School Starting Already?
I really shouldn’t complain. The kids going back to school means I have time to work. Much needed quiet time without hearing “MOOOOOM! Make him STOP!” or any pointless arguments. I’ve really had enough of the daily battles, and I hate to say it, but I’m looking at the school as a really cheap babysitter that I can’t wait to dump my kids on.
One thing that still bothers me though is how early the kids are going back to school. They went so far last May as to extend the school day to make up for all the snow days we missed (and it was a HORRIBLE winter - I think in all we ended up with 7 or 8 snow days). A half hour total tacked on every day for the last month or so, just so they could get out of school by the end of May. Which would have seemed great to me when I was in school, except I knew that we didn’t have to go back until the very last week of August.
This year our kids go back the 18th, but I’ve heard others saying they are already back. Are you SERIOUS? August is still summer in every sense of the term. Here in Iowa it’s hot as hell, humid, and no comfortable activities except swimming can be done during the month of August. Yet here we are, going back with two weeks left in the month.
The thing that makes the least amount of sense to me is how a lot of the schools around here still lack air conditioning. Because of that fact, they end up letting school out 2 hours early the first 2 or 3 weeks. Yet in June it’s not that hot at all, but they push so hard to get them out. In fact ,the first week or two of June it’s not even warm enough to swim!
So why are they doing this? It’s no wonder our school our failing - we are seriously shortening the amount of time they are going to school AND the amount of time they can actually learn. Trust me on this one, I went to an elementary school without air, and after noon recess the only thing you could think about was trying to keep cool. You don’t learn a thing when you are hot and uncomfortable.
It just doesn’t make any sense to me in the least. If they absolutely must give our kids a measly 10 weeks of summer vacation, let’s start it in mid-June and run to September. Or better yet, let’s ditch the 180 day rule all together with. Did you know the state only requires a child be in a school setting for 148 days? So where did we pick up the extra 32? Dang, that’s more than a month we are sending our kids to school without the law requiring it.
I think what bothers me the most is the fact we have all these “extra” days off school. At least once a month there’s a “teacher’s workshop”, then all the pointless holidays you can think of. That puts the working parent in a serious tough spot when they have to make other arrangements for daycare. Unlike the summer when they can actually plan for weeks ahead of time, having random days in the middle of the school year can be a serious problem.
I just don’t get it, and it makes me mad. I feel like summer is being robbed from my kids and they are getting days off in the middle of the winter where they can’t do anything outside. The nation has put this big emphasis on getting kids outside to play, yet then we turn around and force them inside. HUH? Please someone explain it to me!
Topics: Mom Stuff | No Comments »
Where Did Kara Go?
Sadly I think I’m the only one asking this question to myself right now. I don’t think too many are looking for me, except earlier this summer during the Iowa floods when a few had to email me to make sure I still had a home. Our area, thank goodness, was not effected. I can’t say the same for 10 miles north, but that’s another story.
No, I think I’ve been hiding for so long that no one seems to worry when I’m in hide-mode for a month or two. In fact, some may be saying “oh, there were TWO that were posting on this blog? Huh! Go figure!”.
Yeah I know, I’ve become quite the unknown person online.
== End Self Pity Section ==
The reason for this post wasn’t to wine that no one misses me….nah, I’m a big girl. I don’t care that much. Can’t be missed if you are never around in the first place! HA!
What I did want to talk about though, just in case anyone was keeping track, where I’ve been…..
First off, it’s been a very crazy summer. In between endless running and “stuff to do”, I’ve barely been by the computer. Not to say I haven’t been here every day (I think I’d freak out completely if I had no computer for even one full day). I just haven’t had a lot of time to actually “work” (you know, the thing you do with your time that MAKES you money).
But when I have been around, I’ve been doing something a bit unexpected. I haven’t been building websites or marketing my businesses. I’ve been writing. No, not articles. BOOKS. Come on you remember - those paper things we had before the internet. Come to find out, people still read them. And I couldn’t come up with one good reason not to write one. I mean, I’ve been wanting to do this since I was a kid, so why not now?
It was really time for a change for me. I didn’t exactly enjoy what I was doing as much as I should have, and I’m no where near I thought I would be financially. Not to say I don’t make money online, just not as much as I’d like. The drive is just - gone - and I have no desire to force myself to do anything anymore. Yeah, it was time for a big change, and becoming an author was it.
So I’m happy to say that in the 2-3 months I’ve been pretty much MIA, I’ve managed to actually write a teen novel. Yes an entire novel is complete, and is now in the editing stage. Next comes finding an agent which will probably be as much work as it took to write it, possibly more. That’s alright though, I’m chasing my dream 100% for once in my life, and I couldn’t be happier. I actually have another book in the works that I’ve got a plot for, with a few other ideas (one for a children’s series that I’m rather hopeful about….they don’t call me the Idea Queen for nothing!).
So just in case you were wondering where I’ve been, there’s your answer. I’ve been working to become a successful author. 
Topics: Mom Stuff | No Comments »
Direct Sales Helpers for Sale
No, this is not a late April Fool’s joke (unlike the time we said Mommy’s Helper was for sale….tee hee). After 3 years and a whole lot of work, we’ve decided it’s time to sell DirectSalesHelpers.com. Not just the site either, but the entire business. We’ve decided to go in different directions online, so we’re giving someone else the chance to run the site.
With the sale of the site you’ll get:
- Domain name “DirectSalesHelpers.com” and also “DirectSalesSuccessKit.com”
- All pages and content you see on site
- 800+ Subscription list (double-opt in subscribers, newsletter is weekly)
- 80+ Direct sales Articles
- Exclusive rights to the following books and ebooks:
*Direct Sales Success Kit (digital and book - value $29.95)
*Team Training Articles (digital - value $9.99)
*Online Party Success (digital - value $9.99)
*Number Crunching Make Easy (digital - value $14.95)
*Offline Event Kit (digital - value $9.95)
(Book and ebooks do NOT have resell rights on them. They have not been previously sold for resell, only sold at retail)
- Free Ebooks:
*ABC’s of Marketing
*Choosing Your Business
- Free Viral Mini Courses:
*Money Saving Mini Series (119 subscribers)
*Reinvesting Into Your Business Mini Series (67 subscribers)
- Affiliate program in place through PayDotCom.com:
*(http://www.directsaleshelpers.com/affiliate.html)
*Direct Sales Success Kit - 27 affiliates promoting
*Online Part Success - 9 affiliates promoting
*Number Crunching Made Easy - 5 affiliates promoting
*Make More Sales with Offline Events - 5 affiliates promoting
*Direct Sales Success (in print) - 10 affiliates promoting
- 2 Affiliate Centers:
*http://www.directsaleshelpers.com/affiliate-center.html
*http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/dsh-affiliates/
(Many text and graphic creatives for affiliates as well as the ecourses are set up for the affiliates to give away.)
———————————–
Income Information:
———————————–
2005 - $1900 (from April)
2006 - $1950
2007 - $3300
2008 - $550 (January - June)
$2500/year average
Sources:
- Weekly newsletter with general Direct Sales article and small link to product pages
- Special announcements on sales and discounts, plus new products
- General traffic
General Information:
- Site has no ads at all, and has no “featured” spots for sale of any kind.
- All income is from sales of ebooks and books
- Largest income source from announcements to the list (included in sale of site)
- Best income around Christmas with discounts on book and ebooks
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Visitors:
—————————————
July 2008 - 1328 unique visitors
Over 40 visitors a day average
*Visitors from Newsletter and Article Traffic, plus referrals. Very few (less than 10%) from network marketing. We do very, very little network marketing for this site.
—————————————-
Newsletter List
—————————————-
- Currently 866 confirmed subscriptions (as of August 2008)
- 62 confirmed subscription in July 2008
- Averages 2-3 new subscribers per day
- Average CTR of Sales Announcements: 10-20%
- Double opt-in subscribers through Aweber
- List was purged and moved in February 2007
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Marketing & Other Stats
—————————————–
- Around 80 different articles (included in sale) submitted on various article directories, each with links to the newsletter page.
- Over 9,000 incoming links according to Yahoo!
- 40 Pages indexed in Google
- Google PageRank 3
- Domain Age over 3 years old (Established 2/3/05)
- Website opened in April 2005
—————————
The offer price is $25,000.
Sound like something you might be interested in? If interested, you can email us at contact @ directsaleshelpers.com.
Topics: Business Stuff | No Comments »
This could be dangerous
Oh yeah - real dangerous for me, lol! I’m thinking maybe I need to start building sites solely for the purpose of selling them.
I’m almost ashamed to say I didn’t know how to set up a wordpress blog. I honestly can’t say I didn’t know how but more like I had never given it a try. I was too busy thinking it would be too “techy” for me. I always thought it would be much harder than what it actually is. (See what I get for doing something like thinking?) So, I always had a business partner install one for me or hire someone else.
Do you have the problem of not knowing how to install wordpress? (Or was I the only one left? lol!)
Anyway, thanks to some mentoring from a friend and business partner of mine, Val Selby of WorkingWahm.com I installed my first WP blog! That girl so needs to be an online business mentor!
It’s actually not going to be used as a blog this time though but rather as a content manager for a website. I was already well-aware as to how much simpler using a blog template to manage a website was but boy oh boy … WP blogs are about the coolest tool ever to build a website, isn’t it? I can honestly say they rock!
Wordpress really makes building a website so much easier.
I’m not quite ready to show off this site just yet because there’s too much that needs changed and I’m testing things which means creating a bunch of posts and pages just to delete them, lol. As soon as it’s ready to go, I’ll be sure to share.
The reason this is so dangerous for me though is because I love building websites - too much - and knowing how to install WP just made that task so much easier. The last thing I need to be doing is building sites every other day … good reason to start building just to sell them 
Topics: Blog & Website Reviews, Business Stuff, Resources for Your Business | 3 Comments »
New Article Directory that Pays You
Okay Anik Singal of AffiliateClassroom has made me one very happy person, lol!
If you personally ask me, I’d have to say the man is a genious! Anik has managed to take two of my favorite forms of marketing - affiliate marketing and article marketing - and mashed them together to create an absolutely knock-out article directory. (Not that you could tell by my past few articles about affiliate marketing are two of my favorite subjects, lol!)
First of all yes - just like the subject line says - this article directory pays you to submit your articles so others can pick them up and publish them. Now am I the only one who thinks that’s just the coolest thing? (Come on … I know I’m not the only internet marketing geek out there, lol!)
So the name of this new directory is AffSphere.com. There’s two really cool (must-see) videos on the site that explains it all but I did want to share a few of my own thoughts with you before you head over to watch them.
Honestly - I couldn’t wait for the videos to get finished so I could sign up. I’ve already submitted three of my most recent articles and since it’s 1:00 AM right now, I’m sure you can guess what I’ll be doing first thing tomorrow. Yep, I’ll be pulling out all of my other articles and submitting those as well. Of course, the more articles you submit, the more cash you can earn. (Ooh, I so like the idea of this, lol!) This is definitely not your typical article directory.
It’s very affiliate friendly, has 8 different ways for you to earn (watch the video for more details), and the articles are reviewed by humans. I personally prefer to wait a little longer to have my articles reviewed by humans - this way I’m guaranteed this is a quality directory with quality content.
With this directory you not only drive traffic to your website but it also allows you to share in their traffic by hosting your own adsense and banners directly on the site. You even earn a share of the adsense income made on any of your article pages.
By joining, you automatically become an Affsphere which means that any time someone joins AffSphere from any of your article pages, they’re automatically added to your downline. You will then get credit for all the submission activity they do - five levels deep. Plus, AffSphere will be offering courses in the future and you will earn a commission if anyone in your direct downline purchases one (lifetime commissions!)
Those are just a few reasons to submit as many articles as you can. (And have I mentioned this is all f*ree to join?)
Oh and I am absolutely amazed as to how many cateogries there are to choose from so you can find the best category for your articles. I’ll be honest with you - I get so tired of having to “settle” on a category just because it was as close as I could get to the category that I would prefer it to be under just because the directory doesn’t offer enough categories. I really don’t think I’ll have that problem with this directory.
Well I really could go on and on but like I said, it’s one o’clock in the morning here (after that now, lol) and I would like to head to bed - besides - I don’t want to risk the chance of this sounding like a bunch of hype (which is exactly what I end up doing when I get really excited about something, lol!). I think this was an awesome idea and I’m thrilled to be a part of it.
Not to mention, the videos on the site do an excellent job describing exactly how everything works - I might as well let them tell the story.
I’m gonna go to bed - you head on over to AffSphere, watch the video (click the banner at the top of the page) and then sign up. It’s free and you’re submitting articles to directories anyway (aren’t you?) So, why not make some additional cash with them too! So, you’re gonna sign up, right?
(And you’re going to let me know you think this is just as cool as I do. Don’t be afraid - admit you’re an internet marketing geek who likes to make m0ney too!)
So what are you waiting for? Head on over to AffSphere and grab your f*ree account now. I just know you’ll like it!
Topics: Affiliate Marketing, Article Marketing, Blog & Website Reviews, Business Stuff, Internet Marketing, Resources for Your Business | No Comments »
5 Strategies to Create Your Own Super Affiliate
Did you know you can create your own super affiliate? You sure can.
Contact, Contact, Contact …
Did I say contact? You need to be front and center of your affiliates minds constantly. Keep in touch on a regular basis and create new reasons often for them to promote your product and/or service.
Motivate, motivate, motivate …
Motivation runs a close second behind constant contact. There’s nothing more motivating than affiliate contests and recognition. Offering enticing prizes on a regular basis to recognize a job well done is a surefire technique to motivate your affiliates.
Offer many creatives …
By offering more creatives, you’re not only arming your affiliates with the tools they need but you’re also giving them a choice to pick and choose the creatives that fit them best. Encourage your affiliates to test various creatives to find the ones that work the best for them. You’ll also want to be sure to encourage them to edit the advertisements to add a personal touch. Be sure to use a variety of forms of creatives.
Train your affiliates …
You need to teach your affiliates how to sell your product and/or service. You’re the one who knows the best way to sell what you have to offer so teach it to your affiliates. Consider holding monthly seminars and other forms of training to keep your affiliates up to date with internet marketing skills.
Offer support, service and consultation …
Remind your affiliates regularly that they can come to you with any questions. Offer consultations to help them come up with an individualized plan of action. Offer a variety of forms of contact. By sharing your email address, instant messenger ids and phone number will help your affiliate feel more comfortable in contacting you the way they want to.
Use the above strategies like the bible of affiliate marketing and you too can turn your affiliates into super affiliates.
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Anita DeFrank & Val Selby of YourAffiliateManagers.com offer a full service solution to assist you in building and/or managing a successful affiliate program. Their goal is to recruit, motivate and communicate with you and your affiliates … meeting the needs of both the affiliates and the merchant … and bridging the gap between the two. Visit www.YourAffiliateManagers.com to obtain overall, maximum success with your affiliate program.
Topics: Affiliate Marketing | No Comments »
What is an Affiliate Manager?
Each affiliate manager service has their own set of services to offer but the general consensus is this: Someone who handles every aspect of your affiliate program. An affiliate manager can help you free your time to concentrate on other important aspects of your business such as product purchasing or creation, customer service, shipping as well as everything else needed done in order to run a successful business.
As I’ve said, each service has their own list of services that they offer but some things that one can do is affiliate recruiting (building you an entire sales force), motivate your affiliates to be more active, participate in training and consulting both the affiliate owner and your affiliates in order to create a knock-out affiliate program.
Depending on the manager that you choose, this person may install and set up your program as well as create a “one stop shop” for your affiliates to obtain everything they need in order to be a more successful affiliate.
The aspects of an affiliate program that most managers handle are crucial to your program. How well your affiliates and your program are taken care of could make or break your program. Dare I repeat myself? Crucial.
If you don’t take care of your program and your affiliates … your competition will. Long gone are the days that you simply set up a program, offer some links and asking some friends to promote your products.
With all the new software available making it much more simple, everybody and their brother has an affiliate program now. It’s become more of a competition to gather affiliates.
And let me tell you … affiliates are well aware of this. They now know they can search for the best programs available. They’re looking for not just the best commission plan … they’re looking for the programs with the best conversions. Best conversions come from who affiliates that are properly trained and armed with the proper material to get the job done.
Managing a successful program has become a full time job all in it’s own. Hence the creation of the affiliate manager position.
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Anita DeFrank & Val Selby of YourAffiliateManagers.com offer a full service solution to assist you in building and/or managing a successful affiliate program. Their goal is to recruit, motivate and communicate with you and your affiliates … meeting the needs of both the affiliates and the merchant … and bridging the gap between the two. Visit www.YourAffiliateManagers.com to obtain overall, maximum success with your affiliate program.
Topics: Affiliate Marketing, Business Stuff, Resources for Your Business | No Comments »
You must have confidence in yourself first
At one point I would have told you I didn’t care to write but did it anyway. Go back a few more years and I would have told you I despised writing.
I figured out what my problem was. My confidence level just wasn’t there. It’s amazing what a kind word from just one person can do.
While helping my inlaws get a cabinetry company off the ground, we created our own catalog. While we were creating it, I took on the job of doing a lot the writing - just because I was the only one who had any experience at all.
One look by my in laws and their jaws literally dropped - yes, literally. They had an idea of what I did online but never got into the details. They were just amazed out how nicely the wording came out (and I was too to be honest with you, lol)
Anyway they were just so shocked and had no idea I could write that they just fell all over themselves bragging it up - showed it off to all of our dealers and sales reps - just really made a big deal about it.
Ever since then - my writing has improved dramatically. For example, I recently built and launched a brand new website. I had a rough start - which turned out to be that I simply needed a break - but then eventually the words just came flowing out onto the pages!
It’s amazing what a few kind words and making someone who you respect and admire “proud” will do to your confidence. And when your confidence level is up - your work actually improves too!
It just goes to show that you MUST have confidence in yourself to do a good job and convince others that you do a good job as well!
Topics: Business Stuff | No Comments »
Conversation with a Not-So-Successful Affiliate Program Owner
Conversation with a Not-So-Successful Affiliate Program Owner
You have the product or service, you set up the affiliate program, you even got yourself a nice little group of affiliates and gave them all the tools they need. Or did you?
Yep, I sure did. I gave them everything they could possibly need. They have ten different sized graphic ads, five reports, three press releases, a ton of signature ads, classified ads of all sizes, blog posts, personal letters, and even a bunch of articles. They have everything they need.
So tell me then, if they have everything they need, why aren’t they making many sales?
When was the last time you contacted your affiliates?
Oh, that’s easy - my program is on auto-pilot! I have an email that automatically goes out to them as soon as they join. It’s a personalized welcome letter from me and it includes all the creatives I just mentioned. Other than that, it was about two months ago. I sent out a last minute free shipping weekend announcement.
That’s a pretty good start - but not good enough.
When was the last time you held an affiliate contest or another form of motivation?
Well, I’m so busy writing articles, creating new ad campaigns, updating my blog and taking care of my customers that I don’t usually have the time to do this. But, about six months ago, I did contact my top affiliate and raised her commission.
Good idea - but not enough.
When was the last time you held a special on your product or service just for your affiliates to promote?
When I held my free shipping weekend, I almost forgot to tell my affiliates but I did send them out a quick email first thing that Saturday morning.
Too little - too late.
Did you offer a new creative for your free shipping weekend?
No, I didn’t have the time so I told them just to use one of the creatives in their welcome email.
Nice reminder - but not enough.
Does any of this sound in the least bit familiar? Something tells me if you’re struggling with affiliate sales, it just may so. Long gone are the days that just setting up an affiliate program and offering some links is enough. Affiliate programs are no longer meant to be a ’set it and forget it’ program. Otherwise, you’ll be sitting there wondering what went wrong.
You have to be a constant reminder to your affiliates.
You have to train your affiliates how to sell and give them the appropriate tools to do so.
You need to create new creatives and promotions regularly. Give them something new to look forward to on a regular basis. Give them a reason to contact their customers.
You need to keep them motivated with contests and some form of recognition. Let them know they’re doing a good job.
You need to create a “one stop shop” to host all their affiliate needs such as all creatives, training materials, frequently asked questions and a way to keep in contact with you. Don’t make them dig out that welcome email - give them the link where they can find everything they need.
These people aren’t “just affiliates”. They are your partners in business, your personal sales team. Essentially, they are a part of a team - your team - so be sure to treat them as such.
Doing things such as what’s been mentioned are sure to transform you from the not-so-successful affiliate program owner to the I-can’t-keep-up-with-all-these-sales affiliate program owner.
Topics: Affiliate Marketing | 1 Comment »
One Task a Day Minimum
I’ve had a hell of a time keeping on track this summer, since we’ve got so many activities going on. Sure in the fall there’s stuff too, but at least when the kids are at school I’ve got the entire day to work. With them home all day, time has really been limited.
One thing I’ve managed to stick to is doing just one productive task a day. I may not be completely caught up on my email and I haven’t posted to any groups for who knows how long, but I do make at least one blog post a day on Idea Queen. This one simple blog post keeps my site fresh, and helps keep my SEO efforts in place. While the number of visitors hasn’t got up a whole lot, it has managed to keep steady through the slow summer. Once fall rolls around that site will be sitting pretty and hopefully do better than it did last year.
The point here is that no matter how busy you are, if you can get at least one productive task done a day your business will grow. Summer is a hard time for those of us online, since traffic is down and our own time is limited. But with even the slightest effort we can be in really good place come fall. 
Topics: Internet Marketing | No Comments »