Today is one of my favorite days of the year. I have to confess; I love movies and am fascinated by all things Hollywood. With a number of aunties who have graced the silver screen and one with a star on Hollywood Blvd., my family’s had a long history in Hollywood. I was even born on the Sunset Strip. So blame the genes.

So my day will be about prepping for my annual Oscar Party. It’s a girls-only event, since I discovered early on that the majority of husbands/boyfriends don’t really care and kids are well…lovely, but a huge distraction. It’s a long awards show and keeping a child entertained while trying to get a glimpse of the Clooney in his tuxedo is impossible. So hubbies and kids are out.

Caitlin, my daughter, and I have our menu planned and we did our marketing yesterday. This year’s theme is Italian and will include a roasted red pepper dish, margherita pizza, portobello mushrooms in evoo, asparagus in lemon, crusty bread, baked penne with roasted veggies, and a pear tart plus spumoni ice cream and chocolate brownie for dessert. We have decorations to put up, our Oscar ballots to print out, and lots of cleaning to do but come 4:00 pm, it’s all about me, my friends, and the red carpet.

Let me know if you want to come; there’s plenty of food.

But she’s not happy that she hasn’t gotten one visitor yet.

She’s searched for her site using Google and after getting to page 115 without seeing it, gave up.

What does she want from me? She wants me to tell her what she needs to do to get her site seen and at the top of the search engine rankings.

So far, “Lisa,” (that’s what I’ll call her to protect the innocent), has spent $1000+. While her site has been indexed, it has no other incoming links at all. And I don’t think any in-depth keyword research was done, since her meta tags show very general search terms. Her site content is definitely not search engine optimized, either. Basically, she has a fancy, online business card.

Lisa’s touched base with the company that built her site, confused as to why she’s not seeing the results she expected. Well, in fairness, the company didn’t PROMISE her any results. They promised her a five page website. And that’s what they’ve given her.

They do offer web marketing packages. In an email I saw from the company to Lisa regarding marketing plans, they recommended:

• Google analytics to assess the demographics of the visitors she’s receiving (which would be wonderful if she was actually receiving any visitors
• Email campaign (again, great idea; but how can she build a list if she doesn’t have any traffic?)
• Web promotion (this was my favorite suggestion. “Marketing and web promotion” is $150 for a 30 minute phone consultation and 1 hour of marketing. However, there’s no indication of what kind of marketing. And if Lisa wanted a report of what had been done, that was an additional $25.)

Oy.

If Lisa had touched base with me before she signed her checkbook away to these people, I could have recommended several options to her that would have cost her far less and delivered many more results. Site Build It would definitely be at the top of my recommendation list.

Why? Because for one price, it includes most of the capabilities Lisa needs to get her web site seen.

• Site template? Check.
• Ability to build more than five pages without additional cost? Check.
• Keyword research? Check.
• Page optimization? Check.
• Email marketing? Check.
• Marketing and web promotion? Half-check. While SBI won’t do the work for you, it does provide a huge amount of resources detailing exactly what you need to do. Plus a super active forum community that stays one step ahead and continually provides new and exciting ideas.

Site Build It is a DIY web site builder. But, if like Lisa, you’d rather have someone else do the work for you, there are many SBI owners that provide that service. Sure, the cost is additional, but you’ll get the results you want.

In the meantime, I have a long email ready to send to Lisa, giving her suggestions on how to market a web site. Will keep you updated on what happens next.

Alice has recently partnered up with Lynnette Chandler (techie extraordinaire) to bring us all Internet Marketing Blogging Bootcamp. This latest project is four weeks of intensive training in blogging. If you’ve never taken a course with Alice before, I have, so I can honestly tell you that she’s very accessible and knowledgeable about what she does. I expect Blogging Bootcamp to be one of the best of the best, as usual. If you’ve never blogged before and just don’t know how to maximize you’re blogging, definitely check this out.

Apparently, the course has a limited number of spots available and registration starts soon, so check out the IM Blogging Bootcamp priority notification page here and get on the list. I’m sure you won’t be disappointed!

The answer, of course, is yes, I can. But the real question is: do I want to?

If you’ve been an internet marketer for any time, you’ve probably already developed a special skill set that few people have. You may be aces at SEO, or graphic design, or writing sales copy, or building an excellent link strategy. Most likely, you’re a little bit good at ALL of those things, and more.

Which is why everyone wants you to build them a web site. To a lot of people, the internet is imposing, a secret society that a chosen few have membership to. To others, they just don’t want to be bothered with the intricacies of the web, so look elsewhere for guidance.

And that’s when the “Can you help?” queries start to come.

I regularly debate the pros and cons of sticking with what I’m doing (building up my own web business) vs. working for someone else.

Fact: My web business is a slow grower. I have only so many hours per day (if I’m lucky!) to devote to working on it. In that same amount of time, I could design a header or two that made me $100 dollars or more. Tempting, isn’t it?

Fact: Building up my business means I’m creating for the future. Because whether I work on it or not, I still earn money. Just not a ton of money If I spend that time working on someone else’s business, I’ll get immediate money in the bank, but no long term returns.

Fact: I could really use more money NOW. If you haven’t heard, raising a family with four kids in Southern California ain’t cheap.

Fact: I really hate working for other people, my dad being the lone exception to that rule.

Fact: When I have done projects for others, I find a lot of my time is spent hand holding. The scope of the project, in terms of internet education, often goes way beyond what I’ve been hired to do. For example, I’ve been hired to build five page sites, then end up spending the same amount of time explaining SEO, traffic building, article submissions, etc.

Fact: Working for others means my time isn’t my own. As it stands now, if I can’t do any online work, due to family obligations or just plain laziness, I don’t have to. Someone who’s paying me probably won’t appreciate my very relaxed schedule.

Fact: I could really use more money NOW. If you haven’t heard, raising a family with four kids in Southern California ain’t cheap. (Yep, I did that one twice. Let’s face it; that’s a HUGE pro for the “working for the man” category.)

So what’s an underpaid, overscheduled procrastinator to do?

For the time being, I think I’ll tell these potential clients, thanks, but I’m not interested.

I have my own web business to work on. And a site to build for my artist mom. For free.

It’s a free download (though you do need to have .Net Framework to get it up and running) and promises to find blogs based on your search terms that allow comments. It also seeks out blogs that utilize the tag, which is even better for you. By allowing , the search engines will give your site a boost, with a link in and a bump in PR, if applicable.

I did a quick search for the term “work at home mom” and within a few seconds, Real Link Finder had a list of 20+ blogs and posts for me to peruse.

The best way to get your comments through spam filters? Read the post at hand and contribute a valuable comment or question. Bloggers are more likely to keep your comment if it appears to be legitimate. And who knows? You may actually learn something!

You can get Real Link Finder here free.

And now I can barely unbend my arms.

Thanks to the Internet Diet and Exercise Program so many of us are on, I finally had to give in to the robo-gym Gods and sign up for a membership. Friday, I dragged my teen daughter, Caitlin, with me, and we proceeded to slog away for 30 minutes on the treadmill before embarrassing ourselves on the weight floor. First we did some leg lifts, then moved on to a machine not unlike the examination table and stirrups found at my ob/gyn’s office. Thinking that this exercise would really work on my inner thighs, I was surprised to learn from the trainer walking by that it actually WIDENS the hips! After carrying four children to term, I really don’t need any additional help in that area, so I promptly hopped off.

Brandon, my savior, has a Tom Cruise smile and sure knows his weight training. He took Caitlin and me around the circuit to work on our arms and abs and kicked our butts. We discussed our fitness goals; I want to lose weight and get healthy and Cait wants to gain weight and get healthy. Life is unfair. Anyway, despite Brandon’s very convincing arguments and that oh-so-adorable grin, I did manage to walk out of the gym without signing my bank account away for personal training sessions. I think Caitlin was impressed.

Today, on Serenity Sunday, Cait and I decided to catch the 11:00 a.m. Mat Pilates class. While I was by far the least fit person in the class, I held my own throughout the intense workout. It’s a serious challenge, but a couple days of that, coupled with three days of cardio per week and we should be reaching our goals in good time.

So while I can barely move my arms, I feel better for having finally taken my health needs seriously. It’s so easy to just sit in front of the computer, working away, while the day passes us by. I’ll be checking in periodically to update you on how this fitness program continues.

Did you get out and about today, too?