This summer is going by so quickly… too quickly. July was a crazy month for me, mainly due to the fact that my fiance broke up with me. That was tough emotionally and physically. It took a while to get over the fact and finally move on. I knew that if I didn’t… my professional life would suffer dramatically, and I didn’t want that.

I’m back on track with some exciting new things going on. I’ll update you on them later on. For now…. let’s take a look at the blog posts from last month…

June Comment Contest Winners!

Adapting Your Style: Make Your Writing Work for You

Is Your Blog Grabbing Your Visitors’ Attention?

How to Increase Fan Numbers on Your Facebook Fan Page

Anatomy of Credit Card Processing

Take a second to leave a comment on any you may have missed. I hope to do more sponsored posts in the future as it adds a different flavor to the blog, as pointed out by Jason. The guest posts are also a nice addition, and I hope you’ve been enjoying them so far. Expect to see them around frequently.

Got any comments, questions or concerns, leave your thoughts below or send me an email.

Thanks for being a reader here, and I’ll see ya soon.

The following is a guest post by Sam Bakker. If you would like to guest post on this blog, please contact me.

It’s no secret that Facebook is an excellent source to make money online. With over 400 million members, the money is there for the taking. Many online marketers have come out and said that Facebook fan pages are currently the best free way to make money on the site. This is because of their viral nature. In this article, I am going to discuss an effective technique for increasing fans on your page with the intention of taking it viral.

The first time I discovered Facebook’s viral nature, I was looking at my news feed. A friend of mine had joined a pretty funny group. I clicked into the page out of casual curiosity and found out that the page had only been running for the past 24 hours, but had managed to have over 100,000 people “Like” it. I refreshed the page to see how fast its rate growth was, each time I did, at least 100 new people had joined. Over the next week, more than 1.5 million people joined that page as fans gave the owner exposure to all of their news feeds when they placed a message on the fan page.

So how do we create this incredible viral effect? The first way is to gather enough members in a short space of time. The rule I like to use is that if you can get a fan page to 20,000 people within four days then the page will go viral.

The best way to get these first 20,000 friends is to use a method which I like to call the “Rapid Movement Method”. It consists of utilizing the fans of other pages in order to help build your fan page. Look for fan pages which have similar subjects to yours and about 100,000 fans already (we want these pages so that we can tap into their growth while it’s still happening). Some fan pages will have the contact details of the admin. But if they don’t, you will need to ask them to contact you using the “Discussion tab”. This option which the majority of Facebook fan pages have gives you the opportunity to get in touch with the owner by placing a quick comment asking the administrator to contact you. When they do, you have the chance to negotiate a price for the post. If you have got it right and your topic is one which could potentially go viral, then you can expect your page to grow to a stage where you can use it to make money online.

Sam Bakker has been making money online for the past 7 years. If you would like to get a free copy of Sam’s new Facebook marketing report visit his Internet business website now.

I took the weekend off (3 day weekend) to celebrate Independence Day and enjoy being with family and friends. It was great to just put business aside and relax and enjoy myself. The fireworks show in State College at Beaver Stadium was amazing; one of the top ranked shows in the nation. It was a blast… no pun intended.

I took pictures throughout the show along with a 40 second video of the finale. If you would like to check them out, just add me as a friend on Facebook. Otherwise, one of the pictures I took is to the right.

As much fun as I had, it’s time to get back into the swing of things. June was a rather busy month, and I’m excited to see just how many posts I had last month. If you happened to miss any of them, you can find them below…

June Comment Contest – Win Cash and Prizes!

An Unforeseen “Benefit” of 3-Way Link Exchanges

It’s Official – Alan Mater is an EzineArticles.com Expert Author

How Blogging About Internet Marketing Can Make You Money Online

New Blog Theme – I’m Using the FlexSqueeze Wordpress Theme

Why You Should Incorporate Exercise Into Your Work From Home Routine

May 2010 Income Report

Why Good Keyword Selection is Essential for Home-Based Business Success

What a Man, a Dog and a Leash Have to do with Internet Marketing

Transcription Crash Course Review – Become a Home Transcriptionist Today

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The following is a guest post by Sam Bakker…

I recall when I first started trying to use blogging to make money online. I had arrived at the entrance of a cyber metropolis armed with an idea and a daft look on my face. It was a multifaceted space teeming with online users, all I had to do was establish myself and I’d be crowded with customers in no time. I had bought a product that would teach me how to build a home-based business. It told me I should start a blog and begin sharing with the rest of the internet world how to be successful making money through a home-based business.

I opened an account with Blogger.com and put my hands to the keyboard. For two months I typed away, completing a design and posting content up on a daily basis. For all this effort, I had one member and no sign of traffic. My blog was floating around in an alleyway when I wanted it to be across the street from Facebook. I wasn’t making money and my website wasn’t going anywhere.

It wasn’t until a year later that I found out (and corrected) what I had done wrong. In this article today, I am going to discuss what mistakes I made in my first attempt to make money blogging online and how you can avoid them. By dodging these classic mistakes, your journey to success will help you obtain an internet marketing lifestyle that is greatly to your advantage.

Firstly, it must be said that before anything else, you must plan out what your blog’s central focus will be. As is the general nature of entrepreneurs, we get an idea and jump in head-first without planting a base for ourselves. Planning is essential especially when it comes to blogging; you not only need to identify your audience and the value you can offer them, but you also need to find effective keywords.

Keywords are the driving force behind a blog’s organic search engine traffic. You need to find the most effective ones using a tool such as “Google Adwords Keywords” to research. This will show you where you can get your search engine traffic from and what terms will be most profitable when it comes to making money. If you launch your blog without keywords in mind, often Google will struggle to place you in the index. Much of the time this means that your blog’s potential is capped very early on and your chance of getting decent traffic flow from Google is reduced. Be sure that you conduct the appropriate keyword research for your website before buying your domain name.

When you first launch your blog online, it feels great. However, now the challenge is in getting it seen. In order for search engines to rank your website based on targeted key terms, you will need to generate some external links back to your website. Use websites such as Ezine Articles, Squidoo and write for other websites in your niche to get your blog rising in the search engines and producing traffic.

Use these tips to ensure that your blog doesn’t end up like my first one, gathering dust along some forgotten nook in cyberspace. Instead, implement the techniques I have discussed with you here to get your blog off to an excellent start.

Sam Bakker has been making money online for the past 7 years. If you would like to find out more about Sam Bakker or internet marketing you can view Sam’s website at SamBakker.com

Register now! Free Call – June 23rd – 9 PM EST/6 PM PST

I know the economy has seen better days, but it’s very counter-productive if you just sit around and wait for things to get better. It’s important to take action to better your circumstances because they’re not going to get better on their own.

Here’s something that will truly change your life for the better (I hope), no matter what circumstance you may be in right now, but you have to take action.

A good friend of mine, Shannon Jaklic, is holding a teleseminar that will teach you how him and his wife, Kim, made $109,000 within 9 and a half weeks building a profitable business on the internet – Even in this tough economy.

This is the real deal, folks!

I was talking with Shannon on Facebook the other day, and he was telling me how him and his wife have a passion for sharing what they’ve learned over the past 3 years with other people. They didn’t come from wealthy families – They earned every cent they made.

Shannon had been working his butt off in the construction business, making $50,000 a year. Yeah… that’s some nice money, but he was also working 70 hours a week.

The money wasn’t worth the sacrifice of never seeing his family. I can’t blame him one bit for wanting out of that mess. There are just some things money can’t buy.

Long story short… Shannon and Kim realized they wanted to move in a different direction and get Shannon out of the construction business so that he could have more time with his family.

9 and a half weeks later, Shannon was able to quit his job.

Shannon and Kim have over 3 years of experience in network marketing and direct sales and have used what they learned to build multiple, successful online businesses, bringing in up to $50,000 per month.

No lie…

But this is where it gets really cool.

The teleseminar that Shannon and Kim are holding on June 23rd at 9pm EST is an informational call for entrepreneurial minded people looking to start or restart a business in today’s economy.

Within their 3 years of experience, they’ve learned some key components that are necessary to succeed in any online business, and also what you must avoid if you don’t want to fail. They’ll be sharing this information on the call.

You don’t want to miss it!

This is REAL advice… from REAL people who have a passion for helping others in these tough times.

This is about using a proven model and applying it to whatever business you want to create your own success and your own recession-proof future.

Shannon and Kim didn’t have any experience or skills when they started 3 years ago. So, if you think this stuff will be too complicated or over your head… relax, because this is exactly for people like you.

All you have to do is register for the live call and then prepare to be blown away June 23rd when things get kicked off at 9pm EST.

If you’re at all skeptical about this stuff… then just leave right now. This isn’t for the doubters and naysayers.

This also isn’t for the pouters. I’m not here to feel sorry for you, I’m here to help you, and I hope I can do that by getting you to sign up for the call. What you’ll learn will change your life.

This is for people who are willing to do whatever it takes to turn their financial situation around and create a positive and bright future.

Register for the FREE call now!

Making positive steps towards a better tomorrow will set yourself in the right direction from here on out.

Why wait for the economy to get better?

Create a better future starting today and sign up for the free teleseminar.

I’ll see you on the call.

Social media is a great way to get the word out about what you do. It helps build your brand and bring awareness to your online business, products and services. I’m a member of various social networking sites, and I want to invite all of you to join me. There’s some you may not have ever heard of before.

The site that I spend the most time on is Facebook. I’m a huge fan of the site. There’s many networking aspects of the site that you can use to bring awareness to your business, so that’s a huge plus. I use my account for both personal and business. This allows you to see who I really am and helps me to be more transparent and open to everyone. Become my friend on Facebook and get a peek into my personal life and also get to know more about me.

Follow me on Twitter. I don’t spend a whole lot of time on Twitter, but I do find it useful to find resources from others that I follow. If you follow me, I’ll follow you back, assuming you’re not a spammer. Also, I never reply or even read my Direct Messages (DM’s), so if you want to get my attention on Twitter, @ reply me, and I’ll get back to you.

If you like making useful videos, then hit me up on YouTube. I don’t have much time to make a lot of videos, but I’ll slowly be getting more out eventually. I like watching videos that provide real and useful content that I can learn from. If you subscribe to my channel, I’ll subscribe back.

Here’s some other sites you can find me at:

Sokule – Just like Twitter, but you can make money.

DirectMatches – The largest business networking site. You can also make a good bit of money from this site.

LinkedIn

I’d love to have you network with me on these sites, so if you’re a member or want to become a member, just sign up and send a friend request to me.