Video is the latest craze and is a nice advance in information sharing and communication. Since I have several web sites an four blogs, I decided to give video marketing a try. Today I purchased the software required to build training and promotion videos and also to take existing videos and convert them to streaming video content capable of being viewed by high-speed or dial-up connections.

I think these will be a tremendous addition to my Internet Marketing arsenal, but that is yet to be seen. I’m going t try using these products as soon as I finish this post. I’ll let you know how it went. If it works as well as I hope it does, I may even make a short video and post it here.

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Where I did have problems was with the templates (see I Finally Resolved My Template Problems). When you install WordPress you try to select a template that gives your blog a “theme” that is taylored to a look and feel that is intended to promote the message your blog is trying to convey.

Templates support “plugins,” which are pre-programmed functions you can selectively install to enhance your bog (most are free). Different templates and plugins work together in different ways. The template I used had some bugs, mainly due to old versions of plugins that came with the template and because of some configuration problems I made due to my lack of knowledge about the plugins I was using.

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I finally bought a book on WordPress (WordPress for Dummies) to understand WP’s architecture and how templates interface to the WP software. After reading through the book I spent six focused hours and finally cleared up all known problems.

Now I have some template customization I want to do before I go into production with my new blog about stock trading techniques. The exciting thing is that once I understand WordPress and how to customize it, it is so powerful (and free) that it will serve me for many years to come. It can even be used to build web sites.

I may keep this blog on Google’s Blogger hosting and software system (again, free), but I’m not sure. It is mainly a dairy and I’m really not using it as a commercial blog, but then again it would be nice to have all blogs (I have four) running on the same software on hosts I control. Currently three of my four blogs are running on my hosts under WP. However, even if I do decide to move this blog, it won’t be until my new stock trading techniques blog is up, running and making money.

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What a month it’s been! I moved my pet health education and news blog (http://4usuccessprograms.blogspot.com/) from Google’s free Blogger hosting and software to my own hosting service using WordPress blogging software. I also registered a new, more meaningful, domain name to access the blog (http://www.wholesomepetsupplynews.com/ ).

The reasons for the move were (1) I wanted full control over my blog as it is a source of income for me, (2) I’ve heard of Google shutting down blogs for unknown reasons and I didn’t want to take a chance on this happening, and (3) WordPress is suppose to be a more commercially friendly blogging software (and it’s free).

Installing WordPress was a breeze (well, compared to what followed), but getting the templates setup the way I wanted was a nightmare. It’s still not 100%, but at least it’s up and running. I purchased the template and it had bugs. I switched to another template and it took me over a week to learn how to configure it and get all the plugins updated. I still want the original template and am working with the provider to get it fixed.

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However, when an ad from Mike Antoni landed in my Inbox, it really “spoke to me.” The advertising copy said exactly what I’d been feeling and experiencing. Mike seemed like a person who really has been through this himself, not just saying it to sell product. So, I decided to spent some (more) money and bought his course.

After spending many hours viewing the excellent training videos, listening to the audio training clips and reading the manuals, I have to say that, for anyone who wants to start an Internet Marketing business, this course has proven to be the best investment I’ve found.

I am in the process of reworking my pet news blog to be more commercially viable (i.e., making me more money while at the same time helping more pets and their owners) into a totally new format using different blogging software and moving the blog to my own server.

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In order to motivate myself, I bought a produce that offers step-by-step instructions for everything to get a business up and running. The instructions come in the form of books, audio and video. It cost a few hundred dollars, so that provides motivation to use it. There is a 30-day money back guarantee so that provides the motivation to use it immediately. I have been following the manual and watching the videos and should have my first new Internet Marketing business up and running by the end of this week. If I am able to use this program to get setup, I will reveal the name of the product here and describe my experiences. A few things I will say is that the author seems like “the real deal”, is sincere and has been very helpful through his support forum. The instructions are very thorough and the author has a very positive attitude. He emphasizes that only 4% of us succeed and the reason is us. We don’t take action! Sound familiar? He promised to help me set up a profitable Internet business if I promised to work hard EVERY DAY to implement his blue print. If I fail, it is because I didn’t take action!

Thanks to all of you for being patient and check back here to see if I kept my promise.

Click here to learn about My Power Mall

Again, everything is free and the income opportunities are pretty incredible.

It’s been a long time since my last post. I apologize, but I had a death in the family and had to go out of state for a week.

My retirement income comes from three sources: stock trading, my Internet holistic pet food business (www.WholesomePetSupply.com) and my journey into Internet marketing (IM). Stock trading is my first priority, but after that IM, I believe, will be my best source of income. Be aware that it does require a lot of research and effort and is definitely is not a get-rich-quick way to make money, but you surely can get rich is you persevere.

I seems like every source of information you look at is really an ad trying to sell you the “secret” to IM success. That’s OK, you may be trying to do that too, but you have to be really careful to not over-buy because these ads are very compelling. Do take the time to read them and understand what about them appeals to you. This is great way to learn how to create compelling ads of your own.

So now I am back and ready to split my non-stock trading time between my holistic pet food business and IM. I, in my early enthusiasm, did over-buy IM “how to” books and now need to take the time to read and implement them. I will tell you all about them as I proceed, so please keep checking back and walk along with me as I learn and, hopefully, earn.

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The problem was I was renting the web site for my pet food business, along with many other people who rent the same site with only our names different, and I could not change it so I decided to setup my own web site landing page. This way I control the content of the landing page and should get higher “hit” rate from Google searches relating to pet food and also have lower AdWords costs and more sales conversions.

Well, for some reason it didn’t work. I did lower my costs, but my hits went down and my order volume was low. I have to go back and re-read the Google AdWords book, which is excellent. I have a new release of the book and, hopefully, it will lend some insight as to what I did wrong.

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Because I rent it, I have no control over the landing page content (the landing page is where you go to when you click an Internet address link). I use Google AdWords to advertise my site. With Google AdWords, when someone does a search on some keyword(s), relevant ads related to that search are listed along with the search results. However, because many people rent the same pet food product site, as many as half the ads listed on a pet food search result page may point to the same basic web site.

Because of Google’s “secret formula” for computing search word costs and the “goodness” of an ad landing page, AdWords can be very expensive the the results disappointing if you cannot control the content of the ad’s landing page.

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