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I’ve been meaning to tell you more in depth about Yummy PLR for a little while now and am just now getting around to it. (Sorry!) Got a quick question for you:

When was the last time you searched online for a recipe?

I did twice just in the last week, and my son searched for a recipe last week too (he loves to cook and is our resident baker and dessert guy).

I’m betting you have searched for recipes too. Your target market probably loves recipes and foodie articles. I mean, who doesn’t eat?

I love using Private label rights (PLR) and recipes and food articles are no exception. I have one recipe/food related site in my niche, but I use the content for more than just publishing to the site.

Yummy PLR is a food PLR membership site which means you subscribe to get awesome recipes and food related content each month, at a great price. They also sell individual PLR article and recipe packs if you just want to test them out or only want one pack for a particular purpose.

Even if you think your market wouldn’t enjoy recipes and foodie articles, they might. Think about it for a minute.

(Just a few ideas off the top of my head!)

• @ Reps for kitcheny direct sales companies could print out recipes or create free downloadable cookbooks for their hostesses and customers. (MAN is that ever a good idea! If you’re a Pampered Chef or Taste of Home or Tupperware Lady or Spice Girl and don’t jump on that idea, well… I don’t know what to say!) You could incorporate




• @ Market to work at home moms or working moms generally? How about using the Crock Pot recipes to create a free giveaway? Busy moms love using their slow cookers (I know I do!).




• @ If your niche is homeschoolers, ditto. Homeschool moms probably also include kids in meal prep since their kids are around all the time too (quite true of my family, as noted above). I love kid friendly, healthy recipes.




• @ Frugal niche? Cooking at home saves money - and requires recipes.




• @ Mommy blogger or parenting website? Do parents cook? You bet! Bundle up some awesome kid friendly or healthy recipes and create a cookbook to sell or giveaway as a bribe for your newsletter.




• @ Health or wellness marketer? If you sell supplements, I bet your customers would love healthy recipe or meal planning ideas. Again - you could create a free healthy recipe ebook to give to new customers or to use as an upsell product to get your feet wet in information marketing.

I’m sure you could come up with more ideas relevant to your business. Just think about it for a minute and do a little brainstorming.

Do your customers/website visitors/etc EAT?

If so, they’ll probably enjoy recipes from you. The cool thing about PLR is that you can edit it. So if your crowd is vegetarian, tweak the recipes to make them veg friendly. If your crowd is weight conscious, edit them appropriately. If your audience is more interested in saving money, ditto. You can change the recipes around as much as you like to make them work for your business.

The articles and recipes are well written and very low priced. At this time a membership is only $12.95 per month and members receive 10 new articles and 30 new recipes each month. Individual packs sell for $10 each and include either 10 articles or 40 recipes.

Take a look at the packs Yummy PLR has to offer and consider their membership program too.

I’ve been a member for a long time and my website visitors just gobble the content up.

(Couldn’t help myself!)

Barbie is jealous.

My Acer mini pink laptop is cuter than hers.

And smaller.

(That’s my 5 year old daughter’s laptop.)

I think it might even be pink-er than Barbie’s.

In any case, it gets attention everywhere it goes. It’s super easy to carry around. It fits in my purse - which is small!

See how small it is in comparison to the coffee cup? From where I’m sitting right now, the screen is actually shorter than the cup. It’s so lightweight and easy to carry, unlike my other laptop which is heavy and big and I have to schlep it in a big bag with a shoulder strap. It’s hard to hide in the car and I’m always worried about it getting stolen when it’s in there.

When I first spotted someone working on one of these, I couldn’t believe it was a real laptop. I figured it was a PDA or something. But it has 1.6 GHz Intel Atom Processor, 1 GB RAM, 160 GB Hard Drive. And I have no idea what any of that means, but it sure sounds impressive. (See? You don’t have to be a tech geek to be an internet marketer, something I’m always saying.)

My other laptop is on its last legs, and when it poops out I’ll have it repaired and keep it for part time use.

But I’m loving this mini laptop. (My last two laptops have been Acer and I’ve been quite pleased with their product. I bought an Acer on the recommendation of the woman who repairs my computers. She says it’s one of the best and they very rarely ever see Acer laptops in her office.)

My Mom got the Acer Mini Laptop in Pink on Amazon as a gift for me.

Thanks Mom!

It’s very simple.

Just go HERE and sign up for this FREE 9 day ecourse from Mom Masterminds.

Get some great advice for making your business better.

You won’t regret it.

HERE is the link again.

Are you still here?

Shoo!

Go sign up.

To help you get 2009 off to a great start, I decided to offer a SWEET deal until January 5th (that’s Monday).

One of the services I offer is a Website Review. You can see more of what that means here:

http://www.carrielauth.com/hire-carrie.htm

It can be extremely valuable to have another pair of eyes looking at your site. If you’re determined to make 2009 stand out in your mind as the year you earned a full time living from your website, this might be a wise investment.

It includes:

• An hour long coaching/strategy session with me
• An audio I record just for you with tips on how you can improve your website for more sales and traffic
• And ongoing email support for an entire week so you can ask questions and get feedback

Check it out again here:

http://www.carrielauth.com/hire-carrie.htm

Until the 5th only, I’m offering this service (normally $100) for only $75. Email me at clauth@gmail.com and we’ll set up a time and I’ll give you further instructions.

This month only you’ll also have access to a special report and audio full of ways to build incoming links to your site - links are what make your site important in the eyes of Google so this one is not to be missed!

Email me to get started.

We just released a brand new article pack yesterday, perfect if you’re in the green/natural niche:

http://naturalmomplr.com/natural-family-articles.htm

I looked through my stats for the year to see which posts were the most popular here.

Did you read these?

#1- Seems a lot of online business owners appreciated the 30 Days, 30 Articles challenge I hosted awhile back. Shall I do another one? Got any suggestions for another monthlong challenge?

#2 - Work at home Moms are NOT making the feminine mistake - never one to run from a little controversy, I had to share my thoughts on the dangers of economic dependence for women, and how work at home moms have the best of all worlds.

#3 - I Need Right Now Money - suggestions for what to do when you don’t have time to build a business and need fast income.

#4 - Quite a few of you came out to celebrate my appearance on MSNBC.

In my post about lessons I learned in 2008, I mentioned that when my stinky cheese website took a nosedive, I didn’t act quickly enough and my income tumbled down with it.

This past month I’ve been working hard to resurrect this dead site, and thought I would share some of the things I’m doing and the results with you.

Launch a blog - I had a blog installed on the domain and started blogging with regularity. While the topic is something I write about easily, I hired ghostwriters to write quick blog posts for me. This was more cost effective than hiring writers to create entire articles.

First I sent the ghostwriters lists of keywords to write about so they could quickly come up with content. I then expanded on what they wrote. This enabled me to add over a hundred blog posts to the blog very quickly.

Write articles - I created several new articles on the topic to direct traffic to the site. I submitted them to article directories and places like iSnare for distribution. Where appropriate, I published them on another site I own. I also wrote different versions of the article for use as guest blog posts.

Get incoming links - I did this in a number of ways. I paid for a couple of incoming links. Writing articles got me more links. I asked fellow website owners who had content in this niche to link to me (several of these were fellow Mom Masterminds members, who willingly did me a favor. One of the perks of membership!). I also made sure I linked to appropriate pages inside the site itself.

Google alerts - I signed up for Google alerts in the keyword I want to rank for for this particular site. This accomplished a couple of things. Each day I’m sent an email telling me where bloggers are talking about this keyword phrase, so I check out their blog and leave a comment if I can add something useful to the conversation, linking to my site. I also get ideas for new topics because I can see what’s going on in the news in this niche.

Twitter - Often after adding a new page to the site, I Twittered about it.

I’m pleased to say that after a month of this, the traffic for December has increased by 80% over November, and income has really jumped too. It’s not where it was back in March, but it’s quickly getting there. I feel confident that at the end of January it will be.

P.S. If you need some help breathing new life into a dead site of your own, how about a website review?

photo credit: lawmurray

If not, you should.

I’m going to try to convince you of some of the reasons why you should do product reviews on your website or blog.

First of all, the Internet is a great place for anyone to get information on just about anything. In particular, women in their 20s- 50s. And if you read this post (and got the free report) about marketing to moms, you know that this demographic is the most powerful, spending wise.

Useful quote:

“Of the nearly 1,000 moms surveyed, 89 percent use the internet at least twice per day, and 90 percent have been using it for more than seven years,” said Stuart Larkins, vice-president of search for DoubleClick Performics. “A whopping 86 percent of respondents said search engines are the most efficient way to find information.”
Source: Moms are super web surfers

And these smart shoppers go online to research products before buying.

Product reviews are highly sought after online. Whether a shopper is looking for information to use in buying offline or wants to make their purchase online, a product review can tell her what she needs to know. Sites that exclusively feature product reviews get lots and lots of traffic (think epinions.com!).

But can product reviews benefit you, an online marketer?

If you run a blog or, product reviews make for great content. They tend to attract lots of traffic, and that traffic can lead to profits. Product reviews get you ranked for some of those very specific, “long tail” keyword phrases.

If someone finds your site after searching for the phrase “Fiskars garden bucket caddy“, you think they will take some action once they get there? It’s pretty likely, yes. Maybe they’ll read the review and click on your affiliate link to purchase it. Maybe they’ll click on a Google AdSense ad. At the very least they’ll be impressed that your site met their needs, and are likely to stick around long enough to sign up for your newsletter, RSS feed or what have you.

In order to get the most out of product reviews, it’s important to have a niche and stick with it. This will ensure that the traffic that comes to your site is targeted. Even if your niche is fairly wide, such as “moms”, that will still make your marketing efforts easier and more effective. You probably don’t have the time or money to market yourself as the be all/end all of product review websites.

Once they’re on your site, you could make money by using affiliate links in the product reviews.

In fact this is one of the easiest, most effective ways to get your feet wet with affiliate marketing. Go around your home and make a list of all the products you use, hate, love, have an opinion about. And make it your aim to start reviewing these products on your blog or website.

If you can become an affiliate for the product you’re reviewing, that’s great. Almost anything in your home you can find on Amazon.com. Their affiliate program doesn’t pay the best commissions in the world, but it does convert well.

Be sure to give an honest opinion - this is especially true if you will gain from a sale.

This will help you gain the trust of your audience, and trust is essential in getting sales, even if they are through affiliate links.

Product reviews can have additional benefits. For instance, consider what happened to me when I posted a review of these all natural stuffed pretzels I purchased recently (and loved!).

The very next day the owners of the company emailed me to thank me for my nice review. They sent me two coupons for free boxes (worth $5 each) and they posted my review on their blog along with a link to my site in the sidebar.

Doing product reviews can make not just customers happy but also the product creator!

Product reviews are great for marketing. They provide useful information to the reader, bring targeted traffic to the website, and give the product and business exposure.

It’s a winning situation for everyone involved.

You can learn more about doing product reviews to earn money as an affiliate here: Affiliate Marketing Sweetie

It’s a Saturday morning.

The kids are watching a rare bit of morning cartoons (I say rare because they’re usually doing schoolwork at this time of day and we are NEVER home on a Saturday morning but I am sick with a cold today).

The potatoes are frying in butter on the stove for breakfast, and I have steaming hot coffee in my hand.

I’ve been contemplating a “year end” post that shares some sage bit of wisdom, and was coming up a bit dry.

Then I saw that Kelly McCausey blogged asking about regrets in 2008 and I felt compelled to share some of my own honest recollections about lessons I’ve learned this year.

Sometimes, when you feel discouraged about goals you’ve reached, it helps to look back at what your goals were one year ago. I accomplished several of those goals, including getting out of unsecured debt, establishing an emergency fund, moving out into a place of my own, and hitting certain income goals.

Looking back on that makes me feel great about what I can accomplish in a year’s time.

When I started my online business several years ago, it was fun extra money. I never would have thought I would be supporting a home with 4 children on my income.

One of the things I did right this year was realize EARLY on when I had overextended myself.

I made a couple of business decisions that turned out not to be right for me, taking on projects or memberships that weren’t really focused enough for my business or that would simply prove to be “too much”.

But instead of getting caught up in “What will they think if I quit? I’m not a flake/quitter/whatever!”, I just cut it out, which was wise.

At the same time, I made some mistakes. You see,

I didn’t notice that my cheese was getting stinky.

Those of you who have read Who Moved My Cheese? will get the reference.

I read this book a couple of years ago and thought it was fantastic, but I forgot to apply the main lesson to myself when circumstances started to change in my business.

You see, as a result of my ongoing efforts in 2008 to focus and make everything better in my business, I sold several websites. That was a good move. It made it far easier to not get overwhelmed.

I also increased focus on blogging - both here and at my Natural Moms Talk Radio blog. I blogged every day (or, wrote a few posts at a time and scheduled them to post daily).

While doing these things I didn’t take action when one of my sites, which was a major earner for me, started to dip in traffic. I could kick myself now for letting it happen. I’m not sure if it was a Google algorithm change or just because I wasn’t marketing it as much anymore, but for whatever reason, the traffic and income started to go down. The site went from earning me around $30 a day to just a couple of bucks, and at the end of the month that is a huge difference!

By November I was seriously feeling the drop in income on this particular site. Even though traffic to my other sites was climbing, and my affiliate income and ebook sales also going up, this site represented a significant part of my overall income.

I’ve been working on this site like mad for the last month and I know my efforts will pay off soon enough, but:

I should have monitored the state of my cheese and taken action immediately when it started to appear moldy.

As soon as I noticed traffic and income going down for this site, I should have ramped up my marketing efforts. Then it wouldn’t have taken so much effort to keep that result going.

So that’s my wisdom and my regret for 2008.

But you can bet I won’t let it happen again!

What about you? Any regrets, lessons or wisdom to share?

photo credit: functoruser

I wrote a guest post for Kelly over at her Wahm2.0 blog. The topic?

“My website is being built. What should I do before my site is launched?“

The thing that sparked this topic were a couple of coaching clients who were outsourcing the building of their site but who were eager to do something productive in the meantime while they waiting for the finishing touches to be put on their site.

Go read the post: What To Do Before Launch

(Because some of that stuff is stuff you should be doing AFTER your site is live on the internet too!)

Oh yeah, and speaking of the Wahm 2.0 blog, there’s this.

I just read Kelly’s blog post about the top ten Wahm blogs and was so surprised to have made the list.

Thanks so much to anyone who voted for me, I really appreciate it and am glad to hear that this blog is valuable to you.

If you enjoy reading my blog, be sure to sign up for my newsletter list. It goes out once a week (sign up box on the upper right) and is filled with free marketing tips, helpful internet marketing product reviews and important resources you need to make your online business a success, all guaranteed “no fluff”.