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

Should I delete a Lens? How can I help a Failing web page....

Never, ever delete a lens and this is why...


So now you want to know how to help your failing web Page.

I cannot take credit for this, I learned how to work out how to SEO optimise my pages, from a great on line friend @Thrivingmom on squidoo and I love to share her fantastic tips of how to check HOW does Google See your Page?
and then we can start to work out why our lens is failing and how we can fix it.

Keyword Research
Good Quality original content
Backlinks

all contribute towards a great page.

but if your lens is failing then we need to know how to fix it

I am going to send you over to Thriving moms post,
STEP 1: why is my lens failing because it is so easy you will want to go straight away and check all your pages!


and have a great look around as you will also find Thrivingmom shares her tips freely and great advice especially the post about STEP 2: Using your Keywords throughout your post, and how to do it easily!

Use the Step 1, Step 2 process on a failing lens/ web/ blog / post
your keywords more focused= your page being more focused.

Good SEO does not need to be complicated.

You can see more of thrivingmoms work on squidoo

Understanding SEO - Free

Image via WikipediaI got a lovely Freebie for you! How about Googles very own Search engine Optimization Starter Guide PDF
I can continue to give you all the tips in the world however if you do not understand how Google likes us to present out web pages, yes the Dos and donts! then there is no point in me going on.
apologies for not giving this earlier, I just happened to find this after an online associate sent me to a site for something else, and after clicking a few links I came accross the actual document that Google gives to its staff. To explain how they want to see SEO on a webpage, or rather their bots do when they crawl it!

I wish I had this earlier in my online career, so easy to understand, and we all get so blinded by following other sites, we forget that google itself provides us with great tools to help us in our quest to get onto Google pages, and recieve traffic.

So do not hesitate, download your free Google SEO TIPS-

Read it and read it again, and make sure the red bits are noted in the back of your mind, and try it out the next time youwrite your web page!

Google loves your images using Alternative Text.

Help Google find your Pictures using the alt= tag (alternative text) The alt attribute is not actually a tag but it is referred to as the "alt tag"

I am going to show you today how I rank page 1 Google for images the easy way. How to use the alt= to add a SEO boost to your pictures on your webpages.The alt attribution tag allows you to provide text for the object or picture you are inserting. Think along the lines of search engines cannot see (look at) your picture and know what it is, so tell them. Or if a visually imparied reader was using a programme that reads the text, how would they know what your picture was of?
So we are gong to make sure every single imagehas an alternative text explanation.(alt=)

Do you panic at the site of HTML? Don't worry this is so easy, it will become second nature to find it every time you insert a picture using HTML code. I just want you to spot 1 piece of code.

Did you know that most people searching online search via the images search? And we all know that a picture tells a thousand words. So use Pictures wisely , and legally! Remember just because it is on google does not mean it is not copyrighted, so always check the terms of use.
I was helping someone with their online store, and saw immediately that they were not optimising their images for search engines.
Their images were all named. Project 1.jpg and  project 2.jpg  Google did not know that they were purple, wedding invitations, that could be customized.  So we had to make sure google and the other search engines knew this.So we gave each card the relevant color, that they were customizable and it was a wedding invitation. this also can bring in targeted visitors ready to spend, as they will find exactly what they are looking for.

 I have had great success from the technique and have found my pictures ranking Page 1 Google for image search, and indeed this is where most of my traffic comes from.
Using pictures and images for your writing is an important factor in creating your pages.
I like to use Allposters.com and Art.com   and for keeping within copyright law, would suggest anyone using images on their pages sign up to them.
They provide good affiliate programmes, and recording stats,  so you can earn  if someone buys a picture via your website.
They are both very easy to use, and provide all the links for you to place the pictures on your sites. I use both.
I am going to use this pretty picture to show you how to optimise your images for SEO.

Field of Purple Flowers
Buy This Allposters.com

To make an image visible on your page you will paste firt the Html code provided for the picture, which will include the destination URL and the IMAGE url, and description of image to search engines ( alt=)  and the text to be shown I will use art.com as an example.

<a class="APCTitleAnchor" href="http://affiliates.allposters.com/link/redirect.asp?item=3722856&AID=651977733&PSTID=1&LTID=1&lang=1" target="_blank" title="Field of Purple Flowers"><img src="http://imagecache6.allposters.com/SML/27/2740/22PND00Z.jpg" alt="Field of Purple Flowers" border="0" height="86" width="115"></a>

<BR>

<span style="font-family:verdana,arial,helvetica;font-size:10;" >

<a class="APCTitleAnchor" href="http://affiliates.allposters.com/link/redirect.asp?item=3722856&AID=651977733&PSTID=1&LTID=1&lang=1" target="_blank" title="Field of Purple Flowers">Buy This Allposters.com</a><BR>

</span>

You will copy and pate the whole html code into your page, and will stay as is the highlighted RED section is what we are interested in for today

You want your picture to explain to search engines what your page is about, using your keywords. Now say I was using this picture for my page titles "Lavender Health Benefits" actually the name "field of purple flowers" is okay as it does explain what this picture is about,  but what kind of flowers? Lavender....our page is about Lavanders health benefits

so we are going to change the alt= to tell search engines what this picture is about.

so the replacement text will look like this
alt="field of purple flowers- lavander-health benefits"
when you are saving a picture to your harddrive to use, Save it using your keywords here too.
Instead of save as "003.jpg" change the name to what the picture is "child holding a rabbit.jpg"If you are using more than one word divide by a hypen,(-)  do not keyword stuff, search engines are too smart now.

I have a download pdf available for easy reference and shows how I hold Page 1 rank 1,3,4 for images for my products!
Download here - How to Get on Page 1 Google with images 

 Just for your information I highlighted the Height and width, part of the codes,  you can manipulate this to suit your preferred size, always keep in ration, if you take 100 off the height, take 100 off the width etc.


Did you know to do this, will you be trying it now? anything else you are unsure of? and I can help with, let me know what your thoughts are....
  
Lisa 

5 Mistakes People make trying to Earn Money Online.

Of course we all want to know How to work on the internet, and make millions....When starting out writing articles, creating a blog or even working on your own webpage.
You will come across many programmes that claim to make money fast online. They are going to show you how to do it, my advice is run in the opposite direction.
I was so excited to achieve my goal of making money online, and being able to have the choice to continue working at home, or going back to a JOB, I wanted to go and shout it from the rooftops, and tell people how I did it.  To show them how they could do it.
Was it easy, no it was a very rollercoaster journey. And if you ask anyone who works online, is it easy, what do you think their answer will be? Do you know most people who work online will make no money, as they can easily fall into several traps.

Part of the reason I made Moms work at home Blog, is to indeed share with you my tips that I have found helped me go from zero earnings to a steady income online. Including what I have learned to do (= make money )and what not to do, (= make absoloutely no money) working online. 

How I make money online:   I use affiliate marketing, reviewing products, blogging, building unique Free webpages like on my favourite place Squidoo.I now have earnings on a spreadsheet to help me keep track of what is working what is not. (this could be a tip in itself, as if maybe I had kept track of what works and did not work in the beginning, I could have fixed the errors of my ways!)
But there were many mistakes I made in the beginning, probably making my journey a little harder, but hey you learn.
Working online does not come with a job desription, you dont turn up one day and have someone to hold your hand walking you through the steps. No-body to be acountable when the figures or money does not come in but yourself.
I am going to give my 5 top Tips that I learned that did NOT make me any money, before you fall into the

1. Do not buy! I made $1,0000 in 10 minutes or Signing up for the programmes that claim to make you money online. For a FREE

Why? It is never FREE, or that easy, they make money from your buying their products, then the guy who buys the product realises he has been conned, so takes on the same strategy used when he was conned into buying it and sells you it, and so the cycle continues.

Solution: You can get all the information you need for free on the net, it takes a bit of looking, but its all there. Join forums, there are hundreds of great forums that will have the answers tucked away in their threads, pure golden nuggets of information. So use the searh facility for your query, Type in the keywords you are looking for such as "backlinks" I bet you get exactly what you are lookng for, and for FREE. 
If you come accross someone who makes claims that cause you to raise your eyebrow, put their user name through Google, see what does come up. Do they have good articles, where else can you see their work online? What do others say about them on profile pages etc. Look at the comments section, what are others saying about them. (this is my main online Bio)

 2. Do not join all affiliate programmes just because you think it will make you money, it won't. Joining every affiliate programme you can sign up for, promoting it, seeing no return and moving on to the next hot product to hit the market...waste of your time.

 Come on admit it, the first thing you do on a page is look for the affiliate sign up. I lost count how many affiliate programmes I was a member of.  I now have built and established a good working relationship with a core of trusted reliable affiliate programmes that I will use and fully endorse. And that am satisfied will only give exactly what is being promoted and value for money


Solution: Research your niche market, sometimes hidden in the depths of the ebook seas,  there are absoloutes gems, out ranked by the Gurus who have pushed their products with SEO, hype and rubbish to the top of the pile. Choose 1 produt, research it, buy it love it and stick with it, if you dont then your readers won't either. It is so much easier to give your honest testomony of why this is a great product. It is easier to write your artile when you know what you are talking about.

3.  Annoying your Visitors to your web page.
Being sent to a page after reading your review and then realising it is not what you were really looking for and then you try to leave, and some smart alec thought hey lets add  pop up ads that annoy your visitors when you try to leave the page, and then another pop up saying "are you really sure"Of course I am sure!  This will make you lose any visitors and creditbility you already have, and I just want to leave this page, I am not interested in what discount you have to offer me, and I would not return to the page that sent me there. So thoroughly chek out your affiliate programmes, capture pages etc.

4. Flashing Banner adverts.
Do you ever click them? I know I don't. i hate them, and the majority of people online do too, we know it is going to lead to our email addresses being used in all sorts of scam and emails.
So think about it will your visitors. they take up space they look nasty to the eye, slapped in the middle of your text. 
Solution: It has been proven that text links convert, in fact I make more money and get more clickthroughs  using text links than I do with product pictures.


5. Copying someone elses work
I spend a lot of time online, and I can spot a copycat straight away. And anybody else who works online starts to work out the authentic from the re-gurgetated sraped material. In fact I could direct you to around 10-20 pages off the top of my head that "scrapes" ideas and even layouts, and then I would direct you to the original page. Don't do it, its cheap and its nasty, and once people start to work it out. You are finished.

Solution: Be Unique, provide Useful Content, and be honest. If you are that impressed by someones work, say that, link to themm  let them know you are a fan. Heck you can still make your page, but let them know and credit their idea within your work. Send a quick mail to the original author saying thanks you inspired me. Its amazing the power of that.
But do not steal their content.

If you have not started a blog, then I really suggest you do, many free places, to start with ( I have always taken the Free options)
See why having a blog is a great way to compliment your online work. I made a page about how to make money Blogging  which I share ideas, stats and traffic insights, how I used hot Topics, and hard to find items,  and why you should consider selling more expensive items too. Check out the huge sale I made.  these are still live, and although I do not spend as much time as I should they all serve a purpose, in my online adventures.

Did these mistakes ring true for you? Or do you have your own list of what does not work, when working online. Would you like to know about something specific, Drop me a comment.

Using Social Media to Get traffic and Visitors your Web Pages & Build your Pages Backlinks

Are you making the most of all the places you can get the word out about your pages, and websites?

Many of us who create web pages, find the hardest part is finding traffic, and getting visitors to our pages, now take Squidoo as an example, where you can create web pages for FREE and publish them, but what use are they to people if they cannot find them.



I do not belive in spending money when I am trying to earn it. Internal traffic that the structure of Squidoo (where I do the majority of my writing online) provides is great, however no matter where you page is published on the web it is useless unless you get the word out.
The best way for me was by joining several Social media sites.  Now depending on your interests or "niche" I find it best to join the networking sites that will suit you best, many though have all the catagories you would need. If you intend to just drop your links in, and leave, then you will soon find your followers dropping off, you want to build followers, give them useful, information, create quality posts, In the beginning make the extra effort, go and see what your followes are doing, check them out, if you like it share it, to share their work.  The author knows when it has been shared, and will make a mental note, to check out your work, and perhaps share yours.
Lets look at

Twitter

the most obvious and my favourite, it is so easy to use,  and I like to see that visitors do indeed click on those tweets.  My tweet for this blog showed up within 50 minutes of publishing. Page 1 Google

 I love that you can just tweet short and sweet. and most webpages have built in facilities to tweet things of interest.  It is also being debated just now about how tweeting your newly published page is indeed getting your page indexed super fast! (see picture below)
But how do you get followers? This is a question many ask, and it applys for all social bookmarking and and media sites.
Make sure you have a link to where people can find you online on all your pages, have a search for like minded people within your interests, follow them and you will start to see you following building up.

You will be amazed at how this start to build up as you go along, but a word of caution, post your links too many times, you will be seen as a spammer, posting not enough people will lose interest in what you have to say.
Posting Unique, Useful content will bring in traffic, and posting rubbish will see you page end up in the dump.

Give a little too, if someone gives you a vote, make sure to check out their work too, if you are just seen as taking then people won't give either, so remember if there is a community have a look around, join in, make new associates, even if its for 10 minutes, it all is in the benefit of your online work. Yes there are peole who just spam, or giving useless information or just want to sell you something, you soon work out who they are, and just move on.

Other Social Places you can find me at and connet, come on over and join, you will be pleased to see some familiar faces from Squidoo, and If you are not a member of Squidoo, they are a fantastic community of people all sharing the same goals, Working online making extra money from home.

• Facebook- do you have a facebook page  for your business?  set one up today for free, FB will give you all the tools you need to help you promote your page.

• DIGG- Submit links to your favourite pages

• Stumble Upon - fun site  (once you are set up find me there LisaAuch)

• Reddit - They do have a maximum submission amount within the day (once your set up find me - LisaAuch)

• Tumblr 
• Pinterest

How about Social sites that you can earn some money from?

A brand new site, ran by a very successful Squidoo lensmaster and his online partners, earn money here with sharing adsense and sales modules.

•  Join Wizzley Now write articles on Wizzley, has strict policies in place, brand new website, and rising fast up the page ranks - Moderated and great for backlinks

• She Told Me - a fun site with adsense sharing

• Best Reviewer - another 100% adsense sharing site, make a top 10 best of list! So much fun

And last but not least, if you  have a blog, who knows about it, even if you use that blog to just write about your articles to get backlinks, follow others who have similar blogs,  If you are asked to leave a comment, leave a comment, people like to see what others are saying and you will be surprised how many people may click on your profile picture or name, I
If they are interested in what you are saying. It may not be my blog your interested in, but I bet some of my readers would be interested in YOUR work.

there is a whole world wide web out there for you to explore, so go and explore it, and if you bump into me, remember and say Hi, I love meeting fellow marketers out and about.

NEW Google Update Penguin 2.0 - Must Read the Future of The Affiliate Marketer