Riding the Google Coaster.

As a person who is trying to achieve success with a website, it is essential to take a on google as part of your life if your depending on getting a steady flow of traffic to your site to accomplish your goals. There are a ton of search engines out there, but Google is the king by far. In the year I've ran UltraCellSaver.com, we've had so many ups and downs with google. When the site first went up, it seemed as if we were in google right away, and everything was great, and then, GONE. Then the learning process begins, learning of the "Google Sandbox," which will keep your website out of the google ranks simply due to being new, and proving its a legit site, not a spam or illegal site, etc. Then once out of the sandbox, optimization. What does google like? What does google not like? What does Google penalize you for? The roller coaster seemingly never ends, as Google seemingly constantly changes their methods. Hours upon hours of testing and experimenting with different on page factors is the only way to halfway figure things out. Our site has been running for a little over a year, and certain things we've determined are definitely beneficial to any site such as incoming links to your site. We've compiled lists of directories out there and have been hard at work getting listed all over the net as much as we can, and that's something that any website that is looking to grow needs to do, plain and simple. But as we've learned, incoming links are GREAT, but are only half the battle. The on page factors play such a huge part, and almost every engine looks at different factors when determining your sites rank. Everyone wants to be on top in the google ranks, but google is seemingly the hardest to figure out. We've had some good week long runs of coming in on the first page of results for our targeted keywords, then a week later, we're gone again, and back to the drawing board to see why we're being penalized now. Luckily we've gotten ourselves back into google on a few occasions, recently having a great 2 week run in great positions in google, but now we're back to trying to figure out what we could be penalized for now. Google is definitely a learning process that will be on going as we attempt to settle into a nice spot that will let our site figuratively "Get over the hump" and continue on at a steady pace. Eventually we'll tackle the google monster and get off the roller coaster once and for all! The only approach I can suggest, is learning the way things work, avoid the shortcuts and cheats, because taking a chance on Google taking you out of their engine for good, is not a chance worth taking.

Ryan Shamus dot Com Review!

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I Never Want to Retire

A lot of the personal finance advice found on the 'net is geared towards one common goal: Retirement. In many cases more specifically, Early Retirement. Mostly this consists of maxing out IRAs and 401(k)s and amassing enough wealth in mutual funds to live off a percentage ( commonly 4% per year)of the nest egg.

This method makes some morbid assumptions. For one, you will have to die in X number of years. Now it IS possible to only "touch the interest." However, you will have a very restricted budget and inflation will still eat away at the principle. Being strict with a budget and investing wisely will allow many to outlive their money ( or in the case of many planners, die broke). However, there are many variables that can't be controlled, such as future inflation, health care, and tax policy. I am not too worried about this aspect. If I had a couple mil in the bank, I would feel comfortable taking early retirement. But why would I WANT to?

There is ( mostly) only ONE reason: You have a JOB/career that you absolutely HATE. You work only for the sake of working while looking forward to eventually retiring on a fixed income.

In My Humble Opinion, if you are a "general-specific" skilled person who uses his intellect and takes advantage of modern technology- you can earn a living doing something that you ENJOY that is not physically taxing. Personally I do things that I would enjoy doing even if I were not making any money to do so. Technology will change, but I could easily see myself still tinkering with the same type of things when I am 80 years old. Of course I could come down with Alzheimers or Dementia at some point in my life, but there is still a small risk. I will probably be able to do enjoyable productive work my entire life.

This is because most modern production is not dependent on PHYSICAL LABOR. I have 2 uncles who REALLY can't wait to retire. They make great money and have awesome benefits. But Their BODIES are wearing down. One climbs up poles and works in trenches. The other works in extreme heat and has to crouch, stoop, and crawl on the job. They can't wait to reach the age/time on job required for full Pension.

Me? I don't want no stinkin pension and I never plan on joining a trade union. I don't care about Social Security either.

Retirement is basically INSURANCE against your body breaking down and becoming occupationally incapacitated. Don't get me wrong. I will take advantage of this insurance in the form of IRAs, 401(k)s, disability coverage- or whatever is offered to me. However, being incapable of productive work is not a GOAL of mine.

I would rather enjoy the PRESENT while also planning to keep active until my mind no longer functions. There are many alternatives, like:

Being Self-Employed and take many vacations

Take "mini-retirements" in between jobs. ( Get laidoff? Take your severance and relax for a few months)

Telecommute and work efficiently. Get more stuff done in less time and enjoy the rest.

Be an Entrepreneur and work on many different projects in your lifetime. Gone are the days of working for one company doing one thing for 30-40 years. You may never do one thing for more than 3-5 years. That's fine and it could be lots of fun.

Finding Motivation, Do It or Go Flip Burgers!

So I find myself here in the same position pretty much, Google hasn't brought back any of my previous keyword ranks, so I'm having to scramble to make up for it with any PPC i can, and keep building and working all I can. Problem is, sometimes I'm just here doing nothing, when in the back of my mind I know I should, and I know i should be using my time more wisely. With the position I'm in now, I've got free time to do all the work I want and not have to worry about getting some 9-5 burger flipping job to get by. I've even taken up some link work that will pay me for submitting links to directories and is a generous compensation for that type of work. So basically last night, after a convo. with my business partner, realization set in that right now I don't have my former income from my unreliable day job, my credit is good, but I cant live off credit, so why am I not in super work mode and doing the directory submission work that's sitting in my lap. Its at the point where I have to ask myself, do the work that you like doing from right here on the computer? Or go flip burgers and take orders from some schmuck who's telling you when to come and go, what days your working, etc. I am not the type who wants to be told what to do, and I like working for myself, but as I stated in my blog about working from home, I need to take my own advice and put the work in. Right now I'm getting by, but if I ever want to get married, have my own place, and be truly financially independent, AND do it from home on my own time with my own business, the work has got to be done, and it has to be done daily. The directory submission work is there, in my lap, all that's left is for me to do my part and get it done.

So after the conversation last night and thinking about all the things that COULD happen if I didn't get some financial independence, and realizing if I didn't get off my ass and DO it I'd be flipping burgers and I'd lose the battle to not get a 9-5 job that I'd hate, I finally got it together today n did some directory work and made some $. I find one big trick for me personally, is throwing a CD in the computer, letting the music play, and get your blood pumpin some, and I find myself gettin work done steady. I think TV is too distracting with its visuals, doing work in silence is too boring, but music gets the job done for me and I find myself working at a steady pace. Now I figure if I can do this daily, and get at least a couple of hours of work in, I can be making money on the side with directories, hopefully with this blog, and my phone website as well. So now I'm on a mission to make as much as money as I can on the side, while waiting for search engines to wake up and get some good rankings back. All I know is, if I can have a day like i did today, then I shouldn't be sitting on my ass doing nothing, because it's not hard to get a couple of hours of solid work in, especially when your riding the line of success or failure!

Awesome Nintendo Wii Contest...

John Chow continues to give and give to his readers. This time his blog, which teaches how to make money online, is giving away a Nintendo Wii to a winner that will be drawn at random! This contest is open to anyone with a blog, all you have to do is link back to his site, and to the sponsor of the contest, 1234pens.com, which specializes in promotional pens! John Chow dot com is sharing the wealth again and again, good luck to anyone that enters this cool contest!

Ultra Reviews: SecretAffiliateMarketing.com

Another day, another review. Actually while checking out the many other blogs that have been suggested or seen blogs that have contacted us, we've seen a lot of different methods and programs people are using in their quest to make money. SecretAffiliateMarketing.com is The Source for Affiliate Marketing Tools & Tips on Making Money Online. This blog is full of useful tools that you can take advantage of and use to build and enhance your blog. It features a nice list of the programs that are out there and give them an honest review. The other main feature I liked about this blog is that it tells you what to stay AWAY from. They hold nothing back when they provide information on programs that are a waste of time or are straight up useless. This is a great place to learn about the various programs that can be used early on, or even later when your blog is making some money and you're ready to move up to the next level with your blog. As always with the blogs we review, SecretAffiliateMarketing will link to your blog if you do the review about the blog (which is a PR2 blog.)

Ultra Reviews: Ja Kel Daily Dot Com

I'm glad to say my John Chow Dot Com review has brought me some new readers and I'm starting to get suggestions and and ideas flowing already from readers, which is great. One of the people that contacted me was Jason Neuman, who also follows John Chow and views him as a mentor in making money online. I checked out Jason's blog and have enjoyed the viewpoint of someone who is closer to my level and trying to accomplish some goals that John Chow and others on that level have achieved. Jason has also adopted John Chows method of getting links back to his blog. Jason's Ja Kel Daily Dot Com eventually wants to make money and is offering to link to your blog if you review his blog. I was surfing through his blog and liked the layout and navigation of the site, combined with some good reads. I particularly liked his blog "Bloggers are Millionaire's - When to Quit" which takes a look at peoples expectations when they start a blog, and why some people give up so easily. It also provides some great tips on how to handle frustration when trying to build a blog and how to handle the temptation to just give up on blogging. I recommend this site as a good read for anyone who is starting out, and needs some direction and tips on how to stay on track with their blog.