Internet Marketing Fog Clearing Up

I thought I had gotten whiff of Internet Marketing in November, but it seems I learned about and placed my very first IM related order in the beginning of October. So that makes me almost 4 months in.  I’m starting to realize how things are done, whats spam, what’ not, what resources to go to, and I have to say I’ve found quite a few good resources over the past 4 months. Information overload still exists but to a certain extent the fog is clearing and I’m seeing what needs to be done. There really are so many things you could go into but I guess I need to do it one at a time for it to be done at all.  Otherwise I just think and get overwhelmed. I’ve been working on a sales letter for a product.  I’ve created the first draft of the sales letter but I know it still needs work so I’m just trying to learn a bit more about copywriting and how I can improve it.  Also, I’ve discovered squidoo and currently have a lens following my weight loss journey with ‘Fat Loss 4 Idiots’. 

How To Miss The Google Slap

I have been getting mini-slapped on some of my campaigns lately and here is an interesting  post from shoemoney with some informative comments. I have to come back to this to apply some of these techniques to optimize my campaign. I found another cool site that I’m sure will have very interesting tips on tricking Google from shoemoney’s comments: IHateGoogle has a very informative ‘Definitive Guide to Link Cloaking’. Will revisit and let you know how this works out.

Turning WordPress Into A CMS

I am currently working on developing some of my sites by using WordPress as a CMS.  I was originally trying to use Joomla, and I might continue that with one of my sites, but WordPress just seems easier to use and more pleasing to the eye.  No doubt Joomla has an amazing amount of features, but it really looks like too much is going on and its not necessarily appealing to the reader or the eye (other than the fact that it looks busy).  I am a newbie with wordpress but I’m sure there are enough plugins here and there to create a basic CMS. 

I found a post by 3.7 designs: http://www.3point7designs.com/blog/2006/10/25/5-wordpress-plugins-that-will-turn-wordpress-into-a-cms/ from a couple months ago that gives a few tips on how to make wordpress into a CMS.  

Ok yeah I still need to learn how to TAG, and do permalinks and all the funky stuff.

A Lesson Learned

As most of you know, I am just starting off in affiliate marketing and am experimenting here and there.   Well, last week I made a big mistake and now I will be careful for years to come.  I basically bought a domain name and had to have it hosted on my own host (Hostmonster) versus Godaddy (where I bought the domain).  I didn’t do this right away and I had to request it be changed and the change was supposed to take effect in 48 hrs.  Since this was over the weekend I let it go and checked on Monday again and it was still not done.  Finally today I decided to call godaddy and see what was going on.  Why when the account information showed that it was being hosted on my host, was I still not able to hit the site.  Right before I was about to call Godaddy I saw that I had misspelled when I bought the domain name!! Can you believe that? I am just starting out and I definitely don’t have money to waste on misspelled domain names! I frantically called GoDaddy to see if anything could be done – NOPE:  I had passed the 5 day grace period. Soo….the lesson learned is: Review Your Spelling Very Very Carefully when buying a domain.  Do not get over excited and just hit the ‘Order’ button.  And if for some reason you do, correct yourself within 5 days.  Now this may seem like common sense to some but it could happen to you.  I am one of the most anal people when it comes to spelling and as fate would have it, it happened to me. “You would cry too if it happened to you!” 

Here They Are…My New Year’s Resolutions 2007

Ok this is just going to be a brain dump.  I’ll try to somewhat organize these, but don’t be surprised if they don’t seem well thought out.

Personal:

Diligency about Praying

Reading Quran regularly

Reading more books in general like I used to

Frequenting more forums and blogs and blogging regularly

Keeping in better touch with my friends

Try to memorize more surahs

Practice Tajweed

Continue Arabic learning journedy

Professional:

Take GMAT This Year

Success in my Internet Business Ventures – at least that my costs are covered and that I am on the way to take make profit, not loss

Take SalamStreet Live

Try to learn continuously and be focused

Take the dora site live and campaign it well

Family:

Try to keep the house clean

Try to cook every day

Keep on top of the finances

Keep a productive schedule with kiddos

Try not to turn on the computer when kiddos are up – full attention giving

Try to make productive family time

———–

Yeah so there are the main ones – there might be more that I might have overlooked.  If I remember anything, I’ll add it later.

Even the Skinniest Get Fat

In a few hours, it will be 2007.  One of my main goals for this year. Actually I should say the first part of this year will be to lose the extra weight that I’ve put on over the past 2 years and after the birth of my 2 daughters.  I will post my results on the blog.  

 I have been skinny all my life.  Not just skinny – but super super skinny.  But the perks of getting older don’t excude anyone and slowing metabolism has crawled up my alley. But I’m going to fight it all the way! Just been lazy about it up till now.  The problem with always having been naturally thin is that you are not in the mentality of having to watch what you eat or having to make an effort to lose weight.  I think the thing that is most required is your own discipline.  

I’m also sick of all the hype around weight loss. If you have to take a quick pill to do it, it probably isn’t going to last, it’s not healthy for sure, and it’s not going to be the safest option.  All those pills and quick fixes are just that – quick fixes. They are not permanent or safe fixes. And at the end of it all you’ve just screwed up your metabolism even more.

Anyway that was just my rant for the weight loss options I see available and how people feel so bad about themselves that they are willing to risk their health for those options.