Site Build It Action Guide Update: Big Picture & Day 1

Three days into owning SBI and I'm feeling at ease...not the least bit overwhelmed. 

Thus far I have read the "Big Picture Introduction--Prepare To Succeed" and Day 1 -- Master The Basics.

As I have been reading and have come across links for articles to read, I'm bookmarking them into 1 of 2 folders:

~Read NOW

~Read LATER

After I read each article I will decide if I can delete the bookmark or  if I should re-file the article into a reference folder.  For example, one article has to do with building in-bound links...definitely something I can see would be of importance for future reference.

Also, instead of printing every page of the Action Guide, I'm reading until I come across something that I believe I'll need to have in front of me...such as the technical directions on how to work some of the research tools, etc.

A great piece of advice I read in one of the SBI e-zines about getting started is:  Put your SBI blinders on....meaning, don't let the books, forums, newsletters, etc, of other methods draw your attention away.  All we need to focus on is the education from SBI.  So, I took an hour yesterday to clean out my original Internet Marketing notebooks, articles, brainstorm lists, etc.  Also, I bagged up and stored my copy of Honest Riches by Holly Mann.  It served it's purpose, but I don't need it now.

There were several issues of a magazine from my niche topic that I had accumulated.  I tore out the pertinent articles I wanted to keep for future reference and created a file by subject.  It will be a while before I need to think about them again, but for now they are not a piled distraction.

Still doing well on my home and personal to-do lists.  It dawned on me last night that to be successful in all areas of my life comes down to the simple act of discipline. 

Won't it be great if it really is that simple?

Current Goals for Progress:

~Watch Video Action Guide for Big Picture and Day 1
~Read articles in the Read Now folder
~Stay organized:  Delete or sub-file by topic any bookmarks for articles I choose to keep

If I can accomplish these goals today, then I'll be set to start Day 2 tomorrow...Develop Your Best Site Concept!  Now that will feel like I'm getting some concrete poured for this business' foundation!

SBI: Today is The Day!

The clock is ticking, I'm working my way through today's "To-Do" list, and by this evening, I will be purchasing my SBI! Website subscription!!! 

It's time.  This is not an impulsive decision, but a well thought out, worked for and planned arrival along the path that started over two years ago.

Want to know why I'm waiting until tonight?  Past experience.  When I get excitied about beginning a new project, it's all too easy to "go to dessert first" before finishing my dinner...meaning, do what I have to do before starting on what I want to do.

Here is a link to an article on the 10 Disgusting Habits of Work From Home Internet Marketers .  I was never as bad as this list, but I did have a time when I felt obsessed with learning IM and my house and home office responsibilities definitely took a back burner.  This was when I was reading Honest Riches by Holly Mann.  Her book was actually a great way to begin my education on Internet Marketing...I'd still highly recommend it for those starting out in this big "field of dreams", but afterwards, if building a website is how you want to proceed, the information from SBI is far more in depth...perfect for the 2nd stage of the process.

This time, I'm in a great place.  My house and home office work are up to date...I'm healthy and exercising...eating smart and healthy...basically...I'm ready!

So...in a few more hours, I'll actually begin my "college course" towards building my online business.

Today is a great day!

Will soon be purchasing my SBI! Website

Having just finished viewing the last of the SBI Video Action Guide, I am on the cusp of purchasing my website subscription.

My original intent to review each "day" of the Action Guide fell to the wayside during the Christmas season and subsequent bought of illness...then being out of town.

Though I was "plugging" along with watching the videos, the vast array of content made for difficult material to simply "review".

The bottom line:  If you decide to purchase and use SBI, the knowledge you will learn along with the tools provided will more than pay for themselves.

Just today while reading the section on monitizing, I was ovely impressed with the additional powerful tools that become available after writing and publishing 30 pages of content. 

Did you know that there really is a formula for knowing when to begin monitizing on your website?  Well, there is!  And SBI teaches us why and when...among hundreds of other important lessons.

If you do read or view the Action Guide before purchasing SBI, keep in mind the phrase "read from 30,000 feet"...meaning, read for becoming familiar, not for learning.  There is an advantage to getting familiar with material before trying to study and comprehend, let alone apply it.

I'll openly and honestly say this, I enjoyed the basic knowledge I learned from Holly Mann's Honest Riches, but what she teaches is like elementary school knowledge when compared with all that SBI has to teach. 

SBI is serious business about seriously teaching you to build a serious web business...Seriously!

My plan, beginning tomorrow:

Feb 12:  Wrap up loose ends of office and home projects to stay caught up and on track.
               Purchase my SBI subscription.

               Print Day 1 of the Action Guide, put in binder and begin the study and process of building my web  business.

Though my progress to this point may seem slow, the fact is that I am moving on a solid path toward a defined goal, as opposed to flailing around with a mish mash of affilate programs, quickly getting nowhere.

At this moment I offer my praise and thanks to God for giving me the direction I needed to arrive at this point.  Truly, thanks be to God.

SBI Video Action Guide Days 4 & 5

Last night I watched Day 4 of the SBI Video Action Guide on planning the monetization of your site.  A key lesson to remember, which to my knowledge was totally ignored with the information I learned from the Honest Riches Internet Marketing book is....do not be in a rush to try to monetize...not only must you build up your content and trust with your visitors, but for the success of your site with the search engines you need to have a minumum of 30 pages of content then put in applications to at least two online directories.  Apparently a totally content site is easier to be accepted into the directories than one with Adsense or affiliate links.

It's no wonder so many of us become discoraged when we charge out the gate thinking we'll just start selling these wonderful products, then get dismayed when nothing materializes from our earnest efforts.

Also part of the lessons are creating an actual monetization plan to ensure there will be enough viable and profitable ways to eventually make money with your site.  Most everyone thinks of affiliate selling, but the Day 4 VAG helps to guide your thinking outside of the obvious box.

Tonight I watched Day 5 which focused on refining the site concept, registering the domain name and creating your own "voice" for your site.

Several months ago I came up with what I believed was the perfect domain name for my future site.  I was so anxious to go on and register it...however, I'm glad I did not.  Instead of boxing myself in with what I  think, I'm allowing my mind to stay open to the process, when I get there.

There are lots of links to articles and a few e-books, like Make Your Content Pre-Sell .  Though I have read it before, I'll definitely give it another read when it's time.

The thought occurred to me that I might be spinning my wheels, doing all this "pre" reading and watching, before making the plunge and buying my SBI site.  But after a minute, I dismissed that thought, for the following quote came to mind:

"People who fail to plan, plan to fail"

I wish I knew who the author of that quote is so I could give credit, but alas, I do not...but I do believe it.

Therefore, I'll continue at the tortoise pace, learning and planning...slowly moving on my goal to finish watching the Video Action Guide and scanning the written Action Guide, completing all by the end of January.

Until then, I'll keep to my slogan:  Dream-Build-Succeed...The time For Action Is NOW!

On the Countdown To Creating My Website

Lately I've been spending my time writing articles. I have set a goal to write and publish 1 article a week, and so far, 2 weeks running, I've achieved my goal. From a course I am reading (yes, more education!), the underlying lesson is to do well you must be able to create excellent content when working online. People come to the internet seeking something. Not to be sold, but to learn about something. If I want to be a success online, to be able to provide my visitors good, informative content, rich with keywords, I have to develop this skill.

The goal of writing also allows me to continue to put into practice some of the skills I learned from Honest Riches, such as article directory submission, linking to the articles from my signatures in forums and re-writing then submitting the articles to EzineArticles.

Another benefit to this goal is I am creating the good habit of having to brainstorm for article ideas, researching for keywords, creating story outlines and then actually producing the finished article and publishing it to my HubPages account.

If you have been reading some of my prior posts, you may remember that I did a lot of "learning by trial and error". During this phase I felt it was important to register a domain name for a review I was planning to write. After doing my research (you can find the results in the sidebar), GoDaddy.com was the least expensive/best reviewed site for registering my domain. Now, keep in mind that I was not planning to build a website with this domain, but to "re-direct" the address of one of my reviews so the URL would look more professional. Well, since I have begun writing regularly, I have been able to use both of my domains with articles.

Since beginning to experiment with all the facets I could from Holly's book, I feel like I've covered a lot of ground and benefited with a lot of experience. My thoughts keep returning to the ideas I have for my niche website, so that is where I am headed.

Before I begin my website, I've 3 courses to finish. A while ago I began a writing course, mostly geared towards writing a book, but some of the exercises are universal for any type of writing. With daily study this course will be completed this week. Next, I will complete my Affiliate Masters Course from SBI! From what I have read, there are a lot of research tools that are offered and by the end I will have a blueprint for my website! After that I want to do one more free e-book course, also from SBI! called Make Your Content Pre-Sell. Since websites are mostly about good content, I don't want to waste my time writing the site pages before I take advantage of what this course will teach me. Since the SBI e-books are totally free, I figure I have nothing to loose by studying them.

The timeline I imagine for beginning my website will be by May. It actually feels great to have a clear cut goal and timeline laid out. No more running around wondering what I will do. And since I have decided that I will be using SBI! (Site Build It!) to build my website, I'm not even stressing about whether or not I'll know how how to build it and bring in traffic. It's all part of what they offer.

Well, I just wanted to bring the blog up to date and note that other than a lot of reading and article writing, I'm expecting some quiet time ahead, little to no frustration, and no more feeling like I'm running behind. Since I have my own plan, I no longer feel like I'm behind the "crowd". No longer am I following, but I'm finally walking on my own path.

Affiliate Programs: Who can you trust?

As I wrote earlier, the first affiliate network I signed-up with was Pilmus, so I could represent Holly's book Honest Riches. Since I had found Honest Riches to be a legitimate course on how to make money online, it was easy for me to trust signing up with Pilmus to be an affiliate, as this is the company Holly has chosen to handle her affiliate program.

Having trust in the affiliate companies you sign-up with is extremely important since they are the ones you are trusting to send you your earned commissions! For those new to affiliate marketing you have two basic ways to proceed: sign up with a network or sign up with individual programs. If you sign up with a network, you can represent several of that networks offered affiliate programs. When you earn commissions, your payment is processed to that network, then all the commissions due you are combined into one monthly payment to you. In comparison, if the company you want to represent as an affiliate offers the program on their own, as opposed to thru a network, you can sign up and receive your commissions directly from the individual company.

How do you know which networks or companies to trust? Do your research, look for reviews and ask people you know and trust who they use and suggest. The way I've "met" people who's opinion I trust is through a few online work-from-home forums.

The final thing I've learned is if you use a product that you think is great and feel would be a terrific niche to represent, find out if the company offers an affiliate program. If they do not, then send and e-mail and ask how you might be able to represent their program. I did this once and the company offered a discount code that the customer could use, then it would track for the commission that would be credited and paid to me. When I first approached the company and they said "yes", that they would create a program for me, I sort of felt like the dog that chased the car, and the car stopped! It was exciting and a bit scary at the same time!

In closing, the main reason I feel that affiliate marketing is a smart way to begin when learning to build a legitimate online business is that it does not require you to house and ship any product. It does help to buy the product or have familiarity with the "thing" you are representing, but from there, all you do is promote and send interested buyers to the company! It's the smart way to start.

Affiliate Streams of Income and related points

Making my official "entre" into Internet Marketing, my first affiliate network to sign up with was an easy choice. With the sea of a zillion programs and products to choose from, I think it's best to choose one you know about. For me this meant signing up with Plimus to be an affiliate for Holly's Book Honest Riches.

Since signing up to be an Honest Riches affiliate, there are a few points I've learned along the way to take into consideration:

1. The affilate commissions will vary, from very low to very high commissions.
2. The payout can be a one time commission affiliate program or a lifetime commission affiliate program.
3. When starting out, it helps to choose programs or products to represent that you can use and market from a 1st hand experience. (Notice I didn't say "sell"?)
4. Start with a program or network that you know is legitimate. You can discern this by what you read in blogs, forums and online. Try searching for the name+review in your Google search and see what types of feedback you find.

The temptation to sign-up with any affiliate program you read about and lots of affiliate networks can be a big mistake...think about it, how many things can you do at once? Or, do well anyway.

Once you decide on an affiliate program to represent, you will have access to marketing links that you can use in text or banners to market your product. When you start posting your links, keep in mind that there will be sneaks online who will try to "steal" your commissions from you. The best way to prevent that happening is to "cloak" your links. Once you have a website there are a lot of ways and products you can use to cloak your links, but before that, there are a few free products that I have found. Not only can you gain the benefit of protecting your links, but with many programs you receive statistics for the number of clicks as well as where the clicks came from. After trying Addme.com, URLFreeze and Clickfire.com, the free link cloakiing program I use is ViralURL.com. One word if warning: before you sign up for this progam, consider getting a free e-mail account. Right after I signed up I did receive some spam mail as part of the marketing program they offer for their members who have upgraded to the paid service.

Speaking of free e-mail programs, I'm a total gmail.com believer. I really expect to eventually convert all my e-mail addreses to gmail so I'll never have to change again! (I know, never say never.)

Blogging For Profit

By now you may be wondering how I could have been blogging for several months now, but have just written about setting up my blog. Easy to explain: I kept notes of my experiences and have been trying to get them all transferred into my blog. Looking forward to finally getting caught up in "real time". So, that's that!

One of the new "terms" I picked up from Honest Riches is to "monetize" a blog or website. With Blogger.com you can monetize your blog in two ways: AdSense by Google or sign up and incorporate banner and link advertising through affiliate programs.

My first choice is to implement AdSense advertising. If you are not familiar with the AdSense program, it is run by Google and to participate you enroll in the program. After you are accepted, you follow the directions and with Blogger, you use the easy to navigate options to ad the text and image ads to your site. It's automated so that the ads are chosen by Google and are targeted to be relevant to the content of the page they are appearing on. The "monetization" is created by revenue generated on either a per-click or per-impression basis. From what I've gathered, think in terms of less than pennies on the dollar. A low return, but again, all you are doing is letting the ads appear on your site.

At least by adding AdSense I have taken the first step towards "blogging for profit".

HubPage is NOT A Blog? Who would have known!

Remember a few posts back when I said I had begun to feel like some of the concepts and terms Holly had written of in Honest Riches had started becoming more clear to me? Well, I had a lot more clarity about to come my way. HubPages.com is a wonderful site. A site I am very glad I joined. A site I'm greatly looking forward to using. What I realized, however, is that HubPages is a Web 2.0 site. A site that is created by the content the subscribers produce and post. Within the pages posted (which can be thought of as articles or stand-alone websites) the pages can link out to many places, such as, for example a website or A BLOG. But, so you don't end up with the same misconception I did, I still had not signed up for a blog host...even with all of this.

One thing I'm not is a quitter! By this point in the game, I'm sure it was well after midnight, but since I felt pretty safe that the 3rd time would be the charm, and I couldn't miss now, I forged ahead and set forth to sign up for Blogger.com. OK, so maybe the name "Blogger.com" or "Bloggspot.com" should have been like a beacon for me before now, but no time for regret, for I'm on a roll now.

All was fine in the sign-up process, until I had to create my account with Google. For some reason I could not get the "verification letters" to be accepted in the "verify you are a real person not a robot" box. I tried 5 or 6 times to no avail, then finally thought to clear my cookies. After a quick trip to Internet Options and a clearing of the cookies, I found sweet success with creating my Google Account- and in turn, SUCCESSFULLY CREATING A BLOG! Whew!

A Blogging Belly Flop

Well, I wanted to make a splash in the blogging experience pool, but instead, I did a belly flop. Here I thought I was signing up for a blog hosting site, but come to find out, PayPerPost.com is really a site where you can get paid for blogging about particular topics. But, to do that, you must have your own blog! Arggh! Of course, I don't realize all of this until I've spent all the time it took to sign up and get my account open.

By this time I was determined to create a blog before I called it a night, so I decided to turn back to Honest Riches where I compared and contrasted between the choices she offered on Web 2.0 sites and made a decision: I would sign-up with HubPages.com. Alright, I go through the registration process, get into the site and start looking around and reading some of the profiles, sort of to get an idea on how to set things up. Well, the more I look, then go back to Holly's book, then go back to the HubPages site, the more I think I need to find the tutorial and online help section, for I just was not understanding where the Blog section was and how it fit with the rest of what I was seeing on HubPages. No worries. I began to read.....

I Wanted To Blog...

Blog, Blog, Blog...I had heard this term for so long, but what it actually "was" sort of still evaded me. Hey, since when did having a lack of knowledge keep me from jumping in.

The way I actually began writing this blog started when I was looking over the free surveys offered to me on GetPaidTo.com, the paid survey site I began using. When I saw an offer for signing up to a site called PayPerPost.com. Well, I followed the link and decided to look the site over. The site looked legit, but before I filled out the info, I did a quick online search for reviews or feedback on PayPerPost.com. Finding nothing negative, I decided to "go for it"! I was so excited, for I was finally signing up for a blog!

I felt a bit uncertain since this blog site wasn't one that Holly had mentioned in Honest Riches, but even if it ended up that my first blog would be one that was just for practice, I was ready to stop standing still and move a little deeper into the water...heck, I felt like I was still standing on the edge, barely dipping my toe in the pool. I was ready to make a splash!

Learning some things from Honest Riches

Reading Honest Riches is like "getting a hipp education" to phrases that have become part of the common lingo of the world, but somehow eluded me, until now. I'm also learning that it really is possible to create an Internet Marketing business without a website....and in fact, static websites, as I know them, just may not be the very best way to get high search engine rankings. Who would have ever thought that?

When I was sharing with my husband some of the things I'm learning about, such as blogging for profit, social networking sites, Web 2.0 sites and forum listings, he said it not only sounded like I was learning some quality information, but, that I was enjoying learning it. He was right.

The first time I thought about getting ready to try my hand at blogging, I posted on a forum asking for opinions on who thought which blog sites were the best, and why. Unfortunately my thread did not generate any discussion. Not to worry, I came to the conclusion that when the time was right, I would make my decision based on the sites that Holly talks about in her book. (Little did I know how soon that would be.)

Honest Riches: The Study on How To Make Money On the Internet

Finally ordering Honest Riches felt like a really big step for me, for once I made the decision to purchase Holly Mann's book, I knew I had to make a commitment to myself that I would see reading the book through to the end. In the back of my mind were a few guilty memories of projects started in earnest, but left unfinished. Since I truly desire to find honest ways to make money online so I can work from home, honoring my commitment should not prove too difficult.

Ordering and downloading the Honest Riches was really easy. After the e-book was on my computer, I decided to go on and burn a couple of back-up copies for safe-keeping. In fact, since the newest version, Honest Riches 3, is 277 pages long, to have it in paper format for ease of reading was my next step. Since I had a spare 3-ring-binder on hand, I just used a manual hole punch and a simple notebook for my pages. Starting out, I decided to print off the book in blocks of about 40 pages, thinking I would read each allotment, then go back and print off the next block of pages. Each evening I would try to read the pages I printed earlier. The last thing I wanted to do is rush, but, the other last thing I wanted to do is wait!

Somewhere between 30 - 50 pages in, I realized I wish I had been taking notes, highlighting or even just making references and jotting down page numbers of points, tip and how-to's for future reference. Wanting to do this right, and with the best benefit I can, I grab some notebook paper and start reading Honest Riches from the beginning, again. ( I prefer taking hand written notes, but you could just as easily put your notes in a word processor document. ) If repetition and taking notes was how our teachers thought we learned best while in school, why not use those same techniques here? Now, if you try this, it's not so much to write down every detail, but rather an outline of the information you think you will want to refer back to….really simple outline of ideas, notes to look up websites, and page numbers. I think when these notes will really come in handy is when I start to put together my first site and need to know how to research and submit it to get ranking on the search engines, like Google and Yahoo. It's one thing to read it and have it make sense, but another to actually remember what to do the first time!

Two Goals Accomplished: Legitimate Survey Site & Ordered Honest Riches

In my last post I outlined some of my goals to get me back on track...I've done well with 2 out of 6 goals.

I researched and found a legitimate paid survey site to work with: GetPaidTo.com .

Now keep in mind, I am only doing online surveys to make a little "seed money" for my Internet Marketing start up expenses. My main objective is to utilize Holly Mann's Honest Riches so that I can actually learn how to make a "pipeline" business online. Usually, in working, people are doing the physical work themselves, like carrying buckets. They must carry buckets, of "water" to actually "get" the water...or, they must do the work in order to make the money. To have a pipeline, where the "water" flows freely, whether or not you are there, is what I am trying to do. I want to create income streams that flow with or without my being "on the spot". So, to make that happen, I've achieved the 2nd goal of my list: I ordered Holly Mann's Honest Riches.

Ordering was really simple. Once my order was confirmed, I was able to download the e-book right to my computer in a PDF file. Because I like the safety of backups, I burned a copy of the book to CD, then, because I prefer to have a paper copy of books, I printed the book out. No short task, for the book is nearly 300 pages long.

Remember I said I had done well with 2 out of 6 of my goals? Fact is, I'm not giving up. The goals I have accomplished are things I've really been trying to do, so with those under my belt, I'm more motivated to get the rest of myself in order with the other things.

As soon as I get into reading Honest Riches, I'll let you know how I'm doing and if I'm learning anything!

Internet Marketing Can Be Addictive!

Even though I'm not yet really "marketing" anything! There is so much to learn, so much to try, it is never ending…and because it is something I am enjoying, I don't want it to end. Just look around my house and desk at the evidence of "things left undone".

Part of this is totally "me". When I find something new that I am interested in learning or working on, I get pretty single-focused. And, you see, this competes with my natural preference of being somewhat organized and "scheduled" with my housework and deskwork. Realizing this upfront is probably a good thing, so hopefully I can "nip it in the bud". My incentive to buckle down and get caught up comes from wanting to get rid of that "knot" sitting in the middle of my stomach. You might be familiar with this. Think back to when you were school age and it was 6pm on Sunday night. If it was during the school year and I hadn't finished my homework or studies, I would always get that sinking feeling when the theme music for The Wonderful World of Disney television show would come on. Hearing that music signaled to me that the weekend was almost over and if I didn't get busy, my battleship would be in line to be sunk, come Monday morning!

Well, I may not be hearing the Disney theme music, but I am feeling that lump in my stomach, and I don't like it. As much as I want to do nothing except for Internet Marketing oriented tasks, it's time to "face the music" and set my priorities. No matter what, if I stay up until 3am every night working, there will still be more to do. So…how should I approach this? How do I divide my time so that I keep moving forward, yet get my discipline back to reign in the wildness of my home and office?

Ok, here is my plan:

Get back to what I know, first, and get a handle on my responsibilities. My dad once told me, when I was really behind in a course my freshman year of college, to knuckle down and get caught up, THEN, keep working and get a little bit ahead. I'm going to do that. Get caught up on my deskwork, bills and such, then get caught up on the housework and laundry.

Prioritize what needs to be done, in order, with regards to my Internet Marketing business so I can stop trying to do too many things at once, and ending up feeling guilty for not getting anything completed.

Focus on researching legitimate paid surveys to sign up with
Be more diligent in making timely blog posts
Order Honest Riches
Read Honest Riches

Make myself get back to exercising at least 3-4 times a week. All this sitting at the computer is starting to find it's way into the old muscles! Now this one is going to be easy, for I have a great collection of exercise DVD's and workout equipment.

Set a "stop working" time: Computer off at 11pm. (Since it's 10:37pm right now, I'd better wrap this up if I want to post it tonight!)


My conclusion is this: Excess in moderation is fine! There is nothing wrong with pouring myself into learning all I can about Internet Marketing, but, do it smart. I plan to be around a long time, so instead of running down the mountain at full speed, I'll take it a bit slower, and walk. I'll still get there, but in my own time!

How Seeking Honesty Led Me To Honest Riches

Have you ever sat down to do a Google search on your computer, and when you finished and got up, were shocked to see how much time had passed? That's what happened to me when I started my search for a program that would teach me how to build an online business. It seemed to take forever. My results gave me a lot of sites that were close to what I was looking for, but usually they felt all hyped up and fake. A lot of my results led me to several blog sites and things called Ezine articles that promoted online courses. One such site even said that it was set up almost like a college course, which I liked. But then, when it said that it also gave you 15 personalized, hosted websites to help you make money online, I said "good-bye". In my mind if they are giving me 15 sites, then who says my sites are going to be any different from the other 15 sites another "student" has? And another. And, so on. This sounded like they were not really teaching how to build an online business, but more giving some basic information then supplying you with an online vehicle pre-destined to make THEM money, via you, the student. All said and done, I spent about 2 hours typing in variations on the phrase "course on how to build an online business". In doing all of this I learned something that I now use quite a lot. In one of my results I saw that a course was being reviewed, so I clicked on the link and was able to read a more refreshing perspective of the course I was considering, as compared to only what I had read on the courses product information page. I liked that. Getting an individuals thought's on the product. Just when I was about to head over to Amazon.com to try and find a book to order on this, I thought about adding the word "honest" to my search terms. When I hit enter and my new page of results appeared, I nearly could not believe my eyes. An official site called HONEST RICHES. The summary text below the main titled link read (this is a direct cut and paste of the text):

"How to Make Money Online. Resources, information, recommendations & HONEST legit advice and methods. What it takes, what is involved and how to do it"

Once I followed the link and read some of the product review, I was so excited. Everything I read sounded exactly like what I was seeking…a book that would teach me what I needed to learn, and how to apply it. Because of my earlier disappointments that I've written about in prior posts, I didn't buy right away. Using my handy little "review" trick, I searched all different ways to check out Honest Riches. I tried to find something bad about it, looking for a negative review, searching RipOffReport.com, even searching for some sites that rank and compare online products and programs. (I'd love to post links to some of the places I did my research, but in all my excitement, it never dawned on me to save any sites to My Favorites folder for later use.) After another couple of hours, I was convinced that Holly Mann's book was legit, popular and well received. It took all my discipline to hold off on buying the book right then. In fact, I made a vow to myself that I would actually wait 7 days before making any decision that would cost money. This was on August 3rd, 2008.

You might be wondering that if this book was so wonderful and exactly what I was looking for, then why on earth, after all the time and effort I had put in on everything, would I wait to buy the book and get started studying? Well, everything about the book felt right, to the point that I wasn't having to convince myself of anything just to feel ok about ordering the book. However, by waiting 7 days to give myself a "cooling off" period, I wanted to see if my excitement and commitment to wanting to start this learning process and then follow through with it, would be as high and determined at the end of the week.

During the self-imposed 7 day waiting period, I decided to challenge myself a little. First of all, I wanted to do as much reading online to get a better understanding of what might be involved in building an internet business, sort of like my own "introductory course" to what I expected Holly's book to be about. Second, I wanted to try and make some money, either online or offline, that I could put towards paying any of my "start-up" expenses I incurred with this new endeavor. Between all of these projects, I was hoping that the 7 days would fly by!

By Sunday night, still the same date of August 3rd, I knew that I was definitely going to purchase Holly's book, but, I had made a commitment to myself that I intended to keep. So for the next 7 days I would keep myself busy and see what all I could learn on my own and see how much money I could make to put towards building my new business!