a view of what i do, know, and think

Monthly archives for February, 2011

A Sad Reality



I know I have made a ton of mistakes and because of this I really feel like I can share more with you. After all, I know what not to do as well as what to do. However, there was a sad reality that I had recently. I was looking at an old article I wrote on HubPages way back when about working from home. It did make me a bit sad because I really haven’t built up the income that I had hoped in the time.

My Reported Income February 2008.

The article shares a little about my progress. I started writing August 2007 and wrote this article in February of 2008 (rather fitting that it was February). That February I was on target to make between $550 and 600 for the month. I know now that some things I was excited about and counting didn’t work out and I was never paid for those ventures. However, I did get a fair amount of the money and I was doing pretty good.

My Income February 2011.

The sad reality is that here it is February 2011 and I am on target to make less then I made in 2008. This is a really sad thing and could really get me down. Instead I feel a little excited because I despritely want to blow it all out of the water and do better than I have ever done before. However, it doesn’t look amazing or make people jump up and down. Yay! Your making less many after years of working at it!

What Went Wrong?

Okay knowing that there are a lot of things that I have done wrong, I figured I would share a few of them with you that went wrong and took me off the track of being successful in the last few years.

  1. First not everything I counted back then really paid me. This includes a number of PTC sites (you go there and click on the links you are supposed to make money from it and they never paid) and a few other easy ways to make money such as getting paid to sign up for stuff and a few survey sites. This makes my actual earnings a lot lower and once I learned they didn’t pay I stopped counting them (and working on them).
  2. Second I haven’t busted butt very much. It takes a lot of content to make a lot of money and I have now learned that it also takes a lot of backlinks to make a lot of money. I have never backlinked anything because I didn’t really like doing it and I haven’t really written much in the last several years. I have nearly 1000 articles on Helium but that is because they were written when I got paid upfront and took the money and ran. The few sites I want to focus on include HubPages where I have less then 150 hubs, InfoBarrel where I have just over 200 articles, Xomba where I have less then 15 articles, and Squidoo where I have 3 lenses. That’s not very much writing and I am just now starting to backlink.
  3. I decided to freelance. I wanted more money now and decided I would give a go at freelance writing. I worked hard and made a fair amount of money. However, it was all money now and I burned myself out. I started in July of 2009 and stopped in February of 2010. However, I didn’t write hardly anything from February to October. So I lost more than a year.
  4. One of my biggest money makers changed its policies and I went from making about $120 a month with them to making nothing. That took a lot to recover from because while I firmly believe that having a lot of eggs in a lot of baskets is important, I hadn’t done enough building to actually make it happen.
  5. I haven’t worked hard enough. It is hard working with two young children in the house. However, I haven’t gotten focused and worked really hard to produce a lot of really great content. I have worked at getting that content making a lot of money. All in all, it hasn’t been something I have worked hard enough on or gotten enough done.

I really feel that I can make a huge difference this next year. My goal is to be making $1500 a month by time December rolls around, but there is a small part of me that would like to make $1000 a month by June of this year which would mean that I would hope to make more than $1500 a month by December. All in all, I feel that I have made my mistakes, learned from them, and am on my way to some amazing things.

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The Keyword Academy



I have talked about The Keyword  Academy last month when I wrote up the article on the 90 day challenge. However, I never really got into what the Keyword Academy (TKA) is and how I feel about it. I thought I would take a moment to do just that at this moment in time. I am not a stellar reviewer when it comes to sharing how I feel about a product, but I will give a shot.

Why I Joined TKA

I am a pretty active member on the forum at InfoBarrel and for months I had seen comments about TKA. This intrequed me, but I am scared to death to spend money on products. I have purchased very few products over the years because I am a huge skeptic. So, from October to January I came across TKA several times, checked out their website a number of times, and decided it wasn’t for me. Then I had a friend of mine join (he joined just before Christmas). He was very pleased and that made me reconsider. With that, I talked it over with my husband and we decided to give it a go. After all, the first month is free and you can easily cancel when using PayPal subscriptions.

My Initial The Keyword Academy Fears

As I said, “I haven’t purchased many products in the last few years”. Maybe I would be loads farther than I am if I had, but the truth is we haven’t had a lot of money to put into it and there has always been a fear of getting crap. Last year I decided I would love to put together an e-book (which I still haven’t done). However, I had a lot of questions. So, I bought a very highly rated book. When I got it, it was huge because it was an e-book that had been printed by print on demand and was the size of a standard sheet of paper. At the same time the print was huge and it was very thin. Reading through it was even more disappointing because it offered about one page worth of information that was worth it.

My fear with joining TKA was that I would feel just as disappointed that I had wasted my time as I felt about that darn print on demand e-book about e-books. However, that fear is gone.

The Truth About TKA

The truth is that I am not very far along in my subscription there and I don’t think I will ever quit. In fact, my husband and I are talking about buying 14 months at tax time (you pay for 12 months and get two free a $66 savings). I love several things about it and it only seems to be getting better.

  • The Niche Refinery. This is a tool that allows you to upload keywords. The program then tells you about how much a month it is expected to earn once in the #1 spot in Google and how hard it will be to get to that spot. With all that in mind you can choose keywords that work a lot better for you than just writing about anything that you want to. I love how easy this tool is to use and how much information it carefully spits back at me.
  • Post Runner. This service works by allowing you to write up short posts and post them on websites that are in the system. There are about 1000 different sites in the system. At first this really intimidated me cause it seemed hard to use. However, after a day or so playing with it I finally got it down and am now using Post Runner every day. Each of these posts allows two links to stuff that you are trying to increase ratings for. This is great for backlinking, increasing the worth of your site, and making you more money.
  • Accountability. With WordTracker you also have a tad bit of built in accountability. This lets you see how many words you have published in a pretty graph. You can keep working harder and harder and watch your graph display that. This is amazing. Add to that a 90 day challenge to write more and the ability to share those results with others and you are definitely seeing a great tool here.
  • Tons of information and help. There is an e-book, core videos, webinars, and a forum that are just waiting to give you tons of information. Then there is the help that the Keyword Academy has built in and you can’t be lost. There is a guy dedicated to helping new comers (Matt) and an owner with an open mailbox policy to answer all your questions (Mark).

Is It Worth It?

Not only is it worth it, but it could change your life. I am sure that the tools it has provided, the thoughts it has given me, the drive I am feeling, and the continued support will be pushing me farther than I ever imagined and I will be doing it lots faster than I ever imagined. I may not be making much today, but you just wait…it is coming.

How about you? Have you tried The Keyword Academy? Are you interested in it? Do you have any questions that you want to ask? Some people will look at this and say I am just trying to make a buck. After all, I have an affiliate code in there! Well, I certainly wouldn’t mind making a buck or two, but that isn’t why I did the review and that isn’t why I am a member over at The Keyword Academy. There are plenty of products out there I could peddle if that’s all it was. Instead, this is me sharing with you. So, if you have any questions, comments, or concerns share them. I will answer them all to the best of my ability!

Web Writer    , ,

Blogging Directly From My Brain



There are some days when I wish that I could blog directly from my brain. So often the posts that I come up with in the kitchen doing dishes, while shopping, and while doing crazy things along the way sound so much better then what I come up with when I actually sit down to write. I don’t know if I just write better in my head or if it all flows out my ears when I sit down.

This goes beyond having Speech to text software. In fact, it goes beyond anything I have ever heard of in real life. Sorta like connecting some sort of chip in there and then just having my brain roll with the post. I will probably have to edit it later, but I have a million and one ideas when I am busy and they always sound great.

This would solve the problem of getting my personality into my posts as well as solving the problem of what to write. I would literally write whatever was on my mind. It would be so simple. So, gadget companies of the world…when you can figure out how to do this, sign me up!

If you blogged directly from your brain, what would your blog be about?

Web Writer

My Ideal Work Week



I know that what in order to build a passive or a semi-passive income with residual earnings online one has to put in the work. It isn’t easy. It takes work. It takes long hours. However, if/when you get there you can cut back on the hours you put in and still get decent results. You will still need to do some work to maintain your blog and to keep things running, but you can slay the 80 hour work weeks.

My ideal work week would have me working 3 to 4 hours a day 4 to 5 days a week. I would also be able to travel whenever I want and automate things enough that I could go on vacation and still rake in enough dough to survive and thrive. I know that this is possible because most of last year I took off (March to Mid October) and I still brought in about $200-300 a month. This isn’t really enough to get excited about, but it does show that it will keep coming in even when you aren’t working.

Add to that the automated processes that one can put in and you have a great deal of success that can be had with a short work week and lots of vacation time. I love the idea of working 12 to 20 hours a week while still making a full time income and doing it without scheming and without doing anything illegal or lying to anyone. I know it can be done and in the next three years or so I am planning on proving it. If you want to know how you too can do it then head on over to 5Currencies where I (and other ordinary fellows with out and specialization) are making strides toward a better life.

All in all, I need to head on over to one of my revenue sharing sites and write a new article. Have a nice day!

What is your ideal work week?

Web Writer

My Dreams



I have a dream…

Mine isn’t near as noble as Martian Luther King, but I couldn’t really help myself on that one. Instead my dream is to live comfortably with my family. I don’t need to be rich, but I don’t want to have to worry about money all the time. I am not looking at going shopping everyday or buying a lot of large ticket purchases, just to relax in a middle of the road income (not that I would mind if my success is bigger than that).

I want to work side by side with my husband with neither or us working an outside job. I want it to be that we can work together, play together, and raise our kids together. We are also looking at homeschooling our children and I want to be a huge part of that.

To start off with meeting this dream I need to make $4,000 a month. Some days this feels impossible. I made less than $200 last month and this month isn’t looking better (and may actually be worse). I have a plan that will really take me a lot farther in life, but it will take a lot of work and a lot of time. Both of which are feeling a little cramped right now. However, to make a good headway on this dream I would like to make $1500 December of 2011.

Here’s to wishing me good luck.

How about you? What are your dreams?

Web Writer

A Name or Two



Over the years I have had a lot of explanations on various names and stories that go with names or rather my names. It all started a little over 27 1/2 years…fading into the dreamy state complete with clouds…

Emmaline Louise Bessette

My mom wanted to name me Emmaline Louise Bessette. The name had a lot of history for her. First, her grandma who had passed away when she was 17 was Olive Emmaline. Not desiring to saddle her beautiful little girl with a name like “Olive” she decided Emmaline would do nicely. She wanted me to be Louise because both her and her mom had that middle name. Bessette came from my father as is the case for many American babies. Everyone hated it, especially my dad. He wanted me to have a more French sounding name (he came from French heritage) and others thought it was just too big of a name for a little girl. So, my mom made a different choice…

Danelle Marie Bessette

She decided to give me the French name Danielle, but spell it funny. Marie was chosen because my cousin’s middle name was Marie. So that was how I became Danelle Marie Bessette. This of course has lead to a lifetime of confusion for many who meet me. One of two scenarios usually occurs. The first is that a person spells my name correctly and says it incorrectly calling me Da-Nelle instead of Dan-Yell. The other is that they say it right and spell it in the traditional manner of Danielle. I have come to accept both and neither one really bothers me much.

Dan and Dani

My dad always called me Dan. It bugged me a bit, but not enough that I ever said anything. I just figured since he had not one, but two sons, he didn’t need to call me by something that definitely sounded boyish. None the less, that was the way of it. The rest of my family called me Dani growing up. A few people have picked that up over the years. I have heard my husband call me Dani to others, but never to my face. Shrug…guess that is just the way it is and as long as no one calls me Dan I don’t mind.

Danelle Marie Karth

Not sure how my dad would feel about my French sounding name paired with a German last name, but he never did find out about that so I suppose it doesn’t matter much. In 2005 I became Danelle Marie Karth on my driver’s license, but because I was one who put off changing my name on my social security card it wasn’t until a year later that I finished the process and took my married name. I haven’t looked back and have no regrets. However, I figured I would be able to stop spelling out my name when I moved from Bessette to Karth. It seemed a lot simpler, but apparently it isn’t.

aidenofthetower

Almost four years ago I took the screen name aidenofthetower. The plan was for my husband and I to write some fantasy fiction together on a site called falonofthetower.com. The site is still there waiting for my husband to have the time. Ultimately that’s what it boiled down to. He didn’t have the time. When I started writing fall of 2007 I just went with the screen name aidenofthetower. In a few places I am Aiden of the Tower. It has stuck and I have gotten really used to it. It feels like part of me and part of who I am even though we haven’t yet done any fantasy fiction with it.

So, that’s the history of a complicated naming process that brought me to a woman who feels she has two names, both of which are important to her. I am Danelle Karth and aidenofthetower and plan on staying that way for the rest of my life.

What about you? How did you get your name or screen name?

Web Writer

Need More Topics



The way I write is pretty technical on most fronts. I take an idea and turn it into an article. Some are informative articles and others how to articles. However, they all boil down to being great articles that offer a lot of information. Most of my blogs work that way too such as The Phat Diaries. I do try to write personal articles on there, most of them are very informative or how to in nature. It’s just the way that is easiest for me.

Now that this has become my personal grab bag blog I am struggling with what to write. I complied a huge long list of ideas offered by other bloggers, but they aren’t real specific so they still leave a lot of interpretation and a lot of figuring out what to write when you are looking at them. An example would be to write on what you like or dislike. Maybe you should write on your hobbies or something. Well, gee wizz, that doesn’t help!

I suppose on one hand I am definitely still greatful that the other bloggers took the time to come up with any ideas. However, I think I need to sit down and work it into more specific things related to who I am, what I do, and so forth. If only blogging came naturally to me and I could ramble about the weather, how I feel, and maybe politics. Of course, I would probably have to keep up with current events in that case…

What would you like me to write about? If you could ask any question or suggest any topic what would it be?

Web Writer