RosalindGardner.com

Learn Blogging & Affiliate Marketing with Rosalind Gardner

2010: Year in Review

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Overall, my goals / resolutions for this year were simple and minimal:

  1. Travel more
  2. Take more time off
  3. Maintain or increase my income
  4. Lose 10 pounds.

Well, three out of 4 ain't bad. (I gained seven pounds – but had a great time doing it! 🙂 )

As for traveling more… I did that in spades with trips to:

As for time off… in reality, I worked only 2 months this year.

[Read more…]

Can’t See Your .htaccess File?

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I know how frustrating it is when you've logged onto your server using WS-FTP and can't for the life of you find your .htaccess file.

You KNOW it's there.

You've seen it from your cPanel interface.

But because using FTP for transfers is easier, you want to be able to see it there too.

Well, your file might be hidden because dot (.) files are system files which are normally hidden to protect them from being viewed by nepharious types… or newbie webmasters that muck and make a mess of them.

That's not you, so I'll tell you how to make your .htaccess file visible using WS-FTP.

1. Open WS_FTP
2. Click Connect
3. Select the site you wish to modify and right-click on the site name
4. Click Properties
5. Select the Startup tab
6. Enter -a in the Remote File Mask box
7. Click OK to confirm the changes

Now all of your hidden files, including .htaccess will be visible when you connect to the site.

Don’t Rush to Update WordPress

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Gosh, I just love sharing my little blogging horror stories with you.

It's not my intention to scare you or dissuade you from blogging. I just want you to be aware of the mistakes that I've made, so you won't make them as well.

BTW, in case you don't know — before getting into affiliate marketing and blogging, I was an air traffic controller.

The most useful phrase I learned during that time was:

“Learn from the mistakes of others; you'll not live long enough to make them all yourself”.

Anyway, this little lesson comes from a WordPress upgrade that I completely botched.

[Read more…]

Go Multilingual: How to Make Money Online in International Markets

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Let's start with a truism: the web is global.Anyone from Kansas and Kentucky, to Kenya and Korea can access the same online information, at the same time but from completely different corners of the Earth. And that really is rather amazing, even if most of us do now take it for granted.

But what does that mean for all the web designers, bloggers, entrepreneurs and businesses of the world? Well, anyone in business will probably have a website already, and if you don't, then you really should reconsider your position as a business person.

And those who simply blog to let off some steam or get their thoughts, views or expert analysis out into the wider world may not even be thinking in monetary terms yet – be it dollars, pounds or yen.
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WP Shopping Pages: Review Posts Before Publishing

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I've had the WP Shopping Pages plugin for quite awhile now and absolutely love it.

I use it to auto-post products — mostly romantic movie DVD's from Amazon — to my dating blog on a regular basis.

Actually, the WP Shopping Pages plugin has been a real blessing.

I haven't been that keen to write about dating for awhile now, yet with the auto-posts my subscribers still receive updates through my Aweber blog broadcasts on a regular basis and therefore keep returning to visit the site. By result, my Google Analytics stats show no real decline in traffic despite the fact that I've done very little work on the site for months.

There are a couple of issues with the plugin that I've noticed just recently, however.

[Read more…]

Make Money Helping Local Businesses Start a Blog

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You already know how to install a blog.

You also know which plugins to use to make it functional and how to make it look great with a pretty professional WordPress theme.

You know which pages are must-haves on any blog.

AND you understand the benefits of blogging in terms of getting free traffic, as well as how to use PPC at the local level to reduce advertising costs.

So, why not make money using your knowledge to help businesses in your local area either set up a new blog, or improve an existing web site?

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How Many Blogs?

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As I entered the conference hall, I overheard a young seminar attendee proudly proclaim, “I have 1000 blogs!“.

His companion's response was so intense that I thought she might swoon, so I moved hastily to find a seat on the other side of the room and contemplate what I'd just heard.

One thousand blogs, indeed.

She must have thought she'd just hit the rich blogger jackpot.

I wonder however if the young man told her how much money it cost him to register and host those blogs? Or, how much time it took to set each blog up? Or, if each of those blogs was a ‘splog' with content scraped (stolen) from more credible bloggers? OR, how much money each of those blogs made in a month?

Let me guess. Maybe a buck each for a gross total of 12 grand a year?

Hopefully she figured out that he wasn't really a rich blogger when she saw his '77 Celica in the hotel parking lot.

Then again, I know folks with only 20 real blogs who aren't exactly getting rich blogging either.

They're affiliating in all the ‘lucrative niches' with blogs about diets and weight loss, acne and diabetes cures, muscle building, dating, affiliate marketing, how to make money blogging, search engine marketing, credit and finance, debt reduction, travel, self-help and … you guessed it, the wonders of acai berry.

Not much wrong with those markets. They're big, evergreen and I'm in a few of them myself. 🙂

They've invested in all the training courses and ‘essential tools' — keyword research tools, link cloaking and tracking software, site building software, seo tools, article spinners, nifty templates, etc.

They work very hard, spending long hours tending to their sites. They also spend gobs of time researching the web for new tools and training that will give them the ‘edge' they need to get more traffic to their blogs.

And yet after investing all that time and money, the few visitors their blogs do get don't buy what they are promoting.

So, what's the problem?

The problem isn't their choice of market. Neither is it a failure to invest time and money in their business.

The problem is lack of focus and having their most precious resource – time – spread far too thin.

If your blogging business resembles that described above, here are a few suggestions that will give you the ‘edge' you seek.

  • Pick one of your existing blogs — just ONE.
  • Focus exclusively on that blog alone for the next 90 days.
  • If the blog's main market is huge, focus on a sub-category of the topic.
  • Get your autoresponder opt-in form up on the blog. VERY important!
  • Set up your blog broadcast so your posts automatically go out to your subscribers.
  • Pick a few products to promote and write reviews.
  • Write 3 – 5 blog posts relevant to each of those products.
  • Moderate and respond to comments left by your readers.
  • Visit related forums and blogs and leave helpful comments with a link back to your blog.
  • If your blog needs a fresh look, install a new theme.

Perhaps most importantly, make a commitment to visit other blogs only to research your market's interests for the purpose of article writing and to share valuable information through comments.

To keep your focus on marketing, consider outsourcing those tasks that your find difficult and/or time consuming.

Last but not least — make sure that the blog you choose to focus on is making money before you start working on another.

Hint: I worked in only one niche for the first 5 years I was online.

Affiliate Blogger PROIf you've been hoodwinked into believing that you need 20 or 1000 blogs to make money online – check out Affiliate Blogger PRO.

I teach what I do – run a minimal number of blogs to make piles of cash.

If you'd rather blog about topics in which you are truly interested, check out my blogger video training today where you will do what you love, share your passion and make money online.

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