I have been working all day today on my latest endeavour.

Now, there are lots of things I love, and am passionate about - and one of those things is photography. Not to mention photographic art - my Photoshop and me have spent many evenings together… ahem…

So, while looking into my options to build an online business, it suddenly occurred to me - I have all these photos, and art, sitting on my hard-drive. Things I have created for my own pleasure in the creative process. Now, I love it, and others have complemented me on my photography before (see a few examples over at Sustainable Suburbia - no, not the yoghurt…) but I guess I suffer from that lack of self-confidence so many of us share… after all, who’d really be interested in my stuff? There’s so much out there…

But wait. That’s the old, shy, giver-upper me talking. I have grown significantly as a person over the last year and a half of my life, after some pretty big life changes last New Year. And if there’s one thing I’ve decided, it’s that I’m not going to second-guess myself into paralysis and let that keep me from doing what I want to do in my life.

That’s a big part of why I’m working towards this whole online-business thing, even though people in my life have said to me “you know no-one makes any money on-line, right”? Well, I’ve seen enough that I know that’s rubbish… and I intend to prove that statement wrong.

So, I’m working on it - but I want it to be right before I ‘launch’ it to the world. It’ll probably take me a few weeks before I’ve got all prepared and ready to go - but I’ll announce it here when I do!

Wish me luck

I was over at Squidoo a couple of hours ago, updating my profile and contemplating the lenses I want to create.

At the same time (amongst other things) my brain was ticking over about The 30 Day Challenge, and I thought - “why not make a lens?”

Ed is actually running a competition to see who can refer the most people to the Challenge this year, and there’s a prize… (I don’t actually know what it is…) but until now I’ve been too excited about what we’ve been learning and all the other stuff I’m working on to give any thought to it.

So - check it out here. You can watch and vote on your favourite 30DC videos, check out the pink-thong car once again, see what others are saying about it on their blogs, and answer polls.

I have to say, thanks to the fun stuff you can do with Squidoo, I had a blast putting it together - not to mention it only took me about 1/2 an hour!

Today I have launched the Woman vs. Web e-mail updates!

Am I the only person who still calls it e-mail, instead of email? My grammar lecturer at university was very strong on this point… but that was a few years now - perhaps conventions have changed

So - back to the topic at hand. Everywhere I go, I have been confronted with the importance of building an e-mail list for your blog. It’s a way to connect with your readers, to give them valuable information, to keep them coming back - and, yes, to sell them stuff. I guess that’s the ultimate goal for us as marketers - we do what we do in order to get people to buy from us instead of the next guy…

I want to build a business. I have a few ideas about how I want to do this - and this blog is only a small part of that. This is the place where I share my experiences about building this “online empire” as I jokingly refer to it as when I talk about it with Nick (”What are we doing tomorrow, Brain?”… “The same thing we do everyday, Pinky… try to take over the world!!!!”… Ahem, sorry, childhood cartoon flashback…). But seriously. Building a business on the net is about building a presence, building trust, and providing people with truly valuable information and products that will enhance their lives and help them do what they want to do.

Now, I’m personally someone who is very careful about what I buy. But - just like everyone else, I’ll pay for something if I really need or want it - if I can see value in it.

For example - I pay $30 per week to have a 1/2 hour cello lesson. Do I need to learn how to play the cello? Am I planning on joining an orchestra? Do I want to become the next Yo-Yo Ma? No. But playing the cello is something I’ve wanted to do since I saw a cello ensemble perform when I was a teenager, and I was moved to tears by what I heard.

Now, in my late 20s, I’m finally doing it. Why? Because I want to - because it enriches my life. And isn’t that why we do and buy most things? To enrich our lives, improve them, make them more enjoyable. That’s what I want to do with my online business.

So - I have launched my e-mail list. I would love you to join it, of course! So, I’ve tried my marketing hand and decided to give you something of great value in the hope you’ll be interested in what I have to share. Therefore, when you join I’ll first tell you about the four best blogs that I recommend you subscribe to, as I have - they are all very interesting IM’s at different stages of their journey. Also, I’m writing a series of 10 e-mails outlining the ten best FREE internet marketing tools I have found over the last few months.

If that sounds interesting, go ahead and sign up. I’ll keep you all posted as to how it is going - and if you do join up, please leave me comments or e-mail me and let me know what you think of the information I’m sending you! I’d love your feedback.

Finally, for those of you in the US - happy 4th of July! (Do you want to know an interesting piece of info? I’m technically an American! I have dual nationality. So I guess I should be celebrating too…)

To the success of us all…

Jess

I have just finished reading The Attention Age - Volume 2 by Rich Schefren.

Now, I’ve heard his name about the place for a while, but until now I hadn’t checked out any of his stuff. I finally decided to go and have a look, and find out what all the fuss was about - and I joined up with his affiliate program.

Now, this report was released last year, and it is really just one long pitch for Schefren’s ‘Business Acceleration Home Study Course’. So, at the end, when I realised this, my heart sank a little.

However. There is some really excellent information and advice in the report. Schefren outlines how social media has changed the marketing landscape for good - and why many of the old sales and advertising techniques no longer work.

He also describes a number of techniques and strategies that will help to get your message heard in the ‘Web 2.0′ age.

The thing that stuck with me the most was his argument regarding trust and transparency. He gives five great case studies that demonstrate not only why you need to be honest and up-front in your business practices today, but that also show the power of social media - which is the driving force behind this truism. I’m all for this - there’s not much point in being untruthful in any business. It just hurts your integrity in the long run. This is the very reason I disclose when I link to an affiliate.

He argues that any business that ignores the internet communication revolution does so at its peril. Now, what he has said - not to mention his list of clients - is enough to convince me to keep an eye on him in the future as I attempt to build my own online business. It’s also got me thinking about many of the businesses I’ve worked for, and how much they are ‘in the dark’ regarding this change in the marketing atmosphere.

In short, the things to focus on today are building yourself into a brand, creating a community of people who trust you, and to whom you provide excellent free content - and in this way, you turn them into loyal customers, rather than sending them away in frustration at yet another blatant attempt to part them from their cash.

If you’d like to check it out for yourself, click here (aff).

I was just about to write another post - then I realised I hadn’t spoken about the 30 Day Challenge yet. GASP!

Okay, so some of you probably already know about it - but then again, some of you might not! Basically, the 30 Day Challenge aims to show you, over the space of a month, how to make your first $10 online. The challenge starts proper on the 1st of August, but pre-season has been running for a month so far.

Oh, did I mention it is absolutely free? Not to mention Ed and Dan are going to show us all how to make this money without spending any ourselves.

I have already learnt a stack of things in the pre-season: why to use flock as my browser, how to use twitter and twhirl, why using Google Reader will be a blessing to anyone who reads a lot of RSS feeds… and it’s not even half-way through! I personally can’t wait until the challenge proper gets started. I’ve become part of a great team on the forums (wave to Team Lightening!) - which will be important once the challenge gets underway, and has already let me make connections with some lovely people who are trying to do the same thing I am!

So, I highly recommend you hop over there and check it out - and considering it is completely free, no strings attached… like I said - worth every minute of your time!

Check it out here.

I have just discovered Squidoo and HubPages. Wow. Talk about making it easy to publish content online.

For those of you who haven’t seen these sites before, they basically offer you free registration and then let you create endless one-page ‘lenses’ or ‘hubs’ about a niche topic. They also offer a number of different ‘modules’ that you can just plug content into, and then publish with one click.

Also, they both focus on monetization of your page.

On Squidoo, you can choose to keep all your income, donate half to charity, or donate it all to charity. You don’t control the ads shown on your site - and Squidoo gets a cut of the profit as well. HubPages is a little different - you can use your own ID for things like Amazon and AdSense, so you likely get more of a cut of the profits.

I can see how - over time - you could make a bit of money from these sites. You would have to build a lot of them, though, and probably incorporate affiliate links into them as well in order to make any decent amount of money.

Another positive is that you can use these free resources to drive traffic to your blog/website. So, in that sense they could possibly be a powerful marketing tool. By creating a lot of these one-page sites, and linking them to your blog/page, you’re also building links - which is great too.

I’m still very much at the experimental stage with these tools… so, I’d love feedback on how you have all used these sites - and if you’ve found them useful? Do they drive traffic to your blog/site? Do you earn any money from them? Are they worth the effort?

Jess

Yesterday I created my first niche website! It’s still a work in progress, but I am determined to work on it and give it a go - and I’ll let you know how it runs!

I have been on a big learning curve over the last few weeks, and I’ve only just scratched the surface of what there is to learn about IM out there. I have found a stack of fantastic resources so far, and today I wanted to bring to your attention two helpful - and free - e-books that gave me the beginner’s knowledge and confidence to have a go at the niche website caper.

How to Develop Money-Making Niche Sites with WordPress

The first is by Caroline Middlebrook, and it’s called How to Develop Money-Making Niche Sites with WordPress. Now, this is a fantastic little book for anyone who is a beginner with WordPress. Caroline takes you, step by step, through the process of finding a host, installing WP, finding an adsense-ready theme, installing the theme, modifying it, and managing your links.

For those of you who have used WordPress before there is a bit of of information here that you can skip over, but there are also some fantastic tips and important tid-bits of information that will help you to properly manage and design your site. However, you may still be left scratching your heads over how to choose the right niche. Caroline herself recommends this next book - and the two really do work together.

The $5 Mini-site Formula

Written by Josh Spaulding, the $5 Formula is a short, straightforward guide on how to research and chose a niche. Josh argues that if you can find enough ‘deep’ niches, and set up a number of niche sites, you can make a living online by earning just $5 per day from each with adsense - and perhaps some affiliates into the mix, too.

The best thing about this book - in my opinion - were the links to two excellent free market research tools, as well as an explanation of how to use them. The two sites Josh recommends are Spyfu.com and the Free SEO Book Keyword Tool(aff). Josh tells you how to use both of these tools to choose a profitable niche - though actually coming up with the right one is up to you - he just tells you the numbers that will make it worth your while!

If you’re interested in niche marketing, I would recommend you download both today. They are reasonably short, straightforward, and both gave some very useful advice to beginner like me.

Caroline Middlebrook - How to Develop Money-Making Niche Sites with WordPress
Josh Spaulding - $5 Mini-site Formula

I also suggest you take a bit of time to wander around Caroline’s blog - it’s an interesting read from a rising internet marketer.

I’d like to introduce you all to a fantastic example of a professional blogger and internet entrepreneur - Yaro Starak. When embarking on my journey to make a living online, I quickly came across his blog entrepreneurs-journey.com.

What made me do a double-take is that I used to work for Yaro when he ran BetterEdit.com! I was one of his freelance editors - my first online job that made me a nice part-time income. He was a great person to work with, and I was sad to end my business relationship with him and BetterEdit - though I had to as I took on a full-time job. Working for BetterEdit was my first proof that you can earn a living online - and it has stayed with me as a positive experience ever since.

I recommend you join up to his blog tips newsletter (I have, and I’ve found it quite useful). The main reason to do this, however, is to get access to his fantastic free e-book - Blog Profits Blueprint(aff). It is an excellent article full of Yaro’s advice on how to create a truly successful and informative blog that pulls in traffic, and keeps people coming back. This e-book, and his blog, are filled with detailed, inspirational, and down-to-earth advice that I will be following closely in my journey to making a living online.

Yaro also offers an affiliate program, which you can sign up to as I have. You promote BPB, and gain 50% commission for each follow-on sale you refer, which is pretty generous. However, the Blueprint itself is totally free, and more than worth the time to download and read it. I’m actually surprised that Yaro is giving away such an amazing resource for free - but lucky for us beginners that he is!

Visit Yaro’s blog at - www.entrepreneurs-journey.com

Download the Blog Profits Blueprint here

I just wanted to bring your attention to a fantastic series of posts over at Problogger.

I subscribe to Problogger, as Darren always has excellent advice and ideas about how to become a better blogger - not to mention he’s Aussie like me, so I have a particular national affection! This post is fantastic - he outlines 31 simple things to you can do to really improve your blog, and make it more reader-friendly and useful. It also covers issues like monetization, promotion and design. In short, I’m going to be working through the 31 steps myself over the next few weeks, and I would highly recommend that anyone else who wants to build a better blog should do likewise!

31 Days to Building a Better Blog

I have to say, this weekend my eyes almost fell out of my head because of the amount of time I spend online! There is just so, so, soooo much to learn out there - and I have to say, as exciting as it is, it is also overwhelming.

Not to mention, the ideas just keep popping up in my head, and I just want to start on them all now! However, thankfully, there is a little sensible voice in there somewhere whispering “Jess, slow down… you’ve got the rest of your life to work this stuff out (or, ’till I’m 30, anyway!)… you’ve already got a full-time job, commitment to a part-time job from August through to November, the cello to learn, the gym to visit every day, current blogs to run, a garden to take care of, a partner to spend time with…. *deep breath*. You get the idea.

I am just so interested in the idea of building my own business, and becoming independent! I’m not aiming to be rich or famous - but to be comfortable, in control of my life, and doing something I love.

I guess I just need to slow down, straighten out my priorities, and focus on a few things that I can do really well now, rather than spreading myself too thinly and letting everything suffer.

How does everyone else out there balance their desire to learn/do more with the very real limit of only 24 hours in a day?