Just standing back and watching the hype.

The Underacheiver course is launching tomorrow from Frank Kern, so I’m getting that flood of emails from marketers wanting me to buy it from them. I’ll admit, I’m impressed by what Frank Kern has accomplished, but to spend nearly $1500… not a chance. Not on my budget.

Is this a good decision? For me, yes. For others, perhaps not. It would not surprise me at all if I were to spend that kind of money to find that I made it back relatively quickly. On the other hand, if I spent $1000+ every time one of these deals came along I’d go broke (remember the hype for another program a few months ago?).

So what do you do to succeed when you can’t buy the big packages? Find the free and more affordable resources. Please note, I don’t mean all free or affordable packages come close to offering what you can get if you can afford to spend a lot of money – I’m sure there’s more to this package than you’ll find easily elsewhere. But you can get lots of good, solid information out there.

Forums are some of the best resources for free information. I like Digital Point’s forums and SEO Chat for some serious information. For affiliate marketing information, the forums at ABestWeb are wonderful – you can discuss the networks and some of the companies in them, as well as other companies. The reason forums are great is that the information is always changing. You’ll get a lot of absurb opinions sometimes too, since anything can be posted, but plenty of quality information, plus you meet others in your field.

I have a toddler crawling up my back, so I’ll discuss paid options some other time. I think it’s time to play!

Google has released it’s AdWords API.

The API requires that you have a My Client Center account, so don’t be surprised if you don’t notice it on a regular AdWords account. It will allow you to generate custom reports and so forth, depending on your needs. There’s a limit on how many queries you can make per day with the AdWords API, just as there is with Google’s regular API. However, this quota will be set by the size of your AdWords account, rather than be a standard number.

This will probably most benefit SEM businesses, as they may be generating reports for large numbers of customers. If you’re just managing your own campaigns it may not be something you need, although if you have an inventory to deal with, it should make it easier to pause ads for out of stock items.

Not really sure what all this means? Google provides some great examples of what could be done with the AdWords API that might help you think about it. Possibly the best potential is to manage your account by time of day.

It should be very interesting to see what kinds of programs are developed over the next few months for AdWords API users. You’ll probably hear quite a bit about new programs if you go to SEO forums, hear from any marketers who know a lot about PPC and such.

Congress is taking a good look at spyware.

Looks pretty interesting. You can read the Spy Act online. I hope it makes it this time. The penalties are harsher than for spam, which sounds good to me. Spyware has so much more potential to do damage than spam does. With any luck the Senate will pay attention this time too, so the bill gets passed eventually.

This is great news for anyone who uses a computer. There is some question as to whether the wording is too harsh and if cookies are counted as spyware (they shouldn’t be, IMO). I would like to see the damaging kinds of spyware – those that change homepages, track keystrokes, steal information, etc., be counted.

Of course, as an affiliate, I’d also like to see adware and parasites listed. I don’t mind if someone chooses to use adware (well, much), but these companies steal from honest affiliates and many users don’t know they have a problem. It should be interesting to see how this one goes.

Have you made your content pages for Google AdWords yet?

I’m fortunate in that my content pages were already created for just about everything I promote on AdWords. I’m a firm believer in preselling. If that’s something you’re still struggling with, it’s time to get help. I’ve recommended this before, it’s a great read and best of all, only $10. Take a look at Make Your Content PRESell. If you don’t know how to sell to customers, think you can’t write worth anything, think again. It’s much easier than you think and this ebook will help you to do it.

Just remember, if you are selling affiliate merchandise on AdWords, this tactic can keep you selling. Better yet, it gives you the chance to write a great sales letter. Some programs will let you link to the order page rather than the sales page, so if you master this technique you might just get pay per click traffic AND free traffic. Great return for a little time invested.

Google is launching a new service so you can find images from video. This one’s still in beta, and only offers stills from the video, but sounds pretty interesting. These images come from shows that have aired on television, and quotes from shows are available as well.

It looks like they’re getting some pretty interesting feedback on this one. I like the idea someone posted about limiting by time frame. Obviously, due to copyright restrictions, there’s only so much to be done about showing actual videos, especially since so many shows will sell episodes in later years.

This one should be fun to watch and see where it goes.

Now she tells me!

I finally go ahead and link to my sister’s site, and she told me last night that she’s planning on changing the name soon. It’s a good idea, but just typical timing!

Of course, I’ve been hard at work too. I’m working on more and more content for Aspects of Home Business. Hopefully it will turn out useful to people. I’ve learned so much about many kinds of online business these past few years, I may as well do something with it.

I can’t help but wonder if I didn’t get some kind of odd spam. Someone sent me an email asking if I knew the contact person for a company, and when I replied that I wasn’t associated, I got an invitation to be an affiliate for that company from the same person. Very odd and I haven’t decided what to do yet. If it’s a legit company, the service is probably well worth promoting, but the contact method is just so odd.

Looks like a little change in the phishing scam.

Maybe others have seen this one a lot, but I haven’t:

Happy New Year!
Dear Valued Client, the management and staff would like to take this opportunity to thank all customers and affiliates for their loyalty and business during 2004. In the forthcoming years, we endeavour to provide new products and services in order to meet the needs of this ever-changing financial market. As our customer, we will keep you informed on our special offers and new products and services that may be of interest to you. Happy New Year to you from everyone at Wamu.

We offer you special discounts in all stores all over USA with your credit card and a special cupon offered free by our bank.This offer includes over 15000 shops located all over the country.

This is our New Year gift for our clients so please don`t miss this special occasion

All you have to do is to login in to your account and confirm your name and login and in 72 hours you will have your cupon. Please click below.

Link deleted, obviously

Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter.Happy New Year.

If you choose to ignore our request, you will lose the offer.!

Thank you for using WAMU!

Nice attempt at switching tactics to get that information. Of course, the link shows up as just an IP address, not a domain name.

It really saddens me that so many scammers try so hard to get people’s information, and that so many fall for it.

For those who are relatively new to this kind of scam, never click on the link. Type in the website of your bank, ebay, whoever they are pretending to direct you to, yourself. Odds are, there will be nothing about whatever the email is claiming, whether it be a problem with your account or discounts and coupons.

Bit by bit my sister’s site is making progress.

She runs the site Kaper Families, which is about combating obesity, particularly in children. To keep it fun, the site suggests making sure kids get out to play and coping with excuses for avoiding exercise. Considering how much of a problem this has become due to sedentary lifestyles, this could be a great site.

Of course, I’m helping her with it. I’ve sent her some links to directories, helped with the initial design (still a bit of work to do there) and just generally talked her through a lot of the process. It’s a lot of fun helping family get going online.

Now I just have to get time with my brother-in-law as well. He has a website idea, but no design knowledge, etc. I’m hoping to get together with them at the same time at some point, as they are facing many of the same issues in getting an online business started.

That takes care of the running around part of moving a home business!

Yes, I updated my FBN and business license today to reflect my new address. I wanted to get that taken care of the minute I was able to. I much prefer keeping everything legal, even though the odds of getting in trouble over a home business are slim, especially when you don’t have customers coming to your door.

I’ve seen some people say wait until you’re sure about your home business before getting a license. The general idea is that many people go through multiple businesses before getting the right one. My feeling is that you should get your license under a name that is generic enough for whatever you’re doing, whether direct sales, websites, product, etc., because if your area requires a business license for home business, the penalties are harsh if you get caught. Possibly into the $100s per day, depending on where you live. Not worth it if your license doesn’t cost that much.

They also talk about not worrying about your home business license because the IRS doesn’t care if you only make a small amount each year, and may in fact consider it to only be a hobby. That’s true, but the IRS has nothing to do with business licenses. They don’t care if you have a license or not. Heck, if you steal something, you’re supposed to report it to the IRS as income! I tend to be more concerned with how my city will regard my business when it comes time to decide whether or not to license.

Ariel was very well behaved for the most part during all of this. She did get upset when the girls she was playing with at our first stop had to go. She cried and wanted to follow. I know she gets lonely sometimes, and she was having a blast with those girls, but that’s why she has a class she goes to once a week. I need to find local playmates for her too, of course, so that maybe she will be able to play with someone more or less daily.

I also added the home business newsletter to Aspects of Home Business. I won’t do an issue right away, but it will get going soon. I’m planning a pretty simple bonus for subscribing – my list of free directories to submit your site to. I don’t have that uploaded just yet, but its release will be announced to any existing subscribers as soon as I get that together. Just seems more useful than another free ebook.

MTACC is the first website I’ve had to ban from my discussion boards.

For those who don’t know, it’s a medical transcription school. The ban is simply because they have suggested that they would include me in litigation they have going against another individual who has been making negative posts about them. Rather than refute the claims, which is what I still feel they should have done, they said if I left them up they would include my site in that process. At seven months pregnant, with a new apartment, a work at home job and business, a toddler and a husband new at his job, I really don’t have the time for litigation. So all mention of their school is no longer allowed.

This is a move I really hate to take. I much prefer free and open discussion, and I’ve had another company take a look at negative posts and try to defend themselves. Even if I don’t like a given company, I much more respect them if they try to do that rather than just threaten with lawyers. I really think it does a reputation much more good if you can say why these claims are false rather than simply trying to hide them.

With that in mind, I finally decided to add medical transcription discussion to my board. No mention is to be allowed of MTACC, of course. But any other school can be mentioned and discussed, as can employers, the usual discussion about transcription, etc. I have the right to decide who can advertise or use my board, and I am taking advantage of that. I have even blocked them from my AdSense account, in case they advertise there.