Marketing | Work From Home Resources Blog

Google Celebrates Valentine’s Day – They Gave Me $100!

Posted by Alan Mater on Feb 27, 2010

Did you know Google celebrates Valentine’s Day? I didn’t have a clue until I received a Valentine’s Day card in the mail. Yes, Google sent me a Valentine’s card!

I have no doubt I wasn’t the only one to get a card like this. Maybe you did, too?

As a Google Adsense Publisher, I usually get two or three mailings from Google each year promoting Google Adwords. Funny thing is that I’m also a Google Adwords user (or at least used to be). I haven’t ran any campaigns in over a year, so maybe that’s why they keep sending me these offers.

Basically, they send me promotions to give Adwords a try and offer a $100 coupon voucher. Now, since I already have an account which is several years old, none of the coupon codes they send me have ever worked for my account. Supposedly these offers are only for newer accounts.

valentine2 However, the Valentine’s card I received a couple of weeks ago contained a coupon code that actually worked! I was literally stunned in amazement.

Google loves me!

LOL… at least that’s what I was thinking at the time. All other redemption codes had failed, but when I entered the this code into my account, it went through without a hitch.

I now have $100 in free Google Adwords advertising to play with.

I haven’t yet had a chance to test any campaigns, but you can bet your bottom I’ll be running at least one campaign.

I’ve made some money in the past with Adwords, but have sunk a lot of money as well. It’s a tough game if you’re not real good at it. Not to mention all of their new rules and regulations. It’ll be a while before I attempt it again, but I’ll keep you posted when I do.

Afterall, Google just gave me $100 in free, virtual money. I’d be stupid not to at least try.

Thank you, Google! It’s nice to know that you really do love me.

LOL…

Anyone else receive a Valentine’s card from Google? Did your redemption code work? What’s your experience with Adwords? Share your thoughts below…

Are You a Struggling Internet Marketer?

Posted by Alan Mater on Feb 15, 2010

tough Today I have the opportunity to answer a couple of questions from a struggling marketer who came to me and is losing patience trying to make money online.

I’m going to keep the person anonymous, but I’ll provide the questions below along with my answers to those questions. I like these kind of posts as it gives you (my readers) a real example of people finding this whole internet marketing thing difficult, which is maybe where you’re at today. If so, I hope you find this post encouraging as well as helpful. This may turn into a two or three part series depending on how in-depth I get here.

So let’s begin. The questions are pretty specific, but I think there’s a lot of general information about each I can provide. The nice thing here is that I’ve already blogged about these topics in the past, so if you happened to miss them or weren’t sure how they related to the questions below, you’ll now be able to put them both together, and things will finally make sense (hopefully).

Here are the questions:

How do i drive traffic to my site that can generate sales?

Is there another cool way of making money online from __________ (Wherever you are in the world)?

From talking with this person I know he has about 6 months of time invested into his online business and has been working very rigorously at it.

Maybe you have less time, or maybe more time spent trying to build up your business. Perhaps you haven’t yet started but come here for the first time thinking about maybe giving an online business a chance, but you’re not sure if the time you spend will pay off in the end.

Well first of all, I just have to say that any type of internet business is just like any offline business. It takes a lot of time, dedication and focus. This isn’t something new that I’m saying for the first time, but a lot of people just don’t get it or haven’t completely grasped that concept. So, whether you’re only a month in or 6 months in, I can say with assurance that it hasn’t been long enough for you to see any substantial return on your time. Earning a comfortable amount of money online will take much longer, most likely a lot longer than you would like.

Every person is unique and has unique abilities and talents, and what might work for one person may not work for another. So, just because you know someone that may have “made it big” in only a few short months, doesn’t mean you’ll do the same. However, the good news is that as long as you stick with it and not give up, you’re time will come. You just have to be patient and keep pushing forward.

Trust me, I know from personal experience. I’ve been at this for a while, and I’m still not close to where I want to be. But, I believe everything happens for a reason, and there’s a reason that my time hasn’t come yet. I have faith that it will, but only if I keep pushing forward and don’t give up.

During my time online I’ve seen a fair number of people that have thrown in the towel and decided it’s not for them. Maybe that’s how you feel right now. But, let me ask you these questions:

Why did you try? (Or, why do you want to try?)

Why did you give up? (Or, why do you want to give up?)

If you could have did/do something differently, what would it be?

In my experience, it has appeared to me that everyone needs to know someone that has “been there, done that” and can learn from their experiences and know what IS working and can then apply it to their own business. Consider reaching out and saying “I need help!” Believe me, you won’t look like a desperate fool if you do. Unless of course you act like one and expect nothing but hand-outs.

A lot of people just need guidance and are looking for somewhere to turn and someone that can help them. I urge you if you’re at the point of failure, it’s time for you to reach out. Hope is not all lost.

Aside from reaching out, evaluate what you’re doing and why you’re not making money. Maybe the first step in getting help is realizing that you’re not putting in enough effort. It takes REAL work, and A LOT of it.

Okay, so right now I’ve just basically been lecturing a bit, but please stay with me here. Everything I said is important, so I hope that you’ll take it in. You seriously need to stop, think and evaluate where you are with your business. If you’re not making money, find out why. Find out what you need to do in order to start making money online.

If you’re not quite sure, then stay tuned for my next post as I’ll be answering the first question, which is “How do i drive traffic to my site that can generate sales?”

I’ve written many posts on this topic, but I’ll be combining everything I know into one jam-packed post, full of useful information you can apply to your own online business.

Hope to see you there.

January 2010 Income Report

Posted by Alan Mater on Feb 14, 2010

Ahh… the first income report of the new year. This is where it gets really exciting as I can now use this report as a base for the next 11 reports of this year. I’ll be able to see how much my income is improving (or not) and tweak stuff as necessary to hopefully squeeze more money out of my site. All the while I’ll be improving on my marketing and driving more traffic to my site.

So, without further ado, here it goes.

ClickBank: $63.70
PayDotCom – $28.17
Angela’s Backlinks: $7.50
Paul’s Backlinks: $8
Yarie: $43.81
Google Adsense: $29.33
SFI: $25.70
Project Payday: $1.50 (commissions earned from promoting the program, not actually using it)
Responsive Data: $9
MaxBounty: $7.17

Total Income for the month comes out to: $223.88.

Now, I know that’s not a lot and nothing to get really excited about. But, you have to start somewhere and most never even get this far.

I’d like to introduce an exciting addition to my monthly income reports. I’ve been doing freelance internet marketing work for a very successful internet marketer for some time now. This has been great as I get to learn from him and at the same time make some additional income each month.

Total income for my internet marketing services totals $160.

Also, if you didn’t know I also do proofreading/re-writing freelance work as well. My total income from those services came out to $75 for last month.

So, total income from all three sources comes to $458.88

That’s it as far as income for January. I’ll be including all three of these sources in my monthly income reports from now on.

As you can see, making money online is very possible.

30 Ways to Get Free Website Traffic In Minutes

Posted by Alan Mater on Feb 10, 2010

We all know that generating traffic to your website is essential if you want to make money online. Not only this, but targeted traffic that is interested in what you have to say or sell is what really counts.

In this day and age, there are so many ways to get free website traffic it’s almost not even funny. However, most people don’t know about all the various ways in which to go about getting it for free. I even fall into this category as some methods are either new or just totally unique from what most people are teaching.

Anyway, I’m always looking to increase the traffic to my site, mainly using free methods. Let’s face it, we all like free stuff.

Not only that, but free search engine traffic is one of the best in quality when it comes to converting that traffic into money. So, when I’m marketing my site I do a lot of backlink building to ensure my website increases its ranking in the search engine. Not to mention the marketing I do is, of course, completely free.

Hey, there’s that “free” word again, and speaking of, I have a free gift for you.

I just got my hands on a new ebook titled: “30 Ways To Get Free Website Traffic in 30 Minutes or Less.” The book is actually written by my affiliate marketing mentors and provides some traffic resources I haven’t yet tried or heard of.

Instead of diving into the details about what’s in the ebook, I figured you’re intelligent enough to find out for yourself.

I’m offering this ebook free of charge to you, my readers. If you’d like to get free traffic to your website, then I encourage you to grab yourself a copy and apply the techniques that they share.

To download your free copy, simply Click Here.

There’s no opt-in or any of that stuff. Clicking the link above will take you straight to the ebook from where you can then download it to your computer, which I recommend.

Or, simply right-click the link and choose to “Save Link As” or “Save As”, depending on your browser, to save the ebook directly to your computer.

After downloading and reading through the ebook, I’d love to hear your thoughts on it, so be sure to come back and share them below…

January Blog Post Roundup

Posted by Alan Mater on Feb 3, 2010

Wow, I can’t believe we’re a whole month into 2010 already. January felt like it went so fast. Almost too fast, actually.

But alas, a new month is here, and we gotta keep pushing forward. It’s the beginning of February, so that means another edition of blog post roundup.

If you happened to miss any of my posts in January, you can find them below. Hope you enjoyed them.

Work From Home Cartoon Humor

What Do You Plan To Accomplish In 2010?

Are You Finding It Difficult To Make Money From Work From Home Opportunities?

Affiliate Power Group – Online Business Coaching – Affiliate Marketing Training

6 Tips To Help You Reach Online Success

5 Tips To Market Yourself On The Internet

3 Reasons You Will Never Make Money Online

5 Things You MUST Do To Make Money Online

5 Tips To Market Yourself On The Internet

Posted by Alan Mater on Jan 28, 2010

Build A Following Marketing yourself on the internet is very crucial to anyone that wishes to reach online success. The days of marketing a particular program or opportunity are over. People want to know about the person promoting them more so than the opportunity or program themselves. If people can get to know you and trust you, they will trust your recommendations and advice.

This is the same concept as online branding which I blogged about before. The internet makes it a little challenging to be transparent, but at the same time there are numerous methods in which you can utilize to become known and seen as an expert in your field.

Here are 5 tips to help you market yourself on the internet:

1. Create Online Profiles – Profiles are an excellent way to get your name out there. They’re also a great way to get backlinks to your site as well. Take advantage of creating profiles on Google, Yahoo and MSN.

2. Post Videos – If you have a simple web cam or digital camera with video capability, it’s very easy to create short videos and post them on YouTube. You can also get free screen capture software like CamStudio to create tutorials. Take advantage of videos to create a web presence and loyal following.

3. Article Marketing - Writing articles either for your own blog or submitting them to article directories is a great way to get yourself known. Create informational and valuable articles that people will want to read and share with others.

4. Forums – Forums are not only an excellent source of information, but they can also be used to create credibility within your niche. The more people you can help, the more people will trust you and your recommendations.

Bonus Tip:

5. Blogging – Just as I’m doing here, you should be blogging about your experiences and sharing the knowledge you have about your particular interest. This will help build up a following of interested readers and build relationships with them.

Do you have any branding tips you’d like to share? Let us know in the comments below…

Easy Free Keyword Research

Posted by Alan Mater on Oct 29, 2009

After reading the title you’re probably thinking there’s no way that keyword research can be easy, let alone free. I think that too many people make keyword research a lot harder than it has to be. And, while paid tools are great when researching keywords, I think that for the majority of people they’re not needed.

What IS needed though is knowing how to do some basic keyword research when you’re looking to rank your articles, blog posts, and web pages on the first page of Google.

Keyword research is essential, and it’s a lot easier than you might think. I put together a video explaining how you can use a free tool to find “golden nuggets” that are going to provide the traffic you need. Follow that up with a little research on your competition, and you’ll be well on your way to getting a top 10 listing.

Once you find the keywords you want to use, remember to include those keywords when building backlinks to that article, blog post or web page. That’s how you’re going to build up your rankings in the search engines.

And, speaking of backlinks, the two methods of backlink building I recommend to get the fastest results is using Angela and Paul’s backlink building services. They are worth every penny and can produce massive results.

I hope with this little tip you’ll be able to bring in more traffic and sales for your online business.

Increase Web Traffic with Traffic Exchanges

Posted by Alan Mater on Oct 5, 2009

webtraffic Traffic exchanges are a great way to increase web traffic. If you’re not familiar with what traffic exchanges are, they’re basically a website where you “surf” other member’s web pages in exchange for credits. The credits you accumulate are used to show your web pages to other members.

The concept is very simple. Most traffic exchanges also make use of banners and links that you can show to other members using your credits. The amount of credits you earn will depend on the ratio that is used, but this varies per traffic exchange. And, many give out bonus credits or freebie credits to members.

Traffic Exchanges can be used to bring in targeted traffic to your web pages. There is a time limit on how long members have to view a web page, so this is your chance to get your offer seen by hundreds if not thousands of potential prospects. The minimum time is around seven seconds, with some traffic exchanges being as high as 15 seconds.

If you have a site or web page that could use an increase in web traffic, then traffic exchanges are a great way to get it. All it takes is signing up to the most popular exchanges and spending an hour or so surfing for credits.

You may be wondering what the popular traffic exchanges are. Well, that’s going to be explained in my next post when I discuss how to best use Traffic Exchanges and get maximum results for your efforts.

So, stay tuned for my next post!

Work From Home Newsletter – Free Tips and Tricks

Posted by Alan Mater on Sep 17, 2009

When you’re looking to work from home, there’s so many different options available. Plus, there’s a TON of information to go through that can literally make your head spin.

I know… I’ve been there myself. It helps to find a mentor or someone who knows what he’s talking about that can help guide you in the right direction. Your success depends on getting the right information, and then applying what you learn.

My ultimate goal is to help as many people as possible. I’d love to be a mentor to as many people as possible. The best way for me to do this is to get as many people to visit this blog, and to get as many subscribers as possible to sign up for my work from home newsletter, where I share my untold internet marketing tips and tricks.

Take a look at what some of my subscribers are saying:

“Lessons are very nice and informative. I saved all your emails and probably going to study them over again to make some ideas and make some posts.

Thanks for that Alan, and also for the free stuff.” – JP Manching

JP is also a reader of the Work From Home Resources Blog and started his own blog after being inspired by my posts. This is what makes what I do so enjoyable; knowing that I’m helping others and making a difference. You can check out JP’s blog at http://blogmatters.net/.

“Thanks for the free info. I’ll add you as my source of reference on how to make money online. God bless!!” - Fernando

“Thanks Alan for the tips, they are really helpful.” – Henry

“Keep the emails coming, very informative.” – Timothy

If you haven’t yet subscribed to my newsletter, you’re really missing out on a lot of value. There’s literally hundreds of tips and tricks, plus a ton of other information to help you in your quest to earning money online.

Signing up is very easy and only takes a minute. Just fill out the form below using your name and active email address and click the “Sign Up” button…

Once you confirm your subscription, you’ll have instant access to my newsletter and free bonuses.

Hope to see you on the other side.

And, if you haven’t subscribed to my blog feed yet, be sure to so you don’t miss any of my upcoming posts.

Subscribe to Blog Updates via Email

June Post Roundup

Posted by Alan Mater on Jul 5, 2009

post-roundup I’ve decided to start doing a roundup of all of last month’s posts. This is in case you happened to miss one along the way for whatever reason, and it never hurts to refresh your memory with an idea.

I’ll start from the beginning of the month and move to the most recent. So here goes…