I think I have finally gone off the deep end. I cannot believe I have not posted in almost two weeks! I have been way to busy at my office and I need to make some changes. I am currently working on a video for a new widget that will be posted here in a couple of days, so look for that it should be very interesting. [Tag-Tec]Jack Humphrey[/Tag-Tec] came out with his 2008 version of the Authority Black Book and I have been immersing myself in the wealth of information he has given yet again for free. So what’s going on and what have I been up to? Let me fill you in a little and share my insights and new found information with you.
Entrecard
I have not been dropping cards for the last 4-5 days, I wanted to see how this effects the card drops on my blog. Card dropping on my blog has significantly dropped and my advertising rate plummeted. I have not decided yet which way I will go with this as Entrecard takes up a lot of time and I am still deciding if it is worth the effort. I will get back to you on this one.
Social Authority
I have not been contributing as much as I would like to in this community. I have been keeping up with the Diggs and the Stumbles if I like the posts and sites that I am visiting. This is a great community of people that are looking to help others like them that are trying to earn a living online. If you have not joined the network visit us here.
Authority Black Book
Another one from the mind of Jack Humphrey. The Authority Black Book is one of the must reads of 2008, it is a very in depth look at the workings of a successful social marketing blueprint. I have read through it three times and am looking forward to reading it again this time with my handy highlighter at the ready. Yes folks, it is that good. Best of all it is free, you can get it here.
Atomic Blogging
I have purchased Atomic Blogging and studying the accompanying information that I received from them. I want to change the look and feel of a couple of my blog sites and thought that Atomic Blogging would be a good fit. I will let you know the outcome after a couple of weeks of trial and error. Has anyone else used this system and do you like it?
Well that’s about it for now, life is crazy, you never know what is going to come your way. I am starting to learn to try to relax a little more and get a little more sleep as of right now I am currently getting about 5 hours a night and would like to try to get to at least 6 hours a night(at least on the weekends). I have decided to not even look at my computer on sundays until all of my family is tucked away into bed. I want to spend as much time with my children as I can as they are getting older fast and soon will probably not want to spend any time with me or my wife.
Some Ebay Sellers have taken a stance against Ebay and the changing of their fees. Ebay has raised the commission that they charge for sold items and lowered the cost to list items by 25% – 50%. What does this mean to you? For new people starting out on Ebay this at first glance seems to be a good move, I can tell you when I started on Ebay there was a lot of trial and error and It cost me alot in listing fees alone trying to find items that I thought might sell well and never really sold at all. When you become proficient at selling items on Ebay then you would definitely want lower commission charges and keep more of your sales price.
So how did the strike that was in effect from Feb 18th – Feb 25th affect Ebay and their bottom line? It probably is a little too early to tell or we might never know as Ebay will not publicly release it’s listing totals, But according to some 3rd party tracking sites such as dealscart.com and medved.net as reported by USA Today, Ebay’s auction listings have dropped about 13%. Sellers have tried these boycotts against Ebay before and have not really done anything to hurt them. This time with the outreaching of Social Networking using videos on YouTube and Networking on MySpace might have made a difference this time. Ebay’s new CEO John Donahoe is facing slowing growth and increasing competition from Amazon.com and Google plus others getting into the online auction game.
Another new change that has been announced at Ebay is Sellers will no longer be able to leave negative feedback comments for buyers. This is not a popular move from the sellers standpoint, one of the biggest forms of protection a seller has against buyers who don’t pay promptly or not at all is the feedback rating the buyers have. Making it harder for sellers to sell with confidence, If you run across a buyer with a bad track record or does not pay, you will have to list the product again and pay additional listing fees.
So will this change the way Ebay looks at it’s sellers or will they buckle and compromise with their sellers? As of right now Ebay is not changing their policies. One of the most vocal boycotters Valerie Lennert has spread her message with an anti-Ebay video on YouTube and has created a MySpace page to get the word out. Will this affect your Ebay business or stop you from getting into the Ebay business?
Whether you agree with the war in Iraq or not you should always support our troops, This song is a great reminder of what our troops deal with on a regular basis. They are the consummate Social Networkers, We all interact and socialize on the web but these folks do it in person spreading the goodwill of America every day.
I have to apologize for not posting for a couple of days, I have been busy socializing. Whether the method you use to Earn A Living Online is Affiliate Marketing, Google Adsense, or Product Creation one of the most important things you have to do is to get traffic. Social Marketing is one of the quickest ways to build an online presence, and that is what I have been spending a lot of time doing lately. Social Marketing or Networking helps to get your brand out there and build links to your sites, and in some cases will teach you a thing or two. This is what I have been doing the past couple of days….
Entrecard – I have had a quite bit of traffic due to Entrecard and the major dropping of my cards I have been doing.
SocialAuthority – Jack humphrey’s new Social Network has been incredible in bringing traffic and gaining a lot of new friends in the Social Marketing crowd. I cannot believe the resources that are available there just for the asking.
StumbleUpon – Been spending a lot of time Stumbling sites to gain some authority
Technorati – Faving some of the great sites that I have been coming across.
That’s just to name a few of the things going on. Take advantage of the socializing that is going on around you and it will pay you back tenfold, but be careful and do it with the intention of actually participating in the process and not just spamming these Social Networks.
Have a favorite Social Network that you subscribe or belong to? Why not share it here and let some of us benefit from your experience.
Keeping a Blog is hard work, and to make money from that blog is even harder work. Don’t let anyone kid you, there is no program and I mean no program or Guru who will teach you how to make money overnight. Blogging is easy, put your thoughts down in a post and your good to go, but try to monetize that blog and you have another thing coming. Blogging is not like a “Field of Dreams” you don’t build it and they will come. You have to build traffic slowly and methodically, and understand that not everyone who stumbles upon your blog will like your writing style or even what you are writing about. Can you please everyone every time? No! But you can please the ones who are interested in what you are writing about. I see a lot of bloggers that ramble about just about anything their mind is set on for that particular moment in time. When it comes to Blogging I feel the best thing to do is to pick a Niche, something that interests you or has a following that you feel you might be able to cater to.
With that said, how do you build traffic to your blog? Do you use Google Adwords, Banner Ads, Social sites or traffic generators. To me it’s pretty simple, it’s who you know. The more you get yourself out there, whether it’s by commenting on other blogs or forums or joining social networks the more readers you will get to your blog. In my last post I spoke about Jack Humphrey’s new Social Network, and in just the past couple of days since I became a member I made lots of new friends and gained a lot of new RSS Subscribers. I have also been participating more on StumbleUpon and Digg, these sites are not just for promoting your posts and blogs. They are there to network with other people and build a presence for yourself through friendships and partnerships.
Another thing I have been using very heavily is Entrecard, it takes some time but I feel it is well worth it as I have gained a lot of new friends and continued visits to my blog.
So how are you building traffic to your blog? Are you out their networking? Please take a moment and leave a comment and share your thoughts and ideas so that the rest of us might benefit, after all if we all share somebody might just learn something.
Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled.
I have to apologize for not posting for a couple of days, I have been busy socializing. Whether the method you use to 
Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled.