Christmas already?!

I have to say, I've been going through the AffiloBlueprint site and I totally love it!!! For the complete newbies' guide to Affiliate Marketing, I would have to recommend this site to anyone. Mark Ling definitely provides a complete blueprint for getting an affiliate marketing site up and running within a week or two. However, optimizing your site for the search engines definitely takes a lot of time and work. Here's my page for AffiloRama and AffiloBlueprint. Anybody who looks at serious affiliate marketers who are making a lot of money and think that they don't do anything to earn that money are dead-wrong! Whew! Of course, I'm talking about the article marketing side of affiliate marketing. I haven't gone through the rest of the course yet as I'm still working on getting articles rewritten for submission to article directories and re-rewritten in 'spin format' for AMAutomation blog and site submissions. While I haven't seen any sales yet due to a sub-par website, I did test out some keywords on a Google search and found that I had a First Page result! Woot! This was for my World of Warcraft site, RLCO WoW Guides. Renaissance Learning Center Online will be updated in due time, but not while I'm finishing up with the WoW site (unless I get totally burned out on World of Warcraft articles; then I may have to add a couple more pages to RLCO). I found out yesterday that I'm off work until January 3rd, which is awesome news in the land of affiliate marketing! Well, in my land of affiliate marketing, at least. Haha! With only one day of family related events (Christmas Eve) I'll have plenty of time to make a huge dent in my workload for RLCO WoW Guides. My plans are to submit an article to GoArticles.com and then I can begin work on an e-mail series through AWeber. I've also discovered that some of my pages need to be updated because of faulty information. Those are being done as I discover them. It's a great reminder for me to make sure my facts are correct before I post pages on the Internet! Double check and even triple check those articles to make sure the facts are in-fact facts!!! Alright! That's it for me today! Sorry it's been a while since my last update, but I've been plenty busy with overtime at my day job and with the WoW site. I should be updating a couple times before I go back to work again on the 3rd. Also, I've figured out the topics for my next two sites! Learn to play the piano and Learn to play the guitar. Those will also be RLCO-branded and most likely added to the main RLCO site. It'll mean double the articles and rewriting and re-rewriting, but I think these will be two popular topics. I'm looking forward to it! Okay, that's really it. Until next time!!! Adios! Merry Christmas everyone!!!

Cooler Days!

I'm back after an eventful and superfun summer! Lots of kayaking fun, as well as other awesome events. I managed to get a couple product pages up since my last blog post (No-Nonsense Muscle Building, Your 6-Pack Quest, and Affilorama). Now with the cooler (almost) autumn days upon us, I'll be able to focus more on the website, which means lots more cool product pages and I'll get some articles posted. I've been looking at that lonely "Articles" button for a few months now, knowing that something has to get done to make it less lonely. Within a year I'll have a "Videos" button to put up also. I'm very much looking forward to that. As of now, I'm saving up for a nice HD video camera and learning the ropes of Adobe AfterEffects and Adobe Premiere Pro. These programs are totally awesome and very powerful. I wouldn't want to touch video editing without them. Lately I've been going through the Affilorama site and listening to all the free instructional videos and interviews. After seeing all the good information, I'm planning on taking the AffiloBlueprint course, which involves creating a mini-website for whatever single product you're reviewing or endorsing. After the website is properly finished, you move on to the next one, and then the next. This won't affect how much Renaissance Learning Center Online gets updated, so no worries. This is the site that I call "Headquarters." Every site I create will be listed in the "Our Friends" page, once I get that up. Some of the sites may be the same pages that I review and endorse on this site, which will be a great experiment for me in how single product sites compare to larger catalog-style sites, such as RLCO. Many of the other mini-sites I create will have nothing to do with the RLCO-themed information products. I'll be marketing physical products, health products, membership sites, whatever seems like it will make some good money. So I'm completely transparent here, all the information products that I review on Renaissance Learning Center Online are products that I believe in 100%. RLCO is geared toward actually helping people to choosing the BEST information products on the internet. The mini-sites that I'll be creating will be geared more toward monetization. I won't be out scamming people; that's not part of my personality or in my personal values. I think the best way to say it is that I'll be letting out my "inner-marketer." ;-) Anyway, I'll be starting that in a couple weeks. I can't wait! Okay, that's it for today! It's good to be back and you'll be seeing more of me in the weeks ahead. Oh yes, before I forget, if you'd like to check out my Affilorama page, here's the link: RLCO Affilorama Page Later!

Back to the Books!

I'm working on a form on the Contact Us page and I've discovered I have some material I need to learn first, such as some PHP. So I'm diving into my HeadFirst Labs library (which, in my personal opinion, are some of the best books out there for learning 'how-to' for the web) and dusting off the "PHP&MySQL" book, as well as the "Web Design" book. I'll be focusing mainly on PHP for the next few weeks and playing around, I mean, testing the new information in my Alpha Testing site on my computer.
While that's going on, you should see a new header go up. Whether it's the FINAL header still remains to be seen; I know I have a lot to learn yet before I can say something is good or not. I only know that it will be BETTER.
So, a new header, a Contact Us form, some booklearnin', and then, finally, some first draft Product pages. These are the things you can be expecting to see within the next couple of weeks.
I can't wait and I know you can't either!!!
Later!

Design Changes

Well, it's been a little over a month now, and given the amount of time that I've worked on this site, I think it's coming along nicely. So far I have a new header and logo (text only), both of which are temporary. The logo needs minor adjustments; the header, well...it needs a complete revamping. I have some ideas, but lately I've been working on the page layout more than anything else.
I like the two sidebars I have now, one for New Articles and one for News. The News sidebar allowed me to eliminate the News page, which was my intention from the beginning. I had up the News page more for XHTML practice to help drill the tags and the element layouts into my memory.
I still have some design work to do, such as coloring the page how I want and laying out the 4 Main Product pages (Business & Success, Lifestyle, Dating & Relationships, and Health & Fitness). Those layouts, for right now, seem as if they are going to be a small challenge to me because of product categories. For example, for Health & Fitness, there will be categories of "Muscle-Building," "Fat Loss," "Nutrition," and "Sports-Related." I want to have four lists that are spread horizontally across the page. Should I use tables? Is it a job for CSS? It's not something I'm worrying about now, and I'm positive that a little bit of research will lead me to the answer.
Hmmm...now that I think about it, the same problem will apply to the Articles page. I want the articles separated according to their Main Product affiliations in the same type of layout as the Main Product pages. The nice part is, once I figure out the layout for one page, all I have to do is replicate it on the other pages.
Then, once that's all done and I have my logo and header replaced with something better, I can start adding Product pages. I'm looking forward to that, since that's how this site is going to make money initially.
I have a few products picked out already that I believe in for the Health & Fitness category. I also have many ideas of the type of products I want on the Business & Success and the Lifestyle pages. I haven't looked too far into the Dating & Relationship products yet, but, there again, I know of a couple products that I believe in.
So, no worries. I'm not planning on putting any crap on this website. If it's good and it's something I believe in, I'll post it on the pages. If it's a free product or site that I believe in that I think is worth your time, I'll post it up, even though it won't make me any money. I want my visitors to be able to find good quality options to help make their lives better. Not "snake oil" or "miracle cures." Just good products that have been proven to get results WITH a little (or a lot) of work on the part of the visitor.
That's it for me today! Thanks for stopping by and I hope you visit soon!

Much Work to be Done

We're two weeks into this website and there's much to be done. We have have some basic CSS up and running so there's some style to the home page now.
I'm currently in the design stages of a logo and header for each page of the site and I have to say it's a challenging process. Still, it's very fun and I'm sure you all will like it.
No products up yet. Once I have the style of the website down, I'll be working on product pages.
Okay, I have to keep this ultra-short. I have a busy night tonight!
Until next time!

Welcome!

Alright! We're online! Renaissance Learning Center Online has had a successful launch after a day of trying to figure out the FTP process.
My name is Russell Sabo and I'm the owner of Renaissance Learning Center Online. Our overall mission is to provide our visitors with trustworthy direction to quality information products on the web. In doing so, we aim to help our visitors live the best lives they possible can.
We will also provide quality information in the form of articles and videos in the very near future, ranging on topics from building muscle, losing fat, meeting the right woman or man, establishing an online business, learning different languages, learning the different forms for Taekwondo, or even how to tie a tie (looking spiffy is a virtue!). The sky is the limit and I'd like to see that we have it all!
Of course, this will be a massive challenge to us, but it's a challenge we're willing to meet head-on!
First things first, however. The website has just been launched and there's still a lot to do in the way of site design, product addition, and content. This is our first goal to meet in the next couple of months. I'll be providing updates on our News page and in this blog to keep you all updated.
As a beginning webmaster, I'll have lots to keep you updated about. There's so much to learn and so much to add to a website about leading a successful life.
But it will be worth it. I'd like to see you succeed, or at least hear about it. I hope you stop by often and check out the new updates!
Hope to see you on the site!!!
Russell Sabo