Sorry for the delay, here are some more sites I uncovered in my Internet home business project. You might be interested to check them out.

• 3g cellularphone info
• The Writer’s Manifesto
• Mind Power Marketing: Success Mindset
• Iskandar: Project AGLOCO
• Dominic: Post 4 Post
• Abd Fatah: Cari Duit
• Adilia: Komputer, HTML, Microsoft, Windows
• Gadis Rahayu: ngadutrafik 2007
• Ben Blogs about Internet Marketing Malaysia

Your blog / site can be featured in the next batch, too. All you need to do is write a short review about GobalaKrishnan.com and tell me about your post. Here’s an example of how you can do it:

GobalaKrishnan.com is a blog that helps you start your own Internet home business. If you review his blog, he’ll link back to you and send you a ton of traffic.

Get full details and read the basic rules here.

May Ong, our story goes back a couple of months. Her blog about Online Internet Marketing Tip is just of of the pillars in her online business empire. She’s an information marketer, and although I can’t really say it here, she’s got her feet in some pretty good niche markets selling ebooks.

Dennis Sim, from Malaysia, started his own computer business at the tender age of 17 (they seem to be getting younger all the time) and eventually moved to his own digital photography business. You can find him at Netpreneurs Meeting Place.

Zaki, another fellow Malaysian, put up a conversation he had with his wife about my blog. His blog teaches you how to earn from article directory, although at this point it is relatively new.

Other sites:

• Acne Clearup and Acne Treatment
• Angler blog- fly fishing technique
• Internet home business : working at home
• Improving Backlinks & 6mProfitMethod
• Online Gist: Internet Home Business
• CrispNetworks: Gadget & Technology

In this batch, I found Barbara’s Online Travel Consultant blog. Although the blog is well written, I had trouble finding out which market they serve. I think, it’s about Ireland travel information although I’m not too sure. Perhaps Barbara would want to include better keywords in her blog.

Also came across a blog about Technology and Internet Marketing by Kuan Hoong who lives in Japan. Great blog design,and nice style of writing. One particular blog, Isu Hangat (means hot gossips in English) had some photos of UFOs as seen around the world, quite interesting. He basically covers all kinds of gossip, very tabloid-like.

Sometime, we tend to get too competitive, and we think that everyone is our enemy simply because they are our competitor in business or at work. Suziee Cheel’s blog can help you overcome that mentality with Abundant Thinking.

Here are some other sites:

• Gadgets, Mobile and PMP Player
• Internet Business
• Earn Money by Blogging
• Start Your Own Home Based Internet Business
• Secret Internet Formula
• Time Management

Your blog / site can be featured in the next batch, too. All you need to do is write a short review about GobalaKrishnan.com and tell me about your post. Here’s an example of how you can do it:

GobalaKrishnan.com is a blog that helps you start your own Internet home business. If you review his blog, he’ll link back to you and send you a ton of traffic.

Get more details as well at the basic rules here.

One of the interesting sites worth mentioning is Julie Ann Bonner who did an above average review of this blog. Although her site is new, she does a neat job of documenting her journey as she attempts to make money blogging. Her site is clean, witty, and well-written. You can get her to review your blog for $40 and I think she’ll do a good job at it.

Andy Bargery from The Marketing Blagger also wrote a simple but interesting review about this site and my WordPress Adsense System product. If you wonder what “blagger” means, here’s a definition.

Here are some other sites:

• Internet Marketing Strategy
• Extra Income for Malaysians
  
• Ultimate Income Online Opportunity
• Home Based Product
• Best Unbiased Reviews
• Great Self Confidence
• Current News
• Asbestos

Your blog / site can be featured in the next batch, too. All you need to do is write a short review about GobalaKrishnan.com and tell me about your post. Here’s an example of how you can do it:

GobalaKrishnan.com is a blog that helps you start your own Internet home business. If you review his blog, he’ll link back to you and send you a ton of traffic.

Get more details as well at the basic rules here.

Here are 10 new sites for you to check out, from my Internet home business project:

• Affiliate Marketing : Make Money From Home
• Blogging & Online Marketing
• Home Business Web Hosting
• Promote and Prosper
  
• Gluten Free Cooking
• Home Business
• Blogging Tips
• Basic Internet Marketing Information
• Perniagaan, Perniagaan Online, Pemasaran Internet
• Wealth
  

I’ve still got tons of sites left to list, after the email I sent out.

Your blog / site can be featured in the next batch, too. All you need to do is write a short review about GobalaKrishnan.com and tell me about your post. Here’s an example of how you can do it:

GobalaKrishnan.com is a blog that helps you start your own Internet home business. If you review his blog, he’ll link back to you and send you a ton of traffic.

Get full details and read the basic rules here.

From what I observe so far, most of the submissions received have bad SEO targeting. Sometimes, the blog uses keywords that are not listed in any keyword research tool. Sometimes the keyword is so competitive I know this guy / gal is never going to achieve top rankings.

This is ok if SEO is not your concern. But if you want to rank, you need to select the right keywords. Maybe I should do a short tutorial on SEO / keyword targeting.

Mike Filsaime has created shockwaves in the Internet marketing industry of late, but how much do you really know about him?

I’ve tried Mike’s Butterfly Marketing Manuscript and some of his other sites, but I only knew bits and pieces about him. You can now watch Mike’s “autobiography video” on his site:

http://www.mikefilsaime.com/history/

The video may take some time to load, but it’s certainly worth the watch. It documents his life from a manager in a car dealership, to buying his first ebook and creating his first website, till the point when he developed his Butterfly Marketing concept. He also outlines some of his sites that failed miserably.

Here’s the first batch of sites for my Internet home business project. Do check out their sites and subscribe to their RSS feeds if you’re interested in their content & ideas:

• Marketing with Khai
• Wealth Secrets
• Buat Blog WordPress
• Famous Inspirational Quotes
• Search Engine Optimization Company
  

Your blog / site can be featured in the next batch, too. All you need to do is write a short review about GobalaKrishnan.com and tell me about your post. Here’s an example of how you can do it:

GobalaKrishnan.com is a blog that helps you start your own Internet home business. If you review his blog, he’ll link back to you and send you a ton of traffic.

Get more details as well at the basic rules here.

Keeping focus.

That’s hands-down the hardest part. And as lame as it may sound, I’m sure everyone reading this has their own stories to share…

Over the past few months, my business has been growing, and last month I nearly hit $10,000 ($9,218 to be exact). But along with that growth came more customer support emails, more websites to maintain, more articles to write, more links to build, more affiliates to pay… oh what the hell I’ll just say there’s more of everything.

Now, I already have 2 staff helping me out in the support area, and I have several bloggers working on a handful of blogs. I outsource a lot of stuff too, especially those that I flat out suck at.

So why is it getting so hard for me to focus? Am I really having a problem focusing my energy of is it just because I was working on a major project for Malaysians (only) and I’m finally feeling the heat?

I kept on asking myself that question. Eventually I found the answers and I’m not surprised at all.

Culprit Number 1 – Checking Email

I’ve been checking my emails a lil too often. It’s the first thing I do in the mornings, and it’s BAD. Why? Because there are basically 2 types of work you can do:

• Productive work
• Non-productive work

And believe it or not, replying emails falls under number 2. You should spend the first few hours of the day when your mind is eager and fresh, to do Productive work – writing a new article, finishing that ebook, publishing that PR, etc. Work that directly makes your business grow (in terms of money, traffic etc)

Imagine the first thing you see in the morning is a refund request or a rude email. That will certainly screw up your day.

Now I’ve given that advice to many people before, and just as often like today, I find myself needing it too.

Culprit Number 2 – The Phone

I used to turn my phone off when I’m working, but somehow that good habit fell apart. So if you call me and I don’t pick up, you know that I’m back into it and just call back half an hour later.

Just when I’m in the middle of something my girlfriend calls me and starts a long, long story about some event or some person. Then the entire line of thought and focus is gone, in an instant.

I only have myself to blame though – my discipline’s slacking off.

Culprit Number 3 – Too Many Projects

I bit off a little more than I can chew, again. Although it’s something that runs in my nature (I love starting but hate finishing) I’m sure I can plan my work better in the future.

Well some of you reading this may think “Hey dude I have no idea what you’re complaining about since you made more money this month than ever before…”

But that’s the whole point. I want to keep on making more, while not increasing my working hours as well. To me that’s what an Internet business is about.

It’s all about having the right balance, and I guess I need to get everything back in balance if I want to keep my sanity..

Having a tough time getting people to promote your products or do a JV with you?

You sent out 32 emails to seek JV partners, and all you got was a single bounced email?

It’s normal, I assure you, especially if you’re just getting started. Getting good JV partners is not as easy as it seems.

From my experience, both when seeking out JV partners, and when being invited as a JV partner, here are the Top 20 Reasons why people “politely decline” your offer of don’t reply to your emails at all.

1. They Don’t Know or Trust You – You’re new to the scene, and no one knows who you are. No one can vouch for you, therefore it’s difficult for others to trust you. This is unavoidable, but if you focus on building relationships it’s just a matter of time before people open up to you.
2. You Have a Bad Reputation – In contrast to the earlier point, you may be a regular in the market, but you may have left a bad on impression on others from previous deals. Most of the time it’s because you didn’t deliver what you promised or you don’t pay commissions on time. One mistake can be hazardous. But I don’t believe one mistake makes a person bad – it’s a series of mistake that you never learn from that will ultimately destroy your reputation.
3. Someone They Trust Said You’re an Jerk – The circles of trust. Don’t underestimate them. People you’ve never met or spoken to may already be predispositioned against your offers, simply because someone they trust or respect said that you’re not trustworthy. Know the affiliate, and know who his / her friends are. These are most likely the people that appear in the testimonials, commenters on their blogs, and also the owners of products they have been promoting. You piss one of them off, and soon the entire group will be unreceptive to your offers. Apologize for all mistakes, even if you’re not sure it’s a mistake, and never go back on your word.
4. They Don’t Believe in Your Product – You’ll realize that newbies will promote anything you ask them to. But the seasoned affiliate will only promote products he has reviewed or believes in. If they don’t believe in your product it doesn’t mean that it’s bad. Some affiliates fail to see that your product may be targeted to the beginner’s market, and tend to judge the information you have based on their level of knowledge. So just move on.
5. They Are Already Promoting Similar Products – If your product is an almost exact copy of something they are already promoting with good returns, they wont promote yours. The exception is if your version is better than the one they are already promoting.
6. They Have Competing Products – You have a product on email marketing, and so do they. Unless your product actually complements theirs (for example a video version of their product) don’t expect them to promote for you.
7. Your Product Makes Theirs Redundant – Imagine if they are selling a product on “The Benefits of Using Botox” and your product says “Forget Botox – Use My New Invention”. Nope, they don’t even want their customers to know your product exists.
8. Your Payout Percentage is Too Low – Some misers want to pay you 20% and expect you to be excited about it. 50% is standard for one-time digital products, 40% is acceptable for recurring payments like membership sites. 2% – 10% is standard for physical products that have costs and shipping elements to it. Don’t go cheap on commissions if you want people to promote for you.
9. Your Payout Per Sale is Too Low – Sometimes, a low payout can simply mean a low-ticket item. For example if your 50% commission only means that they get $5 per sale, they may not be interested unless your other criterias are good, for example the $7 dollar Secrets offer which had a low payout but a very, very good conversion.
10. You Have a Name Squeeze / Fly Catcher Page – Used to work until affiliates started to see that they are actually losing out if the sales page itself does not convert. Then you get all the names and email addresses, and they get nothing. Most affiliates I know of don’t like name squeeze pages, and most serious JV offers on the Internet today don’t implement one either.
11. You Have Adsense on Your Salesletter – Noooo!!! Never ever put Adsense on your salescopy. I’ll leave it to you to figure out why affiliates run away in the blink of an eye when they see Adsense on a page that is supposed to sell a product.
12. Your Salescopy Is Horrible – Some people stay away from copy that contains numerous spelling or grammatical mistake. Don’t assume that your JV partners will not scrutinize your sales page. If they read your salescopy and find that it’s not compelling enough, chances are that their list would have the same experience. Seasoned affiliate marketers can tell is your salescopy is good and will convert, just by scanning through the contents. They know what to look at, but do you?
13. Your Salescopy “Leaks” Commissions – Again it’s probably the seasoned affiliate who would notice this. If you take payments by Clickbank for example, and you also have a number where people can make phone orders and maybe send you a bank transfer, then these are “leaks” that the affiliate will not get paid for. I wont promote anything with payment options that will not be credited back to the affiliate.
14. They Are in An Unrelated Niche – Maybe they are in a completely unrelated market, or in a “sub-niche” and they feel that their subscribers would not be interested to buy your products. Trust their judgement – if they are serious marketers, they know what their list will and will not buy, how much a person spend on average.
15. They Don’t Like Your Affiliate System – Some people are pro-Clickbank, some are not. Some people don’t like using JV Manger or any other such affiliate management software. This reason however should be easy to overcome by assuring them that you’ll pay them for sales regardless of refunds.
16. Your Product Has an MLM Structure To It – some people don’t like 2 tier or multi-level payment structures. Maybe they had bad experiences with MLM or MLM-type of products that they get dizzy when you start drawing circles.
17. Your Email to Them Got Lost / Forgotten – maybe they just didn’t get your email or it got buried in spam. Or maybe they had wanted to check out your offer but put it off till tomorrow, and tomorrow never came. A follow-up email can do wonders to eliminate this reason.
18. Their Email to You Got Lost – This is the most screwed up reason I can think of. Imagine someone said yes to you and asked for more information, but their email got lost because of your spam filters. But hey on a day where anything can go wrong, everything usually does!
19. They Are Just Too Busy – They have their own business to attend to, and have no time for you – perfectly normal. make sure you notify potential partners early (if it’s a new launch) so they can allocate some time for you. If they are too busy, forget them for now and look for other partners.
20. They Are Just Confused – Maybe they were initially interested, but then you did the mistake of sending them to a hyped up salesletter where they have to spend a lot of time figuring out just how to sign-up for your affiliate program, or exactly what it is that you’re trying to launch. Keep JV information pages as simple as possible but do tell them WIIFM (What’s In It For Me)

Well, those are the top 20 things I can think of from the top of my head. Anything else to add to this list? Be my guest, leave a comment below.

Don’t get demotivated by the list though, that’s not what I wrote it for.

I wrote it so you can understand the motivation factors that drive JV partnerships on the Internet.

It’s a checklist you can use when you find yourself in need of getting new JV partners for your products or services. Try to make sure that you eliminate as many of the top 20 reasons as soon as possible, and you should be doing fine.

Once you’ve helped someone make money from your products, it gets easier and easier to get their help in the future. They will talk about you to their Internet marketing friends, and it gets easier still.

If they don’t make any money promoting your products – APOLOGIZE!

I’ve sent apology emails to a few people because they promoted well and didn’t make any sale for my products. Just say you’re sorry – maybe their list was not as interested as you thought they would be – and leave the doors open for future partnerships. Promote their product in a swap-mailing arrangement to keep things fair.

NEVER send them packing empty-handed without acknowledgement of their effort.

In any case, getting JV partners are NOT the only way to make money from the Internet, so don’t get hung up if you cant find partners. It’s not game over until you admit defeat.

If JV partnership is the only method of promotion you’ve planned, I’d say you need to plan better next time.