This ‘Comment’ Spam Made Me Laugh

So, I was looking through some of the spammish comments filtered out by Spam Karma 2 on one of my blogs. One comment in particular read: ‘Please do not delete the given message. Money obtained from spam will go the help hungry to children ugands’.

Okay, so this justifies them spamming my blog with goobledy-gop?

I think not. And I’m smart enough to know a legitemate organization that helps with world hunger wouldn’t stoop to inane comment spam on a blog completely irrelevent to their purpose.

Just something that made me shake my head and laugh..

March 11th.. A day I’ll never forget

Over the last few years, I’ve ping ponged visibly. I’d do really well and then I’d disappear off the map for a few months at a time. This has mostly been due to an ongoing fight with depression. Well, last I wrote here on the blog, I was very optimistic and talked about giving this blog a serious push.

And I had planned on it. I’d planned on doing some split testing and I was really looking forward to blogging. Little did I know I was going to be in for a rough ride.

I went in for surgery on March 4th (to get the ole’ tubes tied) and 7 days later exactly, my ‘Granny’ passed away. I didn’t realize how much I depended on her. She was like a mom, friend, grandmother, and uber confidante all wrapped up in one.

She gave me breaks so I could get time away from my four kids. We spent hours on the phone talking; we spent hours in person just watching the kids and enjoying them. We butted heads alot but I loved her all the same.

Her loss was unbearable.

I didn’t think I’d ever come to terms with it.

If you’ve lost someone you cared about, I’m sure you know what I mean. I didn’t realize it prior to her passing but I spent a lot of every day with her, even if just chatting on the phone for a few minutes. When I was upset about something, I called her. When I needed her, I called her. When I just wanted to talk, I called her. And to lose her unexpectedly was difficult.

You see a lot of marketers experience strife and tragedy. They pick up the pieces and truck along. Me, I’m ashamed to admit, I went on a mental bender. I was really depressed for a good 5 months.

Over the course of those 5 months, though, I experienced things that made me acknowledge her passing and my pain. Gradually, I went through different phases of grief. Anger, denial, deep sadness..With online friends willing to listen when I needed to talk and write about her, I’ve begun to cope with her loss. I can think of her now with a smile. My mother-in-law gifted me with Granny’s wedding band set. I can look at that set without pain now.

When I think of Granny, I remember the very last day I saw her, the day of my surgery. She was so warm and loving that morning. She knew I was nervous about the surgery and went out of her way to comfort me.

I didn’t know it’d be the last time I saw her and for some odd reason, I committed the sight of her retreating into the house to memory. I’m glad I did. I look back on that last visit with her with a sense of peace.

I miss her like crazy and though the saying might be a little over-used, I know without a shadow of a doubt that she’s in a better place now.

To my readers and customers:

I’ve been remiss on much of my online duties. For that, I apologize heartily. I kept up with the majority of support tickets that came but a few here and there didn’t get answered promptly. My apologies for that.

Though I’m doing better about losing Granny, I’m fighting an uphill battle with my bipolar. Some days and weeks are very rough.

I don’t wish anyone to feel sorry for me or think that I’m just making excuses for myself. I’m not perfect, I’ll be the first person to admit that. I am, however, seeing a medical professional and a counselor to help with the bipolar and depression.

I haven’t forgotten about this blog and it’s far from dead.

I’ve decided that I’m going to blog about a variety of things here. Online marketing, life in general, my kids, my experiences, what makes me happy, my struggle with depression.

I don’t think of myself as a guru at online marketing. I can tell you all about life, though, and I think if you stay tuned, you’ll enjoy my posts.

Anywho, thanks for reading and best of wishes to you.

Not Just Pixels

Do you see your readers, customers and potential customers as just another faceless
commodity?

Oddly enough, this occured to me while playing an MMORPG (massively multiplayer
online roleplaying game.) You see, in the realm I play on, a woman was living with
severe heart problems and the threat of her death was very real. She died recently
from a massive heart attack while playing the game.

How does this correlate? Well, just like the players’ and their identities are veiled
by the Internet, so are our customers. When they send an email, we don’t get
a shot of their face, we don’t see a picture of the person sending the email.

In the game, it’s easy to forget that there are people behind the other ‘toons’.
It’s also so easy to forget that there are real, living, breathing people behind the
emails and support tickets we online marketers face everyday. And just because
people’s online communication comes in the form of pixels, doesn’t mean that
these people are worth any less. They have trials and tribulations just like the
rest of us.

I’ve chosen to keep this in mind whenever I answer an email or support ticket,
JV with someone else, or interact with anyone online, period. You just never
know what’s going on with that other person or how your interaction with
them is going to effect them.

Just some food for thought.

OMG This Peeves Me So Much!

I’ve taken part in (JV) gift giveaways. They have their good points and bad
points for both marketers providing the gifts and people who sign up to lists
to get those gifts.

I don’t take part in them often and for one giveaway in particular, I’m glad
I didn’t.

That certain gift giveaway had certain requirements for JV partners and the
person running the giveaway did something I find very tactless if not
downright mean.

You can read about it by clicking here.

By the way, this doesn’t involve me (I wasn’t participating in the giveaway.)
It does, however, involve a well-known marketer whom I deeply respect (he
was the one was mistreated.)

My Bellyflop into Split Testing

So, I’ve thought about split testing for a long, long time but it’s been one of
those things I’m wholly unfamiliar with. I’ve been putting off split testing my
sales pages for my various products. Silly as it may sound, I’m nervous about
installing a split testing script.. not so much the installation (I’m an old hat
at script installation) but actually integrating and using the script.

I’m afraid that I’ll screw something up. I made a resolution recently, though,
to amp up my online marketing efforts. I made a resolution to start marketing
more effectively. And part of effective marketing is 1) testing your sales pages
2) knowing your conversion rates 3) improving your sales pages based on the
results.

So, it was with some trepidation that I bought John Taylor’s AdTestPro.
The script looks simple enough and priced affordably at 10 bucks, thereabouts.

So, I’ve installed the script and am going to be setting up my first split testing
campaign soon. I’ll let you know about my results and my opinion of the script
once I’ve received enough results.

*crosses her fingers* I hope this turns out to be as easy as it looks like it is.

‘Are You Selling Anything At All?’ Revisited

In a post I made yesterday about selling online, Are You Selling Anything At All?,
I mentioned a forum post that talked about why most online marketers aren’t
making much money online.

A few reasons included were that online marketers:
- were reading and learning excessively
- chatting idly on forums when they could be doing something more profitable with their time
- starting a dozen projects that they never finish
- putting up salespages that they didn’t drive traffic to.

I used to be guilty of the first two. Since I’ve spent more time offline, these aren’t such a
big problem for me.

The last two (creating unfinished projects and not pushing traffic to salespages) are both
problems I still have. I found this realization to be embarassing. Am I online to make money
or just fart around?

Just wanted to revisit this topic and drive the point home. If you’re not making much
money online and you’re making these mistakes, it’s time to make some changes.

Mafioso Marketing — A First Impression

So, I’ve had the chance to read only part of the ebook that came
with Mafioso Marketing and thus far, it’s brought to light one concept
I’d, quite frankly, never considered. Brilliant but simple. Videos are
included which is a plus.

Bottom line, I haven’t read enough to post any more than that.

So, I’m not going to post a review until I’ve read the whole thing. While
I’m doing that (hope to have it done by tonight), you can read about
the source of all the recent fuss by clicking here.

Need to Learn How to Copywrite?

Some online marketers are making the big bucks and they outsource their copy writing. For
really stellar copy writing, it’s not unusual for them to shell out thousands of dollars.

If you aren’t making the big bucks, can’t afford to shell out thousands of dollars on
copywriting or just want to learn how to do it yourself, there is an option for you.

I don’t want this to come off as real sales hype-ish. That’s really not my intention. I’d like
to point out this resource to others that were in my position — wanting to learn how to
write dang good sales copy without paying an arm and a leg for a seminar or training.

(Note: I do vouch for attending seminars in general but for some people, it’s just not
feasible, financially or otherwise.)

Anywho, back to that resource. A couple of years back, I jumped on the chance of
reviewing some videos created by professional copywriter, Ray L. Edwards. At that point,
I was desperate to find out how to improve my copywriting skills. I’d already read so
many ebooks and reports on the subject, I was beginning to wonder if the information
was out there at a price I could afford.

Well, I sat down for several hours and watched his videos and they were fantastic. In
the videos, he dissects different sites and goes in depth on what to do (and why) in
your copy, with the sites he’s dissecting as examples.

You’re basically sitting there watching over his shoulder as he tears these pages apart
and explains what’s what. The knowledge I took away from those videos is something
I’ve been able to put to use — even today. You’d be amazed at how much easier it is
to sit down and put together a sales page when you understand what you’re doing and
why you’re doing it.

So, suffice it to say I highly recommend Ray’s copywriting coaching program. At the
time I viewed those videos, I eagerly wrote a testimonial for them. I still stand by that
testimonial and you can view my testimonial on this page:

http://learncopy.com/ncts.html

If you’re willing to sit down and take the time to watch the videos, you can read more
about them (and the other copywriting coaching) by clicking here.

Note: His coaching membership is currently at $35/mth. If you’re interested, join now.
This is no line and no joke — he started the membership off at $97/mth and is running a special for it. It
will be returning to $97/mth before long.

Lastly, if you simply don’t want to sign up for another membership site — if you
don’t want to pay a monthly fee and you ONLY want the videos I was talking about,
order them directly at http://learncopy.com/ncts.html
That’s not an affiliate link. It’ll take you directly to the page where you can buy the
videos. Believe me — they’re well worth the time and money.

Hope this helps!

Are You Selling Anything At All?

I found a forum post on the Warrior Forum today that I felt was worth mentioning.
In it, poster Eric Louviere talks about the #1 reason most online marketers fail
to make good money online.

In a nutshell, he says that a lot of marketers (newcomers and otherwise) spend
a lot of time: reading and learning (to the point of excess), chatting idly on forums,
starting on projects that they never finish and putting up sales pages that they
don’t drive traffic to. All of these things contribute to one thing: not selling anything.

I think you should read his post. It makes a sense and is very true.
http://www.warriorforum.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=223665

Newcomer’s Websites — Common Mistakes

I made an observation to my husband last night and thought it would be helpful
to post it here. I view a lot of newcomer’s websites and there seem to be some
things in common.

Now, this post is not meant to offend anybody but if you’re new to this, it might
strike a chord. If so, take notes.

These sites:

- have so much going on, it confuses the visitor. I’m talking about sites that
have no rhyme or rhythm and are trying to sell a ton of different unrelated things
at once. There’s literally tons of stuff all over their page.

- have products that are old and way overcirculated (1 penny ebooks anyone?)
Now while listing any products at all is a start, you want to make sure you’re
offering up-to-date, quality stuff. Posting the junk you often find in auctions
on Ebay (30,000 ebook packages) unfortunately will have many people clicking
away from your site. Don’t get me wrong.. some of those older products are real
gems — but as a newcomer, it can be hard to discern until you’ve gone through
dozens of them.

- have poor graphics or color schemes that make their visitors’ eyes bleed.
(Been there, done that.. sorry for the people that saw my first attempts.) LOL
My advice to correct this is to look around at the various sites out there. You
should notice certain colors work together well, certain general templates look
good. This doesn’t mean rip those sites off or copy them. I think you should
note what you think works and use it to your advantage with your own personal
twist on it.

- have spelling and grammatical errors that would make their English teacher roll
over in his/her grave. This isn’t hard to fix. In the very least, it’s wise to use
spell check when drafting up sales copy or writing up content for your site.

These are just a few things that I’ve noticed. I’m sure there’s more and when I
think of more, I’ll share it here with you.