Make Money At Home

Make Money at Home with Backlinks

2010-02-01T13:36:00.004-07:00

There is often a great deal of disagreement about what equates to a “quality” backlink in the world of making money online. In general, most SEO moguls can agree that we can’t always completely believe or take literally what Google tells us is good or bad in terms of ranking. We know they don’t expose the whole truth about their “top secret” algorithm and perhaps they shouldn’t because then we wouldn’t be forced to “figure things out” on our own. Figuring things out, trial and error, and extracting uncommon knowledge about the Google algorithm can work out favorable for those of us trying to dominate the SERPs for our keywords such as make money at home. Thus, if we hit upon something that gives us an advantage, it’s possible that few other people know about it (maybe none in our particular niche).

What Doesn’t Work Anymore….

It is well known that direct link exchanges do not help now (site A links to site B; site B links to site A). There is also some speculation that 3-way links (site A links to site B; site B links to site C; site C links to site A) are losing power as well although there hasn’t been solid proof of this as of yet. Also, blogroll, sidebar, and site-wide links are losing their luster (these are still ok, but they aren’t as great as they used to be). Social media links, blog comments with do-follow, website directory, and any other links that the average Joe can easily get are losing their backlink juice as well. Don’t even think about copying and pasting some Blog Content Wizard posts into your blog to create your own farm network. Nope. None of this works anymore.

Well Sh^&… What DOES work then???

In-text keyword-anchored backlinks. As always, it’s best if they are on a niche-related site or blog. Guest posts work great for this. Or- write a really really good article about your niche (solve a problem, provide a new perspective, offer a free tool or resource, etc) and create social network or comment funnels that might attract visitors to your blog who might link to you. I can’t believe I just suggested using a social network, but it’s true: they work for funneling people to your link bait. I recently discussed the concept of natural backlinks in a recent post here at my make money at home blog.

Write lots of articles about your niche. 10-20 a day is a good number to shoot for. How on earth could somebody write 10-20 articles everyday? Read one of my recent blog posts about just that topic.

Do “.edu” Backlinks Work?

Matt Cutts recently tried to shoot down the idea that .edu backlinks are weighted heavier than any other links. Should we believe him? Maybe he just wants people to stop spamming the university library blogs and students’ travel abroad diaries, who knows? Most of those blog comments are “no follow” anyway, so please, just stop with them. Viagra spammers are evil! lol

And anyway, I truly believe that we shouldn’t have to spam to top the SERPs. The thought of that makes me feel a bit embarrassed about backlinking tactics I’ve used in the past.

I’m not sure how powerful good .edu links are anymore (I’m not talking about comments on a student’s .edu blog or a class wiki btw) – I’m referring to an in-text blog post keyword-anchored link on a niche-related blog that happens to be on a .edu domain. Not everyone can get that type of link (can you?), and something tells me it still packs a huge punch.

Spammers, Be Gone!

My speculation is that Google is trying everything they can to clamp down on spammers and blatant backlink cheaters. ***Hey, stop looking at me like that… I haven’t cheated on links – for this blog! :D :D :D I rather like the look of a white hat on my head these days, what do you think? To be legit, I’d appreciate a backlink from YOU, if you don’t mind.

Even professional backlink manipulators like me are going to have to turn over a new leaf for the long-term benefit. Eventually, all of those sites/blogs that spammed 20,000 .edu blogs and created strategic link farms en masse are going to get slapped harder and farther than they ever have before. I prefer not to be a part of it as I can see it coming…

I used to create lots and lots of crap content. Sometimes it was fun because I could say anything that popped into my head; no one was going to read it anyway because it was for my farms. Sometimes I’d use stuff my 6 year old said - that would make for some funny or often, surprisingly enlightening content! Actually, he could offer up some awesome content or topic ideas that could probably make an article go viral. Children are geniuses!

Anyway, then I’d go and create content for my money sites that was intentionally looped in structure to encourage clicks on the Adsense ads. To an extent, this still works if it’s not too obvious and if the niche is small enough. For niches like “make money at home” this isn’t going to suffice. If the niche has little or no competition, I’d say loop away and hopefully you will get away with it. My ebook Nomad’s Guide to Make Money Online focuses on tracking down these small niches (which is what beginners should focus on). The 2nd tier/3rd tier strategy still works as long as you are not trying to tackle the first page for Forex investing, make money at home, weight loss, and other such niches. Something tells me that those types of niches are under the Google microscope more than most other niches.

Are those farms still helping me now? Yeah, some of them. Most of them are still indexed, but I have no idea for how long. There was a period where they were really helping me and I was making gobs of money with Adsense. I’m still making a lot of money from Adsense in other niches, so don’t think that my income stopped. Google hasn’t banned my account, so apparently I’m not too incredibly obvious about what I do. To supplement, I’ve been creating a bunch of mediocre content blogs to replace the automated content farms and I have improved the content on some of my better performing Adsense sites.

However, I don’t put Adsense on blogs like this one for a reason. My strategy here is completely separate and I need to keep it that way. I’m trying to see how truly white hat I can get with this blog and I’m counting on my article marketing and natural backlinking skills to get me by. Only time will tell how this experiment goes. Will I rank for make money at home? Maybe with your help (you know – a backlink with make money at home as the anchor text).

I will be continuously editing the content of my ebook to reflect the changes to the rules. Anyone who has bought it will be able to receive a free copy of the updated version by contacting me on the make money online ebook’s main website. There is a link in the right sidebar.

Internet Marketer Syndrome

That’s the thing with being an internet marketer. Things are always changing and something that may be true one month, may not be true the next. It’s not that what I said before wasn’t true; it was true. It just may not be true NOW. We have to go with the flow and not resist these changes. What you resist persists, remember?

Don’t use this as an excuse to throw in the towel and harshly proclaim that making money online doesn’t work. It does work, but only if you work with its will and not against it. If you give up now, you will be going down with the blatant spammers. I know some of you who purchased my ebook are very talented at this and are already seeing success with the small niche method (which, as I already mentioned, still works!!!) Keep going and have some patience!

Who? Me? Paranoid? Well…

I’m officially paranoid and I’m more than willing to alter my ways if it means I will continue to keep my head above water. I think I’ll always be able to make a living with Adsense, but just in case, I’m creating a back-up plan that builds authority sites, link bait, and lots of creative measures. I suggest you do the same. I can’t completely guide you as this is another one of those “figure it out” situations, but I believe I have given you enough information to go on… Sometimes the “back to basics” strategy is the best long-term solution.

That’s all I’ve got for today. Did I ramble on enough to suit you? :)

Writing from Boulder, Colorado (Visit the Taj Indian Restaurant if you’re in this area – delicious food!!!! It’s near Broadway and Baseline Rd),

Janet Smith

Free Custom Wordpress Themes

2010-01-29T15:02:00.007-07:00

I just recently took a liking to making Wordpress themes. It's a lot of fun actually... Yeah I know - I do weird things in my spare time.

With that said, this is why I'm making this blog post about free wordpress themes:

I'd be willing to design a custom wordpress theme for you for FREE. Yep, for free - free wordpress themes (sorry, I needed anchor text, lol). I can also do Blogger templates or plain HTML templates. Email me with any color/design suggestions and with the type of blog the wp theme is intended for and I will email you back with your free wp theme. My email address is located on the contact page of my NGMMO site. I'll try to get the theme to you within a week or less.

There's no catch... All I ask is that you keep the footer link intact. :)

If I get swamped with requests, obviously I won't be able to send everyone a free custom wp theme, so please understand if I'm unable to do it. Either way, I'll respond to your email to let you know whether or not I'll get around to sending you a theme. I can guarantee that at least the first 50 or so of you who email me will get it. Anyway, just ask and I'll let you know.

Here are a couple examples of WP themes I have already designed, to give you an idea. Keep in mind I can do any colors, fonts, etc that you want and the overall design can be different too. I'll try to tailor the design to fit your niche. My wp themes never look the same. :D

How to Write Unique Content 3 Times Faster than Everyone Else

2010-01-29T14:14:00.003-07:00

I like to write make money at home articles that contain information you don’t come across everyday, and that’s why I end up not writing a lot of content about the subject. Most of the basics have already been covered by Grizzly, Court, Vic, and others. They know far, far more about how to make money online than I do. Hopefully one day I can evolve to their level and, as a result, get unsolicited backlinks left and right. LOL

However, sometimes there comes a time when I do have something unique to contribute (something I think is unique anyway). Like Griz, Vic, and Court, I too make a living online and have a trick or 2 up my sleeve. I do not undervalue my abilities as an internet marketer and have a high satisfaction with my current level of success. What I do online pays the bills and supports my chosen lifestyle, so I’m happy! I don’t have a “job”, I make money 100% online, and I can live where I want. Life is good.

Anyway, on to the actual meat of this make money online with backlinks article:

To dominate a niche on the search engines, we need backlinks and content for our blogs and websites. The best kind of backlinks are in-text links mid-sentence in an article about a related topic. Oh – and we need lots of those types in article/blog post links. Lots. In addition, that content needs to be original to be most effective – no PLR, dup content, or spun article crap. It’s even better if our link is the only one on the page.

All that sounds like a headache waiting to happen since no one naturally wants to give us the “perfect” backlink – especially in niches that are oversaturated like MMO. In addition, no one can afford to outsource all the heaps of content that we need exclusively for backlinks. Also, to start out, most of us have day jobs and don’t have time to write endless articles ourselves because we’re dead tired when we go home at night. What a vicious cycle most of us are stuck in! It really sucks and I truly feel for those of you in that situation because I’ve been there too…

How can we make the backlink process go faster without our fingers hurting and constantly gluing our eyes to the computer screen? All we will get out of this method is an early case of arthritis and deteriorating vision. Wow, what a trade-off. Our health and social/family life are priceless and precious, so don’t ruin them by marrying your keyboard. After all, the whole reason most people break into internet marketing is because they are trying to free up their time – not tie themselves down.

I don’t know about you, but once I get going with a particular niche – I get really sick of writing articles and really disgusted by the amount of time it takes to type out a decent sized article of 500 or 1000 words. My goal has always been to output at least 10-20 unique (absolutely no spun or automated content) niche-specific articles per day solely for the purpose of backlinks, but if I do it the way everyone else does and at the volume I need to in order to rank for keywords, I would have no life! I would be sitting at the computer all day long writing articles, and I don’t want that. I also don’t want to wait forever in order to start ranking well for my niches. 1 article a day isn’t going to cut it for most niches.

Here’s another thing to chew on: What about the times we’re away from the computer thinking about our niche and come up with good content in our heads? We can’t always write it down immediately and we can’t always remember it for later, so what do we do?

I have a secret article generating method and I will share it with you. It is totally legit and there is nothing Google can do about it to shoot it down. I hope you find the following information useful:

It is a proven fact that we can speak approximately 3 times faster than we can type. Furthermore, we can speak anytime, anywhere. Typing has to be done while at our computer and what kind of life is it to carry our laptop around with us all day?

I create articles 3 times faster (unless there are some superhuman-typers out there!) than most people can because I use a handheld voice recording device designed for use with the speech recognition software called Dragon NaturallySpeaking Preferred Mobile (make sure it's the mobile one so you get the voice recorder). You can buy it here at a discount: Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10 Preferred Mobile (Yes, it’s an affiliate link. If you think I deserve credit for the idea then feel free to use my affiliate link. Or, delete my affiliate code and buy it directly if you can’t stand the thought of me earning a commission from it, LOL!) At the very least, how about a backlink to this article with the anchor text “make money online” or "make money at home" or something like that? :)

I carry the voice recorder around with me and whenever I get the inspiration or whenever I need to sit down and bust out 10 quick articles about my niche, I talk into the recorder. It takes me about 5 to 10 minutes or so (sometimes less if I thought out what to say) to speak each article that would take me 15-30 minutes each to type out manually, depending on how many words the article needs. It has about 99% accuracy and has gotten better the more I use it as it gets used to my speech patterns.

Later, when I am ready to post some backlink articles, I plug the device into my computer and the voice recordings are automatically converted into word processing documents that I can copy and paste into my desired backlink source. I use it for on-page content as well.

Most of my time is now spent locating places to post the spoken articles rather than relentlessly typing them out by hand. That’s how I make money online and generate unique backlink content at superhuman speed.

As a side note, if you always have tons of emails to answer like I do, it helps tackle those quickly, too.

Let me know your thoughts in the comments section and remember to send me a backlink if you appreciate this make money online tip. I estimate that this article is about 1000 words, give or take a few, so I’ll stop there…

Writing from Denver, Colorado (it’s so cold here!!!!!),

Janet Smith

How to Make Money Online – Get Natural Backlinks

2010-01-21T14:46:00.001-07:00

Before I proceed with this make money online article, we need to go over what natural backlinks are.

What are natural backlinks?

There are all sorts of backlinks people use to make money online: spammy backlinks, comment and forum signature backlinks, “whined for” backlinks… None of those are natural backlinks – and if you want to make money online you will need mostly the natural variety to satisfy the ever-changing demands of Google.

I know, I still didn’t answer your question about what exactly natural backlinks are. I’m getting to it… don’t worry…

Natural backlinks are the backlinks you get from some random person who decided to link to you. You didn’t ask for the link and you didn’t spam anyone to get it; you didn’t comment on a bunch of “.edu” student blogs and you didn’t write a paid post on someone’s blog. The beauty of natural backlinks is that you can often get them from people who have blogs and websites related to your niche. These related, unsolicited backlinks are the most valuable you can possibly ever get. How do you get them?

“Post good content and post it often!” all the blogging gurus proclaim. Most people who try to make money online simply want to make a blog, slap up some Adsense, write blog posts everyday with recycled content when they run out of ideas, get a couple comment backlinks, and waste away their days promoting the blog on social media sites.

“Attract natural backlinks and attract them often!” I proclaim. No, this is not the same thing as posting good content. Let me explain.

My approach to natural backlinks is different. Most gurus and so-called experts say to write spectacular, unique content and the natural backlinks will take care of themselves. Trust me, backlinks (the kind we need and want) never “take care of themselves”. Backlinks are not passive no matter how you slice it. True, your natural backlinks will be unsolicited, but they sure as hell don’t happen simply by writing a blog post. Yippie… another blog post! There are millions of blog posts written about backlinks everyday and no one cares. Due to oversaturation (especially in the make money online niche) it takes more than good content to get natural backlinks – it takes a pioneer approach.

Blogging gurus are mostly full of s%^* and flock to blogging conventions to collect their meaningless awards touting their self-indulged expertise. The real gurus, those who don’t refer to themselves as such, never attend blogging conventions and never flaunt their skills – they simply demonstrate those skills through their actions. As we all know, actions speak louder than words. Most of the real gurus never even show their faces, so we will never know who most of them are. They lurk in the shadows, make their money, vacation in the south of France, and laugh as everyone else follows Darren Rowse’s blog like it’s a cult. Instead of reading about celebrity train wrecks for entertainment like most people do, they read noob comments and blog posts written by Yaro Starak and Caroline Middlebrook.

Content is only a small piece of what it takes to get natural backlinks and in some cases good content has been totally sidestepped. For example, just look at some of the sites that rank #1 or #2 for very competitive keywords! Most of their content is either sparse or heavily regurgitated from the same crap they have blogged about time and time again. Either that, or they hop on over to Grizzly’s Blogger blog to find something they can paraphrase and pass off as their own “expertise”.

Back to the question: How do we get natural backlinks without annoying the competitors in our niche to death? Good content is a great strategy if you use it to attract backlinks, but it needs to be paired with that which makes people want to link to you – it needs to be a tool that they can’t live without (and free is always a great incentive for someone to give you backlinks). Essentially, you are creating a “niche within your niche” so that the people in your niche will not feel threatened by you; they will link to you.

Everyone loves the person who gives away things for free, but no one wants to BE that person. Most of the time, that person who gives away things for free is the one who ends up winning out because ‘free’ is part of their strategy. When something is ‘free’, the assumption that you have ulterior motives suddenly disappears.

Thus, you mustn’t be blatantly selling something if you want backlinks. On the flip side, we all need and want backlinks because, ultimately, we all want to be able to sell something. To put it a different way: We need backlinks so we can rank for our keywords, get targeted traffic, and sell stuff - but no one wants to give us backlinks if we appear to be some money hungry, heartless internet marketer. Do you see the dilemma? If we didn’t want to make money online, we wouldn’t be chasing backlinks like there’s no tomorrow.

I can’t give you a solid answer on what your tool or natural backlink magnet should be. It depends on how creative you are, what your niche is, and how actively you pursue and implement your ideas. My best advice is: Find a hole in your niche and fill it. Come up with some tool or unique information that you can offer for free; in exchange you will attract natural backlinks if you market it properly and if it is truly an asset to your niche.

If you want to know what I’m talking about, I advise you to watch very closely what I do (not just what I say) in the next few months. I have some natural backlink magnet strategies in place and I will be implementing them. Remember that actions speak louder than words.

One last thing about Grizzly… He is a pioneer. I have an educated guess as to why he would offer the world so much priceless make money online information for FREE (besides the fact that he’s a nice guy!). Grizzly, a true internet marketer who practices what he preaches, inherently knows the value of attracting natural backlinks. His blog is a giant natural backlink magnet! Everyone and their mother who is interested in how to make money online links to his blog without the need for him to ask them to.

Sure, when he first started the blog I bet he had to work his tail off to get backlinks, but once he obtained some and people began to realize the value of his knowledge – everyone else did the backlink work for him. It was a snowball effect that pushed him to page 1 for “make money online”. This is a case of content winning out, but only because he has the backlinks and actual knowledge to “back” it up; this situation is rare and I think only Grizzly and a select few others have been able to pull it off.

Grizzly was the first person to really open up about how an average person can make money online – and most respectfully of all: he does it for free. His honesty and helpful attitude have allowed him to stand out in the make money online niche, and this gives me great hope. For once, honesty wins. How’s that for a slap in the face for all the sneaky internet marketers out there?

Remember, you don’t need to be a “Grizzly” to get natural backlinks. Implement the free tool approach in your own way and you will be successful in your quest to make money online – even if you don’t have the means to create great content like Grizzly does.

So let it be written; so let it be done.

Writing to you from San Jose, California,

Janet Smith

Make Money at Home with Backlinks

2009-10-30T23:02:00.009-06:00

It may indeed be true that in order to make money at home in the long-term, good keyword rich content is necessary, but I also believe that 90% (or more) of our success comes from access to good backlinks and the ability to get creative in finding new backlink sources.

We all know about GoArticles and Hubpages and Squidoo and your basic everyday blog comments, but what are some alternative ways to get backlinks that most make money at home people "in the know" refuse to talk about?

To get a bunch of backlinks, you basically need a viral effect that incorporates the age old concept of less work with more reward. Work smarter, not harder. This brings me to my make money at home with backlinks idea #1 as described below:

Make Money at Home with Backlinks Idea #1.

Make some Wordpress themes. If you don't know how, it might be a good idea to learn. This blog offers a good Wordpress tutorial to help you out if you've never done this before. Why would you want to do this? Easy... People love free Wordpress themes and if you design a few nice but simple ones (especially if you name them according to some niche you are targeting: bankruptcy, gold investing, European travel, whatever.... so that it's searchable via Google and you get traffic) you will be putting a backlink to your blog in the footer. Most people don't delete these as it is proper etiquette to leave it in tact in order to credit the creator for their work. If lots of people use your themes, you will have lots of backlinks with no work after initially creating the themes.

Make Money at Home with Backlinks Idea #2.

If you have a purely informational site (one that isn't monetized) that you plan to use for highly powerful backlinks in the future and it has some good, helpful content on it (not Adsense blog material) then maybe you can find a related page in Wikipedia to edit with reference to your informational blog or website. The catch here is that you cannot make it obvious that this is your blog or that you would directly benefit financially from this backlink (that's why it can't be a monetized site). You will benefit indirectly, but they don't know that! Wikipedia pages usually have nice page rank, so it can only help you in terms of backlink juice if you do it properly and don't get your link removed.

Make Money at Home with Backlinks Idea #3.

Get some .edu links. Easier said than done? Not really. If you downloaded the SEO for Firefox plug-in that I mentioned in my make money at home ebook, you have a very powerful tool right at your fingertips. Simply type in your main keyword for your niche to look-up where your competitors are getting their .edu backlinks from and how many they have. Look at this picture (click picture to enlarge):

Once you have completed your Google search (in this case, I searched for "make money online"), click on the part I circled that says "Y! .edu Page Links" to see where these people are getting .edu links from. When you click on that text, a page will come up with all the websites or blogs (it's usually blogs) where they left keyword anchored backlinks on. The funny thing is, the comments usually aren't even thoughtful. LOL. Just go to the blogs they went to and leave a comment for yourself with your keyword anchored properly like so:

The mooladays.com guy has a lot. haha! Don't leave all your comments on the same day - space it out so it's not obvious.

This is the page that comes up when you click on the "Y! .edu Page Links" hyperlink (click picture to enlarge):

Just follow the links and start leaving comments. Voila.

That's all for this make money at home post, but surely there will be more to come.

Janet

Make Money at Home Boot Camp Step 2

2009-10-27T16:38:00.003-06:00

This is the second step in our make money at home boot camp series.

In step 1 of how to make money at home we discussed keyword research and 1st tier support blogs. The extreme details were not covered and will not be covered in this series because Grizzly literally beats them into the ground on his Make Money Online for Beginners blog... as do I in my online money making guide e-book that shadows and condenses Grizzly's techniques.

Step 2: If you want to make money at home and have spent a month or 2 making 1st tier blogs and doing preliminary keyword research via the guidelines discussed by Griz or myself, you are ready for step 2. This make money step involves creating 2nd tier blogs with mediocre content and NO monetization methods on them. You will be linking your already indexed 1st tiers to your newly created 2nd tiers. Create as many as you'd like to or need to; this is not an exact science. If you don't know how many right away, just create 20 or so and then go back and make more as needed after you've started making some 3rd tiers as I will explain in "make money at home" boot camp step 3. Get started with that first 20 and see where it takes you.

Personally, I probably have over a thousand 2nd tiers linking out to my several hundred current 3rd tiers. Don't feel overwhelmed... this took me over 2 years of consistent, nearly daily work. Remember to take it 1 blog and 1 day at a time.

Get your 2nd tiers indexed by backlinks from 1st tiers, GoArticles submissions, forum signatures, blog comments, YouTube videos, and so on. Remember to continue keeping all your make money at home information organized in spreadsheets.

2nd tiers are usually more general in topic than your 3rd tiers will be, so don't worry too much about these 2nd tiers ranking well in Google. You probably won't be making money at home with them. The only difference between these 2nd tiers and your 1st tiers (farms) is that the content on the 2nd tiers is of better quality. It needs to be legit and related to your niche topic in some way. The "real" niche blogs will be your 3rd tiers, so they are going to be very narrow in topic.

At this stage, you're not quite ready to make money at home yet, but you are covering some ground and building a foundation so that it goes much faster later!

Step 3 will be added soon.

Janet

See What Making Money at Home Does to Me?

2009-10-24T12:25:00.010-06:00

Since I have been making money at home 100% over the past few months, I think I have way too much time on my hands. Like I said in a previous post about make money at hom e, I just got back to Colorado from Brazil so that I can pick up Samantha, my pomeranian. My intention was to go back to Brazil in a couple weeks after I get some other things squared away here in the States.

So... what do I do?.... I do something that makes absolutely no sense and I get myself another pomeranian - this time a male. He has a piece of beef tendon rawhide in his mouth in the picture I think... lol.

I am such a sucker for cute puppies. I suppose I will be transporting both of them back to Brazil, but I might delay the trip a bit more because he is only 11 weeks old and needs to gain some strength before traveling. The little guy, Jake, only weighs 2 pounds and Samantha towers over him at 7 pounds! Sometimes I think that my ability to make money online gets in the way of what little common sense I have.

Make Money Anywhere
This just goes to show you that I plan my travels around my life and not so much around my finances. That is the advantage you have when you can make money anywhere. I would not trade this lifestyle for anything. To make money anywhere is one of the best forms of freedom one can experience.

Whether you will be making money at home or if you want to make money while traveling, this whole niche blog system that Grizzly is always talking about will get you there.

Make Money at Home Boot Camp Step 1

2009-10-22T22:04:00.003-06:00

You need a game plan to make money at home. When I offer my advice on making money online, I am assuming you have either read Grizzly’s blog (or Vic, Court, any of those guys who know what they’re talking about) or have read my online money making guide e-book. If you have, the terminology and concepts will be familiar to you.

Hopefully most of you have at least made a few blogs (even if these blogs don’t yet dominate their keywords) and have gone through the motions so that you know, in theory, how this works. If you haven’t, that’s ok, but at the very least, you need to be familiar with our goal and terminology as described in depth by Grizzly and myself.

Once again: Our goal in this make money at home boot camp is to get 200 Adsense blogs (also called 3rd tier blogs or money sites) ranking on page 1 of Google for their keyword phrases.

Let’s begin…

Step 1:

Do proper keyword research with the Google keyword tool (again… you can find information about keyword research step-by-step in my e-book or on Grizzly’s make money for beginners blog). Start small so you don’t overwhelm yourself; find 5 different but perhaps remotely related niches that you can start working on. Don’t work on more than 3 “green” keywords (terminology from my e-book) for each of the 5 at once. For example, maybe you want to start with “Japanese tea sets”, “green tea benefits”, “bonsai gardening”, “how to make sushi”, and “Japanese cell phones” (these are ONLY examples and I haven’t researched them for CPC, # of searches, competition, etc, so please don’t think I’m endorsing these as good niche topics – I have no idea if they are or not). Store all your topics and green keywords in a spreadsheet; put them aside for now.

Start working on your 1st tier farms. I found that the best thing to do was start with farms that have more of a general theme – “travel”, “auto”, “home”, “health”, etc. It’s up to you as to how many farms you want to create. I have hundreds of these, but you don't need hundreds to get started. Maybe you want to start out with 20 or so? Choose a number that you know you can accomplish and make sure to create the farms on different platforms (Blogger - if it's not auto generated content, Wordpress, Blogetery, Hubpages, Squidoo, Infobarrel, etc.) You will be able to reuse these for other backlinks (not Squidoo and Hubpages from my experience as they will probably delete the page) when you start new niche topic projects. The 1st tiers don’t need to be an exact match; therefore general, reusable farms are what we need. You will probably need to spend a month or 2 setting up, putting content on, and indexing your initial farms if you are starting from scratch to make money at home.

Stay tuned for step 2 of our make money at home boot camp series.

Janet

Make Money at Home Boot Camp

2009-10-20T18:28:00.004-06:00

I really want all of you out there reading this to make money at home. I really do.

I was thinking along these lines last night and all of today (I have a horrible cold, so I was lying in bed bored and miserable at the same time) and here's what I'm going to do to help you make money at home:

I think many of you need steps to follow - specific steps. Even those of you who are avid readers of Grizzly's blog or those who have purchased my e-book need specifics. I know a lot of you understand this in theory, but maybe you still can't seem to make the connection between understanding and implementation. Don't worry, it took a while for me too. The good news is, once you get it... you get it. My online money making guide e-book and Griz's blog offer the understanding, but we don't say do this on Monday... that on Tuesday... etc.

For me to be able to help you make money at home here at this blog, you will need a background on the niche blog building system that Grizzly explains on his "make money online" blog or that I explain in my e-book. I will not be re-explaining those things here. I will start this "boot camp" as if you already know theoretically how this works. If you are not up to that level at this time, my make money at home boot camp will not be of help to you quite yet. Read up on Griz's blog or get a copy of Nomad's Guide to Make Money Online if you need to get up to speed.

In my last post about how boring it is to make money at home I mentioned that it took about 200 Adsense niche blogs for my Adsense income to start taking off. I think I will make the make money at home boot camp revolve around this goal. From there, I have a good feeling you can figure out the rest on your own.

The amount of time it will take each of you to get 200 Adsense blogs ranking on page 1 of Google for their keywords will vary. Therefore, I will make the posts as "step 1", "step 2", etc rather than day 1, day 2, and so on.

Let me help you to help yourself make money at home! Tomorrow I will post make money at home step 1. See you then.

Janet

It’s Boring to Make Money at Home

2009-10-19T13:37:00.006-06:00

The Boring Way to Make Money at Home...

Do I make this whole make money at home digital nomad thing sound fun? The truth is, it’s damn boring! After 2 years, it is finally getting to the point where I’m having some fun. The past 2 years have been a tedious and boring form of hell, but I am so glad I forced myself to keep going. It’s not easy doing the same thing everyday to make money at home: type articles, find backlinks, make farms, do keyword research…. It was the same thing, day after day, and for a while it seemed like I was making no progress whatsoever. If this “make money online” routine sounds all too familiar to you, please know that I know exactly how you feel!

Let me put some numbers out there for you:

It seemed like after I created about 200 Adsense niche blogs (with solid, keyword relevant content) was when my Adsense income really took off. Since then, it was been increasing each month, even if I don’t create any more Adsense niche blogs. It is currently at about $8000 per month – just for Adsense. With my affiliate programs and other forms of making money at home, obviously my income is higher. I have a LOT more than 200 Adsense blogs now BTW.

Nowadays, I still make Adsense niche blogs, but not like I used to. Truth is, I will probably never stop making niche blogs to make money at home. So far, they seem to be fairly recession-proof.

A Word of Advice:

Lately, I have been pouring through some of my main Adsense blogs and thickening up the content a bit. I’ve been adding more posts to them… adding content to some of the weak posts… and some other forms of tweaking because I want to make absolutely sure they won’t get slapped by Google. If you have any blogs that get a good amount of traffic and clicks or that are in a competitive niche… the more legit and helpful they are the better – you just never know when the wrath of Google will strike for those of us who make money at home. The rumor is that big G will be more and more picky as time goes on and more and more willing to throw us into the sandbox if we don’t behave to their standards. Let’s not take any chances.

I prefer to save my risk taking for my digital nomad lifestyle choice. Somehow, it’s more comforting to not know where I will be living next week than to wonder if Google will strike me down with a lightning bolt. I got out of my comfort zone by not having a steady paycheck from a “job”, but I will not leave the comfort zone of having legitimate Adsense niche blogs with as much content as possible (for the more competitive niches like “make money at home” and “shoes”).

I know I said that backlinks are more important than content in my e-book. Yes, that is true. But also, you have to go with the current when it comes to Google’s behavior. Are you confused now? Just nod and say “yes”… LOL

I never said the content had to be groundbreaking or scholarly, but it does need to be thick and helpful on the surface. If anything, just make posts about the same topics by rewording your own posts and throwing in new, minute details. Do it however you can, and keep spitting out content for the Adsense niche blogs. And remember - don’t create crap content on your Adsense blogs!

I told you making money at home is boring! It’s the same steps, over and over! If you want to make money at home bad enough, you will do it.

On a personal note, I’m back in the United States and I don’t know why (ok, well…. I do know why… I’m bringing my new puppy back to Brazil with me.) Maybe she’ll start new site called “Make Money at Home for Pomeranians” so her mommy can buy her endless chicken jerky strips.

Making Money at Home from Colorado,
Janet
and
Samantha the Pomeranian

How Dare I Make Money Online!

2009-10-12T13:41:00.003-06:00

In my efforts to promote my online money making guide e-book, I have received a lot of praise as well as some criticism. Apparently in the beginning, I was contacting the wrong people – people who have no intentions of admitting that they are even online to make money (we all know that’s bull sh!$, but anyway….)

In my quest to spread the word about “how to make money online” one of the attackers gave me an idea for a post. In the name of “trying to help” she threw some nasty words at me, but in a twisted and egotistical sort of way…. she actually did help. I won’t mention her name because I’m a nice person and I don’t want her or her blog (it’s a very popular social blog, I might add) to look bad.

I initially sent her an email with a brief description of my make money online e-book and I attached a copy of it in pdf format for her to review. Here is the initial e-mail I sent her:

“Hi XXXX,

I really enjoy reading your blog as I am a digital nomad who recently made
the switch to making 100% of my income online. You do a great job, so
thanks for all your hard work!

The reason I'm writing to you is this: I recently finished writing an
e-book directed at digital nomads that I think your readers would be
interested in (and that you can profit from as well via the affiliate
program.)

The e-book is titled "Nomad's Guide to Make Money Online" that explains
step-by-step how I make money online with free methods. The book goes into
extreme details so that anyone can replicate the methods.

I have attached a copy of my book in PDF format in its entirety. I sell it
for $37, but your copy is free. Read it if you wish; it's my gift to you.
I trust that you won’t send the file to anyone else or post it anywhere
for free.

If you think this is an e-book that would appeal to and help your readers,
I have an affiliate program through plimus.com where you can earn 40% of
each sale. Once you make a sale, your 40% is automatically transferred to
your account (you can choose to receive a check or use Paypal to receive
your money) and the pdf file is automatically delivered to the customer...
similar to Clickbank, but less annoying. I deal with all the customer
service and other hassles; you don’t do anything on your end except
promote the book or post your affiliate link/banner or whatever you want
to do to try to get readers to buy it (write a review, simply recommend
it...whatever works for you.

If you would like to join the affiliate program and start promoting it to
your readers, the link is provided below. Signing up for a free Plimus
account only takes a minute.

http://www.digitalnomadmakemoneyonline.com/affiliates

Thanks,

Janet Smith”

I love how she set the disrespectful mood immediately by putting quotes around my name followed by an ever-polite "do I know you?" Classy. Here is her response:

“> Hi "Janet"
>
> Do I know you?
>
> Just read through the thing quickly, it sounds good, but there is a lot of
> anti-blogger stuff in there.... did you know that a BIG portion of my
> audience is bloggers?
>
> Hmm... I'll have to think about it. I'm not sure if it's going to offend
> people or not. I mean it's good information, it's thorough, but sometimes
> the tone... Have you sold a lot of these? I'm just wondering if you'll
> be
> offending your core audience.
>
> Just putting that out there, let me know what you think.
>
> Thanks,
XXXX”

To which I responded:

“XXXX,

No, it hasn't been sold much to social bloggers - you're right. However,
most people are social bloggers because they think that's the only way
they can make money with blogs. Not everyone, but that's the case a lot of
times. They aren't aware of the alternatives that exist. I don't think
most people get enough information available to them when it comes down to
the specifics of making a living online. It seems to be a dream that most
people have trouble accomplishing. My goal is not to sound rude or
degrading to people, but to help them make money online and travel.

Obviously it's up to you if you want to sell it, although I'd be very
honored if you did! Frankly, I'm honored that you took out time to write
back to me. :) Perhaps you can warn them upfront about the tone, and then
let them decide if they are interested in it? That way, you are being
honest to them about what it is (maintaining their trust in you) and at
the same time, it becomes an opportunity for you to make some money.
Sometimes having an alternative viewpoint can be beneficial to people, as
long as we're honest about its motives.

Thanks,
Janet Smith”

Her response:

“> Ok, I'll think about it. But I do think you're wrong about "social
> bloggers". In fact, it's pretty derogatory to call them that. The fact
> is,
> you're making money and adding zero value to the world. Zero. You're
> skimming off a system that ONLY WORKS because other people write real
> content. If everyone did what you're doing there would be no internet.
> So
> you should be very thankful for all the writers out there that get paid
> nothing, while you skim off the top. (Note: I'm not against it, but I do
> feel you should be more conscious of that in your writing).
>
> Besides, to state that bloggers who are trying to make quality content are
> wasting their time is missing the point (and money isn't the main
> motivation, to tell you the truth).
>
> I think you could have the same ebook, same message, just tone down the
> anti-blogger stuff way down. I'm not saying this to be a jerk, but just
> because I have this bad habit of trying to be helpful and honest to people
> who email me and then my husband shakes his head and asks, "why do you
> bother?" The answer is that I would want someone to tell me. If you want
> to branch over to the so-called "social bloggers" (that term still kills
> me), you'll have to take a look at how it would sound to someone who is
> working very hard on their blog. Their first thought will be "eff you".
> You can say there is a better way without trashing everyone else.
>
> Also, I understand that in your other circles this kind of thumbing your
> nose at content-creators is the exact kind of crowd pleaser you'd need.
> Maybe it's not possible to serve two masters.
>
> Anyway good luck. I'm glad you like my blog, even if all the comments and
> adoration don't pay anything. :P”

----
OK, back to the blog post:

Money isn’t the main motivation? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!! May I buy her a halo for Christmas? If she'd give me her mailing address, I'd be happy to...

These social bloggers (am I being derogatory?) must think people like Grizzly, Vic, Court, and now: me…. are the devil or something. Come on! I never said I write sh!$ content on my blogs and neither have they. Actually, most of my blogs have very decent content, mind you. I don’t want to get slapped by Google, so I have standards….

Not everyone has the same strategy online and I can respect her strategy if she can respect mine. Think of it this way: If the internet were all spectacular content that gives everyone all the information they could possibly need and want for free, there would be no market for advertisers (or very little) because people would get all they need from the content. It works both ways. Obviously she has never operated a business before.

Come on, guys…. help me out here… I do provide some value to you, don’t I? I’m helping people…. helping them make money online. So is Grizzly. So is Vic. So is Court. So are many others… We’re showing you the way it’s done. Who are we hurting, honestly?

I find it amazing how some people can’t see the other side of an argument because they’re too deeply rooted in their own side. Those, in my opinion, are the people who shouldn’t be blogging. I’m not saying she needs to agree with me – she’s entitled to her own opinions. However, when you are a “blogger” who people read daily and who people respect, you have the unwritten responsibility to be mutually respectful, open-minded, and decent.

Those words were not decent. Self-righteous does not classify as an opinion – online or offline.

I wonder if she and her husband are still shaking their heads at me. Some part of me hopes they are. Nevertheless, I hope they’re careful not to make themselves dizzy when shaking their heads. Never shake your head on a full stomach is my advice.

I do wish her the best – honestly I do. But I wish she would get ahold of some better people skills. Even if she disagrees with my make money online methods, she could at least give me the same courtesy I gave her. I said nothing rude to her and all I got was wrath I didn’t deserve. She needs to be a big girl and express her opinions without throwing a tantrum. I respect that she was trying to be honest to me, but her words depicted fear in the worst, condescending way possible. What is she scared of, I wonder?

I guess the age-old make money online “battle” between bloggers and internet marketers persists…

And who says I can’t write quality content for my make money online blogs? LOL!!!! Chew on that, Google bot!

I digress…

Still making money online in Brazil with sh!$ content,
Janet

Make Money Anywhere

2009-10-12T13:31:00.001-06:00

Yes, I started with another boring, yet necessary title: “Make Money Anywhere”. As always, I have my reasons, so I apologize for the mundane-ness of the title. To rank for highly searched for keywords like make money at home we need to first rank for the easier ones like make money anywhere. Reality is boring.

This post will be about starting small. As internet marketers, we always have the “big picture” in our minds and tend to aim high and doom ourselves to failure. In order to make money anywhere, it doesn’t take a genius marketer or clever SEO magician. All you need is to lay down a few basic rules for yourself and follow them. It’s not all about black hat SEO or even about content as some argue. It’s about you. Stop blaming your lack of action on this all being “too complicated” and wake up! Remember, reality is boring.

It’s as simple as what I am about to explain to you. I don’t understand why so many people try to make this so hard. They keep saying things like “If only I could make a full-time online income like you do, Janet”… Yeah, if only. Or they might say “Only Grizzly can make $12,000 a month with Adsense; I could never do it.”

And you know what? Most of you are absolutely 100% correct. Most of you will keep wishing and, in the process, prevent yourselves from doing. Now… I don’t say this for the reasons you might think. I’m not saying that Grizzly or I have better SEO skills or some super power to make money anywhere that you don’t have – not at all (well, Grizzly might - LOL! I can only speak for myself here…). Most of you are correct for two reasons: 1.) Deep down, you truly don’t believe you can do what we do. If you don’t believe it, how on earth could you ever actually do it? Actions stem from thoughts and thoughts stem from you. 2.) Most of you are doing it wrong and making this whole thing more complicated and more difficult than it really is.

To make money from anywhere you need two fundamental tools:

1.) Consistency – You must work a little everyday on your blogs and on link building. Most people give up or slack off after a few short weeks. Don’t be one of those people.
2.) A Plan – Write down or make a list of the steps you must take to accomplish the task of dominating your keywords. Having a plan helps with your consistency.

So how do we formulate a plan? Keep the blog building process fresh in our mind at all times. If you don’t how what I’m talking about, go read Grizzly’s blog (if you have the time) or get a copy of my make money anywhere e-book if you need the short-cut way. Follow the steps and don’t forget them. Keyword research à Niche Blog Creation à Monetization à Backlink Building. Reality is boring, but it works!

How do we stay consistent? Work on one niche at a time at first. You can’t rank for all the niches in the world, so don’t put that kind of pressure on yourself. Work with only a couple main keywords that pass your keyword research test (that test is explained in the e-book). Work a little each day. When you dominate the SERPs for those first keywords, move on to others. Eventually move on to a new niche. Spend less time reading and analyzing and spend more time building links. Develop a system and work on it everyday like clockwork. This is consistency and this is how to make money anywhere. When will that “boring reality” stop???

To be able to make money anywhere is no accident indeed. It is part hard work and part consistency. It’s not any harder than that, so let’s get it out of our heads that making money online is some impossible feat only accomplished by experienced internet moguls. Anyone can make money anywhere, so stop putting the concept on some pedestal that we can’t touch. It is obtainable and we can obtain it.

Still making money from Brazil,
Janet

Make Money at Home in a Recession

2009-10-07T12:08:00.005-06:00

The idea to make money at home appeals to an increasing amount of people lately. The reality for most people right now is if they haven't already lost their job then they are at risk of losing it. Many of the people closest to me are living in fear everyday because they are 1 or 2 paychecks away from becoming homeless. If they lose their job, they will definitely foreclose on their home. I have several friends and family members who are going through this currently and maybe you can relate. I am bringing this up as a blog post, not because I want to spread more doom and gloom, but because I want to reinforce why I am so passionate about making money at home.

I saw this crap coming since about 2 years ago; I saw the economy crumbling. Thus, I make money at home. All while I was building my auto-pilot, self-sustaining, make money at home niche blogs and putting my entire savings of US dollars into silver (that's a whole other blog and I won't go into detail here!!!), my friends and family were labeling me an idealistic, stupid, and paranoid 24 year old who had no direction. If I had a quarter for every time someone told me to "get a job", I'd have a lot more silver than I have right now! And I know for sure that I would be a bitter, unhappy soul stuck in a cubicle all day if I took their advice. Good thing I make money at home...

Nowadays, their tune is changing. The past few days I've been briefing some desperate family members via Skype (I'm still in Brazil) about how to make money online doing what I do. It's very difficult to condense everything I do into a one hour session to where people with no SEO or IM experience can understand. I emailed them a copy of my online money making guide ebook and told them to ask me if they have any questions. I want to help them make money at home and I'm willing to look past the way they treated me before.

As I type this, my friend Cynthia is standing next to me asking why I'm too nice to people, but you know..... it's family and I feel it's my duty to help them when I have the means. Cynthia and I have been building intertwining make money at home niche blogs for over a year now and she recently quit her job in Sao Paulo to do it full-time.

Don't worry, I'm getting to the point of this post now, in case you were wondering. I had to rant a bit first because I need the content for my make money at home keyword! LOL OK here is the point: I truly believe that making money online is no longer a "luxury" or something that eccentric people do, but rather a survival method, freedom factor, and new way to connect with one's family and friends. Making money at home is the way of the future for many people. It's my future and my present. It's not "who" I am, but then again... nothing I do to make money could ever describe "who" I am. This make money at home way of life I have is a tool that gives me the means to discover who I am.... at least that's what it does for me. What does the idea of making money at home do for you?

It allows me to experience the small, frequent joys in life that sitting in a cubicle could never allow me to do. The other day, when I first arrived in Rio de Janeiro - I think it was the day after I arrived that everyone found out Rio will be hosting the 2016 Olympic Games. The joy and pride that I saw on peoples' faces that day is something I will never forget. It was like the whole city was celebrating! It was a happy, energetic place to be that day. It's really nice to see smiles on peoples' faces when everyone's face seems to be frowning right now. These are the real life experiences that I long for when I travel and making money online with my make money at home methods allow me to experience this.

In this bad economy, I wish I could find something to celebrate in my country, but I suppose I will have to wait for that. If you lost your job, why not try to make money at home instead?

Janet

How to Make Money at Home

2009-10-03T21:53:00.003-06:00

I keep getting questions about things like: Janet, how do you make money at home if no one even knows who you are? My intention with this has never really been to become a popular blogger. If that were my intention, I would have done it already. Instead, my intention has been to make money at home by making a living online. That, I have accomplished.

How, you ask?

Stop Aiming for the Stars

And stop copying the "stars" while you're at it! Not everyone who makes money online can or would even want to say "I make money online by telling people how I make money online." Does that tagline sound familiar? LOL

Did you get that? Let me say it again. Aside from my online money making guide I don't make money online by telling others how I make money online. Sorry John Chow, but it's true. The secret is out..... To make money at home, you don't need to be in the make money online niche.

For those of us "commoners" that's great news! I am nowhere as sophisticated in my methods as Court, Costa, Justin, Frank, or any of those guys in Grizzly's inner circle. They could blow me away with their SEO and IM talents and they probably already are... I just don't know it!

The point here is, you can be someone like me with little experience and still make a living online. Yes, I obviously learned enough to write a make money at home e-book out of it, but the methods I teach in the e-book are very basic indeed. They're basic, but they work! My e-book is for beginners, so if you are advanced in your MMO methods, know exactly what Grizzly is talking about on his blog, or simply think I'm an idiot (LOL) please don't buy it.

If you want something bad enough, you can achieve it - in this case it's making money at home. It may not be fancy or the best, but it's still achieving your goals nonetheless. Don't let anyone intimidate you and don't be intimidated by the greatness of Court, Grizzly, and others. Yes for example, Court and the Keyword Academy are fabulous, but you can be fabulous in your own way too. March to the beat of your own make money at home drum and you will see your successes soar to the sky! C'est la vie!

So back to how I make money online...

I have created hundreds of small niche blogs that cater to untapped niches with little competition. I don't aim for the stars by targeting highly competitive niches like "make money online" or "weight loss"... I aim low and I'm never disappointed. I use the research methods outlined in my e-book. I sometimes make blogs about topics I barely knew existed before doing research. Some of them are so easy to rank on page 1 for that it's ridiculous! Some of the Adsense clicks for them are ridiculously awesome too...

So why am I writing about how to make money at home on this blog if that's not how I roll? Well, I hope someday to rank for the keyword make money at home and I need the content to do it. Also, maybe my blog posts will actually help someone.

Does anyone want to give me a backlink with anchor text "make money at home" ? LOL!!! I'm joking.... well, maybe not... You know, if you want to....

Janet

How to Make Money at Home by Following Grizzly's Free Advice

2009-09-29T17:01:00.004-06:00

It's a well known fact that most of the make money at home information out there is crap. I have seen it with my own eyes and honestly thought all of it was crap until I came across Grizzly's How to Make Money Online for Beginners blog a couple years ago. It was after reading his make money blog that I really became aware that I, too, can make money at home. And since then, it has become a reality for me.

In the beginning of my make money at home pursuit, I was really intimidated because I had absolutely no SEO, internet marketing, keyword research, or blogging experience. I barely even knew what Adsense was at the time and I certainly had no idea how to install or use Wordpress. It was a scary and overwhelming time for me. For many people, the learning curve is quite steep. Good thing Grizzly makes it as simple as possible so that we can digest small bits of information at a time.

Even if you don't buy my e-book and simply go to Grizzly's blog to read up for free on how this make money at home thing works, I still hope you read my blog here as well. I'll be giving some free make money at home tips, observations, and methods that I utilize for myself that go with the topics covered in the book. I won't continue pushing the e-book to you because that would be lame. The online money making guide is a beginner's companion (or a substitute as Grizzly put it) to reading his blog. Nothing more and nothing less.

Moving on...

It can be a long, tedious process building up an Adsense niche blog empire from scratch - one that won't get slapped down by the deindexing, wrathful tentacles of Google. To build this up right, we need a strong foundation - and this cannot nor should not be done overnight. That would be downright impossible.

Even though Griz always stresses simplicity with our boring Adsense blogs, it still doesn't mean the process is simple in itself. There are many many steps involved to make money at home the Grizzly way and that's exactly the reason he has a blog filled with hundreds of posts about how to do so. The blogs may look simple, but the backlinking and other things that go on in the background are far from simple. If you've been doing this a short while, you know this firsthand.

This is not a matter of doing steps 1 through 10 for each niche and you're done. Sometimes you skip a step, sometimes you repeat a step, sometimes you add a step. It just depends and you will, in most cases, have to discover for yourself what works and what doesn't. Grizzly and I can provide a guideline, but it's up to you to perfect it and tailor it to your own needs.

The point of this particular make money at home post is the following: Learn a little bit at a time each day. Don't overwhelm yourself like I did when I was starting out. Choose a Grizzly concept, master it, and move on to the next one. Start researching and building niches ASAP because hesitation is what most often stops people from moving forward - not lack of knowledge.

And yes, as you guessed it, I'm writing this post from Brazil. I'm not making money at home - I'm making money in Brazil. LOL

Take care everyone... I know this is a hard time in regards to job situations for a lot of people. Hang in there! See you next time...

Janet

Online Money Making Guide

2009-09-25T16:10:00.015-06:00

As many of you know, I have written an online money making guide that highlights and demonstrates step-by-step "how to make money online" based on the unending gems of wisdom that Grizzly teaches effortlessly as though it's second nature to him. Perhaps it is.

This make money at home ebook is by no means as good as the true genius of Grizzly, but I genuinely feel it is a good shortcut guide that can get beginners started. The rest is common sense and trial and error; make money at home beginners will pick up the details as they go.

There are a couple issues I'd like to address in regards to this online money making guide that I wrote and that Griz is promoting. I hope this post clears up a few things.

First of all, if you are NOT a beginner at building blogs and have been reading and implementing Griz's lessons with success or if all his steps are already CLEAR to you, this online making guide is not for you. Nor is it a magic potion to make money online. It won't do jack for you unless you actually implement what is discussed in the book.

Secondly, I'd like to respond to a couple comments on Griz's blog from someone named Sam. Griz responded to it once, and I will include his response in my quotes as well:

Sam said...: "As for the "only ebook I have ever promoted", I would suggest that Janet invest in a better looking cover and a more professional looking sales page.

I know that ugly and simple gets Adsense clicks but it does not make sales of real products where people have to pull out a credit card.

I have read the book though, and it is excellent."

Grizzly said...: "Sam,

Not sure I agree with you. I like the fact that it isn't a hyped up one page sales letter that drones on and on. Btw - it is converting at about 2% which ain't bad given I haven't posted about it - yet. (I will be doing a review shortly)

For those in the dark this is the book in question.

Nomad's Guide to Make Money Online

It outlines the formula I use to make money online and is written by Janet Smith - a long time reader of this blog."

Sam said...: "Griz,
I didn't say a "hyped up" sales page but a better one - one that looks cleaner and a little more professional looking (type is too small).

Well, throw that out if you must but I guarantee a better ebook cover is needed. Ebook covers are relatively cheap and that one just doesn't cut it IMO.

Say what you will but appearances do count and they do count for beginners who have a choice of buying this ebook or another one that looks great on the outside and is crap on the inside. It is competing with all the other ebooks with great covers and newbies have to make decisions based on something and presentation is all they have to go by. That is Advertising 101.

I was given a free copy and want to promote it but I have to make decisions on what to promote and right now I just don't see people buying it with the current presentation.

All I can say that this is a truly great ebook but I would never buy it given the current sales page and book cover if I were a newbie. It is a diamond in the rough but how are people supposed to know that?"

OK, so now that everyone knows the comments I'm referring to, let me say a few things:

[rant]

Sam, I am very glad you liked my online money making guide and know that it contains useful information. The methods came straight from Grizzly, so that is why they work.

I, too, am aware of professional looking e-book covers and professional, cheesy websites with lame sales letters. I have a marketing and real estate degree from one of the top business schools in the US. I know how advertising works and I know how the conformist type of deal works. I operated an IT consultant company offline for the past 2 1/2 years until my blogs' income started to sustain a living for me. I had it all: the attractive logo, the professional website... But none of that mattered in the slightest if I didn't have the skills to back it up. The 80/20 rule applied: 80% of my business came from 20% of my customers. Yes I had to attract them initially, but after that I had to go completely on my skills. I quit the business because I wanted to - even though it made no sense to anyone who knows me personally. Right now I'm getting ready to pack it up and take a long vacation in Brazil. I'm finished conforming to what the world seems to want for me. I'm ready to achieve what I want for me.

This book is intentionally tied to Grizzly because he was my inspiration and it is primarily being presented to his readers and search engine traffic. After all, on the book's promotion site, I do mention that all of the methods taught in the online money making guide can be found on Grizzly's blog for free if they're willing to dig through 3 years of blog posts and have the time to devote to doing so. This book (the website... actually it's a blog, and the cover) are intentionally simple. His readers know his ways of making money online aren't fancy, so why should the e-book be? Grizzly uses boring ugly Blogger blogs to make money online and so do I. Having an ugly e-book only seems fitting - even if people are indeed "pulling out a credit card" to buy it. At least they're paying for something that will give them a return on their money if they implement the methods.

I believe that the substance of the book will prevail because of Grizzly's promotion of it and this will overshadow anything that I could do to make it seem more appealing to noobs who are looking for that golden ticket to becoming rich.

Rather than using a fancy e-book cover and attractive website as a way to compete with other e-books, I'm utilizing Grizzly's leverage. Grizzly is how I am initially attracting buyers for the e-book - not with an e-book cover. Pretty can only carry the weight temporarily; substance carries one through life permanently. I truly believe that "pretty" completely contradicts what Grizzly stands for and teaches in regards to making money online.

Eventually, word will get out that the book really does help people make money online and I'd rather have the people who heard about it through a genuine referral buy it - not the superficial yo-yo dieter type who rides the Yaro Starak "affiliate program of the month" wave. In fact, I'd prefer that people like that don't buy the book because those are the types who wouldn't be willing to do actual work to make money online. It would be a waste of their money to buy an online money making guide and just let it sit there needlessly on their hard drive taking up space.

Also, as I said in the online money making guide, the e-book is simply a new type of project I decided to take on. I saw a hole in the MMO niche and decided to give it a shot. I did not write it as a noob trying to make my primary income from it with no other sources of income. I make my money from niche blogs (niches unrelated to making money online, I might add). I practice what I preach.

And like Costa said in his Nomad's Guide to Make Money Online review you can skip the boring ass first chapter if you'd like.

If the book bombs from looking unprofessional and unattractive as you seem to think it will, I can go away from this with a clear conscience knowing two things:

1. I gave out real information that really does speak the truth to beginners about making money online.
2. My niche blogs still make money for me - and they always will. And I will continue making more and more of them.

[/rant]

I have a plane to catch in the morning, so I'd better get packing.

Janet

Project Payday Work at Home Job

2009-09-23T23:30:00.006-06:00

Why do I keep putting up that Project Payday banner and video on this make money at home site? There are a few reasons for it, which I will explain.

First of all, yes... I'm an affiliate. Oh well.... If you don't want to click on my affiliate banner then go directly to their website - just google it. If you want to make money at home you will have to find some successful affiliate programs to be a part of also and this one has served me (and those who use Project Payday as a work at home job) very well. It's legit, it's free to join and start making money with, and anyone with a computer can do it.

Basically, what you do with Project Payday is fill out offers for advertisers in exchange for money. Once you join, Project Payday has all the training videos, forums to help you get the offers completed (or to find offers to fill out for others for $$), and all the support.

Keep in mind this is not something that will eventually be passive like your niche blogs. Project Payday is like a job - one that you do at home. If you don't go to "work" and fill out offers, you don't make any money. It's good if you need some fast money, but like I said... it's not passive.

Just thought I would let you know about it...

Janet

Secondly, there are a lot of people out there who need a quick boost to make a bit of money quickly. Most of the crap out there is not legitimate in terms of actually being able to make money at home, but Project Payday is certainly legit. It's free to sign up, so if you need to quickly pay a couple bills or get a little cash to buy something, give it a shot.

Let me explain what Project Payday is.

You'll Never Make Money at Home if You Rely on John Chow

2009-09-22T17:19:00.000-06:00

Here I go again on my "make money at home" blog about John Chow. I promised I would write more about this, and a promise is a promise.

Do you think John Chow actually makes money online with the methods he teaches on his blog? Do you think he is going to tell you his real secrets to getting traffic so he can make money at home? I don't think so!

You and I both know what he does: He reads Griz's blog and builds up a blog network in the background all pointing to his make money at home blog! He is busy building up his MMO empire and couldn't care less if what he teaches actually works or helps anyone. We all know Tweeting and Digging posts and leaving comments doesn't do any good.... but that's what Chow teaches, isn't it? That's what they all teach - all those MMO gurus...

If you want to really make money at home don't listen to John Chow. He will waste your time with social blogging distractions and you will never make a dime. Don't buy any of his programs. Save your money.

Take it from someone who makes all her income online and knows all the basics of making money at home: the truth is in the results and John Chow is not giving any of his readers any results! Since when has anyone earned financial and location freedom as a digital nomad and had John Chow to thank? No one I know...

Do yourself a favor and do not label John Chow as a make money online or internet marketing guru - because he's not. Listen to the people (Griz, Vic, Court...) who have the results to back up their words. Griz doesn't charge you a dime, but he tells you the whole truth. Listening to those make money at home truths that are taught by Griz can literally change your life. They have certainly changed mine!

Make Money at Home

2009-09-22T13:34:00.000-06:00

In order to make money at home, there are some disillusionments that you need to get out of your head first and foremost. We will go over these things in this make money at home post. Future blog posts will cover various topics about making money at home including some helpful how-to guides that help you with how to make money at home by building blogs. I'll show you the way, but you need to be open minded and stop listening to all the "A-list" bloggers out there who are steering you in the wrong direction. If you really want to make money online, it's not as glamorous or as easy as it seems. However, it can be done if you use the right approach. You'll see. For now, read up on the basic misconceptions that most people have about making money at home.

Make Money at Home Misconception #1:

"Making money online is easy and an online living can be accomplished in a matter of a couple of weeks with hardly any work."

WRONG! If someone says this, don't believe it! Take it from someone who actually does make a living online: that statement is BS! Doing in a couple weeks what it has taken me 2 years to build up is simply not possible. Trust me on that.

Don't be discouraged, though. I will show you how to make money at home the realistic way. I do not promise that you'll make millions, but if you implement my steps, you can replace your current income and quit your job.

Make Money at Home Misconception #2:

"You need a fancy website with all the bells and whistles to make money at home properly."

WRONG! This blog will be proof that statement is completely false. Griz's make money online blog is the ultimate living proof that this statement is BS! Griz is my hero. Go read his blog - he is usually the first or second result that comes up in Google. He teaches you how to make money at home for free. Just to prove a point, go to Google and look up "make money online" to see who pops up on the first page! Say hello again to Griz's "How to Make Money Online for Beginners" Blogger blog! Actions speak louder than words.

Make Money at Home Misconception #3:

"You can become a popular, hard-working blogger and make money by pushing the latest affiliate product to your obedient readers who have no minds of their own."

WRONG! John Chow can, but I doubt you or I can. John Chow is an outright con artist and there's no reason in this world why you should even listen to what the guy says! Social blogs do not make any money for the average person. That's the bottom line. You end up putting a lot of time and money into them and get little or no results in return. Something that is a money pit and a time pit is definitely not worth considering. Don't listen to people who blog about blogging. Yaro Starak, Caroline Middlebrook, Darren Rowse, and DoshDosh can all suck it. They're making money online, yes, but only because there are still suckers out there who believe what they say and buy the stupid crap they promote. Don't fall for it!

*** Speaking of that asshole John Chow, if you looked up "make money online" when I mentioned Griz's blog, you might have noticed that "john chow dot scam" showed up on the second page of the results. Why is that? It's because he probably read Griz's blog and implemented what he said! Chow makes money by following Griz - not by the BS that he blogs about on his stupid, lame social blog that supposedly teaches you how to make money online. In the past, John Chow's blog didn't even show up in the top search results for "make money online". Now suddenly it does??? Hmm....... I WONDER WHY!!! More on this in detail in another make money at home post! I promise I'll write it in the near future.

In the meantime, let's give Johnny boy some new keywords to rank for: make money online scam as well as online scammer and also Griz wannabe. Feel free to use the same anchor text for our friend John Chow on your own blog if you have one. He knows the value of backlnks when it comes to making money at home, so let's give him some backlinks! lol

Make Money at Home Misconception #4:

"You can't make money online. It's all a giant scam. The only ones making money online are the scammers themselves."

WRONG! Must I mention Griz again? What about Vic at Blogger Unleashed... Vic certainly knows how to make money online too! And Court at the Keyword Academy is teaching everyone the SEO they need to make money online as well! Allyn at his make money online blog Blogger Illustrated tells it like it is too... I could think of examples all day long. Making money online is not a scam. You just need to learn how to make money at home the right way - the Griz way. GO READ HIS BLOG!!

Do you know what the secret ingredient in the secret ingredient soup is? THERE IS NO SECRET INGREDIENT! (Ok, so I watched Kung Fu Panda with my 6 year old.... lol) It's the same if you want to make money at home. The "secret ingredient" is what Griz tells you for free! Basically, the secret to making money at home is: find profitable niches/keywords, build blogs based on those topics, monetize the blogs, and get backlinks with keyword anchor text pointing to those blogs! Do it again and again and again until you make a living online! It takes a year or 2 if you do it right, but it works - every time. What other "make money at home" method can say that? I can't think of any!

This has been another one of my long-winded Griz-like posts. I hope you enjoyed it. The next one might be even longer, time permitting. Now go make money at home! I pointed you in the right direction, now go!

Janet