Almost every single day, I hear frustrated spouses complaining on message boards and forums that their spouses don’t support their internet marketing efforts. But, can you honestly blame them? Internet marketing is like a jealous mistress that requires a lot of attention – attention away from your spouse and it is totally normal for them to “not understand your passion to succeed or for them to see the big picture of what you’re trying to accomplish”.

After all, you spend so much time on the computer and when you’re just starting off, you don’t make much (if anything) to show for the time you’ve spent.  In turn, they  feel like you’re wasting your time and neglecting the relationship.  As a result, your marriage suffers and your you experience stress.

So, what are you to do? Should you give up your dreams or should you to persuade your spouse to be more supportive? I believe that you should never, ever, ever give up on your dreams. Instead, you should gently persuade your spouse to support you with these proven strategies.

Trust Yourself – It will take some time for you to make money and there is definitely money to be made in internet marketing however it may be hard persuading someone when you don’t have much to show for it. Therefore, you absolutely must trust yourself and believe that you can do it and don’t let anyone (including your spouse) stand in your way of your success.

Make Your Relationship A Priority – Most spouses don’t like internet marketing because it takes a lot of time away from them. So, keep reasonable hours and be respectful of your relationship. Spend time with your spouse and tell them how important they are to you and how you appreciate them supporting your work. By thanking them for even the smallest things, and letting them know how much it means to you, you strengthen the marital bond.

Show Them the Numbers – If your spouse doesn’t know the potential with internet marketing, educate them. Show them statistics or information regarding the amount of money you could be making. If you’ve done research for your own internet marketing business, show him the projected income if you continue on your path. Sometimes, letting them see what you will be making in the future is enough to make them more supportive and tolerant.

Remind Them That You’re Working – I think every person who works on the internet has had someone ask, “What do you do on the computer all day?” To people on the outside, it can look like you’re relaxing or spending your days playing flash games. Show your spouse the kinds of things you’re doing so he or she can see that you really are working. You can even ask them for their help.

Share Your Success with them – And, the most important thing is to share your success with them. Not only will this open up the walls of communication but it will also prove to them that you are indeed making progress toward your dreams – one step at a time.

For the longest time, I have been trying to get all of my niche sites to rank higher in the search engines so that they would make me more advertising money. So, in my effort to rank them higher and increase my advertising revenue, I soon discovered that advertisers are not only concerned with search engine rankings and traffic but many of them are also concerned with ones Alexa and PR rank as well. It took me awhile to figure out which one was better for my needs and I soon discovered that having higher Pageranks were more important than Alexa rankings and here’s why.

Google PageRank is basically a quality rating given by Google as to how authoritative they view your site. That is, if you have a PR of 0, Google views your site as less authoritative as a site that has a PR of 8.  Now, this authoritativeness evaluates the amount of information on your site and the quality and quantity of other sites that are linking to your site as well. In essence a PR is sort of like a report card for your site and Google tends to give higher search engine rankings to those higher graded sites.  In addition, many advertisers also love higher PR sites. Why? Because they want to advertise on those sites that Google regards as authoritative.

In contrast, Alexa is another ranking system that tracks the number of visitors to a website, and only if those visitors have an Alexa toolbar. Using the data gathered about your site, Alexa will give you a rating. Whereas Google PR rates you from 1 to 10, Alexa will literally rate you against the other sites in their databases. So, you may end up in the thousands or even millions. Although some advertisers use Alexa rankings to determine if your site is good for advertising, most advertisers could care less about Alexa’s rating because they are so caught up in PR.

So, which one should you focus on more?

Well, if you are concerned with advertising, you should probably focus on improving your PR as most higher PR sites are often viewed as more authoritative, will typically enjoy higher rankings in the search engines, and most importantly, advertisers are willing to pay more for ads on higher PR sites. On the same token, you shouldn’t totally ignore your Alexa either. After all, some advertisers do use it to evaluate site popularity and ad worth and it can be good tool for determining  traffic.

As for me, I am going to focus on improving my niche sites’ PR. By doing this, I will hopefully see an increase in the SERPs which will lead to an improvement in my overall traffic and more money for me. As an added bonus,  once my traffic improves – my Alexa rankings should naturally improve too.

What do you think?

I’m really beginning to feel as if most of the big gurus – you know the ones who brag about making a six figure income from internet marketing are not really making their money from traditional internet marketing. Instead, they are making their money from selling the hype of “ internet easy riches”. That is, they make their money by selling product after product after product to newbies who really don’t know the difference. Take me for instance, I spent so much over the past few years purchasing materials from self-proclaimed gurus who promised to teach me the next best way to make money online. And, all I had to do was pay a small fee for their precious information. Now, mind you some of the books were good and contained great background but none of them told the full facts about how much work was involved. Instead, these gurus only told me what I wanted to hear and encouraged me to buy more books for more information.

It was like a vicious cycle that I couldn’t get away from and I fear many newbies are experiencing the same thing. Well, now I realize that there is no “magic bullet” and no easy way to master internet marketing. Internet marketing is hard work and takes persistence, patience and a strong desire to succeed. Some days you make money (a lot) and some days you don’t (or very little). This is frustrating but it is the way the IM cookie crumbles.However, to be successful you must remain faithful even when it doesn’t seem like you’re making much or anything.

Now, back to the gurus that make their big incomes is by selling “the promise of easy riches” to unsuspecting individuals who don’t know any better. Just think about it – would someone really divulge all of their secrets for a mere $19 or $29 bucks simply because they want to help? Most marketers would not however, there are a select few that would. Instead, most of these gurus simply give their “desperate readers” a tiny bit of information and then encourage them to buy more.

But, what about those marketers who give out free information, what is their motive? Well, some of them really want to help you succeed however some just do it to build rapport with their readers so that they could hit them up later to buy more stuff – yes, sad but true. In 9 times out of 10 cases, most marketers are out for themselves when it comes to internet marketing and only a select few want you to succeed at the level that they’re at.

So, where does that leave me? I’m one of the good ones of course. My goal isn’t to become a six figure guru that sells the hype of internet marketing. Instead, I want to become a respected internet marketing teacher who makes a six figure salary by teaching others the fundamentals so that they can make a respectable salary for themselves and leave the rat race once and for all. I get no satisfaction of fooling anyone and I absolutely won’t prey on unsuspecting victims. I want you to succeed and I will tell you the truth. Internet marketing is hard but you can succeed at it!

I just spent an hour analyzing my initial niche sites that were created over 3 years ago using an experienced web designer/SEO team and then compared those stats with my blogger blogs created this past year (by yours truly only) and I noticed a HUGE discrepancy in earnings and I mean huge. Out of 28 designer created sites all of them made some money. On the other hand, I have a LOT more duds with my 31 blogger blogs. Out of 31 blogger blogs only 11 have made money and the rest nothing. However, I have to clarify that I have alot more of my earners earning mere cents than dollars and that is nothing to brag about.

Now, before we assume that Google just doesn’t like me anymore or my blogger blogs – I think we’re missing the point. My designer/SEO team knew how to get those earlier sites indexed and placed in the top pages of Google and to this day, they still receive some traffic (not as much as before Google caffeine) but some. In contrast, my blogger blogs are struggling because no one can find them. Arrghhh.

Without my SEO team, I’ve got to take the initiative to get my blogs listed and found. I can’t just throw up a few blogs, place a few articles on Ezines and other directories and simply hope for the best. Nope the competition is much fiercer now and what worked before isn’t what is going to work now. So, I’ve decided that now I have to backlink like a lunatic and really see if I can get my blogs indexed and placed higher in the SERPs. By doing this, I should be able to increase my traffic and my revenues. Hopefully this will work – I’ll definitely keep you posted. Got some link building to do!

I’m going to be completely and totally honest with you – I am not a technical person but I am a successful marketer and I know that if you seriously want to make money online that you must take advantage of technological advances, like computers and computer software if you want to leave the broke struggling phase and hit the money making phase. That’s right, if you want to compete with the big marketing gurus or simply want to make more money then you need working hardware with properly optimized computer components, up-to-date software and you must be willing to take action by using them on a daily basis. You’d be amazed but many broke marketers use slow running PCs that are virus infected and this causes them to not make money and doesn’t motivate them to work hard. Duh! Without, a working and up-to-date computer, you are putting yourself at a huge disadvantage.

Now, this doesn’t mean that you have to break your marketing budget. In fact, if you shop around, you can find really good computer deals and obtain a multipurpose computer that propels you to take action. Take me for example, when I tried working on a broken down, old, super slow and virus-infected laptop, I wasn’t motivated to work at all. I would simply stare at the screen and do nothing and I made nothing. Then, I upgraded my laptop, and that action alone changed my outlook and propelled me to work harder. After all, there is nothing like a brand spanking new laptop (or a looming credit card bill to pay for the spanking new laptop) to motivate you and make you want to work. With my new laptop, I was able to complete my internet marketing tasks and felt good doing this. I was able to take action and make money. What will you do?

Photo: Francesco Marino