Earnings were pretty decent in January and February, over $150 each month from Squidoo related income. March was strange, very low conversions, resulting in a weak $70 month. April so far looks OK considering the loss of traffic (down about 30% a week from Google penalizing Squidoo). Someone bought a $880 dollar wine rack, but alas returned it. Nonetheless, all things considered it isn’t a horrible month.

I started a new project. My two writers are pounding out content that I’m using to build some Amazon review sites, and an Adsense site. A little ambitious to begin 4 sites and work on them all at the same time, however it also makes it a little less boring when you can write about different topics. In this case 2 of the sites (one of them is about portable ice makers at www.icemakermania.com and has reviews on, well, portable ice makers) are based on Erica Stones Amazon review site method, with a twist. I am siloing the sites to see if helps with rankings. The third Amazon site hasn’t quite started, but it is one of Wolfmii’s guaranteed income sites. Should be interesting, and might learn a trick or two. Lastly an Adsense site for good measure and diversity.

The first two sites will feature reviews and articles without affiliate links. Probably around 2 to 1 ratio. So out of 30 posts, 20 would be reviews and the other 10 just articles with a few internal links. The other Amazon site, well I believe its all reviews, but we will see. The Adsense site will be 40 articles on similar theme, probably siloed as well.

I will update here with how it all goes.

The forum membership costs $27 a month, but if you like the idea of it and sign up through my link, you can get a discount and get membership for $20 $14 a month! Click here! (limited time, the cost goes up regularly!)

Is The OBI Forum Right For You? Or Is It A Scam?

Let’s start by asking a few questions, and answering them honestly. And no of course it is not a scam!

• Do you currently slog away making sites and sales pages but get no where or make very little in return?
•  Are you easily distracted and hop from one shiny object to another with no clear direction?
• Do you spend money on WSO’s and ‘courses’ and still make little or no return profit?
• Have you been trying for months or even a few years and still can’t seem to make internet marketing work?
• Do you want to make more money to supplement or even replace your day job?
• Do you want a coach? A personal mentor? Without spending hundreds of dollars an hour?

Chances are you answered YES to one or more of those questions. Does that mean you should go join OBI right now? Well, hold on a frikkin’ minute! It might, but before you spend your money read on and see if Online Business Insiders Forum will actually help you.

What Online Business Insiders Can Do For You

Ever been to WarriorForums? I bet you have. Ever gotten a straight answer from one of the self proclaimed gurus? Ha! Hey, I go to WF all the time and we both know you really have to sort through a lot of crap to find any useful information. There are only a handful of folks there that actually provide anything helpful, useful or actionable. But hey, it is free right!

Not so on OBI. We are talking light years ahead of WF as there is pretty much no fluff at all. No one is posting to get crappy signature links   Furthermore, there are real EXPERTS who honestly make a living doing what they do, and none of them professes to be a guru. These guys are the real deal, and some of them frequent the WF as well, so you’ll recognize their names. For only $14 a month having access to these guys is a no brainer, plain and simple.

So, what can OBI really do for you? Well, ask pretty much any internet marketing question there and you’ll get a very solid, honest and useful answer from someone who HAS BEEN THERE before, usually within hours if not minutes! And I’m not hyping that at all. Have a question about being an Amazon affiliate? Erica freaking Stone will answer it for you! (she has released so many awesome WSO’s).

You can click the link to read up on who all the Experts are, and the list is very impressive. A few highlights are Erica Stone (Amazon), Alexa Smith (Clickbank), Dennis Gaskill (Authority Sites), Rebecca Hagel (Copywriting), Lee Dobbins (Kindle Publishing) and 16 others. Yes, a total of 21 (at the time of this review) experts from different areas.

You ask a question, and someone answers. It honestly is like having a personal mentor. A coach who will guide you and help you make the right choice. One expert (Erica) even help guide a fellow named Chris right through releasing his first extremely successful WSO, and held his hand when needed and encouraged him the entire time. (Squidcrafter was the product). This kind of coaching is virtually priceless and you will not find anything comparable to OBI anywhere. See how that is worth $14 a month? (only by clicking one of the links).

By the way, yes, I am a member of OBI (otherwise I couldn’t write a real Online Business Insiders Review!) and have absolutely no plans of canceling anytime soon!

What OBI And The Experts Can’t Do For You

Obviously, they don’t do the work for you. Don’t expect someone to research keywords, design your site and do it all for you. If you ask a question like whether your keyword is any good, or have someone go over your site, they will help you figure out what needs done.

That’s the rub right there. You have to ask the questions. You can be a lurker and read up and learn some valuable, actionable stuff for sure! However, unless someone has asked what you want to know you may not find an answer if you don’t ask. And at least for me, I sometimes don’t know what question I need answered!

Another thing worth noting about Online Business Insiders, while there are tons of ‘Topics’ (20 plus!), a lot of them have very little activity since as I mentioned, no one is currently asking questions in those categories. There are currently (according to the forum software) 500+ registered members, but of course not all of those are active accounts (I did a quick count and of the 500+ accounts 250 of them have logged in within the last 7 days of this post. Not too shabby!). And the forum has it’s share of lurkers (people who read but never or rarely post). The most active section is the Amazon affiliate area, and it’s awesome. Erica is fantastic!

Finally, there are no specific sections for topics like Adsense, Micro niche sites, certain aspects of SEO like backlinking and Private Blog Networks. That shouldn’t be a huge deterrent though! The experts definitely have something to say about all of those topics, and of course there are the members as well who are extremely helpful. The real goal of being a member of OBI is to create a stable and sustainable online income and that is what they help you do.

The Summary: Is OBI Worth $14 A Month?

For me, personally, yes I think it is a crazy good deal, even if you skip my affiliate link and pay the full $27 a month. You simply cannot get this kind of mentorship and guidance for anything close to $14 a month. The cons are negligible. Here is a quick rundown why I am a member:

• Personal, actually better than personal, coaching. I say this because in the forum environment you get your questions answered by the experts, and you get to see the questions and answers from other members you may not even have thought of!
• As the community grows, so will the knowledge!
• There are many cool things planned for the future like seminars, real time chats, video tutorials and more.
• The experts really are EXPERTS!
• Within a month you would have learned and implemented enough advice that your earnings from that alone would easily pay for your membership!
• It’s a measly 14 bucks a month! Less than a WSO in most cases, and frequently you get WSO worthy posts and answers for free!

So, what are you waiting for? Head over to OBI, sign up today, and see how it can help you achieve YOUR online goals! If you have any questions you’d like to ask me about my Online Business Insiders review before signing up, please go ahead (if comments aren’t on, use the contact form! I will answer!)

Click HERE to sign up for $14 a month!

First, lets talk amazon comissions for December. Not too shabby! The Christmas season really ups the conversion rate once the buyer gets to Amazon. Regularly the rate is about 3%, but in December it rose to a decent 6.7%! This helped tremendously. Also, I got a bit more traffic in a few niches resulting in higher payouts from Squidoo. This is how it worked out:

Squidoo Amazon Module Payout: $18
Squidoo Tier Payments: $40 (guessing here, info not released yet)
Amazon Comissions: $537

So all in all, I should get about $595 for December. Again, that’s pretty good. Hell, it’s more than some people get on Welfare up in the frozen north! And none of this income resulted from my new lenses.

As I mentioned I made 3 new lenses in this wintery month. I have some hopes for them to be honest, once they take off. I hope conversions are decent! Lets take a look at them.

Over The Toilet Storage
Over the toilet storage was the first lens I made. It obviously deals with storage options for over your toilet in the bathroom. So far, no conversions!

Over The Toilet Space Saver
http://www.squidoo.com/-over-the-toilet-space-saver (lens was deleted )
Over the toilet space saver is clearly a second lens in the toilet storage series. It seems like a decent niche so I’m giving it a go. Again, no conversions but still a pretty young lens.

Best At Home Waxing Kit
Best at home waxing kit is not about waxing your car! It is about waxing your body. You can stop laughing at me now, I don’t actually wax anything.

I currently have two more lenses WIP (work in progress) so once published that will bring my total to 28. I will try to make two more before I embark upon a new plan. NO I am not jumping the Squidoo ship! I just think I should refocus my efforts on a site that I own, as it also is proven to be higher converting.

I have a LOT of help from Online Business Insiders (see that post for the link to OBI) so that is added motivation to try a real property. I also have something in mind for those folks, but that’s a secret project that I haven’t really commited to yet.

In the next few weeks I will possibly divulge that secret, and I also plan on doing a review of OBI.

I won’t reveal any Adsense sites or any of my websites, but I will show my Squidoo earnings and related income here for the sake of measuring progress. So, in November I had 22 lenses. Some are duds, some get decent traffic but aren’t sales oriented etc. All in all, November netted me a whole $35 dollars from Squidoo, and $287 from Amazon (my Squidoo links). So all in all my income generated from those lenses was about $325. Nothing to write home about!

Why was November so much better compared to previous months? Well, one lens in particular helped out quite a bit.
Electric Motorcycles for Kids

Kids Electric Motorcycles Are Great!

That is because the commission on them isn’t too bad. Then I also created a few more lenses:

Slipcovers For Wingback Chairs
http://www.squidoo.com/slipcovers-for-wing-back-chairs  (lens was deleted)
Slipcovers for wingback chairs has been mostly a flop. I think the competition was a bit stronger than I realized at first.

Live Laugh Love Wall Décor
http://www.squidoo.com/-live-laugh-love-wall-decor (lens was deleted)
Live laugh love wall décor and decals for the home is another misjudgment in the competition!

Hopefully with time these few lenses pick it up a bit. In order for Squidoo to reach a worthy ROI, each lens should generate $5 a month during the first 3 quarters of the year. The last three (shopping season) should reach $7-10 per lens. So, If you have 25 lenses like I do, a minimum of $125 is the target. That isn’t much! But if I could reach 60 lenses by May or so, that would a passive $300 a month. An ok ROI.

In any case, that is pretty much it. Reach 60 lenses by May.

Panda refreshes, the most hated Penguin hit and then the EMD penalty pretty much nailed most of the spammers and blackhatters out there. Too bad for me, a large part of my online portfolio got smacked around as well!

My main site, the one I was actually proud of, was raking in the bling with Adsense to the tune of $600 a month. The crushing of BMR and spammy links sent the site to the abyss. Hey, I made some bank on it so while disappointed it was not such a big deal. I just picked myself up like a good little soldier and carried on with my other sites. Too bad penguin nailed most of them.

I managed to avoid Penguin with a few other sites, and of course my small Squidoo portfolio was untouched. I figured I should exert some energy in those areas. Things were looking good, I was getting some Amazon sales and an Adsense payment every month….until EMD. Poof! Went my Adsense earnings. <sigh>

Still no sense in quitting. I decided to join OnlineBusinessInsiders (affiliate link!) since my favorite Amazon and Squidoo Guru Erica Stone recommended it in an email. I now focus a lot more energy on Squidoo for the time being and plan on making some ‘real’ sites upon my return from Hawaii this spring.

My plans for my private blog here are simple. I plan on going back to early November with my next post and detail what I’ve been doing. Then I will add a few reviews of IM products I think are worth the investment (like OBI), and carry on with bi-weekly updates on my activities and earnings through Squidoo, Amazon and Adsense.