MAKING MONEY

I have decided to take another step in my quest to master internet marketing by dipping a toe in the affiliate marketing waters.

I decided to cut my teeth using a product aimed at people who are new to internet marketing. This turnkey product was designed by Ewen Chia, one of the biggest names in affiliate marketing and one of the people I consider to be serious about giving a decent return for your money. No hype, no fancy footwork, just down to earth advice and products that work.

Ewen Chia's Autopilot Profits is a product that shows you how to make money on the internet without having to spend hours a day on it. It is clear, easy to follow and produces a surprise at the end that makes it a really tempting proposition if you are looking for ways to make a bit more money in these troubled times.

Check out my new website - www.timetomakemoremoney.com

Ezine Articles

I have been spending a bit of time writing articles for EzineArticles.com about a variety of topics to do with young children's learning activities. The titles are:

- How to select books for young children
- How to encourage children to read
- Tips for parents - how to find time to teach young children
- Pre-school learning - strategies to make learning fun

It has been a lot of fun. There are two more in the pipeline and I plan to write more in the coming months.

I love the discipline of writing articles. Thinking of a topic to write about was not as hard as it seemed at first. My passion for education, especially where it concerns young children, gave me lots to choose from. The difficulty was selecting one question to answer that might help readers interested in that area.

For each article, I began with a working title, just to focus my thoughts on the topic I wanted to cover. Writing the article itself was challenging in that the content needed to be concise, interesting with a natural flow yet convey all the information I wanted to put across. It took time to order my words so that there was a logical beginning, middle and end and reworking my first draft required a bit of ruthlessness and willingness to cut out anything that was not absolutely to the point. When I got to the end I went back to the title and spent time deciding on words that would convey exactly what the article was about so that readers searching through the many articles available would not have to waste time reading the first paragraph or so to find out if the piece contained information they were looking for.

All in all, this is something I find very absorbing and entertaining. I just need to find enough time in my schedule to sit down and write on a regular basis. Not easy when you are managing a business, organising a wedding, travelling, attending several seminars and running a home. Still, it keeps me off the streets and, to my husband's delight, out of the shops!

Artlcles can be viewed on www.ezinearticles.com. Just click on the Expert Author logo in the side panel and search for Mary L Anderson.

PROCRASTINATION IS A VERY LONG WORD

Do you know, I think I deserve a PhD in Procrastination. I have never met anyone so determined to do everything else except the thing I am supposed to be doing!

I set myself the target of revamping my filing system to put some order into the mountain of paper littering my office. I found all the sorting and categorising quite therapeutic - for about five minutes. I came across a report I had downloaded on web design and of course I just had to find the email it came with so that I could follow the hyperlinks to further free reports that I had evidently missed the first time round. While I was looking for that email I came across another email with an audio attachment from someone talking about converting websites hits into actual sales. So I listened to that audio for about an hour before I remembered the teetering piles of paper around me.

This is a really bad habit of mine so I have added it to my growing list of New Year resolutions. I must remember to write out I MUST NOT PROCRASTINATE a hundred times otherwise I will drift off in another direction and forget to keep focussed. Which reminds me ................

NEW YEAR, NEW RESOLUTIONS

I cannot believe it is the 2nd of January, 2009. I haven't finished dealing with the 1st yet! New Year's Day went badly wrong and I have only just finished serving New Year's Day dinner a day late! It looks as though this year is going to behave like last year. 2008 came and went with warp speed. And I have to confess that when I opened the 2008 Resolutions letter that I wrote on 31 December 2007, I found I had only achieved about 25% of my goals. I am not going to beat myself up about it though. I will just try for a higher percentage this year.

So, what are my goals for 2009?

Resolution1: I must add five story books for young children to my catalogue. Two are ready to print as soon as I can mine all the pennies rattling around the innards of my sofa, and three just need tarting up a bit and they'll be ready to go - as soon as I investigate my sisters' sofas.

Resolution 2: do something about my would-be novel for 9 - 12 year old children that has been quietly doing the rounds of publishers. I have not been the most vigilant parent though. The poor book has been left pretty much to its own devices. I really, really must do better.

Resolution 3: I must learn how to design and code a website. It is the only way I am going to be able to update, amend, improve, add to or in any way tinker with my site without a king's ransom at my disposal (sofas again) or Job's patience with web folk who move at the pace of frozen treacle!

I wonder if I should stop at three resolutions..... If I leave out the world peace and the lose 2 stones in weight bits I might have a fighting chance of 100% success. I just need to make sure I invite wealthy friends for drinks on a frequent basis (it's the only explanation for the fortune I am convinced is hiding in the sofa) and get my 15 year old niece to give me web lessons for a weekly fee of large, dangly earrings and sponsored shopping trips to Primark. Sorted!

Happy New Year!

INTERNET MARKETING IN FISHNETS!

Internet marketing! Who knew it would be so involved and tricky! My website is up and running and I am using the analogy of a small shop in a tiny street half a mile from the High Street. How do I let people know that my shop exists and how do I entice them away from the High Street?

Having just about gotten over my fear of breaking the internet if I press a button on my keyboard, I have delved into the world of internet marketing wholeheartedly. I am signed up to countless newletters, mailing lists and clubs. I have read reams of paper about how to do pay-per-click, write articles, conduct an online interview, load up a video etc, etc, etc. I have some missive or other about every aspect of internet marketing. My problem now is how to put all the pieces together. And I was beginning to suffer from email overload so I have started a ruthless pruning exercise to get my inbox down to manageable proportions.

One of the most difficult things to do in the world of internet marketing is to write good copy. It is certainly a fine art but hopefully one I can master some day. Good practice, they say, makes perfect. I have tried to sound exciting without seeming hysterical and knowledgeable without being school-marmish. Not enough people have seen me frantically waving on the corner of my road though. Maybe the online equivalent of fishnet tights and a garter? Hmmm!

GET MATCH FIT!

I know! It has been ages. I have been mega busy trying to get my website fully functional and having very limited success. In my next life I will come back as a webmaster who actually cares about my customers. I am bound to be successful! I am sure I am not the only person who has to rely on the 'professionals' to sort out websites only to find that as soon as money is handed over the enthusiastic, helpful and seemingly knowledgeable techie disappears for weeks on end and then can only allocate 2 minutes per day to your job.

While I have been waiting for some action in the website department, I have been working on an article on learning styles. I thought I would get down on paper all I knew about the subject and then look at what I had come up with. Now I have not had to do any fast typing for some time and I found that my fingers and forearms tired very quickly indeed. This was quite a surprise to me. My top speed back in the day was 83 wpm and I did not even think about how my fingers were feeling. I decided to give myself a three minute speed typing test. OK, so I have not had to type in earnest for a couple of years but really - 59 wpm!! I spent the next half hour furiously typing and timing myself. By the end of 15 minutes my speed had increased to 61 wpm but my forearms were aching. I realised I would have to practise hard to get those long underused muscles back in shape. I will not rest until I hit at least 70 wpm. Not that I need to - my current activity of writing very short stories for children does not require competition typing speeds - but it is a matter of pride.

This all made me think about how tiring it must be for little children trying to do things that requires fine motor skills, such as picking up small objects, colouring in pictures without going outside the outlines or indeed attempting to write letters and numbers for the first time. It all takes practice over time to develop the muscles and hand-eye co-ordination. As adults we take all this for granted but the little ones, trying to flex their muscles, need time to develop the strength and co-ordination to accomplish such tasks. Gentle, short and playful activities must be the way for them to get match fit and ready to tackle 1, 2, 3 and A, B, C!

Can't find the dumb-bells just now but I am drawing up a fitness programme for fingers that should do the trick.

IS YOUR FIVE YEAR OLD INTO SHAKESPEARE?

I have recently read an exchange of views on the vexed issue of age guidance (see http://www.thebookseller.com/age-guidance for some great comments). In true Libran fashion I have been see-sawing for a while but have finally decided that there must be lots of people out there who need a bit of a steer on such issues as what sort of material might be appreciated by their 11 year old computer mad niece or whether 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar' would go down well with their two year old grandchild.

If someone knows the abilities and tastes of the person they are buying for, they will more than likely choose whatever they feel would be appreciated. However, not everyone is in that position and having to spend time reading the backs of lots of novels and flicking through the contents to assess its suitability might well result in the purchase of a mobile phone holder instead. If it makes it easier for books to find their way into more hands, I am all for it.

Of course, this has nothing to do with the fact that my own books have age guidances stars on them!