I know that’s a silly question because you are bound to have some problem, uncertainty, or confusion related to selling on the Internet. We all do because Internet Marketing is so broad and still relatively new. For many of us, it was not a subject taught in school. In fact, Internet Marketing as you may understand it, didn’t even exist before the 21st century!

The earlier pioneers of Internet Marketing had questions. And they had to figure out the answers for themselves, just like many of us have done for ourselves, and so many more are having to do today. But there is a brand new resource available that can help with the learning curve. It’s called Internet Marketing Frequently Asked Questions.

The answers to questions you have probably asked yourself, and gone in search of, can be found at IMFAQ.com. Do yourself a huge favor and sign up to become a free member of IMFAQ. Not only will you get the answers to those nagging questions that have been bothering you, but I PROMISE you will learn more than you thought you even needed to know.

I want to share a summary of what I experienced this past weekend when I decided to move this website from my existing host (Company A) to a different host (Company B).  The reason I made that decision was because I had just bought two new domains and had them hosted with Company B.  I had even started building a site on one of those domains.

However, I have now canceled the service with Company B.   Without going into all the details that I had to painstakingly document in the numerous emails with Company B’s support team, I am sharing some of the lessons I learned throughout my ordeal.  My hope is to spare you from experiencing anything similar.

• When thinking about transferring an existing site to another hosting company, be sure that you fully understand what the new hosting company will (or will not) do for you with regard to your existing site.  If they offer a free transfer, make sure you completely understand what that means.

• Be sure to back up your existing website(s) BEFORE attempting to transfer (move) to a new hosting company.  It is best to do a FULL backup of everything and restore it on the new hosting company’s servers, if you are doing the moving of files yourself. Also make sure that your backup is also on your own computer.

• Do NOT change the name servers (DNS) until you are completely certain that your site is working as expected on the new host’s server.

• Know that while bigger and more well-known hosting companies may offer what seems like a really good deal in terms of cost, what matters MOST is the customer support you have access to when you really need it.

• Although being able to speak with someone on the phone to get your questions answered may seem like a plus, getting incorrect information is quite possible.

• When you are not totally sure about ANYTHING related to transferring your existing site, be sure you call back for clarification.  Chances are great you will get different information than what you got the first time you called.  If you’re still not clear, call again, but understand you may still get conflicting information.

• If you find that the person you are speaking to does not clearly understand your questions or the problem you are experiencing, and cannot provide the assistance you need, politely thank them and hang up.  Then, take a deep breath, and call back with the hope that the next person you speak with can be of real assistance.

• Do not waste hours on the phone with the front-line person who is trying to help (but obviously does not have the skill set to do so).  Instead, open a support ticket with ALL the details necessary for a more skilled support person to be able to respond to intelligently.

• Do not allow the front-line person to open a support ticket for you because that person will not accurately describe the issues discussed during the conversation they just had with you.

• When the email responses comes back (from the support tickets that you opened and the one that the front-line person opened with a different ticket number) and it’s clear that the person responding either did not read or understand either of the support tickets, be calm.

• Take some more deep breaths and proceed to reply to the ticket YOU opened, with a kind, but very controlled level of frustration, making it clear that you want someone who knows how to resolve the issues to CALL you immediately since written communication seems to be a problem.

• When that senior support person does call you, be very kind and courteous while calming explaining all that you had already written in the support ticket that you opened.

• Allow that person to do whatever they can to resolve the issues.

• When it becomes apparent that their resolution has not fixed the problem, politely email the person who tried, but failed, and let them know you’ve decided to remain with your current host (Company A).  Also ask for instructions for not only canceling your service with Company B, but for receiving a refund as well.

• Then contact Company A (whose support is only online through their help desk system) and humbly explain the mess that has ensued by clearly stating the problem, and asking that the new site you had hosted on Company B’s server be moved to Company A’s server.

In retrospect, it’s obvious that my decision to go with Company B was flawed to begin with.  The ONLY reason I chose to go with a different host (Company B) rather than sticking with Company A (that has served me well for almost three years) is because I was trying to cut my expenses and save money on hosting.  But the time spent trying to accomplish that goal made it abundantly clear that spending less money is NOT necessarily the best reason for making and acting on a decision.

Had I thoroughly thought through the idea of switch hosting companies, I could have avoided two days worth of wasted time and effort, not to mention, total frustration with Company B.

The smarter choice would have been to simply add the two new domains to Company A’s hosting service and then ask to have my hosting plan downgraded to one that offers exactly what I already have, but without all the other features that I am not even using.  So, as of today, while I haven’t yet downgraded, all my sites (including the new one that I started building) are FINALLY back online and functioning correctly.  And Company A’s support took care of it all in a matter of hours (not days)!

Hindsight truly is 20/20 . . .

When I first created this blog, the intention was to provide a central location for resources and tools for people who are new to Internet Marketing. These people are Affiliates, Network Marketers, or those who have their own offline business and want to promote it online.

The vision was to help cut through the clutter and noise that the Internet can be when you do not know what you may need, where to find it, or how to learn to use whatever it is that will help you. My goal was to provide useful information aimed at beginners (newbies) so they could learn the things that are necessary when getting started online. Admittedly, I have not been consistent in keeping up with my initial intention, vision or goal.

Yes, I too, suffer from distractions, and sometimes lose my way along this journey of working for oneself without any clear direction or guidelines. It takes time and energy (and sometimes money) to promote any program or business. And when you are involved in more than one, focus is naturally diluted. I know that focusing on one particular project is still a challenge for me.

I remember starting 2009 excited about having finished my first ebook and speaking before a group of strangers. Shortly thereafter, I found myself promoting the relaunch of a particular affiliate program for a few months. Then another two months went by as I took an online workshop to learn a complex piece of software. After that, I participated in a teleseminar training class. All the while, my Network Marketing business was never a priority.

Since the last time I posted to my blog, I have redirected my time, energy and focus on what I have ignored all year. I meant to write about what I was doing, but instead, was totally immersed in rediscovering all the things I love about my Network Marketing company’s product. In the process, I have also realized that I never got completely comfortable with what it takes to build a Network Marketing organization.

I know the simple steps to take to introduce the product to others, but I don’t want to come off as a pushy sales person. I understand that I need to expose the product to as many people as possible, but do not like the feeling of rejection that sometimes happens when the right words are not said, or when dealing with the wrong people. So I’m having to relearn what it takes to overcome these feelings I have while staying positive about the big picture.

Every now and again, those of us who are charting unknown territory (translated, not employed by someone else, but working for ourselves) we just need to reflect on why we do what we do. And right now, that’s what I’m doing.

For years I’ve heard, read and been told, that writing articles is one of the easiest ways to get started in Internet Marketing. But for some reason, I just never got around to writing an article. Not only did I believe it was difficult to do, I had no idea what to write about.

Well, one of the hands-on exercises during NAMS was to write as many articles as we could, following Jeff Herring’s simple formula. While I had completed most of my one article: Contacting Your Online Support Desk – 5 Recommended Suggestions, I didn’t submit it to EzineArticles until a few days later. I’m happy to report that my first article was approved and accepted for publication a few days ago!

Now I just need to write more . . .

There aren’t too many things online that really impress me. There’s too much hype and not enough real ‘how to’ information readily available for people who are new to internet or affiliate marketing. Not so with NAMS, which stands for Niche Affiliate Marketing System. The NAMS Workshop I had the opportunity to attend August 14-17 was an outstanding example of an event that catered to newbies, as well as those who are not.

I still haven’t had a chance to process all the valuable information that was shared during this three day Workshop, but I am certain I will be implementing a lot of what I learned. And that’s saying something since I’ve been to four other Internet Marketing workshops in the past two years and NAMS was the first one where I can honestly say I learned something new and useful.

One of the more exciting parts of the NAMS Workshop was watching an audio product being created that we could actually market during the workshop! Here’s one attendee’s take on that:

Not only were we able to promote and sell that 90 minute audio product within minutes after it was done, but one of the attendees happily reported that she made her first online sale ever by tweeting her affiliate link during the workshop. Now THAT is hands on quality training at its best!

Another highlight for me was the networking with interesting people from across the United States, Canada and Australia, as well actually having the opportunity to talk with these outstanding speakers:

David Perdew – I was surprised to learn that during one of the prize giveaways, I won the Diamond membership in NicheWidget.

Kathleen Gage – She introduced herself first and greeted me as I entered the Workshop to find a seat; and gave an outstanding opening presentation to over 100 people;

Mark Hendricks – Said I gave him an idea as he called me and four other attendees to the front of the room to illustrate a point about traffic.

Jeff Herring – As many times as I’ve heard that article writing is the way to go, it wasn’t until his presentation that I finally wrote my first article;

Willie Crawford (and his lovely wife, Nancy) – Gracious and humble during dinner with Judy Kelly and I;

Lynn Terry – Judy and I had lunch with her the first day of NAMS, and whose every word I hung onto as I furiously typed during her presentations to make sure I didn’t miss any of her “secrets”;

Nicole Dean – Lynn referred to Nicole several times, but I didn’t actually meet Nicole until after the Workshop’s end as people were leaving NAMS; and

Alieen Bennett – One of the most charming and quick witted people I have ever met! Her presentation “BE YOU” was a crowd pleaser and well worth remembering.

So, I highly recommend that YOU take advantage of the next NAMS Workshop . . . especially before the Early Bird price disappears.

Oh, and if you’d like to get a taste of the type of training available from David Perdew, grab his 10-part video series at no-cost for a VERY limited time.

It’s been about a year since I changed themes; now I remember WHY I didn’t do it sooner.

WordPress is a great platform for blogging, and I can definitely see its versatility. However, choosing a new theme, getting the plugins you want to use, and making whatever other changes are necessary can be an ALL day affair. Especially if you’re NOT an expert (which I’m not). But, I have managed to finally find a theme I can live with for however long before I decide I want to change it (again). And this time I managed not to lock myself out of the Admin like I did once before.

It’s still very much a work-in-progress as I move things around and test this and that. For the most part, however, I’m satisfied . . . for now.

If you have visited before, you’re probably wondering what happened to some things you used to see. Please check the header links above (or the links under the Pages header on the left).

And if you care to comment about the new look, please do.

In my last post, I recommended Renegade Professional to anyone who wants to learn how to promote themselves better online.

Because I believe in that program so strongly, I recently did my first teleseminar . . . a “training wheels” experience, if you will. The “training wheels” teleseminar was meant to be a product view of Renegade Professional, although a good bit of it tells ‘my story’. The teleseminar was done during Bob “The Teacher” Jenkins’ Teleseminar Formula Training Camp 3.0.

Although the live workshop is over, Bob offers a self-study program that is very indepth, with both audio and video replays of the live workshop. And there’s a mastermind community available of people who have already gone through the live workshop and completed at least one teleseminar; so they can be helpful as well, if you choose to learn how to do your own teleseminars.

To get an idea of Bob’s training, why not join for free to see what he offers inside the membership area?

By the way, if you’d like to hear the replay of my “training wheels” teleseminar go ahead and fill in the opt-in form on the right.

Renegade Professional has finally reopened its doors after being closed for the past two and a half months. It’s a step-by-step training system that shows “normal” people how to build and market their business on the internet. If you’ve struggled to build your network marketing (or traditional brick and mortar) business online in any way, this is honestly MY NUMBER ONE recommended program to get started with.

Ann Sieg and Mike Klingler’s video training site teaches you what you need to know to MASTER lead generation and make YOU and your business easily found online. Their program has helped people go from beginner-to-expert, and the number of newbie success stories they have to prove it is truly amazing, both in terms of the results and the amount of time.

It’s easy for the average person to follow this ‘click here, do this’ training because they show you how to make it work for your unique situation, business and products. Their training focuses on showing you exactly how to attract high quality prospects using free social media techniques – like Twitter and Facebook – so it’s perfect for people who are on a “low-or-no dollar” marketing budget.

Here’s just a taste of what this training covers:

–Creating lead capture pages and websites specifically

designed to sell your unique products and opportunity

–Building a world wide audience using simple and free

tools like Blogs

–Getting people to pay you to prospect them

–Setting up automated email campaigns that build

relationships with thousands of people in the same time

it takes to build one

–What to do when prospects start calling you

And a whole lot more . . .

It’s basically a complete A-Z learning system with over 104 hours of training material, all for less than what you’d pay for college education. Truthfully, it’s more valuable too!

So be sure you check out Renegade Professional TODAY!

I’m not much of a blogger (as I’m sure you can tell if you’ve visited my site before), but thought it time that I provide an update.

Since my last post, I’ve been busy building my first Butterfly Marketing site: GreetingCardsFromHome, and I’m proud to report that it’s pretty much done. There are still some items that need to be taken care of before I can actually start promoting it, but I’m confident that will be happening sometime in June.

I have to admit that even though I have done several installs of the Butterfly Marketing script and set up a portion of the Admin Dashboards for 10 of Bob “The Teacher” Jenkins‘ sites, learning ALL that goes into building a Butterfly Marketing site is NO JOKE! I had NO idea how much was involved, but can definitely see the value of creating one.

In fact, I will be in Las Vegas on May 31st and June 1st for the first ever, LIVE Butterfly Marketing Workshop. I am truly going to enjoy learning how to build a site in TWO days!

So, if any of you BM owners are also going to be in Vegas, feel free to say “Hello” if you see me. And if I can be of any assistance with your site, please let me know. I’m not an expert yet, but well on my way to better understanding all the pieces. And I have Bob’s training course to thank for that.

But if you aren’t going to be in Vegas, then I highly recommend that you check out Bob’s training, now all under one roof (including Butterfly Marketing), at his new site, IM Success Library.

Because I provide customer support for one of Mike Filsaime’s stellar Butterfly Marketers, Bob “The Teacher” Jenkins, I wanted to offer some insight and assistance to the people who ordered a copy of Butterfly Marketing 2.0 that Mike gave away at the end of March, 2009.

Bob has created a training course at DiscoverButterflyMarketing.com, and I highly encourage any of the new owners of the Butterfly Marketing 2.0 software to take advantage of what Bob has to offer.

Personally, I had no intentions of getting the software, or even blogging about it here, because I KNOW it’s way too technical for beginners (“newbies”). My goal with this site is to provide information that can benefit the new person online, however, I’m making an exception for these reasons:

• I already know what’s involved in installing the software and setting up the Admin Dashboard inside the software because I’ve done it for the last 10 of Bob’s sites; and
• New owners of Butterfly Marketing are going to NEED step-by-step, easy to follow instructions. Especially since it was understood when ordering the software, that there is no technical support for Butterfly Marketing, unless you pay for it.

Bob’s Discover Butterfly Marketing course encompasses a virtual webinar Workshop that just started this past Tuesday with an Orientation session of what will be covered in the virtual Workshop. Today, April 9th, we’re going to be starting the first session. And each of these webinars is being recorded, not only for the benefit of people taking the virtual Workshop now, but for any one who later decides to take advantage of the Workshop.

You can start by becoming a Free Preview member of Discover Butterfly Marketing in order to get a taste of what Bob offers. This membership level will give you access to:

• An exclusive Teleseminar with Mike Filsaime;
• Bob Jenkins’ Own History with Butterfly Marketing; and
• Short videos that will show you exactly how to install the Butterfly Marketing software

And of course, if you have any questions regarding Discover Butterfly Marketing, just open a support ticket at The Teachers Help Desk and I’ll get back to you within 24 hours or less.