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 Unknown Man Buy This at Allposters.com Are pictures really worth a thousand words? That is the question. Some people in the blogging sphere think that it helps with the success of your blog. I am not one of those bloggers. As I like to focus on what someone is writing about and not the way a person looks. Sometimes when we see pictures of people we become judgemental. Not all the time but many times we do. It is a natural feeling to wonder what someone looks like. I will admit to that, but is it necessary? We live in a image driven society. Pictures are everywhere. With cameras being in cell-phones you can take a picture of what you are doing 24/7. Many of these pictures that are being taken on many occasions should be kept to themselves. Why do people do it? I can only think of one reason and that is simply because they can. I have visited many blogs. Some had pictures of the bloggers and some didn't or if they did have a picture up it wasn't of them and I am okay with that. As I stated before I come to read their content not see what they look like. If the blogger's content is good I keep reading that blog and if it isn't I don't. I have heard people say that it is not professional if you don't have a real picture of yourself up. I don't agree. I believe it depends on what kind of picture you have up. For instance, an avatar that a person might use. I have seen some really silly looking ones and when I saw them they made me laugh. So, I do think that you should consider what kind of avatar you will use. However, I don't see anything wrong with an avatar that is a picture of nature or a design that has colors in it. As long as the picture is not inappropriate or unprofessional. I have even heard people say that they will not follow people on social media sites if they don't have a real picture of themselves up. I think they are missing out on some very talented people to connect with because I feel that is having a small mindset. Everyone doesn't feel comfortable with having their pictures up everywhere. Some people want to remain private and I feel that we should respect that. Who's to say that the pictures of people that are up are really them? Unless, you have actually met that person the doubt is still there, because you can be anyone you want to be online. I have to respect people who you can tell it's not them just by looking at the picture. At least they are not lying to you. You know that it is not them. Also, I have seen pictures online that should of been updated. During the years we change. We age. I have seen pictures of people that I have had to take a second look at because the picture of them was not a recent picture. It was a picture of them when they were younger. Is that really being honest? No, in my book it's not. Also, don't be so quick to jump to conclusions. If you really want to know why someone doesn't have a real picture of themselves up you can always ask them. Maybe, there is a reason. I'm sure they won't mind explaining it to you. I am not writing this to make people who choose to have pictures of themselves up feel bad. I am writing this to let people know whatever decision, you choose to make as long as you feel comfortable about it then, you should not feel bad either. After all, success lies in what and how you feel about yourself. Not whether people know what you look like. That is not an important factor. |
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Introducing Recomonk! The widget/plugin that makes recommending and reviewing a cinch.
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 The question that is always asked is,"Can I make money taking surveys?" The answer is, "Yes, you can make money taking surveys". Taking surveys is a great way to make money online. Especially, if you aren't making any money at all. The picture above is a check that I received last month from Cashcrate. The reason that I posted it is to show proof that they do pay. I have made quite a bit of money with Cashcrate. It is one of my favorite survey companies to take surveys with. Another question that is asked, "How much do they pay?" They pay according to how many surveys that you take. With some survey companies you get points and you can exchange your points for cash. With others you complete offers , watch videos and referrals. Some people say that surveys can be time consuming. They can be a little. However, if you are looking for a way to make money and you haven't been making any money at all. I think they are worth the time. Surveys are also fun. I love giving my opinion. I am very health conscious and now I am even more so because I have fibroids which I am trying to shrink. So, I am on a strict diet. I took a survey and one of the questions I was asked was, "What do I think about the food here in America?" I was able to give my honest opinion. Which was I didn't think it was too good. That's why I enjoy taking surveys. I get to tell my opinion as a consumer. Also, the money I made from surveys has helped me out a lot. I have been able to purchase some health products I needed for my condition. Another problem people say they have with surveys is they flood your email with a bunch of emails. Some survey companies do send surveys to your emails. Also, sometimes they require an email address when you fill out survey forms. What I do is I make an email with Viralinbox. They allow you to make more than one email box. I have an email box I use just for surveys. If you would like to read more information about them. You can do so, in a previous blog post I wrote called, "Keep Your Email Organized And Spam Out Forever". Another question asked, "Who should take surveys?" In my opinion anyone who is looking to make some extra money. However, I will name a list of people who would really find them beneficial:
So, if you know someone from the above list. Share this blog post with them. You will be doing them a great favor. There are many survey companies to choose from. I would advise you to choose from several companies. I wrote a blog post about some of the ones that I really enjoy taking surveys from. In this blog post called,"Cash Paying Online Surveys". The bottom line is you can make money taking surveys and it won't interfere with what you are already doing. It's fun easy and free. It won't get any better than that. |
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If you are new to blogging and don't know anything about it, then ease of use is something to think about. You don't want to start using something and it's difficult for you because it will discourage you before you even get started. Let's take a look at some of the blogging/website platforms that are available. Shall we?
Blogger - is the first blogging platform that people have their first blogging experience with. If you are going to be blogging professionally. I wouldn't recommend using them long-term. Also, they had a time where they were shutting down people's site claiming that they were spam. Some people were targeted and some weren't. (I was one of the people who were). Losing everything is a lot to overcome. It's easy to use but as I said before it's not for people who are blogging professionally more for people who are blogging as a hobby.
Weebly - is a website builder. It is free and they also offer upgrade version. It has drag and drop features. It's also pretty easy to use. However, they also went on a stint of shutting people's site's down (I too was also targeted). If you don't mind taking a risk. Then, I guess you could use them. You can read my blog post that I wrote about them here called,"Weebly Not Good For Bloggers/ Internet Marketers".
Wordpress.org - this is what the professional bloggers use. The software is free. However, hosting is not. They have many templates you can choose from. Also, they have many plugins that allow you to do different things to make blogging more professional and to make easy to use of different functions. Many people complain that it is not easy to use especially if you have no online marketing skills such as working with html. This is one of the most recommended and most used in the blogging world.
Wordpress.com - this is a wordpress site but it is free and hosting is also free. However, if you plan on using your blog for a business I wouldn't recommend you use it. They do not allow you to do any kind of affiliate or internet marketing and if you do you will be penalized ( they will shutdown your blog). So, this site is only to be used for blogging and no business adventures. So, if you are just blogging for a hobby and no profit you can use them.
Jimdo - this is also another website builder. It is free but they also offer an upgraded version. I am using Jimdo for my natural health blog/site. It is not easy but not hard. I will say in between. I like it though. However, the learning curve is a little longer but that shouldn't discourage you. They have pretty good customer support. The templates are very professional looking. You can blog or have a website or have both.
Blinkweb - this is also a website builder. You can create a blog, website and sales pages. It is very easy to setup. This is for someone who wants to get on the web quickly. I used Blinkweb for a little while. What I didn't like about Blinkweb was you couldn't edit your website or blogs html i.e. you couldn't get under the hood. It was a lot of services I couldn't use because I couldn't edit the html interior of the website. Services such as outbrain and disqus were out because you can't edit the html source. Also, I wasn't crazy about their customer support. I had some issues regarding some of my blog posts weren't showing up and they never made any real attempts to help me out. This is for the ultra newbie which I don't consider myself to be.
Ucoz - is another website builder. It is also free. I am using Ucoz as you can see for this blog. I love it. It's very easy to use. It's for the newbie as well as for the novice. If you like to work with html (getting under the hood of a site) then you will have no problems with Ucoz. They also have a feature called builder where it makes it easy for you to edit your site especially if you have no knowledge of html. I utilize both features. The getting under the hood and builder. That's why I love Ucoz so much. You can really make it your own. I talk about Ucoz more in my blog post,"Unstoppable Rally Back Blogger."
The decision is ultimately yours to make. You have to find out what will work for you. I really like the website builders because you can blog or have a website or have both. Also, you can start right away for free. If you like it then you can always upgrade later. So, there is no pressure on you. Plus, they are pretty easy to use and customer support is very helpful. Since, you want your site to be professional I would recommend upgrading as soon as you can. That is what I plan on doing. I have it all mapped out. :) Plus, they are very professional. Many businesses use them for their blogs and sites as well.
I just wanted to let you know there are many more blogging platforms out here. You can read about them in this Website's Magazine issue called, "50 Top Design & Development Tools". I just again wanted to put emphasis on that it's about what works for you. This is your business so you want it to be professional yet fun. No one wants something they like to do to turn into a headache.
I hope this was helpful to you. Happy Blogging!
P.S. If you found this blog post to be helpful and you know or see someone online who needs help choosing a blogging platform please be sure to share this blog post with them. Thank you!
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 Alex Rinesch... Buy This at Allposters.com Are you happy? This is a question that everyone has been asked at least once in their lifetime. There are many things that we can be happy about. What is happiness to you? It can be many things. Also, there are many things that can cause you to feel happy. One of those things is when your business is doing good. However, there are things that can cause you to feel unhappy and one of those things is when your business is not doing good.
We want to feel happy and more importantly we need to feel happy. When we are feeling depressed and unhappy it is hard for us to achieve what we want especially in our business. However, sometimes that can be extremely hard. Maybe we checked our blog/website's stats and we saw no one was visiting our site. We have written very good blog posts and no one is reading or sharing them. We wrote a review and no one purchased the product that we wrote about. These things can really result in our happiness to be at an all time low. Some people say, "Just focus on the positive". However you and I both know how hard that can be sometimes when you are not getting the results that you would like to get. If we are not careful it can even be the reason for us not moving forward in our business or even quitting. I know many of you can relate to these feelings. For many of us we need some kind of help and it would be nice if you could get it on a regular basis. Something that can help us stay focused. Something that can help us see how happy we are today. I believe that I have found it. It is called Happify. What is Happify you ask? Happify believes that happiness is a skill within your control. Just like physical fitness there are activities that you can do on a regular basis that can make you happier. Created by scientists and game designers Happify's proprietary S.T.A.G.E. framework will help you master the five essential happiness skills which are:
You can measure your happiness and track your progress to build your happiness and level skills up. Tracks are designed for different life situations. Activities in your track will be unlocked daily. Earn your achievements - "Happify it!" to make it count. Earn achievements on Happify and improve your life. I have been using Happify and it is a lot of fun! You can choose to share your activities with everyone or keep them private. If you choose to share other members can comment on them. It's a great place to also interact and see how other people are staying positive and also get support. Happify is free but they do offer a premium account. Monthly is $12.95 per month, Yearly is $5.95 per month and Two year is $3.95 per month. Home This is where you can interact with other members posts and tracks.  Tracks This is where you select a track according to different life situations  Skills This is where you do your recommended activity for the day  This is a great way to hold yourself accountable for your own happiness. It keeps you on track and keeps stay focused on being happy. Join Happify today! As you can see staying happy and positive is one of the essentials of being successful. This is something that we have to do regularly and on a daily basis. We have to do things that will help keep us on the path of positivity. When you feel good you do good and when you feel bad you do bad. Keeping a journal can also help you feel good and at the same time it keeps your mind stimulated. Make sure you write down all the good things and accomplishments you have made. If you have experienced anything good or made any big strides in your business. Make sure you write it down. Don't forget to be grateful. Write down all the reasons you have to be grateful. You will feel a lot better and it makes staying on the path to happiness a whole lot easier. Don't have a journal and would like to start keeping one? Go To How To Keep A Journal and read up on the benefits of keeping a journal. Everything depends upon how we feel. So, let's start feeling happier today! |
 We've all heard it before the way you think is what manifests in your life. Is this something that we truly believe? Can it really be that easy? Many times we tell ourselves that it can't be. With that thought in our minds we have already set the precedent that it can't be and it won't be. When in fact it really truly is. We have all been guilty of having a negative mindset at one time or the other ( I know I have been). We have to reverse this negative thinking and we have to do it fast. Why? Because it stopping us from being all that we can be. The question we ask ourselves is, "How can I go about getting rid of this negative mindset?" It is nothing wrong with getting help. The Magic Of Thinking Big is definitely the help that you need to change from negative to positive so that you can start achieving the things that you would like to do. This is an excellent book! I am reading it again for the third time. It has helped me overcome my fear of people (as I used to be very shy). I was so shy that sometimes I wouldn't ask questions or I would never be the first one to introduce myself. Once I started utilizing the instructions in this book it went away completely. This book is a guide to help you overcome negative things that have held you back for so many years. In this book you will not only get results it gives you step by step instructions that you can put into practice. In it there are situations that everyone can relate to. Dr. Schwartz gives you checklists that you can use to help you identify the problem and gives you the solution you need to solve it. That's why I absolutely love this book. Sometimes you read books but they don't give you a solution to your problems but The Magic Of Thinking Big does. You might be thinking, "How can this book help me because I am an internet marketer/blogger?" It can help you have the mindset that you need to have in order to be successful in what you do. No matter what business you are in you have to stay motivated and stay positive. You also have to be confident in what you do because there are many people who would love to help you give in to negative thinking. In a chapter of this book is called," Cure Yourself Of Excusitis, The Failure Disease". In it he discusses people who are always making excuses not to do things and because they always have an excuse they don't get anything done. Maybe we all have made excuses not to do something at one time or the other or we know someone who is always making excuses not to do something. He also helps you combat it and how to avoid it altogether. This book covers:
We have all had times where things may not be going like we would like them to and in those times it can become easy to fall prey to negative thinking. The Magic Of Thinking Big will help you get through those tough times and keep you focused. Have you read,"The Magic Of Thinking Big?" If you do not have a copy of this book I suggest you Click Here and get your copy today! This is a book that you can use as a reference and read over and over again! It can really help make a difference in your life! It has definitely made one in mine! |
 I have seen vacant blogs all over the internet. People start off strong then all of a sudden no one is writing or visiting that particular blog. How does this happen one may ask oneself? More importantly how can it be avoided? It all goes back to the reasons why you started blogging in the first place. Blogging is something that you must like to do. It can't be done nonchalantly. It has to be taken seriously.There are two reasons why a blog becomes vacant: 1. The blogger stops writing. 2. People just stop reading it. I believe sometimes blogger's get bored. They are excited. It's sounds so exciting in the beginning. You now have your own blog which is your own personal place on the internet. You have told everybody about your blog and to visit it. However, after a while the excitement dies down and you become bored. If you are bored with your blog you will start to write less and less until you finally stop. People can sense when you are bored and they will stop visiting it. I have visited many blogs and nobody was home. They were so empty and outdated. Many of these blogs had potential. Another reason a blog becomes vacant is the blogger does not promote it efficiently. When you are a new blogger you have to really get it out there. It takes a lot of hard work. Trust me. I know. You can't get tired and you have to consistently promote. After you write a blog post you should spend the rest of the day or week promoting it (it depends when you write it). People can't read it if they don't know about it. Another reason is the blogger takes time off. If something happens such as: you get sick, you go on vacation, or you just need to take a break. You should let your reader's know. If you are sick and can't do it yourself you should have someone that you trust come and write a quick blog post telling them your situation and when you will be able to start writing again. Don't just leave people hanging. If you are gone too long without giving notice people will stop reading your blog. Let them know that you haven't stopped writing something just came up and when you will be writing again. If you don't you will look up and your blog will be vacant. Sadly, I see quite a few blogger's who are guilty of this. Consistency can also be a key for your blog to become vacant. If you are not writing consistently. Writing every 2 months is definitely not writing consistently. That is way too long to go without updating your blog. You have to give your reader's more than that. You don't have to write every single day but if month's are going by that is way too long. I have seen some blogger's who really don't write. There blogs consist only of what they are promoting. There blog posts consist of nothing but ads. They write one or two lines and then there is a picture of what they are trying to sell and that's it. This is what they write about on a daily basis. In my opinion, this is not writing. People just don't want to read about what you are promoting every blog post. You can at least give people a paragraph. You can't call that a blog post. That's an ad post. People want to read something when they come to your blog. It's nothing wrong with recommending a product or a service but this is not recommending when it screams, "Buy This!" with no reasons why a person should. If you can't write a blog post instead of an ad post then maybe you shouldn't be blogging. Again, sadly I have seen lots of blogs like this as well. Your blog is your home on the internet. If nobody is home people will not continually visit or if your home is not presentable they won't visit either. You don't invite people to your home if you haven't cleaned up. Make your blog presentable by writing good content but also being courteous. People don't have to read your blog. There are many blogs on the internet to choose from. If you don't appreciate your reader's somebody else will. Ask yourself, "Why could be the reason why my blog is vacant?" I'm sure some of the above answers will come to mind. |
 There are so many options to use online. If you don't get a hold of yourself you will be running around in circles. It's easy to get caught up in the whirlwind of internet marketing. Things change very quickly. There are so many tools and resources to use. Here are some common questions: What blogging platform should I use? What online marketing tools should I use? Should I get a Facebook fan page? Are there alternatives to Google Adsense? Many times you have to do what's best for you. Always do your research. Then, make a decision. Many times people do what everybody else does. It's called the monkey see monkey do mentality. I'm not saying you can't go with the herd sometimes. However, if you really aren't happy with a particular situation or tool. Just because everyone else is using it isn't going to make you feel any better. Maybe you didn't like it or it just wasn't working for you. It's okay to try something else perhaps easier to use. Some people don't even try certain tools out because they say they don't work. Well, I know this fellow internet marketer. He uses freeadvertising sources (some are free but many involve an upgrade if you choose to do so). Some people absolutely swear that they don't work. He swears they do and he is doing well. He gets lots of referrals. I complimented him on how many referrals he gets. He said, "Anybody can do what I do". I thought to myself, "Obvioulsy not because many people have problems with getting referrals". If he listened to people tell him not to use those resources just because they said that they didn't work. He would of never used them and never attained the success he has with using them. Sometimes in the beginning you don't know what works or might not work for you because you have to figure it out. Just because someone is not using it doesn't mean that you shouldn't. You may find that it is a good tool and it works for you. They may not be using it because they don't know about it. Like I said, there are many tools out here. You can't use what you don't know about. You have to find your own way sometimes. I think at some point we all have been guilty of this is some fashion or form. Here is another example. I didn't get a Facebook fan page because I felt that it wasn't in my best interest. However, many bloggers/internet marketer's have them. I do use Facebook but I only use it to keep in touch with family and friends. I used to have my blog rss feed hooked into my facebook account. So, everytime I wrote a blog post my family and friends could read it. What I learned was that was not my target market because no one was reading it. If I write a blog post that I think some of my friends and family are interested in I'll just post it on their page or send it to them in a message. However, I have read numerous posts from numerous bloggers saying you should get a Facebook fan page. I didn't want to get one just because everyone else was getting one. Instead, I opted to get a Google community instead which I am still in the process of growing. I felt that was a better choice for me and it was more suited towards my target market. I like to be unique too. Don't get me wrong, I have learned some great advice online from some very exceptional bloggers. However, I don't want to be a copycat. I like diversity. I wouldn't want my blog to look exactly like their's and I'm pretty sure they don't want that either. :) I would love to hear your comments below. Have you ever been guilty of not doing what's best for you? Did you end up starting over or using the tools that you really wanted to use versus doing what everybody else was doing? I want to hear from you. Let me know how you feel. |