I’ve just rediscovered Squidoo! I’ve been there before and had a poke around, but didn’t really understand at that time what it was and so never went back. Squidoo is a place where you can create free web pages and start making money on line.

What is Squidoo?

Basically Squidoo is a site that allows anyone to join for free and then set up their own web pages for free. They call their web pages ‘lenses’ or ‘Squidoo lenses’ to be precise and they’ve made it really easy for anyone who has something they want to say or promote on line to do so.

You can create Squidoo lenses about any subject you want. What are you interested in? There’s someone out there who wants to know what you know! Why not put it on a lense and share it with the world and start making money on the net?

So, how does making money on the net with Squidoo work?

Squidoo does what is called profit sharing. They are affiliates for companies such as Google and Chitika and others. When you allow advertising on your Squidoo lense, any money that is made from your lense is shared with you – that’s pretty cool! You’re not getting all the advertising fees, but you are getting a share which is great – especially when they’ve made it so simple and free to do. You can build as many lenses as you want to and there’s plenty of people on Squidoo with good advice on how to promote your lenses to help you get more traffic to them so you can start making some money on line from them.

I don’t think you’re likely to get rich from Squidoo, but it’s a great way to start making money on the net and there are people making some very good  money from it. They pay lensmasters (ie you!) 50% of the revenue that comes in from your lenses! They also pay 5% as a standard to charity and you can opt for some or all of your earnings to be paid to the charity of your choice also. It’s a really great system.

You will need to sign up for a an affiliate account with Amazon if you want to sell Amazon products on your Squidoo lenses and Google if you want to have adsense ads etc, but it’s all free, simple and doesn’t take long to set up.

You can also promote other affiliate products as well. That is where Squidoo is better than some other free website builders – they don’t restrict  which affiliate products you can promote on your lenses and they give you plenty of freedom in your making money on line adventure!

If you’re brand new and wanting to be making money online, then give Squidoo a go – it might become more than a hobby!

Have you heard of affiliate marketing? It might sound like a dumb question to those of you who have been online for a while and that are either thinking about or actually currently working at making money on the internet, but I know that most people that I mention affiliate marketing to have no idea what I ‘m talking about or that it even exists.

Affiliate programs are just one of the ways to make money with a website (or even without a website with a little creativity!), and it’s a great way to monetize your web site.

So, what’s an affiliate program?

Many businesses of all kinds are realising the power of creating affiliate programs for their businesses and if you’ve never looked you’ll be amazed at what a huge business this is.

Affiliate marketing is the process of selling other peoples products or services online and being paid a commission for doing so.

Sound familiar? Yep, that’s right. It’s just like in the ‘real world‘ where businesses buy products wholesale and on sell them with a marked up price except being an affiliate is way less hassle!

When you’re an affiliate, you don’t have to outlay money to buy and store stock, you don’t have to pay for business premises, it normally costs nothing to become an affiliate for another business and overheads are really low! All you do is drive traffic to the business in question’s product or service on their web site and they do the rest. It’s really simple.

Some businesses require an application and you have to be approved to be an affiliate for them, others have automatic approval which means you can sign up and get started promoting their products straight away.

When you join an affiliate program, you are given an affiliate ID number or code and this is used in the links that you place on your web site for potential customers to go to the product or service that you’re promoting. Your affiliate code is used to track results automatically, and when someone buys a product or fills in a form or whatever is required by the vendor, you earn commissions. Some programs require a sale, some only a click on a link, some completion of a form for leads. It depends on the business.

This way of doing business is becoming more and more popular as businesses of all shapes and sizes realise the potential of not only having an online presence but also the true potential power of affiliate marketing. Businesses can advertise and promote their own products and do really well – but if they have 100 or 1000 or 10,000 affiliates also promoting their products or services – that is real marketing power! For a business to have that extra volume of marketing with no real extra work on their part, is worth the money they pay in commissions to their affiliates. Guaranteed! They need no extra staff, don’t have to pay for extra advertising and the tracking of commissions and affiliates is generally managed by software that pretty much works on auto pilot. You can see why it’s becoming more and more popular!

Everyone wins with this formula – the business, the affiliates and the customers. Affiliate marketing is really one great way for you to make money with a website and for businesses and their affiliates to make real money on the internet!

Next post – Some Affiliate Programs for you to have a look at.

In an earlier post I explained what a domain name is (see What is a Domain Name?), and so now we’re all clear on what a domain name actually is.

In this post I’m going to explain how to actually go about registering a domain name.

You’ve probably got some idea of what you want your domain name to be. So first you need to go to a domain registrar. A domain registrar is a company that looks after the registration of domains and there are lots of them around! Domain registrars can vary quite considerably in price – both for the basic domain registration and for their other services.

A few of the more popular and reasonably priced domain registrars are:

www.GoDaddy.com – probably the biggest and most popular registrar as already discussed in my earlier article.

MyDomain.com - who have domains at $9.75 per year

Register.com – who have some great deals packages that include web site design and hosting on their home page

1&1.com – Have up to 5 free Domains for life with 1&1 Hosting Plans. Get yours!

Note: The search box above will search for domain names on 1&1.com.

There are many, many, many more domain registrars available. If you’re keen you may want to do a search and check out some more companies, but if so, allow yourself some time!

Now, I’m going to use Godaddy as an example to show you how to search for and register your domain name. Most companies have pretty much the same basic format and procedure to register a domain name – their websites will just be laid out a little differently. You will need either a credit card or a Paypal account to pay for your domain.

First, go to your chosen domain registration company website. You will find a search box on the page that is used to search for your domain name to see if it is available.

You will see in the screenshot above that I have added a big red arrow – this is the search box. Enter the domain name you have in mind into this box. You don’t need to type in the www or anything else – just the name you want with no spaces.

If you want a .com domain, then leave it as it is. If you would rather have a .net or.org or another TLD (domain extension) then use the drop down on the right side of the box to change it to whichever one you would rather have.

If you do your search and your domain name is not available (ie someone has already registered that domain) then it will tell you on the next page that comes up. The image below has a big red X and says “tough luck buddy” (or something similar), then makes some suggestions below that you might like instead. Again I have an arrow pointing to this part of the page for your convenience.

You will notice that there are other options on the left side (where the arrow is) which are simply the name you searched on with another TLD or extension (.com;.net;.info etc) and then on the right side, there are alternatives to what you were searching on. These are the name you searched on, but with some minor changes and these domains are available. So, for example,  if you were searching for ‘mysite.com’ and it was already taken, you may have the choice of  ‘mysiteonline.com’ on that list as being available and that you are able to register is you want.

Sometimes these suggestions are very helpful in choosing a domain name. It can be very frustrating when everything you think of is already taken!

If you decide to take one of these suggestions from either side, just click in the box beside your option and a tick will appear, then click on continue to registration.  At this point you will generally be offered a whole bunch of extra stuff and unless you particularly want any of it, just click on ‘No Thanks’ and carry on.

The rest of the process is fairly straight forward. The web site will lead you through. You will be required to enter your personal details to set up your account. Then enter your payment details after deciding how long you want to register your domain name for. The minimum is one year, and the cost gets cheaper the more years you register ahead.

One more note. Before getting to the payment screen you will be given additional options which will include paying for a Private Registration. This Private registration option costs a little extra, but can be worth it depending on your requirements and personal preferences. If you choose not to pay for a private registration, then your details will be available to the world. This means that if someone wants to know who owns your domain name they can do a simple search and your details will come up as the owner. With a private registration your details are hidden.

So, I hope that helps. You now know how to register your own domain name! So no excuses, go to it….

When money comes in quantities known as ‘the big money’, it flows to the one who accumulates it, as easily as water flows down hill. There exists a great unseen stream of POWER, which may be compared to a river, except that one side flows in one direction, carrying all who get into that side of the stream, onward and upward to WEALTH – and the other side flows in the opposite direction, carrying all who are unfortunate enough to get into it (and not able to extricate themselves from it), downward to misery and POVERTY.

Every man who has accumulated a great fortune, has recognized the existence of this stream of life. It consists of one’s THINKING PROCESS. The positive emotions of thought form the side of the stream which carries one to fortune. The negative emotions form the side which carries one down to poverty.

This carries a thought of stupendous importance to the person who is following this with the object of accumulating a fortune.

If you are in the side of the stream of POWER which leads to poverty, this may serve as an oar, by which you may propel yourself over into the other side of the stream. It can serve you ONLY through application and use. Merely reading, and passing judgment on it , either one way or another will in no way benefit you.

Poverty and riches often change place. Poverty may, and generally does, voluntarily take the place of riches. When riches take the place of poverty, the change is usually brought about through well conceived and carefully executed PLANS.

Poverty needs no plan. It needs no one to aid it, because it is bold and ruthless. Riches are shy and timid. They have to be ‘attracted’.

Napolean Hill

I just read an email and it had a fantastic quote on the end. I had to share it because I just love it

“Big shots are just little shots that keep shooting”

That’s so true! Love it!

Isn’t life interesting? I’m embarking on a new learning curve – yet again! Forex trading. Why? Why not? After all Forex trading is another way to earn money on the internet!

Ultimately I’m on a mission – to create enough income to live my life the way I want to. This has kind of evolved over the last 7 or 8 years, but has really become a focus in the last 18 months due to the curve balls that life throws at us sometimes. I’ll explain…..

After being back in NZ for 4 years, spent renovating the very run down 100 year old home that we bought, we decided to return to Australia. We sold the house, made a heap of profit on it and came back to Australia having made the decision to buy a business that we could both be involved in and we did precisely that. Found a small business in a small town in NSW, moved down there and invested all of our money into it – including all the money from the sale of our house.

To cut a long story short, we didn’t ask enough questions, were far too trusting and our dream of becoming successful business owners very quickly became a nightmare. From the very first week of taking over I knew we were in big trouble. The business that we were told was turning over an average of $12,000 a month was lucky if it was turning over $3000!

All of our remaining funds were quickly eaten up and then an overdraft from the bank. We fought hard, stayed strong, never let on that there were any problems and business picked up a bit over the coming months, but not enough. The global economic crisis happened and the area our business was in happens to have the highest number of over 65’s for it’s population in Australia – so lots of self funded retirees all being stung by losses in their super. We made the decision (which was incredibly hard) and closed the doors a couple of weeks before xmas 2008 and moved back to Queensland early in 2009.

So here we are – me a couple of years south of 50 and Ray a couple of years north of 50 – starting again.

That’s why I’m on a mission. For a start, I’ve owned my own home since I was 18 years old and I’m certainly not renting for the rest of my life! We’ve got some big goals, to not only have our own home within the next couple of years, but to also create enough income from enough sources to be able to live our lives as we know we can, and help others to know that they too can do the same.

So here I am. Learning to make money online and now learning Forex Trading. I’ve set up a new blog to record my Forex journey here – Learning to be a Forex Trader. It will be an honest account of my journey, for my own records and for anyone who wants to follow along. (You’ll find the RSS feed on the side bar of this site with the latest posts).

Wish me luck!

Have you heard of Bob Proctor? If you’ve seen the movie The Secret then you’ve seen him speak, or maybe you’re already a big fan. Bob teaches about the Law of Attraction and and how to use it in your life and has been doing so for many years – a teacher of the teachers you might say.

I’m a big fan of Bob Proctor’s and have some of his material that I have read and have listened to many times over the past few years including the book and cd set - You Were Born Rich : Learning System (DVD/CD)

You Were Born Rich is one of the first personal development programs that I was introduced to and it has made a big change in my way of thinking about my life and my results. Bob explains how our mind works and that our thoughts create the results that we see in our lives, whether they’re actually the results that we want or not!

He tells his story of how he began using the Law of Attraction without actually realising what he was doing when he was a young man, after reading the book Think and Grow Rich by Napolean Hill and increased his income from $6000 per year to $100,000 in 12 months and then beyond that to millions of dollars a year after that. Bob spent several years trying to work out what he had done and once he realised the reasons for his success, he started to teach others and the rest is history so they say.

If you want to improve your life and your results, I would definitely recommend this book. It’s one of my favorites and gets read over and over again in this household by more than just myself. It’s available from Amazon here for less than $20 and is money well spent!

This is something that I must admit, confused me for quite some time – the question “What are keywords” and how do they work?

I just didn’t quite have a handle on it. I new basically what they were, but how to actually use them? That was a bit of a mystery. My confusion was caused in part because I wasn’t sure if a keyword had to be just one word or if it could be more, and what the difference was if any between keywords and keyword phrases. Sounds blonde I know – but I am! And I’m also sure that there’s a lot of other people out there with the same problem.

There’s a bit to get your head around with keywords and how to use them (I think anyway) so I’ll do my best to explain the basics. Here we go!

Keywords are specific words or phrases that are used in a web page or article to optimise it for the search engines. How’s that? Need more info? Ok.

First. Keywords can be one word or a group of words (like a sentence or phrase). They are specific words or groups of words that people search for in the search engines. For example if I was searching for someone who repairs shoes in Brisbane, I might to go Google or Yahoo or Bing (or various other search engines) and type in perhaps ‘shoe repairs brisbane‘. Chances are that I’m not the only person who would do that search, am I right? There are probably other people in Brisbane searching for someone who repairs shoes. But Jo next door, might also be searching for someone to fix her shoes and on opening her trusty search engine, type in ‘fix shoes brisbane’. Same question – but different keyword. Get it?

Now, if I was creating a web page to advertise my shoe repair business in Brisbane, I would want to know how to let those people who are searching for me, find me – right? This is where keywords are used. Before making my web page, I need to do some research and find out how many people are searching for shoe repairs in Brisbane and what they’re entering into the search engine to find someone to fix their shoes, because I want to optimise my site so that as many people as possible will find my site and my business.

If you’re a bit confused at this point and wondering where I’m going with this, bear with me and I’ll try to make it clear.

What keywords are people searching for?

I need to ask the question what keywords are people searching for? The reason that I need to know what people are searching for and how many people are searching using a particular keyword is because when the search engines look at my site to see what it is about, they will pick up words and phrases that are used often within my site and match them up with other words and phrases to ascertain what my site is about and that is what they will record for my site as being it’s subject.

If for example,my site has an article on a page and it’s talking about shoe repairs. The phrase Shoe Repairs Brisbane might appear in the article three or four times. If in my article the phrase fix shoes brisbane also appears a few times then the search engines should (all going well) decide that my web site is about the correct subject and record that information about my web site so that when someone types shoe repairs brisbane into the search engine, my web page will come up in the results. If someone else types in fix shoes brisbane, my web site should show again in the search engine results, albeit in a different spot. (Note: these are not accurate, researched keywords – only examples pulled out of thin air for the purpose of easy explanation!)

If however, my web page contained the keyword shoe repairs brisbane a couple of times, and lets say I decide to add some information about the other businesses around me – maybe the bakery and the beauty salon – and I don’t know how to use my keywords effectively, then chances are the search engines may decide my site is predominantly about cakes or beauty therapy and those people looking for a shoe repairer in Brisbane are never going to find my web site!

Well, I hope that’s helped to clear up that question of What are keywords? More info to come on how to find the keywords that people are searching on, for your web site subject.

Note: I just had a look to see how many people are searching online for shoe repairs in Brisbane – I wouldn’t bother with a web site on the subject if I were you!

For most of us money is something that there’s never enough of, is hard to get and even harder to keep. I know that I grew up the eldest of five children in a family that, particularly while I was a young child, was struggling to make ends meet. I remember being only one of two children in my year in primary school that couldn’t go on the school camp because we couldn’t afford it. I remember not being able to have the clothes and other things I longed for because ‘Money didn’t grow on trees!’. Boy, if I had a dollar for every time I heard that growing up, I’d have been rich! I grew up in a family that originated from quite poor areas in Scotland and where folks for the most part probably didn’t really expect any more from life. My parents and I migrated to New Zealand for a better life I guess, but the goals were not high – own a home and car, have food on the table and keep the wolves from the door was about it as it still is with most people if the truth be told.

When we grow up in poor, or middle class families we are usually taught, even if it is not a conscious teaching, that that is where we belong and to expect any better is to be a dreamer, so don’t even bother. I know that I have grown up believing that ‘rich people’ were somehow better, different and luckier than us.

Luck – now that is a subject all on it’s own – whether it is something that ‘happens to us’ or whether it is something we create. (I used to believe the former, now I know different but that’s another discussion!). I know that many of us believe that those who are wealthy, have either come into possession of their wealth due to luck or due to ‘ripping others off’ in some way.

Because we grow up being led to believe that we can not have wealth, that we do not deserve money, that it is too difficult to achieve the riches that we all dream of having, that we would lose our friends if we were to become wealthy and other such lies, we make excuses for not pursuing it or even daring to believe that we could really be wealthy.

‘Money doesn’t make you happy!’

‘Money can’t buy love!’

‘I wouldn’t want to be rich, I’d just like to have enough that I could…….(whatever)’

Sound familiar? We say these things because we don’t believe we can have it, and so make ourselves feel better with these and other excuses. By being proud to be a ‘battler’ and fitting in with the masses.

The trouble with this is that without money, we can NEVER be all that we are supposed to be or all that we could be in this life. Without money we can’t help others the way that most of us would love to be able to help.

If we look at ourselves and those underlying dreams and aspirations (often tucked away in the recesses of our minds where we don’t have to really look at them), we all have things or had things (as a child or young person) that we would love to do or be. Money, or lack of, is the number one thing that stops most people from achieving those things they would love to do, be or have.

If we look at the things we would love to be able to do for our children, our families, our friends, what usually prevents these things from being possible is lack of money.

If money wasn’t an issue – at all – ever – what your life look like? Would you be living where you are now? Working where you are now? Would you go on trips overseas? Where? For how long? If money wasn’t an issue, you could go on a permanent trip – live some of the year here, some there, follow the weather. Visit your friends and family whenever you want. Take them away on vacations. Help people you want to help or charities that matter to you. You could show others how to live like you do. If you wanted to learn to paint, or play an instrument, or do yoga, or meditate, or dance, or fly a plane, or go in to space with Richard Branson – you could and you would have the time and the resources to become as good at whatever you love to do as you would like to.

You would be spending your life as we are supposed to. I now realise that Money IS important and I’m doing all and learning all that I can to attract it into my life. I hope you do too. Make the decision that you will change the way you think and look for ways out of the mediocrity that most live their lives in. You can live an exceptional life – Make it special!

“From testimonials and personal experience we have enough evidence to conclude that it is possible to design and create and extraordinary life!”

Jim Rohn

The quote from Jim Rohn above may seem unbelievable to anyone who hasn’t looked into this subject, but after a few years of looking, learning and watching I have to declare that I do believe he’s right! I have seen and experienced enough in the past few years to know that it’s true – what we think and what we focus on will be our reality! We create ourselves, we create our lives, we create our results through our thoughts.

Our problem is that we ‘think’ on auto pilot. It’s true. We’re brain washed from the time we’re born with the opinions, thoughts and beliefs that we are exposed to via our parents, peers, teachers and whoever else we are exposed to in our childhood. The influence of these people, especially those we look up to, or those we consider to be and ‘authority’ is massive and contributes to the molding of our thoughts and beliefs.

When we are born, we are a ‘blank slate’ you might say. With no beliefs, or opinions. We just are. When you look at a baby, they are attractive and intriguing because they ‘just are’. They are not thinking about what we might think of them or who they should be. They ‘just are’, but not for long. As the months and years pass, they are influenced by parents, siblings and other family, friends, teachers, religious advisers and these days the media, until they become whatever is the result of all that influence.