Well, they’ve been very quiet for me. Sales are waaay slow. I thought for a minute that the trend in the books I am selling was toward the “make money online” kind. But then I sold some cookbooks, so who knows? I also admit I’m not giving enough attention to my listings. Definitely need to look at listing titles and see if I can’t do a whole lot better. And, as is always the case, I need to continue adding new ebooks.

And, of course, I’m continuing to work on diversifying my online stuff. I have several new blogs that I hope will draw in some adsense revenue, and I’ll be looking to add affiliate products there.

I stumbled across some information about a new system for getting started online that looks quite interesting. It’s called The Guru Assassin, and it’s being released on Thursday. I was very tempted by it, but then I remembered my promise to myself not to buy anything new until I got my blog system completely in place. I did ask for a review copy, and I’m very impressed. (They vary with each marketer and product, but review copies are generally more of an outline or part of the program so a reviewer can get a sense of what the product does.)

Anyway, not to take too much of your time, The Guru Assassin looks to be a pretty near perfect vehicle for folks new to internet marketing to get started, and get started making money quickly. The developer of the course, Jonny Andrews, says the “gurus” have it all wrong, that they tend to just rehash and recycle old information, and don’t really help folks. Having purchased a number of these new shiny things, I can attest to the truth of that. Andrews approaches this whole thing differently – even backwards according to the guru common knowledge – and gets results. If you’re struggling with how you want to get started, take a look at The Guru Assassin. It’s pretty inexpensive for all that’s being offered, too.

I’m off to work on my other blogs, hopefully to be more productive that I’ve been in the last few days!

Be well.

I’ve been working on a new site, so I apologize for ignoring the Diaries. In my continuing quest for diversity, I’m going to be setting up more blogs. The idea is to find the small niches that aren’t being serviced very well on the web and filling that need. The trouble for me, though, is my complete and utter lack of imagination! I know there are folks who can look at a long-tail keyword and instantly see dollar signs. I get hung up with my research – and distracted by following a new trail for more information! Oh well, as with all things, I’m reassured that all it takes is practice.

My new blog is http://www.glutenfreelifeonline.com, started because my sister and niece have both been diagnosed with celiac sprue disease. I’m still working on the long-tail, underserved keyword thing. I am working on incorporating video, pictures, articles, and other blog posts into it. It’s built around the FirePow system I told you about last month. Check that post here.

One note about keyword research. There are tons of ebooks and tutorials out there about how to do it, what tools to use, how to find profitable markets, etc. But the one I’ve found to be an absolutely fabulous tool is MicroNiche Finder. It’s from a fellow named James Jones, and he really knows his stuff. This tool gathers together all the niche/traffic sources, gives you the traffic counts, the competing pages both for broad and exact search terms, and even has a red-yellow-green light feature to tell you whether the keyword looks profitable. Although I bought it some time ago, I’m just now finally using some of the features that go way beyond simple keyword research. I’ve gone on enough about this, but I did want to suggest you check it out. At the very least, watch the free videos; they’ve give you some good keyword hints (and James is fun to listen to).

So finally to eBay. If you’re signed up with them, you’ve probably received the email about their fee specials. If not, here it is: for the month of January, the fees for 1 and 3 day auctions are half off. They’ve also extended their free subtitle offer through March. You are also reminded that your payment method can no longer include accepting checks or money orders. If you ship books, music, DVDs & movies, or video games, be sure that your shipping charges are in line with what eBay now allows. This has been a bone of contention for buyers, and eBay has responded by setting maximum charges. They say if you violate their new guidelines, they’ll remove your listings.

Back to my research. Be well.