Hi All,

Well over the last week, I've been looking at ways to generate more traffic to my site. I think it's very important and I know your goal is also to generate more free quality traffic to your site. I've found that submitting your site to a directory is ok, but it really doesn't bring in nearly as much traffic as places where you have to work to get the traffic.

When you submit your site to a directory your site just basically sits there and waits for someone to find it. Usually it's found via a search engine that takes them to the directory listing or directly to your site anyways. I recently tried submitting my site to the Best of the Web directory, but I haven't had much luck from there in the last 2 months.

With my older sites, most of the traffic was generated through 'Topsite Lists' where you would place a link to someone else's topsite and if people click on it from your site, they would vote for you and you would move up the ladder. I've tried to implement that on this site here, but the script I use for Joomla is just basic and doesn't allow images so it's not working all that well. Most sites submitted to my topsite list get at least 5-10 hits a week before the count is reset. That's not a lot obviously, but I believe it's 'real traffic' and not 'bounce traffic' which is a good thing.

Do you use a directory to find websites? Or do you use a search engine when you are looking for something? Obviously in the last few months entrecard has grown exponentially as a great place to find blogs and I've found some wonderful sites through that! But I do find that it is soooooo time consuming and I've never been able to drop 300 cards a day. If I drop for 4 hours a day, I might hit 175. I think it's the speed of my computer and the fact that I like to read at least the latest entry on a lot of the sites I visit. It's good to leave a comment as well if the article stands out to you.

So just the other day I was visiting a blog titled My Absent Mind and saw a link for free traffic, I clicked on it and found LinkReferral and I've loved it so far. You move up the directory by visiting 30 sites a day (YES only 30, not 300!!) and reviewing 5 sites. I've really enjoyed the last few days I've spent visiting those sites. Occasionally you will find a blog or site with an entrecard widget which is just a bonus. But you find so many sites outside of the entrecard community it's great.

It's completely free to use and it's not hard to make it to the top 3 pages in your category if you visit the 30 sites a day. They say that on those pages you can get anywhere from 40 - 60 fresh visitors a day. This seems to be much more worth my while. You also need to 'favorite' one site a day to meet your quota which is good because you can see them on your mainpage and you are notified if someone favorites or reviews you.

Of course I'll still use entrecard, but until I get a new computer it's not possible for me to visit more than 100 sites a day and even then that takes ages. I'm in Melbourne, so the count resets at about 4pm everyday (which is midnight US/Canada EST).

Through LinkReferral, I have had 50 visits and 5 reviews in the last 2 days since I've been a member. There is an option to respond to the comment you received which I always do. It's a great idea and counts towards your daily quota as well.

All in all, LinkReferral so far has been a great experience. Why not get some more traffic yourself? It takes only a minute to sign up you start getting free traffic almost immediately!

Well that's it for now, enjoy the rest of your day!

-Bec

Hi All!

Well I wonder if you've noticed the new 'Special Offer' in the top right hand corner of the site? Hard to miss isn't it? I think it's actually really cool and unique (for now anyways).

Yesterday I saw it on John Chow's blog and he's selling them for $37!!! Definitely DO NOT BUY IT! It's completely free with when you sign up with Adtoll. Within 5 minutes of signing up I created and installed my 'Page Peel' ad unit by placing the script code onto my site. It was up and running instantly for FREE!

So if you want one for your site, go sign up with Adtoll. Just like google they will give you a piece of code to add to your site and it's working within minutes. You can specify what type of advertisers you are looking for as well. Go ahead click on it! It's like a piece of paper peeling back.

Have fun with it, I'm sure I will.

On another note, it's just after 5pm here on Friday now, so technically weekend time! Unfortunately for those of us who 'work at home' there really isn't a weekend anymore. Anytime can be work time. Sunday? What's Sunday? No, I do try to relax on Sunday and get away from the computer, but usually I'll check things like email a few times.

I've just finished creating my first clients website. Check it out here at www.joykaya.com.au. Very simple, but that's exactly what he was looking for. It's taken me 3 'half days' to complete it (including the Joomla installation which originally had a few problems on his host but I got it sorted out). I'm quite proud of myself!

Time for a kahlua I think!

Have a good weekend!

-Bec

Hi All,

Wow, where does the time go? It's been a busy week for me. Just over a week ago I posted some ads online in my local area saying that I would be available to help people with their web design needs. It's been great, I've had a few replies and I have gotten started on some projects. I love working on websites, so it's a good opportunity for me to constantly upgrade my skills. It's been taking quite a lot of my time working on those projects, but I'm really enjoying it and it is a lot of fun!

On another note, since my Amway/Quixtar experience, I decided that I liked the idea of networking marketing (or multi-level marketing) but not the approach that they were taking. I could not imagine myself meeting people in all sorts of coffee shops to go over a scripted pitch time and time again. I could also not see myself driving over 1 hour each Monday night in order to attend the weekly meeting or pep rally.

It all seemed too much! I needed to find out if there was an online alternative. So I started to search the web for other online network marketing opportunities. I found one that looked interesting and submitted my details. There were no promises of 'Earn $100,000 while you sleep' just the opportunity to work hard and earn a living online. So I submitted my details on the site to watch the free video. Within hours I received a telephone call from the owners confirming my details and setting up an appointment time the next day to go over any questions I may have once I finished watching the online video.

In the end, it ended up being exactly what I was looking for. Something I could do from home, online and on the phone. I signed up and started training straight away. Once I completed the 6 training modules I was ready to go and get my own site.

Since I started with www.ilovethisjob.net in October 2007, I have had a lot of interest from people all over the world and spoken to many people over the phone. I basically only advertise that site through the team Online Business Center advertising co-op and it's been really good. I now spend my time part-time on that, part-time on this blog and part-time on web design. All I can say is it is so much better than typing up letters and setting appointments for my boss (as an Executive Assistant in my former life).

Some of you may have noticed that I recently added the Kontera content links to my site. It's not really that profitable yet, but hopefully with more visitors it will become more useful for everyone. So if something pops out at you, go ahead and click on any words that are double underlined.

Also, as members here, everyone seems to be quiet! Please go and submit some questions in the forum! I seem to be the only one talking there. I'm really interested to hear how other people make money at home and what is most profitable. That's why I started this club, so we could all learn and share ideas.

Thanks and speak soon!
-Bec

Hi All,

As some of you may know, I keep this blog and club as a hobby on top the OBC (Online Business Center) work from home business that I run full-time.

I enjoy this blog as it is an excellent way to develop my web design skills and also to share my views and experiences with the world.

It's fun (and mostly necessary) to have multiple sources of income when trying to blog or start off working from home. Unless you have a huge advertising, marketing and development budget, it is very difficult to make money solely from one or two blogs. As everyone keeps saying, 'don't put all your eggs in one basket' and I believe them!

There are only a handful of very successful bloggers and I read a blog entry on John Chow's blog today titled 'Blog earnings and income tax' which I found quite interesting. He seems to be one of the successful ones so I tend to believe what he is saying. This will be my first year with deductions from a homebased business and a blog, so I'm quite excited to see what happens!

If you're looking for a fun business (with tax benefits) and want to join forces with me, why not register at my other site www.ilovethisjob.net for more information. I promise you it's nothing like the Amway/Quixtar business (see my post on that) there are no tool sales and it's all computer and phone based. I have met some really good people (Hi Team!) and had a lot of fun in the last 4 months building this business.

I believe the world is our oyster, especially since you only live once. I personally can not stand making other people fortunes by doing admin work and slaving away at a 9-5 job. Saying that, there are some people who can't do what I do and this business isn't for everyone.

I enjoyed DJ from Business Wife and Life's post on 'Why you might not be cut out to work from home' and the links she adds. If you need someone to constantly tell you what to do, you might be better off in an office somewhere, working for a boss. On the other hand, we always need doctors, lawyers, cops, mechanics, builders, plumbers etc. So there are way more people who can't work from home than those who can!

You need to consider hard if you need a boss or not and want to work from home. If you want to, join my team and create your own future! If you register I will give you a quick call and send you all the details via email for you to read further. No pressure as I don't want to team up with people who aren't right or ready for the job.

Keep in mind that this is not a 'get rich quick' scheme as pretty much the only way you can get rich quick is by winning the lottery! You do need to put time and effort into your career, whatever it may be, in order for you to be successful. I encourage everyone to give it a go and follow your dreams!

-Bec