Need to know how to call someone who can help me

I feel like I have reached a plateau in my learning curve. I have been writing online for almost 2 years and I have learned so much. I have two writing accounts - one for my informative pieces and one for sales articles - and a zazzle store. I have actually sold more than I thought I had over the past year on zazzle, both my own and referral products. However, my online income is inconsistent. I am starting to feel the energy level go down. I need help.

I would like to be able to sit with someone - in person - and look at all that I have and really organize it properly and take the next step up in my effectiveness.  I've read a lot and I know the jargon, and even understand a lot of it, but I feel kinda overwhelmed and underachieving.  I had a skype session once that was wonderful (thanks, A). But I feel the need to actually sit in the same room with someone who can help me.

For that, I need to know who exactly I am looking for. Not someone who does website stuff cuz I think that works differently from wizzley and squidoo and zazzle. Not just an online affiliate marketing expert, again, because they likely do not understand wizzley and squidoo and zazzle. Not knowing any other Isrealis who are on these sites, I need to know how to actually "call" the profession i am looking for.

Can anyone tell me who it is I am looking for?

I totally understand what you are talking about. Unfortunately I am not a person who can sit in the same room with you. I actually never managed to meet in person any on-line marketer or SEO expert from my own country (or even my home town). Heck, I didn't succeed to talk with anybody by phone!

But I can give you one hint. Take few days off. This helps to see things in different perspective. And I am 120 % sure you didn't reach a plateau in your learning curve. It is impossible.

Good luck:)

Hi Sheri,

Look on Amazon for this book:

ISBN: 1477476938

Make Money Online - Online Affiliate Guide: Building An Online Cash Cow, A Complete Step-By-Step Guide To Affiliate Marketing [Paperback] Antony Barlow (Author)

I haven't read it myself but it looks like a great resource. (There's a lot about it on Amazon. It includes the fact that we need to put 1,000 pages out there for the revenue to amount to something more substantial, which begins to sound about right to me.)

Hi Sheri,

I can't help but I can empathize.  I'm reading the responses to you with interest, as I've also been a bit down this month.   It does seem like a lot of hard work for little reward, doesn't it?

Hopefully this is just a perspective thing for both of us.  Time and patience will win out in the end.

{{{{hugs}}}}

Jo

xxxxxx

Sheri, 

I'm afraid I don't have the answers but I, too, have been writing online for two years this month. Initially, I was so skeptical about user generated sites that I just didn't take it seriously and only made a half hearted effort. My income came from writing for private clients and a couple of writing sites where I was paid upfront. Now however, I've decided to really take the plunge; an all or nothing approach. 

I know that the Panda's, penguins and other Google wildlife have created havoc with peoples' incomes, but the internet is not going away and will always need content and therefore, content writers. I, personally, believe that with sustained effort there is a decent living to be made.

You sound like you're starting to lack motivation which is a perfectly natural reaction when progress and income are realised so slowly. Now, when I start to lack motivation, I read Dustytoe's "My Zazzle success story" where Dustytoes states that it was two years, or thereabouts, before she started to make any money. For what it's worth, I honestly believe that it's just a case of chipping away and keeping going. I've set myself goals for the amount of money that I'd like to be earning in two years time from both my writing and Zazzle store. Those goals are keeping me working very long hours at the moment and when I get fed up with working so hard for little reward, I just remind myself where I want to be in two years time; it helps to keep me going. That's my motivational strategy. 

And this is why I take my pep talks from Hollie too. :)

I haven't been working 2 years yet, but I feel the same way a lot of the time. I have to make myself forge ahead. I do feel that I go through real down periods but I always come out of it. I'm learning not to despair. I just do more reading than writing during those times and keep on plugging. I'm still waiting to see the money too.

Thanks for the pep talks, guys. It really is helpful.

Yet, I still feel the need for sitting with someone in real life (thanks for the book recommendation, Mira, anyway) and actually have a conversation with a real person who can help me organize my thoughts, organize all that I've learned and organize my online materials.

So what would I CALL that person so that I can look for him or her here in Israel and have a chance that I will be understood?

I honestly don't know Sheri. The first thing that comes to mind is some kind of SEO expert, but surely they will just want to take your money and wont necessarily offer much knowledge that you don't already have. Maybe it's just a very straightforward business plan that you need: http://www.askthevc.com/wp/archives/2007/02/should-you-hire-someone-to-write-your-business-plan.html

If nothing else, writing it (with the help of some form of business advisor?) will at least help you to organise your thoughts and have some clear projections and goals for the future. I suppose it might also help you to reflect and consider the things that have been working for you and those that haven't.

Sheri, and everyone else. I'm in the same basket, but I know what my problem is: I'm disorganized, I need to do something about time management, I need to write more frequently, and I've been too lazy to do keyword research. That is all changing. I've been going back over my 100 and so articles this week and tweaking them. I've checked to see if my links are still working, I've been inserting keywords, and I'm going to change some of the titles.

I was just thinking to myself this morning that we probably need 1,000 articles to make any real money.

I'm overwhelmed too.

Sheri, I would suggest that you just take it bit by bit. There are tons of tutorials on line. I've been reading them all.

Sheri, I totally get what you are saying.  So often I get discouraged because I know so little about design (since my income comes from designing mostly) and being self taught out of a desperate need to earn (thanks for that mention Hollie -it's nice to hear I can inspire you!) I always feel left behind with all the schooled designers out there who do such amazing things.

I've thought that I should take a PhotoShop class, but then I need to figure out how to get one main website up and going, and also I need to take a computer class because would I even know how to go to a college level class and use a computer instead of a pencil for taking notes?...haha (so sad)... and so on.

I agree - there is an opportunity out there for an "Organizational Focus" person - or something.  I would also love to have a real person sit next to me and see what I do and then say, "hey, you need to do this first, then that, and here's how". 

Maybe this thread will give someone the idea for a new job, where they can travel the world and help us out.

Sheri_Oz: 02/02/2013 - 08:42 AM

 

So what would I CALL that person so that I can look for him or her here in Israel and have a chance that I will be understood?

Sheri, I believe you are looking for a Personal Success Coach.

While none of us here seems to be in a position to provide the ultimate solution I know our German sister site have created a closed forum called something like "Online publishing expert group".  Achim can tell you more about what course of action they take, but I believe it's quite successful.

If there are enough interested parties on Wizzley, perhaps we can come up with a similar concept here. A tight group of focused individuals working towards a common goal, helping and supporting each other along the way to the best of their abilities.

What do you all think about this concept?

That sounds like an interesting idea. I'd certainly like to hear more about it. Can we have meetings once a month in each other's homes?

I think it sounds great. I'd definitely be interested.  

Sheri_Oz: 02/02/2013 - 12:57 PM

---

That sounds like an interesting idea. I'd certainly like to hear more about it. Can we have meetings once a month in each other's homes?

??? One of us must have access to a private jet... Chef?

Nightowl that does sound interesting.

@ night owl - What a nice idea, you can count on me in such a group venture. All of us is smarter, more talented and more successful than any one of us! 

 BUT - What I know is this, it takes content to make money. I like it to real estate, the more you own the more you earn. Thinking of each article as a piece of online real estate, the more you publish online the more property you conquer or own and all with the potential to earn rent if you will. If you build it they will come!

I know this from personal experience and this is why I work to build my online content here at Wizzley. I see it as a great opportunity and a great investment. I'm a marketing person and see amazing potential here. The one constant thing that remains is time, it takes time to build your online real estate and to become a branded presence. The more you create in that TIME the more money you will earn. 

I would not be doing what I do if I did not have concrete first hand proof that it's a lucrative venture. You simply have to ask yourself if you're willing to go full on and work hard to create an impressive and notable body of work sure to get noticed. 

Everyone contributing to this thread has the potential to do just that. You can count on me to be here all the while I keep on keeping on doing my part to add to our body of work here at Wizzley.  The more content we have the better we all will do. If ever I can help send me a message and I will do what I can to help. 

I have great expectations for this site alone not to mention many others. 

Much Success, 

Katie

Yup, what you need is a life coach, but be careful, lots of spammers  and so on in that market! I am not exactly round the corner, but I am always available for a chat on Skype ;-)  SY

What Katie said. :)

Also you have to realize you WON'T get rich on one site, you won't make all your money here on wizzley (you could but it's rare that anyone without putting in an enormous amount of work would and the other side you have to ask yourself is "will putting all my eggs in 2.0 propeties like this actually be the best use of my time?". What I mean is not that it's a waste of time to write here or squidoo etc... but it's actually the lowest rung in internet marketing and most successful marketers will tell you they don't write to these sites for income, it's almost always for a backlink, which is fine if they offer quality information in exchange. 

You have to diversify your portfolio and get into more than one niche (of internet marketing).  I have 40 websites I maintain, 3 blogs, and am working on building what I will consider the most potent of my ventures a website that is both a wizzley blog roll of a sort (all the same goodies in wp), but also a product line (I make magic music hehe)... You don't have to develop your own products as I am, you can use pages to create amazon stores (which I will add as a supplemental income to the site i.e. selling my competitions books, CD's etc...).

The learning curve in this business is rough because there is a bazillion ways you can enter, maintain, and develop your career. No two people approach it exactly the same, it's based on your intrest (to sustain passion, for example you have to love to write to wizzle for cash). 

The best advice I can give you is to first and foremost develop a sense of what you love, what you enjoy, what you would do if it were free (for me it's music and video production). Take that passion based on your choices in this market and develop your skill sets. As you develop one i.e. movie making, you figure out what you need next (website design) then you learn that AS YOU BUILD what you needed (necessity is the mother of invention no?) to build. So building a wordpress site will take a while to learn how, but once you learn how you can build more sites... you can develop more movies (i.e. building marketing videos and selling them for 3-4 figures). With website design and movie making under your belt you not only have the tools to build one business but you can apply those skills to anything else.

My success is due to my aquisition of massive skill sets- plain and simple. It's the core of everything. Following passion leads to money without trying so hard, the work you do is actually just treadmill at some point not frustration of learning new skills.

Read a lot of books, sites, watch a lot of youtube videos, get your head around how to apply your passion using what you need to manifest it. I was having a hard time finishing my book, I was stuck and had ALL of the information in my head but since I'd never fully written and published a book before the task seems tedious at best, but instead of continuing to procrastinate I built a site, I turned my book idea into a site, that site will later sell said book but for now it's an incarnation of it's best qualities. In building the site I have to learn wordpress (serious learning curve) but in building the site, a few weeks later I have the site up and IT ALONE is powerfully motivating me to write the book now to give my readers closure (step by steps)...

My point here is that I was stuck, I found a way by simply changing angles, now I have a book coming and a site building that I can be proud of- later both will  make money. I don't work on one thing usually at a time, I write wizzles while building luck source, I do a lot of SEO work for my boss (another paid training ground!), I wrote at mills for immediate income, and seek out people who need my skills. Often I'll go to a site that has bad copy and rewrite it for them (front page usually). I'll send it to them and say I can do this to the rest of your site- enjoy this free article. Then I leave the seed to sprout or die- either way I don't wait around, I go to the next site and do the same (sometimes it's images, copy, even structure)...

I wasn't born with what I know, I wasn't even given it easily- I worked for 20 years to develop as much as possible, the rest is just the details. Make sense?

On that note, there are a lot of pages I wrote and others wrote that cover the realm (one perspective) in detail... I'd start there. If you put all your time into wizzley,squidoo, hubpages- you may never make enough to justify the work your doing here, diversify diversify diversify. Start small, no big leaps... do one thing and get very good at it. Make it your life for a month. Then go to the next... you'll find the more you develop the faster learning happens and the faster you can see where more money is.

For more insights into creating your own luck (which is what this business is in a nutshell) check out: 

http://thelucksource.com/what-is-luck/lucks-source-code-theory-mastery-decoded/

that will take you into the engine room of what I said above... hope it helps :)

Sheri,

I know I am taking a different direction than the other posts here...but I will say it anyway.

First, count your blessings and believe in yourself instead of looking outward. You are a true expert in your field...that puts you miles ahead of the pack...you have more at your disposal than you recognize.

One time I did a Wizzley on narcissism, because I did experience it via compliments of my ex. I had no idea it would fly like it did...that wasn't my intent. I was just venting AND I, unlike you, had no qualifications to speak on it except for personal experience.

So instead of telling you to look outward, I'm telling you to look inward. People need your expertise. There's a whole world out there that needs Sheri's expertise!

I would start small blogs on tight niche "counseling" topics...one on narcissism, one on whatever else in the mental health department you ENJOY talking about. Put it out there, they will come, Sheri. People turn to the internet for therapy....you have the talent, gift and credentials.

Believe in yourself that you have a gift to offer all of us out in cyberspace, Sheri. Even your voice in forums  is soothing. You've got all of the tools you need to succeed in the online world...much more than most of us have. Make niche blogs in topics people need help in, put Adsense on them or offer online counseling for a reasonable fee, and make the money you deserve!

I meant to add, Sheri, that in your case you should have blogs with forums. With the right topics, you will be saturated with traffic.