Yesterday as a very nice surprise I got paid by Scratchback. I was really happy - because, well I’m broke and the money I was sent can now buy me a week’s worth of Tim Horton’s coffee and that makes me REALLY FREAKIN’ HAPPY! Seriously!

I had honestly forgot about it… not the widget itself but the payout schedule for it. I had no idea I’d reached the payout threshold, so maybe I’ll have to step it up and be more diligent with tracking this sort of thing I’ve actually got to do that this year for all the sites I’ve got running (in one way shape or form) and be more on top of those domains that seem to lapse and I forget to renew.

I have one site that I didn’t renew and someone is now trying to sell it for $500. Yes, this makes me mad. Will they make money with that name. Very, unlikely… but who am I to say. I’m not a master domaineer. So, I’m going to keep track of it and see if it sells. I’m just morbidly curious about it. LOL.

Anyhoo - over at nichetoriches - the fun and games have started. And to those of you haven’t been by to see it and join in the fun - there is still time to do it. It’s free to sign up and all that jazz. It’s been created so we can get together and get some sites up and running making us money. So stop by and say hi!

Popularity: 11% [?]

For the past week I’ve been debating with myself (and it was a lively debate!) about dropping EntreCard from my sidebar.  At the beginning it was a great way for me to find other sites that were similar to mine, and get to see sites that I normally wouldn’t ever have stumbled upon.

But checking my stats, I’m wondering how many people are like me - you know drop a card, click that link, drop a card, click the link, etc - and don’t really hang around to take in the sites, but just bounce from one site to another.  I have to say that there are A LOT like me who do that - judging from the bounce rates I see in my stats.  That’s nice and everything - thanks for stopping by for 2 seconds - love ya… kiss.kiss.

I’m now thinking that EntreCard has run it’s course here and I won’t be accepting new cards.  I’m not saying never again - but it was a fun experiment and I’m looking to try new things.

I was never quite sure what the rage was to get/earn entrecard credits - I mean apart from trying to advertise on the “big name” sites - but whenever I tried, they were always booked.  So my entrecard credits just sit there.   I would spend them on the lower credit sites, and then they’d build back up and try, try again I never had any luck advertising on the big names.

John Cow has also given up EntreCard - you can read what he has to say about that over here.

So the one side of my brain that said “drop Entrecard” won.  No more requests will be taken.  Once everyone has advertised that is still in the queue I’m taking it down.

C’est la vie!

Popularity: 9% [?]

As you know I just set up nichetoriches.com to promote a more community feel and to share ideas with like-minded folks like yourselves and have a monthly friendly competition to get a site up and running and see how we do.

If you’re interested please stop by and register.  I’m hoping to get things rolling with our first niche on the 15th of this month.  So you’ve got a couple of days before we start with our first niche.

If you don’t want to register - still stop by and vote on what we should try out for our first niche.  Looking forward to hearing from you!

Apart from that I’ve been working on a couple of other sites, mostly trying to fill them with a bit of content to see if I can get the search engines to give them a bit more love.  I’ve been neglecting one site, which still pulls in the visitors - but it doesn’t really have much content as of late.  So I’ve added a few days worth to it and we’ll see if the traffic stats pick up and the clicks along with it

Other than that I’ve been laying low and just waiting till the 15th to get the ball rolling on a website to see if in 30 days I’ll be able to profit from it.

Popularity: 6% [?]

As you might have been reading on the site, at one point I was going to do a 30 day challenge to get the ball rolling on an affiliate campaign/site building/craziness that goes along with one of those things.

Then I got thinking that I’m really freakin’ busy and didn’t have the time to set it all up with shiny prizes and thing-a-mah-bobs. So that whole January 1st thing bit the dust.

But I’m still interested in keeping myself challenged.

I read your blogs and I see that we’re all busy. I also have been reading that it’s hard sometimes to find a group of like-minded people who actually want to do something fun - have a bit of a challenge - and network - share ideas. Reading blogs works, networking that way works. I totally get it. But I have found myself lately, wishing I could talk to people who might now of the affiliate marketing thing a little bit more intimately. I get that lovely glossy-looked stare when I start babbling about my online projects to the family and I guess I’m looking for those of us out there in the same boat and want an opportunity to share ideas/network/have a friendly challenge.

If you’re interested in joining in stop by www.nichetoriches.com and register.  Vote in the poll, this should be fun!

Popularity: 5% [?]

For the past couple of months I’ve been concentrating on working on products I can sell.  I guess you could say I’ve been trying my hand at marketing myself.  The marketing part is all rather new to me - in the sense that I’m marketing “ME” and not some product.  So I suppose I’m a bit more cautious when it comes to how I do it.  Sometimes I’m sitting here wondering if I’m doing it right at all.

I guess we all have those moments.  Moments where we’re on the top of the world because we’ve sold a few items, beat a goal, sold more than expected, been to the moon and back sort of thing.  Then there are those other moments - moments that I seem to have a lot of and I’m trying my best to shove into a closet somewhere and get them away from me.  It’s those moments of self-doubt.  I know, I know.  I should be positive.  I think the products I’m working on are worthwhile and people will like them.  But that creepy self-doubt makes an appearance and it takes  a few days… weeks to get over and me to get back into the swing of things.

I HATE that when that happens.

I’m not sure what you do when you have those moments - or even if you have them?

I guess I’m having one of those moments… again.  It’s not even that it’s all that big a deal, but I wish I had the answers to get the results I want.  The other day I was to renew some advertising I had up.  The site where I had the advertising had bumped it’s pricing due to demand.  I don’t doubt for a second that was the case.  But the pricing had gone up  $25 dollars a month - and well, I am not making enough to cover it.  It doesn’t seem like a lot but I’m trying to advertise on a few sites and I have a budget for how much I’m going to spend each month so I don’t slide into the red.

This bummed me out because I was getting good traffic and leads from it.  So my ad went the way of the dodo on that site BUT there is a silver lining to my cloud of advertising doom - I now have $$ to spend on someone else’s site - or even get a couple sites in there for the price I was paying.  Maybe it’s a good thing, but I was a bit bummed.

Then last night I applied for some work - but was turned down because I was “competition”… and this might lead to mis-givings, etc, etc.  I guess that was a “my bad” moment - but it bummed me out because that was an awesome opportunity to start working with people who shared my passion.  Strangely enough, the turn down turned out to be a bit of a downer for about half an hour.

Yes, I turned that frown upside down I guess.  I think of it like this:

• This person took a look at what I was doing and saw me as competition.  That means I must be doing something right.
• I am getting enough interest on my own for the moment to go “meh” to the whole process of the job.
• I am now more determined than ever to keep doing what I’m doing and prove to myself that I can do this.

It was just the opportunity to work with people that shared my interest, where I could learn new tricks to the trade, and just enjoy what I am doing with out the frustration of trying to find the people to buy on my own.  That would have been someone else’s deal.   But alas, I got the “thanks anyway” spiel and now I’m not back at square one - but I’m now trying to be “more resilient” and do this myself.

Popularity: 6% [?]