I did find a better way to use StumbleUpon.  Like any online community, StumbleUpon wants you to be an active member.  They don’t want you to use them as a bookmark repository and nothing more.  However, they do stimulate traffic (non-targeted) and can keep you from dropping into Internet Oblivion.

In my last post I said that I was going to start blog commenting and try to find some online communities in my niche.  I want to find blogs where people are commenting and not just posting.  By using the search feature in the StumbleUpon toolbar, I set my search parameters for blogs in my niche (garden blog) and then Stumbled a few of them.  I found some great sites to work with.  Over the next couple of weeks, I am going to do some daily posting to 5 or 6 of them and see what happens.  This should be fun.

My blogs have matured enough to have  some interesting information on them and I feel good about promoting them.  I’ve got backlinks accumulating through Traffic Bug and have submitted them to my accounts on Delicious, Diggo, etc.  In most cases I have articles submitted to Ezine Articles and Qondio and one or more Squidoo pages.  In short, they have a good start but need to go to the next level.

I have decided to start visiting forums and blogs to meet people with similar interests,  It’s one of the strategies Gideon and Yaro promoted in a recent Become A Blogger Mini Course email.  If this sounds like something that would help you, please take advantage of their course.  It’s free and worth spending some time on.  The following are notes that I want to refer back to.  I am sure the original will make more sense to you as he explains what I just noted.  (I don’t get a commission for saying that.)

My notes on their content:

1.  Leave amazing contents on blogs in your niche.  Target 5 blogs in your niche and develop a relationship with their owners and readers.

2.  Find popular forums in your niche.  Respond to other people’s questions.  You can submit a helpful original article and ask for other people to discuss it.  Make sure you check back and respond to their comments.

3.  Article Marketing – focus your efforts on 2 or 3 main directories and get known.  Never duplicate blog entries and articles.  (You don’t want a duplicate content penalty from Google.)

4.  After you have built a relationship, guest post on other blogs.  (Remember you built a relationship first in #1)

5.   You can use offline media such as fliers, ads, business cards, etc.

Long Term Recommendations to Move Toward:

1.  Create an original resource and build a list.

2.  Online video – YouTube is a great way to start and does generate traffic.  Check out http://getyourvideoonline.com for help getting started.

3.  Social Media – Pick three like YouTube, Facebook and Twitter and get involved.  [For me, this is part of life as we now know it but I haven't moved into them for promotional purposes.  Maybe this is more of a change of direction for the use of these services?]

4.  Audio/Video podcasts – I don’t think I’m ready to face this.  I think YouTube should come first.

Remember, this blog is a place for me to figure out what works for me and what my next steps will be.  I also record neat things I come across and don’t want to forget.  It’s purpose isn’t so much promotional, as experimental.  If you find something here that helps you, please let me know what and why.  Your insights will help me as well.

There are so many people out there with so many different promotional methods that it is easy to start going in circles.  After a while you realize that you have to choose one and follow it through to the end.  That is the only way to find out if it works or not.  Once you have done that, you can add and take away what makes sense to you.  Eventually you will have your own method but it is a process.  Meanwhile, keep your ears open and sift everything you hear.  There are a lot of offers after your pocketbook.  If you take time finding what works for you, you will maximize your budget by finding programs that enhance what you are already doing.

It’s taken me a year to figure this much out but I am finally finding some peace in the midst of the turmoil and I no longer feel like I am going to miss something if I don’t whip out my credit card and join someone’s hot program.  That might be something I dip into in the future but right now I’m happy learning and working on the stuff I already know.  Until I get that down, I don’t want to add a bunch of new stuff.

I just got notice that HostGator sent me a PayPal payment.  That means someone clicked on one of my HostGator affiliate banners and ended up buying a year contract.  If you can afford to do it that way, it really is the way to go because it saves money.  Still, it was a very nice surprise so whoever did it, Thank You Very Much.

Seriously, I was wondering whether to keep putting my time into affiliate marketing or something else.  In spite of all the wonderful testimonies that flood my inbox, I haven’t been doing that great.  The only problem is that I really enjoy the creativity that this field draws out of you but I don’t want to hire myself out to where I have to do it on command.  What to do?

I decided to take the ThirtyDayChallenge again.  I’m sure I missed a lot of the finer points the first time around so I hope to glean more info.  Also, I like listening to the podcasts while I clean house (my parttime day job).  I know there are other things I can do.  Joining Wealthy Associates would probably be a good move as would joining Thirty Day Plus but both of those have monthly fees and I’m not making enough to cover them just yet.

The tipping point came when I was at a family celebration and my oldest daughter made the remark that to break even your first year in business is actually very good. ZING!  That put things into perspective.  Ok, maybe I haven’t made thousands of dollars but I have broken even.  My hosting and domain registration bills are paid and I have learned a lot.  I can’t say the same for the first year of college at Fredonia State and make no mistake, this is college level material.

For those of you who are still struggling to break through, don’t give up.  Creating websites, posting fresh content, promoting them, sifting through all the fluff and figuring out the next thing to do is like juggling.  You get better as you go.  I think some of the big guys have forgotten just how tough it is for us new people.

In the near future, I am going to post a financial breakdown of what I did since August 1, 2008.  Meanwhile, to rephrase what  my daughter said, if you broke even over the last year, pat yourself on the back.  You did it!  You built a platform that you can launch off of and this year you can apply what you learned over the last 12 months.  Even with a poor economy, there are still things people need.  They still want help and are looking for cheaper alternatives.  Internet shopping is not dead and there’s room for you.