The Diary Of An Internet Marketer

Yesterday I mentioned that I was watching our mouse who was about to go into labor at any minute.  Well last night as I was about to go to bed I had a look and she was doing these weird jerking things with her legs and I wondered if it was contractions or something.

Anyway about five minutes later she had a baby.  That’s the first time I think I’ve seen a birth in real life - even though I was present at the birth of my three boys I didn’t actually ’see’ it. It was quite amazing to watch really, she ate the placenta (which by the way I did not do at the birth of my boys:) ) and then licked the baby like crazy until there was not one spot of gunk left on it.  She’d pick it up in her paws and turn it around licking it, its just amazing.

Then she had another, and another, and another, and another, and another, and another and another.  She had eight little babies over the period of about half an hour and then she just looked exhausted.

Poor little girl, I will be sure to keep her well away from any little boy mousies from now on.

I have spent half the day today checking on young Coco who is likely to go into labour any time now.  She’s one of our mice and she looks like she has swallowed a tennis ball.  How unreal is this though, here is the story of Coco…..

We bought Coco about a month ago and it turned out she was pregnant when we bought her.  Then she escaped from her cage one night and disappeared.  We searched the house and we could not find her anywhere and after a week we figured she was gone for good.  We still had 5 other mice.  Anyway, a couple of days later we found Coco who had made a nest in Bens room and she had four babies.  Now Coco and the babies have been kept in a cage of their own so Coco has never been put back in the cage with the other mice since she has had the babies.  In the other cage are 3 females and 2 males and they are together 24/7 but there is no sign of any of them being pregnant - which is good.  How weird is it though that Coco is now due to have babies and she has never been in the cage with the boys.  The only thing that we can think of is that one night - during that week that Coco was missing - one of the boys disappeared and he was lost for about 4 hours before we found him and I found him in Bens room.  So what are the chances that on that one occasion that he disappeared he has found Coco and done the deed and it must have been just after she had the last babies.  That’s the only way it could have happened, either that or she isn’t pregnant and has a tumor the size of a tennis ball.  I can actually see babies moving though so I don’t think it’s a tumor.

Anyway, that has nothing to do with Internet Marketing so let’s get back to the rest of may day.  I spent probably a good half of today writing articles.  I have tried hard to avoid everything else and just concentrate on my articles.  I have just finished one order and tomorrow morning I will start on a 2500 word report.

I spent a good part of the day looking for my Medicare card too since my son had a doctors appointment after school and I cannot for the life of me find my Medicare card.  He has a specialist appointment tomorrow too which I need it for so I just hope they don’t make me pay the full amount since I don’t have my card.  Actually if you read todays ‘tips’ you will know they were about being organised.  Looking for this Medicare card actually started me in my organisation as I had to clean up a fair bit to look for it.  My office desk is a lot cleaner than it was this morning.

I did the grocery shopping today too, so I did actually achieve quite a bit today, still not as much as I’d like but it wasn’t bad.  I’m heading off to bed a little earlier tonight as I really didn’t sleep too well last night.

So goodnight and take care
Sheryl

My tip for today is to BE ORGANISED!

Now I know this is a good tip because I did actually try it once

When you are disorganised you just have no idea what you are doing from one minute to the next ane your life will generally be quite stressful.  Trust me I know, this is a big problem that I have and that is one of my big goals - to get organised.

On the few occasions that I have been organised I was really quite surprised at how much I actually managed to achieve.  I worked so much more efficiently because I knew what I was doing and I could see clearly.

Maintaining that organisation is my problem and I’m sure if I stuck with being organised long enough it would become habit. 

When talking about being organised I am talking about:

• having a plan for your day
• having tidy surroundings
• in particular having a tidy desk and office
• having a structure in place that enables you to juggle your internet marketing as well as your home life
• having good time management skills

My desk and office is so messy that I’ve moved my laptop out to the dining room table.  Now that is messy too and at dinner time we eat with our plates on our lap sitting on the sofa.  My husband is forever complaining that he wants the table back.  I know that this is not the ideal situation and I know if I tidied up a bit that I would actually get more achieved every day.  I’m actually sharing the table with an extremely pregnant mouse that is about to go into labour any minute - which is quite distracting actually.

One of my biggest problems is getting stuck into a task.  I spend more time thinking about what I have got to do than actually doing it.  My time management skills are non-existant and my house is just full of clutter.

So these tips even though I am sharing them with you, are aimed at myself also.  Perhaps if I write all this it might make me get off my butt and do something about it.

I have goals though and I’ve gone out and bought myself a diary - A4 size with a day to a page.  My plan is that each morning I will open my diary and write a list of what I need to achieve for the day.  A bit of a ‘To Do’ list I guess.  I have done the ‘To Do’ list thing before and it does work.  The main thing with doing a list is to be realistic with what you can achieve in a day otherwise you will end up being disappointed if you are never getting everything achieved.

So that is my tip for today.  If you are already an organised person then I admire you and keep it up.  If you are not then join me in my quest to be organised and to put in place some good time management skills.

Don’t forget to fill in the box on the right to get your free ebooks.
Take Care
Sheryl

I should have done this earlier as I’m just about ready for bed.

My day started as usual getting out of bed at around 7:15am, having a coffee in an attempt to wake me up and then running around like crazy trying to get the kids to school in time.

I have the youngest stay home sick today - although I think he was maybe faking it.

After dropping the kids off at school I log on and check my stats and emails.  Then I spent half of the morning working on this blog and visiting the Warrior forum.  After lunch I spent some time writing articles before heading down to the fruit and veg shop to pick up a few things.  Back home I spent some time cleaning up in the kitchen before picking the kids up at 3:15pm and then spent some time with the kids and then folding washing.

This evening I spent more time writing articles (as a ghostwriter for other people). 

I will only write so much a day otherwise I start to lose focus which would result in poor quality articles.  So when I find myself losing focus I will stop for a while and do something else.

I do a bit of article marketing myself and although my customers are happy with my work I have never really been as successful as I’d like to be with my own article marketing campaigns.  So a couple of days ago I decided to purchase Article Marketing Domination by Josh Spaulding to see if I can get an idea of how I can improve my own article marketing.  I have just finished reading it and I must say that this is probably the best ebook that I have read in quite a long time.  In fact I emailed Josh to thank him for sharing the information in his ebook and to let him know how impressed I was.  In my 2 years of marketing I have never done that so that was just how impressed I was with this ebook.

I have no doubt that I now know what I have been missing in my article marketing campaigns and soon I will start using the methods in Article Marketing Domination and I am really feeling quite confident about it.  Tomorrow I am going to re-read the ebook as I like to read them twice just to take everything in as best I can.  Although I am not likely to get started until I finish this lot of article orders that I am working on.  I am quite looking forward to getting stuck into my own article writing though.

So I will submit this post to the usual sites that I submit to and then I’m going to bed.
Goodnight
Sheryl

PS. that is my three boys in the picture

Hi! My name is Melanie Bremner.

I have been running my online business for approximately 6 years now. I first
started off doing virtual assistance work and then got interested in selling
products online with a dropshipper.
I then expanded into the Resell Rights digital product sales and returned to
selling content writing for small businesses which I am still doing now.

I also have an 11 month old son who is quite the mommy’s boy so I have
learned to multi task with the best of them.

An average day starts around 8am. I get up to feed my son and put on a pot of
tea. I then boot up my laptop to check my emails. Completing my email
responses takes about an hour. By that time my son is bored of playing and
wants to spend some time with me. I spend a half an hour or so reading to my son
and playing various games with him. Then he is ready to play on his own again
for another hour before he has a nap.

For the next hour I post some responses on forums I have been keeping an eye
on. This way if my son does want to crawl over to sit on my lap I only need
one hand to type my comments.

When my son is down for his hour and a half nap,I try to get some writing done
for an article or whatever project my client may want.

I do all of my correspondence online through emails or Skype so I don’t have
to bother with a telephone. I find Skype calls I can do without having to have
a headset on so if I need to tend to my child, I can. Most of my clients know
I have a child and don’t mind the occaisional baby noises in the background.

We usually take a lunch break and go for a walk to get out of the house so
we can interact with other families at the library, park, or neighborhood
community center for an hour, then back home for another nap.

During the nap time is when I get the most of my writing done. On average I
am able to spend a dedicated 3 hours to writing without interruption during
the day.

When my son wakes up again, we have a snack and watch some “Treehouse”
programs together. Then my son will play again by himself for some time. This
is the time I add new content to my website, research topics, and try to learn
new SEO tips.

In the evening my husband will play with my son while I finish any projects
that have deadlines, or anything else that may be pressing. Then I make dinner
and we sit down to share our day.

Later on in the evening when my son has gone down for the night, I may spend
time brainstorming in a Skype chatroom with other internet marketers. I find
alot of my ideas for my research and writing by interacting with like minded
souls.

I usually have to remind myself to get off the computer and go to bed sometime
around 2am. That is an average day in the life of a work at home mom.

Melanie Bremner
Family Concerns? For helpful resources visit http://ebooks4families.biz
Need content for your small business, and can’t write? http://smallbizcontentwriting.info

Our blog has the category of ‘A Day In The Life Of…’ and we want guest bloggers to give us posts about a typical day in their life as an internet marketer.

So I am calling all you internet marketers out there to come and be a guest blogger on our blog and let us know about your day.  I’ts not hard, we have a couple posts on here already that may give you an idea of what to write. 

So what’s in it for you???   You get:

• a link back to your website or blog
• your post will be submitted to Blogging Zoom
• your post will be submitted to Digg
• your post will be made into a hub at HubPages and include the link back to your website or blog
• your post will be submitted to ezine articles and include the link back to your website or blog

You can include a photo if you like and if you have a youtube video that you’d like to use I can add that to the HubPage.

So come and be a guest blogger all you need to do is email me at sherylpatstayhome-mum.com - you know what to do just replace the at with @

Email us your post plus a photo if you want one included and don’t forget to include the link back to your website or blog

Thanks in advance
Sheryl

BE CAREFUL CROSSING THE ROAD AND BE GOOD TO YOUR MOTHER!!

But seriously…….. not that I’m saying that it’s not serious that you should be good to your mother - always be good to your mother, but seriously…..

This is our new category called “Tips of the Day”

Now I just have to come up with some tips on a regular basis

My IM Tips for today:

STOP CHECKING YOUR STATS

That’s right, I know you are doing it.  So many people do, they run a new campaign or launch a product and then spend the next few days just checking their stats.  Checking your stats every hour isn’t going to make them grow any and all it is doing is wasting your time.

So spend less time checking your stats and more time doing something constructive.

Take care - come back later for my daily diary post.
Sheryl
PS Don’t forget to grab your free reports

My name is Yvette Stokes and I have owned http://www.ysdata.com– an information processing services for 11 years. I just started blogging at the beginning of the year and wondered why I didn’t start sooner. However, I usually start my work day at 10 A.M. by checking my emails. Once I’ve done that I log on to the office site (if I’m at home) and check who hasn’t come to work.

Since my blog is so new, I tweet and search for new topics of interest. Once I find a topic I usually began writing my content and researching links to support the post. After I’ve made my daily post to the blog www.ysdata.com/bloglog I open the mail for the day and make phone calls.

After lunch, which is normally 2 pm I check my traffic stats to all of my online sites and the revenue that they have generated. If I see a post has really taken off, I write a follow-up post.

It’s usually around 4 P.M. when I check blogs that I follow – just to see what’s going on. During this entire process I’m funneling calls, emails, and staff. Once I closed the office I have dinner with my daughter which is between 6-7 P.M.

At 9 pm I changed into night clothes and go over the books. If I’m still not sleepy, I will start another blog post or read someone else’s blog. I usually fall asleep around 12-1 A.M. and then do it all again.

I usually roll out of bed around one in the afternoon. I’m a hard worker, but not an early riser by any means.

Once my internet marketing business started taking off, thanks to regular multivariate testing, I decided that there was no reason for me to stay put anymore, so I’m currently in Panama on a year long trip around the world.

This isn’t vacation, though.

As soon as I wake up I check my e-mail and messages on various forums.
Next I check my stats through Conversion Doubler (my multivariate testing software) to see if I have any completed tests or anything unusual going on (like more traffic than expected).

After that I start plowing through my todo list.

I do things based on how important they are and how much I feel like doing them. I figure that it’s better to be passionate about working on a “2″ priority than being bored working on a “1″.

After getting warmed up I’m usually ready to tackle anything, though.

Around 3pm my roommate and I head to Mireya’s, a vegan restaurant here in Panama. Lunch usually takes about an hour.

From 4 until 7 I continue working. I also maintain three blogs (just for fun, not for work), so I follow my posting schedule and write at least one entry each day.

At 7 I work out. I follow Crossfit, which is a fantastic free workout program for everyone from football players to grandmothers. Staying in top shape and in great health keeps my energy up for all the work I do.

Between 8 and 10 I do more work. Having these breaks every two or three hours helps me jump out of my work and take a minute to reprioritize if I need to.

For dinner my roommate and I go to a place called “Casa Vegetariana”.
It’s another Vegan restaurant that has the best fresh squeezed orange juice I’ve ever tasted. If you’re ever in Panama, definitely check it out.

After dinner I have my best work period. Fewer e-mails come in to distract me, and there’s usually nothing pressing. This where I can put in serious chunks of time to program new features into my software, design new landing pages, or write huge chunks of copy.

I’ve made some videos recently, one to attract affiliates, and seven to show my software in action. Here in Panama the taxis and buses are so loud that 3-5am is the only time that it’s quiet enough to actually record. You wouldn’t believe the amount of horn honking that goes on at 5:30am!

I go to sleep somewhere between 5am and 7am usually. I’m a night owl and I usually work until I can barely keep my eyes open. Usually during the late night I get super engaged in a big project and I just can’t go to sleep until I finish it.

That’s a lot of work. If you take an hour off for chatting with my roommate or calling friends back in the US, I guess I average about 12 hours a day. I don’t take weekends off, either.

The key to working this much is to LOVE what you do and to hold yourself to your own standards rather than regular standards.

I used to focus on making money, but now I focus on producing excellence.

My current project is called Conversion Doubler, which is basically the highest quality multivariate testing software ever created at a very low price. I spend around half of each day improving it and adding new features.

If you’re interested in multivariate testing, or just want to know what it is, I’ve created a really cool short ebook about it which you can get for free at www.conversiondoubler.com/landing.php.

And just for fun… if you’re interested in reading about my travels around the world, check out www.lifenomadic.com.

Let me start by introducing myself.  My name is Sheryl Polomka and I am married to Derek and we have 3 beautiful boys aged 10 - Ben, 8 - Corey and 5 - Lachlan.  I have one lovely dog he’s a Rhodesian Ridgeback called Kaiba.  My sons have 1 rat - Cosmo, and 10 mice - Hearts, Tails, Paws, Cortex, Rosie, Coco, Popcorn, Popper, Snow and Goober.  We started with 6 mice - they had 2 each - and then Coco became the mother of the last 4.  We are fair dinkum Aussies so don’t get too confused if you are reading a day and the day is only starting for you.  We are ahead of most countries timewise so my day may be finishing as yours is just starting.

I have been working in Internet Marketing for two long years and it has not been easy I must say.  Anyone entering into Internet Marketing that thinks it’s going to be easy then think again. I’m not saying forget about it and that it’s too hard, not at all. It is hard work but it is worth it.  What I am saying is that if you think it’s going to be easy and that you will get rich overnight without putting in any effort, then you are going to be very disappointed.

So why have I decided to keep a diary?  I was reading a fellow IM’s blog the other day and he had a post in his blog about ‘The day in the life of an internet marketer’ and he said that this was the most read post he’d ever had, it’s like everyone wants to read about how an internet marketer spends his/her day, so that is what gave me the idea to do a diary of my days.

I was a little hesitant at first as some of my days are not as productive as they should be but keeping a diary will hopefully motivate me to be more productive.

You’re probably wondering by now just how successful I have been with internet marketing after two years.  Well, I am having success but not as much as I’d like.  But you know what!  That is going to change and it’s going to change soon.  The other day I sat down and wrote a list of everything that I have to do - all my current projects that I want to complete.

This is one big problem many internet marketers have - they start a project and before it’s finished they start something new and quite often nothing gets finished.  This is a classic example that I’ve started this diary even though I have other unfinished projects.

So I wrote a list and I am going to finish them all.

I make a big part of my income through ghostwriting.  For those who don’t know what ghostwriting is, it is a person that writes articles or reports for other people and the other people have full rights to the products and can put their own name as author.  The problem is that when I’m writing for other people I have less time to work on my own projects so I want to do less of that and more of my own stuff.

Right at this very moment I should actually be writing articles for other people but instead I’m working on this blog….ssshhhh don’t tell them.  In fact I finished one article order this morning and have spent half the day working on setting up this blog instead of starting another order.  The rest of my day will be spent writing articles although I need to fold the washing too and pick up the kids from school.

The joys of working from home - juggling an internet career with household chores.

Well thankyou for reading my diary and I hope that you come and visit again.  Don’t forget to sign up to our newsletter and receive free ebook called “Success By Three”  and a report called “Make $150 a day with Bum Marketing”.

PS.  That’s Ben and I in the sponsor box photo for http://www.stayhome-mum.com (on the right)