Online Earning

Barack Obama - Free Shirt Friday

Sep 27, 2008 Blog, Bloggers diary, Blogging, Blogging tips, Life of a blogger, Make money in blogging

Somebody sent us this Barack Obama For President shirt.  I thought it would be a good day to post it, since Senator McCain and Senator Obama will have their first debate, tonight on CNN.  Check it out.

Thanks for the shirt!

If you would like to see your website or company featured on Free Shirt Friday click here

This Post Is From ShoeMoney’s Internet Marketing Blog

Barack Obama - Free Shirt Friday

Wordpress 2.7 Update

Sep 27, 2008 Blog, Bloggers diary, Blogging, Blogging tips, Life of a blogger, Make money in blogging

With all the recent traveling its been a few days since I had last synced my SVN wordpress install. I was pleasantly surprised to see some of the new features.

2 in particular caught my eye.

Quickedit function- Within your admin panel under your posts there is now a option for quickedit:

If you click this it pops up a box with all the little stuff you can edit on your post:

Reply to comments from admin

The other cool new feature was the ability to reply to comments directly from your administration panel:

Nice little Ajax box pops up:

Looking good!

This Post Is From ShoeMoney’s Internet Marketing Blog

Wordpress 2.7 Update

ShoeMoney Marketleverage Cashinator Challenge

Sep 27, 2008 Blog, Bloggers diary, Blogging, Blogging tips, Life of a blogger, Make money in blogging

What started with me originally challenging John Chow turned into craziness which meant almost $600.00 for the winner!  Thanks Marketleverage for hosting this crazy event

I failed you guys =(.  Congratualtions Tyler Cruz for winning!

I promiss I will make it up!

This Post Is From ShoeMoney’s Internet Marketing Blog

ShoeMoney Marketleverage Cashinator Challenge

10 Reasons I like Staying At The Stratosphere In Las Vegas

Sep 27, 2008 Blog, Bloggers diary, Blogging, Blogging tips, Life of a blogger, Make money in blogging

As I wrote the other day I often stay at the Stratosphere when I come to Las Vegas by myself.  Here are the reasons why:

1. Automated Check in - You know those machines you check into the Airport with and they spit out your boarding passes and your good to go without waiting in line.  The Stratosphere has these machines in the lobby and you just simply slide your credit card through and get your room keys.  You also can pick where you want to stay and even be presented upgrades. It makes the check in process super fast.
   
2. Inexpensive Rooms - As I said the other day I can get a 2 room suite at the Stratosphere for less then 80$ a night.  It also comes with a full size fridge I can load up with protien drinks.
3. Quick Room Access - One of my pet pieves with the nicer hotels like the Bellagio, Caesars Palace and to some extent even the Wynn is that you have to walk a mile to get to your room.  This sucks.  At the Stratosphere no matter what door you go into your about a 50ft walk to a elevator.
4. Bigass Needle - Las Vegas is a crazy place and when I go on occassion I have been known to drink a bit.  Believe it or not last year I thought it would be a good idea to walk home 2 miles to the Stratosphere from another hotel and was easily able to find it without any directions because of the bigass needle.
5. Cheap Food - On the 2nd floor of the Stratosphere is a food court which includes McDonald’s.  And this McDonald’s has a 99cent menu too.  Seriously… how many times have you ordered 50$ worth of room service only to take 2 bites and pass out.  They have lots of other places in the food court but I think I have only purchased from the 24/7 open McDonalds.
6. Nice cab system - I have never ever had to wait for a cab ever at the stratosphere.  They have a super efficient system with many lanes to hustle people in and out.
7. Its On The Strip - Sure not that big of deal but its still a nice plus to stay on the strip and be close to everyone else at your cheap ass price.
8. Credit Card Accepting Pop Machines and ICE Machines everywhere. I love loading up on sodas and its super nice to swipe my credit card then hit diet coke like 6 times so I can put it in my fridge of my suite.
9. No Mini Bar - This might be a negative for some but for me its I dig it.
10. The Layout - from the nice large oval bar in front to the tucked away poker room with easy quick access to bathrooms (so you don’t miss a hand) I really like the layout of the Stratosphere.

So Tell me where you like to stay in Las Vegas and why?

This Post Is From ShoeMoney’s Internet Marketing Blog

10 Reasons I like Staying At The Stratosphere In Las Vegas

What An Internet Marketer Can Learn From a Pimp

Sep 27, 2008 Blog, Bloggers diary, Blogging, Blogging tips, Life of a blogger, Make money in blogging

This is a guest post by Lori Culwell.  Lori is the owner of Get Creative, Inc.. She has worked on websites for some really big companies.  She’s the author of the bestselling novel “Hollywood Car Wash,” which is being re-released by Touchstone | Fireside in April of 2009, and the forthcoming book “Million Dollar Website.”  You can find her blog at:  http://www.funnystrange.net , where you will subscribe, or she will cut you.

Years ago, in San Francisco, I saw a crazy pimp on a bus.  I wrote a short story about it that got nominated for a Pushcart Prize, which was cool.

Here’s the thing, though—now I think that pimp had a profound effect on my life.  Now, I’m not saying I condone the pimp lifestyle or the implied female subjugation that goes with the profession, but you know what?  You have to be scrappy to be a pimp, and I think some of us could use some more of that in real life.  I find that the lessons I learned from that pimp have stuck with me, even in my life as a Creative Director/ Consultant/ Novelist.  For the purposes of this article, I am going to apply these lessons to search engine traffic and internet marketers.

Here’s what I took from the pimp, and how I use it in my life, even today:

1. Consistency is key.  In pimp-life as well as well as the life of a webmaster, you have to be in it to win it, and you can never quit, even when another pimp beats you up and threatens to steal your girls and your territory.  Consistent tweaking and updating of your site is key to internet marketing, especially if you want to keep rising in the search engine ranks.  Putting energy into your site (your business), whether it’s through regular blogging or updating of your site, keyword research, writing articles, posting in forums, or continuing to educate yourself, is invaluable.  If you don’t know what to do, just pick something and go with it.  This “fly by the seat of your pants” strategy works for the pimp, and it will work for you.    Just don’t give up!  The pimp wouldn’t give up!
2. Be friendly toward your fellow man.  This one applies to good customer service.  Whatever your game, you must have the follow through to get the job done.  This “common courtesy” rule applies to not spamming your mailing list, to following through on customer inquiries, to answering people’s questions left in your comments, and to generally being decent to your fellow man and internet marketer.  Of course, like the pimp, you must also know how and when to use the pimp hand if someone is trying to take advantage of you.  Know what I’m saying?
3. Be patient– You know, it’s hard out there for a pimp, and an internet marketer.  But eventually, if you hang in there, someone will want your gold, or your women.  This also applies to search engine traffic.     If you follow rule # 1 (consistency) and combine it with patience, you are just as likely to build your subscriber base and traffic as the pimp is to build his (ahem) clientele.
4. Diversify.  Hey, do you know who used to be a pimp?  Ice-T.  Yeah, and then he was a rap star, and now he’s on Law & Order:  SVU.  That is some great diversification, and also some excellent paying attention to new opportunities.  Pimps are always out there, hustling, keeping up with the industry and what-not.  And just like the savvy pimp, you must be open to new things like business affiliations, new design, new strategies, or social networking sites.  Pimps never stop pushing the envelope, and neither should you.
5. Be true to yourself, even if the full expression of that self involves a big floppy hat and a gold tooth.  Make sites that you want to make, not because you think they’ll do well in the search engines.  This is really a “follow your bliss” issue.  Everyone knows when you’re phoning in a crappy “mortgage banking” mini-site, dude.  I will guarantee that if you make a site you’re not interested in, you’re not going to want to put in the time to make it successful.
6. Never let them leave without paying.  Pimps have a 100% profit margin. 100%!!!  That is brutal!  In internet marketing, I think we can apply this to monetization; namely, if someone is leaving your site, you want to make sure you’re getting paid, or there will be hell to pay.  This applies to AdSense, PhoTrade, affiliate/ eBook links, or anything else you might have come up with to make money online.  At least—at very least capture their name and email address with an opt-in so you can provide them with some excellent information at a later date.  If you do not, I promise you that there will be someone else out there picking up your slack.
7. Keep Up Appearances.  The pimp takes time with his appearance, and that of his crew.  You must take this same care with your website.  No one is buying anything from you if your shopping cart doesn’t work, or if you have broken links.  Take care of your asset!  Respect the customer, and they will respect you!   Outdated design, typos, and sloppy layout shows that you do not care.

This Post Is From ShoeMoney’s Internet Marketing Blog

What An Internet Marketer Can Learn From a Pimp

MySpace Advertising Platform Is Pretty Slick

Sep 27, 2008 Blog, Bloggers diary, Blogging, Blogging tips, Life of a blogger, Make money in blogging

Started playing with the Myspace Advertising platform. I really dig it.  Its very easy to use… by far the easiest I have ever used.

When you first hit the page you just choose the name of your campaign and if you want to build a ad on the site (wait till you see how slick this is) or upload one you have previously made.

I choose to build my own ad… for ShoeMoney Tools.

Now when you build your own ad you have 2 choices in size. The standard 728×90px leader board or 300×250px rectangle. I choose the rectangle. Then you are presented a TON of premade templates that makes making your ad very very simple.

I choose the plain white one and uploaded a shoemoney logo using the image tool then using the text tool made some small copy.

After you are happy with the design of your graphic banner then you can save it.

Then you simple pick your destination url and pick your demographics:

At the end you post your budget:

Now the campaign above is not one I am going to run. I do not feel MySpace would be a good place to market shoemoney tools =P. But I did do some other stuff I am interesting to see how they do. There reporting looks pretty good.

I really like the possibilities with this advertising platform.  I think the ability of the demographic targeting being so specific you can do some interesting things with some brick and morter companies (like my dentist neighbor).

I will share what I find out soon

So have you used the Myspace Advertising platform? What has been your experience?

Full Disclosure: We have been talking to MySpace about advertising their advertising platform on ShoeMoney.com for a bit. In doing research on the platform I started using it and thought I would make this post. Its quite possible in the very near future you will see advertisements from MySpace for the platform. This post was not any part of that advertising deal.

This Post Is From ShoeMoney’s Internet Marketing Blog

MySpace Advertising Platform Is Pretty Slick

Money Making Test Update On ClickBank

Sep 27, 2008 Blogging, Blogging tips, Life of a blogger, Make money in blogging, Money making mission

As regular readers will know I have been doing a test on ClickBank to see if the claims made about making money with the program are a reality for the average blogger.

I must admit that I haven’t got on as well as I had hoped.

One snag I have found:
I have made a total of $64.72 and, as I had requested checks to be sent once over $50, I thought I would receive payment. But this wasn’t to be the case.

My payment was marked as CDR (Customer Distribution Requirement). On checking what this means this is what I found:

Payments are held unless the following criteria are met:

(1) Sales are made with 5 or more different credit card numbers and
(2) Sales are made with two different payment methods (either Visa, MasterCard, or PayPal). Note: PayPal purchases do not count toward the minimum 5 different credit card numbers.

So if your sales are all with say Visa then you have to wait for your money. They say that this is to stop affiliates using ClickBank to collect rebates (on their own orders) or extending credit to others. I gather that this is only when you start out - at least I hope it is.

Think of that as you will. In fairness it is on their website but, to come across this, I think you would have to one of those very thorough people who wade through a lot of Q&A’s.

Orders Per Click
I’ve found the orders per click so far to be poor. I’ve had over 2,300 clicks but have only made $64.72.

I don’t know how many clicks I’ve actually had in total because, as far as I can see, ClickBank only give stats for 30 days.

I feel I’ve done okay with generating clicks. I’ve averaged about 76 per day, but this hasn’t produced sufficient sales as far as I’m concerned. (I do some programs where I can average 1 in 25 sales, though not of such high amounts dollar wise).

I’ll press on for a few more weeks as the blog, Good Health Source, I started to tie in with ClickBank is beginning to build up steam.

I’ll get back to you with how I eventually get on with ClickBank.

Good luck,
Mike.

YouGov: Complete surveys and polls for payment - genuine company.

Search Engine Optimization Software

Sep 27, 2008 Blog, Blogging tips, Earning Blog, Money blog, Money making mission

If you run a website, you must know how important it is to anaylze traffic. My previous post on Google Analytics was meant to get you started with Google Analytics. If you have, then you must know what keywords your visitors are using.

This post is going to bring you another powerful as well as a FREE tool with which you can optimize your webpages.


What is Search Engine Optimization?
If you’re not familiar with the term, here’s the definition from Wikipedia.

“Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of editing and organizing the content on a webpage to increase its potential relevance to specific keywords on specific search engines and importantly ensuring that external links to the site are correctly titled and in abundance.”

Simply put, you try to make your website as relevant as possible for your chosen keywords. The chosen keywords for this blog are
1. Work at home,
2. Earn Free Money
3. Earn Money Online

However, there are other keywords that bring visitors here as well, e.g. get paid to blog, get paid to write, etc.

Optimized webpages for keywords can bring a lot of traffic to your website. I want to discuss a very powerful tool for optimizing your webpages in this post.

Web CEO; Free Search Engine Optimization

Web CEO is software toolkit which helps webmasters in search engine optimization and promotion of their website. By using Web CEO, you can significantly increase search engine traffic as well as find and implement the latest search engine optimization strategies. There are no ads, no spyware, no forms or screens, and no time limits.
Use it as long as you need!

Some of the tools you will find in Web CEO:

Keyword Suggestion:
1. Search the comprehensive database for related keywords
2. Put those keywords through detailed competitiveness analysis before selecting the right keywords.

Optimization Advice and Environment:
This tool gives detailed advice as well as steps to follow on how to optimize a web page for your chosen keyword.

Search Engine Submission:
1. Using WebCEO, Submit your webpages to major search engines automoatically.
2. WebCEO also facilitate manual submissions through a friendly interface.

Ranking Check:
1. Get detailed ranking reports for multiple search engines and keywords.
2. Collect ranking history and build trends.

Link Popularity Analysis:
1. Find out how many sites are linking to your website;
2. Analyze how good these links are for your rankings.
3. You can also research your competition and top sites and spy their linking strategy.

Traffic Analysis:
You can analyse the traffic on your website, how they arrive, what keywords they use, link partners, their navigation, most popular pages.

Partner Finder:
Another powerful tool that helps webmasters in finding potential link exchange partners, evaluate their websites and manage correspondence with the website owners.

PPC Campaigns Manager:
Take control of your paid search campaigns:
Register new accounts with the PPC search engines, manage existing ones.

FTP Manager:
Upload/download your files and save changes to the hosting server.

Site Auditor:
Troubleshoot your website for any possible site errors.

Site Uptime Monitoring Service:
This tool alerts you when your site is down.

What’s More
As if all this isn’t enough; you also get a Free training course in search engine marketing when you download Web CEO.

So, what are you waiting for?
Download The Free Edition of Web CEO now.

10 Niche Websites in 10 Days!

Sep 27, 2008 Blog, Blogging, Earning Blog, Make money in blogging, Money blog, Money making mission

I’ve been meaning to write this post for a while but I’ve been procrastinating so busy but I wanted to make this official so you guys can follow this.

Remember before when I talked a little bit about site flipping and I told you guys about my site flipping group and I was going to outline blueprints on how we went about doing things. Well, since that contest isn’t officially over until mid October (45 day long contest), I figured I would create 10 niche websites in 10 days and let you guys know how I did it.

I will not be revealing my URL’s (well, maybe one?) but I’ll talk about everything else. But I know building 10 niche sites can be done in one day but you have to factor in all the other projects I have as well as a day-time job and a social life.

There are two purposes for taking on this mini-project; to either sell the site or to just create a one-time set up site and just let it ride and make Adsense earnings without doing anything else from it.

Actually, maybe three purposes. I’m doing this as well so I can stop procrastinating and just do it.

I got some feedback on people interested in site flipping so instead of just having generic posts, I figured I’d let you guys just follow me in building 10 niche sites in 10 days. Don’t worry, I’ll reveal at least one site’s URL when I’m done.

The URL I reveal will probably be one that I’m going to sell (or hopefully already sold). People have left comments and stuff but if you need some personal help, feel free to drop me an e-mail or instant messenger. Some of you guys already have but I figured I’d open up the invitation to everyone.

Just a note I wanted to toss out there is the fact that I’m not claiming to be a professional site flipper or anything but I have enough knowledge and some experience to back it up. Plus, who else is willing to help you on a personal level with this?

Bloggers feeling the economic crunch?

Sep 27, 2008 Blog, Blogging, Blogging tips, Earning Blog, Make money in blogging, Money blog, Money making mission

With the global financial woes going on, the first thought on my mind is “Would bloggers be affected”. Well the only way I thought that bloggers like that could be adversely affected is when advertisers cut on the advertising money

Well so far this month, I’ve not seen any drastic fluctuations so far in my earnings, but who knows for next month. But I feel blogger publishers are more able to withstand the economic crunch that most brick and mortar business out there as our overhead are minimal

For me, the cost is just in my web hosting. I don’t even do any advertising and the output is multiple times over in what I invested. That’s why I love this industry. You’re the boss, you set the working condition and time.

But I always treat it like any other business too. Fulfill your end of the business bargain and being prompt and able to deliver goes a long way for your online reputation.

So I’m thankful I’m ‘weathering’ the the economic crunch for now and I can always dip in my emergency funds if there’s ever a need but I hope not to of course

bloggers, economic, crunch

Post from: Sha Money Maker