $250, making it a total of $416.39!
• Pat King from FitnessLifeClub gives 1 month of his Premier Health Coaching Package worth $357.98!
• Keith Goodrum from On Becoming a 2%er gives 2 of his DVDs 10 Minute Blog Post worth $100 each = $200!
• Andreas from XavierMedia.com gives 5 one-year VIP memberships to CreateBanner.com worth $35 each = $175!
• Larry Brauner from Online Social Networking gives a personal 1 hour consultation worth $150!
• Jason from The University Kid gives two 60 minute Blogging Consultations worth $60 each = $120.
• Leisa Watkins from Dream Act Plan Believe gives 3 Robert G. Allan books that are personally signed by Robert (!), as well as 3 Richard Paul Evans books, also personally signed by Richard himself!

Continue reading »

Popularity: 22% [?]

Internet Marketing Grab It And Run!

If you have an online business or blog, or are involved in some way with making money online through internet marketing (or trying to), and you haven’t downloaded Rebel Booty - a free collection of internet marketing products – either you’re completely bonkers or you just haven’t been aware the offer exists!

Click the Grab It and Run image to access full details and stake your claim. There is also a permanent link at the top of the sidebar.

One of my mailing lists builds consistently from this offer, so your name and email address will be added to it. However, currently I don’t broadcast very frequently, and every email contains an unsubscribe option, so you aren’t lumbered with me forever!

Nope, on this occasion, I’m not pursuing the Holy Grail of Internet Marketing – The List – I just want to give something of value to my readers. Period.

Comprised of ten essential internet marketing titles, Rebel Booty contains solid information and you can gain new insights and pointers to help you achieve your objectives.

Whatever aspect of online business you’re working within, unless you’re an internet marketing guru, I’m certain you’ll learn something new from these publications.

Claim your copy of Rebel Booty by clicking the image above or click here to link.

Enjoy yourself!

Reward Rebel

Popularity: 17% [?]

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: 7% [?]

A Gift For You

Internet Marketing | This is Daylight Robbery… And You Keep The BOOTY!

I’ve just finished putting together a collection of products as a gesture of appreciation for my customers and readers.

To alert Santa to add you to his delivery round, just point your browser to http://rewardrebel.com/BOOTY and claim your gift. Simple.

Have fun playing with your new toys, and enjoy the adventure,

Reward Rebel

Popularity: 4% [?]

List Building… Things To Avoid

List Building… Things To Avoid

When you decide to have an opt-in list, it is not just a matter of sending your subscribers your promotional newsletters or catalogs. There are many things to consider in order to avoid potential complications. While there are many ways you can entice people to subscribe to your list, there are also some things you must do to avoid causing your subscribers to want to escape your list! Aside from this, you also want to avoid any problems with SPAM violations and your internet service provider (ISP).

There are now many laws and rules that are applied to help protect the privacy of internet users from spamming and unwanted mails. With the popularity of the electronic mail as a medium for marketing because of the low cost, many companies have seized the opportunity, and have flooded many people’s email accounts with promotional mail. But, with an opt-in list, you avoid this annoyance because people subscribe - thereby agreeing to receive your newsletters and promotional materials.

However, because they’ve consented to being on your list, don’t forget to give them the option of UNsubscribing! We may refer to ‘capturing’ an email address, but don’t take that too literally! People are allowed to leave! Always use a reputable autoresponding service (Aweber or Get Response) which inserts an unsubscribe link at the bottom of every email or broadcast.

By using a reputable autoresponder provider, you will also avoid the occasions when someone may maliciously submit someone else’s email address, because these providers practise the ‘double optin’ where a confirmation email is sent to the would be subscriber, which has to be authorised before acceptance to the list. It is essential that you keep your list clean and manageable. Arrange it by using the many tools and technologies available for your opt-in list. Don’t worry; your investment in this marketing strategy is well worth it with all the coverage you will get, which will likely be converted into sales then to profit.

• Keep yourself and your business out of trouble and potential run-ins with the law and the internet service providers.

• Keep your operation legit and clean.

Your reputation as a legitimate businessman and a legitimate site depends on your being a straight and true marketing strategist. Take notice of your unsuccessful sends. These are the e-mails that bounce.

Bounced emails, also known as undeliverable messages, are those messages that, for whatever reason, were not successfully received by the intended recipient. There are bounces that happen or occur because the server was busy at that time but can still be delivered in another time. There are also bounces because the inbox of the recipient is full at that time. There are those bounce messages that are simply undeliverable ever.

The reason for this is that it may be an invalid email address, a misspelled email address, or an email address that was abandoned and erased already. Manage your list by putting markings on those that bounce. Erase an email account from your list so that you have an accurate statistics and records as to how many are actually receiving your mail.

You may also want to check the spellings of your email addresses in your list. One common mistake is when an N instead of an M is placed in the .com area. Always provide an unsubscribe feature in your site and an unsubscribe link in your mails. When someone in your list files a request to be unsubscribed, always take that request seriously. If you don’t take them off your list and keep sending them your e-mails, you are now sending them spam mail.

When you are reported as a spammer, you and your business can get into a lot of trouble. You can be reported to the authorities and maybe blacklisted by many internet service providers. You will lose a lot of subscribers this way and many more in potential subscribers. Do not provide pornographic or shocking and disturbing content in your newsletters. It is hard to decipher the age of the recipient and many complaints may stem from these.

Controversial issues also are to be avoided to not be branded by your subscribers. Stick to the nature of your site and business.

Always remember the tips in this article so that you can have a healthy relationship with your subscribers, as well as keeping your business within the boundaries of what is allowed in sending mails to an opt-in list. Enjoy the adventure!

Reward Rebel

Popularity: 4% [?]

Build A List Of Eager Subscribers

Build A List Of Eager Subscribers

Every online business provides great service to generate satisfaction among their customers. As each and every customer receives satisfaction over their products or the services they get, there is a great chance that they will become a return customer and buy again. Better yet, they will recommend you to other people that could generate more business for you and your site.

As more traffic is driven to your site, you can entice many of them to subscribe to your mailing list or opt-in list, which is when your website’s visitors request to receive promotional materials, such as newsletters, catalogs and the like, that keeps them updated about your site and/or the niche your site represents.

These promotional materials are sent via e-mail to the members of the list in different time intervals. When using e-mail as the media of your marketing and advertisements, you eliminate the need for high costs.

Email is free and if you can manage to make your own promotional advertisements you can also save a bundle there. With an opt-in subscribers list, you are pretty sure that what you are sending out is received, viewed and read by the subscribers and not simply being deleted.

They have signed up for service and have consented in receiving it. This means that there are constant reminders to your subscribers about all your products, new products and services as well as any promotions and special deals you are having.

There is also the chance that they can be forwarded to other potential customers as they tell their friends and families about you and your site. Of course you should be also aware that a subscriber may unsubscribe when they feel that they are not getting what they want or expected.

Make sure that they are satisfied with your opt-in marketing strategies and keep them excited in receiving your newsletters and catalogs.

Here are some tips that can help you build a list of eager subscribers. Make your promotional materials interesting and fun. Try to use a little creativity but not too over artsy. Build around what your product or service is about.

For example; if you are selling car parts, put some pictures of what is new in the auto parts world, a new wing door possibly that can fit any car and make it look like a Lamborghini.

Try to research what people are looking for, these way, you stay one step ahead of them all the time and you will be their bearer of new tidings. They will be eager to receive what you are sending them, because they know you always have fresh and new things to share with them. Write good articles that can be very informational, but light at the same time.

If your subscribers enjoy your articles, they will go to your site by clicking the links that you insert in your newsletter to read some more. You can provide articles that can connect to many people. Be diverse in your articles. Put something humorous, then put something informational, then put something that has both.

Are you wary about this because you don’t like writing? No problem, there are many professional and experienced article writers that can do the job for you for minimal fees. They know what they are doing, and can provide the need that you have for your newsletters, the money that you pay for your articles is going to be met by the additional sign-ups and the potential profit from future sales.

Create and send an e-book to your customers about anything related to your business or website.

Use your knowledge and expertise in the field you have chosen to help other people who are similarly interested. Offer this e-book for free. You can write about anything informational and helpful to your subscribers.

For example; you can do manuals and guides in so many things. This e-book could be used as a reference for many people. Share this e-book with everyone, even other sites; just make sure that they don’t change the links in the e-book that will lead people to your site.

If you want, you can always get some people to write it for you just like your articles. Once again, your investment will be covered by the great marketing this will generate.

Add e-coupons in your newsletters that will help your readers benefit from special discounts. Put a control number in your e-coupon so that they can only be used once. When people get discounts that can be found in your newsletters, they will be eager to receive your newsletter in anticipation of what you are promoting next.

If your subscribers can get benefits from your newsletters, they will be very eager to receive them. Just don’t flood your mailing list with mails so that you don’t annoy your subscribers.

Enjoy the adventure,

Reward Rebel

Popularity: 4% [?]