As I sit here writing this it is 99 degrees outside and we have spent a few hours buying school clothes. That means we have a week to go until school starts!

So in about 8 days I will be back to work, the summer is 8+ weeks of holding pattern for me, work when you can and make what you can in between swimming, chasing lizards and getting more clothes dirty than I would have thought my daughter owned.

I know not everyone stops work for the summer, some people have big teams to keep employed and some people don’t have kids so they can work right through. For me it has been a very up and down time. I found a renewed passion for selling, on eBay of all places, the buzz of a $1.50 needlework pattern selling for $36 and $3 shirts going for $50 was a good one. It has been nice to do something different and learn that the skills you build in traditional IM have a use on eBay.

I have been watching some people launch product that are half baked and poorly envisioned but make a fortune on them as they have a flash sales page and are well connected. That makes me sad but some other things happened to reassure me that the good guys do ok as well..

Over the summer I have seen people change direction 180 degrees and that is a good thing. If the stuff you are doing isn’t making money then change, write a book, find a product to sell, offer services. No one has the right answer for everyone, you are working for your own benefit so do what works for you.

So what have I seen/heard/learned this last week or so (i really havent been paying attention before that)..

Hostgator Fail
In the last week both Hostgator and a couple of other big hosts have had huge downtime. This cost a lot of people a lot of money, some product launches got held up, I am sure a lot of amazon/affiliate sales were lost and of course Adsense clicks can’t be made if they can’t see your site.

This made 2 things happen on Facebook..

1-Everyone moaned, a lot, and slagged off the new owners of Hostgator (which doesnt explain why the other company was down)
2-Everyone moved to a “better” host and then shared their affiliate link. They had been with the new company for all of 10 minutes so there was no way to really know if they are any better but hey when did that stop anyone slapping up an aff link?

Black Hat Still Works
I have not got a clue why this is news to anyone, Attempting to manipulate the Google results is a full time job for more than one very smart cookie. The latest news (and it seemed obvious to me so not sure why it is big news) is that by changing the dates on your WordPress posts you can fool Google into thinking it is new and ranking it higher (ok maybe a bit more to it but that is the basic gist).

Seemed pretty obvious that this was at least worth a try as soon as they started talking freshness. I believe there is at least one plugin that does it for you. One thing people forget is that BH is not easy, it is no easier than “White hat” SEO . You have to know your arse from your elbow, you have to be able to do some elementary technical things and you have to be able to think.

That is why so many people do it really badly, they don’t think and they don’t take the time to learn the technical skills needed to achieve the desired result.

There is Gold In Them Thar Hills…Still
This is one thing that hasn’t changed over the summer, there is money being made and there are products being released telling you how to do it. The other thing that hasn’t changed is that people are buying the products then doing nothing with them.

Services are resurfacing, and higher priced ones, this is a great way to make some money. Offer a service that you can do standing on your head but others can’t.

Niche, Niche, Quiche
This was reconfirmed rather than learned, anyone can built a wordpress site for you for $150 or less. There are plenty of people who can write “quality” content for your site. Even getting videos made isn’t expensive, but if you pick a niche that is a dud then nothing will help you.

That is all for today, I have one more week before I am back at this full time, ok well more full time than I have been for the last 2+ months. I want to hear what you have been up to , what has bummed you out or excited you. Come on share the news!

It feels like I have done nothing but read for the last month. My head hurts!

It really does feel like I went back to college and took a intensive course, one where they beat you over the head with a book and keep your eyelids open so you have to watch videos for hours.

I can see why people keep doing whatever it is they are doing, no matter whether it works now or not. Learning new stuff is hard work. It can also be expensive if you buy all the products recommended. This is why everyone tries to get newbies on their email lists, you buy stuff in the hope it will offer you a short cut to success.

Sometimes it does, sometimes it offers a stepping stone and sometimes it is just a pile of poop written in large font so it fills the pages.

Why Look Into New Industries?
Because I have been caught before by just doing one thing, when I stopped doing software and solely worked on adsense sites I did very well..Until Google changed something and my sites tanked.

When I stopped everything else to work on one product for weeks.. Well someone released a very similar tool a week before mine and ate the market (especially since they were giving 100% across the board to affiliates).

Diversify
I want to add another income stream to my business and the only way to do that is to go back to school. You can’t keep doing the same thing and expect different results. If you have 5 sites that earn nothing and build another 5 using the exact same methods then the chances are you will get nothing from that 2nd group of five.

Use the knowledge you have and find a way to use that is different from what you already do.

You know how to make unique wordpress themes, find local companies with pig ugly sites and offer to make them a site that represents their business. Know someone who produces the most unique ashtrays you have ever seen, offer to set up their ecommerce operation.

Stop saying “i can’t” and change to “I will try”. If you try doing something and it doesn’t work as expected, then you can guarantee you will learn something along the way and that may be enough to create a new income stream.

Mindset
One thing I have seen over the last 8 years online is that lots more people are talking mindset, and I will be honest and say I think that a lot of what I have read is hooey. But if you have a mind that says “don’t even bother trying” then you are doomed no matter what. You have to be in the game to have a chance of winning it.

If you can get your mind into a positive place and at least try then you have a much better chance of winning.

Find Balance
I have struggled to balance the new research with the needs of keeping income flowing now, there are only so many hours in a day and choosing how to use them can be tough. You have to balance all your personal and business needs out and that can be the toughest thing for anyone to do.

So is my research paying off? That is the big question.. The answer… Yes it is starting to and will grow