For the last month or so I have been quietly suffering from RSI (repetitive strain injury).

So I thought I’d post this to prevent you from experiencing what I’ve been suffering with since the end of September.

If you have an online business (or are trying to start one), no doubt you use the computer more than you ever have, so it’s important you pay attention to your habits now.

It started with discomfort in my forearm, wrist and the back of my hand (especially when mousing and typing). At first I thought it was Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.  Fortunately it wasn’t, but RSI can be just as debilitating and cause as many problems if not addressed.

Turns out this could have been avoided with proper workstation ergonomics.  I’ve always heard the word “ergonomics” and knew what it meant, but ignored it because I was not having any problems.  And unfortunately most people don’t realize something is wrong UNTIL they feel the pain.

The Problem

I was typing with my hands slightly angled up while my wrists rest on the wrist pad instead of raising them so they are parallel to the floor.  My posture was also very poor.  This was causing strain on my forearms and hands.  Ouch!

I also have a tendency to hold my pinky out and erect when typing fast, so that was also causing additional strain on my forearm.   Typing fast and hard can also cause strain because you use your muscles more for speed and you have a tendency to stiffen everything up.

I was definitely the poster child for improper ergonomics and what NOT to do when typing.

Fortunately for me, my symptoms seem to be getting better thanks to improved workstation ergonomics, plenty of rest from the computer, hot and cold compresses and lots of stretching.  (Epsom salt baths also work wonders!)

I feel so blessed to have a “job” that allows me to work when I want, so the rest has really helped me heal.  I wanted to post this today to prevent you from going through the pain I’ve been experiencing.

Listen to your body.  If you feel a slight pain or stiffening in your joints then the problem is already here, and it’s just a matter of it getting worse if you don’t correct what you’re doing wrong.  Also, see your doctor for the proper diagnosis and don’t assume it will just go away.

Take care of yourselves now before you end up with a nagging injury you cannot correct later.   Who cares about making a ton of money online if you’re in too much pain to enjoy it!

There are certain techniques that I put into the worthless, “busy work” category…

1) Spending several hours per day on directory submissions

2) Re-writing other people’s content and submitting them to other sites

3) Posting worthless (”Great Post!”) comments on people’s blogs

Be careful of spending too much time on empty promotional techniques.  Measure the results of everything you do.

If you aren’t seeing a direct benefit after a period of time, either adjust your strategy/technique or move on to something else.

For example, people are obsessed over obtaining links, but all links are not created equal.

Compare the person who spends 10 hours per week hunting for link exchanges to the person who creates one useful video or article that rewards them over and over again with traffic and sales.

I’ve learned that publishing one useful video is worth more to me than submitting multiple ezine articles on any given day. So the task that takes less time actually gives me the greater benefit.

If you take the time to evaluate and track everything you do, you may be shocked at how you can make better use of your time.  That way you can do more of what works and less of what doesn’t.

Tweeting Just to Tweet

Many marketers are becoming obsessed with Twitter. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great tool. But if you aren’t measuring the results, how do you know how beneficial it really is to you?

Just because you have 2,000 followers and you tweet 10 times a day doesn’t necessarily mean much if you aren’t measuring the effectiveness.

For example, did you know that you can track many of the URL shortening services (bit.ly, etc.) if you sign up with an account?

That way you can see how many people are clicking on your links. Many of you probably don’t do this, so you have no idea how your tweets are performing.  Doing this is useful because you can learn what type of tweets get the most clicks.

Then there’s the “how-may-people-are-following-me” obsession.  This is not a popularity contest, folks. If your followers are not engaged in what you’re tweeting about, then how valuable are those followers really?

Is there proof Twitter is helping you build credibility?  How about your sales?  How responsive are your followers to what you tweet about? Have you seen an increase in referral traffic from Twitter? Are you reaching your goals? Did you set any to begin with?

I don’t do a lot of direct promotion on Twitter, but I do monitor overall responses and referral traffic. I’ve learned what kind of tweets generate the most interest from my followers.

Plus, the RT’s (retweets) I receive from my followers alone have made Twitter worthwhile for me.

Even though I don’t use Twitter as much as many marketers do, I’ve found a way to use Twitter that is worthwhile for the time invested.

So if you are tweeting just because you just feel like you should be doing it and you aren’t measuring the benefits, you could be wasting your time.

Everything you do should have a strategy behind it and you should be tracking the results at all times.

You don’t measure the success of Twitter or any strategy by how many followers or subscribers you have.  You measure it by how responsive the people are to what you publish.

Are you getting more sales?  More traffic?  Is it opening up new connections with others?  Are you building more credibility?  Do people respond and give feedback?

I hear people say things like “I’ve been promoting my site for 10 hours per day for the last month and I’m not seeing any results.”

My response is always, “What are you doing and have you been measuring and tracking the results?” All busy work is not effective work, and unfortunately there are no rewards or honors for “time spent online.”

How well are you making use of that time online? THAT is the key.   Successful marketers work smart.   They track and evaluate every task they perform.  Then they keep the best and drop the rest.

Is it time for you to do a self audit on your marketing techniques?

Periodically, I will publish case studies that feature successful websites and blogs.

Today I am featuring LovingFromADistance.com — a site that offers support, advice and help for people in long distance relationships.

Feel free to offer Michelle feedback and suggestions for her website in the comments below.

——————————

Want to have your site featured here?  Find out how.

Blog posts and videos about my failures and successes tend to go over very well on this blog.  They make great lessons and inspire.

But enough about me and my stories for the moment.  I’d like to feature someone else for a change.

I want to give you the opportunity to become a case study and I will feature your story here on this blog.  I will create a screen recording video that shows your site while I narrate your story.

The video will also be uploaded to my YouTube channel that has over 13,000 subscribers.

Of course, I cannot feature everyone who submits an entry, and I will be pretty selective about which sites I chose.  The point is to teach others so I’m looking for people who are having measurable success and don’t mind pointing out specific techniques that don’t work and ones that are currently working now.

Requirements and Questions

The only requirement is that your Alexa rank has to be at least 600,000 or less.  I realize Alexa is not the best tool for measuring a site’s traffic or success, but it still gives you a general idea about a site’s popularity.

If you are interested in being featured here, all you have to do is email me answers to the following questions.  Please use Case Study as the subject.

1)  What is your site/domain?

2)  How many page views does your site receive per month?

3)  How long did it take you to reach that traffic level?

4)  List and explain at least three techniques you used when you first launched your site that you no longer use because you found them to be ineffective.

5)  List and explain at least three of your most effective traffic building techniques.

6)  How did you come up with the topic of your website?

7)  What specific advice would you give someone who is struggling to build traffic and make money?

It’s All in the Details!

If you’d like to provide more information such as your income and more specifics about your successes and failures, that will increase your chances of getting featured.

The more detailed you are, the better.  For example, if one of your answers to question #5 is “I use video”, please explain your answer thoroughly by detailing how you use video on your site and the results achieved.

I’m looking for fresh, unique answers.  Everyone knows basic marketing techniques like SEO and social networking help bring traffic.  But if you ran a contest that helped boost site activity, or you’ve created a game or applet that has lowered your bounce rate, these are the kinds of examples I’m looking for.

Please provide specific examples and illustrate what is working for you.

Remember, I will be checking the Alexa rank of every site submitted and if your site doesn’t meet the requirement, it will not be considered.  You also must answer all the above questions.

I realize some of you may not want to give away such information because of competition, and that’s understandable. However, I know some will feel it’s worth it for the added exposure on this blog and YouTube.  So I look forward to seeing the entries!

You can’t deny the importance of goals.  They give you direction and something to shoot for.

However, the problem comes in when your goals aren’t followed up with a strategy.

I’ve seen it too many times. People have great ideas for what they want their sites to accomplish, but they fall short when it comes to the strategy part.

A classic example that I see all the time is when people say they want to create a website to make money from advertising/sponsors, but they have no plan for how they will attract interested parties.

Making money from advertising is the long-term goal, but you first have to develop a strategy for how you are going to make your site popular enough so that people will want to advertise on your site.

People aren’t just going to throw advertising dollars at you because you have a site.

First, develop a strategy that makes your site attractive to advertisers (you’ll need lots of targeted traffic), THEN start thinking about setting your prices and selling ad spots.

I know this may sound elementary to many of you, but there are still too many people starting off on the wrong foot.  They have a goal to create a website, but don’t take the time to strategize because they assume people will just flock to their site automatically.

Below is an example of a goal, followed by a potential strategy someone could use to obtain the goal.

Goal: I want to create an online store.

Strategy: First, I will develop a content website surrounding the theme of my store.  I will learn SEO (search engine optimization) to attract free, search-engine to my niche website, and use that site to funnel targeted into my store.

Lesson:  Any type of site lacking themed content that is not updated frequently, can be challenging to drive traffic to. (Unless you plan to pay for traffic.)  That is why many people choose to create content-rich websites to funnel traffic into the site.

Juggling The Task

Jim Nelson’s website, JuggleNow.com is a great example of this strategy in action.

Jim knew it would be challenging to promote a brand new, stand-alone online juggling store.  He doesn’t have the brand awareness or popularity of Amazon.com or any of the popular e-tail stores.  So he created a content-rich website about juggling to funnel traffic into his store using SEO.

In my opinion, this is one of the best ways to promote a new store if you are just starting and do not have an audience or brand awareness.

I implemented a very similar strategy with my forum, WebsiteBabble.com.  I used my content-rich, heavily trafficked website to 2 Create a Website to drive traffic to the forum because I learned (the hard way) that promoting a forum with no existing traffic base often yields poor results.

No matter if you have goals to create a forum, social networking site, e-commerce store, membership site or whatever your choice.  Take the time to learn how and why certain sites become popular.  Then develop a strategy to help you reach your goals.

Don’t become so blinded by your long-term goals that you neglect to develop a road map for how to reach them.

My recent blog post, “My Failures.  Your Lessons.” sparked quite a few e-mails over the past two weeks.

Many of you want my recommendation for the best kind of site to create if you want to make money online but don’t have a product to sell.

Here’s my answer…

I want to emphasize that the above video expresses my opinion based on my own experiences. There are many ways to make money online.  You have to discover what works best for you.

In August, I wrote about the addition of third party network advertisers to the AdSense program.

For AdSense publishers this just means there are more advertisers who can compete for ad space on your site.

So the ads displayed are not just from the AdWords program anymore.  They can also come from pre-approved, certified networks that are working with Google.

If you have a website that advertisers want to appear on, this can work to your advantage as they outbid each other for real estate on your site.

You can watch the video about this below. (Can’t see the video in your e-mail or RSS reader? Visit my blog to watch it.)

Ever since Google announced this change, my earnings have skyrocketed.  I published a video about my record earnings in July, and October looks to shatter that record by a mile.

Can I be sure this spike is due to the addition of the third party ad networks?

Not really.

Since I have no way of knowing the source of my ads (AdWords or a third party network) and which ads get clicked, of course I cannot confirm that my spike is from this change.  However, it’s hard not to assume this has something to do with it.

The Stats

In my six years as an AdSense publisher, I’ve never experienced an earnings spike like the one I’m having now.   Also, this spike was very sudden. In the past, any upward trend was very gradual.

September’s earnings were up nearly 20% over August, and if my earnings keep this current pace in October, this month will beat September by 5-10%.

Here’s another point I want to make…

In the last two months, both my traffic and click-thru percentage (CTR) have remained the same.  However, my eCPM has gone way up since Google’s announcement.  To put it simply, that just means I am earning more for my traffic (clicks, impressions, etc.)

And if my speculation about the third party networks coming into play is right, it all adds up. (Pardon the pun.)  If there are more advertisers bidding for space, that will drive up the average cost per click (CPC) of the ads and increase the amount you can earn per click.

Of course, I’m doing a lot of speculating here, and perhaps this post is premature.  But my increase in earnings over the last two months cannot be ignored — especially since my earnings trend was pretty flat during the first half of the year.

So now I’m curious.  Have you noticed an increase in your earnings since Google started allowing third party networks to advertise on your site?

Sometimes failure can be your best your friend.

Take a trip with me down memory lane as I recall a few of my failed sites and the lessons learned.

If you’re viewing this post via e-mail or an RSS reader that doesn’t support video, watch the video here.

A gentleman named Stephan asked me last week…

Lisa, how much money do you make from Twitter?

My short answer…

Nothing.

However, if I were to answer that question more indirectly, I’m sure it would be greater than that.

Here’s what I mean.

I promote my sites a lot of different ways online (through my forum, Twitter, YouTube, etc.)  However, I don’t do much direct selling on any of these sites.

In fact, I tweeted an affiliate link once on Twitter and I just felt dirty.   I personally don’t like hard selling on Twitter.  It feels a little cheap to me.

Nothing against people who do, and if it works for you great… keep doing it.  I just prefer to use Twitter to inform, educate and connect with my followers.

Now let’s talk about my forum, Website Babble.

This may surprise you, but I didn’t create it with the intention of making a lot of money.  Sure, I make some money from banners and sponsor ads, but it is hardly anything to brag about.

So what’s the point of creating a forum if you don’t plan to make a lot of money? (I can hear you thinking that.)

One thing I’ve learned about earning a full-time living as an affiliate marketer is you have to learn to build a brand…

A brand of Y-O-U.

Website Babble is just another site (like my YouTube channels and Twitter) that allows me to help and connect with my audience while I continue to build my brand and enhance my credibility.

My primary and most successful website has always been 2CreateAWebsite.com.  I use my blog, other websites and places like YouTube and Twitter to provide more advice, help, and drive traffic back to my main site.

Because of the credibility and trust I’ve gained through helping others on these sites, this strategy indirectly drives more affiliate sales in the long-run.

Maybe you don’t like Twitter and other social networking sites because you don’t see a direct way to make money from them.  But you’re failing to realize the compounded value of using multiple channels over time.

You may not be able to generate many direct sales from these microblogging and social networking sites. But if you do a good job of educating, teaching, helping, etc. you can use these tools to drive traffic to your sites and make more money in the long run.

It’s not always about getting the sale, at least not right away.  It’s a process.

Stop looking for quick, worthless traffic.  Develop your brand. Seek trust.  Become accessible.  Use the available free sites and tools online to develop relationships, connections and educate your audience.  Then watch the targeted, loyal followers that will develop over time.

These are the people who will come back to your site over and over again.

These are the people who will trust you the most.

They are more likely to buy what you recommend.

They will tell their friends and family about your site whenever they get a chance.

They will email you before buying and make sure they are purchasing from your affiliate link so you get the credit.

These people will become your bread and butter as an affiliate marketer. 

So are you just pitching products or taking the time to build your brand? Position yourself today to earn a steady, long-term income that will reward you forever.

A Twitter user, (we’ll call her Jane Doe), sent me an email last week because she doesn’t understand why she receives very few @replies and RT’s (retweets) on Twitter.

Just for the record, she is using Twitter to promote her craft related blog by networking with other people in her niche and announcing her blog posts.

To begin my investigation, I visited “Jane’s” Twitter landing page and instantly noticed that 65% of her tweets were related to her personal, day-to-day activities.

Another 30% were dedicated to her blog updates, and the remaining 5% were posts about random web-related tidbits.

So even though she claims to use Twitter for site promotion, you wouldn’t know it by examining the balance between her personal and site related tweets.

Be Careful of Twitter Vanity

It’s tempting to make a lot of your tweets about yourself and what you’re doing.  However, if you’re using Twitter for site promotion, most people are following you because they are looking to see how you will provide value to THEM.

So if too many of your tweets are about you, it can get monotonous and people may start to ignore you.

In Ken Evoy’s first e-book, Make Your Site Sell (which is now free) Ken reminds us…

No one cares about you until they know how you can help them.

Sounds a bit blunt, but it’s true.  (I love Ken’s tell-it-like-it-is approach.)

Remember, most of your followers don’t know you personally, so the mundane updates may create a “who cares” attitude among many of your followers.

Some will ignore.  Others may even unfollow you.

As I’ve said in other posts about Twitter, a fun or personal tweet is fine every now and then, but balance is key.

Engage Your Readers

One thing I’ve noticed is that people LOVE to give their opinions.

Also, when you ask a question or poll your audience, it makes people feel important and connected with you.

Not to mention, it’s a great way to generate ideas and drum up a few interesting TWIT-versations. (Did I just write that?) 

Are Your Tweets Insulting?

Not all of Jane Doe’s tweets were self related.  There were a couple that provided links to other resources.  However, there was one that really caught my eye.  It was a link to download Internet Explorer 8.0.

There was no explanation. No reason why you should update.  Just a link to the download as if it just launched this morning.

Providing a free resource link is fine, but when it is outdated or out of place, this can be confusing or insulting.

Sure, there may be a few IE7 users who may find this useful, but as a general rule, make sure your information is current and useful to the majority of your followers.

Engage With @REPLY

This sort of goes back to the vanity point above.   If you’re using Twitter for site promotion, it shouldn’t always be about you.  It never hurts to reply and make conversation with the people you are following.

If someone posts something interesting, retweet it.  Or take the time to tell them how much you enjoyed their post.

People take note and appreciate it when you send them an @reply or RT their tweets.  These people are more likely to reply to you or even RT some of your tweets in the future.

Lighten Up

One thing I like about Twitter is that the environment is very casual. When you do post something not related to your site/business, make it fun or witty. It’s a great way to display your personality.

Don’t take yourself so seriously.  Crack a joke one in a while.  It reminds people you are a human and not just a 48×48 pixel avatar with a Twitter account.

Be Valuable

There are many ways to show your value as a Twitter user…

1) Give away relevant, useful freebies that are only available through Twitter. (Relevant and useful are the key words in that sentence.)

2) Post industry news that your audience will find interesting.  Know your audience and keep them relevant.

3) Use Twitter to announce your new content and videos

4) Keep selling to a minimum

You Can’t and Won’t Please Everyone

Let’s face it.  People follow others on Twitter for different reasons.  Your follower’s expectations will always vary.  Some may be OK with your mundane updates, others may not be as patient.

You’re never going to please everyone all the time.  But if you follow the guidelines above, it will keep many of your followers interested and engaged.

We could sit here all day and discuss the best ways to use Twitter for promotion, but I bet most of you would agree that it starts with providing value to your followers.

Start with that, and there’s less room for error.  Also, people will be much more accepting of your less desirable Twitter habits.