My Online Business Adventure

Are you wondering whether to start affiliate marketing?  Wondering when would be the best time to start up an online business?

The answer is: “Don’t wait any longer; the time is now!”

The truth is, in the affiliate marketing industry we are just coming to the end of the slow period.  As people come home from their holidays and look at the bleak prospect of getting back to their jobs, they begin to think about alternatives to the 9-5, and towards the end of August the online marketing industry really starts to pick up.

So if you’ve been hesitating and thinking about it, but have not got started yet, don’t lose out on the opportunities that will be coming soon.

Another good time for affiliate marketing is the New Year, when people review their lives and look for something new to start.  But why wait until then?  If you begin now and learn as much as you can before January, you could find yourself really reaping the benefits by the time the New Year begins.

There really has never been a better time to start this fun and exciting business.  As the credit crunch hits, and traditional jobs become more insecure, more people are looking to start a home business than ever before.

If you start up an online business now, you could be looking at earning a full time income within two years.

After that, the sky is your limit.

For opportunities, see my website below.

Ros Bott

Achieve Financial Freedom Online

If you have an online business, you will know that your most important goal is to get traffic to your website.  After all, without traffic, there are no sales!  So, finding any way of getting targetted web traffic for free is always worth looking at.

The new site, TrafficVibe builds on the way traffic exchanges work in a slightly different way.  When you join, you  will be able to post your own banners, text ads and send solo ads as long as you agree to read other ads and read email ads (though you can opt out of this one if you want to).  When you read other ads you build up points which you use to “pay” for your own advertising.

Of course, the other people using this site are internet marketers - but this means that you can advertising products and services that would be useful to other website owners.

The site also has an affiliate program, so you can build up commissions by referring other people to the site and you get paid when they upgrade or make purchases.

There is plenty of support, a forum, useful tools and links and lots of different ways of earning points.

To visit this site and find out more, click here to join TrafficVibe for free.

Web traffic for free is always a good deal!

Ros Bott

Achieve Financial Freedom Online

It’s a cloudy Monday morning here in the UK, and I often remind myself on days like this that five years ago I was joining commuters on the 30 minute morning drive to work, trying to wake myself up to face the day ahead, while the weekend faded away into oblivion.

These days my commute is somewhat shorter: from my bedroom to the spare room where I have my office.  I can gently ease myself into Monday morning, and while I don’t sit at my computer in my pyjamas, I certainly don’t have to wear a smart suit and have perfect hair!

I became self employed just over four years ago, and despite set backs, some financial, I have not regretted it for one second.  In the last year I discovered affiliate marketing and am happily building my business and looking forward to financial freedom in the not too distant future.

Today I have the Olympics running on one half of my computer while I’m typing, and I have an old school friend coming round for lunch.

Don’t be fooled, though.  Working for yourself at home is hard work and discipline is needed to keep up the momentum.  But I can honestly say I find it easier to get out of bed these mornings than I did five years ago!  And if I need to catch up I can work in the evening, or get up an extra half hour earlier if necessary.

Working at home gives you flexibility and freedom.  In these days of recession and work insecurity, it is certainly worth looking at self employment as an option.  There are many choices available for the home worker - and you don’t have to put up a lot of money either.

If you’re fed up with Monday morning, why not contemplate a home business?  It’s definitely one way of improving your Monday!

Ros Bott

Achieve Financial Freedom Online

Career and Life Success Coaching

Like many people when they first start affiliate marketing, I joined several programs very quickly, but then found I did not have the time to focus on all of them!  I’ve flushed a few out now, but there’s one I’m keeping because I’ve just recently realised what a little goldmine it could be!  As well as a free affiliate training program, this site offers a portfolio of products and services to sell, and high commission rates on many of them.

So, you get some high quality products to sell, and training in how to sell them - all completely free!  I think that’s a pretty good deal.

The program is The Second Tier and is owned by Russell Brunson.   You’ll get your own nice looking, easy-to-use back office, training videos and conference calls, and a set of tools and resources that pay up to $450 in commissions.

If you want to try out one of the products first, there is a free training system that Russell will send out just for the cost of shipping.  This is his Dotcom Secrets Wealth Building Portfolio that includes  dvds and worksheets.

I definitely think this one is worth keeping!  After all, it’s not often you get so much for free - so you’ve got nothing to lose!

For your free affiliate training program and affiliate website, click here.

Ros Bott

Achieve Financial Freedom Online

Yesterday I gave a brief overview of the best free ways of getting more website traffic.  Today I want to expand a little on two of my favourites: blogging and article writing.

If you don’t feel that you are a natural writer, blogging is a very good way to start and get into the habit of writing on a daily basis.  It is less formal than article writing and you can express who you are in a much more “conversational” way.

While some people like to put full articles onto their blogs (which is certainly useful) I do feel that blogs need to be more “user-friendly”.  Today’s readers are often very busy and like to find things to read that are short and easy to read.

The beauty of blogging is that it does not have to conform to a set of rules.  You can be as brief or as long as you like (though I always think the briefer the better!).

If you are involved in any form of internet marketing I would say that a blog is an essential tool.  If you make sure you use strong keyword phrases for each blog, you will get yourself in a strong position in the search engines.  Also, every time you post, with a link to your website, you create a backlink.  If you submit your blog to social bookmarking sites you then have many backlinks.

Be careful here, though.  Many social bookmarking sites will consider you as a spammer if you submit your own blog too often.  It is a very good idea to get together with some like-minded people (perhaps on a forum) and help each other out by submitting each others’ blogs.

Article writing is different.   When readers are looking for articles, they expect a more authoratative tone, and a more structured read.  You will also restricted as to what you can put in an article.  Your article must be informative and useful, and cannot be a blatant advertisement for your site or anything you are trying to sell or promote, otherwise it will not be accepted by the article databases.

When you submit an article to an article submission site such as Article Marketer,  you will be able to fill in a resource box with a link to your website or other link, as long as it is relevant to your article.  This is actually a very powerful way of marketing.  Readers who have enjoyed your article will very often be interested in finding out more about you or your products and do use these links.

If you really feel daunted by the idea of writing an article from scratch, and have no idea where to start, there is a great service called InfoGoRound, which provides public label rights articles that you can copy and re-write.   You just need to make sure that your new article is 60% different to the original.

If this is still sounds a little too hard, you can buy ready-made articles from article writing services such as  Team-Schuman.com which provides excellent, low-cost articles very quickly.

So you see, you don’t have to be an expert writer to use blogging and article writing as a fabulous way of getting more website traffic.

Ros Bott

Financial Freedom Online

Today I’m going to post an example of one of the emails in my free affiliate newsletter.

This newsletter is offered to any affiliates who sign up under me for any of the affiliate programs I have listed at the bottom of this post.

Instead of the usual practical advice (which you can find in your program - or in my  other newsletter available on my website), this newsletter offers my experience as a life coach to give you motivational tips and support that will really help you to make that commitment to your business and encourage you to keep going.

Running a home business on your own is a real challenge - my newsletter allows you to have the help of a life coach, without actually paying for one!  I also am always available for questions from any of my affiliates.

Here’s one of the emails you will receive:

I want to address something that happens to a lot of
affiliate marketers when they first start up their
business.

Overwhelm.

It happened to me when I started, and I’ve heard so many
other newbies talk about it too!

So - you are not alone if you are feeling overwhelmed right
now.

If you have joined more than one affiliate program, you
will be receiving several emails, sets of instructions,
training letters and lots of helpful practical advice.
This is all very positive, but it can feel like you are
being bombarded with advice on what to do next and
difficult to know where to start.

Even if you’ve only joined one program, it can still feel
like you have a long way to go in order to achieve success
with it.

What tends to happen is this:  You go from one set of
instructions to another, try out a few things, wonder
whether you should be doing something else, and go off to
do that, only to find you need some other action or tool in
place first, so you give up on that, try something else,
wonder how you’ll ever get the hang of it and then find
you’ve spent several hours doing very little.

Sound familiar?

The trouble is, you feel you should be doing everything at
once, and in the process, end up doing nothing very
effective at all.

If you are feeling like this, STOP.

Breathe.

Relax.

Breathe again.

OK.  There is a way to stop feeling overwhelmed and
actually start being effective.

It’s called FOCUS.

At the beginning it’s very easy to be distracted by all the
information that is coming to you.  However, it is important
that you DON’T try and take everything in at once.

Decide on one or two things that you are going to do for,
say, the next week or fortnight.  This might be learning a
specific way of marketing and putting it into action.
Concentrate on this until you have mastered it and then go
on to something else.

Sometimes this means that you will have to ignore some good
stuff that’s being sent to you.  You don’t have to delete
this or forget about it.  Set up some subject folders in
your email manager and put them in there, or if you’ve seen
a useful website, put that into a favourites folder.

If your program gives you a step-by-step training system,
then follow this in the order it’s given - and take your
time over it. 

There is no rush over this.  An affiliate marketing
business is a long term commitment.  Take your time to do
one thing at a time.

In the next email I will be giving you some advice on time
management, which will help you to set up a system of work
that will allow you to organise your work, prioritise
activities and keep focused.

In the meantime, stay focused, work on something that you
feel is easy for you, or appeals to you.  Take baby steps.

After all, you know what they say.  You can’t eat an
elephant all at once.  You have to do it one bite at a
time!

Have fun!

How many sponsors give you this much support?

You can have access to this affiliate newsletter by signing up with any of the programs below:

PlugInProfit Site

SFI

Success University

Empowerism

Leisure Audio Books

Thanks for reading!

Ros Bott

Achieve Financial Freedom Online

OK, before I start to answer the question, “What is MLM?” I need to define a few terms.

MLM is an acronym for Multi Level Marketing, and is a legal way of marketing products or services and earning a commission every time you, or someone you have referred, sells a product or refers a new marketer.

It’s also called affiliate marketing or network marketing, although there are subtle differences between the three.

A pyramid scheme involves no product and there is no legal marketing involved.  It is purely exchange of money where the person at the top of the pyramid is supposed to make a profit.  Pyramids usually collapse very quickly, and people at the bottom lose their money.  They are illegal in most countries as far as I know.

Unfortunately, many people still distrust multi-level marketing or affiliate marketing because they associate them with pyramids.  Even one of my own (free) affiliates emailed me the other day asking the question, “Isn’t this just a pyramid?”

I sighed inwardly, and then sent him a very nice email explaining the difference.

I also sent him to a website that explains all these definitions in full details and much better than I can in a short blog!  The website is called FirstClassMLM and is run by Tim Sales.  There is absolutely no hype on this website, and also no advertising or any call to sign-up with anything.  It is purely informational and is full of excellent articles explaining all the questions you might have about mlms.

Here are some links to some relevant articles:

What Is MLM?

Pyramid Schemes and Scams

How MLM Works

What is First Class MLM?

If you are interested in getting started in MLM, come back here after you’ve finished reading and have a look at my website for some opportunities.

If you want to find out more about MLM and affiliate marketing, I have given you some book suggestions below this post.

Thanks for reading.

Ros Bott

Financial Freedom Online

If you have the home business blues at the moment, it could be because it’s July.  I read somewhere that this is quietest month of the year for affiliate marketing and if your business is less than a year old it can be a trying time, wondering whether things will ever pick up.  Here are some tips for staying motivated with your home business during the quiet period.

• Work on a project, such as an ebook, that will be ready to launch as soon as things pick up.
• Remind yourself of the reasons you began your business.  Think about your goals and the lifestyle you will have when your business is successful.
• Remember that the work you do now, although it is not showing results at present, will pay off in future months - so don’t be tempted to take too long a holiday!
• Get in touch with what you love about this business - rekindle the excitement you had when you started by listing all the things you enjoy about it.
• Take a day off to review your business; set some new goals; plan a new project; brainstorm about how you can improve your traffic and make more sales.
• Spring-clean your business.  Cancel any newsletters that you never read, clear out your inbox folders, and consider cancelling any paid-for programs that are not working for you (making sure, of course, that you have done everything possible to make it work first)
•  Think of all the skills, interests and experience you have and how you can use them in your business.
• Read some motivational books (there are some suggestions at the bottom of this post)
• Read biographies of people who are successful.  This is extremely motivating, because you will find that they have all come through difficult periods, and you are not alone!
• Join some home business forums and share your feelings with other people.
• Don’t listen to any negative thoughts you may have. Reality is something you create from your thoughts, so make sure you are creating something positive.
• Above all, remember that in a few weeks things will begin to pick up so just hang on in there and don’t give up!

People in the affiliate marketing business often give up just before their business was about to take off.  Don’t be one of these people.  The most successful people in the world all had to get through tough times.

If you want more ways of staying motivated with your home business, I offer a special service for everyone who joins an affiliate program with me: a free motivational newsletter delivered to your inbox every 3 days.  Go to my website for details.

Ros Bott

Financial Freedom Online

Career & Confidence Coaching

If you live in the UK you can be forgiven for feeling a little gloomy at the moment.  If the weather wasn’t bad enough, there’s the news headlines telling us that the dreaded “R” word is upon us (or if it isn’t now, it soon will be).  In America this has been rumbling on for weeks and it seems that global economy is continuing to sink.  Many people all over the world may be wondering what to do during a recession.

I tried putting this phrase into Google just now, just to see if there were any interesting recession solutions.  I nearly fell asleep reading the results.  Buy this, sell that, reduce spending on this, generally tighten your belts and plan what you’ll do if you lose your job.  Yawn.

However, there is one very exciting and interesting thing that can be done right now, and I do believe that now is perfect timing.

While you still have a job why not invest a very small amount of money in a home business?

While you will not get a return immediately, that’s fine because it’s unlikely that a recession will hit very hard to start with and it could be months before things really start getting tough.  By that time you could have set up a home biz website, learned how to get traffic to it and started earning an income that will grow enough that you will never need to worry about recession again.

If you’re reading this in July it’s even more perfect timing because we are just coming to the end of the “quiet” period in online affiliate marketing.  In August things will start to pick up - and there will be more and more people looking to start a home business because the threat of recession will be looming even larger.

Wondering how to get started?  My website has a list of online business opportunities, some of which are free to join, and if you sign up with any of these under me I will also give you a free motivational newsletter that will keep you going despite what’s going on in the rest of the world.

If you’re wondering whether it’s at all possible to make money from free business opportunities, you can read my newest article here.

Learning what to do during a recession need not be boring after all!

Ros Bott

Financial Freedom Online

People who wonder how to make extra money online often search for a quick and easy answer - and there are plenty of schemes out there that will give you a quick and easy answer - but unfortunately, these are the schemes (or scams) that will not deliver.

The truth (boring though it may be) is that the secret of making money online is up to you.  You can join the best, highest-paying and most popular affiliate marketing program in the industry, but unless you are prepared to learn the skills of internet marketing, you will not get very far.  No-one makes money for you - you have to do it yourself.

There is a word I have used in my title that is the key to online money-making success.

Yes - you spotted it.  It’s the word, “learn”.

This may be off-putting for some but if you are serious about creating an online income, the only way is to learn what you need to do.

Yes, this takes time.  There is no magic fix or quick solution.  You have to take the time to find the teaching resources, apply what you have learned and continue to apply it until you start getting results.

But, on the other hand, the learning process is fun, and if you use the excellent online support systems that are available, you can meet lots of people that will help you achieve online success.

If you are thinking of earning money through an online affiliate program, you need one that will provide you with a good learning system, online support and easy-to-follow procecdures.

This is why I am always suggesting that newbies begin with the PlugInProfit Site, where you get all of the above and more.

I was a complete novice when I joined the PlugInProfit Site (or PIPS, as it is known by its members), but within 8 months I have learned the basics of internet marketing, learned how to personalise my website (that’s provided for you), improved my search engine rankings and rapidly increased the traffic to my website.  I am on page 1 of Google for my chosen keywords and have many affiliates across six affiliate programs.

How did I do this?  By following the training given to me.  Not only does this program give you a step-by-step training system, but there is a members’ forum where you can get answers to any question AND there is an excellent PIPS mentoring group where you can get more intense and personalised training from six successful PIPS experts.

And as an added bonus, I have made many friends, developed new ideas to make my own business unique and have established a niche that I know will provide me with the income I need for years to come.

So, don’t expect to just join any affiliate program and make money magically out of thin air.  You need a fully supportive training system that will help you to build a real business and give you the satisfaction of knowing that you have built your success yourself.

PlugInProfit will give you the groundwork.  Applying it is up to you.  Learn how to make extra money online, then go out there and do it.

Ros Bott

Achieve Financial Freedom Online