Free Resources for the Aspiring Affiliate Marketer

Posted by Tammy in Affiliate Marketing, Tammy, Web Candy on May 30, 2009 | 2 comments

Ok, first of all let me apologize for my absence lately. As I explained in an earlier post, I have a new part-time gig as a home nurse. That gig is still demanding a huge amount of time. Good news is, mom is doing fairly well, and will hopefully be all “put back together” and all will be back to normal in a couple of months. Until then, Scott – with his new gig as, well…unemployed – will continue to write his little fingers to the bones to pick up my slack. What a guy, huh? Ok, ‘nuff said. On to this weekend’s Web Candy…

Lately, I’ve been focusing more of my attention on finding an income stream that looks like it may have the possibility of creating the most amount of income in the least amount of time. Sounds like a no-brainer, right? If you’ve ever done your own research along these lines, you’ve no doubt come across a ton of information about Affiliate Marketing and/or “PPC” (Pay-Per-Click) Advertising. In case this is completely new to you, I’ll give you a brief explanation. For today’s Web Candy I’ll pass along some of the best freebies I’ve found to help you learn what it’s all about, how it works, and how to do it right.

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“Today’s Brilliance” – My Guest Post at InspireMeToday.com

Posted by Scott in Scott on May 28, 2009 | no comments

The following is a copy of my guest post as it appeared at InspireMeToday.com

“This week’s Brilliance comes to us from Scott Milford. Scott writes as @scottquitter on Twitter and Scott Quitter on acoupleofquitters.com.”

“I grew up often confused by the behaviors and actions of other people. Too often, people would say one thing then do another. Naturally, I assumed this was how things were done. After many years using this method, I started to question this way of doing things, but only after I suffered much heartache and pain from my decisions and actions. But wisdom grows out of our mistakes.

Maybe you wish you would have made better choices in life, thus far. Perhaps you wish you would have been kinder, more generous or a better friend. If you could do it over again, maybe you would do things differently. But none of that matters because each moment gives you another chance to make a different choice—right now. In each moment, you can start again.

No one knows how you are feeling or anything about you except what they observe. What you show other people through your demonstration will tell them everything they need to know about who you are today. Your actions and words are your most powerful tools for self-expression; they reflect neither your past nor your future, but represent only this very moment. And who you are in this very moment is exactly who you choose to be. Your present behavior has a way of erasing unfavorable past actions or behavior and shapes more positive future conditions.

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Motivation and You: Make Your Life Awesome!

Posted by Scott in Motivation, Scott on May 27, 2009 | no comments

Motivation series conclusion. Click introduction to start at the beginning.

Over the past few months, I’ve been writing a series of posts on motivation. There isn’t really a way to cover such a deep and sometimes perplexing subject in only several posts. However, I tried to frame some of what I view as the most essential pieces of the motivation puzzle in such a way that you can read any single post and benefit from it, or you could read the entire collection and, perhaps, experience a paradigm shift. That was my intention and I hope I succeeded.

Motivation Summaries

Looking back on this series, I wanted to revisit each post and give an excerpt as well as add a few additional thoughts. Clicking on the title of each post will take you directly to the full version.

Change Occurs from the Inside Out

“It’s simple, really. What you think affects how you act. Everything you do consciously begins, first, with the thought of doing it. Certain thoughts of a specific quality, when habitually repeated, result in certain habits of behavior. Where you are today in life is a result of your habitual thoughts followed by habitual actions. You cannot consistently feed your mind negative thoughts and expect positive results.”

This is about the nature of how we change and evolve as a result of our habits of thought. This relates to motivation at its deepest level because motivation is so closely tied to how we process everything that happens to us—every experience we have or observe other people having—and how we think about ourselves. In order for any meaningful change to occur in our lives, we’re usually going to need to start at the core level of who we are and what we think about ourselves—our capabilities, our self-worth, our skills, how smart we think we are, how well-liked we perceive ourselves to be. If you wonder why you aren’t very motivated, look in these corners of your beliefs, first.

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Web Candy: Inspire Me Today

Posted by Scott in Scott, Web Candy on May 26, 2009 | 2 comments

Life presents many challenges as we work to pursue our dreams and create better lives for ourselves. There are many people going through very trying personal times. If this describes you, know that  our hearts go out to you. Some, who have gotten laid off, are scrambling to establish solid income sources through Internet businesses or work-from-home job opportunities. Whatever challenges we are presently facing, we all need inspiration from time to time.

If you’re waking up every day and spending long hours trying to start a very small business or searching for a new job, you might find inspiration at Gail Lynne Goodwin’s Inspire Me Today website. Several years ago, Gail began searching for inspiration in her own life. From her constant effort to connect with sources of a spiritual and motivational nature coupled with some serendipitous experiences, she followed her dream and founded InspireMeToday.com—a website devoted to providing profound inspiration every day from motivational coaches and teachers whose lives are shining examples of living their beliefs. You’ll find several notables from “The Secret”, such as Jack Canfield, Marci Shimoff, Bob Doyle and more, as well as leaders, professionals and motivational speakers like Les Brown, Helice Bridges, Chris Brogan, Michael Gerber and many more. And be sure to check out one of my new favorites, Kute Blackson! Read the rest of this entry »

Self-Employment Progress Report for May 2009

Posted by Scott in General, Scott on May 24, 2009 | no comments

I’m always fascinated by the way life throws completely unexpected challenges at me from time to time. I am on a mission to generate enough income so I can quit my day job. However, I just got laid off from my day job and I’m not yet making any consistent and dependable money through other means. Because of this, I’m not ready to quit my day job just yet. So now I’m looking for a new job, which is always a difficult task for me because I’m usually not interested in most of the jobs that are available.

I have been considering going into behavior specialist work again but that is such a huge commitment and often requires days, evenings, weekends and holidays. I’m not sure I want to be on call like that. Plus, if all goes well, I’ll be quitting my job next year and I don’t like the idea of forming close relationships only to quit my job next year. It’s hard for at-risk youths to form trusting relationships. So it would be like pulling the rug out from under them by quitting next year. Anyway, I’m leaning away from that work but this could change if the right job came along. For now, I’m just looking for something that will serve my needs long enough to get my other projects going.

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The 10/10/10 Plan for Identifying Your New Business

Posted by Scott in Planning, Scott on May 22, 2009 | no comments

The following is an excerpt from a guest post I wrote for Business Opportunities Weblog.

There is a growing interest in starting small businesses. So many people want to start businesses but don’t know how exactly to begin. Although there are many steps, from start to finish, that will need to be taken before your business is fully viable, here is something you can try and see if it will kick-start your progress and get you past the first step—identifying what business you want to start.

The 10/10/10 Plan

1. Make a list of 10 areas of interest or things you are passionate about.
2. Select your top item from the list and make a list of 10 ways to produce, promote, package, sell, or provide this as a business.
3. Select your top method from the list, and then make a list of 10 action steps you can take to move forward with your plan.

This may seem like a simple method, and it is really. But the results of a simple method are sometimes easier to achieve because you haven’t overcomplicated everything along the way. The great thing is, you can easily repeat the process until you’ve found your true inspiration. Let’s take a more detailed look at each step.

To read more of this post, click here. Another guest post I wrote for BOW can be found here: “Nine Tips for Setting and Achieving Your Goals”.

Accountability – A Secret Key to Motivation and Goal Achievement

Posted by Scott in Motivation, Scott on May 18, 2009 | 5 comments

Motivation Series, Part 7. Check out part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, & 6.

While conviction may be the heart and soul of motivation, accountability is like the magic pill. All goals need conviction—the power and drive that comes from firmly choosing to take action while not leaving room for anything but your expressed outcome. But the truth is, not all of the goals we set are goals in which we, ourselves, are personally interested. Sometimes we have to set goals that we are required or obligated to pursue by way of our job or personal associations. Then there are goals that we set in which the outcome is truly desired but we haven’t yet developed the conviction required to assure that we will achieve it. This is where accountability plays an important role. Let’s look at a few examples that most people have experienced where accountability has helped to motivate us—sometimes kicking and screaming—to reach a desired outcome.

School Assignments: You may have put them off until the last minute, but ultimately, you were (or still are) being held accountable by your teacher. Knowing that you were being graded or that you risked failing the class (which then led to much bigger problems) was just the right kind of accountability that motivated you to complete your assignments most of the time.

On the Job: If you’ve ever had a job, whether pet-sitting for a neighbor, or working for a Fortune 500 company, you were being held accountable for your work output and overall effectiveness every single work day. Your continued employment depended on completing tasks on time. Your raises were likely based on how effectively you did your job. If you missed a deadline or a required task, you were held accountable for that too. You were even being held accountable for getting out of bed and just showing up at work. Read the rest of this entry »

Unemployment: A Blessing or A Curse?

Posted by Scott in General, Scott on May 15, 2009 | 2 comments

A funny thing happened to me last week. Here I was, just minding my own business, when I got a friendly call from the HR woman where I work. We exchanged pleasantries, had a brief chat, and said our goodbyes. I mean, we said our goodbyes! That’s right, I got laid off. I am now jobless. I made it through several waves of layoffs over the last several months. Our company was already down to just bones. And now, they’re hitting marrow. It’s so bad that the HR woman even told me that she was getting laid off too. Imagine that! So she had to call herself and inform her that she was laying herself off. Yes, I know that’s a bit twisted, but things are tough all over, right?

So here I am in week 2 of being newly unemployed. What’s my next move? This situation is sort of a blessing and a curse. It’s a blessing because I now have more time to spend working on my projects and exploring other ways to make money. It’s a curse because this is a really tough time to be looking for another job. Plus, I’m not ready to abandon my 40-hour work week, just yet. This may come as a surprise to you because the whole point of this website is to quit my day job. So maybe my former place of employment did me a favor, right? Some people would say I should buckle down and put all my energy into developing other sources of work-from-home income so I don’t have to go back to working at a day job. But, honestly, I’m just not ready for that yet. Read the rest of this entry »

20 Great Freebies for Social Media, Productivity, Business, and Blogging

Posted by Tammy in Tammy, Web Candy on May 10, 2009 | 2 comments

We recently got the latest issue of PC World and it’s all about one of our favorite things: FREE Stuff! So, in case you don’t subscribe to PC World, we wanted to pass along some of the free goodies that look like they’d be the most interesting and useful to our fellow Quitters. Because we’re nice like that, and because that’s what Web Candy is all about. Feel free to post your favorite free goodies in the comments section. Enjoy!

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Conviction: Tap the Amazing Power that You Possess to Instantly Change Your Life—Forever!

Posted by Scott in Motivation, Scott on May 5, 2009 | 16 comments

Motivation Series, Part 6. Check out part 1, 2, 3, 4, & 5.

WARNING: AFTER READING THIS YOUR LIFE MAY NEVER BE THE SAME!

Conviction is critical to motivation. In this post, I’m going to cover how to use conviction to instantly quit smoking (forever!), or how to start a diet and stick with it, and how to set any goal and increase your chance of success to nearly 100%. I say “nearly” because I cannot control your understanding of the concepts I’ll be covering; and I cannot control what kind of goals you have and whether or not outside forces could physically interfere with the attainment of your goal. So, let’s get started…

At your command is potentially the single greatest power you could possess when trying to increase your motivation or accomplish any goal. That power is conviction. Put simply, conviction is a firmly-held belief or opinion. It’s also sometimes called “determination”, “drive” or “will power”. But contained within your conviction is the ability to break new ground in your life, to transform your landscape, and to move mountains.

Conviction is often determined by purpose. When your actions are not in alignment with your purpose, you are more likely to follow the path of least resistance which can drain you of vitality and happiness. When you are following your purpose or principles, you will have a deeper sense of fulfillment in life and will be less likely to need an external boost by giving in to your cravings. Until your purpose and actions are aligned, you will struggle to make progress in the most meaningful areas of your life. This alignment activates conviction. And this is the secret of every great person who has ever walked the face of the earth; they acted with the strength and power of their conviction. And this is a power you also posses! Read the rest of this entry »

Web Candy: Three Great Websites for Budding Entrepreneurs

Posted by Scott in Scott, Web Candy on May 2, 2009 | 1 comment

Today, many people are information junkies. And that can be just as good as it can be bad.  But I think it’s better to have too much information than not enough. Gone are the days when people worked at one job their whole lives and retired happy. It’s more likely that most people will change jobs and careers several times (or more) during their prime working years. Another trend that continues to develop is people divorcing themselves from the 40-hour-per-week treadmill and replacing it with a mobile lifestyle, work-from-home income, or even starting their own business. Self-employment is becoming more common as people reorganize their work and family lives to include fulfilling work that also increases the ability to spend more time with family.

If you’re a budding entrepreneur who’s just getting started, you’re going to need meaningful resources that can serve as a springboard for your venture or as a hub of information when specific knowledge is needed. Here are three sites that anyone considering some kind of entrepreneurial project should bookmark and use as trusted resources. Read the rest of this entry »

Create, Promote, and Sell Your First EBook—From Start to Finish

Posted by Scott in General, Scott on May 1, 2009 | 3 comments

The purpose for this series is to share what I learn as I create, promote and sell my first eBook. This whole process, I have to admit, is a little intimidating to me because I only have a vague idea of how to create, promote and sell an eBook. I’ve resisted the temptation to trash the idea of writing this series and only posting about it if things go well. But, we created this website as a vehicle for sharing what we learn, even if it comes from failing, I mean, delayed success. So sharing the process of eBook creation and sharing what I learn as I’m learning it, will hopefully serve as a guide for others who want to create their own eBook but don’t know where to start. This is where I’m starting.

Starting from Scratch

I can’t say that I have absolutely no knowledge of how this process works. The truth is, I have a general idea. I know that it’s best to write from what you know through education, experience or both. I know how to create a pdf file, which apparently is the most common format for eBooks. I have purchased a couple of eBooks and I know a little about what prompted me to buy them. Again, this is all general—even vague—knowledge. But having general knowledge really doesn’t compare to having specific knowledge. However, I tend to be pretty analytical so I’m hoping that will work strongly in my favor.

So where do you begin when you don’t know where to begin? Obviously, I can at least begin working on my content. Other than that, I know eventually, I’ll need to set up a way to sell my eBook. If you’re new here, I’ll tell you a little about what I’m creating. My plan is to make two eBooks:

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