$100 a Day in 100 Days

Free Logo Generator and Toast

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 04:49:00 +0000

Here's a cool tool that I found while stumbling. I came across this list - 100 Web 2.0 Online Generators - where I found this tool: Free Web 2.0 Logo Generator. Here's the logo for the generator:

Here's my new web 2.0 logo:

Notice the toaster in the corner. There's this awesome list of little icons that you can use in your logo. A little "beta" flag, a ribbon, some money, a toaster. I love toast so I had to go with the toaster.

Free Blogging Over At Emerald Nova

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 00:53:00 +0000

No, I haven't died. The house didn't burn down. And I didn't lose my typing fingers in a tragic onion chopping accident.

I have been enjoying the 80 degree weather here in Vegas. Harper and I have been outside a lot more this past week.

We did have a death in the family though. Lucy didn't make it. She fought, brilliantly - but in the end, my inability to keep a fish alive continues. I guess I'm lucky Harper doesn't have gills.

I've been working hard on some of my other sites, letting this one slowly die in the process. I was unsure of what to do with this blog as I have so many projects going. I wanted to move it to it's own domain, use WordPress - all the good stuff. But I don't really want to go through that hassle.

I've given myself a new, low-impact daily schedule for this blog. So we'll see how that works out. How many days in a row can I actually post - and contribute something valuable?

We'll see.

Despite my lack of productivity (here at least), another blogger has been hard at work. Rich has been hard at work, not only on his blog, but on another project as well. He's been hard at work developing a free blogging platform. I think it's a great idea and I hope it continues to grow.

Emerald Nova, as you can see from the screenshot, is a simple, easy to use blogging platform. It uses WordPress - which is great. So you can basically go over there, register, and start a new blog in minutes - without spending a dime.

I wish I was smart enough to do something like that! I have enough trouble working on sites just for me, I can't imagine setting one up for hundreds or thousands of users. Good luck Rich!

Lucy the fish and setting up an autoresponder

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 00:16:00 +0000

We got Harper his first fish yesterday. We went and picked out a small 2 gallon tank and got a small green spotted puffer fish. Mom named her Lucy. Harper calls her Doodee or Doocee. He's fascinated for whole minutes a time.

The month is coming to a close - September has been my best month as far as online earning go. I haven't finished everything I wanted to this month, but I've got a few new projects in the works. I've started setting up my first auto-responder. I've been playing around with that over the last few days trying to figure it out. I've also been working with Joomla to figure out how to use that to set up niche sites.

Taking a little time to figure out these things is hopefully going to dramatically increase my earnings and streamline my projects as I go forward.

The autoresponder I'm using is GetResponse. So far I'm happy with how it works - though I'm still pretty new to it. We'll see as we go.

Technorati Tags: autoresponder, harper, internet marketing

Sunday reading before kickoff

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 16:32:00 +0000

Mom's out of the house. So Harper and I getting prepared for a big day of football watching. Well, that and making a mess. We're going to see if we can pull out every toy we own and place it somewhere within the living room. Ok - Harper's going to take care of that part himself.

In the meantime - as we wait for kickoff, here's some stuff I've been reading this morning.

Day Job Nuker - A new to me "Make Money Online" site, came across this one the other day as I surfed some blogs and am interested to see how this guy does in his 3 year plan to nuke the day job.

Of the big 'make money online' sites - Kumiko of CashQuests is the new kid on the block. But with over 700 loyal subscribers and readers, she's quickly establishing herself as an authority in this crowded niche. Interesting and smart posts keep me coming back as she always has something interesting to say.

If you want a listing and reviews of the newest and coolest web tools and apps then head to Mashable. Chances are that you already do as this is one of the more popular sites/blogs about web 2.0. I always come across something cool every time I check it out.

I've always loved reading John Cow - well, at least as long as they've been around. But with a new,cool blog redesign (seems to be happening a lot lately) the cows have stepped out from the shadow of their evil mentor and have really started to make a name for themselves and their milk.

Technorati Tags: links

Some days I find myself overwhelmed by information so much that I do nothing

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 02:09:00 +0000

I love to plan things. I like to make spreadsheets, outlines, mindmaps. I love research. I love knowing what I have to do to get something done. I like learning new things.

This is my biggest problem.

At some point, you have to take action. It's great to learn new stuff - but if you don't actually set up an auto-responder after researching it, what good is that?

Working on your own - or for yourself can be difficult. You have to find ways to motivate yourself and keep moving forward.

Some days I find myself paralyzed by all of the information that I have taken in. I've made plans for great things - only to never start them because they seem so big.

I've realized that sometimes you can have too much knowledge. At least for me, that's the case. Sometimes it paralyzes me. The things I know best, I learned by doing. I set up my first blog 2 years ago just by jumping in and doing it. I built my first niche site by just getting an idea and setting it up. I built a CafePress shop by just diving in. I came across CafePress - and had my first shop set up about 3 hours later, just because it seemed like a cool idea. I didn't spend a lot of time researching it - just did it.

That also means I've got a lot of projects that didn't pan out. Some flops, some successes.

I've been trying to find a balance between research and learning - and doing.

I know that I work best when I create a list of things to do. For some reason - lists drive me crazy. I can't stand a half-finished list. They motivate me to complete all the tasks on the list.

I've begun writing a list every night before bed. It's my to-do list for the next day. I put 10 things on the list that I would like to get accomplished. They can be writing an article for a certain niche to finding a new niche to begin. It might include 30 minutes of reading material in a forum on list building - or submitting some sites to 10 new directories.

By making a list everyday - I've broken up my large, long term goals into small, manageable daily tasks that will get me there. When I finish a daily list - I feel like I really accomplished something that day. If I do that everyday - it won't take me long to actually realize the grand goals I've set for myself.

Not only that - but by making the list, it lets me manage my time better, so Harper and I can go to the park because I know exactly how much time I'm going to need later to move forward that day.

Have you found yourself unsure of the next step? Make a to do list. Don't be unrealistic about the things you put on it. I try to put things on the list that will take about 30 minutes to accomplish. Obviously some will be bigger projects, and some will be quicker - but I use that as a general guide. Try it out. Do it for a week - you'll be amazed at how much you'll get done.

Technorati Tags: to do list, making money online

An easy way to park extra domains and have them earn money

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 21:56:00 +0000

I'd like to thank Amy of My Debt Free Goal for finding this program. I had a few domains that I had purchased to build some affiliate sites on. But, since it takes a day to build a site, and then a few days writing articles and trying to drive traffic to the site - I always have some domains that are unused and waiting in line.

What I've always done in the past is to place a page holder, under construction, maybe a google ad on the page until I could get to it. But now, with WhyPark, it's a lot easier to monetize those pages that you haven't gotten to yet. And you can do it in a way that the page holder is going to be content rich.

WhyPark lets you host up to 100 domains. WhyPark then lets you decide which keywords you want to use, and it fills the page with articles related to your keywords. The articles are continuously updated, so that when the search engines come around, they'll always find new content. You can use your AdSense account to place ads on the site - and you don't have to split any revenue - you keep 100 percent of the revenue.

It literally took me 10 minutes to put up my first site today. I was able to control and choose the template, insert my adsense code, and place a few affiliate links on the page. There is a one time fee of $99.95 to open an account. But for that hundred bucks you can host 100 sites - easy math - buck a site.

There are no recurring fees and no monthly fees. Here's an example WhyPark site: PC viruses.

So what I'll be doing with WhyPark is building sites for my domains that are empty still. Then I'll be able to focus on one site at a time while those domains hopefully start earning a little for me. The nice thing is that I'll also be able to see which domains might perform well by using WhyPark as a sort of test before investing too much time in building a complete site.

Technorati Tags: whypark, making money online, domain parking

O.J. and the Buffet at Palace Station (Oh yeah, and BlogRush)

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 04:17:00 +0000

We took Harper to the fabulously sad Palace Station today to eat at the buffet. Didn't see O.J. running around as I guess he was actually arrested for his shenanigans earlier this week. I think it's hilarious that all of this took place at the Palace Station. I mean, it's not like O.J. is at the Wynn or Caesars, no, he's at Palace Station.

Harper's going to be a good buffet eater. At one point he had a piece of turkey, two chunks of banana, and a piece of cantaloupe all stuffed in his mouth, at the same time. He eats like our 8 year old Labrador - as though at any moment, somebody might rush in and take his bowl away.

There's a lot of talk about BlogRush today. I haven't installed it - as I'm interested in what others are going to say about it. Plus - I was reading a post today that was talking about how it might violate the Adsense TOS, which would cause your Adsense account to get suspended. I don't make much from Adsense, but who knows, maybe I'll figure it out and make some in the future - and I don't want to lose my account. I'm not saying that's what will happen, but about a month ago I got an email from them giving me a warning because they saw I was using a link exchange. I was trying out linkrefferal.com, where you surf other sites, and then so many are sent to your site everyday. Anyways, until there's some determination if it will violate it - I probably won't be using it.

It's easy for some of the big blogs to use it - as a lot of them are no longer monetized with Adsense. How cool is that, you're making so much money from your blog that it's actually more profitable for you to remove Adsense?

Technorati Tags: O.J. Simpson, BlogRush, Adsense, Buffets

Call me crazy, but the mid to high 80's is still pretty hot

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 08:41:00 +0000

So today I'm watching the news and the lead story is about how it finally was under 90 degrees, in parts of Vegas. There were still areas above 90, but a lot of Vegas was hit by this cold weather in the high 80's. I remember growing up - in Chicago and other midwestern cities - that it would hit 80 degrees during the summer and 40 people would die from the heat. Now, I'm living in the desert where people are joyous and celebrating the high 80's.

I miss seasons. I miss the snow a bit. We have 2 seasons. Hot. And not as hot. It always disturbs me a bit to run the air conditioner in December. When I was growing up it was always a treat when we got to run the air conditioner. Now it's a treat when I get to turn it off.

I've been messing around with FaceBook more and more. Some of the applications for it are pretty cool, but can be such time wasters. Oh well. Like the "Where I've Been" app. It's nothing more than a map where you click on the states and countries where you've been and where you've lived, and even where you want to go.

I had to include Antartica because, well, now that it's warming up I guess I'd like to go there. I'm still not really clear - is there actually land underneath the ice? Is a continent really a continent if it's just ice? Can somebody clarify that for me?

Pretty cool applications like this - but I'm not exactly sure what purpose they serve other than to give me something to do besides working on coding a website or writing an article or something useful like that.

Anyways - if you're on facebook - add me as a friend - I need a few more to feel more important. We can waste time together. Here's my profile: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=768898344

While you're at it - you can add me on Twitter if you are using that one too: http://twitter.com/chewingglass Follow me and I'll follow you.

Niches Smiches

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 08:06:00 +0000

It's Sunday night (Monday morning) and I'm about halfway through setting up my second niche/affiliate site. I used the same template as the first one, although I've changed the images and stuff to match the new niche. I like this template and it lends itself well to a simple store setup. It has some nice features and effects - and since I'm already pretty familiar with it, the coding is going a lot quicker on this site.

I have run into a stop point as I am awaiting a few affiliate programs to approve my application. So I can't do much more to the site as I'll need those codes to place products in the site. Hopefully those will come through in the next 24 hours so that I can finish up this site.

I've been writing articles like crazy for the first niche site. I've been writing under a pen name for this niche. I plan on using a pen name for each niche - a persona I've created to become the 'expert' in each one. The persona for the first niche is actually a female as I think it will help with my credibility in that niche.

I've also set up a facebook account for that persona and begun to network on facebook through some groups that pertain to that niche. Hopefully that will help drive a little bit of traffic to my sites.

On CashCrate I started the month with 7 or 8 active referrals and about 20 total referrals. Here's where I'm at now:
I finally hit 'silver.' I was just happy when my total first level referrals hit 100. And my second level has really started to go - I've picked up about 30 second level referrals in just the last 3 or 4 days. Then next level is 'gold.' Here's the requirements:
I only need 150 active referrals to hit that level. That's a lot - I'm hoping to hit that level in a week and a half or so. We'll see. Right now I'm finding that for every 2 people I'm signing up, 1 of them will actually become active. To be active all they have to do is complete 1 offer. Not much. But we'll see how long it takes to get there. I'm still only spending about 15 - 30 minutes a day actively working on getting referrals - and I'm getting 10 - 12 a day right now. Not bad.

Anyways - I've got a few different niche's planned out right now. The neat thing is that I really don't know much about any of the new ones that I am trying. The first one I know a bit about, so it's not that hard to create content for it. But these new ones - well, I'm doing a lot of research to educate myself on these topics which is fun, because it's like everyday I get to learn something new. Keeps things interesting.

I've got a total of 10 add on domain spots available in my current hosting plan. I've used three - my goal is to use all 10 by the end of the month. So that'll be 9 niche/affiliate sites this month (I used two for the first niche). That's my goal - we'll see how I do with that.

We finally won a blog contest - Ten whole dollars!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 09:02:00 +0000

Harper wanted me to thank Kyle M. Stephens of KyleMStephens dot Com for the 10 bucks he sent us. Harper's already placed it in his piggy bank.

Don't you just miss sleeveless shirts?

We figure the $10 bucks that we won in Kyle's comment contest will pay for at least 1/8th of his Astronomy 101 book by the time he gets to college.

Astronomy? Did anybody else take astronomy? I think that might have been one of the problems with my schooling. Here I was taking Astronomy, Shakespeare, Post-Modern Lit, Creative Writing Workshops, Anthropology. Anthropology?

All my friends that were business majors have nice cars now. Coincidence?

'Get Paid To' program updates

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 10:32:00 +0000

As I said in my previous post - my focus for my online income earning has shifted from the 'get paid to' programs to more of an internet marketing focus.

But, I did want to do a quick update on the 'get paid to' programs that I am using. First, I'm going to be dropping Hits4Pay and DealsNCash from the programs I'm using. I finally hit the payout threshold for Hits4Pay. I never did any real intense promotion for Hits4Pay, but I did have about 20 referrals in my downline. With 20 referrals it took me about 2 months to hit the payout level of $25 bucks. And that was with a $10 dollar sign up bonus! Here's a breakdown of what it actually took to hit that $25 bucks.

As you can see - hits4pay turned out to be a two month waste of time. Of course - the actual reading of the ads was nothing at all. I simply logged in, opened up a new tab in the browser and just clicked on a new ad every so often while I was doing something else. I really didn't do anything - but still, I guess some time was spent logging in to the site and clicking.

So - strike those two programs off the list. ~~Hits4Pay DealsNCash~~

That leaves me with CashCrate and Treasure Trooper left in my 'Get Paid To' program list. I hadn't done much promotion of either besides a banner here and there. But, in the last week I decided to give CashCrate a little push. I've pushed my referrals up to over 60 on my first level, and I've now got 5 on my second level. What I like about CashCrate is that you're paid anywhere from 20 to 30 percent for the first level, and 10 to 20 on the second level. In the last 3 days of August, I made about 35 bucks from the new referrals that I got. I didn't spend much time - I'd say about 30 minutes a day trying to get referrals. I've figured out that it really is where you try to get the referrals. Some sites work like a charm :-)

For this month I figure I'm going to spend about 15 to 30 minutes a day working on referrals, because that program actually seems like it might pay off. Well, I know it will as Amy of My Debt Free Goal pulls in about $1500 a month from her referrals. So we'll see how far I can take this.

But as I've said - the main focus for September is creating a bunch of niche/affiliate sites. I'm going to try to do at least 2 a week - I finished my first one 2 days ago and have been working on getting some traffic to it. Now, I'm about to start research on the second.

Technorati Tags: get paid to, cashcrate, making money online

Project updates and goal revisions

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 09:13:00 +0000

I think I've fully recovered from the 30 Day Challenge. During August I was spending close to 12 - 14 hours a day on the computer. Now, I learned a lot, and have started implementing all that I've learned, but I definitely needed a few days off.

During the last few days I've been reviewing my goals for this blog as well as my other projects. I'm coming up on the 100th day of this blog. Looking at it, I don't think I'm going to pull out a miracle finish and hit $100 dollars a day on the 100th day - awww. But that's ok, because I really do think it's possible and that I'll be hitting that goal in a couple of months.

When I started this project - a lot of the focus was on the 'get paid to' programs like CashCrate and Treasure Trooper. My focus has definitely shifted as I've learned more and more about making money online and internet marketing. Now, a lot of my focus is going to be about internet marketing and finding niche markets to try to work on and make money in.

Over the last week I've been concentrating on creating content for a few domains that I purchased. I spent a few hours yesterday submitting to some website directories - wow, how draining is that. Even with some nice software that helps with the submissions it's still tedious. But I figure I can do a little bit of that here and there to help build a bunch of links for my sites.

I also spent about 2 hours writing some articles for that market. I finished up with 5 pretty good articles - I think - and I plan on doing about 5 more tomorrow. I've been submitting those to a few article directories.

What I really like about this process is that I can do one thing till I get tired of it, then move onto another aspect of the project - there's always something to do.

That's also one of the problems with internet marketing. It's easy to become overwhelmed with all of the things you need to do. Writing articles, submitting to directories, building links by commenting on other sites in the niche, coding websites, writing content. I put together a few spreadsheets to help me organize my project and to help me stay on task. It's so easy to be lazy! And that's the one thing that will stop you from being successful in this field. I figure by taking it one step at a time I'll make it there sooner rather than later.

$100 dollars a day translates to roughly 3 grand a month. I'm going to change the sidebar to reflect a monthly goal rather than keep a running tally. That way I can review my progress monthly and I think it'll be easier to see exactly what I need to do to improve each month.

My first affiliate marketing site

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 13:53:00 +0000

I've just spent the last 12 hours working on my first real affiliate site for the niche I've been working on. I'm pretty excited about getting it completed - though now the real work is about to start as I'll have to figure out how to get some traffic there.

It is linked to the rest of the network that I've been building in this niche - but I'm also hoping to do some article marketing specifically for this site. My plan is to write about 10 good articles focusing on different keyphrases that I'm targeting in the niche - and then submit them to a few directories including ezine and associated content.

I did manage to find a nice template to use for the site from andreasviklund.com. I was really pleased with it as it was super easy to use and I think it looks a lot better than most free templates. I should know because I spent about an hour looking at various free templates before I finally came across this guy.

Well - the little man Harper is about to wake up I'm sure - so it's time to fix some breakfast. His new thing is dancing - it's pretty hilarious watching him sway back and forth and move his arms about above his head. He gets a huge grin too whenever he dances. Maybe I'll show him my new niche site and see if it makes him dance. Ok, probably not.

My first niche site mapped out

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 09:34:00 +0000

On Day 30 of the 30 Day Challenge Dan presented a pdf of one of his niche sites and it's reach. I thought it was really neat how he mapped it out - and it's nice to have a visual representation of the kind of network that we're trying to build with a niche using a combination of free platforms and our own domains.

Two days ago I purchased a domain for the niche that I made my 30 day challenge sale ($18.78) in. I like the niche and think there's a lot of potential in it. I'm also finding a few more key phrases that fit the parameters that were looking for as far as competition and daily searches. One of the free platform sites that I put up is ranked fourth in google and is getting pretty good traffic.

Anyways - I thought I would take the next step by purchasing a domain and putting up a site - which is why I haven't posted the last couple of days, been busy putting that site together.

And tonight I made a map of my niche so far - I'd say about 10 percent completed compared to Dan's site. But it was fun to map out, and since I'm a pretty visual person, it really clarifies my direction with this niche for me.

Red - Search Engine Traffic
Blue - Targeted Key Phrases
Yellow - Content Sites - Free Platforms
Grey - Content Site - Domains I own
Purple - Affiliate Product

Obviously I still have a long ways to go - but it's a good start and I'm having fun putting this together.

Technorati Tags: 30 day challenge, making money online, niche, internet marketing

Have you ever locked your kid in the bathroom and tried to make up for it by promising them a 24 inch LCD widescreen?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 22:11:00 +0000

So have you ever locked your kid in the bathroom and forgotten about it? Ok - so I didn't really lock him in the bathroom.

We both crashed this morning for our mid-morning nap on the couch. Two hours Later - I was awakened by some muffled,distant crying. Apparently, Harper had woken up, crawled off the couch without waking me, went to the bathroom, and shut the door.

He's not tall enough to turn on the lights, and hasn't figured out the door knob yet. So the little man was sitting in the dark crying and waiting for somebody to either let him out, or turn on the lights so he could wreak havoc on the bathroom.

I'm not sure how long he was in there - I hope I woke up rather quickly, but we might not ever know. He's not telling.

Luckily - to Harper I'm probably the funniest person on the planet. I did a little arm waving and danced around a little bit and the tears turned to laughter. That joke always kills.

I don't know what I'm going to do when Harper's sense of humor changes from quick/sudden movements combined with dancing jigs because well, I don't have much else in the way of material. I've been watching Last Comic Standing hoping to pick up some new jokes to tell him - but really, most of their jokes consist of quick/sudden movements and dancing jigs.

So I thought I would make it up him. Bribe him if you will. I told him I'd enter him in a contest to win a nice 24 inch LG widescreen LCD.

It'd be good for watching the Wiggles - who are really good at quick/sudden movements and dancing jigs.

CashforComments is giving away this great prize in their contest. All you have to do is link to their homepage using 'get paid' - the contest post with the anchor text '24 inch LCD' - and link to the sponsor of their contest with 'baseball training.'

Not too hard. And check this out - if you enter before September 1st - you get put into an early bird drawing for a copy of the popular book "The 4-hour Workweek." That's like two contests in one! How can you pass that up?

Technorati Tags: contest, making money online

See What Happens When You Don't Check Your Spam Folder For A Whole Week?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 05:25:00 +0000

Now do you see the importance of setting up a throwaway email if you're going to do any 'Get Paid To' sites? Almost 4000 spam! Do not use your regular email! Duh.

Luckily this is an email account that I set up specifically for this purpose - I don't have it for any other reason than to collect spam. In fact - I'm thinking about going for the Guinness Book of World Records' Record for spam collection. Is there such a record? If there isn't it could be wide open for my taking. Though gmail does auto-delete spam after a month - so maybe my record will have to be for spam collected in a month.

I mean - collecting spam is ok right? It's not like any trees are dying in it's production. Maybe a few electrons here and there - what is the environmental impact of spam anyways? Is there any? Or is it a clean burning pollutant?

If you'd like your own spam collection email - set one up on gmail. Then sign up at some spam generator like CashCrate. We can race - first one to 20,000?

Technorati Tags: cashcrate, making money online, spam

This Post Is Rather Long - And Rambles A Bit - But Blogger Doesn't Really Give You The Option Of Having An About Page - And That's What I Felt Like Writing

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 07:45:00 +0000

We're coming to the end of the Thirty Day Challenge. I have to say - the challenge has been by far one of the most informative lessons I've learned about making money online.

This blog has been in existence for a little over 2 months now. It started out on a whim - a challenge to myself to see if I could do something (i.e. make money online) - without any real experience. Could I use the internet as a resource to educate myself on how to make money online (without investing any), while at the same time making money online? It's sort of been like going to school and trying to get paid to do it.

Of course the need for this experiment was based on a real life need of providing for my family. Not that I don't provide for them - but I have a non-traditional occupation (i.e. poker player) in which there are no benefits, no retirement plan, and no real security. I've done that for four years and have always done well - but there's always the what if? I was o.k. with the what if? before Harper, because it's always just been me, but now I feel the need to create something that will always be there in case of a what if? That's where the idea of the internet and creating a passive income for my family that we'll always be able to count on came in.

I love to look at how things evolve, how learning different things will change your course, how one action will lead to one result while another action will lead to a different one.

When I started this project - I really had no idea how to get where I was going. I was starting as a clean slate. Since I've started I've seen a lot of other blogs done by people much more knowledgeable than myself - trying to go from not having an online income to creating one. But these guys have done there homework. They have relative experience and they have a plan - I had nothing more than a goal when I started.

I knew that you could make money online - but I wasn't exactly sure how. I knew there were bloggers that made money - but I really had no idea to go about that. I have another blog that I've had for about 2 years - and I had put some AdSense ads on it which I think made me about 10 bucks over a year. I had no idea about ad placement or how to really monetize that blog - but that wasn't my goal with that blog. It was more like "Oh wow, you can make money with ads on your blog? Ok, here's an ad." And then I forgot about it.

So when I decided to do this - I started with the 'Get Paid To' programs. All the ones in my sidebar. Do a search for "making money online" and you'll quickly be guided towards those programs. I didn't even start with this blog. The blog came about 2 weeks into the project when I thought it would be nice to have a central place to review and handle traffic for my 'Get Paid To' programs. This blog was started as a hub for that - but has since evolved into a little more than that - I hope. Yes - I still am using the GPT programs now, but they've kind of taken a back seat to Internet Marketing.

Internet Marketing - I don't even know how I came across it. I just began to see more examples of it as I tried to continue my self-education. I would stumble across a blog where somebody was talking about niches and read an article about that - not really understanding it. Then I would come across a 'niche' site, and suddenly recognize it for what it was. Before - I never really realized that I might be on some site talking about and selling 'herbal remedies' or anything for that matter, and the owner of that site might not be the 'expert' that I thought they were. Wow. You could do that?

So I'd look for more information which eventually led me to the 30 Day Challenge. What an experience. I now know how to research, build, and get traffic for a niche site. I've even made a sale on a product that I really knew nothing about until I started researching that market. How exciting is that? It's like I can put on a different hat everyday. One day I could work in my little shop selling barbecue equipment and the next day be a fitness expert talking about weight training (no, those are not the niches I'm working right now).

So where do I see this going? Well, I see myself trying to build some niche sites in the near future to work towards my goal. I love internet marketing - I was telling my mother about it because I was thinking it was almost a perfect combination of all of the different skills that I've acquired throughout my life. It's tough because I have this strange skill set, but it seems to work in this field.

I've never had a real career - being a poker pro is the closest thing I've had that could be called a career - and I don't think there are many people that would call it that. But here's the problem - I didn't go to business school or medical school - I went to graduate school and studied poetry. Poetry. When I was doing it I was telling myself that this was a life choice - that I wasn't interested in creating a career for myself, I just wanted to study the art. Of course - when I decided that I wasn't going to continue teaching (which is all you can really do as a poet - because I don't think there's a single poet that makes a living solely on their writing of poetry), I entered the work force without a degree for any type of 'regular' career. I have plenty of degrees, yes, but nothing that really gave me many options besides staying in school and working in academia (which is where most of my friends from grad school are). I had just decided that that wasn't for me.

Since I've left that world I've worked for a couple of graphic design firms (not as a designer - some copy writing, but mostly production and account management). I've sold cars - new and used. I've waited tables. I worked briefly as a financial planner (but grew tired of it as I learned it was so sales heavy (by this time I was burned out on sales)). And than I figured out I was better than most people at a game called poker and before I knew it - had been using poker as my sole income for more than four years. Plus, over the years I've tinkered with websites and stuff to know just enough to get by if I wanted to create a website.

So like I said - I was telling my mother how my skill set fits internet marketing. I love reading and research, I've done all sorts of sales, I was trained as a writer, I've done better in situations where I'm working for myself as opposed to somebody else, and I know enough about computers and the internet to know what a tech guy is talking about, or at least enough to be able to find out the information for myself and understand it even if they use silly words like 'javascript' or 'rss' or 'ftp.'

So that's why I love the 30 Day Challenge. It's given me an opportunity to really believe that I might be able to create what I set out to create - a little stability in Harper's life. It's made me realize that I can be a 'jack of all trades / master of none' and still find success. Have I found that success? No, but I can taste it. I realize this is the beginning of a new journey. My quest that started with 'gpt' sites and not knowing a whole lot about making money online, is going to take a turn into Internet Marketing for the time being. And I'm excited to see where I go from here.

Because with internet marketing, I'm no expert. Yet.

Technorati Tags: about, 30 day challenge, 100 in 100

This Post Has Absolutely Nothing To Do With Blogging Or Making Money Or Anything Like That - Sometimes You Just Need A LittleTenacious D In Your Day

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 09:27:00 +0000

One of the problems with stumbleupon. You find stuff like this you just have to watch. And soon, another 5 minutes of your life is gone.

Brilliant.

Using Links In Your Posts Is Like Printing Your Own Money

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 07:28:00 +0000

New Schedule
Harper's been running me ragged today. Today was the first day of our new schedule. Mom's starting a new job and is gone from about six in the morning till three. So now I got the kiddo all to myself all morning.

I'm not a morning person.

Well, ok, at least I'm not right now because I have been on a different schedule. I usually work through the night and mom would have him till about noon. Not anymore. Now I have to try to get to sleep earlier so that I can spend my morning putting the dvd's back on the shelf, the pots back in the cupboard, and well, change some not so fun diapers.

But it's fun. I just have to figure out how I'm going to get anything done now. I'll still have a few hours in the evening - and I hope that I can get some stuff done during the day. I'll just have to distract him at key moments with snacks. Those seem to work. Bright shiny objects aren't working so well anymore - guess he's past that stage.

If I can just work out 15 minutes here, and 15 minutes there I should be able to get a few little things done - a few quick articles hopefully. It's just so hard because I tend to want to pass out during those 15 minutes.

It was funny today because I couldn't get him to take a nap for the life of me. Eventually, finally, he simply spread out on the floor in the living room and feel asleep. So not wanting to pass up an opportunity for a nice nap, I passed out next to him on the floor.

Using links in your blog posts
How's that for a transition? Really smooth, eh? (eh? I've been talking to a Canadian friend a lot lately and I love to use eh, eh? He claims there's about a hundred ways to use eh. I've only found about 36 so far).

I've been thinking a lot about how I use links in this blog. You ever think about that? I mean really, links are like money in the blog world. People have contests and do all sorts of things to procure valuable links. So if you have a blog - it's like being able to print money. Ok, not really. Because really, I guess you're links heading out of your blog are only as valuable as the links you have coming in.

Link to the big boys
Why? I used to have some links to the big ones - you know, problogger, john chow, etc...I mean really, what's the point? You're readers probably know how to get there. In fact, they've probably been reading them just as long as you have. So really, what's the point of having that link - I used to tell myself that it was so I could just click on it when I wanted to read there stuff. Yeah, I have them in my bloglines - do I need a link too? No.

Link to your peers
So if links are so valuable, who are they most valuable to? Blogs like your own. Blogs that are about the same size, slightly bigger, slightly smaller. That's where your real traffic is going to come from, and that's who is going to love seeing that you linked to them. Trust me. I know everybody that has a link to me. It's not hard - it's not a huge list yet. It's growing, but that's because I've been nurturing those relationships. Scratch my back and I'll scratch yours. That's the idea right?

I could link to John Chow, is he going to link back to me? Probably not. Yet. That's because everybody that has a blog links to John. He doesn't have to link back to me. But that's ok. It's not going to make me angry. I'm not losing any sleep over it.

But what's really nice is when you've written a post and linked to somebody and a few days later they link back to you in one of their's. That's what this all about. That's what you should strive for. Those are the links that are going to be the most valuable to you in the long run. It takes some time - you're not going to blow up over night, but if you grow a little every week, you'll get there in good time.

Technorati Tags: making money online, harper, links, blogging

Work Smarter, Not Harder

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 15:12:00 +0000

One of the things I like about fellow up and coming blogger Angel, is that he says what he thinks. He's not afraid to try something out and give his honest opinion on it. For example - he recently tried out CashCrate and Treasure Trooper using my referral links and gave his opinion on the program.

As you can see by the title of his article - he's not a big fan of the "get paid to" sites. But that's ok - like I've said before, it's not for everybody.

I do disagree a little though. I agree that sitting and clicking those ads isn't fun. It's boring and you might make more money if you went and got a job at McDonald's. But for about 15 minutes of my time a day, I could make a couple of bucks which at the end of the month might be 30 or 40 dollars. Yeah, not a good hourly rate, but I could watch a show on television everyday for 30 minutes and not have any cash at the end of the month for it.

But I don't spend 15 minutes a day on it.

I've written a few posts about it - made a few comments in a couple of forums with a link in my signature line. That's about all I've done with those - because I really think the power of these programs comes when you can build a large referral pool. I mean really - Amy of My Debt Free Goal makes $1500 bucks a month from a couple of weeks she spent getting referrals (she also wrote this great review that had a very high conversion rate). Now that's a nice passive income.

So, fill out the surveys yourself and you could make enough for a dinner at a not so fancy restaurant each month, or try to get a few referrals and you might be going out for sushi. A few times.

Anyways - thanks for trying it out Angel. At least Harper can thank you because the fifteen or thirty minutes you spent laboring over those surveys on the other side of the world bought Harper a cone at DQ here in hot Las Vegas. And ice cream is always a good thing.

Speaking of Angel - he's having a contest and this week I'm all about the contest so I guess things in the universe are just lining up. So. It's a pretty simple contest.

50+ words in a post and a link to the contest page
Stumble his site
Subscribe to the site's feed

That's it. $100 bucks. How you like that?

Check his site out - it's one of my daily reads.

Technorati Tags: making money online, get paid to, cashcrate, treasure trooper, contests, angel

After Tinfoil Comes...

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 11:46:00 +0000

Just as I was about to hit 'publish' on the previous post about the 30DC Mass Hysteria taking place, Harper walked by with his tupperware helmet on. I thought it was appropriate.

Do you ever feel like you're the last person to hear about something? I mean, I feel like I stay current with most things - but I just found Pandora.com like 2 weeks ago. Where have I been?

I mean I love iTunes - but that's limited to my collection - extensive as it is it isn't everything I like to listen to.

I find new stuff on Pandora every day.

For anybody that hasn't tried it - check it out. You type in a song or band and it creates a station for you based on that selection. Then it plays stuff by that artist plus related stuff. Pretty neat - pretty organic in how it works.

Technorati Tags: 30 day challenge, pandora, harper

Mass Hysteria Sets In On 30 Day Challenge

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 03:39:00 +0000

Tumblr Tumbld
Following the last few days of excitement as people dove into the 30 day challenge - things seem to have reversed. Panic and hysteria has set in as a majority of the 30 day challenge participants logged onto their computers today to find their tumblr sites had been erased from the internet.

Unfortunately, my 3 sites were erased as well - though all three of them are still ranked in the top 10 of their respective phrase match searches on google. Oh well.

It's funny - I finished working at about 5 this morning and when I logged back on this afternoon it was obvious something was wrong. The first thing I usually check is my BlogLines, and there were plenty of posts already talking about the carnage. I checked my sites and confirmed, yes, they were gone.

Oh well.

What can you do but move on. Something like this was bound to happen - and I think like Ed said in his response video today - it's time to make a choice.

So what's it going to be?
If you've spent the day angry and upset and full of panic - then you might want to take a step back from the challenge.

I think making money online is equal parts determination and attitude. If you're going to let one site, ONE site get you this worked up - then trying to make money online is going to be a long tough road for you.

After seeing my tumblr blogs (hours of work) gone - I stepped away from the computer. It was frustrating sure, because I feel that I genuinely had some good content up on tumblr with one small link at the bottom of each blog, not spam in any way shape or form, but it's ok. So about a half hour later I was back, looking for a new platform to start again. Last night I had actually started work on a different platform from tumblr, so I finished that one up, and then immediately set out on another.

Tumblr was never meant to be the crowning achievement for you in your quest to make money in a niche market - it was one tool among many that we will be using. Some of them are going to work, some of them aren't. It's too bad that tumblr falls into the latter category. Especially since so many had experienced a little initial success from it.

My first $10 from the 30DC
In fact - while working on a new platform, I logged into my clickbank account to get some links that I needed for my new pages - and what do you know, there was money in it.

$18.78. Apparently, before tumblr had been nuked - I had made a sale from it. I knew for sure that it was tumblr because it's tracking code showed up in the details of the sale.

So there. A little bit of success amongst the rubble. I was really excited to see the sale, but, I had already made up my mind to trek on - this was just a nice little extra.

So make that choice. Are you going to suck it up - because in the world of the internet, there are going to be plenty more bumps - some harder to take than this one.

I have a feeling that we're going to lose a lot of people this weekend - but that's a natural process in anything - not everybody is meant to do this. Throughout my life I've tried many different things, and I've learned what I'm good at and what I'm not - use it as a lesson, use it as motivation.

Technorati Tags: 30 day challenge, making money online, tumblr

The 30 Day Challenge And Another Contest

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 09:08:00 +0000

Ready, Set, GO!
So the 30 Day Challenge is really starting to heat up. It's almost starting to feel like a race as thousands of challengers are now diving into tumblr to get their content up and begin fishing for traffic.

I just completed my first two tumblr sites - and feel like I'm bringing up the rear as I read the forums and all the people bragging about finding their sites on google already. Oh well. Also - both! of my umbrella phrases were already taken for url's in tumblr. I looked at both sites and their wasn't any content up yet, so I at least beat them to the punch there.

Another Contest
Continuing my week long study of contests, I came across another contest via Contest Blogger today. It's for a contest on the blog Just Not Martha. All you have to do to enter this contest is write a post about pampering yourself or somebody else or something to that effect and link to the contest page like so, and you'll get an entry into the contest. The prize is a nice little "Pamper Me" package full of fruity tooty bath stuff that I'm sure my wife will love. And yes, if I win I'll be surprising her with the package to thank her for letting me spend so much time working on this blog and the 30 Day Challenge. Is that a fair trade? Soap for hours upon hours of sitting in front of the computer?

Well, maybe I'll keep the Whipped Body Creme for myself. It sounds like it could be fun.

Another thing that caught my eye about this contest is the nice little banners that they provide for it - how easy is that?

Doing things like providing your readers with tools to promote your contest or blog is only going to make it easier to get the word out. I can click and paste - shoot, I think Harper already knows how to click and paste. Plus, it just adds to your branding - a logo for a contest isn't all too common just yet - so make your contest stand out by providing some.

Mac's MapPin
I talked with Paul today about Mac's MapPin - and he said Mac is so excited by the response he's been getting and can't wait for the postcards to start rolling in. I'd like to thank everybody who's taken the time to send one or promote it on their blog. If you don't know what I'm talking about - see the previous post.

Technorati Tags: contest, 30 day challenge, mac's mappin, niche, umbrella phrase

Link Building - Old School

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 05:58:00 +0000

When I was a kid we had pen pals. I thought it was so neat to get a letter from some kid on the other side of the country, or even in another country (I had a German pen pal named Daniella). The world was still largely unknown to me. I didn't talk to people in Thailand or Australia or even Hoboken on a daily basis. So each one of those connections with a pen pal was like a connection to another world for me that was only experienced as quickly as the postman could deliver my letter.

And then we got email. And chatrooms. The internet. MySpace, Facebook. Now it's a daily occurrence for me to talk to somebody and not even be sure where in the world they are typing from. How small is my world now that someone's location is such an afterthought these days.

So that's why when I got this email today from Mac and his father Paul Hughes (of Team Xtreme fame) that I smiled, that I took a moment to remember what it's like to reach out and connect with the world for the first time - how exciting it is to look at a map and know that you've talked to a friend thousands of miles away in a distant and unknown city.

I love the idea of this - the blending of 20th century link building and 21st century technology to spread the word.

It took me all of five minutes to find a postcard, write a quick note on it, and drop it in the mail. And at this moment, my postcard to Mac is traveling in a postal truck with all the speed of my first 2400 bps modem. In a day or two I hope Mac gets it and is able to add a pin to his map and feel a little more connected to his rapidly expanding world. If you have 5 minutes, try it out.

Technorati Tags: mac hughes, paul hughes, global shout out, link building, pen pals

So You Want To Run A Contest

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 10:05:00 +0000

These days it seems that everybody is running a contest on their blog. It's an interesting tactic to market your site. Everyday, in my BlogLines it seems I read about 3 or 4 new contests from blogs I haven't seen. I imagine a properly done contest could boost a sites traffic and rss subscribers greatly if done right.

What do you need to run a successful contest?
Well, blogging basics like good content and well, good content are important. Because let's face it - the purpose of a blog contest is not only to increase traffic and gain exposure for your blog by generating a lot of reviews/links/comments, but to maintain the traffic and readers after the contest is over. You want people to come back and the only way to do that is to simply provide them with information and ideas that they can use. It would suck to get a bunch of traffic during your contest period and then lose it all after the contest ends because you have nothing left to offer. If that were to happen you might need to bribe your readers some more with a new contest.

A nice prize doesn't hurt either.
Different prizes are going to appeal to different people. Some blogs give away links or reviews, some give away iPods. There are books and dvd's to be had, sometimes even cash. Contest Blogger (the blog about you guessed it: contests) is even giving away an autographed copy of Virgin Comics trade paperpack "The Sadhu."

Take a few minutes and try one.

I haven't entered that many contests - but today I came across a contest with a prize that caught my interest. Ben Cook over at the Blogging Experiment is running a contest where you simply have to link to his site with the anchor text "make money blogging" or some variation of that and subscribe to his rss feed.

If, and only if, on September 1st, Feedburner reports that he has at least 150 subscribers to his blog (which on a side note - is similar to this blog in that he is trying to generate an income from his blog, though he gives himself one full year (which is probably a lot smarter and more realistic than 100 days (which I've come to realize might be a stretch, though I'm still determined, and hey, if it takes me 150 days, we still might call that a semi-success))) then he is going to award the winner of the contest the Complete Blogging Package. This package includes a 3 month subscription to the popular Blog Mastermind Mentoring program, a copy of Aaron Wall's $79 dollar SeoBook, and free reviews on Chrisg.com and the Authority Blogger Forum.

On top of that, Ben is throwing in some super bonuses for milestones of 250, 500, and 1000 (a $400 dollar review on Johnchow.com) rss subscribers. Pretty cool, eh? I think so, I like the twist and incentives added. I've got an iPod, you can build links and relationships - but most of these things that will help you in improving your blogging abilities are only going to be had by spending a little money. So why not try to win them for free? Plus, I like Ben's site and plan on following along in his journey and see if he can't help me out a bit in mine.

So maybe you're thinking about running a contest.
Go for it. Just make sure you have the content to back it up. Make sure that people are going to want to participate by offering something of value to them. Make it stand out. It'd suck to run a contest and get two entrants. You might feel a little silly.

Over the next week I'm going to be looking at different contests being run, I might even enter a few. I'm going to look at what's working, and what isn't so that hopefully, by the end of the week I'll be able to launch a small little contest of my own and maybe, just maybe attract more than two entrants.

Technorati Tags: blogging, contests