BellaOnline Forums Career Business Coach Internet Marketing

If you own your own business, run a website, or want to work from home - you need to learn Internet Marketing.

The first in a series of articles about the many facets of internet marketing are up on the Business Coach site, now.

Start with Internet Marketing Overview 1 & 2. Then go on to dig a little deeper, as I release more articles in the series.

My hope for this is to help you gain more skills to help you succeed with what you are passionate about!

Let me know what works for you!

Hey Meg

Check out my signature. I have started two new businesses. Neither of them asks for money, which is good cause I don't have any LOL. Anyway, I have researched both companies. I looked for the scam signs and didn't find any. So I signed up. Neither ask for CC#'s. One asked for soc. sec. # but I did not give that to them over the internet. They will send me papers so they can send me a 1099 at tax time, which I will already have put $ aside for taxes. What do you think? Let me know ok?

I am thinking of starting a website that will give away patterns for craft ideas in order to attract traffic so the only money would come from advertisers.

In time when I have the money, I was going to add a section that sells needlework supplies but at the moment I don't have the cash to purchase these items to sell.

I was inspired by a young woman, who is only 17 who started the site www.whateverlife.com. She was on The View and was very impressive.

All the tips for "pimping" your myspace page are free, she makes her money solely off of the advertisement that is on the site and she is a millionaire.

Those are good ideas Lisa. Do you make patterns yourself? I actually love to sew, just wish I had more time to do it! There is something about hanging up curtians I made or wearing something that no one else has. If I could do that for money it would be great!

Hey, Sue,

I didn't see any products on your mall's home page. Just links to how *I* can get a mall of my own. Are you sure it's not an MLM?

Lisa - I saw that! I did a brief blog post on it: How to be a 17 year old millionaire. Neat story, isn't it? To clarify, though, WhateverLife.com has raised 1.5 mil in advertisements. And that's over a couple of years, with staff. Regardless, it's a super-cool inspirational story!

I totally support you, ladies, in reaching your dreams!

Sincerely,

Meg

Meg

You have to go to the top right side of the page and click on shop. Yes I believe it is somewhat of a MLM but since they don't ask for cash outlay it is not a typical MLM. Here is a review by Squidoo

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Just to clarify - Squidoo is a service where anyone can sign up and create a page. I have a bunch of them.

Meg Meyer - is not a review of me, it's a page I created about my business and books I recommend.

The Squidoo link you posted is by someone who writes nearly always about MLM and affiliate marketing. The links on that Squidoo Lens all point to his affiliate link.

So, the claims that it's not MLM or affiliate marketing are false advertisement - as you are now an affiliate and part of his downline.

I am not trashing the idea, or your choice in joining, but the claims made on his lens don't pan out to be true.

Regardless, I sincerely am glad that none of your contact information was given to that business and I hope that it truly does produce income for you. I hope you'll keep us posted on this biz op, no matter what the results are, for you.

Your experiences could help thousands!

Meg

I do design alot of the patterns myself. I also have some books of patterns that are copyright free. These books are huge, I have to store them in my portfolio from college. They are from the 70s but their designs are timeless. There are some very nice patriotic designs, some country designs, my personal favorite are the fruit designs. These designs could be used for applique as well, I had not thought about that until I read your post about sewing.

I can sew and I do a little from time to time but my real love is embroidery.

I LOVE to make up my own designs, I especially love samplers and making those up to fit the person. I was at my Neices home a couple years ago, I had not seen her in so long. I was drawn to a peice on her wall, it felt like part of me but I had no recollection of doing it. It was a sampler I had made for her when she was a child. I had used different types of stitches and some beading as well. It was VERY girly with trees made of hearts and a little house in the middle with a heart shaped window. I had done it on pink fabric and she had painted the room it was hanging in pink as well. It was cool to see it hanging there.

Hey Lisa,

a former colleague of mine runs an embroidery business from home - she loves it.

With the copyright free patterns, I'd suggest digging a little deeper. They may be copyright free for personal use, but not be free to use for business purposes. Just make sure you're cleared on the legal front.

It sounds like it'd be a fun and exciting venture for you!

Keep me posted on what's going on.

One of my articles was featured in a Group Writing Project by Internet Marketers.

If you're interested in internet marketing, or affiliate marketing, read my article on Balancing Affiliate Marketing and Relationship with Your Readers.

Thanks a lot for the links, I'm gonna check it out.

One important aspect of building a website for revenue is that you be passionate about your subject and be willing to put in lots of hours. It does pay off tho.

I wanted to say one thing on the issue of a Power Mall business. This company has a great set up for fundraising and I joined to help non-profits earn money for their groups.

I think typical MLM's are about passing on the "opportunity" so that all can make money. My Power Mall stresses giving to others and using their business to raise money for charity. The people involved are into the Law of Attraction and believe you get back what you give out.

I've been involved in other MLM's and they just aren't set up like this one.

Hi Allysa, welcome!

Greetings, Green1. How long have you been an affiliate of MyPowerMall?

I've been in Power Mall only for about a month but I have signed up 2 non-profits, with about 5 more taking the idea to their board of directors.

The main problem I'm encountering is that non-profits are slow to believe this isn't just a "business opportunity" scam. I'm trying to convince them it can work, especially by forming a group that I'm helping to promote. They don't even have to do that much except put the link on their websites and send it out to supporters.

Lots of non-profits are still thinking that selling candy and magazines is the way to go-lol.

I used to manage a local branch of a worldwide non-profit. We tried something similar. It asked us to market gift certificates to our members.

The problem was - Our members just weren't interested in purchasing the gift certificates that were available. They'd rather just donate directly.

I don't doubt that it's a good theory, or that your heart is in the right place - but I'd like to hear from you in a year, and see if you made money for your efforts. It's easy to be excited about an "opportunity" when you just started.

I can totally understand what you're saying and it does get discouraging when people don't want to participate in what seems like such an easy program. I believe one non-profit has sent out a message to it's 300 members so we'll see how it goes.

Truthfully, I'm skeptical of "opportunities" too after having been involved in many. What I liked about this one was that it was free so at least I'm not risking anything to do it and it may pay off for the non-profits. I tried Mary Kaye, for instance, and they wanted me to purchase $600 worth of products, which I then had a hard time selling.

I have a hard time understanding people, I guess. I try to be supportive of my friends and of worthy causes, if I can. However, others aren't the same. I used to sell Avon and my own family never even asked to look at a catalog! Instead they went to Walmart and bought make-up and skin care products, rather than supporting my efforts.

There are over 1,000 stores in the Power Mall so I was able to do all my Christmas shopping. I'm just hoping that others see this as an opportunity to do their shopping and also help a worthy cause.

I'll let you know in a year how I'm doing. Some people in the group have several hundred people signed up under them. Whether they are all purchasing, I don't know.

Hey Green1

Your review on power malls has been posted on my site. You will need to click on articles.

Re your post, this is why I asked for reviews from business women, especially those with Internet and Direct Sales, so I could develop a full resource for those who are looking at various opportunities.

Has anyone here tried stumble upon to build their traffic? I've had people stumble some of my pages and have gotten traffic from it. If you install the free tool bar, you can stumble a site any time. I always try to put in a good description and tags on it to help with search engines. Carennedy, I stumbled your site.

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That's fascinating, Joan, that you stumbled upon Carennedy's site! I've used Stumble Upon and other similar things with mixed results.

I'm in the process of assessing the things I've experimented with over the last 3 & 6 months. Some of the top and bottom performers surprised me!

Cool!!!!

I got to check it out. It's only been the last 4 weeks that I've really put a lot more into the site so I'm amazed. The site has only been up for about 5 months and the first 2 were summer.

I own my own business and your tips and articles are inspiring and truly valuable.

Thanks for the compliment Tonet, Is your business the Credit Card link in your Signature, or do you do something else as well?

I put this question in another section but maybe here is better.

I just signed up with Peddlers Kitchen and got the free website to promote. I like cooking and baking and it seemed a good fit for me.

I know i can put it in my sig, like I did here, but can I also advertise on places like Craigs list and that other one you mentioned, without getting bounced off?

I hate to do the work at home sites as everyone there is wanting to promote, not necessarily buy products. I don't care so much about recruiting new affiliates, but I'd just like to sell the products.

Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks,
STacy

Green1,

Check out bellameg's articles first lots of great info. Then come by my squidoo lens on internet marketing and all the different places to go and all the different things to do.

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Thanks again! I'll look at all these and I'm sure I'll get some great ideas on how to market my business.

Stacy

Stacy - just checking in - how's marketing your business going?

I'm having trouble finding something that works for me. I signed up for the wellness oils through someone on these forums, actually, and it's making me a little in commissions and I like the product.

I liked Peddlers Kitchen but I figured out I couldn't really make a biz selling is myself because their postage is pretty high. The shipping eats up the 25% discount I got so unless people just signed up under me and bought products or purchased off my website, it wasn't cost effective for me to try and buy it and resell at craft fairs or whatever.

I still have my day job, in other words! Thanks for asking but still looking.

Stacy

That's why I'm doing the Network Marketing Experiment.

I figure, if I, using the criteria set out by many of you for what you'll try - being as cynical as I am - can find something suitable and make a go after a month - then I can wholeheartedly recommend it for others.

In the meantime, the ones I've chosen for the experiment are free, and has great training and a variety of "types" - you might like it.