This post really doesn’t have anything to do with Halloween at all either, so fail x2.

What have I been up to lately? Well, TC10 ended… I didn’t really follow along with weeks 5-7 because I got bored with all of [...]]]> Been a long time since my last post. I fail at blogging.

This post really doesn’t have anything to do with Halloween at all either, so fail x2.

What have I been up to lately? Well, TC10 ended… I didn’t really follow along with weeks 5-7 because I got bored with all of the iPhone/iPad app demonstrations in week 5, I think it was. But I did manage to meet my goal of making $1 within the actual challenge this year. I made it sometime in September from EPN, but haven’t made anything with my site since then. It’s not really a site that I want to keep on working on. I’ve been focusing more of my attention on my holiday site and somewhat trying to work on my 2009 30DC site.

I think it’s time for me to find someone to do my backlink building for me because that’s not really something I’d want to be spending my time on. Anybody have any suggestions for services I could use? And please, not that auto traffic avalanche stuff that gets filtered by Akismet on my blog.

Anyway, the title of this post says it all. I know you can’t just set your thoughts on something and have it manifest without taking some sort of action towards making it happen, but how [...]]]> Sorry for the lack of updates lately. I got back from Oxnard and the heat here made me lazy.

Anyway, the title of this post says it all. I know you can’t just set your thoughts on something and have it manifest without taking some sort of action towards making it happen, but how do you know what action to take or if you’re taking the correct action?

I’m still sort of new to the LoA and I haven’t gotten a firm grasp of it yet because I feel like every time I take one step towards being where I want to be, the extremely scarcity minded individual pushes me two steps back. I usually try to avoid being in the same room for more than 10 minutes because I know the person always has the same thing on their mind and I don’t want to think about some of the things that they bring up to talk about. I can see why this person keeps getting the results they’re getting because they always have the same negative thoughts… and I think those thoughts will just get them to where they don’t want to be (their worst case scenario) even faster.

I don’t want to think in terms of what’s the worst that can happen because that’s not what I want. I’m still in the middle of drafting exactly what I want (and I’ll write about that here in sections). But the thing for me is, how do I get from where I am to where I want to be?

What are the correct actions? Or do I just need to take every action I can and weed out the ones that don’t work? I really need a coach or a mentor or anyone who can give me guidance. Someone who has been where I am and is at the level where I desire to be. An abundance minded individual, and preferrably someone who is a super affiliate. If anyone would like to take me under their wing, I would definitely like to work for you, helping you however I can. Leave a comment or use the call widget on the side to leave me a voice message if you’re interested in having me as an unpaid intern in exchange for teaching me what you know about being a super affiliate.

People who help get me out of my comfort zone. It’s definitely good for experiencing growth as an individual when I do something that makes me [...]]]> Time for another daily dose of gratitude, but I’m kind of drawing a blank at the moment… must be the heat. Five things that I’m thankful for/appreciate are:

People who help get me out of my comfort zone. It’s definitely good for experiencing growth as an individual when I do something that makes me step out of my comfort zone.

NBC and Hulu (and maybe other places) for putting episodes of Breakthrough with Tony Robbins online. This is such an inspiring show and a shame that it was pulled off the air after just two episodes. I’m glad that I’ll be able to watch the remaining episodes.

Today’s webinar with Sue, Steve, and John Assaraf. John really gets me excited and interested in learning more about how the human brain works. He’s an excellent teacher and explains things in a way that makes complete sense.

The Challenge TV recordings – I completely missed today’s show, so it’s awesome to be able to watch what I missed.

Deadlines – as a person with a degree in computer programming, I’ve noticed that a lot of indie programmers don’t like to give deadlines or release dates and will usually tell you the next release is when it’s out. But I think setting deadlines is really important because it forces you to at least get something done. Even if the thing you’re working on ends up being subpar, at least you’ve got a stepping stone to make it better. I need to set more deadlines for myself.

Thank you for the following five things:

Another rest week for the Challenge. I’ve got a little bit of catching up to do (posting one of my [...]]]> Hello again, universe! Guess what time it is… gratitude time! Woo-hah! Whoa, been a while since I’ve typed “woo-hah” anywhere… I should start using that again. Hehe.

Thank you for the following five things:

Another rest week for the Challenge. I’ve got a little bit of catching up to do (posting one of my articles to EzineArticles and using Posterous to auto publish to the accounts I set up), so it’s nice having this week to be able to do those things.

The disappointment that I experienced yesterday. I was expecting something completely different than what I got from a paid webinar (it was pretty much something I already knew about). I definitely learned that I need to trust my gut more often when it comes to buying things without really knowing exactly what you’re getting. It was a very convincing video sales letter that made me think it was going to be something completely new.

The horse that I bet on yesterday not winning, placing, or showing. It really made the race a whole lot more exciting when my horse had the lead for about 3/4ths of the race, but it seemed like out of nowhere came horse #2 to take the win in the end, putting my horse in 4th place. Still, it was pretty fun to watch.

Taking a side road home yesterday. Taking the freeway probably would’ve been faster, but taking the side road gave me a chance to see more of Rancho Santa Fe, which I wouldn’t have seen had we taken the freeway. Really a nice area to drive through.

A webinar coming up on Wednesday. I’m thankful for this and it hasn’t even happened yet. I know I’ll definitely get a lot of value from this free webinar than the paid webinar that I attended on Sunday. The reason why I know that is because I always learn so much from John Assaraf any time I watch anything from him. I’m super excited for this!

Well, that’s all for now. Time to give my computer a break.

Tabbed browsing – what did I ever do before this? Oh yeah, I used to have multiple browser windows open and taking up room on my taskbar, that’s what. I love my tabs… I used to [...]]]> Going with another theme for today’s daily gratitude post. Five tech related things that I’m thankful for/appreciate are:

Tabbed browsing – what did I ever do before this? Oh yeah, I used to have multiple browser windows open and taking up room on my taskbar, that’s what. I love my tabs… I used to not like them (crazy, right?), but now I can’t browse without them.

Saved sessions and session managers – it’s so nice being able to reopen the tabs I left off with and also having session manager add-ons/extensions that let me save and load specific sessions.

Adblock Plus – I rarely see ads anymore on most sites. There are some sites where I have to allow them or the site won’t work properly and some sites where I’ll allow them if I want to support the site by clicking on ads that interest me, but for the most part I don’t get annoying banners with sound, flashing colors, etc.

NoScript or Google Chrome’s Javascript blocking feature – it really helps keep my browsing sessions safe from possible malicious attacks and I know it’s my own fault if I ever get any malware because I manually have allow sites to load scripts. The only malware I’ve ever really had to deal with in the past few years is any that’s on other people’s computers.

The Gmail Manager extension for Firefox – if Chrome ever gets an extension similar to this, I’m permanently making the switch from Firefox. But right now this is one of the few I can’t live without because I have a ton of Gmail accounts for different purposes – a few personal (1 for family, 1 for friends, 1 for really close friends), internet marketing, junk mail, shopping, gaming, niche websites (I pretty much make a new address for every keyword I target). Gmail manager makes it really easy to switch between accounts.

Okay, so not only were all of those things tech related, but all browser related… and I still have a few more browser related things I can write about, so maybe I’ll continue with this tomorrow… or not, depending on if I still want to write about it by the time I make my post tomorrow. We’ll see!

Failure – this is a huge thing for me since I’ve had a lot of failures when it comes [...]]]> I guess you could call this a special friday the 13th edition of my gratitude posts. I think most people wouldn’t even consider being thankful for the following, but I am… and here they are:

Failure – this is a huge thing for me since I’ve had a lot of failures when it comes to internet marketing. It’s not failure, it’s succeeding at finding what doesn’t work and learning from it. Not everything you do is going to be a success, and most successful people fail more times before they achieve success. You only truly fail when you completely stop trying and I’m never going to stop. I wish I had failed more when I was in school since a lot of successful people I read about or know of either did poorly in high school (or didn’t finish high school), dropped out of college, or have terrible grammar. Maybe if I had done worse in school, I’d be doing so much better with IM now. Who knows?

Naysayers – these people just make me want to prove them wrong so much more than bringing me down.

When the internet or power goes out – it actually helps me get things done… like cleaning my room.

Competition – I noticed there’s another Challenger targeting my keyword phrase for the niche I’m in this year. He managed to score the domain name I was going to get, but that’s okay since I still like the .com name I ended up with better than the .org he got. It keeps me wanting to do a whole lot better and try to outperform and outrank him in the search engines.

Thunder & lightning – I don’t like regular storms, but when there’s thunder & lightning, then it’s awesome when I get a free light show outside my window. Even better when it’s dark out because it’s pretty amazing to see the whole sky light up.

Okay, so that last one might not be that unusual, but it’s something that some people are afraid of, but I like it.

First, I just logged into my Clickbank account a moment ago and saw that I got another [...]]]> I’m seriously elated right now. I’ll start my daily dose of gratitude soon and you’ll see why, so let’s get right to it! All five have a common theme this time because I’m that excited about it.

First, I just logged into my Clickbank account a moment ago and saw that I got another sale. w00t!

Second, not only is it another sale, but it’s a credit card sale! I’m one step closer to meeting the customer distribution requirements to be paid by Clickbank. All I need is one more credit card sale.

Third is knowing that my Thirty Day Challenge site from last year converts. I’m not exactly sure what the metrics are for it, I really should pay more attention to my traffic, clickthroughs, and sales.

Fourth is knowing that I can sell info/digital products! My affiliate sales before this year have all been physical products, but selling digital products is just as easy.

Fifth is the motivation I get from seeing any sales on any affiliate program. After this year’s challenge is over or during the breaks this year (I’ve been using the breaks lately to catch up), I’m going to work more on my 2009 30DC site to get more traffic coming into it to get sales more consistently.

And that’s 5/5 for today. More again tomorrow!

I’ll admit that this sale comes from a site that has been dormant since last year’s Thirty Day Challenge ended. So I haven’t even been [...]]]> It’s always been easier for me to sell physical products on Amazon than to make any digital product sales on Clickbank, but I logged in today and saw this:

I’ll admit that this sale comes from a site that has been dormant since last year’s Thirty Day Challenge ended. So I haven’t even been trying to create new content, build backlinks, etc. I really haven’t focused on Clickbank at all since my focus this year is on Amazon’s affiliate program.

The reason I know what site the sale is from is because I checked where the person was from who bought the product, then I looked at my Pretty Link stats and the IP address of the click matched the location of the person who bought the product.

I probably won’t see a dime of this commission due to Clickbank’s customer distribution requirement:

ClickBank will withhold payment of any account balance until the following criteria is met:

* Sales made with 5 or more different credit card numbers; and,
* Sales made with two different payment methods (either Visa, MasterCard, or PayPal). Note: PayPal purchases do not count toward the minimum 5 different credit card numbers.

This requirement is in place to help prevent Affiliates from abusing the ClickBank Affiliate program by using their accounts for the sole purpose of fraudulently collecting rebates and/or discounts on their own purchases.

Once you have met the Customer Distribution Requirement, your account will begin issuing payments normally, in accordance with our Accounting Policy, beginning on the next payment issuing date.

It’s still a pretty damn awesome feeling to know that one of my 30DC sites actually made a sale. Kind of horrible conversion rate for that site, but still nice to see a sale nonetheless.

2009 has come and gone and here are a few things I’ve learned:

Being chosen to be a moderator at a forum I participate in for the third time in my life [...]]]> It’s been a long time since my last blog post, but I thought I’d start 2010 off right by posting an update.

2009 has come and gone and here are a few things I’ve learned:

Being chosen to be a moderator at a forum I participate in for the third time in my life (1st time I was around 17-18, then in my early 20s, now my late 20s) shows me that maybe I do possess some leadership ability. I’ve always been a timid individual in face-to-face situations, but on forums, it’s just a lot different for me since I can gather my thoughts and refine what I say before I make my posts.

Also, with being a mod, I’ve learned that I actually enjoy the investigative behind-the-scenes aspects of it when it comes to identifying who’s a spammer and who’s not. Don’t tell anyone I said this, but it’s kind of fun for me to research that kind of stuff because it just makes my Googling skills that much better. I’ve always been able to find anything online, but doing it with an actual purpose makes it that much more interesting.

I’ve learned that I am not much of a Mac user. I bought that MacBook for my birthday and really haven’t used it all too much. Anybody want to buy a MacBook?? Don’t get me wrong, I like it, but it’s just not for me.

As far as affiliate marketing, I’ve learned that I get lazy when it comes to link building and traffic generation. I can do the niche research, write content, and make a website with no problems, but when it comes to driving traffic to my sites, I really don’t like to take the time and find relevant websites to get backlinks from. Maybe this process is something I should try to outsource for 2010. I actually do want to outsource as much as possible eventually.

My affiliate plan for this year is to stick with what has already made me money. And that’s selling physical products, not information products. Instead of moving from one thing to the next, I’m going to stick with physical product promotion and not move on to anything new until it’s making a steady stream of income. Right now it’s only making me money during the holidays since my main earning website is holiday based, so I’ll have to choose a niche product that can be sold throughout the year. That’s my plan and I’m sticking to it!

My new year 2010 started out great and here’s to it continuing to be awesome throughout the rest of the year and beyond!