A Tale of 2 WAHMs

Summer is sneaking up on us. We’ve got less than a month left of school here, and the kids will be finding new ways to drive me absolutely crazy.

I’m sure I’m not alone here, and my tips will only get me so far.  So I’m interested in hearing YOUR ideas for how you balance work and home, specifically during the summer months. Homeschooling and business tips would also be helpful, since we may be homeschooling my oldest next year (I’ve had enough battles with the school, I really am at my breaking point!).

All the tips will be put together in an article, or possibly a free ebook if we get enough. So be sure to send them in either in comments here, or to contact <at> directsaleshelpers.com .

Looking forward to seeing your tips!

This is a plugin that I’ve wanted to add for some time now.  I believe a long time ago when we added a bunch of plugins we added something similar but it didn’t work well :(  This one came highly recommended as well as I use it one someone else’s blog often so cross your fingers!

Now you’re able to check a box before leaving a comment that will give you email notifications of any future comments.  According to the plugin site, this is to be one of the most popular WP plugins available mainly because it “helps foster a community around your blog by encouraging commentors to come back and stay engaged in the dialog”.  I can see exactly how this would happen!

The name of the plugin is Tempus Fugit and if you’re interested in seeing the rest of the features or downloading it yourself, click here.

We’re in the process of testing it … please let us know if you have any problems with it!

Free and low cost advertising comes in all different shapes and form. It’s not limited to a text ad here or a banner there. There are all kinds of different ways to market your business online, which we plan to outline here.

Free Advertising

SEO
The best free advertising out there comes from organic listings in search engines. There is no better way to drive quality traffic to your site than from Google, Yahoo, and MSN. This is no quick fix though - it’s hard work! Don’t think you can submit your site real quick and get any results. If you are serious about getting 100% free quality advertising, then you’ll need to learn SEO.
See Cricket’s SEO class.

Submit Ideas & Tips
Idea Queen is a large resource site that’s always looking for content. When you submit your ideas, stories, crafts, and other tips they appear on the site or blog with a link back to your site.
See Free Advertising at Idea Queen.

Submit Products for Reviews
Another great way to get the word out about your products is to send to places which offer product reviews. Mom’s Market is one of the sites completely dedicated to this type of advertising.
See Mom’s Market Online.

Directory Listings
Not only do directory listings help with extra exposure to your site, but they also help with SEO as well. The largest directory you want to be absolutely sure you submit to is Dmoz. If you do a quick search for directories on your nice you can easily find others to submit to.

Modest Clothing Directory also has free advertising available. There is an option to sign up to their newsletter for more advertising ideas and suggestion from the site.

Low Cost Advertising

Not everything in life is free, and it’s true for marketing as well. To get the best exposure and SEO rankings, sometimes you have to spend a little money. The following are sites which offer several forms of low cost advertising for your business.

A Tale of 2 WAHM - Yup, we had to mention the blog here! If you look off to the side, you’ll see our “Top Spots” listings. Add your link to the list for a little bit of nothing. It’s a great way to get a little extra exposure for a very small cost.

Idea Queen - Focused on targeted advertising with several different options available. Home page and section advertising included. On the Idea Queen blog, there is also the “top site” list like there is here. Very cheap links!

Mommy’s Helper Online - Features home page advertising, specific page advertising, and several other options. Targets moms in business or looking for a business.

WAHM Team - Target audience is men and woman who have a home business or are starting one. Currently receives about 3,000 unique visitors a month. Prices for advertising range from $3 up to $30. Includes both website and ezine advertising.

My Adorable Smile - If you have a family friendly site to advertise, this site would be perfect. Currently receives around 3,000 unique visitors a month, and the target market is moms with very young children. Prices for advertising range from $2 up to $20.

Towle Creations - Several sites offering advertising are listed here. All are geared towards women, mothers, work-at-home moms and potential work-at-home moms. Prices start at $3.50. Spend some time looking closely at all the options listed - there’s quite a few different options!

There’s enough on this list to at least get you started!

Once in awhile I’ll spot a post or two on my favorite blogs I just have to share. Well this is  not just one blog post, but a whole series of posts.

I’m very impressed with the new series “Be a Better Blogger” by Lynn Terry. She’s been posting a new tip daily and going into detail on how you can be a better blogger. I just started today with the first in the series - Write a Better About Me Page. This post explains the series, how she’s got them listed, and of course gives you some tips to start with.

I’ll be following this one to the end of the month, and I’m excited to see what she comes up with for a full 31 days!

Just a quick update here …

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask!

Something is different on the blog today, can you guess what?

If you spotted the new widget off to the left side, you were right! It’s similar to a tip jar, except you get a link back for your donation. A little advertising and exposure is good, right? Plus it’s super cheap!

Links are set on “auto bump” right now, which means your link stays there until it gets bumped off.  Not a bad deal, eh?

So if you feel so inclined to give us a tip for the resources you find on this site, we’ll give you a link back. Win-win for everyone!  :smile:

Remember Jonathan Ledger?  He’s the one who had first created the infamous $7 Secrets Program.  Well he’s come up with another great product - a free SEO report - Search Engine Myths Exposed.  Jon’s free report exposes the following myths:

Myth #1: Google Knows All and Sees All
Myth #2: Google Will Not Rank Duplicate Content
Myth #3: You Must Get Links From Related Subject Sites to Rank
Myth #4: Your Site Must Focus On One Subject To Rank
Myth #5: High PageRank Means Good Rankings
Myth #6: To Maintain Good Rankings, You Must Add New Content

Another great thing about this report though is, you can make money on this report on two tiers.  You’ll earn $.25 each time someone downloads the free report with your link AND when anyone in your immediate downline has someone sign up with their link, you’ll also earn $.25 each. 

It’s a great read and it’s free - how hard is that?

BUT … here’s the catch … yeah, there’s always a but and there’s always a catch, lol!  This report is only available through Valentine’s Day (February 14th) so there’s no time to waste - that’s only a matter of days.  You need to download your copy of the free report, read it and recommend it to others - Now! 

Grab your copy here:
Search Engine Myths Exposed

Enjoy!

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!

Have you heard about Pay Per Play yet?

A quick overview is this …
Publishers sign up as an affiliate, place a small piece of javascript on a page (or more if they choose) of their website or blog.  Every time a new visitor visits a page with the code on it, they hear a quick 5 second advertisement.  The program is similar to Google Adsense in the fact that first you get paid every time the ad is played and two, the ads are set to “fit your content”. 

However, the difference from adsense is with adsense, visitors need to click on an ad for you to get paid and we don’t know exactly how adense is “figured” for your pay (for lack of better phrase).  With PPP, publishers are paid every time the ad is played and you know you’re going to get 25% of what the advertiser pays.  No guessing there.

My first initial reaction was … Hmm … nah, that’ll do nothing but annoy my visitors.  Well luckily PPP has an excellent sales pages which enticed me enough to at least sign up and find out more.  The sales page also had sample ads to listen to and had a sample ad I could play on a sample page of my website so I could see exactly how it sounds/works.  I finally decided that no, I don’t think it will annoy my visitors. 

I have no intentions of placing the code on every single page of my website - which is a guarantee annoyance in my opinion.  I plan on putting it on a few select pages and the way I predict it (for my own site) is that most of my visitors will only hear one ad per visit to my website.

The reason I decided to join first then read more later is because for one reason … the way I like to research and test things properly is to actually be a part of it.  The second reason is that while they’re in BETA and until they reach a certain number of members, all new members are a part of the “core members” group. 

Core members are able to refer new members and build a downline of two levels.  So, if I did decide to go through with it, I would not only earn 25% for myself but also 5% of what the advertiser pays in two levels.  Again, they’re only allowing so many core members so I didn’t want to take a chance of not signing up in time to become a core member (if I’m going to do it … I’m going to do it right, lol!) 

Once they have reached the maximum number of core members , people will still be able to join, they just won’t be able to build a downline.  I figured … let’s at least get in there as a core member and then take it from there.

So I gave you all that info to get to the real point of my post here …
Is Pay Per Play the next Google Adsense - Embarking on a new way of advertising online
or ….
Is it a scam?

First of all … from what I’ve read/seen … my own personal opinion is no, it’s not a scam.  I do not have any proof as of yet to say this for sure is not a scam but I will say I have a really good feeling and I feel fairly confident in saying so.  I think it’s an absolutely fantastic opportunity from both ends … the affiliate AND the advertier. 

I strongly believe that this is just the beginning of a great new way to advertise AND make money online.

However, there seems to be quite a few nay sayers out there.  Apparently Net Audio Ads has a pretty poor reputation from the past.  I’ll be honest … I’ve never even heard of Net Audio Ads or PPP until just recently so as far as how true that all is … I really can’t say.  Apparently from what I’ve been reading, they attempted either the same thing or something similar in the past and it failed.

Well, again my own opinion but I’m certainly for second chances.  I’d like to borrow something Rick London of http://article.affiliatesuccessbuilder.com/  “If everyone was a blinding success the first time with everything they did; I don’t think there would be much left for anyone to discover or profit from it in the future …”

I mean seriously, have YOU succeeded in everything you’ve attempted - especially the first time?

One thing I have picked up about all the “past”.  They have certainly made one major change that makes me feel even better and more positive about this.  They have the backing of one of the top 5 search engines this time ;)  This particular search engine has required to keep themselves un-disclosed until after the BETA (can ya blame them?)  Well like I said, we’re not being told as of yet WHO this search engine is but … I have my own opinion (please note - MY OPINION)  Let’s put it this way …

What major search engine is this going to be in direct competition with?  What major search engine would be VERY smart to join forces … and quite frankly quite stupid to NOT do so, lol?

Again, there is NO proof to back that statement up - NONE.  That’s my OWN PERSONAL OPINION (just covering my own rear there )

I myself have decided to continue as a core member.  I’ve placed a couple of ads on my site and have done a minimal bit of advertising.  Actually, I can’t even call what I’ve done as advertising.  I’m sharing with my readers at places such as here, on my message boards and MyWahmSpace.com.  As far as “advertising” goes or putting anymore than a little bit of time … I’ve not done that.  I also have chosen not to do so until after they’re out of BETA.

Any company, any opportunity … heck even a BETA email system ALWAYS has it’s chances.  There’s always a chance it could all crash and burn.  (I hope like heck it doesn’t of course, lol) But when you participate in ANY BETA program, you should ALWAYS take precaution.  You should invest (if anything) a minimum amount of money and time.

As I said above, the reason I jumped was because first of all … I really do have a good feeling about this.  Of course I can’t go full force into something just because I had a “gut feeling” but I do tend to listen to my gut  ;)  Secondly, as I said … if this takes off the way it’s predicted to … Oh my gosh!  Being a core member is a VERY good place to be sitting to say the least.  And guess what?  I wanna be there!  Imagine this … what would give now to have been a “core member” when Google Adsense first started?

And this is the reason I decided to share with my friends here on our blog and a couple other hand-selected places is because …  First of all, I know every single one of our readers are already making money OR are trying to make money online.  Most of you already know how simple Google Adsense is … you place a code and you’re done.  This is just the same, except you get paid for every visitor to whatever page you choose to place the code.  For a change, you’re actually paid for your traffic.

So here’s my recommendation … if you’re even slightly interested … join now.  Join now so you too can get in as a core member.  However, please also take my advice and do move ahead with caution!  This program is in BETA - and as I said, with BETA, you are taking the risk that it may fail.  It’s free to join so if that’s all you do until they’re out of beta and fully running … no harm no foul. 

You could also take it a step further and place the code on one single page of your website.  It takes all of five minutes out of your time.  Then you will be able to test it even further without much investment.  So, if the worst case senerio happens … you’re out what?  A whole 10 minutes (including sign up time).

But look at it this way … if this does take off … you’ll be sitting in a vey nice position and will be able to not only make money on your traffic but also the traffic of your downline.  Is it worth ten minutes of your time? 

Oh … you can sign up at http://www.mommyshelperonline.com/pay-per-play.html

You can hear a sample ad at http://www.mommyshelperonline.com/start-your-own-home-business2.html 
(Please Note:  That is a SAMPLE ad.  I do NOT earn a commission if you click the link.  PPP ads are also going to match your content - that ad, being a sample ad does not.)  Not annoying at all, is it?

And just one more thing before I go.  I DO have a bit of an ulterior motive here too.  If this DOES take off the way it’s predicted … I NEED as many work at home mom sites playing these ads as possible because once they’re out of BETA, I’m not only going to be a publisher … I’m going to be an advertiser and I want my ad playing on YOUR site!

A long time ago I created an entire section at my work at home mom site on affiliate marketing.  I did reviews on a number of different affiliate programs and providers.  I researched both pay per click and pay per lead as well as pay per sale so I could create this section.  Of course, the best way to research a program is to join them and see for yourself. 

The progams and providers that I liked the most are the ones that I’m still with today.  At one time Google Adsense and Affiliate Fuel were my two highest paying out programs.  However, lately Share A Sale has been by far my highest paying provider.  We’re talking getting close to matching what I made in advertising sales on my work at home mom website.  I’ve actually been able to count on a check from month to month - more than I can expect from Adsense or Affiliate Fuel.  Anyway, I’ve been wanting to share this with our readers for quite some time now. 

One way you can earn with Share a Sale is by referrals.  You receive $1.00 for each person who signs up under you.  (And trust me, those one dollars add up rather quickly.)  Then on top of that, you also earn a commission on any sales that referral makes.  So yeah, I’ll be honest …  of course I want you to sign up under me as well as I want you to make money, lol  ;) The other way to make money is by choosing from the over 2,000 merchants listed with them.  Share a Sale offers real time reporting and on time payments.  (I haven’t ever had to wait for my payment - even when I wasn’t expecting one, lol!)

There are currently over 2,000 Merchants plugged in to the Shareasale.com network. Each of these merchants has a different type of product that they are selling - and each is ready to give you a commission on that sale if you bring a customer to them. The idea - and the implementation - are simple. You decide which merchants to promote - your information is hidden to Merchants before you apply for any program - so no SPAM for you. You decide how to promote that Merchant - using your web traffic, email newsletters and other tools that you have. When commissions are generated, you can see your stats in real-time. All payments are consolidated from the programs you participate in, and are paid with one check by Shareasale.com. All payments from Merchants are taken up-front, to ensure that your commissions will always be paid to you.

Oh and I truly mean absolutely no hype here what-so-ever because frankly, I hate hype but … Share a Sale has been the absolutely easiest affiliate provider I have yet to deal with - I’ve really not had to do much at all. Can you imagine what I’ll be making once I really put it to work? LOL Yeah, that’s what I’m thinking too

So now what do you do?
- - -> Click here to join Share a Sale
- - -> Recommend it to your website visitors  (and watch your dollars add up too)
- - -> Choose a couple of merchants from the list of over 2,000 who match your website
- - -> And you too can enjoy the monthly checks!

Oh and if you need some help with how to best promote the merchants you choose, feel free to visit our Affiliate Marketing Information Network