I haven’t been here for a bit and first I want to say sorry. I know there are some readers who have been waiting for a post and I haven’t delivered. Forgive me! Maybe after this post, you will know why!! <<<<little incentive to get you to read the whole thing!!

Some friends of mine are having a “challenge” to see if we can get 100 blog comments on one post. This is my post, so comment away!!

Have you seen any “about me” pages? You know, the pages where you can go to read about the blogs owner/writer? Well, I don’t have one. My readers and subscribers don’t know who I am. Everyone should have a page where their subscribers can get to know them and be able to know that the person writing the blog is a real person and not some bot or script. So here goes…

I am Lisa Hernandez (y’all know that) and I live in Southern California. I have 6 kids, 2 grand babies and 3 dogs (2 Cocker Spaniels and Terrier poodle). I have been married almost 9 years to my hubster Tony. No, I didn’t have those kids in the last 9 years!! My youngest is 9 and she’s was given to me by the grace of God a couple of years ago. Love that little gal!!

My family calls me Roonie (and other variables, we are from the Midwest) Roon, Roonie-toon, Aunt Roonie, G-ma Roonie, etc…hence the domain name www.RoonieHernandez.com

Y’all can call me Roonie, but Lisa will be fine and will probably get you an answer faster!

K, so why am I here?? Or how did I get here?

On a fluke in 2009, I came across Twitter at a Joyce Meyer Conference. I had never heard of it and thought it was the coolest site out there! So many people and so many good links they were tweeting! I was in heaven; I am a news junkie and love the news from all over the world. Twitter had it all!!

I saw that people were tweeting about making money at home. I have tried most of my adult life to make money at home (Amway, Avon, Pampered Chef, Monavie, etc…) I have been working for years for someone else and I thought if I could make money at home from the computer…life would be good! I could stay at home with the kids and watch the dollars roll in! (BONK!! WRONG ANSWER! It takes time and effort to get started.)

I have no problems meeting new people on the social sites, so I thought how hard can that be? I can meet new people and make some money doing it! I got my first 900 Twitter followers by talking to people everyday and manually following them! Talk about some work!! (I have since automated!! Still get on there 2-3 times a week).

So I set out to get my own website…didn’t know a darn thing about them, called some website people and they wanted anywhere from 1200.00 to 3500.00 dollars to set up my site!! Well, THAT thought went out the window! I didn’t know anything about blogging or WordPress. (Gives all the newbies some HOPE!!)

Then I met a really cool guy, Adam Spiel of Pro Host Management (on Twitter, cause I talk to everyone!!) and he said I could go to his site and order a website package with hosting and everything for about 30 bucks a month! He was having a special on his packages and that would be the package for me! I told him I didn’t even have a site and he said no problem, we’ll get you one!

So I did! And I called him all the time asking him what to do next. He said get a squeeze page. I say “What the heck is a squeeze page?” He said write a report. I say “On what? I don’t know anything!”

My first site (which I haven’t done anything with in over a year) is www.cookingwithroonie.com (love to cook, hate to blog about it!!) Y’all can check it out, but it needs some TLC!

I didn’t understand what it meant to find a problem and fix it. So Adam suggested I get a mentor. OK so now I need a mentor! Well, crap! I am thinking, what the heck is a mentor??

Adam knew a guy by the name of Dean Holland from this big guru type guy, Alex Jeffreys. I couldn’t afford Alex Jeffreys at the time, and Dean had been through AJ’s class and was making it big! So I joined Dean Holland’s Starting With Marketing Class. That class taught me how to set up my blog and gave me a free gift to start building my list. OK, Cool.

But I need my own product. I can only give away someone else’s product for a short time.

I needed a product to attach a squeeze page to! My squeeze page! So in my Twitter and Google searching days, I found John Thornhill. Now, me being the diligent marketer I am… I Google EVERYONE!! So John Thornhill got Googled and Googled because his class is a little more than I wanted to spend (after buying all the crap that I thought was gonna help me out) and then he got Googled again! There is nothing I could find that say anything bad or scammy about JT. I love him! I even discussed the class with my hubby who doesn’t know anything about Internet Marketing and doesn’t care!

So I took the plunge! John Thornhill’s Masterclass! (You can too, for real cheap! 4.95 trial if you want to!)

In JT’s class, I am learning what it is to be a real Internet Marketer. The highs and lows, the good and bad. I am learning what to do and what NOT to do. I am also learning how to make my OWN product.

From a factory worker who wanted something more out of life. Like me. Like YOU!

Now that’s cool.

Wanna know where I’ve been lately? Taking care of kids, dogs and babies. When I get home from work every night, I don’t know what I will find. With 6 kids, every day has different challenges, fun and excitement! Some days are better than others, but everyday is AWESOME!!

Just wish I could get to the computer more often!!

What does your “about me” page say about you? Do YOUR readers know who you are?? Where you came from?? How you got started?

How did you get HERE?? Right here on my Blog?

Let me know!

Comments are cool. Oh and….Share the love!! Tweet, Stumble, Digg…whatever!

Lisa~

Hello Again!!

This week has been full of blessings! One major blessing in my life is David Walker and he has agreed to guest post on my blog! David is a professional blogger and internet marketer and he is enjoying the financial freedom that the internet can bring. He is actually “living the dream”!

Thank you David! I am honored!! Please leave your questions and/or comments below!

By now you’re probably familiar with blogging. If not, a blog in it’s simplest form is an online diary displayed in reverse chronological order (i.e. most recent entry first). A blog will generally be updated regularly and written in the first person rather than the third which is a common technique used on web pages.

Blogging for business is becoming very popular as companies, both online and bricks-and-mortar see the numerous benefits from doing so. Here, David Walker discusses five advantages of blogging for business.

1. Easy to Set Up

There are several blogging platforms available that are free of charge and easy to set up. WordPress is the primary example of an open source blogging platform that is free to use.

The good thing about WordPress is that there are various free themes (templates) available for you to change the way the website looks without being technical.

When you start to make money online and want something a little more bespoke, you can hire somebody to create a tailor-made design unique to your business.

The costs to create a theme are focused much more on the overall design than traditional web development costs which focus a lot on what goes on “under the hood”.

2. Quick and Easy to Keep Your Customers Updated

Writing a blog entry is quicker and easier than a web page update.

First of all you simply have to log into the administrator section of your blog and you’re ready to go. This means you can update the blog from anywhere with an internet connection.

Blog entries are written in the first person as an individual blogger, rather than as the ‘organisation’ and hence you don’t have to be as precise with the spelling and grammar although that doesn’t mean you should take a sloppy approach to blogging.

The blog should be the first place you tell customers about new products or developments.

3. Search Engine Friendly

Blogs in their nature are updated frequently and often rich in content.

It is for these reasons, search engines love blogs more than any other form of content delivery at the moment.

Blog posts are usually to the point and representative of what people are talking about whether it’s a news item, pop culture reference or product and another reason blog posts rank well in the search engines.

Blog posts are very “linkable”. Somebody may write an opinionated blog post and another blogger may disagree, write a blog post from an opposing view point and link to the first post as a point of reference.

These links will also help your overall search engine position.

4. Build a Relationship With Your Readers

When blogging you will blog as an individual on behalf of the company. This enables you to be more open and transparent in your opinions and thought than if you were simply “towing the company line”.

For this reason you readers (customers) will be able to associate with you as a human being. This will establish a much closer, stronger relationship and will extend the overall lifespan of a particular customer.

5. Get Opinions From Your Customers

Blogs are great to gage opinion from your customers.

Each post can allow readers to add comments, offer their opinions and contribute to the discussion.

This is a much more interactive way to deliver content than the traditional format of simply “broadcasting” your message on a static website giving your customers no way of responding.

The opinions of your customers can help you make educated business decisions in the future – at the very least you can find out the type of content they respond to and give more of it to them!

Hey Y’all!!

I have been so busy and it’s all good!!

First of all THANK YOU!! I won the traffic competition in the Marketing Startup Masterclass and am the very proud owner of my very own product which will be unveiled very soon!!

THAT’S some very exciting stuff and I owe it to all my readers and friends who stopped by and Tweeted, Stumbled, Facebooked and Digged!! I got it FREE! MY OWN PRODUCT!! Worth like a gazillion bucks!! YAY!

ANOTHER FREEBIE going on and I wanna WIN!!! This brand spankin’ new company WPStartups is having a Win a Free Website Sweepstakes and all you gotta do is enter!! How cool is that? Read about them right here!!  I could win a $500.00 blog?? Just by entering!! I’m THERE!! I have been on a roll lately…told you things were looking up! But like they say in the Lotto…you can’t win if you don’t play! So go on over and (READ THE DIRECTIONS!) get signed up and maybe you will be the winner of a brand new blog or website!!

To enter the contest you must Fan them on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/wpstartups or go to their website and enter through there. Contest ends July 31, 2010 and winner will be chosen August 01, 2010, blah blah blah all the info and fine print are over there, so I will let them tell it.

You know what else I got FREE?? I got SEO’d! YAY!

I met the most awesome SEO expert and got a chance to chat with him and get my blog SEO’d! It’s still a work in progress, but it is so cool to be able to talk to someone who understands WordPress like a pro AND Search Engine Optimization! Like when I ask him about this particular thingy in the WP Dashboard, and he knows exactly what I am talking about.

That’s cool.

His name is Alex Miranda and his company is PRUnderground.com. It’s a Social Media Press Release Company (the only one ran on WordPress!) and they are probably one of the only social media services company that will not only answer all your questions (YAY! even the stupid ones, cause I had A LOT!)…. but….they will also help you write SEO optimized press releases!! I know I don’t want to have to worry about SEO and just want to write what I want to write….but with an awesome company like PRUnderground helping you write your press releases AND SEO-ing it…how can you go wrong?? They also research your topic and find totally relevant photos, logos and videos, and it’s all included!! YAY!

So this big time SEO Expert and really cool guy called me and SEO’d my blog!! Just because…talk about paying it FORWARD!!

Some of you know I couldn’t even get on the first page of Google with my own name! Lisa Hernandez,  so we started with that.  I used to be on page 3 of Google so people looking for me wouldn’t find me unless they searched around. I am in competition with a News Gal! Well I am on page 1 now in the 6-7 spot!

We changed the title tags to more search engine friendly title tags. We also changed the meta tag description so that it matches my title tag keywords. Here are the basics steps we took :

1. Sign up with Google webmaster Tools: https://www.google.com/webmasters

2. Verify your website with Google: https://www.google.com/webmasters/verification

3. Add a sitemap to the footer of your website:

Search engines crawl websites regularly. In order for them to crawl all the pages on your website you must install a sitemap on your footer. As of right now, I only have one page, so I haven’t done this yet!!

4. Once you install the sitemap if you are using WordPress install the Google XML Sitemap plug-in. You can just search for it in plugins.

5. Now add your website to Googles sitemap. Go to  https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/sitemap

6. You can also run all the tools available on Google Webmaster Tools to do a complete diagnostic of your website.

7. Add a unique title tag to each page. Try and think of search terms people would use to find your website. This is where keyword research comes in handy.

For example: Social Media Press Releases | Online Press Release Services | PRUnderground

See how they use long tailed keywords? If they had used just “press releases” that would never get picked up by Google to rank on the first page. Also notice the breaks in between the keywords. Do not use commas or dashes. Use those little lines on the backslash key.  This is another spot where I messed up!! At the end of the title tags I put the company name. (Me) So if you look at my title tags, you will see

Successful Internet Marketing | Easy Blog Setups | Lisa Hernandez Online

Lisa Hernandez Online isn’t first anymore. This is the right way to add title tags to your website. If you do it any other way you can affect your rankings

8. Make sure you use a Meta tag description using keywords from the title tag. Also take note that if you do not use a Meta Tag description Google now adds one by default.

9. There is this big misconception that we must use Meta Tag keywords. Apparently Google does not check for that anymore. You can have them on the site but they are not necessary. What’s most important is that you have keyword rich content throughout your website that matches your title tags and description for that particular page. Hence, the need for multiple pages. Still working on that!

There are tons more things you can do to get noticed by the search engines. I just learned this too! I need to use a press release service such as PRUnderground for back link purposes. The more reputable links you have coming to your website, the higher your Page Rank and the better your search engine visibility. We are working on that next!! I definitely need more quality backlinks.  (I didn’t even know what a backlink was until I talked to Alex!)

And there you are!! You’ve been SEO’d!!  I have more coming up because this blog post is getting really loooonnnng so stay tuned and see how my blog blossoms into an SEO’d killer blog that gets itself on the front page, time and time again!!

Now Alex uses special software to do all this analyzing and I will be researching that and letting you know all about it in the next few posts.

Whew! So what do you think? Have YOU been SEO’d? leave me comments and let me know. If you have any questions, let me know. I am sure Alex will stop by to answer them!

Take care and have an amazing day!!

Lisa~

Ever heard of the movie “Pay It Forward”? It’s about different people who help strangers and all they want in return is that the stranger pays back the favor to someone else. Instead of Payback…It’s pay forward. Get it? Pay it FORWARD.

In my internet marketing business I have had a few of my marketing friends help me out, sometimes with little things like telling me how to use a php thingy, or big things like purchasing me some videos I wanted just because.

I like to pay things forward. It feels good! You know when a friend or someone needs a little help or something and you just do whatever it takes to make sure this person gets what they need. Like if someone needs an extra buck or 2 for lunch. And you don’t ask for anything in return. Just tell them to give it to someone who needs it someday.

Maybe it’s just a few bucks to help a fellow marketer out who is in a pinch, a class for a friend, or something really awesome that my friend or subscriber could really benefit from. Paying it forward.

And this month, my Pay it forward was a FREE 6 month subscription to More Monthly for a very good friend of mine. YAY!

If y’all didn’t know, More Monthly is a paid membership site owned by Randy Smith with downloads to ebooks, reports, videos, software & the BEST and I mean BEST forum I have ever seen!! Not only are the products the coolest out there, and there are new ones uploaded every month…I have also met some of the coolest people there and I recommend the site to EVERYONE!! You can check it out here and if you would like a $1 trial….go here. It’s very well worth it!! Best money I have ever spent!!

OK, back to my pay it forward. I want to help not only my friends, but my subscribers, too!!

Helping is a good thing. What would YOU as a subscriber to my blog (see new Panda RSS feed button over there on the right) think would be a cool pay it forward favor? Not like a gazillion dollars (although that would be cool!!), but something you want and could truly use and it would make your life a little easier?

Is there a product that has been on your mind or a subscription to a site that makes you happy (like More Monthly) Maybe an upgraded account in a really hot awesome giveaway? Custom Graphics? A gift card to Amazon for a hard cover book or CD you have been wanting?

Maybe you aren’t an Internet Marketer in the Marketing Niche and need something to train your dog? Or recipes to feed your family?

Heck! I don’t know!

So you gotta tell me….What? First of all….are you subscribed to my blog? Are you on my list? You can get your free WP Set Up Guide over in the right side bar and that will put you on my list and you just might be the lucky winner of my pay it forward help someone out favor.

BUT…..I need to know what and why!! Be real, be honest and maybe YOU will be a pay it forward winner featured on my blog!!

Send me an email to payitforward@rooniehernandez.com or leave me a comment. I would love to feature you on my blog and do YOU the favor of paying it forward!!

If you have an awesome product that you would like featured on my blog and would like it to be put into my pay it forward monthly help someone out campaign, please send me an email, too!!

Good Luck!!

Lisa~

I have just started to use Market Samurai and I find the software AMAZING!!

If you want the secret to quick, profitable, high traffic Google rankings – the secret is finding the “right” keywords…

You know…..most people fail online because they never get to Google’s front page, don’t get the traffic and sales they thought they would and they just give up!! I am not even on the front page (not even for my own name!!) because I didn’t take the time to figure out my keywords and who I was competing with!! Darn News gal!!

Folks just climb into a niche market blindly (like me) and start blogging and creating content. They then hope that Google will magically find their site and give them a front page ranking. Uh….NO!!

What is really sad is that so many people work so hard to build a great website (and there are a TON of great sites!!) but don’t get any traffic (or just a little bit of traffic) because they’ve entered a very competitive niche (make money online, dog training, self improvement, dating, Ebay…etc.) and the competition just too much! BLAH!!

That’s all about to change!!

The real secret to success online is to learn to pick your battles carefully and only target keywords that will get you a front page ranking.

I have found this to be an incredible software and it finds your keywords for you!

Market Samurai will research and find…

High traffic keywords

Long tail keywords

Market competition (who are you competing with?)

Now you can do all of that yourself (Google keyword tools, wonderwheel, etc.) if you have the time to do all that (which I don’t) or you could just get this software and let it do it for you!!

It also finds domain names, products in your niches to promote, and you can research articles in your niche….very cool!

I have been learning the ropes of Market Samurai and I am really impressed! Let’s see what I come up with! Front Page? Beating out the competition? YAY!!

Market Samurai even gives you all the stats and info of who is on the front page like domain age, page rank, is the keyword in the header, first line, are there any backlinks and from who…Just AMAZING!!

You can get the Market Samurai software free for a week or so to try it out!!

How’s that for cool?

Just think…if you figure out the competition before you create your online business, you can save yourself months and maybe even years of hard work and frustration!!

Give it a free try!! Market Samurai and then comment to let me know what you think!

Take care and I hope y’all are having an AMAZING day!!

Lisa~

My friends (and they really are!!) Keith Purkiss and Michael Ottman are hosting this St Swithin’s Day Special Giveaway and it’s gonna be HUGE!! One of the more exciting giveaways I have seen!!

It’s based on St Swithins Day and if you don’t know what that is (which I didn’t) then click on it and the front page tells you all about it!!

Giveaways are really cool for building a list and also building relationships with other marketers.  There are also some awesome free gifts you can download!!

How cool is that? It’s a win-win for everyone!! YAY!!

Don’t miss out on the flood of traffic that will hit the site on 2nd July and the new subscribers to your list. Add your gift now:

Original Products Giveaway

See you there!!

Lisa~

Oh and I’ve even heard rumors of an extra special follow up event which is only for people who join this one…for like 40 days!!! YAY and cool!!

I am in John Thornhill’s Masterclass and I am supposed to be writing an ebook. I was actually supposed to have that done a while ago!

I have a niche, I have a passion, I know what I want to write, I know what I want to say, I know what I want it to look like so what’s the prob?!?!

I have the website, graphics, table of contents and a thousand ideas in my head of what I want to include in my book.

I just can’t write it.  I start writing and putting ideas on paper and it all just turns into mush.  Mush in my head, mush on paper, ideas are mush…just total, complete, undeniable MUSH!!

Sometimes, I actually just want to say screw it and forget the whole thing! In fact, I did, once. Then I look at how far I have come, how much time and energy I have put into this, what I really want to do with my life(that’s a BIG one!!) and I sit back down and get back to the mush.

Discipline.

Gotta have tons more discipline.

dis•ci•pline

Self-discipline refers to the training that one gives one’s self to accomplish a certain task or to adopt a particular pattern of behavior, even though one would really rather be doing something else (stole this from Wiki)

See that “even though one would really rather be doing something else” part??

That’s me.

We only do what we really want to do. Human nature. Why would someone want to write a bunch of mush when they could be hanging out with the kids(they grow so fast!!) or on Twitter, Skype, reading other peoples blogs or helping a fellow blogger with ideas? That’s a total feel-good deal. YAY!

Writing something that looks like mush that gets your head spinning so fast you just wanna holler STOP!!!? Not so feel-good. BLAH!

I have gobs of self-discipline.  I have to.  Just not on this.

Time management? Got that down. Work all day, write when I can. Less sleep means more time to do. Duh! How hard could that be?

What do you do when you have to do something that is not so feel-good? Curl up in the fetal position and cry for your mama? Eat like there is no tomorrow? Have a little drinky or two (or 10?)??

Or something more productive like making a list of your goals for the day and sticking with it? Or writing out your dreams and aspirations and sticking them on your computer so you can see them everyday and remember why you started this in the first place?? Go for a bike ride? Cook like a chef?

What???

Let me know and I hope y’all have an AMAZING DAY!!!

Lisa~