What is Internet Marketing?

A quick hands up if you signed up for any of the social networking sites I listed in my last post. Now keep your hands up if you have already ran out of friends and family to sign up with you? Again, keep your hands up if your friends and family looked at you funny when you explained what you were doing?

Ahh…let me count…yup just about all of you! I know the difficulty that comes with that initial shock of what you are doing. What you are asking your friends and family to do. I still get those looks and comments. I just don’t let it bug me anymore. I know what I’m doing and I’m doing it well. I’m achieving my goals and do right by my family at the same time. That is pleasing enough. Moral of my “bird walk” is that you need to have a can do attitude, you need determination and you need to know your goals.

Today, I’m going to talk about what internet marketing actually is. Explain what traffic exchanges are and why they are awesome! Ha ha. My next blog will be an overview of setting goals and achieving them.

What is internet marketing? Basic terms it is advertising and selling products and ideas over the internet, email and socially. Internet marketing uses it’s own set of companies and programs that work towards the needs of the advertisers.

There are a couple different ways to get a product or company out to people online. You want to know SEO (Search engine optimization) so that your website or blog has the best chances of popping up within search engines. Then you can use pay-per-click (PPC) sites where other internet marketers view your ads to gain credit to show their ads for free. You can use traffic exchanges (TE’s) which are basically social sites that allow you to again view other marketers’ websites and make connections with other internet marketers. There are mass email sites and creating newsletters to email to customers.

You can also advertise for companies by writing blogs and articles that are published online. Advertisers specifically hire bloggers (whose blogs they like and have lots of activity) to write reviews on their products or up coming products. That’s also where you run into market research and paid surveys. These methods of internet marketing are what helps business know what customers want, what they like and don’t like, and what their overall opinion is. These methods have been around for years they were just done without the use of the internet to open up the sample number.

Now the questions come up about what is advertised and where. Well, I’m here to help with that. I want to help guide you through some of the internet marketing world. I say some because what makes a great blogger and marketer is reading and research. You need to know all you need to know when you are marketing for businesses. You need to inform yourself so you don’t get scammed. Yes scams are out there and they get easier to fall for when using the internet. I hope I can help you get to where I am without going through all the hardships I did.

Make sure you are making connections on those social networking sites. You want to ask questions and read blogs. Check out programs and google them. Get to know what is out there. Learn the ropes. Read. Oh, and keep reading my blog too, please?

My youngest son floating around the pool by himself.

Back to my original questions. How do you get other people to join to help boost your income within social networking when you have ran out of friends and family? Start advertising the social sites. This is the simplest way to get started.

Every profile you opened at the social networking sites gave you an individualized referral link. For example, my referral link for the social site SideTick is http://www.sidetick.com/signup.php?signup_referer=34057. You want to find those links for all the sites you signed up for. Copy and paste these links to a word document or something to put it somewhere you can get to easily.

Traffic Exchanges
Traffic exchanges allow you to post a website page using your referral link to add to their rotation of websites. You login to “surf” internet sites and a timer allows each site to appear on your screen anywhere from 8 to 30 seconds, depending on the traffic exchange. You gain credits for “surfing” the sites. You than use your credits for free website views of your promotions. Seems a little crazy I know, but honestly it works great. It especially works great when you are marketing products or programs online that can be marketed by others online. Internet marketers will eat up a great program or idea! I learned that from chatting while surfing. *wink wink

The best traffic exchanges I have found are Sweeva, Thumbvu, Tabzi, Easyhits4u, and ILoveHits.

All five of those sites have produced good results for me. You will find out that there are a bunch of traffic exchanges and pay-per-click sites. These five are literally just a drop in a bucket. I will be adding pages to my blog soon that lists all the sites I have discovered that allows you to surf for free advertising. You can also join my newsletter and get more information than what I put in my blog.

Between the social sites and the traffic exchanges there is a good start to internet marketing and making money online. In order to receive a little training that goes along with how to find links and where to post them and how to track them. You want to check out Click Track Profit. This site shows you the three easy steps to marketing your business online. If you serious about making money online than you want to check out Click Track Profit.

I think I have filled your head with a lot of things to think about and enough to research for yourself for one day. Until next post.

Always Smile Real Big!
Dawnny
Dawnny’s Thoughts Shop

Second Step: Social Media

Busy, Busy, Busy Mommy I have been. Starting up my new business and new blogs. Continuing blogging here about making money online and how to use SEO in internet marketing. Plus I’ve been throwing in family fun in the sun…makes for one tired Me. Lol. But I’m so excited about what my future holds that I keep going and going and going.

Lets get right to today’s post.

Why social media? Social media is one of the best places to get good information. You get information from people who are going through exactly what you are with internet marketing. Some of them are having trouble making money online and other’s are getting rich quick! The best part of social media is that you find the one’s making an income working online and willing to share their information free. You make a new acquaintances, get a chance at so many job/business opportunities and you get first hand knowledge. You get your SEO questions answered! Obviously Twitter is one of the best and quickest sites I found for education on internet marketing. Google+ and LinkedIn are geared towards business interactions and I find are great for networking. Facebook is great for discussing things with friends and family more than marketing products online. The other sites I use are:

1) SideTick– This site allows you to do all that Facebook does but adds in a bonus if you are active. You gain points that change into money and allows you to get paid for you activity on their site. Extremely helpful to you if you need to make money without spending money.

2)SWOM– This site is made for internet marketers to share, discuss, and advertise. This site was one of the first I found and I am still making money from the sites my connections shared with me. Very helpful place to start.

3)ISMagic-This site is also made for internet marketers. It mixes the best of all different social sites. You have photo sharing and friends. You make money from basic everyday activity. Plus it is geared towards internet marketers so you get a good education for internet business opportunities. It also a great platform to advertise your own businesses.

4)Intichat– This is a newer site and doesn’t have as many users as the top three. But this social media site is fun and interactive. You make money for your activity if you can refer and gain mega points. They also allow you to put your points towards things like ipads, cameras, and money. It is neat and I have enjoyed checking it out.

5)Redgage– This site is a lot like SWOM. It is made for internet marketers to make money online. It allows you to advertise your business opportunities and check out how other people make money online.

Those are the top five that I visit regularly. There are so many more! Warning! Make sure you check guidelines for earning and requesting money you make from any paid to be social site. They all have different rules regarding payment and you will end up looking for that information later anyway, might as well know what to do to get there.

If you have any other questions or any other sites that pay comment below. I would love to hear from everyone!

Always Smile Real Big!
Dawnny
Dawnny’s Thoughts Shop

What I Have Been Up To This Month

So, I’m not really sure which way is up right now. I have been down and out for about a month now. First I sprained my ankle on my Birthday and ended up having to go back home to GJ to be able to have help from my mom and my husband with the kids and dog. That was difficult because I hate crutches and didn’t want to use them. So I hopped and limped my way through the first two weeks I wasn’t supposed to be on my foot at all. Then I ended up catching pneumonia; bacterial pneumonia to boot. So for two weeks I was coughing, had a consistent runny nose, a sore chest and so short of breath. That wasn’t easy taking care of kids and a dog. Made it worse that we are in spring and I have seasonal allergies.

Finally four weeks later I am feeling better. It is still rough on the breathing because I am still trying to rid my lungs of all the crappy bacteria that stuck itself to my lung walls. I am, however, on the way back to health and finally living back at home. I am looking forward to the ability to get my life back on track and start feeling productive again.

I don’t want you all to think that for the past month I haven’t been working on my “work.” Just because I had no internet connection out in the boondocks of home I was able to go back to the “stone ages” and used a pen and paper. I also had some chances at internet and used them as I could, this allowed me some resources to continue working. I didn’t however, have time to actually do research and then blog about it immediately. I found that extremely frustrating because I just wanted to share all my knowledge with you all. I know that some of you come back and check on my blog and so hope you haven’t lost faith in me this past month.

To try and bring you back into what I am trying to share with you, I have decided to let you know that I was also introduced to a new business opportunity since I’ve been stuck on my tush. Part of the reason I haven’t had the chance to use the internet to blog is because I have been researching this company and its products like all get out. I am not going to be taken lightly again and my money is required to make this opportunity get on its feet. This is the first time this opportunity has arisen and I have heard of it. It is however widely marketed with over 3 million people using it worldwide. That is what I found interesting, is that so many people use these products, yet I have never heard of the company in all this time online. I had to go see what it was all about.

I don’t want to go into too much detail yet because I still have a lot to teach you about marketing online and I don’t want anyone getting sidetracked and jumbled and confused. Yes, finding a product to promote is a big step in internet marketing but you don’t want to jump the gun. But please be watching for my next few posts because it won’t be long before I introduce it to you. I already feel it is a good enough opportunity to yell it to the whole world.
I also want to bring to my blog the motherhood, childcare, and health and fitness part of me that allows my blog to be well rounded and totally my thoughts on life. Like I stated earlier, this past month I have been injured and sick. I have had to ask for help from others. I have had my abilities as a mother and person tested. My thoughts have run amuck and I have thought of things I don’t normally think about. I have begun to challenge my normal everyday way of life.

See being injured and sick within a four week period made me ask myself what it is I seem to be doing wrong. I feel as though my body was trying to tell me to chill out, pay attention to what I am eating, and not to think food and stress are the only things I need to keep healthy. So, I have decided to begin a more personal blog (again to try and keep things organized). I want to share in detail what I do to keep my family and myself healthy and happy. I will share many of my ideas on this blog seeing as how much of it will overlap, but my personal blog will be more in depth and at length about the science of health and happiness. I want to share my personal weight struggles and my new plans at workout routines and food choices. I want to share more about my boys and all the funny little stories that make a mother smile. I want to share all my ideas about how to keep kids happy and busy. I have tried to make the two blogs mesh into posts that don’t confuse, but I have been unsuccessful at writing them. My next option was two blogs that are linked to each other, back and forth, day to day something new and different.

I must say I am super excited about all I have discovered this month and even more excited to get to share it all with you. I hope you will enjoy learning and reading as much as I have enjoyed writing and sharing.

So, until the next post…

Always Smile Real Big!

What I do, the Basics

I apologize for starting a blog, getting a few of you interested and then just BAM disappearing. I took my boys to visit their father while he was working across the state. It was a two week vacation, of sorts, that was a relaxing experience. We got to see relatives; of course the boys had missed their father so that was the highlight of their trip. We did a little traveling as well since the weather was so absolutely beautiful.

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I am here to say that I am here now for a more consistent flow of information. But do beware that I enjoy travel, so do my husband and boys. So we are gone frequently. We are already making plans for the summer. So if you don’t want it all to stop then you had better not follow my blog. I do hope you decide to though. =)

What It Is I Do

I want to give you a better understanding of what I have been doing online that you have heard me call “work”. The best way I can think to do that is to outline my normal day.

My mornings consist of me time. I get up before the boys and I stretch, do light exercise, and check my email, Facebook, Google+, and my blog stats.

Once the boys wake up I spend the rest of my morning with them. Constantly changing activities makes it difficult for me to work on anything that needs in depth thought. That’s when I earn credits at different sites that help me advertise. Points work as advertising time and are worth it. This is something I can do that I can leave sit if I need to and just pick back up at the next 10 minutes of sitting time. I try to spend at least 2 hours a day working on points, but if I don’t get to the full 2 hours it isn’t any real big deal.

During the early afternoon, usually while the boys are eating lunch and the baby (hopefully) is napping, I check my email again. I go back through and check my social sites. This is usually much easier half way through the day and takes less time than it did the first time.

After the boys are asleep I usually go through and recheck email and social sites. These are your primary ways to reach out and talk to people. My feeling is that the more opportunity you have to talk to someone the better chance you have of sharing knowledge with others. This is when I then check my other social sites that are less known but more for marketing and online focus. I will go through these sites in my next blog. These sites will help you research the online marketing industry and what it is all about.

Then before bed, usually after my evening workout, I do a little journaling. At this time I also research sites and learn more myself about Internet Marketing.

Warning!

Scams. Ahh, yes. Were you wondering when I was going to get to this part? Well they are out there. They are horribly time consuming as well as a waste of money. I had my fair share of failure sites. Sites that get you to join and then teach you nothing about what actually goes on with internet marketing. When it comes to researching what works, what doesn’t, how, who, what, when, where and why’s I turn to blogs. That’s right. Personal blogs by other’s who are/have gone through the same distress over making the “easy internet money” that they claim is out there.

They have also come up with some nasty ways to get you to click on their stuff as well. You all know banner ads. Those things are even on your phone apps. Banner ads have become total nonsense. I can remember when I first began this journey, I was surfing websites and staring at all those banner ads on my screen while I waited for sites to load (seeing as how my desktop is a dinosaur, this was too long). These banners would flash something like “If you suffer from diabetes click here now” and take you to a site that has nothing to do with Diabetes. Because of banner ads it took me a while to accept traffic websites as “real” forms of drawing attention.

There is also SPAM. We all HATE it! Unfortunately, when working your way through this process you will end up with a lot of Spam. Only it won’t really be spam, because you will be interested in a site, they as for your email address as conformation and BAM! You signed up for their “newsletter”. Just like a blog only it goes straight to your email. Watch out for these and don’t just throw your email address out there. It is also a good idea to make an email address just for your marketing email because it is a lot, takes time to sort through it, and if you decide that internet marketing is not for you it is easier to get all that email to just stop.

So the moral of this section is, you will run into scams and you will be spammed. That is all there is to it. Until you weed your way through the internet chaos on your own or you find a mentor to help you through it, everything you do is hit or miss and total leap of faith.

Face it, you are going to have to spend some money to make some money. Ahhh, wait I know, I have heard the argument before. Heck I said the argument. But here is the bottom line. The biggest scam out there is when they tell you that you can make thousands of dollars without spending any money. Because honey, the moment you click and give them your email address they are going to start hitting you up for money. They give you “free” information. Yes it’s free, because you can Google it and find out that same information. If you want to make some money you have to have a product to sell and a way to get people to see the product. How are you going to get a product? How are you going to get people to see that product? I’m hoping my blog will help you through that process.

In the meantime I want to help you fund your internet venture. There are sites where YOU get paid to click. Fair warning here, they do have a lot of advertising and email. The sites have settings so you can change how much email you receive, so don’t worry about your email being spammed, just know it will be full.

OpinionOutpost is my ultimate favorite easy cash site. This site conducts research via online questionnaires and pays you to take the questionnaires. I’m making money and oh and IT’S FREE to join. To date I have earned 1260 points. That equals $126.00 I have received from giving my opinion.

SendEarnings is a pay per click site. One way is they send you advertising in your email, you read your email, click the link and go to the site. Simple as that. They also have surveys you can take and you can gain points by shopping through their site. What I like about SendEarnings apart from all the other pay per click is they add in paid tasks. These tasks are simple checking search engine results, definitions of words, and other little things on the internet. But they take 10 to 30 minutes and you get paid for it. Remember every little bit counts. =)

Well, I think I have rambled enough for one day. Hope this is a good start for you. Please if you have questions ask me. I’m all for helping in any way I can. Look forward to getting my next post together and sharing more sites that I have learned about!

Always Smile Real Big!
Dawnny

To Work or Not To Work That Is the Question

What do you do as a mother with a BA?  Stay being a mother full-time or continue career aspirations?  These are the questions that have been looking me square in the face for over two years now.

BACKGROUND ON ME

I have always known I wanted a career. For as long as I can remember I have wanted to be called Dr. Montgomery.  What type of doctor did I want to be? Ha ha. The answer to that question has changed umpteen times throughout the years. In fact it changed up till my sophomore year in college. Then I finally made up my mind. I currently have a BA in Psychology-Counseling.

I was lucky enough to land a job my junior year in a counseling center. I worked as overnight staff and did my internship with licensed therapists.  Once I graduated I had the opportunity to work as a therapist and case manager. I remember feeling absolutely happy. I felt I was doing something meaningful. I felt complete.

Through all the schooling my boyfriend at the time (currently my husband) was my biggest support to getting my career in gear. Like happy couples usually do, we chose to get married. I was still working on my degree at this time and children weren’t something we wanted. We had set up goals and wanted to reach them. We didn’t want our life together to slow down.

Now you can call it hormones, call it family peer pressure, or call it readiness; but my husband and I chose to begin a family. Our first son was born November of 2007. I worked and finished school through the pregnancy and I was determined to stay on my career path. I didn’t work my way through college for nothing.

I became pregnant with my second in 2009. Unfortunately I had to quit my job in April due to a difficult pregnancy. I have been a stay at home mom since.

At first I enjoyed being at home. I loved being at home with both my boys. About a year after my second son was born we fell on some difficult times financially. My husband had gotten laid off and new work was slow coming. Slowly over that year we lost everything we had worked for. Our house, cars, and basically our life. At this point I became angry with myself about staying home and not working for so long. My feelings were that I should have been being more help financially to my wonderful husband and family.

We both began looking for work. At first try I had no luck. There wasn’t an employer that wanted to hire a mother. Then when I did land a job, I had to find child care for two babies. No school, no discounts, just paying for two babies in diapers to be watched 40+ hours a week. I was making a whole $1 more an hour than my nanny and the rest of my paycheck was going to gas to get me to work. Amazing how getting a job didn’t help my family financially at all. This made me even more frustrated.

Feeling hopeless, helpless, angry and downright ready to quit, I turned to the Internet. This blog follows everything I have learned and done since 2010 to make extra income on line. I’ll let you know what I’ve learned works and what doesn’t. Also, please add your input to anything I have to say. I don’t learn if you don’t let me know something you do that I don’t. I hope you enjoy and find my blog useful.

Thanks for reading.

Always Smile Real Big!