You can fix up a rent house and make it a really nice place to live. You can paint it, landscape the yard, and even add on or remodel with the landlord’s permission. It could be a very cool house!

However, no matter how much work you put into it, the house is still a rent house.

Free websites like Homestead, Angelfire, Blogger, and countless others remind me of rent houses. Although beginners are especially drawn to them, they are not the type of place you should invest the majority of your work. Sure, places like Squidoo can enhance existing sites so long as the lense contain quality content. I simply don’t like the idea of using them as the “main course”…so to speak.

When the free sites are used as a foundation for an Internet marketing business it really shows a lack of commitment on the beginner’s part.

After all, a domain only costs ten dollars a year and basic hosting is under five dollars a month. Any beginner who opts for a free site in order to avoid these minimal costs is probably not ready to be an Internet marketer.

Besides the fact that free sites are just like rent houses, but free, they also handicap the marketer with many limitations. Oftentimes they do not allow certain scripts to run which the marketer will need down the road for one reason or another. Some examples are tracking, opt-in, and AdSense scripts.

Most of all, I can’t imagine doing all the work required to make a site successful while working with a domain that is not mine…and just to save a few dollars!

Many beginners may choose the free sites because they lack web design skills and the free sites offer wizards and such. The wizards can create additional problems with their duplicate and bloated code issues. I hear from many beginners who cannot get past the web design problem. Here again, if a beginner chooses a “free site” just because they are unwilling to learn simple web design skills, I question their commitment for building a successful online business.

Buy a domain and low-cost hosting, learn web design skills, and begin building your business the right way.

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Beginners to Internet marketing often ask me how long success will take. Some even ask specific questions like “How long will it take me earn $50,000 per year?”

Some might say there is no way I could answer that question.

Allow me to give it a try. Short of pure luck, how long does it take to build a $50,000 per year Internet business?

Let’s assume one is starting from total scratch without knowing the difference between HTML and SEO. More likely than not a full time job will be a huge obstacle; evenings and weekends will be the only time to spend on learning and building the new online career.

That being said, just how long will it take?

One of the first steps will be learning web design. I’d estimate 1 or 2 months of learning and practice are required in order to be proficient enough to create acceptable sites and landing pages. I am NOT talking about spending only a few hours each weekend and an evening or two during the week! This will require a LOT of work!

Any spare time during those first few months of learning web design should be spent studying search engine optimization, list building techniques, writing sales copy, etc.

After practicing web design and studying the basics of Internet marketing, its time to find a niche market to focus the newly acquired skills and knowledge on.

By the third or fourth month a website should be well into development. Content is king! Not only will much content have to be written, it has to be optimized correctly with SEO techniques.

A small, very niche site might easily produce a thousand dollars per month of profit. Making four thousand per month will require a larger niche or multiple sites. The larger the niche is the more difficult and the more time it will take to rank well in the search engines.

It could take 4 or 5 months to get a few pages ranking well in a niche with moderate competition. This is the best case scenario and will require massive action if in fact it does happen. (Tiny niches can rank much faster but have lower potential.) What do I mean by massive action? Getting up an hour earlier each morning, working almost every evening, and spending the best part of each weekend working the business will be required in the beginning.

Hint: Your spouse NEEDS to be on board with you in all this!

I think it is fair to say that after twelve months of focused action it is possible a site or set of sites could be earning $500 to $1000 per month on a consistent basis. Some people will earn much more and some will earn far less after that first year. However, I think $1000 per month is a reasonable number for someone who started from scratch.

The good news is that once one learns how to make that first $1000 per month, things become much easier!

At that point, all that is usually required is to “wash, rinse and repeat” in order to continue growing.

I feel safe in saying that once the $1000 threshold is reached, it should be reasonable to expect doubling it over each of the next few years. Therefore, by year two, the numbers might be up to $2000 per month consistently. Then, by year three I think it’s reasonable to see it double again. That would be near the $50,000 per year mark.

As I said, some people will have far greater success and even more will simply quit before the end of the first year. However, I think this timeline is reasonable to use as a goal.

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Simply finding and deciphering all the pieces to the Internet marketing success puzzle is quite a challenge. Besides the fact that there is a LOT to know, there is also plenty of worthless information out there. Filtering and categorizing all the knowledge is no easy feat. Reading about list building is one thing; implementing a profitable list building strategy is another. Likewise, studying PayPerClick is much easier than enjoying anything greater than a negative Return-On-Investment with AdWords. …and so on.

OK. You know reading and studying won’t cut it. You must take action of course. But WHERE do you focus your action? How do you know what action to take? Your time is limited. You probably have a full-time job in the beginning.

I’ve already told you how important Relentless Focused Action is. I’m sure you believe in and understand the concept wholly. But action is wasted effort unless you KNOW where to focus it! Where to focus IS the sixty-four thousand dollar question of course. Allow me to veer off the path here a bit and help you in a way you may or may not subscribe to at the moment.

If you do not yet embrace the theory of “The Law of Attraction”, I suggest you consider the following: The Law of Attraction will guide your focus and efforts for you. Instead of fretting and stewing about what to do or how to do it, there is an easier way!

Honestly, I am not going Zen-do on you. I am the most logical and scientific thinker there is, but there is more to this world than logic or science can sometime explain. The Law of Attraction won’t do your work for you. You still must offer up the blood, sweat, and sometimes tears. The Law of Attraction simply helps you choose the correct road out of the thousands of possible dead-ends.

Here’s how to tap the Law of Attraction: First you must limit these kinds of thoughts:

“I don’t like my job.”
“I want to quit my job.”
“I’m tired of having a boss.”
“I’m tired of living paycheck to paycheck.”
“I worry about how long my old car will last.”
“I can’t afford the health insurance I need.”
“My retirement account is not enough.” It’s likely your list goes on and on…

The Law of Attraction states that our thoughts direct our lives. Just thinking how much you hate living “paycheck to paycheck” all but insures “paycheck to paycheck” is how you will continue living.

The negative energy of those thoughts perpetuates that way of life. Instead, notice when those negative thoughts begin and replace them with outcome based positive ones. For example, instead of “wanting to quit your job”, imagine working for yourself. The Law of Attraction’s power is leveraged by imagining self-employment instead of fretting about your current boss.

But we’re not finished yet putting the Law of Attraction to work. We can fine tune it further. The process is much more powerful if you focus on not just “what” you want, but also WHY you want it. For example, instead of only imagining a larger bank account, focus on how your life will change with more income.

Think of the peace of mind it will bring, the ability to travel, how it will feel to pay off all the bills, the satisfaction of giving to charity, etc. Thoughts of those outcomes will create the mind set required to achieve them; it’s just that simple!

Actively try this technique for a few months and see for yourself how things begin falling into place for you. Your road becomes clearer! It rather amazing how well it works!

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No matter how much I preach about finding a small niche to market to, I still find myself saying to beginners, “Your niche is too broad.” I am a firm believer in “thinking big” with respect to success. However, when it comes to choosing keywords, thinking small is required.

Beginners often understand enough about the process to pick the right path to a niche, but then they stop too soon. Here’s an example: Elroy the beginner loves gardening and chooses it for his new site’s theme. So far, so good!

He even understands (since he reads my newsletters) that “gardening” is too broad of topic. After some consideration, Elroy settles on “vegetable gardening” as his chosen niche. Maybe Elroy is really new to my newsletters since he settles on a keyword term with 1.3 million results for that exact phrase match.

Nonetheless, Elroy proudly comes up with a whole list of long tail keywords he thinks will be great to target. “growing vegetables”, “vegetable gardening tips”, “tips for growing vegetables”, etc. are just a few of his prized keywords. Elroy quit too soon with his keyword research. His chosen keywords are still too broad for someone with his limited skills to succeed with.

Better keyword choices (after some focused keyword research) might be keywords such as, “how to grow tomatoes”, “growing corn”, “buy garden seeds”, “controlling tomato worms”, “when to plant potatoes” etc. Think about your own marketing now.

If your efforts seem stalled, could it be your keywords are still too broad? Micro niche keywords may not max out your host’s bandwidth, but they are a sure way for you to pick up some much needed traffic AND motivation as you see those pages ranking well!

Click Here For My Free AdSense Membership Site 

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I just received another sad letter from a person who had the “dreaded letter” from Google. Their AdSense account had been terminated! To add insult to injury, according to Google’s terms of service, any money owed at that point will NOT be paid; it is returned to the advertisers. Don’t let it happen to you! Clicking your own links is not the only way to get banned. Also, be careful which “friends” you shoe your sites to. You don’t want any unauthorized help!

Call me paranoid, but Google’s reach is so broad that I am afraid they could make the connection if those friends began clicking my ads. Who knows…but I am not taking any chances! If you violate “minor” rules, they may be nice and just warn you. Or they will just hit the ban button depending I think on the mood of the reviewer at the time.

Make sure you read the rules and follow them! Another person asked me if the way they used pictures near their ads violated rules. If it was obvious to me it was a rules violation; imagine what the Google reviewer would think!

One more example: A person contacted me about their site which was doing poorly with respect to traffic. I took one look and told the owner that the varied content would be seen by the search engines as “spam”. Google is very clear; sites with no real intent of providing a quality experience for visitors are not welcome in the AdSense program. Several weeks later, the person wrote back; they had received “the letter”.

I don’t know if what I saw is what got them banned or not; but it sure did not help. Even though we do create sites with the intent of earning AdSense income, everyone must remember that quality content is a vital component of AdSense Success. …and follow those AdSense rules!

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Sometimes we all get so caught up in the site creation process, we neglect the very basics of the AdSense setup.

Here is a short list of things you should be doing within your AdSense account.

1. Make SURE you specify in your account the URL’s you approve of for using your AdSense code (this is found in “setup” and “allowed sites”). These will be all the sites you own of course. Here’s what can go wrong if you don’t do this: Someone could copy your page code (it happens all the time) and make their site with it. The code, of course, contains your account’s Adsense code. You do NOT want your code to be active out on other sites like that. There is no telling what types of problems that could create for you. Plus, a competitor could simply copy your code, make a page to put it on, and start clicking like crazy on the ads trying to get you banned! …not likely, but it is possible.

2. Every single ad unit you create should have its own channel. If you don’t do this, and you have 3 ad units on one page, there is no way to know which units are producing well! It makes it impossible to test which units are getting the best clicks.

3. Lastly, when choosing content ad units, do not select the default (images or text) choice. Select either for images or text for that channel. Again, if you use the default choice, you will not know if images or text do better for your niche. Run an ad as text for a while, record the results, and then run an image ad in the same location and test its results. Test, Test Test!

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Have you lost site of the forest for the trees? Many new Internet marketers have this problem. In their case, the trees are dollar signs! Besides simple lack of both knowledge and skills, trying too hard to earn money is the biggest mistake I see beginners making.

Beginners are so distracted with the idea of dollars flowing from their site that they lose total focus on what is important. Stop thinking dollar signs and think traffic! Every day I have beginners contact me with sites they have created which are producing next to zero. Many of them spend much effort and time to create a nice site with several different ways to profit with it.

Ok, fine, but what about traffic? In almost every one of these cases the beginner gave NO THOUGHT about traffic. “Build it and they will come” – That’s how most beginners think. Nope, it does not work like that! Before you build your first page for your site, you have to know the answers to these questions: – Is there too much competition for me to succeed in this niche?

- How much competition is too much and how to know?

- Are there really people who are searching for what is being offered?

- How do you know for sure they are searching for it? (Hint: online keyword tools are NOT the final answer here)

- How do you KNOW what the right keywords are to write content with? – And most importantly: Do you feel reasonably sure you can get some of your pages ranking on the first page of Google and/or Yahoo?

Do not fool yourself! Those questions must be answered before beginning any site. Otherwise, you could very well be wasting your time. Then, when you get no results, you will quit Internet marketing out of frustration. (I see that happen all the time.) Follow tried and proven methods, stay focused, and have patience.

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Too often beginners do things unknowingly which can result in their site being banned by Google. Here is a short audio about how to avoid this disaster!

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Some of my clients have, or are working on, many dozens of sites. Others are focused on just one. Which model is best for you? There is no correct answer which fits every marketer; it depends on individual personalities. There is no wrong or right method. Those that opt for many sites can be just as successful as those who only own one. I will list here some of the pros and cons of each model.

The pros of many sites:

There is safety in diversification. If one site tanks for some reason, no big deal…you have a dozen others to fall back on. – Many of the sites will gain value with time. Many of them will even achieve some page rank. There can be a market for established sites with even a low page rank. – Different Internet marketing techniques can be developed and refined on the different sites. List building, AdSense, Affiliate marketing, and perhaps even selling your own products can be used to monetize multiple sites.

The cons of multiple sites:

More time is required for general upkeep with respect to domain registrations and hosting. – All things being equal (which they never are), X amount of work put into one site will yield more results than X amount of work into ten sites. However, this only applies in general. This negative can be overcome if attention is given to sites which began to get good traction.

The pros of just one site:

It is MUCH easier to stay focused! – The same “X amount of work…” rule stated above applies here. – One site of authority can attract large amounts of attention and offer broader opportunities.

The cons of just one site:

All your eggs are in one basket. It is rare, but a change in algorithm can sometimes hit even a well ranking site hard in the search engine rankings. – If the site’s niche is not large enough, a glass ceiling can be reached which simply can’t be broken through. One site can be limiting unless the market is large. Most of all choose a method which fits you best. Some marketers need help with “focus”.

Others NEED variety. If your dream is to have a thousand AdSense sites, go for it! If your dream is having the best golf site online, then get busy! With Internet marketing you can easily mix and match your own talents, dreams, and personality. I love that part about it!

Click here to join my free AdSense Connection membership site.

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You probably have heard me talk about planting seeds. Creating small niche AdSense sites is a perfect example of planting a seed and watching it grow. There are no guarantees. Some of the niche sites work great and some don’t. Others take a while to take off.

Here is a perfect example of a slow growing site: I have a little AdSense site about searching for lost people (as in long lost relatives and friends). I created the site (several years ago) back when I knew but a fraction of what I know now. My keyword research methods were very primitive.

Back then I mainly used the free keyword tools to pick the keywords.
I found some PLR content and paid a student to rewrite about 12 pages of it. I bought some pictures from istockphoto for one dollar each to spruce up the site. I submitted it to some directories at that time. Since then I have done nothing to the site.

The site was indexed pretty fast. However, the site only earned about 30 dollars a month for the first 18 months. Hey, I am not complaining! That is 540 dollars and I only spent about 100 dollars for the pictures and the content writing!

Then, about 6 months ago, things began changing. For some reason, all of a sudden, some other search engines were picking it up! Originally it was only showing well in the Dog Pile search engine. Now the site has been earning between $250 and $400 per month! THAT is what I mean about planting seeds!

Join my Free AdSense Connection Memership site for AdSense video tutorials.

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