Affiliate Marketing Resources and Self-Improvement Books

Good morning from beautiful and sunny (if just a tad chilly) Cherry Grove Beach!

I just wanted to pass along a few websites today that might be helpful to those of you in the business of reaching for the stars using internet or affiliate marketing. A couple of these might be of interest to you if you are studying the principles of the Law of Attraction and Attraction Marketing.

Self Improvement Books

For some really good, no-fluff, no nonsense self improvement books, I just love my friend Tony Michalski's Kallisti Publishing site. He is a walking-talking example of the Law of Attraction at work, and I've learned a lot from him. This is absolutely worth checking out - and there is way too much for me to list here! Click Here to visit. (And yes, I AM going to earn a commission if you buy anything. But don't worry - there's good free stuff there too!)

Attraction Marketing

If you are interested specifically in attraction marketing, branding, etc., and you are in a business where recruiting or sales prospecting is imporant, this is a high energy group of people! Start by having a look at Mike Dillard's Free Video here.

High End Product Affiliate Programs

If you are looking for nice, high end product affiliate programs, and working from home in the travel industry is appealing to you, I just love Global Resorts Network (GRN). I love them for several reasons:

• They have a "big ticket" item, which means handsome commissions,


• The service is completely stand-alone - that is, you are not required to recruit others to sell the luxury vacation travel membership that we market (Click here for my website that is devoted ONLY to prospective travel customers), and


• The customer service we get from our travel partner is second to none.


• Plus, the fact that our travel partner has more than 20 years of experience shows great credibility and financial stability.

There are more than a few ways to market Global Resorts Network. If you are interested in GRN as a business opportunity, it's one of the finest. The internet marketing strategies I've been learning with Mike Dillard and his excellent and highly energetic team over at the Black Belt Recruiting are very impressive. Learn from them, and then apply what you learn.

What an outstanding bunch of people! These guys keep me young.

If you have other systems or resources to share, please feel free to comment! Have a great day!

Great Kids Books by My Friend Peggy Gifford

Hello everyone! Today I just want to talk about kids books - not just 'cause I've written one that will hopefully see print some day, but also because I've had the great honor of meeting a wonderfully clever and sassy kids' book author while down here in South Carolina this winter.

Peggy Gifford has written a couple of great books based on an impossibly precocious procrastinator (a trait I, myself share and am going to get to work on curing - maybe starting tomorrow) by the name of Moxy Maxwell.

The books - Moxy Maxwell Does Not Love Stuart Little, and Moxy Maxwell Does Not Love Writing Thank You Notes - are hilarious! They are written in a very relaxed voice that you can just "hear." I love the chapters such as: "Wherein Moxy's Mother Says No..." or words to that effect - and the entire chapter is as follows - and I carefully quote:

"No."

The next chapter gets a little more detailed - but I'll leave you in suspense...

The books flow, kids will love them (actually, they already do), and I recommend that if you have kids anywhere from 8 years old and up, they will just fall in love with Moxy. And so will you. Peggy is a brilliant writer, and I'm not just saying that because we're pals.

While there are already a couple of Moxy Maxwell books out there, as I understand it, there are more in the works. Which is a good thing, because they're addictive, kind of like the Harry Potter books.

One of the great things I love about Moxy is her never ending and ever growing list of "Possible Career Paths." Of course I'm a little partial, but I think that Moxie ought to add "Internet Marketing Entrepreneur" to this list! (You knew I'd have to put a plug in for my own passion, didn't you!?)

So, visit Peggy's site - and tell her I said Hello!

From my First YouTube Video to "Video Marketing Queen!"

Ok, I admit it. I'm now thoroughly hooked on YouTube.

After last week's post (see last post), wherein I DID NOT QUIT and successfully uploaded my very first YouTube video (about assembly a Party Tent), I got to thinking about Video Marketing.

Turns out that Video Marketing is big. And, I need to begin using this fascinating medium. It's one of the things that I have been learning as part of the strategies taught by the folks at Mike Dillard's place, which is a great learning platform for online marketing.

During the week (in which most of it was spent indoors since it was freezing down here at Cherry Grove Beach - no, it really WAS freezing - in the 20's and 30's) I had time to think about how I could begin using video marketing as a tool to drive more traffic to my website.

I knew it works, because the other day, I had a call from some guy out of the blue who saw my video on YouTube, and he was looking for a specific portable shelter from my Portable Garages and Shelters website.

Who would have thought that someone would find me that way?

I learned how to embed the video from YouTube into my website, and now someone can watch the assembly demonstration.

Today, I experimented further, and came up with YouTube video number 2, which primarily introduces the viewer to my Portable Garages website, and encourages them to visit. We really do have some great deals, and I am so fond of the folks up at the MDM Rhino Shelter warehouse in Milford, CT, that I just want to bring in more orders. The customer wins by getting a good deal, I win by getting an order, and MDM Rhino wins by getting the order through me.

So, by tomorrow, my home page at Portable Garages and Shelters will feature my latest YouTube creation, and customers will see the actual face behind the site.

I got to thinking even more... As my regular readers know, I'm hooked on entrepreneurial pursuits. I love working from home - actually, let me rephrase that: I love working from home ONLINE - because it is that "working from home" and "internet based business" stuff that has enabled us to be here in this magnificent beach community for the winter.

So, why not start doing some short YouTube videos to promote my other online business opportunities? I can introduce myself briefly - again, so people can see that there is a real person behind the site and opportunity - and offer little training segments, as well as words of inspiration and motivation.

This is getting more exciting by the minute, and again - I'm glad I didn't give up! :)

Stick To It and Don't You Quit!

Ok. Today I am living proof of the belief that as long as you don't quit, you'll eventually succeed. First, I am an admitted techno phobe - It was all I could do to begin a blog, only because I didn't understand what a blog was, and it all sounded fairly complicated to me. Of course, now here I am merrily "blogging" away.

The point is, once I realized that blogging and article writing were important parts of today's internet marketing strategies, especially the affiliate marketing system that has been teaching me these strategies, I knew I would have to learn how to participate.

And, the interesting thing is, once I got the hang of it, I began not just writing my own blog, but visiting and learning from other peoples' blogs as well.

But, today's post is about YouTube. It was about a year ago that I stumbled upon YouTube. I was looking for information about an old TV show or movie online, and stumbled upon this online TV gizmo called YouTube, where - lo and behold - there was a segment of what I had been searching for!

After that, I was hooked. But only to WATCH YouTube - mind you, never to actually use it myself.

Then, as I learned more and more about internet marketing strategies, I began to hear the whispers... "video marketing" for affiliate marketing systems and terms like that. Like the typical little kid who doesn't want to hear that it's bedtime, I went around with virtual earplugs in my ears, singing "La la la la...I don't hear you... I don't hear you!"

Because there was NO WAY I could figure out how to put videos on the internet.

Until this last week.

You see, as an experiment this last summer (August 2008) John and I had started putting up one of the party tents that we sell on our Portable Garages and Shelters website, when it occurred to me to video tape the process in case someone wanted to see the procedure at some point. I thought maybe I could find someone who understood how to do these things, and put the video on my website for me.

Well, it became increasingly apparent that "if it's to be, it's up to me." So, I tried without any luck whatever to transfer this video file to the website. It was just too big. Then, the people who host my site suggested that I upload it to YouTube and then embed it in my site.

The day I thought could never come came upon me. I bit the bullet. I signed up for YouTube. Piece of cake. Uhh...except for trying to find a user name that wasn't taken. Once I finally got in, I glanced around and breathed a sigh of relief. It didn't look that hard after all. Just click "download video" and away I go.

Or not. The first try lasted over an hour. I cancelled the download. I tried again. Still nothing after an hour of "whirring" around somewhere between my computer and YouTube.

I searched their forums. Ah ha! Perhaps the file is too big! Perhaps it's in the wrong format.

After a few more tries, I called it a night. "Tomorrow," I thought, "this will all be clear."

When tomorrow came, the same thing happened. I tried cutting the video back, removing frames here or there to shorten it. I saved it to different file types, and tried uploading it - in fact, at the end of day two (Friday), I was thoroughly frustrated.

I emailed my sister who has all sorts of videos on YouTube. While she had some good suggestions, she used certain terminology that went over my head. Stuff like "firewall," "uploaders" and "m4v" - but I got the gist of it.

So, this very morning - on day three - I jostled a few more things around, and tried uploading again. Nothing. Then again. Nothing. Then... just when I thought I should give up - I stopped. I'm a student of self development, and am always telling myself to keep on keeping on and see things through. So, I thought - "how about just one more time..."

And it happened. The video uploaded! It took a while, but it uploaded. And now, I can tell you that I'm no longer dreading using YouTube. In fact, I have my next website swirling around in my head, and guess what! On every page, I can see my little YouTube videos welcoming my visitors to the site.

I didn't quit. And I am now on YouTube. Just don't ask me how I finally got the thing to load, because I have no idea. And I still haven't figured out how to embed it into the website. That will be cake after this ordeal.

But, I know I can do it. I'm one step closer to leaving Techno-Phobe-Land.
So, don't quit! I don't care what you're trying to do. Don't quit.

Oh - if you are at all interested, here is the weasley little video that I was struggling with that whole time: Kathy's Very First YouTube Video!

Oh... By the way. I'm on a roll. Notice the little picture in my post - the TV set? I just learned how to do that, too. Ha! What a day... Hope you have a great one too!

Animal Rescue Site Helping to Feed Abused & Neglected Animals

Hello everyone! I heard from an old friend from my days in the Antarctic program, and she knows that I'm a pet lover. She found this site, where, thanks to many great sponsors, they are getting free food donated daily to help abused and neglected animals!

The site is called The Animal Rescue Site, they need people to visit daily, and click on the purple box labeled "Click here to Give - it's Free!"

It's one of the easiest ways I've seen to help. And, if you have a soft spot for animals, like I do, you can do it daily - just save it to your favorites.

Please feel free to pass this post along! Again, this doesn't cost you a thing. Their corporate sponsors/advertisers use the number of daily visits to donate food to abandoned/neglected animals in exchange for advertising.

Once again, here's the web site! Please pass it along to people you know.

Once again, this posted in memory of my little Kitty - who was also abandoned at one time.
http://www.theanimalrescuesite.com/