12 Months to Freedom

I’ve realised that the last 12 months have been a journey. It wasn’t the journey that I had originally set out on and certainly not what I expected. My “12 Months to Freedom” haven’t been at all what I expected. The original intent of the journey was purely financial. My goal was to make more money, and to do it completely in a way that I can escape my day job. This is a very laudable goal. And it is still something that I will accomplish.

Instead I have discovered freedom of a different sort. More on that in a bit.

Regarding my internet business, I am currently actively operating four other websites: personalbudgethelp.com, the-aes.org, howtoincorporate.ca, and my latest project, evolved human.com. This is a lot! Most people who start in internet marketing recommend picking only one project and concentrating on it until it start to make you money. I have other sites that I have more-or-less let go to the wayside and am not actively working on at all for the time being. Once in a while I may drop into them and plug an article or two on there, but they are not going to be a big focus for me. Not now, at least. Who knows what the future holds?

If I were to be working fulltime in writing (internet marketing), then I could manage on my own I would estimate 10 sites. I don’t go for the minisite model. It’s just not my style. At least not today. I might try it again for some products and see what happens. I tried it for howtoincorporate.ca and had very limited success with that. At present it seems to make no difference with that style or the website style that I am using right now. I think I have to change the website quite a bit, though. And there are other sites that I think I will change a fair bit in the next couple of months. The AES is certainly going to have a huge change in its overall site. And that will happen within the next week or two, I think.

But more about my epiphany.

I have learned that freedom is often more about how you view yourself and your world than it is about what you are doing. This is difficult to explain, as it took me over a year to come to this. I am free. I want more freedom than I currently have, but I have only come to realise exactly how free I am! I have increased my income only slightly. Mostly because of finding some offline income, even through online sources. Yes, the internet is a great advertising medium. And it has brought me more clients than I expected – or at least in a manner that I didn’t expect. I was hoping for many, many small paying clients that each mean a few hundred dollars (at most) each year. Instead I got a few clients and each means a few thousand dollars each year. And that, to me, is just as good – maybe better!

I don’t need to expect perfection in my freedom from the job goal. I know that it will happen eventually. I even have a date in mind. It’s not exactly what I had hoped for. And the business is not what I had originally planned. Btu that’s irrelevant. I will make that business work very well. But I will also change the way it is traditionally done and move it to something that is better, more lucrative, and gives me the long term financial and other freedoms that I really desire. I can’t reveal what it is right now because of outside reasons. But it’s great! By this time next year everyone who even sees this site will understand.

Running a business, any business, is a full time job. At least for the first while – usually at least three years and sometimes as much as ten. But then you can start to step away and let the business run itself. This should be possible with any business. If you have set the business up such that you have to be there and run the company, even a professional services company, such as accounting or law, then you are doing something wrong. Most lawyers, accountants, doctors, engineers are no more than employees. Sure, they own the profits. Btu the companies they run will disappear without them. I’ve discovered it doesn’t’ have to be that way! I’ve discovered that there are ways to run any business to that point where it can start to run itself. And I aim to do that with several over the next few years.

I’ve learned that freedom also isn’t purely financial. It’s discovering one’s self. If that is not done, then freedom cannot exist. We are full of illusions in this world. We are slaves to our jobs, our spouses, our responsibilities, and our choices. We don’t have to be. If we are fully cognisant of who and what we are, then we can truly make the choices that matter most and decide what freedoms we are going to have and which ones we are going to limit. Money doesn’t have to come in huge bundles to be free. In fact, it can enslave a person if allowed to. And that is what had happened to me. The enslavement to money is what most of us experience. And breaking free from that is the most difficult path in the world to follow.

I’ve realised that understanding was more important than anything else I could have learned throughout my 12 months’ journey. Soon I’ll be moving onto the next 12 months. I have become a lot freer than I was. In another month’s time I will have completed the whole 12 months of this initial journey. Where will my freedom be in one months’ time? I doubt that I will be able to quit my job. And I don’t care, as I have chosen a certain path. I don’t need to quit it at that time. I will, however, continue to work towards finding my definition and my ultimate freedom. I will be doing exactly what I want to be doing by the end of my second 12 months – likely much sooner. It doesn’t matter what anyone else does or how they help or don’t help. My self realisation has given me the strength to get where I need to. In two year’s time I will be far past that, as well. Just watch me!

Every 12 months is a journey. And with each journey I become free.

How Much Content is Really Needed to Get a Website Noticed

If you’re not paying for traffic, then you need to have a site built around content. And to do that there is a specific number of articles (or posts) that you need before launching.

It’s not a big amount, of course, but according to some of the best internet guides, such as Ken Evoy’s, you should have your initial content planned out ahead of time and largely completed before launching a site. This will help to ensure real success in the search engines.

What Kind of Content?

The kind of content that is needed is, of course, quality articles and posts. For most content sites, the basis is articles. Each article should be well-written, highly focused, and on topic for the overall site theme. And each one should be no less than 400 words. It’s often better if they are longer, even as long as 1000 words or more. Is that easy to do? Absolutely!

How can you write 400 words about a topic on your site? Well, just brainstorm a few ideas regarding the site theme. Pick one. Write a few blurbs about the topic. And then compile those blurbs into a cohesive article that flows from one idea to the other. You’ll easily have your 400 words. And probably more!

You can give little how to, what to do’s, and exposé’s on topics related to your site theme. Instruction is always useful; as are reviews and even well-written opinion pieces work well.

Exactly How Much Content is Needed?

Well, the more content you can have on your site, and the more often you are updating it, the better. Up to a point, of course! You don’t need to be updating every hour. If you are a blogger, then the recommendation that is most often seen is once a day. Some bloggers only update once a week and are still reasonably successful. It all depends on the objective of your web marketing. Using a content site based on articles, updating isn’t required so often, although once a week is very good!

When starting your content-based site, it is a good idea to have at least thirty articles written before launching the site. This gives the reader a lot to go on and gives your site a professional, well-developed look that draws traffic in and keeps them coming back. And adding an article every week will keep them coming back.

The quality content on your site is what will draw readers in to your site. Updating it keeps them coming. And if you show good quality, then they are more likely to join your list (you do have a list, right?), and eventually they will start buying from you! And that’s the whole purpose of marketing through the internet – to increase overall sales, regardless of your general business type.

For more about this, see Ken Evoy’s Site Build It! This is the premier content site builder on the internet.

- by Jim Edwards

(c) Jim Edwards - All Rights reserved
http://www.thenetreporter.com
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Did you realize that thousands of website operators use a simple technique to generate targeted visitors to their websites without paying a dime in advertising? It’s true.

In fact, the technique works so well that many of them don’t want you to discover how they get those thousands of website visitors and make so many sales on virtual “auto-pilot.”

Their method?

Creating tightly focused articles other people publish in their ezines (online magazines and email newsletters) and post on their websites. This method rates so powerful that some even call it “the web’s best kept traffic secret.”

Now, you may ask, “Why would an ezine publisher or website owner publish my articles for their subscribers?”

The answer: Content!

Over a 100,000 ezines and newsletters operate on the web (along with millions of websites) covering everything from pets and cooking to investments and real estate. Many of them need tightly focused content and they simply can’t produce all of it themselves.

Look at it this way… it’s the same reason newspapers use the Associated Press. Individual newspapers often can’t afford staff writers to cover every story, so they accept articles from outside their organization.

You can do the exact same thing for various ezines and websites catering to your niche audience!

You can get valuable publicity — exposure you often couldn’t even pay for if you wanted to — by providing valuable, content-rich articles in exchange for a byline and a link to your website (called a “resource box”)!

The following represent only a few of the enormous benefits of writing and distributing simple articles online:

** Attain “Expert” Status **

Let’s face it! In the eyes of virtually everyone who reads your articles you rank as the “expert” on the subject.

Just look at people who write newspaper columns. You may disagree with their viewpoints, but they still have an elevated status in your mind compared to the “average Joe” off the street.

** Pre-sell Website Visitors **

If your article appeals to a niche audience hungry for more information on a very focused subject, you actually pre-sell them better than any sales pitch. In their minds, you’ve already delivered content they really want so when
they click over to your site you already have a “reputation” in their minds.

** Traffic Lasts Longer **

Even though the Internet changes very quickly, webmasters are usually very slow to remove content from their sites. Once you get an article posted on another person’s website, you have an excellent chance of that article staying therefor weeks, months, even years.

** Increase Links To Your Site **

In a recent search I found just a dozen of my articles posted on over 813 different websites! Not only do those postings bring me traffic, but they also help my search engine positioning because of my increased “Link Popularity.”

** Builds Your Affiliate Base **

Fact: Affiliates always take the path of least resistance.

If you provide excellent articles they can easily post on their sites or copy and paste into their ezines, your affiliates will promote you more often and more effectively compared to those who don’t give them tools.

Plus, as you make more sales and publish articles, other people will see you providing excellent tools and will want to sign up as your affiliate so they can use them too!

** Build a Huge “Opt-In” Email List **

You can use articles to build up a huge list of subscribers by simply compiling several articles into a series and delivering them at preset intervals.

Often called a “mini-course,” this technique allows you not only to prove to your subscribers that you deliver great information, but enables you to capture their name and email address so you can send them articles and special offers in the future (with their permission).

** Requires No Special Skills **

People often think they need to be a “writer” in order to publish articles, but that’s not true!

FACT: If you have a passion for a subject and can talk and explain things like you would to a friend over a cup of coffee, you can write articles people will love to read.

So if you operate a website selling virtually any type of product or service (whether your own or as an affiliate), publishing and promoting with articles should rank high on your list of traffic generation strategies.

No other method of generating targeted traffic to your website provides the quality, quantity and steadiness of traffic in such a simple, straightforward, and cost-effective manner.

—-

Jim Edwards is a syndicated newspaper columnist and the co-author of an amazing new ebook, “Turn Words Into Traffic,” that will teach you how to use free articles to quickly drive thousands of targeted visitors to your website or affiliate link!

** Attn Ezine editors / Site owners **

Feel free to reprint this article in its entirety in your ezine or on your site so long as you leave all links in place, do not modify the content and include our resource box as listed above.

If you do use the material please send us a note so we can take a look. Thanks.

I’ve read a lot of advertisements lately all over the web from people who do things like make $100k+ in 2 hours a day, make over $300k in four days and similar crap. I am astounded that these people aren’t charged with false advertising. Certainly there are possibilities of doing these things. But they don’t tell you the whole story. I know business owners who make about $4500 a day. And that is in traditional style businesses, not internet businesses. And they don’t even work 40 hours a week. That’s the same as many internet guru’s brag about. And even better than some. So, what’s the story behind these things?

Whenever someone starts a business, it doesn’t matter whether it’s a sales shop, a service business, or selling on the internet, there is a lot of start up work required. That means that these people spent many, many hours working for much less than what they currently make. Sometimes they work for nothing for years.

I recently heard an interview with a very successful guy whose business is entirely on the internet. He spent four years losing money. And now he makes over $1 million a year in profit. And he expects to triple that. And he only sells one product. His plans on tripling his business are from expanding his product lines. I find it interesting that what he explains as his business methods are exatly what I am currently pursuing. And he still says it took him that long to get ahead. Losing money for years, then living beyond what he ever expected. This gives me great hope!

I’ve realised that I have to develop my one focus and one product line until I am making something from it. Then I can expand into different areas. I know there’s a definite maket for what I am developing. And I am going to be successful at this business!

It’s very important to find your focus and stick with it. I’ve often had the problem, not just in internet marketing, but in a lot of things, in finding and keeping focus. I’m the ind of person who has tonnes of ideas and once I get the idea down on paper (or in a computer log) I tend to skip on to the next idea. This made me really good at a job I used to do, it was something that required that - and other people did the work, but it’s not great in this. At least at this point. So, focusing on one project at a time is a struggle that has to be done - and done well!

With several projects on the go, it is impossible to see any money right away. At least any real money. My smallest, and least important, project is actually the one that is getting me the most direct money online. That’s writing articles and getting paid directly through them. Obviously it doesn’t pay much if you look at my online progress. My intent with that is to get a couple of hundred extra dollars a month and leave it at that. It’s something that will continue on indefinitely with little effort on my part - really one of those things that once it’s going brings you money in your sleep. But the money is small.

My oldest project is one that I seriously need to develop. My eBook on how to incorporate does some small sales. I sold one this month (it’s not on my progress chart yet, because it was after my cutoff date). but I seriously need to redo the sales page - I have some help in that, for which I am very grateful! But I need to seriously get working on it.

And my other serious project is my budgeting site. That site doesn’t does very little sales at the moment (I’ve sold something that gave me about $14 in commissions). but I do give away a spreadsheet - a very simple spreadsheet on personal budgeting. I am currently using that to try and develop a mailing list. I know it won’t be the highest quality list, but it is better than nothing. At least it’s a start. My next plan is to put on that site a more developed spreadsheet. Well, actually, it’s there already, but it’s currently only available to people on my list. I want people to have a look at it and evaluate the usefulness of it and give me feedback, as I intend to use it in a course I am developing. And the course is where I will start to make some money for myself. And in the long term I plan to develop other products around the course.

Actually, it seems that all of my ideas are course-based. I am an educator and writer, at least before I studied business that’s what I did. So it’s what I know. One has to do what one knows, after all. So I am also developing another course, which I think will be more profitable than the budgeting course. but one never can tell! The two courses may even compliment one another when I am all done, and I could do some cross promoting to my two lists. I expect so, anyhow. And that’s a good thing! And each product (course) has great potential to have spin off products. And that’s where I will likely end up making the real money. At least real enough that it could replace my job. But all in good time. This certainly isn’t going to be overnight!

That’s one thing I hate about these people who advertise that they made $14,000 in two days, or whatever. They fail to mention that it also took them three months to build up the product and do the marketing for it in order to have those two great days of sales. Sure, they make $150,000 a year or $500,00 or more off of something like that. But we never hear about the months of preparation and planning and work that go into it before any sales are made. And how many hours it really takes. And the costs of advertising. At least not until we’ve already paid the fees to join their membership sites and after a couple of months, then those hard numbers start to come out. So, before you go into Internet Marketing, just be aware that it’s no cakewalk. But I am willing to bet that once all the hard work is done, it really is worth it!

And that’s exactly what I’m counting on! I will be a millionaire from my internet business. It may not be this year. Or next year. Or even the one after that. But it will happen. Count on it! For now, my goal is more modest - I just want to be able to make a decent living from this business.

And for that, I need to keep my focus and get one project at a time completed. It is the goal that will keep me focused. I realize that if I do not do one project at a time, it will take longer to reach my goal. And so I focus much more in this than I have with anything else. Ever.

With all the information available on the internet and through the various courses, etc. that one can get (even for free), it is sometimes hard to know what the best direction is. And with a tonne of ideas, it gets even harder! If one is not able to focus, then you end up going nowhere. This is an issue I have been struggling with for months…

Knowing Too Much, Sometimes = Knowing Nothing at All

Now what does that mean? In knowing a lot of different things and a lot of different products, niches, topics, whatever, and having a lot of ideas on how to market each one of these, a person can easily get bogged down by the ideas alone and jump from project to project all the time. This makes it really seem like there is no real knowledge there at all! It is essential to pick something that seems like it will be profitable, whether it is selling puppy coats your grandma designed or a special affilate product that you think will be good.

What is essential is having a plan for the product and following it through to a point that the entire business system for that product is in place. Once you have that up and running, and tested (make at least $200 off of it, for example), then decide what the next product is. And if the affilate product or the puppy coats don’t keep bringing in the money and are costing too much to run once everything is in place, then it’s okay to abandon them. But make make sure everything (and that means everything, not just a landing page and a simple product) is set up before you give up on a product. This is a problem I had with one of my products, and I have recently had another internet marketer have a look at it and disparage me for just this kind of thing.

Now, after speaking with Jeff, I realise that this product does have some potential and really the problem was that I didn’t have my systems set up properly. So now I have to work on that. And the product has brought money in, just less than I was happy with. And truly only because of my poor marketing and inability to get the necessary work done on that marketing. Now I know better - and it was because I originally was like a teenager - I knew too much, showing that I really knew nothing at all.

Yup, not a lot of progress this week. I did manage to get at least a few things done - basically just a few articles. Have to get my newsletter into order, since I’m very behind on developing that. I’m trying to make that more useful with direct tips and instructions on what I’ve done and learned so far. I’m not sure about it and how much good it will do me. I don’t have any real plans on monetizing it. Even this site’s primary function isn’t monetization. This is more of a log for me and anyone who wants to learn from my experience than anything else. Eventually I will put up ad words on here. I did receive some interesting comments from Scott, who is also trying this concept of working off the internet to make some money. His site is much prettier than mine, so I can see the validity of his comments. Thanks, Scott! It just means that I have a lot more work to do… <sigh> Not that I’m complaining. I actually enjoy this a lot, and wish that I was already doing it fulltime. 

Scott’s site is really nice, and just looking at it has given me a few ideas of my own. I like the idea of the avatars and the suggested reading list. I have some of my own that I will now have to add, as soon as I figure out how. I also like the custom header with the graphics… Very nice! There are a few other concepts that he uses that I can really appreciate, which also show me how far behind I am in my plan and how little I really know about what I’m doing at the present time.

I didn’t get a thing done this weekend. I did sleep a lot, since I’ve been sick, but that’s still no excuse! The real reason I’m falling behind, I’ve come to realise, is that with two toddlers, it’s just hell to get the work done when they want your attention every waking second of the day. I’m wondering if even planning to do anything on the weekends is a good idea or not. Of course, the other thing is that it’s tax time and I do have a couple of clients whose taxes & books I am completing, and that is urgent, so it has taken priority over the internet business… 12 Months?  Well, should I be altering my goals? Not yet, that’s for sure. I think we all go through phases where we have doubts about our own abilities and that things that we are doing in our lives. I recently read that only 5% of the population actually has written goals. And of those, less than half actually follow through on them. And those 5% still tend to be amongst the most successful in life. So I guess I’m ahead of the curve in that aspect. I have been getting at least a couple of articles written each week, which does help in building a following on my sites - this site is actually my lowest visited site, as far as I can tell. I’m not very good at figuring out the statistics, yet. All in good time!

This week’s goal (besides the tax client issues) is to get all of my sites updated and with Askimet working, then to make sure that I have another plug in to avoid spam on the sites, such as Captcha, which was recommmended to me. Not sure what it is, yet, but I’m sure that I can figure it out! I know I’ve done something that not a lot of people have, and that is to simply launch this site right away, even without all of the content and perfectly beautiful design already in place. It is a work in progress, and that’s part of the fun, I think! At least for those who are following my progress.

I’ve been reading a lot of stuff from some very successful internet marketers, such as Yanik Silver. There’s a lot of interesting ideas and good wisdom about marketing a business through the internet within these things. I’ve noticed one common theme throughout all of them, one that I have a hard time doing, and that is to have only one project on the go at a time. What they mean by this is to start one of your products/sites and build it to a point where it is viable and starting to produce. Once it has reached that point, then you can start on the next one. It doesn’t mean that you abandon the first one!

One Project at a Time

Once your initial project is to the point where you can spend a couple of hours a week maintaining it and updating any content you need to, then you start on the next project. This makes sense, because if you do as I have been doing and have several projects on the go at a time, then you will find that it takes much longer to reach a point where you are able to monetize and actually profit from whatever your product is. And that’s not good for you.

I know that it’s easy to have a few good ideas and want to act on each of them, at least so that you can get your ideas down and be able to get a jump start on it before someone else does or before you really forget what it is that you wanted to do. I know this, because I have ideas for at least a dozen different products and sites, probably more. And I’ve actually started working on a few of them. I currently have six projects on the go. This is too many. One of the projects, granted, is actually a completed eBook. But my site went down a couple of weeks ago and I haven’t been able to find the time to fix it, because I have too many other things on the go. That’s really bad! I have to fix that right away - top priority. Then I’ll have five projects on the go.

Setting Your Marketing Priorities

Prioritizing the projects is a necessity, as I will never reach my timeline goal if I keep diverting my time and resources across too many projects. I have to get one site and project working to the point where it is actually bringing me an income. And I know which one that is. There are several things that I need to do with each site/project to get it to the point where it is generating money. And the time commitment to get to that point is enormous! How long does it really take to get one site profitable?

How Long Does It Take to Get the Site Up?

Let’s figure it out. First there’s product development. If I’m doing an affiliate site, then the product is the site and the reviews. There has to be a lot of content in order to have a site that people will even consider worth visiting. This typically means at least 25-30 articles within your own site. If each article takes 30 minutes to write and post to the site (on average), then that is 15 hours alone. Setting up the site itself is likely to take at least a few hours. Let’s be tough and say six hours. We’re already up to 21 hours of work, and we haven’t even done any marketing for the site. We have to register the site with search engines. You can get programs that do this for you automatically, but really there are only about half a dozen that are really worth your time and effort. So let’s say that takes another two or three hours, max. Now we’re up to 24 hours of work. And that’s being generous, because we haven’t included any research for the articles or obtaining a domain, or any of that initial work, which can easily double or triple those hours.

I’m going to say that it easily takes twice those hours to get to that point in a site. So we’re looking at 48 hours of actual work. Already that’s more than a week of full time work, if you’re working a regular job. And this isn’t that, thank goodness! But we still have a lot of marketing to do. And we haven’t monetized the site, yet.

What Other Things Are Necessary?

Putting on the items like Google Adwords or affiliate links within the articles or at the end of your articles is going to really add to the time it takes to complete your site. That can take more time than writing the articles themselves. Thankfully it’s only one-time work. Once the article is set and has the monetization within it, there really isn’t any more work you have to do on that article. But you still have to do the advertising and marketing to get people to your site. And that’s where the real work comes in. And we also have to make sure that our autoresponders are working.

Setting up your autoresponder messages takes quite a bit of time, too. How many hours do you spend setting up those initial messages and making sure that they look timely, even if the new subscriber comes on board six months down the road? I would say that you have to spend at least 30 minutes on each message, making sure it’s done properly, reads well, and doesn’t look like blatant commercials. You want to identify with the reader and make it worth his/her while to read each message. So the messages must be crafted properly. And if you send out one message every two weeks, that’s another 30 minutes every two weeks. At least that you can craft over the course of the year.

How About Initial Marketing Efforts?

But what about your marketing efforts? You want to do no less than ten articles for your article marketing. I would allow at least 60 minutes per article to get decent articles. And more time to post them to four or five good article sites. More if you are sending to more article sites. Yes, you can article blast through software. But not everybody has the money to buy that software, if you do, then it’s a great way to save your time.

So far we’ve taken at least 60 hours of time just to get one affiliate site going. Assume you are able to get a good six hours a week in to this side business; it will take you ten weeks just to get it operational. That’s realistic. Ten weeks isn’t bad at all! Now the money isn’t going to start rolling in right away, and you’ll have to spend at least another hour or two every week just to keep up your marketing efforts, however you decide to do those. Ten weeks is a very short time to get something rolling in business. That’s not even three months.

 The Quickest Way for Most People

And affiliate sites are probably the quickest way to start making money on the internet. Forget the pie-in-the-sky junk that you read about people making a million dollars in two years. It’s not realistic. Most of those are very lucky or outright lying. If you have a great product, you can make six figures a year, if you put in the effort. And most people don’t realise how much work really is involved in making it on the internet. I recently read an interview with one of Yanik Silver’s students and associates. It took that guy three years to make any profit. But now he is one of those who have made over a million in sales. So, it takes perseverance, a good product, and a lot of effort! And I will too! Anyone can, if they are willing to stick with it.

The Most Profitable Way in the Long Run

If you are willing to put in the time and effort that is really required to be a huge success, and you have the wherewithal and some basic knowledge, you can make your own products. These can be marketed in a number of ways, whether through eBooks or membership sites, or whatever, it doesn’t matter. The long term highest returns are in your won products. You will have to find ways to get others to sell your product and do a huge amount of marketing. That’s just natural, since if people don’t know about your product, you’ll never sell it. But at least you will have the confidence that in the long term you will be a success.

Now I’m off to get working on my project!

Especially on autoresponders. And setting them up takes a lot more time than you might expect. I was recently trying to get my autoresponder working for my Budgeting site and spent at least 2 hours longer than I expected, even allowing for my learning how to do it. I kept having problems getting it to actually point to the pages I wanted and take the information properly. Finally, I gave up on getting it to point to my thank you page and have left it at the original page with GetResponse. Ah well. I’ll keep doing some research and try to find a way to make it work. I suspect that the issue is the way that WordPress labels pages and it won’t point to the specific page in a WP blog because it doesn’t have an HTML or php extension.

As soon as I get it all figured out I will put the information up here for others to learn from. Why not, eh? I already went through the headaches, and if I can save someone else a little bit of trouble, that makes it worth it to me. I have a script that I used to use for an autoresponder ages ago - it is all manual, and I sometimes wonder if I shouldn’t go back to that. It is almost as easy as the ones that we pay for, as long as you can figure out how to install it. The issue with that is that you have to copy the list yourself to back it up all the time, in case something ever happens with the server (which is why I don’t use it any more - lost a list of around 120 people - and that sucks!). I’ll think I’ll stick with the paid service… And with a paid servie, it is much easier to set up multiple domains and lists and send all kinds of messages to them - way simpler than doing it all manually.

I think every online business (and offline, for that matter) needs to keep a good contact list, and in the online world it is your subscribers, whether to a newsletter or who have downloaded a free budget spreadsheet, for example. Now the question is, will anybody actually subscribe?

As I am building a site on budgeting and saving money I am coming across all kinds of cool things and ideas! I am actually quite amazed at some of the things people think of to save money.

Growing Your Own Food (and Fish)

There’s one concept available where people have gardens that grow with fish ponds underneath them and raise their food through this, saving tonnes of money on groceries through the system. I won’t say what it is just yet, because I’m actually going to try this out and see if it works. If it does, then I’m super happy! Of course I’ll probably have to wait until spring to implement it, just because the seeds aren’t likely to be available. And I doubt that the set up is actually as cheap as the people promoting it claim. That’s another thing we’ll see.

Negative Budget Tips

There are also budget tips that I find completely bogus and useless. One of those is to always use plastic containers instead of plastic wrap. Really. It costs me $1 to buy 30 feet of plastic wrap. This I use for those items that don’t conveniently fit into a plastic container. And how long is 30 feet going to last me? Assuming my roommates don’t use up all my wrap (I caught one of them doing that), it should last me six months or better. The time it saves me alone is worth it. So, unless you’re on the verge of starvation, there really isn’t any gain to that one. I could name more, but I’ll save those for my budgeting blog.

How Does Budgeting Relate to my Internet Marketing Goal?

Well, that’s easy. My next step, once I have enough posts on my budgeting site, and enough articles up, and the traffic is starting to come in, is to get my own products on line. The first of those is a simple budgeting spreadsheet that I will sell for $14 or less. We’ll see what it’s worth. I’ll include a simple manual on how to budget and a small course on how to use the spreadsheet to reach your goals. Jeez, maybe I should up the price for all that!

I could also offer a small budgeting course for free… [Read the rest of this entry...]