I have started getting more active in a few forums I have lurked around for a while this week.  The theory behind forum marketing is pretty simple.  You establish yourself in a community, post helpful or at least entertaining comments and include your link in your signature so you give those who appreciate your comments a route back to your website.

I’ve been using this site in my signature, so I’ll pay attention to what that does to traffic in the next few weeks.  I would hope it generates a trickle, as the “Bread and Butter Guide to making Your First $500 Online” is a priceless resource for anyone who wants to make money online but needs a starting point.

However looking at my clock I see I have spent just over two hours in various forums, reading, considering, researching and responding.  In two hours I could probably write 3-4 good articles and get them out there generating traffic.  So is this a profitable use of my time?

Once again - time will tell.  I do want to do some more work on the sites themselves, but I am also aware that that can be a nasty trap to fall into.  I know so many people who spend hours trying to perfect their sites, and never spend any time trying to get people to visit them.  A perfect site is worth nothing without visitors.  You need to rise your site to a certain level certainly, but as long as it clears ‘rubbish’ by a good margin, it can start doing it’s job.  Then you can start modifying it based on what your visitors want, rather than what you think they might want when they eventually show up.

So far it has been a huge week for me in my real life job. I have made over 15k in sales, which equates to enough to cover the business expenses for this month and January. So much for December being a slow month because everyone is spending their money on Christmas things.

I’m happy for more than the obvious reason that it means I will get my pay on time and not lose my job for another month:) I sell a luxury item, and it’s nice to see people are actually prepared to treat themselves at Christmas too. We get the message to give give give rammed down our throats by Christmas Advertising and we have a tendancy to buy into it even though it is so transparent what they are doing. now I went to a catholic school, but I don’t recall anywhere in the bible Jesus saying spend all your money in Christmas so you are paying off credit cards until June. By the same token he never said cut down trees to commemorate my birthday, or eat until you are so bloated you will fall asleep on the couch even in spite of the children running around with the drum and trumpets their uncle gave them.

Here in New Zealand we have a store called ‘The $2 shop’ - which works on the rather simple gimmick than everything in it is $2. I’m sure there is an equivalent where you are. Last Christmas my brothers presents hadn’t arrived from Australia by Christmas time, so I went out to the $2 shop and got presents for everyone and signed them from Chris. It was the BEST Christmas shopping experience I have ever had. In the door, 5 minutes and $16 later my Christmas shopping is finished. I tried to talk my family into a $2 shop christmas, not so much for the financial side as we are far better placed this time around than last, but more for the stress relief side. People get so worked up about finding the perfect gift for everyone that they forget it is the giving not the gift that will be remembered.

The gift I gave last year that received the most appreciation was a book. I digitally altered a series of pictures so they all featured my nephew and wrote an adventure story to go with it. It cost me around $5 and took about 3 hours to produce all told. Last time I was at my sisters house it was still sitting in prominent view.

So my Christmas message to you this year is not to buy in to the spendaholics Christmas, but rather think about what your family really wants. A happy You. It’s easier to spread Christmas cheer when you are happy about yourself and your own life, so don’t be afraid to spend a little time and money on what you want this year.

Merry Christmas

Hi again everyone.

Why is this blog so ugly?

I plan to integrate it with the theme of the rest of the site very soon.  For now we have to put up with the default wordpress theme.  Sorry to those who suffered retina damage as a result.

Rob

Hi everyone, and welcome to my blog.

However you found this site you will have realized by now it is a little different from your average Internet marketing website. For a start I’m not some mystic guru who needs to be put up on a pedestal. I’m just a guy who, probably like you, would like to make some dollars online. Now I don’t want to get involved in guru bashing, but i do believe there are a lot of experienced marketers out there who forget what it is like not to have money coming in. Who can’t remember a time when they tried one thing after another waiting to get rich and only saw money going out.

I’m also not some fountain of knowledge on all things online. I have a little knowledge of HTML, a little knowledge of PHP and a small amount of knowledge about marketing. I work a full time job, and I don’t spend my entire life infront of the computer.

However…

I do know that I can make money online any time I want to. And that knowledge is power. I have to work for it, but I can turn my time online into cash, and i can show you how to do the same. In fact I even wrote a report about it which you can download from my main page.

It’s free! And it’s guaranteed to work(or your money back! Haha)