Diary of an Online Business

I just arrived home from a trip around the world (and yes it was fabulous and yes, I will be sharing some pictures with you) to receive a very blunt letter from Google – they had disabled my Adwords account! What does that mean? It means that I can never advertise on Google Adwords again.

Now if I was you, the first question I would be asking is why? Well that’s exactly what I also asked Google and to date (10 days later) I have not had any sort of answer.

Google Adwords have told me that I have broken some unforgivable rule but I really do not know what.  Since learning of this we have:

• audited all our websites

• talked with Hostgater to see if any nasties had been put on there that we weren’t aware of

• talked with our email service to make sure we are receiving all messages
• contacted a number of people in the business including the adwords expert Mike Rhodes
• read other people’s stories who have had the same thing happen to them -and there seems to be a few
• reread Googles rules and regulations to see if we could identify any rule we may have unknowingly broken – and couldn’t identify anything

And at the moment we are no further advanced on why this has happened to us and how to fix it.

As you can imagine this is time costly.

The thing that I am really having trouble with is that Google Adwords is telling me that I have not acted ethically (my interpretation).  My whole professional life has been governed by the ethics of caring for others so I not only see this banning by Google as a very large threat to my business but also to my reputation.

I am an optimist and definitely believe that when one door closes another opens. We’ll just have to work out other ways of driving traffic and certainly people are telling me not to worry about this as there are other ways to do it.

I think though I’ll give it a few more tries appealing to Google as I really want to believe in the good Corporate culture and spirit that we hear so much about today. I will choose to believe it is alive and well

I’m really needing some support, advice and information with regards to this one so please leave your comments about anything you feel would be helpful to me and others like me in this difficult situation.

My advice for my readers – check your websites against the Google Adwords regulations. Obviously, this has not been enough to save me a lot of confusion and distress but I really hope that it will be for you

Until next time

Julie

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You may be asking where I have been all this time? Well I’ve been very busy getting my new membership site ready and it is now launched and ready for viewing – www.secretstoemotionalhealth.com.

I’d like to give you the first instalment in “The 6 Vital Steps to Emotional Health” Hope you enjoy.

How To Be Free Of Emotional Baggage and Finally Live a Life of Health, Vitality and Abundance

Did you know that research shows that 90% of all illnesses are stress related?

Did you know that stress is caused by negative emotions such as fear, worry, frustration, powerlessness, resentment, bitterness, sadness and many other feelings?

If you control your emotional health, you control your overall health and well being!

Here are Six vital steps that if you take action with, will help you get started on a more energetic, healthy, happy, content and fulfilled life.

Let’s get healthy:

Step One – Establishing Self Care as an Integral Part of Emotional, Mental and Physical Health

“What you are is God’s gift to you. What

you do with yourself is your gift to God.”

Danish Proverb

Human beings are a complete system made up of the physical, emotional, mental, spiritual and social. Each part of our system impacts on the other. To have good emotional health we must have good physical health. To have good physical health, we must have good emotional health. So let’s start at the being with how to care for our body and reap the rewards of strong emotional health.

On any given day, we have a certain amount of energy to spend to accomplish the necessary tasks for the day. If life is going well and we are fit, healthy and happy, then we will have a larger amount of energy to spend than if we are going through some form of life crisis. When faced with life’s problems, our precious resource of energy can be very quickly used up.

Digestion uses more energy than any other activity we engage in. However, negative painful emotions are the second greatest user of our finite stores of energy. In other words, personal disaster will cause us to feel many painful emotions such as, fear, hurt, frustration, confusion and powerlessness and these emotions will use up a very large proportion of our daily energy allowance.

Without an adequate source of energy, we will find it very difficult to successfully navigate the challenges we may face as we move forward to a healthier life. Not only will our body feel exhausted but our brain function will also be diminished and we may find it difficult to make decisions and remember things.

Just like a car requires not only petrol to run, but the right sort of petrol – our bodies also require the correct fuel and proper care to perform at a time when we are most challenged.

Below, is a simple but effective prescription for self care that if followed, will help you perform at your optimum:

· Be careful about the types of food you eat. When under pressure, we often turn to the fast foods that are easy to reach for and give us a quick burst of sugar. In very simple terms:

o The best food to eat is unprocessed. Try to stay away from processed foods such as, fast food, cakes, chocolates, sugar drink.

o Replace these with vegetables, fruits, nuts and protein such as meat and fish. Complex carbohydrates such as fruits, vegetables and whole grains help increase our levels of serotonin. Serotonin is a brain chemical or neurotransmitter that helps us feel calm. Of course, this is very important in times of crisis.

o Protein taken three times a day, at about the size of the palm of your hand, will help you to not feel as tired.

o Try to eat something no more than one to two hours after waking as this will help keep your blood sugar levels up for the day

o Eat frequently, that is every three to four hours, the types of foods I have mentioned, as this also will help keep your blood sugar levels up, thereby helping you to not feel tired and confused.

· What you drink is also important. Remember to drink a minimum of two litres of water per day. Reduce or cut out alcohol as it acts as both a stimulate and depressant. During times of stress our adrenals are working overtime and it is a good idea to avoid anything that will further stimulate them. Caffeine and sugar also stimulate the adrenals so it is important to reduce or cut out drinks such as cola, coffee and soft drinks.

· Try to get some form of cardiovascular exercise 4 – 5 times a week for between 30 – 45 minutes each session. This form of exercise includes walking, swimming, cycling, running and dancing. Cardiovascular exercise helps us produce many good chemicals such as, serotonin, already mentioned and endorphins which are a natural opiate or feel good chemical. This form of exercise also helps us get rid of the stress chemicals such as, cortisol and adrenaline that are produced in times of adversity and stress.

· Try to get adequate rest, sleep and relaxation. During periods of stress, the body produces high levels of toxins. It is when we relax and sleep that the body has an opportunity to repair and restore itself. Denying yourself rest will affect your ability to continue to reach your full potential.

· Tap into every form of support possible.

Although this information may be a bit technical I have found that if people understand why they need to keep up these basic self care practices they are more motivated. Keeping your body in good shape, will be one of the most powerful things you do to help keep your mind and emotions in peek condition to help you bring about the changes needed to live your best life.

I’ll send part two very soon but to learn more why not come to one of my seminars:

Talk soon

Julie

PS the website again is www.secretstoemotionalhealth.com and I’ll be sending out lots of free products to change your life

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Just arrived back from our holiday in beautiful Coffs Harbour (that’s in New South Wales Australia for those not local). We had a great time but unfortunately I probably had a better time than Will as he had the flu, so he is happy to be safe and sound in his own bed.

This post begins a six part series from Andrew and Daryl Grant on how to sell your ebook online. We originally started in their ebook mentoring program – see the banner on the right hand side or simply click this link to have a look at this website:

http://www.ourinternetsecrets.com/aff/?p=jspain&w=mp09-4

We then progressed into their Our Internet Secrets program. I will be writing a review of this program later on but if you cannot wait to find out more just follow this link to find out about their amazing 4 day workshop. It truly was the best workshop I have ever been to:

http://www.ourinternetsecrets.com/aff/?w=4dayws197&p=jspain

These are the steps that we followed to write our first two ebooks. If you want to look at our ebooks them go to:

www.copingwithlifecrisis.com

www.guidetoonlinedatingtips.com

Step One – Identify A Potential Topic

You are after a topic which lots of people are looking for, and where people “must have” (rather than “need”) the product.

You also want a “niche”, ie a topic which is not too general. For example, “health” is far too general, but “melanoma” is specific enough.

You don’t necessarily need to know anything about the topic, but it helps if it’s something you are interested in.

The tool we use to determine how popular ideas are is http://www.keyworddiscovery.com/search.html.

Click here for a list of the 204 best selling topics on line.

Once you have come up with some ideas, search for the key words you think people interested in a topic might look for. You are looking for words or phrases which total more than 30,000 hits per month on keyworddiscovery for your topic. For example if you type in “skin cancer” you get over 53,000 hits per month.

Next do a search on Google for the same words. You are looking for:

• The number of websites on the topic (you want this to be in the millions)
• Existing ads. You don’t want a topic where someone is already using a good sales letter and selling an e-book. You also don’t want heaps of ads, otherwise you end up paying too much per click to get in the top three.

 

The Grants talk about using the keyword discovery tool but there is a much easier way now with the Google Keyword Tool. Just go to: https://adwords.google.com.au/select/KeywordToolExternal

This is only the first step. Stay posted for the next 5 steps. I cannot stress how useful this information has been to us in getting started with our online business and I hope it helps you also.

Until next time

Julie

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Ok, am I the only one who at times suffers from self doubt?  Am I the only one who sometimes thinks this is all too much for me and I’ll never be as successful as all those other people out there who are running successful online businesses?

I didn’t think so! What human being has not suffered from some form of self doubt in their lives? Will she accept my offer of a date?  I don’t think that I’m going to be offered the job. Why is it that everyone else in the world is smarter, prettier and more successful? Or, here’s the big doozie: “Why does everything have to be so hard for me and so easy for everyone else?”

Come on now, be honest, surely I am not the only one who goes through this painful experience of self doubt?  The question here could be why write about this on a blog designed for online business success? For one reason only: self doubt could rob you of any opportunity to be successful with your online business – hey, even with me and my online business.

Most success coaches (that’s me believe it or not) would tell you that success is determined 90% by what we think and only 10% by what we do. There was an interesting experiment some time ago that looked at coaching success for basketballers. They took three groups: the first group was only allowed to think about shooting hoops, the second group was only allowed to practice shooting hoops and the third group was coached in both mental and practical basketball skills. Which group did the best? Group one and three both succeeded to the same level. In other words, the actual action of shooting hoops made litttle difference. It was all about training the mind.

Occassionally this self defeating blockage of self doubt pops into my head so what do I do about it? This is what I do and maybe it will help you:

1. Remember the dream. We have a dream book and I like to remind myself of exactly why I started this online business in the first place. It is a powerful motivator.
2. Allow myself a little pity party but after a short time of feeling the feelings and feeling sorry for myself, I take a deep breath and tell myself to get back on with the job.
3. I recall all the things in my life that I have already been successful with eg. raising three daughters and for part of that time on my own, completing two degrees, having  a  private practice for 15 years, managing a 140 staff successfully in the program that I run currently, surviving a terrible divorce and best of all finding the love of my life later in life. If I can do these things then I can continue to face life’s challenges and win
4. Mix with people who will pull you up, not pull you down. We all need encouragement. I truly hope that my blog is an encouragement to you and that in some ways I can be a mentor to others in need.

Let me know what you do to deal with an attack of the self doubts. I know that it will be of help to others who are reading this.

I’m off for a weeks holiday to beautiful Coffs Harbour tomorrow so no post for a week. I really am a firm believer in the need for self care and nurturing.

Until next time

Julie

achieving your goals, internet business, internet businesses, motivation, online business, online businesses, success Add new tag, mental blockages, online business, online business; internet business; success; learning;, success; secrets to success; motivation; online business; internet business

Recently, I read something that made me think about the challenge of winning or in other words, achieving success:
“Do you not know that in a race all the runners run but only one gets the prize”
1 Corinthians 9:24
I really related to this quote and the fact that I just did not want to be involved in running the race, I actually wanted to get the prize when it comes to being successful with my online business. I started to think about what winners actually do to win and soon realized that all of these things were applicable to success with my online business.
If I want to be successful with my online business, then I need to follow all of the steps below:
1. Train hard. For more information on this go to Entry 2. February 18th 2009 “The Key To Unlocking The Secrets To Success” We must put the effort in. Practice, practice and then practice some more to perfect the skills. I just learnt recently, that it takes 10,000 hours of practice to be truly good at something.
2. Take time to understand and respect your competition. You are not an island. You are actually competing against others for the coverted prize. Study and learn from your opposition. Learn to do things different and better.
3. Never give up. Winston Churchill said it beautifully: “We will never, never, never…………..give up”. The major point is that he said “never” for 30 mins. I think he made his point.
4. Practice discipline and routine. First decide what routine you will need to achieve your dreams. Then of course repeat it – over and over again. It only takes 28 days to establish (or break) a habit, so why not establish great habits that will lead you to exactly where you want to go
5. Focus, Focus, Focus. It is so easy to be distracted by 1000’s of other things in your life. By all means, enjoy life to the best of your ability but discipline yourself that at certain times you will be totally focused on the tasks required to win the prize you are chasing. Without focus you will just spend alot of time getting nowhere in particular.
6. Sacrifice. Oops! Not really a well loved term today. We need to sacrifice now so we can enjoy the fruits of the prize later. The athelete who gets up to train at 4 and 5am would probably much rather have a couple of hours extra sleep but when the stand on the podium to win their prize all the sacrifice is forgotten in the joy of the win. We need to sacrifice of our time, energy and resources.
7. Prioritize. Does anyone else have trouble with this? Sometimes we try so hard to prioritize what we believe to be important but still get it wrong. 5 years, 10, 20 years of hard work goes by and we still are not where we want to be. Stephen Covey tells us we spend 80% of our time working on things that are really only 20% important to us. Get hold of a journal and spend some time deciding on what is important to you and then start to prioritize. You will be amazed at what you can accomplish in a much shorter period of time.
8. Dream. “Without a vision, the people will perish”. Dreams keep us alive. They get us up in the morning with with renewed vitality and motivation to tackle the day with purpose. My husband and I have a dream book. In it we write the things that we want to achieve. Some are small and personal such as dancing lessons, others are large and longterm such as a successful online business to create passive income. Write everything you have dreamed of – no judgements. It will surprise you what is really in your heart
9. Never lose sight of the goal. This can be difficult when you are seeing few results. Keep coming back to your dream book. Remember why you embarked on this journey.
10. Build a good support team around you. The athelete has the coach and the physio to name just a few. You will need a mentor or coach. Hopefully, I can be part of that journey for you as we learn together. I would also like to recommend the people we use Andrew and Daryl Grant. Just go to the banner ad on the front page of my blog. I’ll be talking more later about this topic.
11. Understand your personal roadblocks, obstacles and weaknesses. They say that 90% of the battle is in the mind. This is the purpose of this blog and I will be writing much more on this topic.
12. Educate yourself about the process, skills and techniques that you will need to acquire to be successful at the internet business you have chosen. This is your fasttrack to success and as already mentioned in Point Number 1 see my Entry 2 post.
13. Remember to take care of your main tool – yourself. No one else is going to do this and if you burn out or go off the rails then your dreams of winning the prize will never be realized.

Let me know if you have any other points that would help other people in this area of running the race to win the prize. In particular, I would love to hear what roadblocks you have to achieving your dreams?

Until next time
Julie

achieving your goals, internet business, internet businesses, motivation, online business, online businesses, success achieving your goals, Add new tag, learning, mental blockages, online business; internet business; success; learning;, success; secrets to success; motivation; online business; internet business

It all started at the beginning of August 2008. At least that is when I actually started to do something about developing an online business. Prior to this time I had been busy reading whatever I could lay my hands on that might give me a clue how to go about all of this. Of particular use were:
“Secrets of Internet Entrepreneurs Exposed” Dale Beaumont
“How To Make Money While You Sleep” Brett McFall
But the one that actually first got my husband and I fired up with ideas was Mark Victor Hansen’s “One Minute Millionaire”. I can remember running downstairs to Will, jumping up and down shouting and trying to tell him that this was the answer to our prayers and the means of achieving many of the dreams that we had written down together on our dream book in January 2006.

At this time we knew absolutely nothing about internet businesses.  The books and people we listened to gave the distinct impression that this was all really easy and we would be making tons of money within a few days.

Well, I’ve found both to be untrue although I am sure for a lucky few it seemingly happens overnight.  To build an online business, like any business, actually takes lots of hard work and lots of time.  Maybe we are just slow learners ?   Or maybe we are really trying to learn about this business thoroughly.

Anyway, I had this idea about creating a website dedicated to me discussing the trials, tribulations and hopefully the successes of our journey to building a successful online business.  My aims are to help others but to also help myself.  I’ve always used journaling to deal with my emotions, clarify my thoughts and ultimately to give me direction. So for me writing this diary on line is quite a natural extension of something I have always done, I’m just using a different format. I suppose the teacher in me is also itching to get out

I’m hoping that as I learn from my mistakes, so will others

Until next time

Julie

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