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Shirts, Mugs and Hats of the Day
Posted Wednesday, April 23, 2003 by johndilbeck
For the first time in months, I've been able to work on my store at Shirts-Mugs-Hats.com. I cleaned up a lot, discounted quite a few prices for spring and added a new section.
SFI Marketing Group affiliates may want to check out the Millionaire In The Making products to help you market IAHBE and other products represented by SFI.
Or, perhaps you're not affiliated with SFI, but you are still working on your first million. In that case, you're a Millionaire In The Making, too. Check out all the products, find one you like, and let the world know that your focused on your goal of reaching that million dollar mark!
Let's see. If I can persuade about half-a-million of you to purchase something from my store, I'll have to design a group of "Multi-Millionaire In The Making" products.
*grin*
There are lots of other designs at Shirts-Mugs-Hats.com, and you're always welcome to check them out!
Did you know Google could do this?
Posted Wednesday, April 23, 2003 by johndilbeck
I learned recently that Google.com can provide all sorts of interesting information if you type in a phone number in the search box.
Try typing in your phone number, a business number, or a friend's number, including area code, in the form of 999-999-9999 in the search box at Google and see what turns up. You may be surprised.
I was.
Or, as I just now learned, try typing in an email address. I just found a whole new group of ancestors by typing in my email address and viewing one of the sites I found.
Interesting.
You learn something every day -- if you try.
Do you have a home business in western North Carolina?
Posted Wednesday, April 23, 2003 by johndilbeck
If you have a home business in or around Cherokee and Clay counties in western North Carolina, I'd like to meet you.
In this area of the state, as beautiful as it may be, it can be difficult to earn a living. I enjoy working from home and I'd like to meet others who do, too.
You may know that Shoe Booties Cafe in Murphy has a breakfast on the first Wednesday of every month at 8:00 am for local business owners and operators. (Call 835-7433 for more information.)
I'm going to start being a regular there and I'd like to see if we can arrange another breakfast or lunch towards the middle of the month for home business owners so we can work together to help all of us earn more.
Interested?
If so, feel free to email me at jd@johndilbeck.com, join my forum and discuss it there, or talk to me at the business owners breakfast at Shoe Booties. I'll be the small giant wearing rainbow suspenders.
Or, if you prefer, mention it to George or Muffy Kerber whenever you visit Shoe Booties and I'm sure they'll pass it on to me.
What is the International Association of Home Business Entrepreneurs?
Posted Wednesday, April 23, 2003 by johndilbeck
I am a proud member of the International Association of Home Business Entrepreneurs. I started putting their logo and a link to their website on most pages of my websites last month.
A few months ago, when it became clear to me that I had to earn more money and still be able to stay home, I started to seriously investigate home business opportunities.
For six weeks or so, I checked out dozens of websites, mailing lists, and other online sources of information. About the only thing I knew about multi-level marketing was old stories about Amway and other similar companies.
I realized how ignorant I was, so I read several books on the subject and explored websites that were both pro and con on the subject. The sites ranged from clueless newbies doing anything just to try to get one sale to veterans who were earning large incomes while working from the comfort of their own homes.
I found sites that thought Network Marketing (another term for MLM) was the wave of the future and other sites that thought anything related to MLM was the scourge of the universe.
Somewhere between the opposite extremes, I found several companies that looked to be promising. I won't participate unless the company is sound, ethical, and -- hopefully -- profitable.
Over a month or so, I narrowed my focus down to one company -- SFI Marketing Group. SFI stands for "Six Figure Income" and that's the goal of many of the affiliates. Currently they have over seven million affiliates, and I suspect that maybe a thousand or so are earning an income from it and less than 100 are earning a substantial income. All businesses require work and creativity. Some people are more skilled and knowledgeable than others -- are are therefore able to earn more. But, it's not a difficult business. Anyone with enough ambition, creativity, and persistence can earn from this business.
And, they're poised on the verge of introducing something that I'm going to be very interested in, in the near future.
In January, when I was right in the middle of moving all my websites to a new server, they introduced the Internal Association of Home Business Entrepreneurs. I read all about it, examined what they were offering and compared it to the $30 monthly fee. I'd decided that I wanted to earn more from my home business, so who better to learn from than folks who are already doing it?
I've been very happy with the benefits of IAHBE -- which includes a magazine subscription to SFI Magazine, and monthly CDs which include marketing information, audio seminars, some software, and bonus offers for books and magazines. From the first couple of mailings, I learned new things that have already paid back more than I spent. I'm confident that it will continue that way.
Even though it, IAHBE -- not SFI, is a new organization, it's great to have access to information to help my web business grow, and by becoming an affiliate of SFI, I have access to their discussion boards and other marketing resources (which are free).
I'm still not a "true believer" in multilevel marketing, but this company has passed my tests for quality and stability. I checked them out with their local Better Business Bureau and got a great report.
Whether or not you are interested in their affiliate program, you might want to check out the International Association of Home Business Entrepreneurs and see if it's right for you.
Of course, your mileage may vary, but it has been valuable for me.
If you'd like, you're invited to register for my forum and discuss your views on this subject there.
Check out this new link exchange, and other quality services and products from Ken Evoy
Posted Wednesday, April 23, 2003 by johndilbeck
For the last three years, following methods I learned mostly from Ken Evoy in his Make Your Site Sell ebook and in his free Affiliate Masters email course, I've managed to finally get JohnDilbeck.com in the top two percent of all websites based on traffic, as monitored by Alexa.com. While it may not be definitive, it's a good way to measure progress. The last time I checked with Alexa, I was in the top 280,000 websites or so and they estimate that there are about 1.6 million websites under active development. That makes each percentile about 160,000 websites.
It's been a long road, but it is possible.
You can read more about Ken and his products on my Does Your Site Sell? page.
I've bought several of Ken's books and, even more importantly, I've put what I learned to work on several sites, and every month I have more visitors and more customers. And that's what I want.
Since my time for blacksmithing is limited these days because of helping taking care of Mom, I've been spending even more time on the web when I can. I try to learn something new every day and apply it to one or more of my sites.
I'm not getting rich, but I'm making progress and I'm earning 100% of my income from the web these days. It gives me enough income to allow me to stay home and help Mom, and that's more important -- to me -- than having a career right now.
So, to finally get to the point, Ken's just now opening up a new type of link exchange on his website that is designed to increase traffic to his Site Build It! customers. He's hinting that getting into the Value Exchange in the future may be restricted to his customers or may require a fee, but at the moment, it's free to register your site there. He wants to pre-fill it with quality sites, and I wanted to let you know about it.
Here's a quote from his latest newsletter:
SiteSell Value Exchange
"The World's ONLY True-Blue, Real Link Exchanger that WORKS!" A powerful PREseller, now your friends, colleagues, visitors readers, and just about anyone else can find high-value, similarly themed sites, then exchange links to TRULY increase your link popularity, in a way that then engines LOVE.
To register your site, go to the Value Exchange page and fill in the short form. If you already have a good description for your site and know what keywords to use, then you're ready to go.
This won't cost you anything, and you'll be grandfathered in if he starts charging for the service or closes it to only Site Build It! owners.
In every dealing I've had with Ken and his company, I've been more than satisfied and I always get more value for the money I spend (if I spend any -- there's so much there that's free) than I do from any other company I can think of.
I'm proud to be both a customer and an affiliate.
Want to learn more -- for free? Take one of the following email courses and learn how to sell more online with your website.
Service Sellers Masters Course - attract new clients from around the world...or from around the block. Send a blank email message to tsmssellmoreonline@sitesell.net
Affiliate Masters Course - shows you how to become a high-earning affiliate champion. Send a blank email message to tamssellmoreonline@sitesell.net
InfoProducts Masters Course - How to brainstorm, create, produce, and sell your very own infoproduct online. Send a blank email message to timssellmoreonline@sitesell.net
Join the Virtual Grand Opening
Posted Tuesday, April 1, 2003 by johndilbeck
You're invited to join us for the virtual grand opening of Dilbeck Marketing.
The snacks are tasty, the drinks are free, and the shrimp are humongous. ;^)
Since I became a Kaeser & Blair dealer, I created a new website to help me promote my promotional products business.
I'm located in Murphy, NC, and I'll be contacting businesses, schools and organizations in Cherokee and Clay Counties to start with. Dilbeck Marketing is new to promotional products, but I'm an authorized dealer for Kaeser & Blair, one of the oldest and most successful advertising specialty distributors. They were founded in 1894 and their more than 100 years of experience will help me help you.
While I'm located in western North Carolina, I can help you no matter where in the United States you may be located. It's not possible to have a catalog with all the items I now represent, but I've added a few representative catalogs at Dilbeck Marketing. Even though you can't order from those catalogs, you can look for items for your next promotional campaign.
I'm happy to help you find the right item to go with your next event or promotion. Email me at jd@johndilbeck.com and I'll be happy to help. We have a huge selection of advertising items and I can probably save you money, too.
If you're interested, go to the business and marketing forum and register. Join a conversation or start your own.
See ya there!
JD
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