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New Blog and Cool Free WP Theme

December 18, 2008 By Tiffany Leave a Comment

Sometimes the mood just strikes me and I decide to start a new blog or web site. This time I was reflecting on how much time I spend with Google Alerts looking up all the juiciest info I can get about the Twilight books and movies. I am a BIG fan. Soooo… I decided that I should be making some money while I have my fun and I have started a Twilight blog.

I am super happy with the way it turned out especially because I knew I wanted a magazine style WordPress layout and all the best ones were premium themes you have to pay for. I was just about to drop $150 on a developers license for one such theme when my stubbornness kicked in and I decided to look one last time for a freebie. Woot! The theme I ended up using is called Visionary. I love it and it was easy to customize and the layout is perfect. I was afraid to pay for a theme and then have it be so complicated I would spend a week figuring it out…I hate themes like that.

I think I had this blog up and ready from domain purchase to completely finished with 4 posts, 6 pages, 1 Amazon astore, and 2 galleries in about 3 hours.

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Filed Under: Blogging, My Experiences

The Reality of Online Business

September 17, 2008 By Tiffany 4 Comments

Someone asked me the other day why making money online seems to come so easy for me. I had to tell them that in my opinion it is NOT easy and nor is it for me. Well, the technical aspects and the actual work are easy for me…I love blogging, web design, graphic design, coding, etc. The leg work though is not all that easy. It can be tedious and time consuming, especially if I am in “production mode” as opposed to what Lynn Terry refers to as “maintenance mode”.

Maintenance entails all the stuff that keeps your business humming along as is…customer support, answering emails, paying affiliates, etc. It probably only takes me 5 hours a week to keep things running on maintenance, if that. But in production mode I am BUSY…sometimes like 30-40 hours a week busy. Production mode is what allows me to grow my business. Some of my production mode activities include writing and posting content for blogs (I have over a dozen), static web sites, article directories, info products, special reports, autoresponders (I have over a dozen),  and for sale. I also scour my web sites and blogs for new ways to monetize the content. I spend a lot of time testing and tracking to see what works and what doesn’t and I tweak. I also look for ways to automate processes so my maintenance time is low. I brainstorm new ideas and flesh them out to gauge profitability.

I spend time engaging in various PR or publicity activities but admittedly I am very picky about my opportunities. I have turned down prime time TVs shows, on air broadcast news interviews, and photo shoots because I prefer not to do that. I didn’t start an online biz to be some sort of rock star, I started an online business to make enough money so that eventually my whole family could have financial freedom. My ultimate goal is to make enough money passively to support us spending 6 months a year out of the country…like a beachside rental in Costa Rica.

So for right now that means I spend some hefty hours in production mode. But it is worth it. Last week I bought my husband a motorcycle with cash. He gave up his motorcycle when we moved out of state and has missed it ever since. Tomorrow he goes to pick up his new one. It feels good to be able to do that.

Most days I am in production mode because I do want to see my business continue to grow for some time. I think it will be worth it in the long run even if it is hard right now.

 

 

Filed Under: Making Money, My Experiences

Buying Established Sites

August 15, 2008 By Tiffany 11 Comments

I love creating new web sites but in recent months I have also started buying established ones from other people. It is working out quite well. I am pleased by the results. Case in point: Instead of TV. I bought this site about 3 months ago. The subject matter fits nicely with my other projects and the major drawing point for me was the list that came with it (around 900 subscribers) and 25 messages in an autoresponder. I went into it thinking that this would be a good site for me to “flip”. It was already great but perhaps not a big priority for the seller so I knew I could make it even better with a little time. 

First I did a redesign…nothing fancy. I just wanted to give it a “family” feel. Here is the old:

Old TV Site

And here is the new:

New TV Site

Looks good eh? I went through it and changed affiliate links and generally did some tweaking. I left Adsense in place but this week I am removing most of it. I would like to highlight the affiliate products I am promoting on each page instead. I also deleted a few of the autoresponder messages and added a half dozen of my own, using recycled content from another site. I really like how responsive this list is! They email me back to let me know what they think and I had some pretty decent Amazon conversions last month. I have already had over 300 new subscribers just since I took the site over.

This site has shown me the importance of fully using autoresponders for online business and list management. I can’t wait to build upon my other ones…which are pitiful in comparision to the volume and content of the tv list.

I might just start buying established sites more often too.

Filed Under: Great Tips, My Experiences
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