Unclaimed Cash will find money for folks for free, and process the paperwork required to return it to the right people for a $10 fee. This is a natural fit with Acme People Search affiliates who are customizing their search engines using WordPress, or even just running additional banners on their search engine site. You get 40% per sale and 10% of sales from referred affiliates. I have not yet seen proof (only found it this morning) but it appears that they might also pay $0.10 per click (this is listed in one of their ads, but is not listed in the program information – affiliate beware).

Anyway, they have some good creatives that would fit nicely into your search engine – and they auto approve. Check out the

Unclaimed Money Affiliate Program today!

Concentrate essentially asks you to list your tasks, then list the tools required for the tasks, and (perhaps) what you shouldn’t be doing with those tools during the time that you’re working on those tasks. This takes a while to get set up but it’s pretty easy. Later, you tell Concentrate “okay, I’d like to work on [insert task here].” Concentrate nods quietly, closes any open applications that are not part of the task, opens (or leaves open) all the applications you’ve said are required for the task, and then gently pokes you in the arm (via Growl notifications) if you seem to be getting off track.

I know it seems stupid, but we’re an ADHD nation, and the prospect of something that will prevent me from spinning my wheels on the web when I’m supposed to be writing was incredibly tantalizing. So far, indications are good. I dug around for a Windows version, but I really couldn’t find a suitable alternative. And, after 10 minutes, Concentrate asked me if I’d like to return to the task at hand.

Anyway, all the thinking about efficiency reminded me that I hadn’t yet suggested that people take the one step that is critical to their blogging productivity. There is a tool that will keep you writing more efficiently and consistently across all your blogs and mini-sites: a blog editor. I have always used MarsEdit, a Mac application that as far as I’m concerned has this category locked down. It’s just so easy to get rolling. It shows you a little preview as you type, lets you import and embed media (even searching Flickr for photos for you), and lots more. You’re not on the web as you’re writing, so you can close your browser (well, okay, minimize your browser) and just focus on spitting out words. Best of all, you can post to multiple blogs from one place.

Luckily, there are Windows-flavored blog editors that are quite good. The MarsEdit author recommends Windows Live Writer, which may already be on your machine as part of some sort of Windows Live Essentials doohickey. Alternatively, he has high praise for BlogJet, which is a mere $40.

Consider converting your next ten coffee drinks into a piece of software that will make you write more (and more efficiently) than all the caffeine in the world.

This is one of the hardest things for people, I think, and it’s not surprising that those who do it well are seeing real and sustainable success. Folks like Brian Clark pour tons of work into free subscription-based lessons on a variety of topics. When you look at what he’s doing, it’s likely that all you see is a towering stack of writing assignments, and no easy way to chunk it out into tasks.

Here’s what I finally did that worked – I started a campaign with only an opt-in message (thanking folks for subscribing and outlining the general plan of the e-course) and then I started advertising the course. That’s right, no content pre-loaded, only the loosest idea of what I was going to cover and in what order. Suddenly, I had signups. Not an avalanche, but enough people that if I let them down, I’d be kicking myself for the entire year. So I added some emails on the first topic. I created a quick WordPress blog on my HostGator account with additional material about that first topic, and created all the skeleton categories and whatnot for future topics. I experimented a little with themes, but at the end of the day I stuck with simple. For the first time ever, I did not flick the “make my blog searchable” switch to “on.” You don’t invite strangers into the lab – only the folks who signed up.

All of a sudden the mailing list was a test case for content that I knew was in my head but hadn’t found a reason to write down. Are the emails perfect? Hell no. Will I change them a bazillion times? Probably. But that’s the point – you can’t revise something that isn’t written. You have to begin.

So begin. Ask people to subscribe to your email newsletter about [insert thing you know well here]. Promote the ideas that you’re going to be covering in whatever venues seem appropriate. Once you have signups to the list, it’s amazing how the words start flowing. I don’t know about you, but I’m deadline driven – if I know people are waiting for the next installment of super-awesome newsletter X, I’m 100% more likely to apply fingers to keyboard. Treat it like National Novel Writing Month: don’t sweat the details (although checking spelling and grammar is advised), just get the text on the page. Hopefully the information will be useful to your “beta” signups – but even if it’s only useful some of the time, it’s a fair trade.

Later, when you have time to reflect on the entire arc, you’ll have an opportunity to make it so much better that you’ll glow with pride at what you created. For now, just stay ahead of the vanguard, write like there’s no tomorrow, and be sure to place teaching and advising above selling and promoting. Your subscribers will thank you.

True, you earn credits the way that you normally do – by surfing advertising pages posted by other users. There’s a big difference, however, between ThumbVu’s system and a traditional manual exchange. For a start, ThumbVu allows you to pre-view three thumbnail images of your “next” destination. Seen an offer before? Ignore it. Not interested in yet another traffic exchange? Don’t click. You can even ask for three more thumbnails.

Users can vote sites up or down using the buttons presented on the surfbar. The pages that get the most attention and votes are showcased in a gallery on the ThumbVu site. ThumbVu also offers these metrics for your campaigns, allowing you to measure the success of your pages. For the first time, you can split-test splash pages and get actual, useful numbers and user vote counts.

In addition, the selective nature of the credit surfing means that you don’t burn credits on people who log in, crank out an hour of viewing (whether that means they see your page once, twice, or ten times), and then bail out. At best, this encourages you to engage in the same behavior to ensure that your sites are live. At worst, it’s a game of “100 people in a room with megaphones.” There’s no value. You don’t get to know the person.

This leads me to the next thing that’s amazing about ThumbVu – the social network profile of each and every user is available on demand. You can add your YouTube, FaceBook, Twitter, blog, Digg, and many more social networking accounts. Connecting once with someone allows you the opportunity to tell them a lot more about yourself. Your reputation and your brand are given marquee status each time someone views your sites.

Even more incredible, premium membership allows you to place an offer right in the sidebar anytime your sites are displayed. You can offer free videos, an e-course on list building, whatever strikes your fancy. And you can build your list using whatever autoresponder you already use.

I can’t say enough about how much better this system is than any of the ones I’ve seen (and that includes really well-run manual exchanges). John and his team have leapfrogged the competition and created an incredible product that gets the nature of reputation and trust in today’s Internet.

But don’t take my word for it – sign up for ThumbVu and see for yourself…

…Oh yeah,the site is optimized for the mobile web, too.

Disclosure – the links in this post are referral links – I will get credit for your decision to sign up with Thumbvu, and will receive a commission if you upgrade your membership or purchase credits.

Well, wait. I suppose that’s a bit over the top. Here’s what I mean: I’ve been noodling up to now. Not really persistently focusing on this project. There’s nothing wrong with that, unless you actually have expectations of results. At that point, you have to consider why your actions are not tailored to reach the results you’re interested in.

So 2010 is the year of crazy-seriousness here at Deranged Penguin. Each day is a chance to incrementally improve some aspect of the marketing empire, so I’m going to use Teux Deux to keep up on what I’m supposed to be working on. This is a new habit and will take some force to put into motion. But it’s worth it – much better than spinning wheels and assuming that you’re getting somewhere.

WordPress is the platform of choice for practically any project I think of, so why am I not formalizing and releasing my WP startup tricks into the wild? Good question. That’s going on the list. Expect to see it by the end of the first quarter.

I’m also going to dip a toe into pay per click, using Wealthy Affiliate’s resources and training to understand a lot more about that particular advertising medium.

And, as I posted over at the APS Forum, January is Consumer Focus Month! Time to spiff up the search engine and blog like hell over at