Have you ever had a wonderful plan … know exactly what you want to say/do … have it all figured out …

But have the most difficult time putting it into words on a webpage? UGH!

For the past week or so Val and I have been planning and scheming coming up with one of the best plans I’ve had in quite some time. We’ve been working on a plan of action for the new service we’re offering, Affiliate Management.

I couldn’t be more excited about this. I know exactly how I want to do it and like I said, have a plan that’s out of this world. Unfortunately, this plan is stuffed up in this head of mine and spread out over who knows how many emails in the form of quick ideas, bulked smack dab in the middle of some intense brainstorming.

I thought I was so ahead of the game. We had it all figured out … but I’ll be danged if I can get all these thoughts onto the webpage. I know what I want to say … I just can’t seem to say it.

For as many websites, services and blogs that I’ve created over the years … I can honestly say this has been the hardest time I’ve had yet.

And boy, when you’re having these kinds of difficulties, it is so easy to get distracted (ie: making blog posts, lol!)

Any tips on how to get on track, take this bunch of ideas and put them down on a webpage??

“When you buy something at a small, lesser-known online store, there’s a decent chance they will sell your address to spammers.” and, “Sign up for a newsletter? Your address could certainly get sold.”

Quoted by Neil J. Rubenking of PC Magazine.

This was quoted on another work at home mom blog, Lynette Chandler of Tech Based Marketing who came across it by reading a recent issue of PC Magazine.

I would love to see ANY information that could possibly back this up.  I’m pretty confident in saying that there is none. 

I was extremely offended by this assumption – this assumption that is coming off as a fact to those who don’t know any better.  Why attack the small business owner? The small business owner has enough to deal with as they struggle to compete with the “big guys” in the first place. We don’t need something like this to make it even more difficult.

This is a very popular magazine filled with subscribers who usually take every word to heart.

Our lists are the lifeblood of our businesses! I for one can’t stand to be spammed and I care about my subscribers – without them I wouldn’t be where I am today so therefore I respect each and every one of them as well as do everything in my power to protect them. Unlike the larger companies that don’t have nearly as much to loose.

I work extremely hard to build a trusting relationship and a strong reputation with all my subscribers, clients and customers. This is not something I’m willing to sacrafice. Are you?

Someone who is considered an expert should be sure the proper research is done before making a claim such as this. 

Isn’t it funny when I sign up to a newsletter from a “big company” I’m bombarded with email offers from several other ‘big companies”?  But when I sign up to a newsletter provided by a small business owner I get emails from that person only.  How about you? 

How many times have you purchased something from a “bigger name” only to receive an email later from someone else that just happens to be about the same product or something related to the one you just bought?  So not only are they selling our email address, they’re also selling information about our purchases!  How many times has that happened when you purchased from a work at home mom?

I don’t know about you but I work hard to build all my lists – very hard.  Don’t think for a second I’m willing to share those contacts!  They’re mine – I worked hard for them and I’m going to keep them!  I don’t care what someone is willing to offer me.  That’s short lived – and me?  I’m in it for the long haul. 

How many of my subscribers do you think would continue to purchase from me if they found out I sold their email address?  And that’s assuming they would actually STAY on the list – which I highly doubt.  I know if it happend to me, I’d be gone.  You?

Gee, even if I wanted to (which I would never)  I would even know how to sell the list.  Do you know how?

I really could go on and on about this. This was nothing more than a slam to the small business owner who did nothing to deserve it. Apparently I’m not the only one who feels this way as it’s slowly making it’s way around the work at home mom community. See for yourself, the general consensus is … we’re offended.

Online Stores Will Sell Your Info
This Bugs Me – Blame the Mom and Pops
Did You Know That You Were Selling People’s Information

I’m sorry but I believe this is big enough that we deserve a rebuttal. Leave a comment and share your thoughts. I’ll be sharing this post with Mr. Rubenking. I believe he needs to be made aware of what he’s done.

So, how do you feel?

Oh boy are we having a hard time finding a way to organize which child does what when and how much they can earn.  Right now we don’t have anything “set in stone”.  Each child basically know their individual chores and what is expected of them.  However, these are very, very few.  Other than those I’m always asking each child to “do me a favor” and offering a money reward.  I am so tired of all that, lol!

I want something that’s “set in stone” – something like a chore chart.  We’re not sure if we want to give each individual chore a value.  If it’s done, they get paid for it, if it isn’t they don’t.  OR  Should we just make a list of chores.  If they’re all done, they get paid, if they’re not – they don’t.  I’m not sure if the latter is quite fair to the children however, it does give them more of an incentive of getting them done.

Mom is tired of constantly telling each child what to do, reminding them over and over again to get it done and all that good stuff!  Mom wants something a bit more organized!  (Yes, I’m yelling and venting, rofl!)

 My daughter is 11 and my son is 7. 

How do you handle it?  I’m assuming most combine allowances and chores?  Do you do this?  What do you pay?  What chores are your children responsible for and how old are they?

Yeah, I have a ton of questions … I would just love to hear how other handle the “Chores & Allowances” issue.

 So, spill the beans … what do you do?

Every once in awhile we see an unsubscription notice from our free newsletter saying something like “I don’t like the ads” or “I didn’t sign up to be sold to”. It’s not often we send out advertisements either, aside from a few links at the bottom of the newsletter.

I’ve had similar feedback from websites from people who think there should be absolutely NO ads of any kind (and trust me, I use advertisements sparingly).

What I think people fail to realize is how much work goes into sites and newsletters. Do they really have the right to get huffy when an ad gets snuck in content or sits at the top of a page? I tend to think both Anita and myself do a pretty good job of giving away a whole lot of free content, but for some it doesn’t seem to be enough. Any hint of an ad and it’s “how dare you make me buy something!”.

So should the internet be completely free? Do website owners and newsletter publishers have no right to attempt to sell something along with their free content? Should we just be doing all this without any compensation?

I don’t think we’ve stressed this point nearly enough. If you are in business, you NEED a REAL site. Free sites have really got to go!

Let me explain where I’m coming from here.

I hadn’t ordered from this site, but got these items directly from the owner.  (Not naming names here, nor am I even going to say WHAT it was because I don’t want to embarrass this person). I went to the site basically to see other items and prices. Knowing it was a Freewebs site, I went there already mentally blocking out ads. Usually I can somewhat navigate those sites without problems, but I did have my doubts.

When I got there it wasn’t so bad. As mentioned, I was blocking out ads and trying to focus on the items for sale. That is until I got to the ordering page. Right there smack in the middle of all her prices and PayPal buttons was a big fat “Sponsor Ad” from Google. Not just on the side, but IN with her prices.  Bleh. I scrolled down a little more still looking at prices, and there was another ad, this time for cell phones. Double bleh!

I scrolled back up and could no longer block them out. I had seen too much, now they were jumping out at me. At the top of the page,  there was another ad that was designed to really jump out at you. It was one of those “You have 2  new crushes!” ads. Um yeah, I’m here to shop not find high school love, thanks.

This turned me off. A lot.  What kills me is the product and packaging was really fantastic. The site just really did not match the professionalism of the products. If I had been a new customer not having the chance to see the products first, I would have immediately went somewhere else. Trust went right out the window when I saw all those tacky ads.

People, PLEASE get rid of those free sites! Do you honestly think $10 a month (or less) isn’t going to bring you more sales? Your time put into creating the site is worth something too, and when you slap it up on a free site you are wasting that time. Seriously, just pay the money for the hosting. You’ll make enough to cover the cost of it and then some simply by having a nicer site that’s ad free.

Please look into hosting. It’s really not that expensive. I mean look, Anita has some pretty cheap hosting here. If you are serious about your business, you really do need a real host.

Today I got to thinking about half finished projects and half thought out attempts at doing something special online. Two particular online friends of mine are guilty of this, and you know I am too. I’m not going to name names here, but did want to give you an idea of what I’m talking about.

First off there is a friend of mine who came up with a really good idea for a product to sell online. I got a call from them when they were still working on it, asking if I wanted to be an affiliate. But of course, I loved the idea! They even sent me a piece of it to read, and I was even more excited to help them promote it. A few weeks later this person decides not to finish the product at this time, but apologized to the affiliates and thanked them for the feedback.  I was a little upset….not really at him, but just because I was really looking forward to seeing the finished product.

I’m sure  they had good reasons for not finishing, even though they had some really nice ground work laid out. I guess I have a hard time grasping the problem, since I usually lose interest AFTER the release. I’m more of the type that likes to actually finish the project, but forget the follow up.

The other person’s story is a little different. Instead of a project with an ending, it was very little set up that is ongoing. Actually it’s a blog game of sorts that happens weekly. Really it’s an excellent idea, but I don’t believe she keeps up with it as well as she should. I rarely participate, since I’m a morning blogger and like to get things out of the way as quickly as possible. If you don’t catch me first thing, I probably won’t get to it until tomorrow. Which I could still play this if not for the fact it’s day specific. By the time I get the notice it’s usually too late.

So anyway, the lesson here is if you are going to do something, do it all the way. Set it up for the day before if you aren’t at the computer first thing in the morning. If you have a project you are going to do, finish it! Especially if you’ve put time and energy into something – you want to follow through or all that time is wasted.

Now you’ll have to excuse me while I go look for things I’ve got unfinished.  :oops:

Aren’t I allowed to ask for help? Or am I to pretend I’m perfect?

Long story short, recently I asked for something that could be considered a sales page review.

I did this because – well, not to toot my own horn here but, I have what I truly feel is an excellent information product for wahms with websites and online businesses. Especially for the newbies – but not exclusively to.

Not only do I feel it’s a good product, I also feel it’s very fairly priced. At only $9.99 – what wahm can’t afford this?

I’ve had nothing but rave reviews from anyone who’s read the ebook and taken the ecourse that follows up.

So, why am I not selling? It’s not that I’m not selling – because I am. It’s the fact that I thought I was going to be selling this product left and right. I truly felt as though I hit the nail on the head. But, it’s just not happening as well as I thought it would.

I feared it was because of my sales copy skills – or should I say lack thereof. I’ll admit it … I stink when it comes to creating a sales page.

So that said … I asked for a review. There was one comment made to me that kind of disturbed me. And no, it wasn’t necessarily constructive criticism. I didn’t just want to hear the good. I wanted to hear the bad and the ugly too.

I wouldn’t tell anyone else you are having trouble selling this ebook since the ebook makes you sound like if people follow your advice they could sell more.I wouldn’t have bought a single ebook from someone that I thought wasn’t succeeding online.

Hmm … so, just since I wrote an ebook … this means I’m supposed to be a guru in every aspect? Does this mean I’m to pretend to be perfect in every aspect? And more specifically, does this mean I’m not allowed to ask for help or someone will think I don’t “know my stuff”?

The answer to all those questions are a resounding No and here’s my reply:

I’m not at all concerned about who knows I’m having issues selling this particular ebook. I’m very honest with everything I do online.

Just because I’m not doing as well selling this ebook as I would like to be certainly does not mean that I don’t know how to run an online business nor does it mean that I’m not successful – it’s quite the opposite.

I’m also by no means saying that I’ve not sold any … my problem is that I’ve not sold as many as I would have liked to. With my conversion – it’s easy for me to see that there is a need for improvement.

If this ebook was about “how to write a sales page” then yeah, I would hope people would think twice before buying my ebook. Give me a sponsor ad to write, even a solo ad or signature line to write – I’m your gal. Need an article, ebook or report written – again, I can show you how to do that too.

These types of sales pages just aren’t my “thing”. What I do know how to do is everything listed in that ebook – how? Because it’s what I’ve been doing and succeeding at for the past 7 almost 8 years.

So for those of you that don’t feel as though you’re expert OR you do feel as though you are but are afraid to ask a question because you’re afraid that someone will feel as though you’re not as smart as you thought you were .. no worries. You don’t need to know everything.

By the way, I have a feeling as soon as I get a chance to implement some of the tips shared with me, asking for a review is going to end up being one of the best things I’ve done

Yep, for about the last week, I’ve decided that I’ve not only been pretty sheltered being a part of the Work at Home Network/Community but I also intend to stay there!

From my other posts, most of you are aware that I’ve been involved with the BETA of Pay Per Play.  Well, in doing so, I joined the Pay-Per-Play Forums.  Made sense to me – I would learn more about PPP, share ideas with other members and well, maybe I would open up my network of friends a bit.  Hmm … after my experience there, I don’t believe I will be making that opening too big to say the least. 

I have NEVER seen a bunch of adults acting the way they were there.  NEVER!  Nor was I ever treated as poorly as I was from other members on the PPP Forums.

Long story short, there were some issues right before the planned official launch of Net Audio Ads on February 1st.  To be honest with you … strictly my own opinion but I honestly believe someone got cold feet at the last moment – and for good reason.  They have … I don’t even know exactly how many affiliates … but it’s in the thousands.  Well, at the last minute someone decided – whoa – do you think it’s a good idea to start this launch wiht these thousands of affiliates all starting to play ads at once?  they were afraid of it crashing the system launching like that.  So, they decided to do a ’soft launch’ … playing the ads on only so many sites to start.  That way if there was a bug, since they ARE in BETA … it could be caught much more quickly.

Makes total sense to me … I mean even WE did a soft launch for MyWahmSpace.com.  We’re not even comparing apples to oranges there.   No where near in size – and not really money involved – except the money we paid for the program.  Oh and to top it off … they still had a couple of bugs after they started the soft launch.  (Heck, we’re still dealing with bugs at MyWahmSpace.com.)  So yeah, they had to take good care of their advertisers money.  Loose the advertisers and you have nothing.  Again, yeah, makes perfect sense to me.  Others apparently just didn’t see it that way.

So anyway, this last minute decision apparently ticked off a lot of people.  Right away people started screaming scam, saying how they were mislead in telling them that the launch day was to be 2/1 yadda, yadda, yadda …

Well first of all .. and the most important thoughts here … They are in BETA.  Everyone knew when they joined that PPP was in BETA.  And what does BETA mean?  BETA means … we’re testing.  So of course things like this are going to happen, right?  Ha, yeah right.  These people thought this program should have taken off immediately - smooth sailing from there on out.  Good dream people!  Wish I could exist in your perfect world.

Secondly … the launch DID start.  They just started it more slowly.  They were being cautious for pete’s sake!

So what do people start doing?  You’re gonna love this.  Some people that had ads playing started posting links to their pages so people could hear the ads!  Oh my gosh!?!  What could possibly be going through some people’s heads?  I’ll never know.

That’s like starting a PPC campaign w/ adsense and giving everyone links to their ads telling them to click the ads.  Hello people!  I bet the advertisers would LOVE that!!  Dare I say it?  Moron!!

Then there were issues with the stats.  (Yeah, I could go on and on about these people!)  Net Audio ads was telling us, no you cannot see your ads yet on your stats page but don’t worry … the system is still gathering the information.  You will see this as soon as the stats pages are back up.  Of course all these people didn’t believe this and yep, you guessed it … screaming scam again.

Turns out … and I can prove this with my own stats … Once the stats came back up, they WERE gathering information the entire time they were down.  I know this because at the time, I was strictly monitoring my own traffic/sign ups etc.  At the time, nothing was “live” on my site (where you could visit the pages from within my site).  I was only telling a few people about the affiliate program and was only giving the page to a couple of people.  I knew exactly who went and who signed up.  Yep, my stats showed this.

Okay and now here’s why I will be much more careful if I ever participate in BETA program again (and I’m sure I will.)

So there’s all these complaints, negativity, people NOT reading the updates … just plain old ball-babying.  I actually refer it to a two year old going through terrible twos throwing a temper tantrum.  I am serious … this is really how these people were behaving (yes, I say behaving just like we would to a child).

There’s a group of us who are willing to do exactly what we signed up for … taking the BETA ride.  Knowing that there will be issues w/ anything in BETA.  We started replying with things like:  “Hey guys, don’t forget we’re in BETA.”  “Be patient, things will come.”  “This is BETA and things like this are bound to happen.”  “Whats all the complaining about?  They did launch.”  “Just think what it’s going to be like when this really takes off and we’re a part of the beginning.”  “Wouldn’t you have loved to have been a founding member of adsense?”  Yadda, yadda, yadda…

Wow!  Was that the wrong way to go!  Being positive was definitely NOT welcome there!  Anyone who replied with a positive comment on a negative post got flamed big time.  They even resorted to name calling.  I know because another gentleman and I personally was called an (Excuse me here…) an a$$ kisser  :shock: 

the kissA## posters that is not in the incrowd or even in the know how that is bucking 4 board admin or some damage control persone makes me sick and right now i would rather hear those complainers than some kissA## that don’t know what they are saying .

Yep, that’s just an example of the maturity we were dealing with.  Heck, I didn’t even know there was an “in crowd” there.  Now I’m bummed because apparently I’m not in the “in crowd”  :cry:  

Then people started complaining and saying that they were going to leave the program.  After being bashed and flamed … my thoughts were (and excuse me again …)  … buddy, don’t let the door hit ya where the good Lord split ya.  Sorry but year, that was beginning to be my mentality at that point. 

I mean really … who was FORCING them to stay?  If you’re not happy then simply leave and let us who know the bugs will be fixed be fine w/out you.

This post is beginning to get long … sorry … I was worried about that, lol!

Myself and a few others decided to just completely ignore the negative posts … don’t reply.  If they don’t have anyone to complain to then eventually they’re be quiet.  We even started making positive posts.  Although, we still had to be careful.  Seriously, the subject line of one of my posts was … Goals with PPP?  (Please no BAD Comments!)

So then finally more and more people start getting ads to play.  Posts are even beginning to start on the forums w/ people listing the revenue they’re earning.  I’m thinking good … Finally .. we’re getting through the bumpy part and those negative people who decided to stick around aren’t going to have anything to complain about anymore.  We get this awesome blog post alert saying Revenue is Rolling … wanna see the first reply?  I kid you not … the very first reply:

yeah I have made a whole $.86. What a joke this is. Feel free to delete this comment but I am sorry to say this is nothing more than a waste of time.

 Ugh!  I give up!! ROFL!  I just cannot waste my time or feed into anymore of the negativity.  I’ve taught myself to completely overlook the negative posts/replies and move forward.

This guy is talking about the very first day ad were playing on his site.  Does anyone remember when they first placed adsense on their site?  Did you make $.86 in a week?  Not alone one day!?!?  And this is coming from a company that is not even close to being up to full take off!!  Sorry … went off there for a moment.

Oh and as I was chatting around w/ some of the non-negative members … I’m finding that this is COMMON during BETA’s??  ICK!  I’m sure this is not going to be the last BETA program I ever participate in.  I think I’ll just stick w/ the facts straight from the company and totally forget about networking w/ other members until things are running smoothly.  Well, either that or be VERY careful of the posts I read and the people I talk with, lol!

I really have had a lot of faith in the Net Audio Ads/PPP program but of course I too was being on the cautious side.  Just being careful until I started seeing things fall in to place.  Now that I am … I’m gaining more and more faith … making it easier for me to promote.  I even signed up this morning to begin selling advertising.  I truely believe that Pay Per Play audio advertising is going to be as well-known and well-used as Google Adsense … and I’m thrilled to be a core member!  (Ha, now I’ve spoken my peace too!  LOL!)

Later!

I got an email a few weeks ago from someone wanting to advertise on Idea Queen. I was actually pretty excited about this, because I already know what certain pages are worth and here was someone contacting ME to discuss pricing.

I think I’m a pretty fair person, but I also know what I can get out of my own advertisements (aka Adsense and affiliate links). I have several years worth of stats to back this up, so if you want an ad you had better be prepared to pay me what Google does (and actually, it’s going to be less than what you’d be paying THEM to advertise because I only get a cut of what it costs the advertisers).

So I’m excited about this, hoping it’s going to turn some of my traffic into instant cash. I shot an email back asking which pages in particular so I could pull the stats. What I got back wasn’t what I expected.

Apparently they already had their own price in mind for some specific blog posts (which just HAPPEN to rank very well and each pull in several visitors a day to the blog). The price was down right insulting, and what’s worse it was a ONE TIME fee they wanted to pay. The price? $10 per page. A whole $60 TOTAL (remember they wanted to only pay this ONE TIME and get a life time listing) for 6 ads on 6 different pages.  We are talking an average of several hundred views a month for their ad. Forever.

Now just to give you an idea of what this is REALLY worth, take this into consideration. On average I make $4 for ever 1,000 page views on any given page. That’s average is a little low too, and I’m talking about just adsense, not affiliate links. What they were offering I could make MORE in adsense in a year than what they would pay me.

I actually do not even use Adsense on my blog, but occasional posts with affiliate links. This does MUCH better for me than Adsense, since I get more than just a few pennies a click. I do not go overboard with it though, and keep the posts to a minimum (maybe one a week or two). Whenever I DO post, it pulls in several affiliate sales immediately. It also keeps pulling them in long after the post drops.

Now if I were to put these ads up, my affiliate income WOULD suffer slightly. Instead of clicking MY ad or areas of my site, the other ad may get clicked. Which is kind of the idea of a offering advertising on your site – you are getting paid for that space, so it’s not a big deal. But when YOUR income potential is greater than what they are offering, that’s a BAD DEAL.

Also I feel the need to point out what kind of weight a link on a blog holds. They are getting a boost in the search engines from where their link sits. Using my blogs weight to boost their own. YES that deserves compensation, and YES I know this is what of what they are after (or else they wouldn’t have picked my blog and the pages they did).

Anyway, I had to get this off my chest because I was just floored how little respect was given to my site. They know darn well my income potential is more than what they offered me, but I know they were hoping I didn’t. Sorry, I’ve been around too long to accept that little of payment for something that could earn me 10 times as much.

I repeat … this is NOT Spam!

This ticks me off so badly that I even created a new category just for it! (We have a new Just Venting category here!)
Excuse me while I vent here a moment …

Ugh, there is nothing I hate more than a Spam Complaint from Aweber! It drives me absolutely crazy! First of all, every single one of our newsletters are Double Opt In. So, let’s review here … what does Double Opt In mean? Well, simply put moron … you didn’t just subscribe once but you subscribed twice! How did you subscribe twice you say? Well, first YOU entered your email address into our little subscription box. Then, I don’t even have your email address as of yet. I don’t even know YOU entered it. Because, the system keeps it all to themselves until YOU confirm it. How do YOU confirm it? Well you see my dear, YOU will get a confirmation email in YOUR email account (which by the way is still your little secret) and YOU have to PHYSICALLY click on the link. OR futhermore, those of you with those little ole AOL accounts – those of you that are twice as fast to hit that spam button usually have to physically COPY AND PASTE the stinking confirmation link meaning you have to do more than just click! (No offense to you good AOLers, lol!)

So, just a little piece of information for ya … YOU subscribed basically twice. (Oops, did I say that already?) But, here’s the kicker … did you even read what you were signing up for? So, these email addresses that you’re holding near and dear and cryign that you’ve been spammed …. you would think that you would REALLY READ what you were getting.

If you sign up to a newsletter that says you’re going to get a recipe once a week. Oh my gosh, guess what you’re going to get? I bet you’re going to get a recipe once a week in your email account!

If you sign up for weekly updates on a website offering new products, specials ect, guess what? That’s what you’re going to get!

And if you sign up for weekly articles with an occassional special … Now I don’t have to tell you what you’re going to get, do I? Wow, amazing how that works, isn’t it?

Okay, now that this is off my chest … dang it, I get so irritated when someone accuses us of spam!! What the heck more do they possible want? And here’s the kicker … one of our newsletters, which we already give them a heads up that they’re going to get the occasional special, they don’t hit the spam button when it’s a special, oh no, they do it when we’ve sent out a freaking article!! It would still tick me off if they did it when a special came out but nah, we get them on your average newsletter day

And the one I love the most (sorry Kara, lol!) is when we get a spam complaint for Kara’s newsletter from RecipesForMom.com. Click on that link. No seriously, please do. What do you see right smack dab in the middle of the page? I bet I know what you see, does it look a little something like this:

Weekly Recipes Receive free recipes in your inbox every week! Name: Email:

Weekly Recipes
Receive free recipes in your inbox every week!

Oh my God, what the heck do you think you’re going to receive??? You’re going to get a free recipe in your email account every single week!! Don’t hit the freaking spam button if you don’t want them anymore … hit the danged UNSUBSCRIBE LINK at the bottom of every single issue!! Now you see why I say ALWAYS use Double Opt In? Save yourself from those who can’t read!

Phew, I feel better now, how bout you?