Well, its the first of the month and I’m very excited that a new month is starting. Although I’m thankful that I reached my goal of $135 per day in online income, I’m a little bummed that I had to take on more active income jobs to get there. This month, I’ll attempt to earn $150 a day and to do this, I’m going to keep marketing my winners and will either flip or put text link ads on those sites that aren’t performing well. So, today’s blog post will discuss the pros and cons of selling text link ads.

Now, why Text Lilnk Ads? Well, Text Link Ads is a huge marketplace where bloggers and website owners can sell ads for their website. Apparently ad publishers make bids for text link ads on your website and you have the opportunity to approve or deny the ads. Here are the pros and cons of this revenue generation model.

Pros of Text Link Ads

One of the most beneficial things about text link ads is that they appear as typical links within the text that goes out to advertisers. This is very non-intrusive, so your guests aren’t irritated with a lot of picture-based or changing ads that are distracting. If a visitor is interested in a particular thing, they can click on the ad quickly and visit the sponsoring site.

Another thing that is quite advantageous for bloggers and website owners is that most ads are automatically renewed. If an ad does well on your site, you’ll probably keep the advertiser for quite some time. You will receive 50% of the income made on the ad placed on your website or blog.

Cons of Text Link Ads

There are a few different cons to this kind of advertising, especially if your site is small. It takes a site with many visitors and a lot of keyword traffic to get approved for Text Link Ads. Even then, it can be difficult to find advertisers unless you have a very specific niche or your site is the dominant site in a niche. The more general your niche, the harder it can be to find an advertiser. For instance, if your site’s main keyword and niche is ‘losing weight,’ it will be quite difficult to gain advertisers because this is such a popular niche and there are so many publishers.

Overall, text link ads can certainly benefit you if your site is well-known and is in a different niche than the majority of others. I plan to use it on those niche sites that have little PR or the ones that I don’t really care whether the PR drops anyway.

What do you think? Are you using Text link ads? Are they beneficial or do they do more harm than good?

A few weeks, one of my readers commented that she had a really hard time seeing herself as an entrepreneur. I mean, she wanted to make passive income online and she wanted to be her own boss but she was having a hard time making it happen. She couldn’t get out of the employee mindset. When I left corporate America to become an entrepreneur, I too suffered from this ailment and I know many other marketing writers who suffer as well. So, here’s some tips that helped me conduct an entrepreneur mind shift:

Create a Realistic Schedule

Since there will be no one to look over your shoulder and tell you what to do when you’re your own boss, it’s important that you create a schedule and stick to it. Doing so, will keep you motivated to work. Divide your time between work and play, and stick to that schedule. Also, use the Pomodoro technique to get those tasks done.

Seek Motivation

Review stories of others who have started their own businesses and were highly successful at it. This will motivate you, and help you realize that you can do it too. Sometimes, it can feel like you’re spinning your wheels, but when you have the right motivation, you can spin those wheels in the right direction. Wealthy Affiliate has an entire section dedicated to others who have succeeded at internet marketing.

Reward Yourself for a Job Well Done

Although it can take some time and effort to build up an online business, rewarding yourself for meeting your goal is a great way to find motivation. By doing this, you’ll feel proud of yourself and will start to see yourself as a real entrepreneur – someone who sets goals and meets them. Always keep your goals attainable and when you meet them, treat yourself to a movie, an extra slice of chocolate candy, or a mini shopping spree. Whatever it is, make sure you’re acknowledging the fact that you’re succeeding!

Join Communities of Like Minded Professionals

Join communities of other entrepreneurs. A great one is Wealthy Affiliate; a paid membership site for internet marketers. You can get feedback, tips, and support with your internet marketing efforts. It will help you get your mindset right to talk to others who are going through the same things.

By taking these steps and getting out of the ‘employee’ mentality, you can really get on the right track to internet marketing success. What do you think?

It always amazes me how internet marketers limit their marketing efforts to online marketing only. Although our businesses are online, we can’t be afraid to market our sites and establish ourselves online AND offline. By doing this, we will not only increase our prospective market but we will outshine those silly marketers that refuse to expand their marketing methods.

Here are some clever tips marketing ideas that you can use to market your business online.

Pass Out Business Cards. This should be obvious but you’d be amazed how many marketers don’t have business cards. If you’re one of them, get some cards printed right away. Give them out everywhere. You can leave them at coffee shops, restaurants, art galleries; anywhere you visit where potential customers might be.

Give Out T-Shirts. T-shirts are my favorite. They are cheap and everyone wears them. Simply, have some t-shirts printed up and give them out to family, friends, or customers. Include your domain name and any relevant information, as well as your logo. Others will see the t-shirts and if they’re in need of a service like yours, they can visit your site.

Toot Around a Website License Plates or Decal. Another cool idea is vanity plates or decals for your vehicle. Both of these are a great and inexpensive way to get the message across and help you expand your brand awareness. Use your car as a moving advertisement for your business, and interested customers will see the information and visit your website.

Put an Ad in the Local Paper. Depending on your business, you can (and should) put an ad in your local paper. Direct customers to your website by offering incentives, eBook, or even coupons. People love saving money and go crazy over free offers.

Buy Offline Advertising Space. There are many places where you can buy advertising space offline. Children’s yearbooks, menus at diners, signs near phone booths, etc, are all places that potential customers could see the information about your business.

Sponsor a Sports Team. Another great way to get your name out there is to sponsor a local sports team, cheerleading team, or something similar. It is typically an inexpensive way to market plus you’ll get alot of exposure (especially if your team wins regionals).

So, these are just some of the many tips marketing methods that you can market your stuff offline. Be creative and try to think in terms of where your target market might see your ads, your merchandise, or information about your business but whatever you do, don’t limit yourself to online advertising only!

When I first started freelancing over 10 years ago, I relied on only one website, Elance, to secure the majority of my projects.  It was just so easy to submit and win proposals back then. In fact, over 10 years ago Elance was free for both providers AND buyers. It was really cool because I was able to really dominate the writing marketplace by delivering quality work that exceeded expectations. In only a few short years, I was one of the highest paid ELancers and I commanded $15=$20 per page for eBooks and routinely receive $15 per article.  Back then, clients didn’t complain about the prices – they simply paid and I delivered the goods.

Then, about 3 years ago, I started noticing a huge decline in the projects and the clients. It seemed more and more foreign writing companies were joining Elance and that more American writers were leaving. I also noticed that clients started expecting more and more for less and less. Although I noticed this, I held steady and simply submitted proposals with my regular rates. Although I received less projects, I wasn’t concerned because I was dibbling and dabbling in internet marketing and had less time and energy for clients’ projects anyway.

Fast forward to now, it is much harder for me as an internet marketing writer to find Elance clients that are willing to pay $15-$20 per page for eBooks and even harder to find clients willing to pay $15 or more for a well written and informative article. Instead I see requests for $2 per page for eBooks and $5 for 600 word articles. I  personally think that this is somewhat reflective of our economy but more reflective on the fast that many clients don’t value good solid content anymore. Instead, they are looking for quantity and not necessarily quantity.

Although I could lower my rates on Elance, I refuse to do so. Not because I am pigheaded (which I am) but simply because I value my work and know that if I were to submit lower proposals for the same amount of work – I would be taking a step backwards – a bit step backwards. This would only frustrate me and I would end up procrastinating and not getting the work done.

Instead, I would rather put more time into my own business and building passive income. I would rather make nothing than make a little bit of something. This probably means that I’ll have less active income now but, in all honesty I don’t care cause I know that the investment I make now will pay off much higher in the future.

Plus, if times get too tough, there are always sites like Demand Studios that I could write for if I really needed some quick cash. There are also fun sites like Fiverr where I could also make some fast cash. What do you think?

I am a firm believer that internet marketing writers should NEVER EVER put all their eggs in one basket. That is, smart marketing writers must diversity their income streams so that they can protect themselves from hard times.  And, when I say diversify, I mean diversify both active and passive income streams. By doing this, you will increase your odds of success and protect yourself (and your income) if one of your eggs dries up.

Take me for instance, I make over $500 a month from eHow but in their clever terms of service, eHow states that they can legally cancel or modify the WCP program at any time. They also state that they can eliminate the residual payments at any time and won’t owe writers an explanation or future payments.  Although I hope and pray that it doesn’t happen, I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if it did. in fact, I’d be surprised if they left everything as it is now. After all, eHow already canceled the previous WCP program so that writers can still receive residual payments for grandfathered articles but now they have to write through DS (Demand Studios) if they want to write additional WCP articles. Well, to protect myself from these types of changes – I also write for not one but several residual income sites including Suite101,  Xomba and Associated Content. In addition, I also have more than one niche blog and I monetize each one not one but 3 different ways.

But, that’s not it -  I also take this approach with my active income sources too. I spend about 1 hour a day searching for new clients and although I have several regular that keep me very busy, I stay active on Elance and Fiverr cause you just never know when you are going to need additional funds. By doing this, I keep my eggs lined up and ready to crack.

So, if you aren’t diversifying your residual income or are relying on one client for all of your income, please stop right now and get some more eggs. That way if the  company folds or changes their terms, you will still have other revenue streams that you can rely on and that is just smart  business!