Today marks the first day of my new challenge to myself.  After buying many products teaching how to make money online, I have decided to quit!

Today, I start a challenge for myself that I will create an online marketing income of $1000 in 100 days.

I will report daily progress on my Facebook wall (http://www.facebook.com/buck.mcdaniel.im).  For those who would like to critique my work, make suggestions, ask questions or encourage my progress, I have setup an autoresponder subscription they can join.  Read the rest of this entry

When I saw this product listed for sale, I did not hesitate to buy it.

Anyone who uses backlinks for SEO understands why.

Here is my product review and recommendation for Jimmy Reilly’s WSO EDU Site Hacks

The product consists a PDF document and a short video.

The book consists of 30 pages of content. The introduction explains the value and purpose of using .edu sites. The rest of the book is step-by-step instructions on setting up blogs, Wikis and forums. It is made up mostly of photos of each step as it is described.

Also in the book, Jimmy provides links to 16 .edu sites that have open platforms you can use.

The video is only 12 minutes long and comes in MP4 format so it can be played on any operating system including Windows, Mac and Linux.

In the video, Jimmy actually demonstrates in real-time his finding the sites, setting up a blog, setting up a Wiki, setting up a forum, and actually making a post with a back link in each one. All in 12 minutes!

Also in the video, Jimmy gives hints about using the sites and about making money.

While Jimmy shares some tactics that you can use to make money with this information, he does not go into detail. That isn’t the purpose of the book, its just a bonus.

There is an upsell to the product. You can get PLR rights for a very reasonable price as well as a very valuable bonus, should you buy the upsell.

Additional Required Expenses: none
Additional Optional Expenses: none

Pros:

• Way under-priced!
• Very concise
• Easy to use
• Accurate
• Up-to-date

Cons:

• Everything has a negative! Well, this is the exception to the rule and I am not going to make one up just for protocol.

I give it 5 stars, a perfect score!

This is definitely a Buy Recommendation!

Click here to see the sales page: EDU Site Hacks.

Understanding Online Success # 2

“A fool and his money are soon parted”
(common saying)

Information Overload, Shiny Object Syndrome, and Lack of Action:

Individually, these are the three biggest killers of success for getting an online business started. Collectively, when a person has all three, they not only choke the life out of the new business, but they can also cause irreparable damage to the person affected.

Today, I am going to talk about these three killers

• What they are
• How they work against your success
• What causes them
• How to prevent them
• How to escape their stranglehold

Information Overload

It started as a curiosity. “Just how does someone really make money online?” So you search the Internet and find a free guide that will tell you “everything you need to know to succeed online”.  Just enter your email and you will have “instant access” to this great information.

When you get to the download page, you find, not only the free gift, but also free bonuses. Just click and download. When you follow the links to download the bonuses, you find each bonus has bonuses.

I remember the first time this happened to me. I was downloading ‘bonuses’ until 6 AM! After work that day, I was never more excited, or lost in my life! I had so much to read and learn, but I didn’t know where to begin. Then the emails began.

There is only 1 out of 10,000 of you reading this that is not saying “so tell me something I don’t already know.” And the 9,999 can’t figure out if they should laugh at me or cry in sympathy.

This is Information Overload! One book teaches how to make money as an affiliate, one teaches how to create a website that converts visitors, another teaches how to make the site so it gets high Google rankings and another teaches how to create your own product. At this point, you are bogged down and don’t know where to start. This spawns yet another habit.

Shiny Object Syndrome

After dealing with Information Overload, I would continue to follow email links looking for something that would point me in the right direction. Generally, it was just more of the same. But then, I started saying I would not sign up for more lists. However, I had created a habit and that habit proved to be hard to break.

Worse, yet, it led to another one, Shiny Object Syndrome. By now, I had been seeing more of the same bonuses I already had downloaded at least two or three times each. But, I kept seeing The Big Lie. “I’ll show you how to make $10,000 in 3 easy steps,” “Spend Only 2 Hours a Day Setting up 1-Hour Blogs that make $200-500/Month Each,” “Your Own Product in Three Days,” and “Make $ Thousands a Day with Three Mouse Clicks.”

These ads sound convincing. I buy a few. Basically, I get the same results I got with the free products. I got the product I bought, an upsell that will “make your success faster” and more bonuses that lead to more bonus links and email subscriptions.

So, I read the new purchased course, or watch the videos, and I learn two things. First, I need to already know something that the teacher has in one of his other courses, or I need to buy another product that costs upwards from $77 to $100s, I need to subscribe to a $97+ monthly service, or spend more money than I had available to risk. Maybe this isn’t for me. Shall we try again? This spawns yet another habit.

Lack of Action

It has now been weeks, maybe months and my adrenaline has been pumping, just knowing there is a solution out there. Disappointment in the courses is taking its toll. The three easy steps was to buy an expensive subscription, write hundreds of articles per week, and create a free product to give away. The one hour blog was explained in only 40 hours of video training! Do the math! At the promised 2 hours a day (1 hour for the videos and 1 hour to work), it takes nearly 2 months just to create and complete that first blog! The rest were just more of the same.

It is hard to stay motivated when the promise is to make money in one week, one hour or one day, but it takes months of training to do it. This problem is magnified when you run into something you don’t understand, or can’t accomplish. You leave a support ticket and wait three days to a week to get a reply that either asks a question, or provides a canned answer that doesn’t resemble answering the question you asked.

They are Murderers – Every One!

Information Overload, Shiny Object Syndrome, and Lack of Action are success murderers. They kill your ambition and motivation, and action. Without ambition, without motivation and without action, your business is doomed!

By now, you realize what these killers are and how they work together to destroy your chances of success. If this hasn’t happened, or isn’t happening to you, you fall into one of three categories. 99% of you are just looking into making money online, almost 1% of you took on a mentor from the beginning and ignored everything and everyone else. Finally, but unlikely, you could have been one of the extremely rare birds who picked up a program and ran with it without question and succeeded.

The Root of this Evil

“The Love of Money is the Root of all Evil”
Holy Bible

I am not getting religious on you. It’s just that no one ever said it better. The cause of these problems is rooted in the desire to squeeze every last dime out of a customer when a marketer makes a sale. It isn’t that the marketer is evil, but it is built into his/her business model.

Let’s look at the successful business model one more time.

1. Offer a free gift to attract customers
2. Offer them a special deal so they might buy
3. “Give” them affiliate links to other online marketers who offer free gifts to make the commission on those who buy
4. Use email to make money by offering upsells and affiliate sales

You see, there is really nothing evil about this process, but to a new-comer who doesn’t understand, it can be a death trap. This isn’t a complete business model, but it is accurate to the topic of this article.

Overcoming this Death Trap

The three traps I just discussed quickly become habits that may be as hard to break as cigarette smoking. They are habits. The only way to break a habit is to replace it. The Big Lie is like the chemical addiction. The habits feed the withdrawals. The longer you desire to have the overnight success and practice the habits that follow, the more you will feed it and the harder it will be to overcome.

The First Step

Replace your desire for overnight success with a determination to do whatever it takes to make your online business a success – even if you think it may take over a year!

I have not heard one long-term success story in online marketing that the master did not tell of either a period of trial and failure that preceded his success, or if the success was overnight, that he didn’t lose it all and have to start over.

The first step to overcoming these three traps is to recognize and immunize yourself against the Big Lie. Recognize the fact that it hasn’t worked that way for you, it didn’t work that way for them, and it will take time to make money in this business.

Take time out and cry! If you need to morn, do it! It isn’t easy losing hope that you will be able to come to the rescue and stop the collection calls, or the repossession of your home, car, or furniture. So, accept it, and morn it. Get it out of your system.

The Second Step

Make a commitment. Become determined to complete the race. Your hope of overnight riches is dead, but not the hope for your dream lifestyle. There may be setbacks…. There will be setbacks! You’ll get more hours at your job, your spouse will lose his/her job, you’ll have to move, there will be sickness, or other medical and family problems that get in the way. That is life as you live it right now. You can’t ignore these things, so deal with them, but keep your desire, determination and commitment to succeed! This is your passion. Don’t let it go!

Step Three

Take action on your commitment. Get out a calendar and plan what specific days and what specific hours you will commit to be used exclusively for your business. Plan the next two months. You can expect to make adjustments, so don’t waste time right now, Just do it and get it done!

Block off reasonable periods of time each week. If your job has a fluid work schedule, block off a somewhat typical work week. Then, when you get that week’s schedule, adjust your calendar to accommodate your job. You might be able to set aside 2 hours a day 5-6 days a week, or you might be able to set aside 10 hours each weekend. Whatever schedule you make, be reasonably sure you can follow it. Then commit to sticking to it!

My days are filled with crisis management. That means I have to respond to calls or situations at a moments notice when I am home. Therefore, I get up early to work my business. Unless I get up earlier, I usually spend from 5:30 AM through 8:00 AM working on business.

Assignment

Your assignment is to first get over the expectations of overnight riches and to be determined to make your online business succeed in spite of all setbacks and failures. Finally, take action by setting aside time for your business and practice using it exclusively for your business. Doing this will replace the deadly habits that are killing your business.

If you don’t know what to do with the rest of your time after setting up your calendar, then try this. Unsubscribe from every email sending you more than one affiliate offer in one day, or if they send three offers back-to-back.

That’s all for today. I’ll continue this later.

Buck

This was a continuation from the article: Overnight Success and Push-Button Riches

PayPal Buddy

It is not often that I find a product that is Essential to doing business online. But today is one of those rarest of occasions.

Many online businesses depend on using PayPal to handle their financial transactions.  But, at the same time, PayPal is notorious for suddenly freezing accounts with no explanation as to why or how to get the accounts unfrozen.  Even when they agree with you that you are right, they can hold the money six months just to make sure.

Since I am depending on PayPal for my business income, I started discussing the often vague, and poorly defined, or undefined terms in their Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) or Terms and Conditions (T&C).  After six weeks, I compare getting strait information from their Compliance Officers to picking up a bead of mercury with your bare fingers.

The best information I could get was basically a consensus of the officers, and no firm answers.  I had to come to my own conclusions.

Gary M Sayers also researched answers about PayPal AUP and T&C.  He took a different approach and researched those who have lost their accounts and some who were able to recover them.  He recently published them in what has become an instant best seller, PayPal Buddy.

Gary’s report covers a lot of areas I didn’t research, and more than that, he covered topics I could not have conceived of.  For example, did you know your account could be frozen or limited because of your phone number?

I can’t just say “I highly recommend PayPal Buddy.”  It is an essential investment for any business that uses PayPal.   It is only $12 and can save $ tens of thousands of your hard earned money!

If you business is worth more than $12 and you use PayPal, then you need to click here and check out PayPal Buddy right now.

NOTICE: This product review is very sincere.  I am using affiliate links throughout this review.  However, I believe this product is so important I would have posted it even if it did not have an affiliate program.

Understanding Online Success – # 1

“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.”
author unknown, but often attributed to Hitler’s strategy.

How many times have you seen overnight-success stories on make-money-online ads? They sound like:
“I was tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt, but then I discovered the secret of how to make $250,000 in only one short week! You can do this working one hour per week!.”

Having followed this business and the people in it for the last four to five years, I made a little discovery of my own.

• They didn’t “discover” a damn thing
• They didn’t make the money they claimed
• It took them a lot longer than they claimed
• They aren’t millionaires working from a laptop on their hammock at the beach.

You see, I have had the priviledge to see two of these overnight success stories come to life and the authors of these products grow-up so to speak.  And I was able to get insight to their backgrounds.  Here is a more accurate picture of their IM life.

These men started out not much different from you or me.  They saw the ads and wanted to get some of that overnight cash and to live the lifestyles of their dreams.  Like us, they spent a lot of time trying and failing to make the kind of money they wanted online.  One was in Internet marketing for years.  But, then one day, they each bought a course from one of the Gurus, and they bought the upsells and they bought the coaching package, or went to their personal training class.  After 3-6 months or more of personal coaching by their mentors, they “discovered” the secret and “made” the big money they show in the ads.  And the money they “made” does not reflect how much they spent to get it.

So, why the big lie?  They call it “playing the game.”  Frankly, it is because that’s what they were taught to do to make more sales. Read the rest of this entry

Wow,

It has been a while since I posted here, but I am still getting over 1000 unique visitors per month.  Well, I figure some of you might be wondering what has been going on.

In January, I made a conscience decision to, once again, change the direction my focus in Internet marketing.  This decision was made against the advice of a very successful marketer who thought I should maximize the momentum I had and see where it leads first. He was very disappointed in me and I may have lost a great ally among a most highly successful Internet marketers. Read the rest of this entry

LiveOffTheWeb.com would like to welcome Trish Mullen back for another great tip for Bloggers.

In this article, Trish explains how to add a preview of your facebook fan page to your website and how to compel visitors to click the “Like” button.
==========================

Would you like to increase your Facebook fans and show them a sample of your Facebook wall postings directly from your website?  Well now you can do that with just a couple of minutes work.

This allows visitors to your site to learn a bit more about you, what your personality is like based on your wall posts and just gives an added dimension to you and your online presence.

Just watch the short video below and in 8 minutes from now, you will have an all singing, all dancing Facebook Wall posts at your blog or website.

Happy Fans mean Happy Customers!

Trish Mullen | Integrating Personal Development with Internet Marketing

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Trish Mullen’s posts are always full of inspiration and useful information for Internet marketers.  It is always great to have her as a guest.

Thank you, Trish

Buck

Guess what — This is another example of how Autoblogging can be used to enhance the value of a standard blog.

Over the past three years, I have had to migrate sites from WordPress to Joomla and from Joomla to WordPress. There really isn’t an easy way. For the smaller sites I moved about a year ago, I learned it is best to just make the transition manually.

Here are the steps to move from Joomla to WordPress. The same process can be used the other way as well.

Joomla

1. Copy all the photos from the original site to your HDD. Rename them with SEO in mind.
   For example, pic0001.jpg can be named buffalo_wings.jpg.
2. Go to the Joomla website as a visitor, not in the admin area. (You may need to be logged in as Admin to get access to all the posts.) Choose your first category and view the first article in that category.
3. Create an OpenOffice.org (OOo) text document and name it the category you want the article to be in when you transfer it to WordPress. by the name of each WP category you want the articles to be posted in.
   (OpenOffice.org is free and has a version for MS, Mac and Linux. MS Word does not work well and may create more work than it saves.)
4. Highlight, copy and paste the whole article from Joomla. Only copy the article, not the full web page. Paste the article into OOo. The formatting won’t be exact, but don’t worry about that right now. Picture place holders may show the pictures, but they will most likely have to be edited once you get them into WordPress.
5. If you are preserving the post date, record it under each article you save. Add a spacer below the article so you can easily find the separation.
   ======
6. Repeat this process copying each article into the appropriate category document.
7. Create a document called “Pages” and copy each of the misc. pages to it in the same way. (About us, Disclaimer, Contact Us, etc.) Form pages will have to be recreated.

When you are done, you should have one document for each category, and one for the pages.

WordPress

1. Create all the categories you will need.
2. Create a new post and go to visual mode, not html.
3. Copy and paste the article from the OOo document directly into the WP article.
4. Reattach the photos.
5. Backdate the date and time according to your preference.
6. Add the SEO options as desired.
7. Repeat the process until all articles are posted.
8. Follow a similar process for each WordPress page.
9. Backup your website!

When I did this the first time, I tried copying the HTML code from the Joomla editor to the WP editor. What I discovered was that WP tends to modify HTML code causing more work. In many cases, I had to completely remove all the formatting and reformat the entire article.

I also tried the process described above using MS Word. It turned out to be as much trouble as the HTML route.

More recently, I have been using OpenOffice.org (OOo) to copy articles from one site to another. It does a much better job at keeping the formatting. In fact, this document is being created and formatted in OOo.

Most people refer to it as “Open Office” but the proper name is OpenOffice.org and the proper abbreviation is OOo. You can guess where to find it, but here is the link anyway. OpenOffice.org

OpenOffice.org is free and has versions for Windows, Mac and Linux.

This site wasn’t hacked, but 8 out of 10 sites that were hosted on HostGator were hacked this morning.  Hostgator security is investigating and will report where my vulnerability is.  When I learn what it was, I will report it back here.

Only one of the sites was actually a loss, but I will be requesting the restore process for the backup this evening after security has had time to evaluate the security breech.

One of the sites was my new site about losing weight.  Want to lose weight?  Check it out (hopefully it will be restored soon.)

http://www.lose100poundswithme.com

The site is in que to be restored.

Back to work

Buck

HURRAY! HURRAY! The Holidays Are Over!

The winter holidays are over and today we take down Christmas. Finally, after today I can get back to work on my Business!

Our family here has so many activities during the winter season that it is hard to get anything done. First is Thanksgiving where we spend two weeks hustling and bustling to get ready for that, followed by two weeks of setting up Christmas decor and preparing for a surprise birthday party, then two weeks later, Christmas followed by a week of travel through the New Year. Finally, for some unknown reason, we can’t take down Christmas until the Russians have had their day (which falls on today, the 7^th of January.) Today we get to take down Christmas before I go to the J.O.B. and finish off the day.

There will always be things to get done around here. We still have a party coming up on the 23^rd for my business partner and daughter, EV. However, I will be getting back to work on my business!

I am very excited and glad the holidays are finally over and looking forward to getting back to business.

Just since I started writing this, it began snowing!  This is a beautiful day!

Well, I am off to disassemble Christmas!

Happy New Year everyone!