The Joy of Working Online at Home & Surving the Penguin Update

I just love working at home online, I have no boss, no-one to answer to and no-one to check up on me, or ask me, what are you doing? why is this not done, why haven't you showed up for the last few days?

I show up when I want I write when I want, and I do exactly what I want when I want.

A bit like Google, they seem to go along for so long, not doing much, everybody settles down then Bang! Big G shows up every once and a while and say hey look at what we have been doing, and we all try to work out what they have been doing.And I do think this is a frustrating part to most, just when we are sailing along thinking we have "made" it or "worked" it out, it all changes, some take those changes and just charge on, others moan, and some just give up.

But change is good, it keeps us all fresh.

This is why working online at home is not for everyone?

Some people need someone to hold their hands, to tell them that what they are doing is great, and the working at home online is not suited for those types of people, I love being answerable to no-one. But google......yes you heard me google, as they are the people who decide whether you have a page worthy of visits for them to send you traffic, they are the only ones I answer to.

I have helped many people online, and some have indeed went onto have good success, and others have not, or not what they had expected. Working online is a roller coaster, there is nothing certain in Internet marketing.

Take the latest Penguin Update from Google, This to me has been the most significant roll out by Google yet, and to be honest its not the last.

BUT nothing has changed, with this roll out, all Google is doing is making sure everyone plays by the rules. You duplicate content - you lose
you try to build 100s of crappy backlinks you lose, you abuse the alt tags you lose, you keyword stuff you lose
you just think you can write a page and it will rank high, without updating and making relevant all the time - You lose.

You have too many adverts above the fold  you lose (Squidoo anyone?....hmmm theres room for thought there, just look at the above fold of the pages, of a Squidoo Page one of mine here, my content is pushed down by the advertising.

where is the fold on the page
 

 (The fold (red arrow region) of the page is where you can only see to that point without scrolling down further. Squidoo maximise their AdSense advertising on the prime locations of a page. )

Call me cynical but, I have noticed huge traffic drops recently, is this why? ( huge traffic drops to myself is not a worrying factor, I could lose 5,000 visitors  a week and not feel it, as they have reached their ceiling payouts for tiers, even with that dramatic loss, and I know my pages are still maintaining sales etc)  But to newbies I would be worried at this.

When I started working online 4 years ago these were all big no-nos anyway? So people who are shouting about being affected have only tried to win by manipulating the system! Although they will shout and scream it is everyone else fault and how dare Google do this, but I see nothing different?

So how to survive Googles Updates.....
If you are building quality pages, using a basic knowledge of SEO, and work that page, and I mean work it, I want to see sweat being poured into these pages, some just want to put a page together and leave.....I personally have had no success at this, my pages that do well are updated constantly, tweaked, evaluated, I keep good record of traffic being brought in and where traffic is leaving my pages too.

This lets me build even more content, content that Google loves and people are looking for....
So how to survive this latest update.....
Spread you work around find good publishing platforms or start your own websites. That way you are not tied and reliant on 1 specific online publisher. (Yes this is hard, I recently have spread my wings, But the effort I am putting in on my other ventures is adding and complimenting to my Squidoo earnings = Still earning more money every month)

Do not rely on anyone, if you hear information, go and study it yourself, there is a lot of misinformation out there.
Be sure that you are the one accountable for your online progress.

People are saying backlinks are worthless now, rubbish, the whole point of the Internet is linking, Good links, good quality articles linking back to your pages, nofollow, do follow, social bookmarking, people talking about your page is a good thing!...

and just keep producing high quality content, whether its your pages, or your linking articles, make sure you never scrape on your content.....hey who said it was easy!

NEW PAGE as Penguin 2.0 is released - The Way forward for Affiliate Marketers like you and Me

Who is really in charge of Your online business

Not often I go against the grain, however I am this time....

It seems we live in a world where, we (the majority) are sheep, yes you heard me, sheep.
Flocks and flocks of sheep. Darting about looking for who or what to follow next.....
We follow, we are happy to follow in fact it is easier to follow, who we think we should follow, and who others also follow.
We see their success and we want it too, so....we follow them.

Then someone else comes along and oh-oh,no you cant do that and this is why, and their case presented is very convincing.
We all run around in a bit of a state, and then someone else who has that emulated position within the group of sheep, steps out with their voice of reason within the madness and confusion, and proceeds to tell us what we have been doing is wrong! Then proceeds to tell us what to do now.  Which we find out later down the line was a load of rubbish too. 
(top Tip about working online - learn now that a shortcut now is a LOT of work later on!)

anyway they state their  point plain and clear and yes we all start following them, until ....
all  change...and it happens all over again....?

I write this recently as I have ran around like a headless chicken recently, changing things that HQ had changed so I had to combat those changes with my changes, with what the people I followed told me I had to change to help my business

Are you confused yet? my head is hurting too....

2 things happened recently for me to realise and ask myself who is really in charge?

I was devastated recently to find out some of the people I look up to follow, listen to what they have to say shared they could not break earning the $500/$600 dollars a month mark.....What? I thought they were earning $1,000's.

I re-read this statement, and thought ? I am listening to you, I had by-passed that milestone long ago.

I have worshipped you and listened to what you had to say, you have written explicitly on how to make money online? you share tutorials with others,  and if you said it It must be good or in recent cases certain things were bad for my business then I would move mountains to get it implemented....
I removed myself from them, stopped following their email alerts, and I have just went on my merry way.
guess what earnings are up.  my niche websites are coming into their own, Google loves them, I have spread my little wings, and
guess what, I still see the same posts, the same bickering....anyway you get what I mean.

My Sales are fantastic and projects out with my normal are on the move. In fact the only person I have been reading is actually not a sole person but google webmaster tools, they keep me updated and let me know of any changes, I should be considering google is my friend and sends me lovely organic traffic, I am going to listen to him/her.

2. without going too into detail, an announcement that this is disastrous for us and we should do this now to help us and now all the ones who did do it are/could/will most likely need to un do the work.

these people seem to thrive on controversy, people see then as authoritative figures? sorry I don't, I see them as a pain in my growing business ass.

so

No more listening or taking advice from others, as actually you should be following your own dreams, not someone elses.

How do I know who really is earning money online? How do I know that those people who claim they are making money really are? And then how do I know I should be listening to them?
I say don't, be your own person, be creative, don't copy (for goodness sake do not copy, you will be found out)
one of the places I write at online is Squidoo, and they drummed it into me, Unique Useful, updated content, It is what will always win and get you to the top.

And if you work in partnership with any online writing platform, for goodness sake accept what they say is it.... they own it, they are in charge and if you do not like it. tough, their rules. You signed up to them.

 If you do not like it any more leave, no ones asking you to stay.

And in the mean time keep your thoughts and negativity to yourself as it is getting annoying.

Go and whine somewhere else, as actually you are stopping me and others from achieving my success
I like it, I like the changes that make it fresh.
I continue to earn and keep earning good money with the changes, and it gets more every month, why should I be complaining?
And if working in partnership with them is making me money then I should be listening to them, and only them!

I have decided from this experience I will become a stand alone, thinker, not a sheep and a follower.

Serenity Prayer: available to Buy

I think the Serenity Prayer Wall Quote sums it up!and I shall purchase for my office wall. God grant me the serenity to accept things I can not change, the courage to change things i can, and the wisdom to know the difference wall art wall sayings

I feel I need a little Disclaimer : everyone is allowed their own views and opinions, I am all for freedom of speech. however what I am saying is, I will listen to those opinions I may even act on these opinions, BUT before I do anything I shall carry out my own research and make my own decision, not just follow the pack.
I want to be the car steaming ahead whilst the sheep run in circles

NOTE: Google Penguin 2.0 What does this mean for Affiliate Marketers now

Lisa

Passive Income? Is it possible to earn a passive income online

Yes you Can Earn a Passive Income Working Online - and I will prove it.
What is passive income and why do we strive to achieve it?

Passive income is an income received on a regular basis, with little effort required to maintain it.

I wanted to write something about a recent event in my life that made me realise, all the work I have been doing online has indeed lead to me earning a passive income online.
Meaning I could actually take some time off and still earn online without worrying.

When I first started out working online it seemed the amount of effort I was having to put in > to how much I was earning was way below national minimum wage? You know what I mean, that first payday, when you eventually reach the payout threshold, and see not even dollars but....cents.... and you are just about ready to give up working online and go back to the regular job of 70 hours weeks.

 Looking at this graph of my earnings I could have easily given up in March, but I did not I just kept going, I knew it would work, I believed in myself. Can you see the graph just keeps rising? (date shows Oct11, but actually it is until January payout.)

This Christmas I had a great Christmas I had worked hard to make sure all my web pages were updated, good products, great content, I had also at this point started to replace affiliate links with my own affiliate links (this is a huge job, but worth it ...as you will find out) then a disaster happened in my family.

I basically spent nearly 3 months in an intensive Care unit, willing my big brother on. Nothing was further from my mind than my online work. Sadly my brother passed away, and I was left devastated. I took a lot of time off.
now before this happened I would spend nearly every waking moment checking, updating, republishing, checking again and again..... I thought that was what was making me money, during this off period of time, I did not update, I did not check nothing, my little account just ticked over itself.

But one day an envelope arrived in the post, it was from Amazon.com it included a cheque.....holy moley Christmas had been great! I rushed online to check the stats and could not believe my eyes, earnings from Squidoo had basically still risen! Even although I had changed 50 % of links on page to my own affiliate account to amazon,
**Someone just emailed me to ask a Question: I'm just starting on Squidoo should I just use my own affiliate links
In all honesty NO,  to start with I would not recommend you use ALL your own affiliate links? why not?
 Squidoo rewards you on lensrank and within their system there is an extra boost for sales via them, yes you share the revenue with Squidoo however whilst you are building your online profile, your knowledge about working online,
Amazon has different % to reach and it is difficult to maximise that % unless you have built good traffic to your pages.
The law of averages kicks in the more traffic clicks through to amazon the higher your sales....
So in the beginning use the modules like Amazon Spotlight,(my favourite and googles too!)  working with Squidoo, when you are able to see what is selling, and you have a solid lens with good organic "google" traffic, what links are being clicked on then start to replace these with your own affiliate links.

This will mean you will probably find your lens will drop in lensrank BUT your earnings will RISE in Amazon commissions. 
This is where you are heading, where you are not dependant on lensrank or any sites internal payment structure, will these sites be around forever?  If they disappeared tomorrow how would you still earn money? have you created blog posts or websites to compliment your pages

By the way, I am no good with maths, I just seem to work get paid and don't work things out, My outrageous habit of saying ooohhh....look at my earnings on paypal, and not really looking at to where it has come from!

But my husband loves figures, and he worked out that even in the 3 month period of doing very little I still had an average increase of 20% a month  (and this is the man who used to question what I was doing? wasting my time online.... who has now given up his full time job to allow me to work online full time and more! He is now a proud house husband, and does the Maths part for me...lol...) 


Wait - I did not nothing for 3 months yet still had increase, yes it was Christmas time, which he tried to include for and put into context. (By giving the average increase. )

So yes you can earn a residual/passive income from working online. But I do indeed work hard but it did indeed pay off when I most needed it.


I do not know anyone who has gotten to the top without hard work. That is the recipe. It will not always get you to the top, but it will get you pretty near.....Margaret Thatcher (Britain's first Woman Prime Minister)

I lost not only my brother, but indeed my biggest supporter of my dreams, no matter how crazy my little ideas for webpages, he was there telling me how fantastic they were, thanks Gav x

Page of NOTE: update for Penguin 2.0 is this the end for Affiliate Marketing