Testing SYSTEMS - 1, 2, 3, 4

A most happy and welcome March to you!!!

It's time to wrap up our 30 Day BLOGGING Experiment and introduce our next Experiment.

I have to confess that while I love blogging and know it as an important element of marketing online, I feel the information shared here over the past month has been a bit scattered and disorganized. A good clue that some change is needed on my part. In fact, it served to inspire the direction Jackie and I are going to take for the next month of our 30 Day Marketing Experiment.

We are going to experiment with different "systems". This certainly won't be all inclusive... though we will aim to present a different system over each of the next four weeks.

A 'system', as defined in my Merriam Webster Collegiate Dictionary is:

1: a regularly interacting or interdependent group of items forming a unified whole

In other words... you can have a group of items, or activities and with a sense of how they relate to one another, how they can build on one another... you have a system that results in a unified whole. Without the sense of how they relate to and build on or enhance one another you simply have a group of activities... or a group of tools... not doing you a whole lot of good.

One important thing to keep in mind is that there will be systems that 'work' for you... and systems that invariably fail to help you produce the results you seek. Don't make too much of any particular system. Just keep experimenting until you find the system that works for you!

A system that works for you would:

• fit your budget
• fit your schedule
• feel quite effortless
• inspire new ideas/thoughts
• bring in cash
  

The system we're going to cover this week looks something like this:

Idea ==> Lens ==> Bookmark ==> Article and take it further in a blog

We'll reiterate some of what we've talked about previously with a focus on the FLOW. I've frequently found that it's not until re-visiting information after pondering it a bit and experimenting with it to gather more information... that I experience those 'lightbulb' moments that allow me to suddenly see how it all flows together.

So... this month Jackie and I will experiment with a variety of systems in order to discover which ones work most powerfully for each of us. Feel free to share what comes up for you... voicing pro's and con's of various systems is a great way to get clear about what serves YOU best!

For now... I'm off to refine my IDEA -- I'll share that with you in a day or two.

until then... stay present to the moment ;-)

--Mary K

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EXPECT MIRACLES!

30 Day Marketing Experiment - BLOGGING!

It's time to launch another 30 Day Experiment ~~

For the next 30 Days (or so ;-)) we're going to focus on Blogging!

Whether you feel the whole blogging movement is narcissistic, materialistic, or truly valuable, publishing a Web Log (bLog) is an activity that's here to stay in one fashion or another for a good long while!

Since this is a marketing experiment we will focus on, to borrow a phrase, taking
Blogging to the Bank!

That's the title of a very well written and truly helpful book written by Rob Benwell. Rob makes six figures just with Blogs, only working a few hours a week... which simply tells you that the guy knows what he's talking about. To get all of his tips and tricks you'll have to buy the book...

and if you stick with us for the next 30 Days you'll know how to effortlessly apply those tricks even if you've never written a blog before.

Today I just want to talk with you a bit about blogging and it's role in your overall marketing plan.

The amount of money you can make blogging depends on a variety of things including, which niches you choose, how many blogs you create, what you are promoting, etc.

Some people may only make a few hundred a week or a month... nothing to sneeze at but hardly rock star money... and others will make ten or twenty times that much.

It's like anything else... the more you're willing to put into it, the more you'll get out of it.

In fact, it's my opinion that the more passionate you are about your subject the more fun you'll have blogging... and the more fun it is for you, the more you'll get out of it... tangibly and intangibly!

What is blog marketing?
It's simply using a blog for the purpose of monetizing that traffic.

One of the biggest benefits of blogging for making money online is, of course, FREE TRAFFIC! A good blog is a traffic magnet. Getting courses like Rob's Blogging to the Bank 2.0 really can show you how to automate many of the things that get your blog in front of the people that would most appreciate it... and that, along with sharing valuable and interesting content is the whole game when it comes to blogging!

With or without Rob's course, using a blog to market a product is a lot cheaper than using a website. Mainly because of the availability of free blog services that are in many ways just as good as having a website.

Thanks to both the human and Search Engine demand for quality content, it's truly possible to make serious money from creating, promoting and maintaining blogs... as long as you understand the basics of marketing on the Internet. True... that's an ever-changing thing. And one of the beauties of blogs is that you can get up to speed quickly about new techniques by...

reading Blogs!!! ;-)

Which brings me back to that word about content... quality content.

What is quality content?
It's any content that does not exist anywhere else on the web and actually provides valuable information to the reader. Or... puts information that might be available in different places all in one spot for people...

Just remember... the more meaningful and unique the content is to your readers the more traffic you will receive as word spreads about you.

If you can keep the Search Engines and your human readers happy, you will do very well. Creating fresh and informative content regularly to your blog is relatively easy, even if you're not the biggest fan of writing.

In a day or two I'll be back to chat about picking a topic for your blog.
Until then... go read a blog or two...or three. Pick a topic you're interested in and then enter it, along with the word blog, into your favorite search engine. Have FUN!!!

--Mary K

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EXPECT MIRACLES!

SQUIDOO ~ A Winner!

You may have noticed that it's now February 1 --

It's 10 pm in my world and I just noticed that myself! Whoops, time to turn the calendar page. ;-)

So we wrap up the Squidoo.com experiment with a big 5 STARS!

Certainly not because I made so much money from my lenses this month (though I DID make some money!! ;-)). It's earned it's stars as a successful 'experiment' because of the wealth of information, tips, tricks and tools that have been discovered in the process of exploration!

That's speaking for me... I certainly hope YOU have found something new for yourself. Whether you were already familiar with squidoo.com or it was brand new to you... I hope you've received some value from tools to various other resources as well as our walk-through of the various aspects of building a squidoo lens!

Hmmm... what will the next 30 Day Marketing Experiment cover?!?

Stay tuned...
--Mary K

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EXPECT MIRACLES!

p.s. Happy Ground Hog's day tomorrow!!!!

Promoting ON your Squidoo Lens

Okay... so I got a bit sidetracked on my way to this blog...but now I'm ready to talk about promoting ON your Squidoo lens and then... promoting your LENS itself! (They are very different things, ya know.)

And MAN! I've been learning a ton! I figured I'd just move forward with the learning rather than come by and post that I was over-whelmedandcrankybecauseIjusthadtoomuchtolearn!!! So look at it like this, I saved you! ;-)

See, that's one of the wonders of this 30 Day Marketing Experiment blog... WE go through the 'over-whelm and cranky' so you don't have to! Ha!

Onto today's topic...

Remember, we are talking about MARKETING, so we want to monetize our Squidoo lens in the most effective way possible. It's one thing to build a lens and another to build a lens designed to bring you a powerful and growing stream of income.

So we want to think about how well we are PROMOTING products and services on our lens. I'm going to assume that by now you've explored some of the modules over at Squidoo and I encourage you to explore on a regular basis; there are new modules added frequently!

Here are some pointers to keep in mind as you build your lens -

Use Royalty-earning modules
Don't just use one of them, use more than one in different ways. You can spice up the display and functionality of your lenses if you offer slightly different Amazon, Ebay, and SuperStore modules. For instance, you may spotlight a specific book from Amazon in one module and then provide a selection of DVD's on topic on a different Amazon module.

Consider hand picking items instead of letting the modules choose for you
In some cases, letting the affiliate service choose the items works well. And sometimes, there's more leverage in personally holding up specific, particular items. Don't just show me 10 random books on kayaking, show me the 10 best books you personally recommend.

Sometimes less is more
How much are you personally recommending? Consider whether there's more promise in the One Book You Need to Read, the Three Magazines You Need to Subscribe to, the Two Tools You Need to Own than in a long, long list of anything and everything. Give people less to choose from. Make some real, personal recommendations.

Explain why someone should buy something
Don't just hold up an item, hold forth on why you're holding it up. Consider adding a description that explains why you recommend a tool or resource, how you use it, why it works, and why someone should drop their dime. This will give people more information about a given product, and it will further communicate your expertise and advice.

IMPORTANT: alternate content modules with commerce modules
Are you dropping all your royalty earners to the bottom of your lens? Or clumping them all together anywhere? If you pair content -- information about a given aspect of a topic -- with tools people can use to learn more about that aspect -- it might work better. And, it might not make people scroll so far down before they see a tool they can use. Consider going back and forth between content and commerce modules.

Linking Like Lenses
While it's important to be sure you're sharing the best and most useful resources and tools, it's also important to think about the length of your lenses. You don't need to hold back on sharing your knowledge. Just consider making multiple lenses that approach the topic from a variety of angles. You can then lensroll each of your lenses to connect the pages together, making it easier for whoever finds one lens, to find the related lenses at the same time. You'll be surprised at how much more visibility your products have spread out over 2+ lenses instead of one long one!

I'm likely to come up with more... and that's it for now!
Keep building...and most importantly, HAVE FUN!

--Mary K

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EXPECT MIRACLES!

Marketing with SQUIDOO.com

YES! We touched on squidoo.com when first starting the 30 Day Marketing Experiment as it is a part of the Bum Marketing Method. And because SQUIDOO.com is such a valuable resource it's well worth taking a deeper look at all that is offered here at NO COST to you!

Squidoo is a fabulous place for you to define a niche that YOU feel passionate about while providing a platform that helps drive traffic your way.

My intentions this month are:

• To share tips and tricks that make setting up a squidoo lens easy and effective for you

• To create at least two new lenses of my own and to expand on current lenses

• To demonstrate how squidoo can help brand your business on the 'net

• To give you step-by-step instructions on how to set up Search Engine Optimized pages within Squidoo at absolutely no cost to you

• And to continue to sharing what I learn as I learn it!

2008 Promises to be a very HAPPY and VERY PROFITABLE NEW YEAR!!!
Give us some feedback and let us know what YOU would like to know and what you would like us to try. The whole point of experimenting is to try something different... so don't hold back!!!

Thanks! I appreciate you,

--Mary K

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MySpace IM

We have a few days left in our 30 Day Marketing Experiment around MySpace and so I thought I drop by (weaving in and out of the holiday festivities is a bit of a challenge these days! ;-)) share with you some of the things I've discovered about the MySpace Instant Messenger tool.

In all fairness I have to share that I only downloaded this tool a couple of weeks ago and I've been away from my computer for more days than usual so I don't have a lot of experience sending messages with this tool. I have yet to find any close friends who are using it and that's okay... it will give me a great excuse to connect with one of my friends I'd like to know better by searching for someone who has already downloaded this tool!

Even without experiencing many conversations using this IM tool, I have discovered there are a couple of features that I wasn't expecting and I'm finding them very useful.

Certainly it provides the basic instant messaging to other MySpace users and has customizable emoticons and Zaps (a combination of a sound bite, picture, and words.) that are found in many instant messengers but what I'm appreciating is that it also provides shortcuts to MySpace.com features and profiles AND sends instant alerts for all requests, messages and comments. (Even blog post comments!)

As you can see on the left, it shows up on my desktop just like any other IM tool.
I'm sure I'll discover many more bells and whistles as I play around with it and as we roll into a new year I intend to fill up my contact list with friends. If you're inspired to download it yourself please add me and give me a holler sometime! ;-)

Until then... I'm off to message somebody.
Thanks! I appreciate you,

--Mary K

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EXPECT MIRACLES!

MySpace - My Story - My Thanks!

We haven't quite reached the end of our 30 Days around MySpace and yet with Christmas right around the corner it's time to lay low for a few days so today I wanted to wish you a very Happy Holiday and recap what we've covered in this particular 30 Day Marketing Experiment.

We've covered:

• What MySpace.com is all about and how you benefit from getting and using an account there.

• Showed you exactly how to go in and set up an account.

• What you need to know to create and attractive MySpace Profile.

• Defined and described placing 'My Story' on your profile page.

• The value of adding Friends to your list at MySpace.

• Who to look for and how to add them quickly using FriendBlasterPro.

• Described through word and video how, when and why to use the tools available at MySpace.

With the last few days of the year 2007 I intend to give thanks and express appreciation for ALL of my wonderful friends both on the 'net and off!!!

I appreciate YOU -- Regardless of how or if you celebrate the holidays and holy days... may yours be wonder-filled and merry indeed!

--Mary K

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MySpace - Looking for the 'fit' with others!

I spent some time over at MySpace this weekend just looking for new friends.

I've been playing over at the MS community off and on for the past year and yet it continues to amaze me how I find new things to check out along WITH new people to check out! LOL

One of the things that occurred to me today was that it might be valuable to go a bit deeper in sharing with you what may be obvious but often eludes us.

'Marketing' is always and all ways about saying the 'right' thing to the 'right' people at the 'right' time! And I'm not talking about 'right' as any kind of value-based judgment. Yet I think it's really important to recognize that getting into relationship with people and moving those relationships into FRIENDSHIPS happens when we share values with others. And we are more likely to make a sale to someone who feels they know, like and trust us... you know, like a friend.

In other words, a really good marketer knows they don't have a product or service for 'EVERYBODY' and knows that it's not necessary (dare I say possible) to become 'friends' with EVERYBODY they meet! And that's not a problem because all any of us need do is offer our brilliant solution (product/service) to the person looking for it when they most want it!

Keep in mind that we will greatly increase our odds of knowing who those people are if/when we take the time to get to know people. This does NOT have to take a great deal of time, as Jackie shows you with the nifty tools available to add new friends and it does mean you want to give some thought to jump-starting things by selecting people who share some of your values. Makes sense that those people may value the same products and services as you...yes?

Understand that one of the things that will reveal a persons values to you is the activities they engage in. We do the things we do because those things support our values. That's not to say we don't all spend a certain amount of energy deluding ourselves about ourselves from time to time so don't get upset with those situations where you believe you've made a good connection with someone only to find out later that we really share very little in common with them.

As an example, you may tell yourself that you truly value reading... yet you rarely read purely for pleasure or personal growth. While you may in fact value 'knowing how to read' you probably don't really value reading in that case. So searching for others who value 'reading' may not lead you to people who have a lot in common with you.

So give some thought to those 'keywords' you enter when doing a search through profiles over at MySpace. With a bit of honest, authentic soul-searching it will really add to your fun in making friends when you make of point of looking for people who value the same things you value. And MySpace offers so many things that make it a really rich community for making some genuine connections!

Have FUN my friends,
I appreciate you!

--Mary K

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MySpace Web Marketing 2.0

I am SO excited to be starting a whole new 30 Day Marketing Experiment!!

For one thing...there is simply the delight I feel about sharing, hopefully
with greater clarity, in a way that anyone who chooses can easily follow
along and apply what we are doing to you own pages... and either
start building a business or ramping up the activities around your
current business.

As Jackie has already shared, we are going to use MySpace to
demonstrate how you begin to brand yourself with involvement in
social communities. I think it's really important to understand that
these techniques will work regardless of the community you feel
most drawn to... yet the tools used within different communities
might vary. As time permits I intend to experiment a bit on my own
in discovering which tools might be useful for which communities since
I'm active in a variety of different online communities.

I realize that some people just starting to explore working from home
on the Internet might feel overwhelmed... and even wonder how it's
possible that anyone can succeed when so many people seem to
be marketing the same products and services. The reason is...
because YOU bring your own unique element to the picture. That's
why it's really about creating BRAND YOU!

Sure... if you and I have a certain number of things in common we're
likely to attract some of the same people and yet, we are bound to
express ourselves differently and attract differently!

And the beauty of MySpace is that there are MILLIONS of potential
new friends to meet!!!

If you already have a product, service or opportunity that you would
like to grow then simply follow along as inspired. If you would like to
participate in the 30 Day Experiment yourself and are looking for a
'best fit' then check out Jackie's very low cost $5 Blessing or go grab
a free Business Power Mall after watching the video at my site:
The Abundance Mall

And here's the deal -- you'll have the support of both Jackie and me
and as you start developing relationships online and discover that
people want to join you in business... you're welcome to share the
link to the 30 Day Marketing Experiment so they will be learning right
along with the rest of us!

Comments and questions WELCOME!!!!
I look forward to hearing from you!

--Mary K

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Day 19 & 20 ~ Mary K

It's a wrap!!!

You may have noticed we did some juggling with our 'day' numbers. Early on in the 30 Day Marketing Experiment we had decided we would give it 30 days and we fell back on some thinking from our 'former' lives where we had developed a habit of thought that said, "work days are M-F so let's just count those".

Well, by midway through the Experiment we realized that was a bunch of nonsense! After all, one of the benefits of working from home creating income streams from your computer is that you have the flexibility to take action when inspired... which can be any time and any day! ;-) (I personally love that part *grins*)

So as Jackie and I talked about it we realized that what we were really up to was seeing what could be produced in a '30' day (or one month) time period, regardless of when any activities took place because as we looked at our actual pattern we quickly saw that Saturday and Sunday frequently come into the picture as well -- simply because we're inspired and free on those days too!

As to the Experiment itself? I have to confess that since we chose to start with Bum Marketing and I didn't adhere very closely to the Bum Marketing Method that I failed the experiment.

Which is NOT the same thing as the experiment failing!!! Frankly, I see the experiment being a HUGE success! Because for me, a successful experiment is one that leaves me with useful and valuable information that supports me in moving in the direction of personal success and fulfillment.

However, this does leave me not knowing (from personal experience) whether or not Travis' Bum Marketing Method actually does work and could bring in close to $1000 monthly once established. I still suspect it could AND I'm firmly convinced it's unlikely to happen during your first month at it! There's a learning curve and a rhythm that needs to be developed before you find yourself firmly engaged in the 'money generating' tasks. While it's true that research contributes greatly to the eventual generation of money, it's not what I would consider a 'money generating' task like the activities directly related to bringing traffic to your article, lens or any other website is.

As we move onto the next 30 Day Marketing Experiment segment, it's only fair that you realize much of what has been learned in the past month will impact our future efforts in positive ways. So if you've been watching... and doing yourself, I'll bet you'll find that to be true too! ;-)

To wind up the last two days I wrote two articles and submitted them and I started a new lens over at Squidoo.com.

What I've learned from these first 30 Days:

• I enjoy writing articles and intend to continue consistently doing so.

• Writing an article I'm satisfied with is rarely accomplished in less than 30 minutes

• Focus is not the challenge I thought it was... organization is a bigger challenge than I realized. ;-)

• I'm more successful following my inner-guidance than I am when trying to force myself into taking action 'that works'.

• I flow cash from sources I'm NOT 'efforting' about - I received an unexpected $505.24 during the course of this first 30 Day Marketing Experiment. $5.24 as a directly result of my 'efforts' around the experiment, $500 around a program I was simply in vibrational alignment with yet had taken no 'action' on.

• Confirmation that following my PASSION and staying in VIBRATIONAL ALIGNMENT works!!!

I'm very eager and excited to start PHASE 2 of the 30 Day Marketing Experiment in December!!! THANK YOU!!!

--Mary K

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Day 18 ~ Mary K

Today has been a brilliant example of some of the benefits and challenges of working from home! You would think without the need to 'drive' to work I wouldn't be tied up for hours with CAR ISSUES!!!

Okay...so it wasn't quite as bad as that picture. (though I did have that very experience once years ago when I had taken my three little boys out to a local ice rink. We're were having a blast trying to stand on skates and suddenly noticed a commotion from the parking lot where there were flames leaping from under the hood of a car... MY CAR!!!! YIKES! :-)) However, I spent about three hours unexpectedly tied up with trying to get my car to start so that I could take it into the shop and have them figure out why my car won't start. Something is wacky with that whole scheme... ;-)

This experiment has afforded me with clarity about many things, from a keener awareness to the many interruptions that occur during my day to the clarity about my lack of discipline when I do have a block of uninterrupted time.

In all fairness I will say I am actually quite disciplined -- and sometimes I don't manage the chaos well! Perhaps it's simply that I never know when the 'uninterrupted' time will happen?

Okay...'nuff said. In addition to the tasks for this experiment I work as an Editor for a monthly magazine. The last week of the month is always booked tightly with a 'deadline' looming so while accomplished a significant amount related to that work despite the unexpected visitors and the car situation... I really didn't give the 30 Day Experiment the two hours today.

I DID make time to revise an article I had written previously and submitted it to Ezine articles. That all took me about 30 minutes.

So that's a wrap for today... we'll see what tomorrow brings.

I've gotta tell you... I HAVE made some money this month that I attribute directly to this experiment and it's no where close to $1000. But the 'learning' up to now is already worth a million bucks... so I'm quite excited! More on that when we wrap this up at the end of the week. ;-)

Prepare for success!

--Mary K

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Day 16 and 17 ~ Mary K

I'll be you thought I exploded after Thanksgiving dinner!!!

Nah... it was a wonderful! And because I was up in the north woods right on the Wisconsin/Michigan border for five days... it was beautiful, refreshing and meant eating lots more every single day than I usually eat in a week! ;-)

Now I'm back and refreshed though have to confess I felt a bit exhausted yesterday which is why I failed to post to the blog. I spent the day watching my youngest granddaughter and didn't get much accomplished until today anyway so here's what I managed to complete today!

Updated 2 of my Squidoo lenses - 30 minutes
Wrote an article yesterday that I submitted to directories today - 20 minutes
Wrote an article today that I will submit to one source this week and then submit to a variety of directories next week - 1 hour

TOTAL TIME: 1 hour 50 minutes

I suppose I really should round it up to at least two hours because I did accomplish some 'learning' today directly related to activities for the 30 Day Marketing Experiment --
And in some ways... that's my FAVORITE thing to do! ;-)

C'ya tomorrow!
THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!

--Mary K

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Day 9 ~ Mary K

Yes! It does appear that consistent daily actions are making a difference visible on the 'bottom line' as well as in terms of personal growth and honing my vibration!!!

Today I checked my sales (which is NOT something I think to do daily)
and much to my amazement I saw..... $415.32!!

Now that isn't the same as my 'earnings' but I'm definitely on my way!!!

So...here's how today shaped up -

• Edited/updated my Squidoo lens - 30 min
• Wrote an article on launching a business for free -1 hour
• Posted an ad - 10 min
• Posted to blog - 10 min
• Pinged and bookmarked - 15 min. (only took that long because I added some sites)

Only 2 hours 5 min. today... That's about perfect as I have other commitments to attend to. I'm thrilled to realize we're not even halfway through our little experiment here and the growth and changes have been simply AMAZING!

In addition to wanting to test the Bum Marketing tactics and hopefully generate some cash for myself personally, one of my big personal intentions around this experiment is to find a simple system that doesn't require more than a couple of hours a day that I can share with others who would like to earn money online! Gaining clarity around all of this has been a HUGE gift to me and seeing results that I'm excited to share in order to make a contribution to others, well... that just gets me over the top EXCITED!!!!

I'm filled with APPRECIATION!!!!
Thank YOU!

--Mary K

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Day 7 ~ Mary K

We're looking good today! Although my body rhythms are are a bit off-beat from the rest of the world as I find myself meeting the approaching winter with a desire to sleep all day and prowl all night, I must say it's another good point for working from home on the Internet -- it's a 24/7 kind of thing! ;-)

(*Speaking of working from home I've included a video below sharing some of the risks around NOT working from home. Perhaps it should be titled, "Are long-distance co-workers a safer situation?" ;-))

Okay... today's work was done quite quickly. I'm starting to see how this builds upon itself. You may have gather after reading a bit from each of the three of us, we all entered this 30 Day Experiment with different levels of having certain things already in place. Jackie, for instance, right from the start had a very substantial amount of experience in working with many of these tools and came in with a pretty good handle on Internet Marketing. Kat, on the other hand is very new to many of the tools (I'm referring to things like Squidoo and USFreeAds and Social Bookmarking sites, etc as tools here) and is a different spot in her learning curve around a variety of this things. I find myself somewhere in between the two... discovering I know both more and less than I thought and still very excited to forge onward!!! ;-)

Today I was able to spend my time tweaking and editing things that I had already created so it was all less time consuming. It's easy to see how there is definitely an ebb and flow to this marketing stuff as there is to most things in life. Keep that in mind as you travel along in your marketing ventures and realize that you're not alone!

So here's my 'time sheet' for today:

Jingle Bells Squidoo Lens - 45 minutes
(edited and then marketed by sharing my link with more people in more places)

Wrote article - 45 minutes (Because one of the things my lens is going to share more and more of is holiday fundraising events I wrote an article about the holidays and the spirit of giving)

Blog post - 15 minutes (similar theme to the article but more general)

TOTAL: 1 hour 45 minutes

Until tomorrow...
thanks!
--Mary K

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* Here's that video I spoke about... A Bad Day indeed!

Day 6 ~ Mary K

Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells...

I love the holidays, though have to confess, Thanksgiving is my least favorite so I'm happily bypassing it and getting into the swing of the more wintery holiday!

And I've been humming Christmas songs all day building inspiration for my holiday lens over at squidoo.com. I think this will be a far more efficient week than last week and I'm pretty excited about that! ;-) For one thing, I won't be creating several lenses... I will be adding daily to this lens. ;-)

I am please to share that my articles from last week have been accepted over at ezinearticles and as Jackie points out...it's a bit of a wait for a 30 Day Experiment. So I'll continue to submit over there and advise others to do so but won't recommend it for turning over any kind of quick cash!

So here's how my time went today:

Created a new "jingly" Squidoo Lens - 1 hour
! blog post (about the above mentioned lens ;-)) - 45 min
Started an article - 1 hour (I'll tighten it up and submit it tomorrow)
Pinged and Bookmarked - 15-20 minutes

So again... I'm looking at 3 hours time. Which I have no problem with... and will actually revel in the fact as cash starts to flow in! LOL

Thanks all...gotta run, chestnuts roasting on an open fire.... FIRE?!!?! Bye....

--Mary K

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-:¦:- ((¸¸.·´* Light

EXPECT MIRACLES!

Day 5 ~ Mary K

Hooray!!!! Congratulations to Jackie!!!

This has been such a GREAT week! ;-) Much learning and much accomplished...FUN!

I find myself wondering how changing the type of product or service I choose to market will impact the 30 Day Marketing Experiment. Since I'm approaching this from the perspective that it's a test of the 'method' and should, theoretically work regardless of the product, I feel very open to changing focus for next week.

This week I've been focusing on a niche I haven't really spent any time marketing to before... things for children/child development. It's an area I'm very comfortable and familiar with so I feel the passion, I just haven't done any marketing in this area before. Although I didn't earn anything yet... I'll bet it's on it's way!!! ;-)

So... here's todays report:

Created a new Squidoo Lens called Homemade Kits for Kids
This took 1.5 hours. I'm getting quicker!!

Blog post - 15 min

Pinged and bookmarked both - 15 minutes

Once again I didn't fit everything in the two hour time but overall, I'm feeling great!

Have a fabulous and prosperous weekend...
I so appreciate you,

--Mary K

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-:¦:- ((¸¸.·´* Light

EXPECT MIRACLES!

Day 5 ~ Jackie Lee

Don't you hate it when you get a blast of inspiration late in the evening. I mean I love getting inspiration, but for me it means my brain gets going and going and going, and I can't sleep. I get ideas flying through my head, so much so that sometimes I have to get out of bed and write it down, so I know I won't forget what's running through my head by morning. Last night I called Mary K.

I was thinking about this blog, and how the vibration of it is so different from my other blog. I love writing this blog, I am myself on this blog. I was also looking through some other personal/social type blogs online and realized I could do BOTH.

Anyone who knows me knows I have problems when it comes to either/or/and. I was raised in a family where it was either/or, never AND. So now as an adult I find it difficult to be able to see the picture when it comes to combining two things I usually (wrongly) assume as mutually exclusive.

When I realized that I could talk to people about internet marketing, teach them tricks and tips and help them be successful, while at the same time BEing a MOM, (which is who I am) I felt such relief.

Long story short, one more thing I have learned from this experiment is the ability to come authentically from who I am, even when it comes to blogging about internet marketing.

Woo Hoo!!!

So let's talk about today's tasks. One more aside before we do that.

I have been so excited about having these specific actions to take that I have tried to do it for my other daily activities as well. I was hoping I could find a white board or chart where I could write them all down and check them off as I go. I just LOVE checking things off as they are done.
Yesterday I bought a small white board and thought I would just write it in. Shortly after I got home with my white board I found a blog providing amazing organizational things and one of them was a monthly chart just like I have been looking for. Gotta love LOA, just ask and it's given.

So now back to my action steps:

• Wrote a new article and posted to one directory ~ the other directory I am at an upgrade threshold and will have to wait until one more article is reviewed before I get the unlimited article upgrade. Should happen today I imagine. ~ 45 minutes including keyword search
  
• Made a new lens ~ 40 minutes give or take I did have some toddler distractions
  
• Pinged & bookmarked ~ less than 5 minutes

Done! I worked on a different topic today. I am finding it is much easier to write on topics I have some excitement around, even if the product doesn't have the highest commission, or isn't in the most marketable niche. I think your vibration makes up for some of those things.

That's it for today!!

Have an amazing weekend, and I'll see you on Monday.

Jackie Lee :)

Day 4 ~ Mary K

Today was such a BLAST!!! I brilliantly let myself have fun with not only this experiment but today I allowed the day to flow and quit paddling upstream. Ahhhh.... sweet relief!

A simple rearrangement in how I used my time brought about far greater efficiency and a heightened sense of accomplishment. Sometimes I can be so silly, like when I work at cross-purposes with myself. One of my good friends and respected mentors, John Milton Fogg, is often know to say that "your business grows only as fast as you do". (Perhaps I'm paraphrasing but you get the gist) And in my case sometimes that rate is a dance of two steps forward and one step back... but at least I'm moving forward! ;-)

Okay... Here's today's truth:

• Wrote an article - 2 hours

(Finally got an article written and don't know if I'll have any luck getting speedier about it. Today I can accept that and realize I may have to accept that I simple need more than 2 hours to accomplish my list of actions.)

• Submitted article - 10 minutes

• Posted to PI Blog - 15 minutes

• Added to Squidoo lens - 15 minutes

• Pinged and Bookmarked - 15 minutes

Total time: 2 hours 55 minutes

Not bad at all... especially considering that I accomplished other things on other projects today and didn't feel preoccupied and weighted down about the 30 Day Experiment. I discovered that I was 'thinking' I should accomplish this all first thing in the morning. The interesting thing is that most of the actions on each of the past four days were accomplished in the evening. But today, I gave myself permission early on to leave it until evening. The result was that I found my rhythm and was allowing the inspiration to flow... so I could actually act on INSPIRATION rather than 'shoulding' all over myself like I did the first three days! ROFL!!!!

Thanks, I so appreciate you,
--Mary K

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-:¦:- ((¸¸.·´* Light

EXPECT MIRACLES!

Day 3 ~ Mary K

Alrighty.... It was an interesting day this day 3. I think I was expecting too much of myself and found myself needing to re-center over and over again. Some days are just wonky that way!

Ommmmmmmmmmmm

I'm doing a better job with my time but lost close to an hour today around placing an ad. I haven't personally seen great results from running classified ads of any kind online (although I know people who have great results from Craigslist) but I had hear that there is one classified ad place that Google seems to like.

Well, it's called UsFreeAds but I can tell you, after 50 minutes of reading and researching the site, for what I'm up to the truly 'free' ads are virtually useless! Don't want to belabor the point but I'm really invested in seeing if cash can be generated by anybody just using FREE tools so I couldn't even place the ad!

The good news is the AD itself only took about 5 minutes because I was able to lift copy already in place about the product.

I'm already tempted to change course about the particular product line I'm promoting for this week but I had decided to focus on one line or 'category' of products for at least a week so I'll stay the course!

The way the day shaped up around the 30 Day Marketing Experiment was as follows:

• Writing and submitting AD - approx. 1 hour (with no ad actually submitted - blech!)

• Added a section to yesterdays Squidoo Lens and promoted it - 1 hour (well spent, rank already rising which often indicates a higher position in search engines meaning more eyeballs searching on my keywords are likely to find my lens and (ideally) buy my stuff! ;-)

• Posted to Blog - approx 1 hour (discovered a new, at least to me, thing called 'video units' that allow you to set up a customized YouTube screen on a blog or website that is responsive to your keywords. This means the videos streaming to your site will always be fresh and changing and theoretically on topic. Pretty cool! Have to admit, I got a bit mesmerized watching the different videos right on my own blog. Some might call that a time waster? ;-))

Again... I didn't write or submit an article. I am applauding that I took the time to check out the classified ad thing. I don't have the energy desired around posting classifieds so I can drop that element all together and tomorrow focus on writing and submitting an article or two!

I'm also realizing (primarily from reading Jackie's posts, LOL) that it will be more valuable for me to get up early and sit down for a couple of hours and get the tasks done. I'm excited about this now because I have more clarity about the specifics of the tasks I'll be doing. The way I've approached things these first three days was that I would do a little bit, then something would come up to pull me away or I discovered I had to do some exploring in order to use the tool I was working with... and meanwhile, the fact I wasn't reaching completion with the task was weighing on my mind.

This had the effect of making me feel as though I was putting a LOT more time on all of this than the actual measure indicates. It also got in the way of me completing some other things that I enjoy spending time with and/or have committed to completing. By being clear about the steps to take I should be able to eliminate that 'hangover' feeling that drained my energy today. ;-)

I'm gonna go take an alka seltzer, c'ya ====> ;-)

--Mary K

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-:¦:- ((¸¸.·´* Light

EXPECT MIRACLES!

Day 1 ~ Mary K

=====> sliding in at the end of the day... whew! LOL

It's been an exciting and revealing day! I've learned a lot about how I get side-tracked and how to get myself back on track. If it weren't for this experiment I don't believe I'd be on track yet! ;-)

I want to share my intentions for this venture --

• To make $1000 in the next 30 Days
• To engage in clear, specific actions around this project for a maximum of 2 hours daily
• To share my results honestly and in a meaningful way so that others can expand on my experience to attain their own success
• To become more consistent and disciplined in my writing
• To create a system that can easily be duplicated by myself and others for sustaining the flow of cash

Okay... Since this is Day 1 I was going to confess that the day was a wash for me. Not true! As I went to write up my list of daily actions I realized that I didn't have the clarity I needed. So, today was a learn as you go kind of day.

Man... I now realize what a challenge it will be for me to share with you how long things are taking. I am appreciating the new clarity I've gained about how I actually take action in order to feel my way through to the clarity of what action to take! :-) Lest you're totally confused by that statement let me just explain that as I started writing up the 'Action List' I realized I had some prep work to do, like gathering links together and creating logins for various social bookmarking sites that I had previously overlooked. This took me hours... I don't know exactly how many because there were many interruptions and various distractions. As I move forward with this experiment I am going to set aside a couple of hours each day where I won't answer the phone or let myself get side-tracked by IM's ;-)

Now that I feel as though I have my feet on the ground I've come up with a plan that feels good.


For the next 30 Days I will:

• Create a simple Squidoo lens based on chosen keywords
• Write an article based on those chosen keywords
• Submit article to directories
• Ping and Bookmark the Squidoo Lens
• Post one Ad
• Post to one of my most relevant blogs

That's it... that's all. Six simple actions performed consistently that will result in my earning $1000 over the next 30 Days!!!

Wish me luck!!! See ya tomorrow!!

Mary K