Some people just start out with the right attitude.

When it comes to making money online, they don’t complain about how difficult the journey is.  They just go for it.

They are resourceful people who take the information you give them and run with it.

They have this adventurous, go-getter mentality and aren’t afraid of failure.

They also understand the importance of enjoying the ride from the very beginning.

These people understand this is a process and find joy in more than getting that first AdSense check.

Know of anyone like this?  I do.  I got an e-mail from her a couple of weeks ago. Her name is Rachel and her site is GreenLeafeSimon.com.

I have her permission to post her e-mail on my blog, so I want to share it with you. Pay attention to the bold text. I did that for emphasis.

————————-

Hello Lisa,

No need to answer this email; this is just to say thank you.

Awhile ago, my sister lost her job and I got the bright idea to help her learn how to make money online. She wasn’t interested and eventually got another job, but I got hooked!

I tried a few things and quickly learned most things on the net are scams. In the course of things however, I came across your website, 2Create A Website and I fell in love with the idea of having my own website. But about what? I love to write and all my life have wanted to be an author, so I got the idea to write serial stories and started a blog.

Then the idea grew and mushroomed as I found that although blogging was a lot of fun, the scope is limited. I took your sage advice and learned html and then css – and am I ever glad I did! I’ve never had so much fun in my life.

Designing, writing and marketing a website is better than any video game I’ve ever played (and I’ve played a lot of ‘em) and Lisa, I want to thank you for all the help, tips and advice you’ve provided for people like me.

From Colour Hex-code Generators to Server Side Includes (I actually cried when I finally made this work) and all the Tutorials and Videos in between, Thank you! I don’t think I could have done it without you. Many, many thanks!

Rachel
GreenLeafeSimon.com

————————-

As a person who receives hundreds of e-mails per week with complaints and problems about either building a website or making money online, I really treasure e-mails like this.

Notice the bold phrases in the e-mail above.  See a pattern?  They all involve some kind of enjoyment or excitement.

Rachel reminds me of myself when I started 12 years ago.  I wasn’t making much money then, but there was something about the feeling of accomplishment and learning new things that was very exciting!  I always had that within me no matter how much I was earning.

I get asked about my “secret to success” all the time.  Some people think it’s my writing style.  Others believe it’s my videos.  I’ve also heard things like, She just chose the right niche, She had great timing, and my favorite…

She’s just lucky.

I actually think it’s a combination of several reasons, but one thing people neglect to mention is my sheer desire and passion for what I do.  In fact, I believe that is the #1 reason I have done so well.

This “Internet Marketing stuff” isn’t for everyone and you can’t make yourself love it just because you want to make money.   If you can’t find the joy, you may not be able to find the money.

So thank you, Rachel.  Your enthusiasm is refreshing and I have a feeling you will go far out here.

Remember folks, success starts with passion and the right attitude — not just the desire to make money.

As many of you know, I’ve been suffering from a typing injury for nearly 4 months.

First, I was misdiagnosed with tendinitis.  Then I was misdiagnosed with carpal tunnel syndrome.

After a visit to an orthopedic surgeon, (the type of doctor I should have gone to in the first place), my X-rays came back negative.  I had no joint or nerve damage.  It was only inflammation.

I was relieved I didn’t have carpal tunnel syndrome, but the inflammation diagnosis was just as frustrating because there is no “one treatment fits all” when it comes to curing it.

Repetitive strain injuries (RSI) come in so many different forms and are caused by so many different things (wrong keyboard height/angle, fatigue, wrong size mouse, poor posture and other ergonomic conditions.)

The symptoms also vary from person to person.  Even though many of my ailments matched those who have carpal tunnel or tendinitis, the X-rays told a different story.

In fact, most people who think they have carpal tunnel, usually don’t.  It’s typically some sort of RSI.  That’s the good news.  The bad news is it can be just as debilitating and treatment is not as straightforward.

Recovery Can Take Months

When I blogged about this back in November, I thought I could see the light at the end of the tunnel.  I had no idea I was in for 3 more months of discomfort.

Nevertheless, I’m about 90% healed (still having occasional stiffness from time to time) and will make a full recovery.  Yippee!!

How I am Healing

1) Rest

This is probably the biggest reason I am nearly pain free.  If you start having any kind of discomfort from using the computer, take a break.  Also, don’t try to push through the pain.

That was my biggest mistake.  When I started feeling hand and arm discomfort, I kept working, thinking it would get better.  Had I rested more with the first sign of pain, it probably wouldn’t have taken nearly as long to heal.

It felt really weird to NOT spend so much time on the computer.  I felt I was missing out on something, but I eventually got used to it.  My body was exhausted and I didn’t even realize how much until I gave myself more rest.  Funny how that happens.

2) Stretching

Even if you aren’t in pain, you should stretch before you start computing — especially if you spend 20 hours or more per week on a computer.  I presume nearly everyone reading this post falls into this category.  Stretching not only helps heal RSI-related injuries, it can prevent them.

I printed the guide from this site and taped it to my desk.  This reminds me to stretch before I begin working.

3) Software

Two software programs are helping me get through this:

Dragon Naturally Speaking

This is speech recognition software that really took the load off my arms.  I answer a LOT of e-mails on a daily basis so this was a very useful tool to have.

It’s pretty accurate, and the more you use it, the better it gets as it adapts to your voice and pronunciations.  You can also teach the software new words, which is very helpful with all the Web lingo and acronyms.

You can also program it to type out large blocks of text by saying a word or phrase.  This sort of works like canned responses, but they are voice activated instead of using the mouse/keyboard to initiate it.

For example, if I want to type the steps to setting up a WordPress blog, all I have to do is say “WordPress instructions” and the program types everything I stored under that phrase.

RSI Warrior

This is another cool program that reminds you to stretch every X minutes and provides several exercises with a visual you can follow.

It also has an “auto click” feature so you don’t have to click the mouse.  All you do is hover for a predetermined amount of time and the software will click for you.

The auto click feature was my best friend for three months.  My forearm muscles were so taxed from all the mousing and typing that clicking the mouse and using a trackpad was painful.

There are some free auto click programs out there.  I tried to download a few but had trouble with installation, so I decided to go with RSI Warrior instead.

——————————

I don’t want you to ever experience what I’ve gone through in the past 4 months.  And most of this could have been prevented had I stretched regularly, taken more breaks and not ignored the early signs (stiffness and soreness in my fingers/hands and arms).

Also, if you’re having symptoms that don’t go away, see an orthopedic surgeon or a doctor who specializes in occupational injuries.  Many general practitioners aren’t as educated on computer-related injuries, so they may be quick to diagnose you with the wrong disease.

Remember, not every wrist or hand injury is carpal tunnel syndrome.

And finally, listen to your body.  If something hurts, it’s trying to send you a message.  Give yourself a break.  I’m sure you’ll agree that spending fewer hours at your computer is worth preserving the health of your body in the long run.

Have you recovered from any computer related injuries?  Feel free to share what you’ve learned below!

Thanks to everyone who submitted a reply to my last post where I asked about your best performing AdSense unit.

The clear winners are the larger units. The 300×250 and 336×280 were the most popular answers.

Monitors are getting wider and so are websites.  So the larger units tend to work well on sites with wider content areas.  Also, the 300 pixel units fit very nicely within many blog sidebars.

I noticed many of you like to float the 300 pixel square units in the middle of your content pages.  Perhaps you’ve discovered this yields a higher click-thru ratio, but I think the square units look best in sidebars or when they flow alongside a block of content or video.

(See an example on 2CreateAWebSite.com.)

A few mentioned that blending the background works best.  I totally agree.  When you make the background a different color, it does make the ad stand out, but it also screams, “Hey, this is an ad!”

I like to match the unit background with my site and use a different color for the URL at the bottom of the ad to make the unit pop just a bit.

There were no votes for the link units.  I don’t care for them.  Even though they fit nicely in narrow spaces, the visitor has to click twice for you to earn a commission.

Plus, the idea that your visitor has to click a category of ads just to view more ads just seems odd to me.  I’ll pass.

Obviously my little survey was very unscientific and not meant to represent the entire AdSense population.  I just wanted to open up a discussion about your experimentation with the AdSense units.

So thanks.  I appreciate the feedback.  Keep testing!  That’s really the only way to know what works best for YOUR site.

How well an AdSense unit performs on a site depends on several different factors…

1) The page the unit is on
2) Ad relevancy
3) Amount and quality of traffic to the site/page
4) Placement of unit

So I am by no means about to suggest that one size fits all in regards to the units. However, I would like to open up a discussion on what you’ve learned about placement.

I recently tweeted that I am having great success using the 300×250 Medium Rectangle unit alongside my YouTube videos. On certain pages, my click-thru rate has quadrupled.

I actually got this idea from Google. One of their optimization experts suggested this on my site over a year ago.  Not sure what took me so long, but I am now implementing this on more pages and the results have been fab.

Let’s talk about what you’ve learned about placement and/or color experimentation.  Done anything different to give your earnings a boost?  Please share!

If you’ve been involved in affiliate marketing or AdSense for at least a year, you’ve probably received at least one free Google AdWords credit.

For those who don’t know, Google AdWords is a pay per click program (PPC) that allows you to bid on keywords, and you only pay when your site gets a visit from the phrases you bid on.

The more popular the keyword is (volume of searches), the more it will cost per click.

You can view the AdWords ads by doing a Google search for almost any keyword phrase. The “Sponsored ads” are the ones that show up on the right side of the page or directly above the natural/free results.

(See example for a query on “web hosting”.)

Many hosting companies offer free AdWords credits from time to time and Google has been known to send them out directly.  In fact, this past December, they sent $100 credits to many AdSense members.

I don’t talk a lot about PPC and that is mainly because I’ve never taken the time to learn and master it.

So when Lisa of Christian-Single-Woman.com asked me to do a blog post about this, I was somewhat hesitant.

Then I decided to talk about what I’ve learned from my experience, and hopefully keep others from making the mistakes I made years ago.

Not to mention, others can chime in and discuss their experiences as well.

You Have the Free AdWords Credit.   Now What?

When you get one of those free credits, it may be tempting to sign up with AdWords and use it right away.

Many people make the mistake of bidding on their most important keyword phrases and use up the credit without even tracking their return on investment (ROI). That’s what I did years ago.

Remember, the point of using AdWords is to make a profit.  If you spend $200 on keywords then your goal is to make more than that on your traffic. So before you go and exhaust your credits, you need a strategy.

The Squeeze Page Strategy

Many people who’ve mastered PPC have done so with the squeeze page strategy.

Let’s say you promote a book on ClickBank where you earn $65 per sale.  You would bid on specific keywords related to that book, and create a benefit-rich landing page that has a goal.

That goal could be to offer a related, free download (teaser) in exchange for an e-mail address.  Now that you have e-mail addresses you can send them follow-up e-mails to help PREsell the ClickBank product.

Usually it takes multiple exposures before someone buys a product, so that’s why having an e-mail list can be so valuable. This is especially true if you learn how to use it to your advantage.

So if it costs you $35 worth of AdWords clicks/visits to get one sale for this book, your ROI is $25 ($60 commission – $35 spent on AdWords).

Congrats, you would be making a profit with this campaign!

Note: Google is big on quality and gives each page a score. So the days where you could submit a small page with nothing but a form to collect e-mail addresses are over.

If you are going to create a “squeeze page”, it should have substance and useful content. If your page is too pitchy, it may not receive a good quality score, which could hurt your ranking potential.

Why AdWords is Tricky

Google knows what they’re doing by sending out so many free credits.  They realize the average person has to spend way more than $100 to return a profit with AdWords.

So that free credit is just to get you started.  They know most people don’t figure out AdWords right away.  After all, it takes a lot of campaign testing (headlines, copy, keyword selection, bid price etc.) before you develop the right ad to return a profit.

I met a lot of people at the Affiliate Summit who do PPC full time.   Many of them earn 6 and 7 figures per year (Yes, seriously.) But they all told me they shelled out at least $1,000 before they began to return a profit.

They also spend hours per day monitoring every single detail about their campaigns. One extra word in their ad title may increase their profit by hundreds of dollars.

So if you want to master PPC, you have to be prepared to track everything and lose some money.  And if you are fortunate enough to turn Google’s free gift into a profit, that’s great!  You are definitely in the minority.

Is Using AdWords for Additional Traffic a Waste?

Many people use AdWords just to draw traffic to their site.  They scope out long-tail (very targeted, low-cost) keywords to bid on and set a small, daily budget to minimize their costs.

If you can afford to do this, fine.  Just remember, if you aren’t tracking what those visitors are doing then you could be wasting money.

All traffic is not necessarily good traffic and you really have to take the time to learn what keywords give you the best return on your investment.

Be Cautious of AdWords Gurus

There are a lot of people making a ton of money with AdWords.  As I mentioned, some are earning up to 7 figures annually.

So this kind of success breeds many self-proclaimed AdWords gurus who want to sell you the “secrets to AdWords”.

Think about it.

Why would they sell the secret if it means creating more competition for them?

I’m not saying there aren’t good resources for mastering AdWords. Just remember, if something sounds too good to be true, it often is.  You may get some general guidelines, but no real AdWords master is going to tell you everything.

The bottom line is, AdWords can be a fantastic program to help improve your traffic and sales.  Just understand it’s going to take time, patience and probably more than that free Google credit to master it.

Don’t Be Scared

I am not trying to scare you away from using AdWords. It can really help your business if you use it right. Just understand you will probably have to spend more than what Google gave you before you make a profit.

Make sure to map out a strategy before you haphazardly bid on any ole’ keywords. Also, monitor your campaigns closely (see the Google Analytics Installation Guide) and set a daily spending limit.

So what about you? Have you ever used AdWords? What was your experience like?

I was so inspired by Ryan Schmitz’s traffic story for his new site, PlantingDollars.com that I postponed my scheduled post for this case study.

Watch the video below and discover what is possible with hard work and a business mindset.

If you can’t see the video, click here.

Want your site featured here?  Find out how.

A CopyBlogger post titled, “How to Do 500 Times Better Than AdSense” really caught my attention last week.

It was written by Johnny B. Truant, a blogger who made the decision to stop using AdSense.

His strategy was like many others…

Johnny created several anonymous sites with loads of search-engine-optimized content.

Next, he submitted his sites to various directories and social networking websites to generate traffic.

After about 9 months of nonstop hard work, he received his first AdSense check for $111.  If you do the math, that’s about $12/month.

Meanwhile, he created another blog on a subject that he is more passionate about (technology services).  By his 9th month he was pulling in five figures per month from his not-so-anonymous business blog without AdSense ads.

Johnny then made the decision to drop AdSense.

Where I Disagree With Johnny

In the CopyBlogger article, Johnny states a few reasons why he doesn’t like AdSense. He made some valid points, but one reason he gave was the anonymity factor.

He seems to suggest you have to be anonymous to do well with AdSense, and my earnings are proof that is not true.

You don’t have to be anonymous, it’s just that many people choose that route because they are trying to build a quick business instead of taking the time to build a trusted brand with one website.

There are a lot of people making good money with the anonymous, multi-site model, but that’s just not for me.

My method of building an individual brand through content takes much longer to build up, but the long-term rewards are worth it — both from an AdSense and affiliate marketing standpoint.

AdSense – Good or Bad?

Whether or not AdSense is the best model is certainly debatable.  Of course, there is the potential that the ads will distract from your content, the confusion they can cause among visitors, the potential loss of traffic and more.

So I definitely understand the argument that it may not be the best solution for everyone.  As a site owner, you should weigh the pros and cons and decide if it makes sense with your strategy.

I’ve also never been a fan of AdSense-only websites.  You need to diversify your monetization portfolio.  Ask yourself.  If AdSense shut down today where would your income come from?

Even though I make between $6K and $8K per month with AdSense, my business would not die without it.  You should never put all your eggs in one basket.  AdSense can be PART of your model, but it shouldn’t BE your model.

I really hope you take the time to read Johnny’s article.  I love posts like this because they spark discussion.

While I think Johnny made some valid points, I certainly don’t agree with them all.  Maybe I’ve been blinded by my earnings, but I plan to stay put.

Nevertheless, I respect his decision to discontinue with AdSense. It’s certainly not for everyone.

I’d love to know your thoughts on this.  Let’s discuss!

A quick, inspiring overview of Bilal (Rob) Rammuny’s website, RobsWebTips.com.

At only 15 years old, Bilal has already proven he has a solid future in the world of Internet Marketing.  Watch the case study below…

[If you cannot view the video, please visit my blog to watch.]

Want your site featured here?  Find out how.

I receive traffic from numerous sources; from my e-books to YouTube, social networking sites you name it.

But when I look at my traffic stats and review my top two sources, they have been the same for many years…

1) search engines

2) bookmark traffic

Of course, the percentage of traffic I receive from these various sources has changed. For example, my bookmark traffic has increased by quite a bit over the past few years.

Nevertheless my top three sources have typically been search engines, bookmark traffic and voluntary inbound links.

So I thought I’d open up a discussion about traffic here. What are your top two (or three) sources right now and how have they changed over the months/years (if at all)?   Noticed any patterns?

Let’s talk!

You’ve had your blog for a few months now.  You’ve chosen a topic you love and have great information.  But you have very little traffic and no sales.

So what’s wrong?

Often times it’s nothing but your impatience and lack of consistency.

A few months is hardly enough time to give a new business.  So if you went into this with unrealistic expectations, you will be disappointed.

I get an amazing number of emails from people who claim “affiliate marketing doesn’t work.”  And when I ask them how long they’ve been at it, the answer is often two months or less.

Are you kidding me?

It took me months before any worthwhile money started to roll in. And even when my income didn’t equate to the hours I was spending online, I never stopped writing and strategizing.

If you haven’t generated a steady stream of traffic yet, one thing you have to work on is building momentum with consistency.

If you’re a new blogger, you need to establish a rhythm.  Posting once a month is probably not going to cut it.  This is a business so you must commit to it and take it seriously.

There are so many blogs and websites out there with great potential, but they’ve been abandoned by impatient owners looking for too much too soon.

I know it’s frustrating when you feel no one is reading your content.  But if you have a solid concept and believe in your site, you will be amazed at what will happen if you just stick with it and produce solid content on a consistent basis.

Set goals for content and video production. Make your presence known. It’s time for you to get serious. Let’s make 2010 a great one!