Well, the $300 giveaway has certainly helped the activity on my new forum, WebsiteBabble.com. In fact, it's been so good I will probably continue the cash awards after the first giveaway next month.

Not only is it a nice tax write-off for me, but it really does encourage people to contribute quality information. Even though Website Babble is a spam-free forum (no self promotion allowed), you can still drive traffic to your site by using a sig file with your posts.

The more useful your posts are, the greater the chance people will visit your site. So if you haven't joined, what are you waiting for? It's a definite win-win for you.

Join Website Babble today.

I just received an e-mail from a gentleman desperate to find something to do online so he could quit his job that he hates so much. He asked me how long it took me to make a full time living online and I got the impression he would do anything to get rich on the Net.

First of all, I really hate the "How long did it take you to make money online?" question because people often use that as a benchmark for their own success. And because there are so many factors that determine how successful you will be and how long it will take, that is a very difficult question to answer.

I receive a lot of desperation e-mails from people who would do anything to make money online but unfortunately the desperate people generally usually have the hardest time finding success.

Why?

Because money is their only motivation and they focus so hard on the "how-do-I-get-rich" part that they forget this is a job and you have to enjoy yourself in the process.

I remember when I was only making $30 per month, I still worked on my sites 20-30 hours per week reading and learning because I enjoyed the concept of Internet Marketing. Even though I wasn't making a lot of money, I saw the potential and I still loved to write and help others with my websites.

Making money online is not about copying someone else's idea or getting rich quick. It's about understanding that you have to treat this like a business. You need a plan.

1) Who are you going to target?

2) What are you going to do with your site to attract that audience?

3) What kind of products are you going to offer?

4) If you plan to join affiliate programs, which ones are the best for your site and how are you going to promote them?

5) How much do you have to invest because starting a business does require money, even if it's just for hosting your websites. Please don't expect to make money hosting your site at a free host. It's a joke.

6) Are you good at writing to communicate and/or sell? If not, do you plan to get someone to help you?

People who are making money out here, didn't do it by luck. It's all marketing just like any offline business. It's time people start taking Internet businesses more seriously and understanding that it's more than just putting up a website. You really do need to...

1) Establish a plan

2) Understand that this is a business

And last but not least...

3) Enjoy yourself.

And if you are seeking a get-rich-quick solution, I suggest you take a look at this article.

Years ago a top search engine ranking wasn't too hard to come by. You simply created a site with a few pages, added your meta tags, stuffed some keywords, got a few links from other websites (related or non related)...

And Voila!

You've got a top 10 ranking!

However, times have drastically changed and Google continues to crack down on sites that offer no value.

Ken Evoy of SiteSell, has been saying for years that traditional SEO would soon be dead.

And that time is here.

Read a very telling blog post from Ken here.

I just launched a new blog discussing the things affiliates and merchants do wrong. I've been involved in affiliate marketing for nearly 10 years and decided to blog about the common mistakes I notice with affiliates and merchants.

Check out AffiliateNonsense.com.

What's the one job where you could take a year off and still get paid?

Yup... you guessed it.

Affiliate Marketing.

I got an e-mail from a gentleman today who wanted to know how many hours he'd have to invest upfront to make enough money online to quit his full time job. He admitted he didn't have much time to invest into his site.

Because the Internet appears so glamorous with all these inspiring success stories, people get fooled into thinking there is some short cut or easy way to make money. Just throw up a site and the money will come in, right?

Nope.

It takes work just like any other job, BUT the difference is once you invest the time upfront you can get by working only a couple of hours per day. Unfortunately, most people never stick with it long enough to get to that point.

I could take a year off from my sites and still probably come back to a very nice income because of the time I've put into building up my sites over the years. You can too, but you have to do the work now to get the rewards later.

There are no shortcuts to success and the Internet is no exception.

This entry was inspired by a post in my forum today. If you want to build a money making website, this message is for you.

People starting out often get overwhelmed by all their ideas and it's hard to decide where to focus. When something doesn't seem to be working, it's easy to get sidetracked and want to try something else. Or maybe you get tempted to copy someone else's successful idea.

Well here's my advice...

1) Stick to it. If you spend your time trying to many different things (or multiple sites) before you find success with the first one, then you're attention gets diverted and it's hard to stay focused.

2) Work on one site at a time and continue building content until the traffic begins to come in.

3) Be customer focused. In other words, what do people you are targeting want to learn about? What kind of helpful information can you offer from your site that your competitors are not?

4) Remember a good design is visually appealing, but it's the good content that keeps people coming back to your site. People often ask me how I got so much traffic to my flat-stomach-exercises.com site so quickly. Well I jokingly answer, "It certainly wasn't because of that design!" LOL

In all seriousness though, it's all about your content. The site's design is pretty basic, but frankly... my visitors could care less. I provide useful information about flattening the stomach that other sites don't, and I use a brutally honest approach. That's my unique voice for the site.

As a result, my traffic stats show me that sites all over the Net are linking to me for free just because they like my content. That is so important because the search engines notice this.

So as you're building your first site and trying to find success, remember these key points. Find your unique voice for whatever niche you're targeting and be customer focused with your information. Give folks what they want and they'll keep coming back for more!

The freebies keep coming at WebsitePalace.com. I recently blogged about the free ebook software you receive with each new order, and now they are offering 70+ html templates.

What a great way to encourage newbies to choose them as their domain registrar and/or web host... especially since most web hosts don't offer templates and cater to the newbies.

Read more about the free offer here.

I've always had a dream of being my own boss and having the freedom to go to any Starbucks and work while I watch the busy 9-to-5ers scurry in and out. Well, that time is finally here and I owe it all to affiliate marketing.

You too can have this life, and the quickest way to get there is follow your passion. What do you love? What can you help someone with? Write a site about it and go into the business of providing useful content. Yes, it's a lot of work, but the concept is very simple.

So what are you waiting for? Get started today. There are millions of people out there searching Google for information that you could be providing. Your dream lifestyle is only one website away. ;-)

Wanna talk about this? Come to WebsiteBabble.com and find out how a website can help you achieve your financial and lifestyle goals.

Cheers!

It's THE age old question heard around the Net. "How long does it take before I start making money with my website?" It's a question that's very difficult to answer and one I'm usually very careful about addressing.

The Internet is flooded with products and websites that make ridiculous claims about getting rich quickly, and if you're not cautious... you could get sucked in. I know many people who have.

I cannot emphasize enough that making money no matter whether you're online or offline is work. The Internet is glamorous. There are countless stories of people like myself who are earning a living online. And to some, this "Web thing" appears to be a quick and easy way to escape a humdrum or stressful 9 to 5 job.

You read the stories all the time, but you rarely hear about the work that actually went into making these successful sites. While I've had a ball out here the last 9 years, I've definitely done my time and worked very hard. Anyone who is making good money out here will tell you the same.

Now, back to the "How long before I succeed?" question. There is not one answer to this question. It depends on your dedication, work ethic, and enjoyment.

Yes, I said enjoyment.

That's another factor that's often left out of these success stories. If it's not fun for you, it will feel like a job.

Then you're in trouble.

One thing I can say is that I have enjoyed every step of this journey. I continue to learn new things almost everyday and I truly love helping people. So the enjoyment didn't come because of the money. The money came because I enjoy what I'm doing.

People who attach a timer to their success often begin this journey with the wrong focus. After all, there is no right answer to the "how long" question. Some people take a few months, others take years. But when you are doing what you love... that success clock stops ticking, and the money will naturally come over time. I promise.

Here's a great thread from my forum that does a great job of addressing the age old question.

No there's no typo in the title. Yes, I'm giving away $300 in an effort to promote my new site, WebsiteBabble.com. It's a brand new forum site (just launched yesterday!) where people can go and post questions related to website building and making money online.

To be honest, I've never had too much success with getting people to participate in forums, so I thought I'd add a little incentive and offer $300 to the MVP (Most Valuable Poster). In other words, the person who can offer the best advice over a period of time will win the handsome reward.

No, this is not a hoax. I will be paying someone out of my own pocket on July 31, 2007. The details are here.

So if you've got some great advice to give, head on over to my brand new forum and I'll be watching. If this $300 incentive works, I'll be running another contest after this one ends.

Please support my new forum!

WebsitePalace.com is offering free e-Book software (Windows users only) to anyone who purchases from their website.

All you do is create your book on your computer using your favorite program, (Microsoft Word, Notepad, or even an HTML editor) and tell the software where your files are located.

Within seconds, your book is compiled into an .exe file that you can upload to your server and it's ready for your visitors to download. You can even set it up so a password is required to open it.

I've actually used the software and it's not as cheesy as I thought it would be. (You know how some of those freebies are!) Sure, it doesn't have a lot of the bells and whistles that a non-free program like eBook Edit Pro would have, but you can still create a very presentable e-Book with this software.

Special Tip: The link to the free download is located on the order confirmation page, so don't miss it!

So I've decided to give this "video thing" a whirl. After countless questions from people who ask me "Why should I pay $299 for Site Build It! when there are tons of web hosts out there for under $10 per month?"

Well, here's my answer... video style!

In case you don't know, Yahoo! Answers is a free Q&A community that allows people to ask and answer questions on virtually any topic.

I was doing a backlink check on Yahoo the other day. (A backlink check is a way to see how many other sites link to you. Go to Yahoo.com and type in linkdomain:www.yoursite.com to check your site's backlinks.)

And I was pleasently surprised at the number of people who posted a link to my site on Yahoo! Answers when answering questions about website creation.

Wow! Free traffic and I didn't have to do a thing.

This further drives the point of how important it is to build the most useful site you can in your niche. Whether you reach golfers, doctors, stay at home moms, you name it. If your site is useful, people will link to it volunatarily. The other benefit to this is that the search engines will notice these multiple one-way links and reward you with higher rankings.

So don't just put up a 3-page site and hope for the best. Build a site with a wealth of useful information. Check your competitors and offer tools and advice that they don't. Get people to remember you, and you will be rewarded long-term.

Last year, Ken Evoy of SiteSell.com conducted a video contest that paid $10,000 for the first prize.

Yes, $10,000.

He simply asked his customers to create a 2-3 minute video for why they love his product, Site Build It!.

Well, the video entries came pouring in, and even though there could only be one winner, many of the contest participants still feel like winners even though the contest ended months ago.

Why?

Because they are using their own videos on their websites to show their audience how Site Build It! has changed their lives. And as SiteSell affiliates, they earn a commission for every person that buys. Some of the customers reported sales immediately after they launched their video.

Here's an example of a customer video below...



Of course, these SBI! customers could have written an article talking about the product, but a video showing their expressions and emotions is far more effective, because video connects with people in a way that text on a screen cannot.

Anyone can write about how great a product is, but there's something about a visual that really adds a taste of realism to your testimonials.

If you have an ecommerce/affiliate website, I really hope you're thinking of adding video in some way. It is the future, and that's why we're starting to see more companies offering video tools for their affiliates to use on their sites.

WebVideoZone is a great resource for learning how to develop video for your website. Joe's site is super informative and suitable for all levels of expertise.

I've discovered a nice little way to generate residual commissions from my MySpace page. It involves showing your friends how to shorten their MySpace web page address.

I've always hated that the MySpace address of my page was long and ugly. Well, here's a way to resolve that and generate a little cash on the side.

Learn how.

Every now and then I'll get emails from people who are puzzled as to why they can't get ranked in Google. And almost every time I review the site in question, I see the same things...

• - Not enough unique, useful content


• - More affiliate links than content


• - Too few pages

Google makes its money from advertisers. Advertisers use Google because it's the Web surfer's #1 search engine.

Why is Google #1 among Web surfers?

Because it provides useful, relevant results.

Look at your site through the eyes of a stranger. Imagine someone arriving at your site after typing in the keywords you are targeting.

Would they find what they were looking for?

Does your site provide enough info on the topic that your visitor would want to stay and return later?

Is your content useful and unique?

If you answered "no" to any of the above questions, then that may be a big reason why you aren't having success with Google.

Now of course, there are other factors Google looks for - link popularity, keyword density, etc. However, the biggest problem I see with most people is that they simply do not provide enough useful content on the keywords they are targeting.

Google loves big sites that focus on one main theme. If your site is not "bookmarkable" then you need to work on expanding content. Take a look at your competitors and add information that they don't provide. What can you do to make your site stand out in your niche?

Become THE information source for everything related to your topic. Pretty soon Google and other Webmasters will reward you with traffic... for free!

It seems that everyone wants to capitalize on the success of MySpace.com and build a site like this successful company. While it sounds like a great idea based on their success, do you really understand what goes into creating a site like this?

After numerous questions on how to create a site like MySpace, I simply had to write an article about this.

Some say the article is discouraging. I call it realistic.

If you haven't heard, Microsoft is no longer selling or supporting Microsoft FrontPage. Windows Vista has a replacement product, and it's called Microsoft Expression.

So far the reviews for this new web publishing tool have been less than stellar. I've heard it's not nearly as easy to use as FrontPage, and there are still a lot of bugs to work out.

So until the Web hosts stop supporting FrontPage (and I think it will be a while before that happens), I'll continue to use it. Sounds like Microsoft Expression has some fine tuning to do.

By the way, you can still buy Microsoft FrontPage at Amazon.com.

I discovered this neat little trick by accident. If you are familiar with my site, you know I push Site Build It! (SBI!) pretty heavily. Not just because I'm an affiliate, but because it really worked for me and it has changed many people's lives.

I got tired of hearing all the raving reviews about SBI!, so I bought it in July of 2005 to see if it was really worth all the hype. My site, flat-stomach-exercises.com was an instant hit. Not just because I used Site Build It!. I have to give a little credit to all the hard work I put into it as well.

Remember, there's no product that can make you rich, you have to put the work into building content. SBI! gave me the guidance that helped me succeed. It's so nice to know that all my search engine and sitemap submissions are automatically taken care of while I work on keeping my content fresh.

Anyway, I digress. After about three months I started getting e-mails from people who wanted to know why I provide so much weight loss information for free when other sites charge for the same info.

So I created an "About Me" page that explains a little about myself and that I used Site Build It! to create the site. I explained how I used Google AdSense and encouraged my visitors to do the same with their own sites. I supplied a link over to Site Build It! and instantly the sales began to roll in.

That taught me a big lesson about PREselling. Even though that site isn't about website creation, my "About Me" page gave my site some personality and helped me build a bit of credibility. People genuinely liked my site, wanted to learn more about me and then were inspired by my story.

If you aren't using an About Me page to tell your story, you could really be missing out on additional revenue. People like to know there's a real person behind that web page, and it also helps to add a photo of yourself. After all, what do you have to hide, right?

Instead of trying to hard sell with banners, ads, etc. Sometimes something as simple as a small recommendation on your "About Me" page can be twice as effective.

Or if you don't have a Site Build It! success story like I have, you can simply refer your visitors to start their own sites with a regular web host. Join the Ultimate Domain Reseller program and earn a residual income (on domains and hosting) when your visitors start their websites through your link.

You don't have to have a site on website development to profit from these kinds of affiliate programs. Everyone wants a website these days. You just have to find creative ways of getting your audience interested. Start with your "About Me" page!

I get emails from people all the time asking me why they need to pay for a website when they can just create a free blog. After all, many people are making money just by blogging.

While this is true, the average person does not realize there's more to blogging than just "putting up a blog." Successful bloggers (I call them blog mavens) have created a following in their niche, and give people a reason to return to their blog. They're creative and understand how to draw in their audience.

Don't blog just for the sake of blogging. Find your niche. Know your audience. Develop your unique voice. Blog about unique topics and stay away from posting the same ole' info people can find anywhere.

Just like successful websites, blogs that succeed provide useful information to a specific niche, and the author continues to update it with relevant content.

Don't just put up a blog, build your brand of one.