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I didn’t get too much work done in the last week of May, as I was having some fun, but overall I had a solid May and it was a good start to the summer.  I decided to try and get my partying and some stuff done near the end of May and start of June, as June will be a really busy month for me with the World Cup starting up.  Below is a recap of my May goals and my goals I have set for June… it is going to be tough as June is usually the first really solid month of good weather, but I need to grind it out.

MAY AFFILIATE GOALS RECAP:

Transfer The Sports Geek + Add Content – This went really smoothly, although it did take quite a while for me to switch it over.  I really like the new template and I think it will help create more of a brand and repeat visitors.  Conversions for my newsletter are already way up which will be good in the long run.  I am going to test with a lightbox e-mail capture soon too.

Organize My Business More + Plan Summer – I did a pretty good job at this in May – things are a little more organized and I have hired a few writers for the World Cup, since I basically know nothing about soccer.  I have a basic plan in place for the summer that I will try to stick to as well.

Video Poker and Slots Sites Going – Yup got these both going with a couple pages of content and a few links pointing to them for now.  I will link to them in a future post, but they are nothing special at all, although I do like the Video Poker domain a lot.

5k in Affiliate Revenue – I actually surpassed this by quite a bit this month, which was surprising after the site sale.  I still have poker players playing under my MGR accounts which adds up and also received a few poker CPAs from past players.

JUNE 2010 AFFILIATE GOALS:

• Work hard at the World Cup.  Get one article per each match played in the round robin up on the sports geek. Optimize my Bet World Cup 2010 site
• Be smart with investing in some advertising + content
• Get one of my semi-premium sports betting domains up and aging with some solid content
• 10k affiliate revenue (expenses will probably be around 5k)

As far as personal goals go I want to try and fit in some fun during the World Cup – if it means for a little loss revenue oh well, its my summer.  Need to keep hitting the gym 4-5 times per week to stay in shape.  Make it out to a Blue Jays game or two.

Sorry nothing too exciting in this post, I will try and get a good post up sometime within the next two weeks, check back.

I had a very productive week in my second week of summer (first real week because of my Wisdom Teeth surgery last week).  If I can continue to work like I did this week all summer I think I will be very happy in the winter when the hard work would start to show.

To start things off I never slept past 10:00 am, any my average wakeup time was 9:00 am – I started waking up with no alarm by the end of the week at around 8:30 am.  Getting up early plays a huge role in me getting things done for a few reasons.  When I’m up early the sun isn’t out yet, so I don’t have the need to sit outside in the sun, and don’t mind sitting my basement working.  Also my roomates aren’t up to much in the morning (if they are even awake), so I don’t feel like I’m missing out on anything fun.  I also go to the gym around 4 with a friend, so if I were to sleep in it would be right in the middle of my working time, but this way I can get everything done before I head for a workout.

Another reason why I had a productive week was the fact that I don’t have as much income coming in since I sold my poker sites recently.  It pisses me off when I can’t check my stats and see that I got a CPA or two for my poker players each night, and I use it as motivation.  Of course I remember how good it felt getting a couple sign ups each day, so I am working to get that feeling back sooner than later.

Besides launching two smaller sites (that I am confident can produce some revenue if I get them ranking), I also got my main sports betting portal TheSportsGeek.com switched over to a completely new template.  Whenever I get a new, better look for a site I get excited and I really want to get it switched over so I work extremely hard.  I spent like 6 hours straight Wednesday night and then woke up early and spent all day getting the new template up.  The work is very boring in switching over a template, and I had a few problems, but now that it’s done I am extremely happy and excited.

I made a post at PAL asking for a review of the site, and most people seemed to really like the layout and design I got done for it (Eduardo did another excellent job for me).  I set up a split test for my Aweber newsletter sign up button, which was the main criticism I received.  I love asking PAL members for reviews of sites, because I always get something pointed out to me that I wouldn’t have really notice myself.  The next step for me is to work on calls to action and continue to put up solid content.  I added a bunch of new pages including the Sports Betting Articles section which I filled with 12 or so new sports betting articles, and I changed around the URL structure completely to something that made a lot more sense.

Anyways, overall a great week and I want to keep that up – of course I want to have a little fun soon as I haven’t done anything exciting lately at all – looks like me and my roommates are holding a Kegger for this upcoming May 2-4 long weekend

This is a guest post from Mike, who is a really successful poker affiliate.  There is a great message being sent here, and is something I need to try and follow more as well.  Thanks for doing an article for me Mike!  I will try post a couple more affiliate tips and motivation type posts like this over the summer, because I know I really like reading these types of posts (especially when I was a newer affiliate).

You Shouldn’t Be Reading this Post

Seriously. Get to work.

I’ve posted about this before, but the people I know who make the most money online don’t browse affiliate forums all day, study SEO posts, chat on Skype, or read affiliate blogs. Nor do they have the highest post counts at forums PAL… in fact, most of them have the lowest.

Of course I’m not saying you should never do any of the things above, because they do have some importance. I like to keep tabs on my friends by checking out their blogs once in a while, browse the forums to stay up on industry news (and it’s always cool to help people out… more on that later), and have Skype conversations to conduct business or chat with a buddy.

However, if you notice that most of your day is spent “researching” or “networking”, I bet you aren’t satisfied with your monthly income. And unfortunately, there is no amount of tools, filters, blockers, or anything else you can install on your computer that will cure your lack of productivity. You have to make the decision yourself.

Someone had a great post on the forums the other day (I think it was Graham) about how most of the older members who made up PartyRiches/PAW have “grown out” of the forum. I think that’s an excellent observation. Although I’m infinitely grateful for all the help I’ve received through the various forums Jeremy has run, I’ve gotten to the point where I know what to do and it’s just a matter of doing it. And I bet a lot of the people reading this post are at the same point.

This belief was further reinforced last week when I attended a SEO/Social Media conference. I went into the event hoping that I could pick up a few tactics from the so-called “gurus” that would give me an edge in the poker market.

However, over two days of presentations, Q&A, conversations, and panels, I learned two small things, neither of which will have a major effect on my business. There are no secrets… I’m pretty sure half the people I know could have run those sessions.

So what is the solution for an affiliate who wants to get to the next level? I’m not sure I have the answer, but it definitely isn’t to install “productivity boosters” on your computer, learn a new SEO theory, or read the latest time management strategy. I think all you need to do is decide deep down if you want a high post count or a fat bank account, and everything will flow from that decision.

BTW – I’d be very hypocritical if I told everyone to stop posting at/reading PAL, because I learned pretty much everything I know from those forums. But once you get to a certain point you need to cut down on your browsing time and increase your grinding time. If you want to help new affiliates out that is great, but there’s no reason to stay involved in all the drama and bickering that often fills the boards (and can quickly waste an entire workday).

This post was provided by Mike Wittmeyer of BestPokerSites.org.

I am a little drowsy writing this, as I just had surgery yesterday getting my 4 wisdom pulled and am on a couple meds but bare with me.  The surgery actually went pretty good and I wasn’t in as much pain as some people had told me they had experienced.  Yesterday I did basically nothing but sit on the couch watching TV and movies with my laptop.  Today I did pretty much the same, except I got outside for a few minutes to read a magazine – I should be back to working a little bit tomorrow.

I am all done school now and it feels unreal! I have 4 full months to work, relax, party, vacay, or whatever I want really.  In my last post I said I had some pretty significant news to share with any friends or other affiliates who read my blog.  If you’ve been following my progress you know that I started off with poker, which has been my main source of income in my close to three years in the business.  The other week I completed a sale selling off all of my poker websites, so I am just left with a few casino sites and my sports betting sites.

I did this for a few reasons.  The main reason being I am not too big of a poker player, and don’t enjoy writing about it as much as sports and casino stuff.  Another reason is that poker affiliate programs seem to be screwing over affiliates lately and it was really annoying.  The last reason was I just simply had too much on my plate and wanted to cut down on the amount of sites i owned.

Anyways onto my April goals recap and goals for May…

APRIL AFFILIATE GOALS RECAP:

Kentucky Derby $$ – This just passed on Saturday, which was technically May 1st, but I included it as April goals because all of the work was done in April pretty much.  I got my two domains ranking decent and got some pretty good traffic on the sites.  Me and Niko made some money off our site, which was my first site I’ve ever partnered on (besides a smaller one with a buddy of mine) and I have to say I’ll probably be looking to partner up on future sites with other affiliates, I really liked how it turned out.  Overall I met and probably exceeded my expectations of this years Derby, and I plan to working on things further in advance next year.

30 pages of content up – I ended up purchases a lot of content in April and got around to some articles myself, so I definitely got this goal done.

Launch UFC, MLB and Nascar Sites – I got all of these sites launched at least temporarily so they can be indexed and start aging.  For some reason my new MLB site I got up maybe 3 weeks ago still hasn’t been indexed, I hope its not penalized from the previous owner of the domain.

Earn 10k Affiliate Revenue – Didn’t hit it this month, but I was over 5k which will always keep me happy.

Cut back on expenses – Errr I did this a little bit compared to the month before, but still spent quite a bit. I spent smarter though, which was my main goal.

MAY 2010 AFFILIATES GOALS:

• Transfer The Sports Geek to the new template, which means I have about 20 pages of content to write for it as well
• Organize my business more as I will be outsourcing more so I need to do some planning
• I am going to try and plan my whole summer as far as work goes, of course things will change but I want a plan
• Get my slots and video poker sites up and going
• 5k in affiliate revenue – yeah half of my goal last month as I cut out a good chunk of my revenue with my poker sites

As far as personal goals go I am still wanting to make it to the gym 4 or 5 times a week.  I am also playing hockey 4 times a week (2 ice hockey and 2 ball hockey).  I want to get out for a few rounds of golf.  I also want to make a trip to Detroit to watch both a Red Wings playoff game (assuming they don’t get knocked out early here by the Sharks) and a Tigers game (maybe May14th vs the Yankees).

Have a great month everyone!

I haven’t made a post to my blog in a while, so I thought I would give a quick update with what I’ve been up to.  I have been pretty busy with school stuff as it is the last month of school, and I’ve had some tests and assignments due throughout April.  My last exam is this Wednesday (April 28th) and I can’t wait!

After that I will have 4 full months of just relaxing and doing my affiliate stuff and a bit of vacationing.

I plan on getting a lot done this summer to really take my online business to the next level.  Last summer I had times that I worked hard for a couple of days at a time, but overall looking back at it I don’t think I got close to as much done as I could have.  Working in the summer is really hard, but in order to get where I want to be I’m going to have to buckle down and work hard.  I think one of my plans is going to be to cut down the amount of hours I’m on my computer overall, but make sure I am being productive while sitting here.  A lot of time when I’m on the computer I am wasting time, but if I can make sure I’m only doing work while on the computer it will seem like I’m working a lot less and will give me more free time.

I’ve got some significant news I will write a blog post about pretty soon here when it is all finalized, but it has to do with me focusing more on a couple bigger sites rather then trying to run like 30+ sites.  Also, I am currently getting a new redesign done for The Sports Geek which I am really excited about, and I am going to try and make it more of a site that visitors will remember.

I am kind of all over the place right now, but I will be back with a post at the Start of May with some news, my May goals and April recap.  I will be really busy May 1st  with the Kentucky Derby and then I am getting my wisdom teeth out May 3rd, but I will try to get the next post up by May 5th.

Check ya later.