Well, it’s been awhile since I’ve given my blog some love and attention. I’m so very sorry about that.

Over the past month, my beloved environmental project has blossomed. Treehugger and ReadWriteWeb have mentioned the site, in which ReadWriteWeb included Got2BeGreen as one of Top 35 Environmental Blogs. I’ve been working with a professional designer (the author of WordPress from Dummies) to redesign Got2BeGreen…which hopefully will be ready for launch in about a month. I’ve also been busy conversing with other members of environmental sites in efforts to spread the word. I’m so very fortunate and thankful to be able to make a good impact on the world, through online means.

So while I’ve been quite busy with Got2BeGreen, I did manage to redesign my personal site to give a more ‘earthy’ and personal feel, somewhat in ties with the modified theme of the site. Online Marketing is something that I plan to continue speaking about, but I also want to promote topics applicable to my day-to-day life, including my environmental projects plus a few other interests. While I might not be able to post everyday as my past history has shown, I plan to keep this site active to a few postings a week. My time is spreading thin, even though I’ve recruited 2 additional people to help with Got2BeGreen.

AdsenseTrack reported tracking my site as being in ‘Critical Condition’ with a list of other blog sites….I glad to report that, I Have Returned! Spread the word if you hear otherwise.

Thank you for everyone that has stayed on board during this time. I’ve received so many emails from my fellow bloggers regarding my return date which has made me feel warm and fuzzy inside. :) During this time….my traffic has slowed a bit but not as much as I would have guessed and to my surprise, my feeds are about the same….thank you for the loyalty!

So, as I get myself warmed up and cozy in my chair, writing for SusanSuarez.com….check back Monday, December 10th for a series of interesting posts!

Best Regards,

Susan Suarez

I promise to get things back up and running this week.

Thanks to all of you for hanging in there.

-Susan

I have to set some rules (bleh) to make sure I can accomplish getting anything done but at the same time not drive myself crazy while my time is being sucked up into the writing, researching, and never-ending task of duties and things I need….ok ok…(Susan take a breath)

So now my rituals come into play, otherwise I would be sitting up later at night than I already do….

1. Close MyBlogLog, Affiliate Performance Reporting, Stats and Feeds – when any of these are up, I end up being distracted by checking for things like a new contact request, refreshing stats or feeds.
2. Close AIM – Having my instant messenger up is like me screaming to be interrupted. I’ll get a friend or my husband wanting to share a new funny cat video. It’s hard to ignore the window when it’s blinking with a new message, read me read me!
3. Turn off the TV – I TIVO everything…and I like to multi-task. It’s a bad habit, but I like to multi-task by watching my recorded program while working, which can end up hurting my work progress….
4. Turn off the Music – If I’m trying to concentrate hard enough, usually I start writing the lyrics..and that isn’t productive!
5. Sign out of Gmail – This one is hard one to do, I check my main email account constantly and if anything new comes in, I clear it out. If I can, I try to close it to avoid checking in.
6. Turning off cell or placing it on silent – This one I’m good at. I hate the sound of the phone…sometimes I want to chuck my cell phone across the room.
7. Take a break and play games – A lot of times I find it re-energizing to sign on to my City Of Heroes account to play with other gamers. It’s a nice break from “real life”.
8. Take a break to Exercise – It’s amazing how lifting some weights, doing situps or going for a walk can do for the body and mind
9. Take a break to take a drive – I love to get into my car and zone out for awhile. Some great ideas come out this way!

Many bloggers have a routine in place to finish posts – it’s a demanding job…good thing it can be rewarding.

1. 5 Star Affiliate Programs
2. A Best Web
3. Associate Programs
4. Blog Crowds
5. Blogger Forum
6. Bloggeries
7. Blog meetup
8. Blog Mastermind
   
9. Digital Point
10. DN Forum
11. Earners Forum
12. eWealth
13. Get Paid Forum
14. High Rankings
15. Performancing
16. Search Engine Forums
17. Self Starters Weekly Tips
18. SEO chat
19. Siteowners Forum
20. Blog Experiment
21. Webmaster Forums
22. Warrior Forum
23. v7 Network Web Development Community
24. Why Do Work

1. Didn’t have enough time
2. Discouraged with results
3. Pursuing other ventures
4. Lost the spirit

I won’t deny it, I’ve personally experienced each of these at one time. It usually takes a quick kick in the butt or an awesome day to inspire my spirit to keep at it.

Most bloggers are not like me. I’m extremely fortunate to be doing this full time – it’s my job and what I’m trying to grow into a living. Last year when I had my daughter Avery, I was planning to go back to work after my maternity leave. I did…but when I returned, I found that my priorities had changed. I had a hard time coping with the idea of not being there for my daughter for her first steps and first words… My job would require me to get home around 7pm and I would have to put her into bed without any quality mommy-daughter time. That wasn’t the relationship I wanted and I didn’t realize that till I had her.

I returned to work for 2 months and then decided to explore other opportunities of generating income from home around late May. Luckily, I could choose to leave my in-office career because of my husband’s income but it helps greatly that he is a very supportive husband.

Currently I run 5 blogs and I’m working on #6, #7 and #8. Understanding that most bloggers don’t have the same amount of time to run multiple blogs, I’ve listed some pointers to assist any busy blogger.

• Find Your Niche – Jot down industries or topics that interest you and will help you achieve your specific goals. Is your goal to make money, to share a laugh, to freelance, get your voice heard, meet friends, blow off steam, write an online journal, or network? Certain markets pay more per keyword on average, so if you are looking to make money within a niche choosing the write market is important.
• Research Keywords – The last 5 years would have been a great time to focus on the mortgage industry and ways to refinance or upgrade your home. Mortgage companies were throwing out cash to get those leads. How do I know? I personally bought and managed lead flow/budgeting for top companies. Typically I paid on average $37-60 per lead from affiliate companies…per click, it’s really competitive…and can be about $15 per click with Adsense depending on keyword of course. Although this market isn’t as strong anymore. Due to the housing market, foreclosures are becoming hot and I would expect demand for this keyword to grow if the bad news keeps coming in. Phoenix, AZ just experienced a 50% drop in housing prices…if this trend hits other regions it’s gonna get nasty. Check out of a list of easy to use keyword tools here.
• Choosing a Domain Name – Choosing the right domain name is important because it’ll represent the focus of your blog and help pull your listing in search results for the appropriate keywords. Even though .com extensions rule the internet, don’t lose the perfect domain name because the .com extension is taken. Also, hypens are actually okay to use! Search engines love them. When and if you choose what you feel to be the right keyword fit for you, always sleep on it! I can’t tell you the number of times where I felt that I had a great idea, rushed to buy the domain and woke up the next morning not too thrilled with the choice.

You can make money online. Anyone one can…it’s a matter of how much. I’m not a dot mogul, not near it. I wouldn’t use this site as a particularly high money maker. In truth, one of my other sites makes more than this one and I’m looking to branch out my ideas into more websites to further cover my interests. Why? Well, I personally don’t like to put all my eggs into one basket and writing on a blog topic like “make money online” already has enough aggressive competition, like the heavy hitters ShoeMoney, Problogger or John Chow. I’m not trying to compete with them. How can I? Or why should I? Thousands of fellow bloggers are reading the same content and many of them are jumping on the bandwagon by duplicating their path.

More importantly then ever, it’s great to read multiple blogs with many points of view without forgetting about your personal interests and things you love to do. Many people who find success do it because they followed something they loved.

Personally, blogging is fun to me. I get to read, research, write, read comments, surf the internet and network with great people.

As I enter my 5th month blogging, I’m making close to $10 a day and I’m hoping to grow that with more blogs and traffic. How can I run more blogs? Well, not all blogs need to be updated daily. There are only 2 blogs that I update quite frequently. As I go through this process of growing my network of websites, I hope to continually update on their progress. I’m not hoping to launch Susan Suarez dot come to high levels of John Chow popularity but instead retain this as a personal online journal to document my sites progress and share affiliate programs, traffic, ideas and anything else I come across with all of you.

I’m doing this full-time, so if you have any questions – feel free to contact me. Thanks again for reading, as always… :)

But probably one of the most detrimental to a bloggers spirit are negative comments because even in the blogosphere, negative comments can still be hurtful enough to break a writers spirit.  Comments could potentially stay around forever for others to read…only worsening the the pit in a bloggers stomach. Of course, those comments could be deleted, but many feel confused as the correct course of action.

Dealing With Negative Comments

As the administrator of your site, you have the authority to edit or delete hurtful or negative comments if you wish. If the comment brings your spirit down, it probably doesn’t belong on your blog.

But as a protective measure, it’s good to think about having a Comment Policy to guide both you and your readers on what is or isn’t permissible on your blog.

From what I’ve read from Lorelle VanFossen, John Pozadzides of One Man’s Blog has been pushing bloggers to consider enforcing rules on their blog, through a “Terms Of Use” or “Comments Policy” so that everyone is on the same “page” and understands commenting rules, if any are in place. If you are having problems with comments, this might be the route to go…

Discouragements?

Some weeks are better than others. It’s the not-so-great-days that can lead to despair, which are usually because of the following:

1. Unhappy with Blog Stats
2. Negative Comments
3. Low Comments
4. Low Subscribers
5. Not Enough Time To Blog

Many bloggers are addicted to checking stats.  They’ll check Google Analytics, MyBlogLog, Google Adsense Report, Stat Counter, Comments Section and RSS Subscribers Counts continuously over the course of a day. The funny thing is that time spent checking these sources is time away from working and if you find low numbers they probably won’t inspire you to work harder. Blog stats are important but you can’t control the real-time reports. The more time spent towards writing content, the more your stats may improve. Funny how that works out.

As far as low comments, I’ve seen many big sites that have a PR of 7 or 8 with little or no comments at times. It all depends on the topic and if it warrants a response. If you want more comments, maybe re-wording your posts could generate comments. Leave some room for conversation if that is your goal.

Negative posts can bring negative energy to your blog. I’m not kidding. The negative comment that coldly welcomes you each morning will be to blame for your lack of enthusiasm for future posts and most likely, spread to other potential readers/commenter’s unconsciously.

Be kind to others as you would like to be treated – this applies to the real world and to blogging. Keep things nice or at the very least, borderline neutral.  Make the comment constructive instead of hurtful.

If time limitations are holding you back, it is with good reason. To many newbies, find blogging surprisingly to take a lot of time, as it requires: research, time to write post, proofread, the ok to publish and time to monitor comments. If you haven’t prepared backup content, being sick or having unexpected surprise pop up can leave you in a scrabble to finish an article. The blog is then written with less enthusiasm and unfortunately can and will be seen by readers and may scare you about your stats. You end up feeling drained… Either find reasons why you can’t blog and fix them or decide to stop blogging.

So…How Do I Keep Energized About Blogging?

Sometimes it’s nice to take a step away from your blog and rethink your initial purpose for creating it. Sure, you may have known it a few months back but now in the thick of keeping up with the daily posts, stats and marketing you can easily get lost.

1. Remember Your Blogs Purpose

It’s very easy to get lost and forget your goals or purpose for creating a blog. Or maybe you don’t have one? Every team or company needs a focus on short term goals to attain bigger goals. That type of thinking should be applied to your personal work ethic.

Sit down and write down your blog’s purpose. Writing it on a post-it note is even better for you to stick onto a wall or your computer monitor to remind you daily. Stick to that focused purpose as it will help you determine the best topics to place on your site. If you find that a topic is off-subject, don’t include it on your site. The daily reminder will help you stay on course and help you get back if you stray.

2. Network

There are numerous ways to connect with bloggers like yourself within your niche. Interact and learn about what they are doing. Ask questions, comment frequently and get to know each other better to generate energy on the blog.

3. Take A Break!

Step away from the computer to either do some exercise, spend time with the family, take a walk or even better take a vacation. A breath of fresh air can be injected into a blog if you stop obsessing over the computer. It’s amazing how a few stretches can do the body good AND the mind.

Quite frequently, I take breaks to either do a few situps or take a walk, to help me feel re-inspired. Try listening to some music, go shopping or learn how to cook a new recipe.

If you decide to take a vacation, why not take a week vacation once and awhile? With future blog posting, you have the option to walk away for a little while.

4. Do Something Different

It can be exciting but also scary to have a guest blogger, if that means less control over your blog. Although, it can be a good risk to take as it may be fun for your readers and create more energy on the site. You’ll always have the final say and control over the blog.

There are many blog contests or challenges to participate in, including carnivals or writing assignments. Why not try a few? They can get your creative juices flowing, by trying something different and bringing even more readers to your site.  Which, could just kick up your spirit to keep on tapping away at the keyboard!

An example, is all those messages you get from communities ranging from Twitter, PayPerPost, Stumble and Web 2.0 services sending a notice of an update, friend request or message waiting for you. It’s not exactly spam or bogus but is otherwise littering your inbox at ever increasingly speed, especially if you are subscribed to many services.

To address this rising issue, an Official Bacn website has been created to spread the awareness. Not too long ago, iJustine attended a PotCamp discussing its definition.

How to manage Bacn? I’ve signed up to many services on the internet that send email messages constantly throughout the week. Some days are worse than others. Do I enjoy getting them? Not really. But at the same time I like to have the emails to get an quick update on what’s going on ‘out there’.

A few ways to manage it?

• Opt Out of Receiving Update Emails (usually in account settings)
• Setup a Filter to catch those emails in a separate folder, therefore keeping your inbox clean
• If the service/community isn’t valuable anymore, delete your account

Bacn usually keeps me up-to-date in numerous areas and also reminds me to not forget about them. Which for my forgetful nature, can be beneficial at times…although that’s what I have spreadsheets for…..

To manage your time more wisely and stay focus on your websites, eliminating these types of distractions can increase production. I have a few email accounts and the Bacn received can make my inbox a bit overwhelming, even if it’s only a notification email (they add up!). I highly recommend setting up a filter for these emails, they prove to be highly efficient in having a productive week. Which for a handful of you, can be great if you manage multiple sites.

I thought it would be great to quickly list some of the ones I’ve come across recently.

1) Jet Train – Blogging The Movie by Cash For Comments: Win a Free 4-Hour Work Week Book and Appearance in Blogging The Movie.

2) Guess The Next Page Rank by Ryan Shamus: Win Google Stuff by guessig the date of the next Page Rank. It hasn’t happened yet surprisingly, but should happen fairly soon…

3) Win $500 and More by Steve from 1 Cool File: Win $500 or link packages. Check out this site for more details.

4) “How To” Group Writing Project by Blue Jar: Write an “How To” post about any topic. Winners get a cash prize and a bonus prize of a free banner placement.

5) Car Giveway by Blogging The Movie: A free car and unique advertising. A one of a kind contest.

6) $4000 Blog Anniversary Draw by David Airey: Fantastic prizes for blogging about the giveaway and subscribing to the site.

I’m sure there are many more contests being held. If you find any other contests that I’ve missed, feel welcome to leave a couple and I will make sure to add them.

An update:

For those looking for up-to-date contests, check out: Contest Blogger or MyBlogContest

As I have done on this site, many other sites link to domain/name-of-product/ and redirect either using a PHP jump script (as do I) or manipulate the htaccess file.

What are the advantage of redirecting an Outbound Affiliate Link?

• Keeping others from stealing affiliate sales and making it harder for “newbies” to see how to access the affiliate program or view it is an affiliate link.
• Easily change the merchant offer by changing only one affiliate link within your php redirect file or .htaccess. It’s especially helpful when you’ve sent out an email, newsletter or posted a link on a forum and a merchant has changed the link. You can easily change the redirect on your end and keep the affiliate sale alive.
• Increase confidence of clicking on an affiliate link as many people are hesitant to click on links that look like: http://www.tkyrse.com/affiliateid?12345
• Protect your affiliate links as many will hover over an external link and manually type in the top level domain in the address bar of browser instead of clicking on the link. It seems pretty silly as the site’s owner has gone through the trouble of finding valuable information for free, as the actual click doesn’t cost the reader anything.

There are some instructions on the web to set up a redirect by using .htaccess/301 redirects or php scripts that may appear confusing or overwhelming to a handful of site owners. There are also many software products on the market that charge $20-$60 to assist in protecting your affiliate commissions. But…actually, hiding your affiliate links can be so easy.

Using PHP

Create a file in notepad and call it moneynow.php and enter this:

<?
header(“Location: http://www.susansuarez.com/ref=2424538″);
?>

Of course, change the URL to be your affiliate link and upload the file to your server and use moneynow.php as the new link. So in this case it would be: http://www.susansuarez.com/moneynow.php. Now anytime anyone clicks on this link they will be redirected to the actual affiliate. Very simple, huh?

You could even create a directory called “information” or “recommended” that may add more trust to the link and will appear like this: http://www.susansuarez.com/recommended/moneynow.php

But before hiding an affiliate link, review your affiliate’s TOS and make sure it doesn’t forbid cloaking.

Using .htaccess

.htaccess is located in the same folder as your index.html or .php files. Open it up and at the bottom of that file, type this (Example):

RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule ^moneynow.php$ http://susansuarez.com?ref=2424538 [R]

“RewriteEngine on” turns on the rewrite program and the affiliate link will be redirected.

Additional Cloaking

There is a free tool and easy way to further cloak your links from those who hold a mouse over a link to view the destination. Check out ClickFire to automatically add the coding needed to hide the destination, even a .php link, if you want that hidden from experienced marketers aware of php cloaking techniques. Just make sure your links are a different color than your other text so people know that it’s a link to click. Blue is a good standard color to use.

Robots.txt

To keep search engines issues at bay with creating a cloaking page, it’s highly recommended to keep Google from indexing pages that have nothing on it and are used only as a redirect. Google doesn’t like these pages and you wouldn’t want Google to index the page anyways, since it won’t have any content.

Save all of your redirects within one directory and exclude that directory in your robots.txt. If you don’t have a robots.txt file, you can create one in notepad and upload it to the root directory of your web page. The robots.txt file gives spiders a direction as to which directories or files they can examine and retrieve information. To prevent them from accessing any part of the site (including redirects with no content), enter the following within the robots.txt file:

User-agent: *
Disallow: /folder-to-be-excluded/

The asterisk (*) indicates “all” spiders or agents. If for some reason, you want to disallow access to any directory, then use a forward slash “/” and not an asterisk for “Disallow: ” To read more on robots.txt, take a look at

Cloaking your affiliate links should increase conversions, for many reasons noted above. There is no need to lose out on money by not ‘hiding’ affiliate links!