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Now playing: Hey Nineteen by Steely Dan
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Google is a very familiar tool to Internet marketers and online shoppers/searchers alike. But there are some things you can do with it that might have escaped your attention. I know I was not aware of many of the search parameters that are built in for the user's convenience. Here are a few that I find particularly useful. You can find a full list at google.com/help/features.html.

Remember that these should be typed into the Google search bar, not the address bar of your browser where you type in URLs such as http://skipthescams.com. Most browsers have a search bar built in (or you can install an add-on) so that it's easy to use these features right from wherever you are. If you don't want to leave the page you're on, you could just keep a second tab or window open to the Google home page.

Time

Need to know what time it is in another part of the world? Just type "time" and the city or country in question.

time Madrid
or
time Australia

If, like in Australia, there are several time zones, it will show a list of cities with their respective times. As an interesting side note, I didn't realize that Australia had "half-hour" zones. When it's 8:00 in Perth on the west and 11:00 in Sydney on the east, it's 9:35 in Darwin in the middle. Hmm.

Calculator

When I'm comfy on the couch working on my laptop, I don't want to get up to get the calculator when I need to add or multiply something. (It's not easy to get up from the couch these days.) Fortunately, I can just type the calculation into the Google search bar.

1,492.93 + 3,697.01 + 4,822.60=
or
60*4/2=
(60 times 4 divided by 2)

Unit conversions

This one is really cool. How many of us know how to convert inches to centimeters or liters to quarts or yen to dollars? Me either. So type what you need to know into the search bar like this:

4 quarts in liters
or
80 dollars to yen

Note you can use the word "in" or "to" between the units. Very handy.

Definitions

There are lots of dictionary sites where you can type in a word and get the definition. But you can save time by simply typing "define" and the word into Google.

define astute
or
define habeas corpus

Usually before you even have to hit enter, the definition pops up.

Movie showtimes

Just type in the word "movies"—or the name of a current movie you're interested in seeing—and your zip code.

movies 54401
or
dear john 48197

It will return showtimes at theaters near you. Husbands/boyfriends, get off this computer for a while and take your lovely wife/girlfriend to a movie! And I mean a movie she will enjoy. (I believe real men are not afraid to watch a chick flick in public.)

Airline information

You can find the status of a flight by typing the name of the airline and the flight number.

Delta 25

Find information on delays at a specific airport by entering the city name or three-letter airport code and "airport."

JFK airport

If you're on board a plane with Internet access and the captain isn't too forthcoming with information about whether you're on schedule, I suppose you could type in your own flight number and get the scoop that way, although I haven't tried it myself.

Package tracking

Simply input your tracking number, and that's it.

1Z9999X7777888888999

How does it do this? When you type a number into Google, it checks to see if it has a recognizable pattern, such as for tracking numbers, zip codes, area codes, VIN numbers, and more. Pretty cool.

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So there you go! There's a lot more information available in Google's help center to help you put the world's most popular search engine to work for you. Check out http://www.google.com/support.

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In the last post, we discussed 6 factors that influence the amount of time it takes a beginner to make decent money at affiliate marketing. We've got 6 more to look at today, and these may be even more important. Some of them are related concepts, but we'll take them separately. Again, they are not in any particular order.

7) Amount of time available to put in
8)Time management skills
9) Ability to focus
10) Work ethic
11) The general economy
12) Patience and perseverance

7) Amount of time available to put in

This one is pretty obvious. If all you can do is an hour or two a day, it's going to take a while. Don't get me wrong: It's still worth it. But you will reach your goals much faster if you are able to devote at least part-time hours to it, like 3 or 4 hours a day. Full-time hours are even better, but most people have to keep working their "real" job while learning affiliate marketing, so it may not be possible. Keep in mind, too, the fact that it's hard to build and maintain momentum with only a few minutes or an hour a day.

8)Time management skills

When time is limited, good management of those precious minutes and hours is even more important. Making a schedule and then sticking to it is vital. Saying to yourself that you'll work on it whenever you have a few minutes is not likely to work. Aren't we all looking for that "few minutes"? Do we ever find them? Not often enough to really make progress.

Managing your time well also means not frittering it away on checking e-mail, reading Internet forums, and playing on Facebook or Twitter. Using your time for real work instead will get you farther faster.

9) Ability to focus

Related to time management is the ability to keep focus on one task at a time, one goal at a time, one day at a time. Countless new Internet marketers have fallen into the trap of constantly moving from one technique to another, always chasing what's new and "groundbreaking," never following through to the point of actual success with any one method. Others jump around simply because they get bored. When they get to the more tedious, less exciting aspects of a method, they lose interest and move on.

Yet another group allow themselves to constantly be distracted by TV, family, Internet surfing, food, e-mail, you name it. Now, I'm not saying Internet marketing is more important than your family. Or food. But you will need to be able to work without distractions and interruptions to a reasonable degree if you hope to ever accomplish anything.

10) Work ethic

People who get into this field expecting to make easy money are inevitably disullusioned once they realize there is work involved. Much of the fault for this lies with scam artists who prey on desperation and naivete by promising boatloads of cash for little to no work. People have been conditioned to believe that Internet marketing is an easy road to riches, and the only reason they haven't made any money at it is that they just haven't found the "secret" yet.

Well, here's the secret: W. O. R. K. The sooner a person realizes this and acts on it, the sooner they succeed. Simple as that.

11) The general economy

Affiliate marketing, like any means of income, can be affected by a poor economy. I personally don't believe it is affected as much—and in fact, depending on the niche, it may actually get better—but it would be unrealistic to say economic conditions in general don't matter. If you happen to get started in AM when times are tough, it may take longer to make it pay than if things are good. Sounds rather simplistic, but why complicate a fairly obvious concept?

12) Patience and perseverance

Whether you're a patient person or not doesn't directly relate to how fast things happen for you, but obviously, if you're willing to hang in there and keep at it despite setbacks or times when you wonder whether you'll ever reach your goals, you will reach them sooner than someone who gives up after a few months.

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It's clear that there are lots of variables involved in the common question, How long does it take? The good news is that most of the 12 factors we've discussed are entirely within your power to control!

Picture yourself a year from now. Whether you give affiliate marketing a try or not, you will be a year older. You will look back on this year and evaluate your life. Whether it makes you smile with satisfaction or chafe with regret is up to you.

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Ah, the eternal question. (Okay, one of many.) You probably already know that there is no specific answer. If we all knew from the get-go that it would take 4 months, 1 week and 6 days to get to $50 per day, or 1 year, 3 months, and 2 days to get to $100 a day, it would be easier to proceed, wouldn't it? You'd know exactly what to expect and when. Just punch the formula into your calculator and away you go.

Of course, then some people wouldn't enter the field at all because they couldn't imagine working steadily at it for that long. And that's fine. The last thing the Internet marketing field needs is more people who are in it for a quick buck without that inconvenient little problem of having to *gulp* WORK for it.

But for those who are willing to put in the effort, knowing the time frame would really help them to plan everything out, confident in the knowledge that when that golden hour arrives, their bank balance will reach the anticipated level.

Unfortunately, that isn't the case. The time it takes is dependent on so many factors that it's hard to even ballpark a time frame. I have online acquaintances who have been affiliate marketing for 5 years and are still struggling to make $10 a day. I know others who started making really good money within 6 months.

What are some of the variables that create this huge disparity? We're going to take a look at 6 today and 6 more in the next post. This is not intended to be an exhaustive list, and you may be able to think of other influential factors, but here are some possibilities (in no particular order):

1) The particular technique or form of affiliate marketing used
2) The niche(s) chosen
3) Comfort level with technical aspects of working online
4) Natural ability (writing, selling, designing)
5) Amount of work outsourced
6) Extent of monetary investment

Let's take a deeper look at these issues.

1) The particular technique or form of affiliate marketing used

Obviously, some forms of Internet marketing are generally more profitable than others. Even within the more narrow scope of affiliate marketing, there are many different approaches you could take. When you figure in the fact that Person A could be far better or worse than Person B at the same thing, it becomes clear that the particular combination of you + your chosen method will most certainly affect the time it will take to make money.

2) The niche(s) chosen

Once a beginner comes to realize what a niche really is, his or her next question is usually, How do I know if a niche is good or not? Long-time marketers could probably tell from experience or with just a quick look at the numbers whether something is worth pursuing, but it's tougher for newbies. Much of it is trial and error, sometimes even for the "oldies." So Person A might understand the niche concept or the numbers a little more clearly than Person B and therefore start making money faster. Plus, trends change, and what's a great niche today may be as stinky as a wet Saint Bernard next month.

3) Comfort level with technical aspects of working online

Most people who aren't comfortable using a computer probably wouldn't have the desire to get into online marketing, but many who do have that desire have only a very basic understanding of how to navigate on the web, send and reply to e-mails, or even find their way around their own operating system in order to manage their files. That's perfectly okay, and it's that kind of person who would especially benefit from an affiliate marketing beginner course (yes, of course I mean the one I wrote; I am a marketer, after all).

But if you're under say, 30, you probably grew up using computers and are likely able to absorb and apply new information more easily than someone who grew up playing stickball outside rather than Monkeyball inside. The steps involved in creating a web site may feel more natural to younger people (or even older ones who are not intimidated by technology). In fact, you may already know how to build a site, and it's just the marketing part that you need to learn. Clearly, one's computer ability will affect to some extent how quickly their online business gets built.

4) Natural ability (writing, selling, designing)

If writing comes easily to you or you enjoy it, your site will be done sooner, and it will probably be a better site. There is a lot of writing involved in this pursuit. If you have good people skills, even in the relative anonymity of cyberspace, you will probably be able to sell more. If you have an eye for design and can either create an attractive site or at least choose a decent premade template, it will probably succeed sooner. I mean, there are forms of Internet marketing where ugly sites may do better than beautiful ones (sites that rely primarily on Google AdSense, for one), but for the most part, people will buy more readily from a professional-looking site than one that appears to have been created by Richard Simmons and Lady GaGa. After a drinking spree and three nights with no sleep.

You say you feel deficient in these areas? That brings us to #5.

5) Amount of work outsourced

If you lack inborn talent in those areas, you may want to outsource some of the work to others who are better and faster at it. This may speed things up a bit. If you prefer to do everything yourself despite not having well honed skills, it will require a good schedule and some effort, but it can certainly be done. Maybe you are perfectly capable of doing the various tasks involved but can't due to time constraints, or maybe you have the skills and the time. Either way, it will have an effect.

6) Extent of monetary investment

Do you have to spend money to make money? In the real world, the answer is often yes. In affiliate marketing, that's not always true. But it stands to reason that if you are able to invest in better tools (or contracted workers or training) initially in order to get the ball rolling, the ball will likely roll faster.

For instance, you can get a very solid start in AM with a monetary output totaling only about $6 a month (for a domain name and hosting)—that's if you are able to assimilate and apply the plethora of free information on the Internet about how to do it. (AM can also be done at no cost whatsoever, but in my opinion, it's much harder. Others may disagree.) If you feel, however, that you need some step-by-step help and are confused about all the conflicting information out there, you may want to invest in some affiliate marketing training (there I go again*). That may raise the cost to around $9 a month, which is still very affordable for most people.

There are thousands of other programs and tools available, some of which would definitely help you do things faster. However, the case could also be made that having too many tools will actually slow you down because your attention may be diverted from the basics while you go off on unnecessary tangents. I can see how that might happen. Yet in some cases, a little extra investment, such as a quality WordPress theme or keyword tool, may make the difference between seeing results within 4 months or not until you've been at it for 8 months. Or it may not.

*Just so you don't get the wrong idea: I am happy to help newbies who prefer to learn on their own, too. I don't insist that a beginner has to have my course to succeed. That would be arrogant. True, but arrogant.

I'm kidding!

You've probably gotten the point that many, many things play into the time frame for making money online, but I'm going to flog this subject some more in my next post, because some of the most important factors lie ahead. Stay tuned!

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Being that The Office is my favorite show (well, it's actually a toss-up with American Idol), I thought I'd offer up a little Office foolishness today. This is for the Jim and Pam (Jam) fans among you.

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Just a quick post today to give you this link to a CNN story about work-from-home scams. They are more prevalent than ever. Desperation due to tough economic conditions is often the reason people often fall for swindlers. Another is a lack of proper research.

You should never have to pay to be employed as an at-home worker. If, on the other hand, you're starting your own home business online, there will be some minor investments. But as an employee of someone else, the checks should be flowing in your direction, not the company's.

Common sense goes a long way in identifying scams as well as programs that may not be scams but make promises that are too good to be true. There's definitely money to be made, but it takes work, just like in a regular 9-to-5 job. So whether you want an online job or your own online business, check the company out thoroughly before you commit to anything.

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Article spinners are software programs that take an article and "spin" it by replacing words and phrases to create a new version of the article with essentially the same information. For instance, an original sentence might read:

Content spinners help you make many different articles out of one.

A spun version might read:

You can create several unique versions of an article by using article spinning software.

Both say basically the same thing, but they only have two words in common, and those are the relatively unimportant words "you" and "of." Problem is, a spinning program that is not very good or one that is in incapable hands is more likely to spit out something like this:

Subject matter rotators assist you to create multiple columns from single.

I've made up this example; it didn't actually come from a program, but I think it makes the point. You can see that just replacing words with synonyms doesn't necessarily result in a sentence that actually says the same thing as the original. At least not in a way that sounds like an adult wrote it.

Webmasters can also spin articles manually or hire someone to do it simply by rewriting the content. Automated spinning software is a hot commodity, though, because of the appeal of supposedly having it done without much human effort.

Why are they used, and should you spin your content?

Many Internet marketers like to create multiple versions of the same article so they can sell one article to many different customers while still giving them each unique content. Another purpose might be to submit the content to various article directories without creating "duplicate content." Now, duplicate content and whether it should be of concern is a whole 'nother subject, but let's just assume for the purposes of this article that you do need several versions of the same content. (See this thread in the Warrior Forum to learn more about duplicate content. It's only slightly shorter than War and Peace, but it's a fascinating read.)

As you might expect, spinners vary in quality. Some churn out nothing but garbage, and some do a decent job. Here are some in the former category that I have run across recently:

Affiliate marketing works in a win-win bearings for the merchant and the affiliate. The merchant assets opportunities to acquaint his accessories for free to a beyond bazaar which will access his sales.

What in the what? Nouns used as verbs, random pluralization, a sentence that ends in a whole different zip code than where it began.

On the added hand, the marketer allowances from anniversary chump who clicks on the articulation in his website and who veritably purchases the product or benefits of the account provided by the merchant.

Educational/informational value: Zilch. Entertainment value due to involvement of anniversary chump: Moderate to high.

Your first step is to analyze a accurate alcove you are absorbed in or amorous about so you won’t be apathetic and affected to advance your associate web armpit after on.

Amazing alliteration but also astoundingly awful. The web armpit is the best part.

Now that you have decided which accessories to advance and the merchant you are acknowledging and accept created your own web armpit with a area name and reliable hosting, you are accessible to promote. You additionally charge to be artistic and flexible.

The alliteration continues, but so does the nonsense. And the web armpit makes an encore appearance.

Most affiliate marketers don’t secure this, so back they don’t discharge sales, they quit, attending for added programs and backpack on the precedent mistake.

Yup. They sure don't. I mean they do. I mean...it would be great to combine a healthy outdoor activity such as backpacking with a sedentary job like affiliate marketing, but then your computer cord keeps getting tangled in the bushes and it just gets frustrating.

You must baby-sit your software

Clearly, if you're going to automate the rewriting of your articles, before you publish you should always run the text through the best article spinner available—you.

The reason for this is that only a human can determine the best way to word sentences in order to convey exactly the intended meaning. Synonyms are usually not truly interchangeable. There are various shades of meaning in different words, and using one with an inaccurate connotation can not only sound unprofessional but also give an entirely wrong impression. Lazy losers who are only in this for a buck and whose ethics make lawyers and politicians look good don't care what they publish. But you should.

In my opinion, by the time you enter the necessary information into spinning software and then proofread and edit the content for accuracy, you might as well have just rewritten it yourself. However, I will qualify that statement by revealing that I have never used a content spinner, because on the not-terribly-frequent occasions that I need two versions of the same article, I much prefer doing the rewriting myself.

As with anything, your mileage may vary. But if you do use content spinning software: Please, please chaperone it! It's not ready to go out alone!

(Oh, and if you know how to make a web armpit and get an anniversary chump to buy from it, please contact me.)

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If you've ever had "luggage issues" when flying, you might appreciate this comedy routine. Whoever posted it on YouTube claims it's the funniest stand-up sketch ever, so naturally I figured it would be completely lame in all respects. However, once I watched it, I had to agree: it's a scream. I love this guy. Enjoy!

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If you're someone who has always wanted to make money on the Internet, you might have discarded that dream when we all got sucker-punched by the recession. Many people assume that Internet marketing is not a very profitable pursuit at this time. Is that really true?

Well, it would be foolish to assert that the economy has not affected online sales negatively. No doubt there are retailers who have noticed a downturn, as in any business. However, for the most part, we can say with reasonable confidence that the economy has actually affected online sales positively.

How so? More and more people are turning to the Internet to get deals on items they would normally purchase from a physical merchant. Gas is expensive, prices are going up all over, and consumers are getting more confident in general about buying online.

For an affiliate marketer, then, now is actually a great time to get started (or to keep going if you're already into it). There's an interesting article at statesman.com from the Chicago Tribune called Retail Heading for Online Boom. Check it out and see if it doesn't make you feel better about your prospects of making an income online.

Start-up costs of an online affiliate business are extremely low, so even the most frugal of us can likely afford to jump in without putting an added financial burden on the family. It is also relatively easy to learn with the proper guidance, and you don't need a certificate or a degree to do well at it. See this post for more information on whether affiliate marketing is a good fit for you.

Am I telling you this just because I have an affiliate marketing product to sell? Yes and no, mostly no. Of course I want to sell copies of my e-course and it would be pointless to deny it. After all, if I didn't need any money, I sure wouldn't be sitting at this computer! (Panama City Beach, here I come!) But the information above has proved true for me as well as many other affiliate marketers I know. Some are reporting that earnings are better than ever. And I really enjoy helping others who, for one reason or another, want or need to make money from home.

SPECIAL NOTE: You can get started for even less than usual during the month of January with a 25% discount on the "Affiliate Marketing Schoolbook." Use the code jan2010. Free hosting is one of the bonuses you will receive with your purchase. See more details here or click the banner above.

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Have you ever changed something in your WordPress theme—or anything on your site, for that matter—and THEN realized you got rid of something you needed? I did this, just the other day, in fact. Is there a way to get it back?

I was using the Flexibility theme and had reset it to its original defaults because I felt like I needed to start fresh. The problem was I forgot to save the text for my "about my blog" box, and I really didn't want to rewrite it because I liked the original version and I knew I'd never remember it word for word. But since the reset deleted the text, it was no longer there to copy.

So I made use of a trick I've had to use more than once in the past: I pulled up Google's cached version of my site. If you're not familiar with the term "cache" as it relates to Google, here are the basics.

As Google crawls the web, it stores a snapshot of your page that can be referred to as the "cached version." This version is updated the next time the Googlebot pays a visit. However, for an undetermined period of time, the cached version can still be accessed. As you've likely deduced, the previous version of my "about this blog" box was still on the web. I just had to get at it.

There are several ways to find this cached version:

• In the Google search bar, type the following: cache:www.thesiteinquestion.com. This brings up a copy of your site showing how it looked before your most recent changes. At the top, you'll see a message telling you what date that "snapshot" was stored. I was able to select and copy the text I needed and paste it back into my theme. Actually, what I did was go to "View > Page Source" in my browser and copied the text along with the code for the links and photo so I wouldn't have to redo the code, either.
• There are also various Firefox extensions that with one click allow you to view the cached version. I use GCache. It puts a little icon on the lower right side of the browser. Click on it and it will show you the cached version of whatever page you are on at the time. Pretty cool.
• While on a search engine results page, click "Cached" underneath the listing you want to look at. An added benefit to this method is that it will highlight the search terms you used to get the results page. This comes in very handy if you visit someone's site but can't find any reference to the terms you're interested in. Just go back and hit "Cached" instead of the listing's title, and you'll be able to find all the occurrences of your search term.

These techniques also come in very handy if you want to view a certain site but it's down for some reason due to server overload or because the site owner is moving or changing things.

So don't panic if you accidentally overwrite something that you needed! This trick won't work 100% of the time (for instance, if you're unfortunate enough to receive a visit from Google since you made the mistake), but for the most part, it's a good technique to have in your arsenal.

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Who doesn't love laughing babies? It's hard to imagine that any but the bitterest of souls wouldn't at least crack a smile at a baby laughing from its gut. Not to mention four. Here's one of my all-time favorites:

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