Wow. Time flies, or at least in my world of blogging it does. Since my earlier post on Applying What Affiliate Masters Course Taught Me I've been continuing to read the reference material I'll be using with my website creation. Having just recently completed this step, I'm now venturing on with a quick study of the SBI Action Guide. Basically this is the guide that you receive when you buy your website package from SBI. Of course, the tools that come with the site aren't activated, but it's a good opportunity to see what to expect. Since I like to read, I chose the printed guide, but they do offer the SBI Action Guide Video for those who prefer to "see" the information.
As it stands now, I'm planning to purchase my website package no later than June 9th, 2009. Why then? As you can read about in one of my first blog posts: Auctions For Income, June 9th will mark the 1 year date of when I first began my fore into Internet Marketing. Having a goal is one thing, but having a bonafide reason for a particular date is very inspiring for me.
Here's to living life in the slow lane. It might be taking a while, but I'm still moving towards my goal of an honest way to make money online!
Showing posts with label honest ways to make money online. Show all posts
Showing posts with label honest ways to make money online. Show all posts
Saturday, May 9, 2009
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
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!
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!
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Survey Says: Legitimate Paid Surveys Exist...But do they?
You know how I've said that during the time up until now I have been reading a lot in different online forums? Well, one topic that seems to be found in most "earn money at home forums" is the discussion on honest ways to make money online. I had remembered seeing a thread topic about "Legitimate Paid Surveys" and how some people were writing that you really could get paid for surveys. As it always seems, in the middle of what looks to be a good home based business opportunity, somewhere there is a monkey-wrench thrown in under the cloud of concern about the likelihood of "paid surveys scam".
I guess what bums me the most about any idea that sounds good, but is overshadowed by the potential of scam, is that instead of being able to just go forward with working the idea, time has to be spent doing research to determine the legitimacy of the idea. *Sigh* Alas, this is where I try to remember the old adage "Haste makes waste". I know that if I don't do the research, I could potentially waste my time, and worse, risk wasting some money and "business" happiness, if I do get "taken" by scam offers. Resigned to doing the research, I set off to see what I could find for "Paid Surveys Review". I found some, but for the most part, what each "paid to take surveys" user review consisted of was a list of links to paid survey sites with a brief account of the type of money making opportunities, being either surveys or offers, or both, and how great the site was. Nothing I found really made me feel like the reviewer had actually been a "user" of the sites. I mean, some of these reviews had over 50 get paid to take survey links. That's a lot of companies to sign up with! I'm not saying they were being untruthful, but, it did strike me as a bit questionable. Alright, I'll go ahead and say it…I was looking for something to give me the same feeling of confidence I felt when I found Holly's book, Honest Riches, and her website.
Not finding what I was looking for, I made the decision to select a handful of survey sites that had been mentioned in the majority of the GPT (Get Paid To) reviews and join them with the plan to try them out and take my own notes for research, then write my own review with the type of information I was unable to find online myself.
When I get the research completed and the review written, I'll come back to this post and put a link to it. Actually, this is kind of exciting…ok, so maybe I'm not researching Rocket Science, but, I'm finally doing something, um…sort of "tangible" for making some money online! (Or so I hope!)
I guess what bums me the most about any idea that sounds good, but is overshadowed by the potential of scam, is that instead of being able to just go forward with working the idea, time has to be spent doing research to determine the legitimacy of the idea. *Sigh* Alas, this is where I try to remember the old adage "Haste makes waste". I know that if I don't do the research, I could potentially waste my time, and worse, risk wasting some money and "business" happiness, if I do get "taken" by scam offers. Resigned to doing the research, I set off to see what I could find for "Paid Surveys Review". I found some, but for the most part, what each "paid to take surveys" user review consisted of was a list of links to paid survey sites with a brief account of the type of money making opportunities, being either surveys or offers, or both, and how great the site was. Nothing I found really made me feel like the reviewer had actually been a "user" of the sites. I mean, some of these reviews had over 50 get paid to take survey links. That's a lot of companies to sign up with! I'm not saying they were being untruthful, but, it did strike me as a bit questionable. Alright, I'll go ahead and say it…I was looking for something to give me the same feeling of confidence I felt when I found Holly's book, Honest Riches, and her website.
Not finding what I was looking for, I made the decision to select a handful of survey sites that had been mentioned in the majority of the GPT (Get Paid To) reviews and join them with the plan to try them out and take my own notes for research, then write my own review with the type of information I was unable to find online myself.
When I get the research completed and the review written, I'll come back to this post and put a link to it. Actually, this is kind of exciting…ok, so maybe I'm not researching Rocket Science, but, I'm finally doing something, um…sort of "tangible" for making some money online! (Or so I hope!)
Friday, October 3, 2008
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!
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
What About Dropshipping?
In the last post, before the "Ike Interruption", I wrote about Looking to Yesterday to Find Tomorrow. Well, shortly after experiencing the "feeling good" that resulted from gaining a more clear perspective about who I was, where I had been, and where I wanted to go, I still couldn't help, at the same time, but to begin feeling a bit low and frustrated at my inability to connect with a way to make money on the internet. My husband was aware that I was trying to find my own niche, and one morning we started doing a little brain storming on this subject. Knowing I have a special love and connection to a certain "interest", we started discussing how I might focus on that area in a way I could build a business online. Now, we both agreed that the key that would best fit our lifestyle would be to find a way to not have to deal with physically pre-purchasing inventory, or, if avoidable, even personally being involved in the shipping of tangible products. So, our thoughts drifted towards the idea of dropshipping. In theory it sounded promising. Sell products, send orders to the wholesaler, and then have them to drop the order directly to the consumer. It could work. Hailing back to some of what I had learned in the Auctions For Income program, I headed to the computer to find what companies carried the specific types of products I would want to sell, and more importantly, which ones dropshipped.
To do my research, I began to check out the dropshipping companies I had bookmarked that had been suggested in the Auctions For Income course. A few had some products that fell under the category I was researching, but the quality and style was not at all what I had in mind. Also, the prices did not strike me as being anywhere close to what I thought would be wholesale. The more I looked, the more I began to suspect that many of these "dropshippers" suggested by the Auctions For Income program were probably people who had put together their own "dropshipping" store of products sold by other dropshippers…for not only did the higher prices make me think this, but also because the same products were showing up over and over from one vender to the other. Ok, so with my initial list of dropshipping companies exhausted (and removed from my computer bookmarks) the next step was to start looking at the specific products that I wanted to represent and see if I could deal directly with the manufacturer.
After a day of research and finding who to contact then sending e-mails to see if the companies did dropship, I began thinking about the fact that to do this, I would need to build a website. This website would have to be able to take orders, so I'd need a shopping cart program. The question of sales tax tugged at me…who would collect it and pay it? Where should I host my site? How will I drive traffic to this site? Oh yeah, how would I successfully build this wonderful website dedicated to my very special purpose when I'm not a web designer? Ok, no pressure. (Right!) About this same time my husband and I had been seeing a TV commercial advertising a company selling pre-constructed websites. They were promoted as "ready to go money-making sites". You would get some pre-built, and others you could fill with content of your choosing. Well, highly suspecting this offer would turn out to be nothing but a bunch of malarkey, I decided to finish off any speculations by calling the number. The pre-recorded message was such a hard sell "give us your credit card number now", without any live person to talk to or even a website to go to (yet remember, they are selling websites), I was very motivated to check them out on the internet and see if they had been reported to RipOffReport.com . Not only did I find they had already been reported, but I was able to find a few "scam" reviews of the company as well.
I really wasn't that bothered that the company came out to be as much a scam as we suspected it would be, but, I was a bit disheartened that I felt like I finally had an original idea (my special interest "niche") and really didn't know how I was going to do anything with it! Oh, and after checking my e-mails, I found that most of my ideal manufacturers did not dropship, though a few did. One even mentioned something called their "affiliate program", but since I had no idea what they were talking about I didn't dig into it any further. Before I contacted any more companies, I wanted to figure out how I would be able to build and promote my business. The last thing I wanted to do was create some good business contacts then let them grow cold because I was not prepared, educated or knowledgeable about how to proceed and actually do business.
Since my mind was "warmed up" to be searching online, I started researching for any and all pieces of information relating to building an online business or for work at home opportunities I could find. Oh my stars, what a minefield. Have you ever just sat down and searched online for terms like "work from home", “make money online", "how to make money online"? If you try it, you'd be wise to put yourself and your computer on high ground first, for you will be flooded with a sea of opportunities…mind you, I didn't say good opportunities. With all the results that reeked of hype, get rich quick schemes, and shady looking sites, I decided that a bit more fine tuning of what I wanted to find was in need. Instead of continuing to wade through all this waste water (just to stay in line with my little analogy I have going on!), I decided to go offline, and think. What did I want to achieve? What was it I was really searching for online? In order to keep myself from falling victim to a poor choice or worse yet, a scam, I had to have a well defined idea of what it was I was seeking to obtain at this point of trying to build my online business.
There were two points I was clear on:
1. I had a solid idea on what I wanted to build my business around.
2. I accepted that I had little to no knowledge on how to get started building my online business.
What I was seeking online:
1. I wanted a program that would teach me how to build an online business.
i. The program would have to offer me true knowledge, details, explanations, examples and instructions.
2. I wanted a program that was honest.
With my goals clearly defined, I set out to find my teacher.
To do my research, I began to check out the dropshipping companies I had bookmarked that had been suggested in the Auctions For Income course. A few had some products that fell under the category I was researching, but the quality and style was not at all what I had in mind. Also, the prices did not strike me as being anywhere close to what I thought would be wholesale. The more I looked, the more I began to suspect that many of these "dropshippers" suggested by the Auctions For Income program were probably people who had put together their own "dropshipping" store of products sold by other dropshippers…for not only did the higher prices make me think this, but also because the same products were showing up over and over from one vender to the other. Ok, so with my initial list of dropshipping companies exhausted (and removed from my computer bookmarks) the next step was to start looking at the specific products that I wanted to represent and see if I could deal directly with the manufacturer.
After a day of research and finding who to contact then sending e-mails to see if the companies did dropship, I began thinking about the fact that to do this, I would need to build a website. This website would have to be able to take orders, so I'd need a shopping cart program. The question of sales tax tugged at me…who would collect it and pay it? Where should I host my site? How will I drive traffic to this site? Oh yeah, how would I successfully build this wonderful website dedicated to my very special purpose when I'm not a web designer? Ok, no pressure. (Right!) About this same time my husband and I had been seeing a TV commercial advertising a company selling pre-constructed websites. They were promoted as "ready to go money-making sites". You would get some pre-built, and others you could fill with content of your choosing. Well, highly suspecting this offer would turn out to be nothing but a bunch of malarkey, I decided to finish off any speculations by calling the number. The pre-recorded message was such a hard sell "give us your credit card number now", without any live person to talk to or even a website to go to (yet remember, they are selling websites), I was very motivated to check them out on the internet and see if they had been reported to RipOffReport.com . Not only did I find they had already been reported, but I was able to find a few "scam" reviews of the company as well.
I really wasn't that bothered that the company came out to be as much a scam as we suspected it would be, but, I was a bit disheartened that I felt like I finally had an original idea (my special interest "niche") and really didn't know how I was going to do anything with it! Oh, and after checking my e-mails, I found that most of my ideal manufacturers did not dropship, though a few did. One even mentioned something called their "affiliate program", but since I had no idea what they were talking about I didn't dig into it any further. Before I contacted any more companies, I wanted to figure out how I would be able to build and promote my business. The last thing I wanted to do was create some good business contacts then let them grow cold because I was not prepared, educated or knowledgeable about how to proceed and actually do business.
Since my mind was "warmed up" to be searching online, I started researching for any and all pieces of information relating to building an online business or for work at home opportunities I could find. Oh my stars, what a minefield. Have you ever just sat down and searched online for terms like "work from home", “make money online", "how to make money online"? If you try it, you'd be wise to put yourself and your computer on high ground first, for you will be flooded with a sea of opportunities…mind you, I didn't say good opportunities. With all the results that reeked of hype, get rich quick schemes, and shady looking sites, I decided that a bit more fine tuning of what I wanted to find was in need. Instead of continuing to wade through all this waste water (just to stay in line with my little analogy I have going on!), I decided to go offline, and think. What did I want to achieve? What was it I was really searching for online? In order to keep myself from falling victim to a poor choice or worse yet, a scam, I had to have a well defined idea of what it was I was seeking to obtain at this point of trying to build my online business.
There were two points I was clear on:
1. I had a solid idea on what I wanted to build my business around.
2. I accepted that I had little to no knowledge on how to get started building my online business.
What I was seeking online:
1. I wanted a program that would teach me how to build an online business.
i. The program would have to offer me true knowledge, details, explanations, examples and instructions.
2. I wanted a program that was honest.
With my goals clearly defined, I set out to find my teacher.
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