Other good things about this year, I was blessed with the opportunity to visit Tibet and Nepal in October 2011 and Thailand in November 2011. Tibet is the highest region on earth, with an average elevation of 4,900 metres (16,000 ft) with unique religious cultures and traditions. At this altitude, you can expect to get altitude sickness which usually affects people who are not used to the lack of oxygen at higher elevations . For 5 days in Tibet, I got nosebleed, headache and nausea, all because the lack of oxygen, btw, it’s freaking cold, now go figure! But I had fun nonetheless.

Nepal is located in the Himalayas and bordered to the north by the People’s Republic of China, and to the south, east, and west by the Republic of India. This country is not as cold as Tibet, very enjoyable without the headache.

Enough with having fun, 10 days after got back from Tibet and Nepal, Google Adsense suddenly disclosed my account. Just for you know, Google Adsense has had been my primary income for the last 5 years, so receiving Google notification that they disclosed my account was like having a big punch on my tummy. It hit me without notice and it felt really hard as I already made thousands of dollars from this program. All of sudden I lost my job while the bills will keep coming to maintain all my existing websites and it’s not cheap!

So, honestly, I still don’t know how monetize my website without adsense just yet, except from promoting physical affiliate products which the commission not even half of my adsense earning. I was stressed and panicked but somehow I’ve overcome the feeling in a week and forcing myself to get back up. Am I in big trouble? Oh yes, definitely. However, I’m trying to stay positive even though it feels like my life is falling apart. I’m trying to believe there’s a bigger power Up there that is trying to teach me how to become a better internet marketer and build a better foundation for my business (yes, I have to start creating a real business) the hard way, perhaps this is the only way that will force me to be creative and learn things I’ve never known existed before.

What I’ve learned from this “shit” situations is that, do not depend your income fully on 1 program (such as adsense alone), I have to learn other methods and focus. Don’t get me wrong, I did and still do try to implement a variety different methods when it comes to internet marketing, however, I got distracted so often and didn’t really put all my efforts to make the system worked. I always thought that somehow I still had Google Adsense to cover my expenses and add some pretty good balance to my bank account.

What’s the plan for 2012? I’m in the beginning of my journey to learn about CPA and Affiliate Marketing, I haven’t yet seen any good progress, hopefully I can update my blog again with positive results. I’m also thinking to build a user-generated website as creating/writing articles for my website is not my strongest suit. I probably should change my marketing focus from content-based websites to service-based websites.

Anyway, I look forward to leveraging my self in 2012 and becoming a better internet marketer. Wish me luck!

“When life knocks you down you have two choices- stay down or get up.” — Tom Krause

Wish me luck!

Interruptions are something you can count on and will always be there for you. Being at home all day long, that means I’m available to mailman, phone calls (mostly not for me, there’s no answering machine here), guests (not mine), work related activities (also not mine). And I really really hate these interruptions, imagine when you are in the middle of expressing your ideas and suddenly a loud door knock makes you jump from your seat. Those ideas are suddenly gone, you just have to pick up what’s left and start all over again.

Never ending works. Yes, it is really tempting to keep monitoring things, even when you have decided to take a day off. I just can’t keep myself away from my laptop, checking emails, checking stats, checking comments, making sure all websites are live. Fortunately for me, I love my job, so, I’m eager to do all those stuff. I guess I’m addicted to the internet (making money online).

Sometimes, unfinished works can make me mess my regular sleeping schedule. Like I said above, I hate leaving things unfinished. So, instead of sleeping in my bed, I can stay awake all night long to make sure all those PHP codes work properly according to my needs, creating new website, or creating new design/logo. Then I spend all day long for sleeping, and stay awake at night for no particular reason.

People tend to pity on you when they know you work from home. Sometimes, they consider that working from home means not working, so you would have a lot of free time. They consider that you are available all the time and it’s not a big deal if they ask you to run some errands because they have to “work” all day. Working from home is not a career, but I do still work people, and there’s no limit on how much you want to earn if you know how to do all the hard works smart way (I’m still working on this smart way). I might not have a career, but I run my own business here.

Loneliness is another problem if you are not comfortable with spending time alone. Fortunately, I love spending time alone, enjoying my work, music, and a cup of vanilla latte. But, I do feel lonely at lunch hour, because usually this was the time when I hanged out with my colleagues at my old job.

So, yes, my field might look and feel greener, but remember I still have to water it

I bet you are happy now, playing around with your friends in a beautiful place with a lots of greenies. It’s been 100 days without you here and I miss you every single day. I can smile and laugh now, I’m letting you go, because I know you are in a better place, aren’t you proud of me, Bao? I also learn to eat carrots, your favorite food, coz it reminds me of you. It’s amazing what you can do to me, my little girl.

There are days when I still cry over you, but don’t worry Bao, believe me, I’ll be okay. I can always find the strength from the memories we made.

I’ll see you again Xiao Bao Bao!

As an internet marketer, my passion is about making money online (MMO), even though I already make money online, I know that I can do much better than this. Currently, I’m having a project to promote Amazon Affiliate Products and I realized from the very start it’s not going to be easy converting my traffics into sales, even if it happened, the commission would be very low since I sell physical products. My plan is to create content as many as I can for straight 6 months (starting Jan 2010) and tweaking on page and off page SEO for good SERP. I also spend my time to read what’s new in internet marketing related forums, apply new tricks from other people experiences, review IM tools that could possibly make my work easier, etc. But apparently reading other people success stories distract me from doing what I had planned ahead , every one method is like saying “This is the next big thing”, if I could do it, so can you. They all look simpler and easier compared to what I’m doing now. Well, fortunately, I can put my mind back to focus on my own blue print, I always remind myself that all those “The Next Big Thing” internet marketers are mostly trying to sell their products, that’s how they make money online … by selling MMO methods/products. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t against internet marketers who sell MMO products, there are a lot of real gurus out there who know exactly how to make money online in various niches even long before they sell MMO products to genuinely help others.

Maybe I should just stop reading other people experiences for awhile, to avoid the unnecessary distraction from my head and keep focus to my current plan as scheduled.

“Get your priorities straight. You don’t have to make decision of what you’re gonna do, you already made decision ahead of time. Because passion and emotion, in the moment, is always gonna give you the wrong answer. So you do the map ahead of time, it’s not an issue in the moment” — Will Smith