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	<title>Niche Dash</title>
	
	<link>http://nichedash.com</link>
	<description>Earn Anywhere. Learn Niche Marketing. Get Started Today.</description>
	<lastBuildDate>Tue, 13 Sep 2011 01:38:53 +0000</lastBuildDate>
	<language>en</language>
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		<title>How I Left My Job And Started To Live A Life Of Adventure And Travel (and you can too!) + Location Rebel Review</title>
		<link>http://nichedash.com/location-rebel-review</link>
		<comments>http://nichedash.com/location-rebel-review#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 12 Sep 2011 15:16:34 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>David</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Business]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Location 180]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Location Rebel Review]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sean Ogle]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://nichedash.com/?p=1260</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[It’s incredible how much my life changed over the last few years. Exactly two years ago I was crawling through the mud, enduring my basic military training as a new recruit. Austria is one of the last Western countries that still has compulsory military service. I was having 16 hour days and frequent night-shifts. Today [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p></p><p>It’s incredible how much my life changed over the last few years. Exactly two years ago I was crawling through the mud, enduring my basic military training as a new recruit. Austria is one of the last Western countries that still has compulsory military service. I was having 16 hour days and frequent night-shifts.</p>
<div id="attachment_1265" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 600px">
	<img class="size-full wp-image-1265" title="IMG_0016" src="http://nichedash.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/IMG_0016.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="800" />
	<p class="wp-caption-text">In the army</p>
</div>
<p>Today I’m sitting in a nipa hut, right next to a huge pool and surrounded by palm trees. I’m hanging out at our villa in Bali, Indonesia. The beach is only 5 minutes away and the weather is warm (but not too hot).</p>
<p>Over the last 6 months, I’ve been traveling (or living in) Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore, Czech Republic and Austria. I’ve been on the road for 1.5 years. I genuinely believe that I had more fun within those 1.5 years than the average person in his or her life-time.</p>
<div id="attachment_1266" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 600px">
	<img class="size-full wp-image-1266" title="IMG_0951" src="http://nichedash.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/IMG_0951.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="450" />
	<p class="wp-caption-text">Boracay, Philippines</p>
</div>
<div id="attachment_1267" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 600px">
	<img class="size-full wp-image-1267" title="IMG_1670" src="http://nichedash.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/IMG_1670.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="800" />
	<p class="wp-caption-text">Prague, Czech Republic</p>
</div>
<p>How did I get here? I identified the 3 reasons that are responsible for my success.</p>
<h3>1. I had balls</h3>
<p>One snowy day in February 2010 I pushed through my comfort zone and bought a one-way ticket to Bangkok, Thailand.</p>
<p>At that point, I’ve never been outside of Austria for more than 2 weeks. I’ve never travelled alone. I didn’t have a business. I didn’t buy a return ticket.</p>
<p>The closer I got to departure day, the more uncertainty I felt. My relatives and friends started to freak out. <strong>I freaked out. I did it anyway.</strong></p>
<p><em>(Note: I had a couple thousand Euros in the bank. If you are broke, build a business first and then travel.)</em></p>
<h3>2. I had real skills</h3>
<p>Two months into my trip I got a gig. What started as working 2-3 hours a day for food, beer and accommodation at a resort turned into a full-on contracting gig.</p>
<p>My IT/software development background was a huge asset. Having a couple of websites up and running and possessing SEO and social media marketing knowledge was helpful too.</p>
<p>If it weren’t for my skills, I would have gone home after 6 months once my money ran out (like EVERY other backpacker I know).</p>
<p>There are tons of online marketers who want you to buy their “proven system” that is simple enough that even idiots can make money by only pushing a button. These systems don&#8217;t work. <strong>Having real, marketable skills will be your key to success.</strong></p>
<h3>3. I surrounded myself with other successful entrepreneurs</h3>
<p>The amount of advice, inspiration and help that I’ve received from my entrepreneurial friends is incredible.</p>
<p>There’s a saying that you’re the average of your 5 best friends. It is true. <strong>Hanging out with other successful businessmen was a game-changer. My thoughts, behavior and attitude changed entirely.</strong></p>
<p>All 4 of my current roommates are successful online entrepreneurs. One of them is Sean Ogle. Sean does SEO consulting, has some very profitable photography niche-sites and is a popular blogger. His transition was similar to mine. He quit his job, learned skills that other people were willing to pay for and surrounded himself with mentors and other entrepreneurs.</p>
<p>Sean spent the better part of the last couple of months working on his product, <a href="/location-rebel">Location Rebel</a>. Location Rebel’s premise is to be a framework that teaches you everything you need to work from anywhere and quit your job.</p>
<h1>Location Rebel Review</h1>
<p>Over the last few days I spent a lot of time getting to know Sean Ogle (we just met 4 days ago here in Bali). He gave me access to <a href="/location-rebel">Location Rebel</a>. To be honest, I was blown away.</p>
<p>While I expected a high quality product from Sean, this is a lot better than expected.</p>
<p><strong>The reason that <a href="/location-rebel">Location Rebel</a> is so good is that it covers all three factors that were responsible for my success.</strong></p>
<h3>1. Overcoming Fear</h3>
<p>A section of the course is devoted to overcoming your fear. Furthermore, you’ll find support from group of like-minded people in the forums that are going through the same things that you are.</p>
<h3>2. Learning Real Skills</h3>
<p>A huge part of Location Rebel are 8 case studies of successful location independent entrepreneurs. Their professions range from Copywriting to SEO and web development.</p>
<p>Each case study teaches you how to learn the skills, how to find clients and portrays the lifestyle of someone who makes money using these skills.</p>
<h3>3. Surrounding yourself with other entrepreneurs</h3>
<p>Location Rebel includes guides on networking, finding mentors and a forum. Having a place to hang out with people going through similar lifestyle changes is priceless.</p>
<p>I’m active in the forums myself.</p>
<p>One of my favorite things about <a href="/location-rebel">Location Rebel</a> is its interactivity. After reading (or watching/listening to) a piece of content, you’ll have to fill out a questionnaire.<br />
This forces you to think and reflect instead of just mindlessly consuming the information thus improves the learning experience.</p>
<h3>Bottom line</h3>
<p>The whole course is very well written includes tons of audio and video, and is full of great content.</p>
<p><strong>In my opinion, Location Rebel is NOT for you if you</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>Already have a very marketable skill (e.g. being able to program iPhone apps) and know how to get clients.</li>
<li>Already quit your job and are self-employed.</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Location Rebel is for you if you if you</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>Want to be an entrepreneur but don’t know where to start.</li>
<li>Want to quit your job.</li>
<li>Want to travel the world while making money from your laptop.</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>The bottom line is that <a href="/location-rebel">Location Rebe</a>l is the product that I wish I had when I first got started on my journey. </strong>You will learn the right mindset and the right skills to quit your job and improve your life &#8211; whether you want to live in Thailand or work from home to spend more time with your family.</p>
<p>Location Rebel will launch Tuesday morning. <a href="/location-rebel">Be sure to head over to the Location Rebel website to check out some free videos and PDFs in the mean time.</a></p>
<p><em>This post contains affiliate links. I thoroughly believe in <a href="/location-rebel">Location Rebel</a>, that&#8217;s why I reviewed it here. It’s one of the few products out there that I fell comfortable promoting.</em></p>
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		<title>The “Niche Profit Manual” or “How To Make Your First 100$ Online In 45 Minutes Reloaded”</title>
		<link>http://nichedash.com/book</link>
		<comments>http://nichedash.com/book#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 25 Mar 2011 09:16:41 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>David</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Niche Marketing]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://nichedash.com/?p=1213</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[My monster post &#8211; &#8220;How To Make Your First 100$ Online In 45 Minutes Through Affiliate Marketing&#8221; was a pretty huge success. It&#8217;s the most viewed post on NicheDash so far. I received multiple requests to publish it in PDF form. That&#8217;s what I did. Not only did I turn it into a PDF, I rewrote some of [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a class="post_image_link" href="http://nichedash.com/book" title="Permanent link to The &#8220;Niche Profit Manual&#8221; or &#8220;How To Make Your First 100$ Online In 45 Minutes Reloaded&#8221;"><img class="post_image alignleft" src="http://nichedash.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/nicheprofittitle.jpg" width="612" height="292" alt="Post image for The &#8220;Niche Profit Manual&#8221; or &#8220;How To Make Your First 100$ Online In 45 Minutes Reloaded&#8221;" /></a>
</p><p>My monster post &#8211; &#8220;<a href="http://nichedash.com/affiliate-marketing" target="_blank">How To Make Your First 100$ Online In 45 Minutes Through Affiliate Marketing</a>&#8221; was a pretty huge success. It&#8217;s the most viewed post on <a href="/">NicheDash</a> so far. I received multiple requests to publish it in PDF form. That&#8217;s what I did.</p>
<p><span id="more-1213"></span></p>
<p>Not only did I turn it into a PDF, I rewrote some of the content to make it better, more recent (including thoughts on the Google Panda update), deleted some confusing sections and got design help from the awesome <a href="http://twitter.com/davidcrandall" target="_blank">David Crandall</a> from <a href="http://www.heroicdestiny.com/" target="_blank">Heroic Destiny</a>. &#8220;Design help&#8221; is probably an understatement. Basically, I sent David Crandall the text and he turned it into this awesome, sweet looking PDF. David is a really smart and talented guy, make sure to check out his sites. Thanks so much, David, you rock.</p>
<p>Sign up to my mailing list to get the updated &#8220;Niche Profit Manual&#8221; (I admit, the name is kinda cheesy <img src='http://nichedash.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_razz.gif' alt=':P' class='wp-smiley' /> ).</p>
<p><script src="http://forms.aweber.com/form/78/452640678.js" type="text/javascript"></script></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h3>Why should you bother?</h3>
<p>You&#8217;ll learn</p>
<ul>
<li>How to <strong>come up with niches</strong> that both interest you and sell.</li>
<li><strong>8 evergreen niches</strong>. (no, not &#8220;make money online&#8221; and weight-loss)</li>
<li>How to <strong>decide which keyword</strong> to select. (the go/nogo-decision can be very hard in the beginning)</li>
<li>How the <strong>Google Panda update</strong> changes affiliate marketing.</li>
<li>How to <strong>monitor your progress</strong>. (including Google Analytics and Clickbank Analytics 101)</li>
<li>How the &#8220;super affiliates&#8221; make <strong>4 figures a day</strong>. (no, it&#8217;s not article marketing)</li>
</ul>
<p>&#8230; and a lot more.</p>
<p>If you&#8217;re a total beginner, you&#8217;ll find step by step instructions on how to build niche sites. If you are already more experienced, there&#8217;s probably still some new stuff in there.</p>
<p><em>PS, I&#8217;ll also throw in a big, shiny call to action button (both in .PNG and Photoshop format) that you can use on your sites.</em></p>
<p><em> </em> <em>PPS, it&#8217;s <strong>free</strong> and you can <strong>unsubscribe</strong> any time. Give it a try.</em></p>
<p><script src="http://forms.aweber.com/form/78/452640678.js" type="text/javascript"></script></p>
]]></content:encoded>
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		<slash:comments>5</slash:comments>
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		<title>The Worst Valentine’s Date Ever</title>
		<link>http://nichedash.com/worst-valentines-date-ever</link>
		<comments>http://nichedash.com/worst-valentines-date-ever#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 16 Feb 2011 21:10:25 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>David</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Travel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Thailand]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://nichedash.com/?p=1192</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[While vagabonding around the globe, my path is paved with cultural misunderstandings and language barriers. The following story is a good example. This Valentine&#8217;s day, I arranged a date with a local Thai girl. A couple of minutes too late, I arrive at the restaurant. Assuming that she already took a seat, I start looking [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p></p><p>While vagabonding around the globe, my path is paved with cultural misunderstandings and language barriers. The following story is a good example.</p>
<p>This Valentine&#8217;s day, I arranged a date with a local Thai girl.</p>
<p><span id="more-1192"></span></p>
<p>A couple of minutes too late, I arrive at the restaurant. Assuming that she already took a seat, I start looking for her.</p>
<p>There&#8217;s this group (2 girls, 1 guy) sitting at a table, staring at me. One of the girls looks like she&#8217;s waiting for somebody and looks kinda like my date. (I wasn&#8217;t 100% sure how she looks like because it&#8217;s been a couple of days since I met her.)</p>
<p>Not sure how to proceed (and not sure if this girl is actually my date), I ask the girl what her name is. &#8220;Nok&#8221;. Sounds like the name of the girl that I&#8217;m here to meet, at least to my Falang ears. This must be her.</p>
<p>I sit down. Nok seems to be extraordinarily nervous. And why did she bring her friends? Why the hell are they already eating even though I only came 5 minutes too late?</p>
<p>Whatever, I order a beer. In the meantime another guy joins the table.</p>
<p>I try to have a conversation, but nobody speaks any English and I don&#8217;t speak any Thai. What the fuck is going on? I remember that I talked to the girl in English the last time I saw her. Is she so nervous and shy that she&#8217;s scared to speak?</p>
<p>10-15 awkward minutes pass.</p>
<p>Suddenly my phone rings. My date is waiting outside the restaurant. Everything makes sense now.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>Success And Luck</title>
		<link>http://nichedash.com/luck</link>
		<comments>http://nichedash.com/luck#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 16 Feb 2011 04:13:39 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>David</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Quickie]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://nichedash.com/?p=1194</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Here is philosopher Seneca&#8217;s take on luck. Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity. - Seneca (Roman philosopher, mid-1st century AD) This quote sums it up pretty well. Luck is vital. If you are prepared, you&#8217;ll sooner or later encounter opportunities. If you leverage them, you just got lucky. One of those opportunities for [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p></p><p>Here is philosopher Seneca&#8217;s take on luck.</p>
<blockquote><p>Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.</p>
<p>- Seneca (Roman philosopher, mid-1st century AD)</p></blockquote>
<p>This quote sums it up pretty well. Luck is vital. If you are prepared, you&#8217;ll sooner or later encounter opportunities. If you leverage them, you just got lucky.</p>
<p>One of those opportunities for me was the Tropical MBA Semester 2. For one of you, the <a href="http://www.tropicalmba.com/get-paid-to-travel/">Tropical MBA 3</a> internship could be the right opportunity. Hope to meet you in Bali.</p>
<p><em>(In the future, I&#8217;ll write more &#8220;quickies&#8221; like this one about random findings and thoughts.)</em></p>
]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>The 9 Biggest SEO Myths Busted</title>
		<link>http://nichedash.com/seo-myths</link>
		<comments>http://nichedash.com/seo-myths#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 14 Jan 2011 22:26:45 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>David</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Niche Marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Bing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Google]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Myths]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Search Engines]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[SEO]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Yahoo]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://nichedash.com/?p=1145</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[SEO is truly a mystical, magical land. Nobody knows what exactly is going on behind its closed borders. Naturally, a lot of people start dreaming up the wildest things, including Fairies and Orcs singing and dancing &#8220;Kumbaya&#8221; together. Besides a few chosen ones working at Google an its little cousins Yahoo and Bing, nobody knows [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a class="post_image_link" href="http://nichedash.com/seo-myths" title="Permanent link to The 9 Biggest SEO Myths Busted"><img class="post_image alignleft" src="http://nichedash.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/busted.jpg" width="590" height="250" alt="Post image for The 9 Biggest SEO Myths Busted" /></a>
</p><p>SEO is truly a mystical, magical land. Nobody knows what exactly is going on behind its closed borders. Naturally, a lot of people start dreaming up the wildest things, including <strong>Fairies and Orcs singing and dancing &#8220;Kumbaya&#8221; together</strong>.</p>
<p>Besides a few chosen ones working at Google an its little cousins Yahoo and Bing, nobody knows exactly how search engines rank their results. Through years of experience, watching search engines and rigorous testing, SEO experts have uncovered most of the search engines&#8217; ranking factors.</p>
<p><span id="more-1145"></span></p>
<p>Unfortunately, there are too many experts out there that still believe the Fairies and Orcs are dancing Kumbaya. This post debunks some of the most common SEO myths and gives <strong>applicable advice on what to do</strong> with these findings.</p>
<h3>1. Nofollow means that search engines ignore your link</h3>
<p>You&#8217;ve probably heard of the infamous rel=&#8221;nofollow&#8221; hyperlink tag. Back in 2005, blog comments and forum signatures were getting spammed for backlinks. The Google webspam team introduced the <em>nofollow</em> tag to <strong>tell search engines to ignore a link</strong> for ranking purposes. The theory was that it will <strong>discourage backlink spammers</strong> from polluting said blogs and forums.</p>
<p>While Google, Yahoo and Bing don&#8217;t use <em>nofollow</em> links for ranking, <strong>all of them actually do follow the links</strong> and might even index that page. There&#8217;s also some speculation that <em>nofollow</em> links might even pass on a small amount of link juice.</p>
<h3>2. Social Media Marketing doesn&#8217;t help with SEO</h3>
<p>Everybody loves Twitter and Faccebook, but most bloggers think that these  social networks don&#8217;t improve their rankings because they use nofollow links. Good news to everyone with huge social media influence out there: <strong>both Bing and Google confirmed that Twitter &amp; Facebook mentions play a role in organic search results</strong> (source: <a href="http://searchengineland.com/what-social-signals-do-google-bing-really-count-55389">Search Engine Land</a>).</p>
<p>Both the number of Retweets and the number of Facebook shares will help a site&#8217;s rankings.  Not only the number of social mentions, but also who tweets your link is important. Is it <a href="http://twitter.com/tferriss">@tferriss</a> or some user with 5 followers?</p>
<p>I expect that the search engines will continue to focus more and more on what&#8217;s hot in social networks. Keep the goal of search engines in mind: to deliver content that many people approve of. What this means for every blogger and online marketer is that you now have <strong>even more reasons to spend time on your social media marketing efforts</strong>.</p>
<h3>3. Google Analytics is bad for SEO</h3>
<p>There are online marketers out there that refrain from using Google Analytics because they fear that Google will use the collected data against them in search engine rankings. For example, an affiliate site might have a very high bounce rate (high bounce rate = &#8220;I came, I puked, I left&#8221;).</p>
<p>Although only a few people at Google know what&#8217;s really going on, <a href="http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-9028425054136856586#"><strong>Google states that Google Analytics data is not used in SERPs</strong></a> (search engine result pages).</p>
<p>I wouldn&#8217;t worry about using Google Analytics on your site.</p>
<h3>4. Meta Keywords are important for your rankings</h3>
<p>As you read lots of information on <a href="http://nichedash.com">niche marketing</a> and SEO, you will surely stumble upon the ominous meta keyword tag. Several years ago, this tag helped some search engines to rank pages.</p>
<p><strong>No modern search engine uses this tag anymore</strong>. Don&#8217;t worry about it.</p>
<h3>5. All links are created equal</h3>
<p>Many people think that the position of a backlink on a page doesn&#8217;t matter. This is not true as a <a href="http://www.seomoz.org/blog/10-illustrations-on-search-engines-valuation-of-links">SEOmoz experiment</a> showed.</p>
<p>For example, <strong>the higher on top of a page a link is, the more value it passes on</strong>. A link from within the page-content carries more value than a sidebar link.</p>
<p>If you are building backlinks and you can choose your link-placement, try to place the link as high as possible.</p>
<h3>6. Hyphenated domain names rock</h3>
<p>You will commonly hear that hyphenated domain names such as &#8220;how-to-get-a-sixpack.com&#8221; are good for SEO because the hyphens separate each words, thus making it easier for the search engines to identify your keywords. Maybe that worked 10 years ago, but <strong>there&#8217;s no way that search engines are still that stupid</strong>.</p>
<p>Hyphenated domains carry the big disadvantage that they are hard to remember, hard to spell and look cheap &amp; spammy from the end user. <strong>Don&#8217;t use them</strong>.</p>
<h3>7. Your site&#8217;s content has to be high quality</h3>
<p>&#8220;Post high quality and you will rank well&#8221; is a common myth. I think<strong> it&#8217;s very unlikely that search engines can differentiate between an ok-quality and a high-quality article</strong>. As long as the article doesn&#8217;t look spammy and is grammatically decent, you will be fine.</p>
<p>However, there&#8217;s a reason you hear this advice so often. If you create high quality content (and promote it, so people also see it), there&#8217;s a decent chance that people will start linking to you. Linklove = better search results.</p>
<p>Practical application: don&#8217;t worry about crafting perfect articles for your <a href="http://nichedash.com/affiliate-marketing">cheap and dirty niche site</a>.</p>
<h3>8. Keyword spam is a great idea</h3>
<p>When browsing  the web, you will likely find many sites that practice keyword spam. It is great for your onsite SEO when you mention your keyword a couple of times, but don&#8217;t overdo it.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s 2011 and search engines are smart. <strong>If you spam your keyword all over your site, Google &amp; Friends will penalize you</strong>. Make sure to only mention your keyword in sentences that make sense.</p>
<p>Furthermore, <strong>don&#8217;t spam your title tag</strong>. As you probably know, the title tag is one of the most important onsite SEO factors. Decide on one or 2 keywords. That&#8217;s enough. Don&#8217;t cram 10 keywords into your title.</p>
<h3>9. Domain and Site Age matters</h3>
<p>When you analyze your competition while doing keyword research, you will probably notice a pattern: most of the top ranking results are sites established a couple of years ago. Many people draw the conclusion that Google favors old sites from this phenomena.</p>
<p>The reason for this pattern is not that Google trusts older sites more. These sites simply had a couple of years to establish authority, develop their brand, create a buzz and get linked to. If you are able to accomplish the same, you will have similar rankings.</p>
<p>What does this mean for you? This means that <strong>you shouldn&#8217;t throw the towel just because your keywords&#8217; entire competition on page one is five years old</strong>.</p>
<p>For an in-depth discussion on this myth, refer to <a href="http://www.seomoz.org/blog/age-of-site-and-old-links-whiteboard-friday">this SEOmoz post</a>.</p>
<p>====================</p>
<p>Did you enjoy this post? Please share it on the social network of your choice.</p>
<p>Do you know of any other SEO myths? Leave a comment below.</p>
<p style="text-align: right;"><small>Image credit: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/laszlo-photo/1812013437/sizes/z/in/photostream/">laszlo-photo</a></small></p>
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		<title>Welcome To The Dark Side</title>
		<link>http://nichedash.com/welcome-dark-side</link>
		<comments>http://nichedash.com/welcome-dark-side#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 02 Jan 2011 16:37:30 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>David</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[General]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Dark Side]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Niche Marketing]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://nichedash.com/?p=1122</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Sayonara, LiveLifeBig. As 2010 comes to an end, it&#8217;s time to say good bye. You served me well. Dear reader, don&#8217;t worry. This blog will continue to exist in 2011. With the start of the new year and a slight shift in focus, it was time for a rebranding. LiveLifeBig.net will be be known as [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p></p><p>Sayonara, LiveLifeBig. As 2010 comes to an end, it&#8217;s time to say good bye. You served me well.</p>
<p>Dear reader,</p>
<p>don&#8217;t worry. This blog will continue to exist in 2011. With the start of the new year and a slight shift in focus, it was time for a rebranding.</p>
<p><strong>LiveLifeBig.net will be be known as <a href="http://nichedash.com">NicheDash.com</a>.</strong></p>
<div id="attachment_1114" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 480px">
	<img class="size-full wp-image-1114" title="ratzinger" src="http://nichedash.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/ratzinger.jpg" alt="" width="480" height="358" />
	<p class="wp-caption-text">Welcome to the dark side.</p>
</div>
<p style="text-align: center;">
<p><span id="more-1122"></span></p>
<h2>A brief obituary of LiveLifeBig</h2>
<p>LiveLifeBig was founded in March 2010 about two weeks before I started on my <a href="http://nichedash.com/sexiness-increased-tenfold">South East Asia adventure</a>. I wasn&#8217;t sure in which direction to go, but I vaguely described my blog as a lifestyle design and travel blog. LiveLifeBig was born.</p>
<p>In October, I started to slightly change topics. While there are many Lifestyle Design blogs out there, only few actually show you how to make it happen (go location independent and work for yourself). Most of them are just abstract, vanilla theory. Additionally, many bloggers just seem to make money online by telling others how to make money online. This is bullshit.</p>
<p>On this blog, I share my journey of making money from niche and <a href="http://nichedash.com/affiliate-marketing">affiliate marketing</a> with you. Additionally, I&#8217;m spicing everything up with the occasional travel tale.</p>
<p>While I&#8217;m not yet making a full-time income from my sites, I&#8217;m on my way and I&#8217;m convinced that I can teach you lots of worthwhile tings.</p>
<h3>The final blow</h3>
<p>In the end, I was annoyed with my .net domain. Furthermore, while LiveLifeBig is a catchy name, it sounded a bit self development focused and doesn&#8217;t represent my niche marketing focus. NicheDash does exactly that and sounds pretty cool too, in my opinion.</p>
<h3>The dark side?</h3>
<p>This blog will be a little evil. I might write about stuff like gray hat SEO tactics. I&#8217;ve already suggested selling premature ejaculation products before. The internet isn&#8217;t a fairyland.</p>
<p>This site may be slightly evil in a way that might not resonate with everyone. <strong>It is not evil in a way of ripping people off.</strong> I hate that. If I&#8217;d promote a premature ejaculation product, I&#8217;d promote one that has quality content and helps.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s like &#8220;if it works and doesn&#8217;t hurt anyone, there&#8217;s nothing wrong with doing it&#8221;.</p>
<h2>What to do now? (very important!)</h2>
<p>Welcome to NicheDash. Thanks for reading. If you currently are a RSS-subscriber, <a href="http://nichedash.com/feed">subscribe to my new feed here</a>. This will be the last post that is broadcasted through the old feed. If you aren&#8217;t a subscriber yet, you still might want to <a href="/feed">subscribe</a>.</p>
<p>You can also look forward to my upcoming mailing list which will include some exciting bonuses.</p>
<p>Thank you,</p>
<p>David Berger</p>
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		<title>Free Tool: The Affiliate Profits Calculator</title>
		<link>http://nichedash.com/affiliate-profits-calculator</link>
		<comments>http://nichedash.com/affiliate-profits-calculator#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 18 Dec 2010 14:15:44 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>David</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Niche Marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Make Money Online]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[SEO]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tools]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://nichedash.com/?p=1049</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I have a free tool for your niche marketing toolkit today. Over the last weeks, I&#8217;ve been constantly doing keyword research for new niches to explore. One thing that became kinda annoying over time is to calculate the estimated profits of a new site every time in my head. My calculator tells you what profits [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a class="post_image_link" href="http://nichedash.com/affiliate-profits-calculator" title="Permanent link to Free Tool: The Affiliate Profits Calculator"><img class="post_image alignleft" src="http://nichedash.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/blackboard.jpg" width="590" height="255" alt="Post image for Free Tool: The Affiliate Profits Calculator" /></a>
</p><p>I have a free tool for your niche marketing toolkit today.</p>
<p>Over the last weeks, I&#8217;ve been constantly doing keyword research for new niches to explore. One thing that became kinda annoying over time is to calculate the estimated profits of a new site every time in my head.</p>
<p>My calculator tells you what profits to expect if you rank #1 for your keyword. All you need to fill in is the monthly search volume, the estimated CTR and conversion rate and your commission.</p>
<p><span id="more-1049"></span></p>
<p>It&#8217;s by far not groundbreaking, but it should help you with your go/nogo-decision for certain keywords.</p>
<div id="attachment_1052" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 590px">
	<img class="size-full wp-image-1052 " title="aff-calc" src="http://nichedash.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/aff-calc.png" alt="" width="590" height="219" />
	<p class="wp-caption-text">The Calculator</p>
</div>
<p><a href="https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AiyloRsOMAAIdHJNckFwMVUzRkw1YlF0REoyZjNWSkE&amp;hl=en&amp;authkey=CJKe1-kI  ">Check it out here.</a> It should be pretty straightforward to use. I also included notes with instructions that appear when you hover over the corresponding cells.</p>
<p><em>Note: Of course, you can&#8217;t sell 2.94 products. I left it unrounded for accuracy reasons.</em></p>
<h2>How to calculate estimated profits</h2>
<p>If you want to know how the calculator works, keep reading. If you hate math, you can stop reading now and <a href="https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AiyloRsOMAAIdHJNckFwMVUzRkw1YlF0REoyZjNWSkE&amp;hl=en&amp;authkey=CJKe1-kI  ">check out the calculator instead</a>.</p>
<h3>The formulas</h3>
<p>Monthly Search Traffic = Monthly Searches [exact match!] x 42% <em>(Note: 42% is the average click through rate to your site if you rank #1)</em></p>
<p>Estimated Sales = Monthly Search Traffic x CTR (%) x Conversion Rate (%)</p>
<p>Estimated Income = Sales x Profits per Sale</p>
<h3>Example</h3>
<p>Let&#8217;s say your keyword gets 2800 monthly searches [exact match!]. If you rank #1 in Google, you will statistically get 42% of all searches to click through to your site. 2800 x 42% = <strong>1176</strong>.</p>
<p>A typical CTR (Click Through Rate) on a small niche site might be 25%, and sales-letter conversion-rate might realistically be 1%. Let&#8217;s say you get $22 commission for each sale.</p>
<p><strong>How much money will you make?</strong></p>
<p>Estimated Sales = 1176 x 0.25 x 0.01 = <strong>2.94</strong></p>
<p>Estimated Income = 2.94 x 22 =<strong> $ 64.68</strong></p>
<p><em>Again: Of course, you can&#8217;t sell 2.94 products. I left it unrounded for accuracy reasons.</em></p>
<div><a href="https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AiyloRsOMAAIdHJNckFwMVUzRkw1YlF0REoyZjNWSkE&amp;hl=en&amp;authkey=CJKe1-kI  ">Check out the calculator here.</a></div>
<p>Do you have any questions? Do you know a better method to estimate profits? Discuss in the comments.</p>
<p>=====</p>
<p>This is the last post on this blog while it is called &#8220;Live Life Big&#8221;. Over the next week, I&#8217;m moving to a cool new domain. I&#8217;ll also finally get a twitter handle that you can pronounce. Stay tuned.</p>
<p style="text-align: right;"><small>Photo by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/stuartpilbrow/2938100285/sizes/z/in/photostream/">stuartpilbrow</a></small></p>
<p><small> </small></p>
<p><small></small></p>
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		<title>How Buying A Plane Ticket Increased My Life’s Sexiness Tenfold (+Video)</title>
		<link>http://nichedash.com/sexiness-increased-tenfold</link>
		<comments>http://nichedash.com/sexiness-increased-tenfold#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 11 Dec 2010 18:27:45 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>David</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[General]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Travel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Videos]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Austria]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Philippines]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Thailand]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[TropicalMBA]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://nichedash.com/?p=966</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I&#8217;m writing this in Doha, Qatar as I wait for my connecting flight to Vienna, Austria. Gotta wait 9 hours, but at least I got free dinner at the airport + there&#8217;s a designated room to sleep here. As of posting, I&#8217;ve already been spending 3 days in Austria. (Click here if you can&#8217;t see [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a class="post_image_link" href="http://nichedash.com/sexiness-increased-tenfold" title="Permanent link to How Buying A Plane Ticket Increased My Life&#8217;s Sexiness Tenfold (+Video)"><img class="post_image alignleft" src="http://nichedash.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/manila-bay.jpg" width="589" height="250" alt="Post image for How Buying A Plane Ticket Increased My Life&#8217;s Sexiness Tenfold (+Video)" /></a>
</p><p><em>I&#8217;m writing this in Doha, Qatar as I wait for my connecting flight to Vienna, Austria. Gotta wait 9 hours, but at least I got free dinner at the airport + there&#8217;s a designated room to sleep here. As of posting, I&#8217;ve already been spending 3 days in Austria.</em></p>
<p><object classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" width="588" height="356" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><param name="src" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/F7LtbgDlTVY?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US" /><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="588" height="356" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/F7LtbgDlTVY?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object></p>
<p><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7LtbgDlTVY"><em>(Click here if you can&#8217;t see the video: Last Day in the Philippines.)</em></a></p>
<p>8 months ago, I hopped on a plane with a one way ticket to Thailand. I had no clear plan what the future will bring. All I knew is that I wanted to see the world. In retrospect, taking that risk and buying that one-way ticket was <strong>the best decision of my life</strong>.</p>
<p><span id="more-966"></span></p>
<h2>Flashback: March 2010</h2>
<p>Back in March 2010, I just finished compulsory military service for the Austrian Armed Forces. .</p>
<div id="attachment_981" class="wp-caption alignleft" style="width: 294px">
	<img class="size-full wp-image-981" title="inthearmy" src="http://nichedash.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/inthearmy.jpg" alt="" width="294" height="327" />
	<p class="wp-caption-text">In the Army (yes, that&#39;s me)</p>
</div>
<p>I wasn&#8217;t happy at all in the Army. What I didn&#8217;t like was that it was the exact opposite of freedom. Others were deciding on serious things about my life like where I have to sleep or how I am going to spend the weekend.</p>
<p>Plus, you had to do what people that were way less intelligent than you told you to do &#8211; without question. It&#8217;s basically 5x worse than a really bad day-job (the salary was ridiculous too: I got $380 per month).</p>
<p>On the bright side, my time in the Army probably helped me to become more self-reliant, bold and independent and prepared me for my upcoming adventures in Asia &#8211; I&#8217;m only 21 years old after all.</p>
<p>So here I was. I just survived Army and graduated from IT school the year before. I wasn&#8217;t really sure what the future would bring, but I knew three things:</p>
<ol>
<li><strong>I don&#8217;t want to work in a 9-5 environment as a programmer, database-specialist or anything similar.</strong></li>
<li><strong>At least for now, I don&#8217;t want to continue studying.</strong></li>
<li><strong>I want to see the world.</strong></li>
</ol>
<p>So what did I do? After reading the Four Hour Work Week and being inspired by guys like <a href="http://www.seanogle.com/travel/holy-crap-im-actually-moving-to-thailand">Sean Ogle</a> and <a href="http://www.thrillingheroics.com/tips-first-time-travelers-thailand">Cody McKibben</a>, I did something bold:</p>
<h2>I bought a one way ticket to Bangkok.</h2>
<p>Friends and relatives had mixed feelings about my upcoming adventure: They ranged from envy and excitement  to worry (some of them experienced all of those emotions). Why the hell was I travelling to South East Asia for an undetermined amount of time? And why, for ****&#8217;s sake <strong>alone</strong> and <strong>without return ticket</strong>?</p>
<p>I was personally feeling pretty calm until 3 days before departure. Over those last few days, I started to ask myself exactly the same questions too. &#8220;Why the hell am I doing this? I&#8217;ve neven been longer away from Austria than 2 weeks on a package vacation.&#8221; Those thoughts didn&#8217;t keep me from boarding the plane though.</p>
<p>Boy, what a great decision that was. The last 8 months in Asia were the <a href="http://nichedash.com/6-adventurous-months-in-asia">best time of my life</a>. I definitely have been living 2010 to the fullest. <strong>My life&#8217;s sexiness increased tenfold</strong>.</p>
<h2>Opportunities on the road</h2>
<p>Once you are on the road, you&#8217;ll find opportunities en masse. After two months of travel when I was hanging out in the Philippines, I found out about a <a href="http://www.tropicalmba.com/">location independent online-marketing internship</a> (the TropicalMBA) that takes place in the same country. I got the job.</p>
<p>I found a new home in the Philippines and stayed there for 6 months. Over those months I figured out what I want for my immediate future:</p>
<p><strong><em>I want to live in Asia.</em></strong></p>
<p>I love Asia and had a blast in the Philippines. Asia is jam-packed with beautiful beaches, adventures and feels like the Wild West (<a href="http://nichedash.com/police-stormed-karaoke-bar">especially the Philippines</a>).</p>
<p>I&#8217;m currently making it work by working on various web-projects (mostly <a href="/affiliate-marketing">affiliate marketing</a>) and having a part-time job.</p>
<div id="attachment_985" class="wp-caption alignleft" style="width: 560px">
	<img class="size-full wp-image-985" title="whitebeachdansean" src="http://nichedash.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/whitebeachdansean.jpg" alt="" width="560" height="372" />
	<p class="wp-caption-text">TropicalMBA group photo</p>
</div>
<h2><strong>Next year</strong></h2>
<p>Words can&#8217;t describe how stoked I am about about 2011. After spending Christmas and New Year&#8217;s Eve in Austria, I&#8217;ll be back to Asia in early January.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.tropicalmba.com/internet-marketing-toolbox/">Dan</a>, <a href="http://www.myeggnoodles.com/discover-foods-with-locals.html">Chris from MyEggNoodles</a>, many other online marketers and bloggers and I will ride on motorbikes all over northern Thailand in January. It will be awesome.</p>
<p>In February or March, I&#8217;ll most likely go back to the Philippines. However, Bali or staying in Thailand are options too. The nice thing about location independence is that you have high quality problems like not knowing where to move next because you have so many great options.</p>
<h2>What about you?</h2>
<p>Enough about me. What about you? I took a risk and was rewarded with the best year of my life. What are you going to do? When you examine risky things closely, even the worst-case might not be that bad.</p>
<p><strong>Take a risk.</strong></p>
]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>Case Study: Ranking #2 in Google Means Being the First Loser (61.1% Less Traffic)</title>
		<link>http://nichedash.com/ranking-changes-traffic</link>
		<comments>http://nichedash.com/ranking-changes-traffic#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 06 Dec 2010 00:46:20 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>David</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Niche Marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Analytics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Make Money Online]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[SEO]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://nichedash.com/?p=942</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Recently, I had one of my niche sites jump to #1 in Google for my target Keyword. After reaching #1, my site is currently fluctuating between #1 and #2 which leads to dramatic impacts on traffic that I want to share with you. My stats show that ranking #2 leads to up to 61.1% less [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a class="post_image_link" href="http://nichedash.com/ranking-changes-traffic" title="Permanent link to Case Study: Ranking #2 in Google Means Being the First Loser (61.1% Less Traffic)"><img class="post_image alignleft" src="http://nichedash.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/traffic.jpg" width="590" height="250" alt="Post image for Case Study: Ranking #2 in Google Means Being the First Loser (61.1% Less Traffic)" /></a>
</p><p>Recently, I had one of my niche sites jump to #1 in Google for my target Keyword.</p>
<p>After reaching #1, my site is currently fluctuating between #1 and #2  which leads to dramatic impacts on traffic that I want to share with  you.</p>
<p><strong>My stats show that ranking #2 leads to up to 61.1% less traffic than ranking #1.</strong><br />
<span id="more-942"></span></p>
<h2>Background</h2>
<p>This site is a small affiliate site (<a href="http://nichedash.com/affiliate-marketing">as described here</a>) that just has a few pages of decent content plus a couple of text links to a Clickbank product (the site doesn&#8217;t use e-mail opt-in).</p>
<p>I haven&#8217;t done any SEO or added content to this site for more than 4 weeks. This illustrates how it takes a while for Google to index your backlinks and rank you appropriately.</p>
<p>Also, I don&#8217;t rank for any other keywords besides my main keyword. I currently receive 100% of my Search Engine traffic from people typing in the main keyword (or slightly altered versions of it).</p>
<h2>The ranking</h2>
<p>I track my rankings with <a href="../ms">Market Samurai</a>. On of the main reasons why I decided to purchase <a href="../ms">Market Samurai</a> is because of its rank tracking module &#8211; the free alternatives that I mentioned <a href="../affiliate-marketing">here</a> are just not good enough and too much work if you have a large number of sites plus multiple keywords for each site.</p>
<div id="attachment_949" class="wp-caption alignleft" style="width: 590px">
	<img class="size-full wp-image-949  " title="nichesite-ms rank data" src="http://nichedash.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/nichesite-ms-rank-data.png" alt="" width="590" height="156" />
	<p class="wp-caption-text">Rankings of my site. (Source: Market Samurai)</p>
</div>
<p>On November 22, I hit #1 in Google for my main keyword. On November 25, my ranking dropped to #2 only to be back at #1 on November 30.</p>
<h2>Impact on traffic</h2>
<div id="attachment_959" class="wp-caption alignleft" style="width: 590px">
	<img class="size-full wp-image-959" title="nichesite-ganalytics-explained" src="http://nichedash.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/nichesite-ganalytics-explained.jpg" alt="" width="590" height="166" />
	<p class="wp-caption-text">Search Engine traffic to my niche site (Source: Google Analytics)</p>
</div>
<p>You see how my traffic peaks (36 visits) on November 22 (I&#8217;m on #1). It drops off drastically on November 24 as I fall to spot #2 &#8211; I only got 14 visitors that day &#8211; <strong>that&#8217;s 61.1% less traffic</strong> than on Nov 22.</p>
<p>On November 30, I&#8217;m back to 35 visits as I hit #1 again.</p>
<p><em>About my data: I dropped to #2 on Nov 25 according to Market Samurai. The traffic drops off on Nov 24 in Google Analytics. Keep in mind that ranking changes don&#8217;t occur at 0:00 sharp but just randomly during the day. The Google Analytics data shows me that most of Nov 24 must have been spent on rank #2. Likewise, most of Nov 21 was probably spent on #1.</em></p>
<h2>Impact on Clickbank hops</h2>
<p>A Clickbank hop occurs every time somebody clicks on one of my affiliate links for Clickbank products.</p>
<div id="attachment_947" class="wp-caption alignleft" style="width: 590px">
	<img class="size-full wp-image-947  " title="nichesite-clickbank" src="http://nichedash.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/nichesite-clickbank.png" alt="" width="590" height="148" />
	<p class="wp-caption-text">Clickbank hops for the product that I&#39;m promoting. (Source: Clickbank Analytics)</p>
</div>
<p>The amount of Clickbank hops varies in line with my altered rankings that effect search engine traffic (that&#8217;s the only form of traffic my small site relies on).</p>
<p>The hops peak on November 22 and 30, as I hit #1 in Google. (Strangely, I&#8217;m also doing well on Nov 28 &amp; 29 even though I&#8217;m ranking #2 at this point. Seems random to me.)</p>
<p>You see that I get a Click Through Rate (CTR) of about 25% which is decent, but I probably can do  better. E.g.: On November 30, I get 38 visits and 9 hops, which is a CTR of slightly less than 25%.</p>
<h2>Conclusion</h2>
<p>My results show the importance and the dramatic impact of ranking #1 vs. ranking #2. Thus, it certainly is worth the energy and effort to bring your site to the top spot, even if you are already ranking #2. If you hit #1, your traffic will double overnight.</p>
<p>My results are also in line with many online marketers who predict that 40-60% of people click on the 1st result while about 20-25% click on result #2.</p>
<p>Another interesting conclusion is that Google still is by far the most important search engine for traffic. Even though I&#8217;m ranking #1 in Yahoo, it is responsible for mere 2% of my site&#8217;s traffic. (Bing sends me 0% of my visitors, I just got ranked at the bottom of the first page a couple of days ago.)</p>
<p style="text-align: right;"><small>Photo by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/yakobusan/3566287076/sizes/z/in/photostream/">Jakob Montrasio</a><br />
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		<title>The Day 5 Police Men With Shotguns Stormed A Karaoke Bar</title>
		<link>http://nichedash.com/police-stormed-karaoke-bar</link>
		<comments>http://nichedash.com/police-stormed-karaoke-bar#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 23 Nov 2010 11:32:29 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>David</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Travel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Philippines]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://nichedash.com/?p=910</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I&#8217;m sitting in a local karaoke joint with a cute girl. Life is good. In front of me is a bowl of delicious Lomi (a Filipino noodle dish with pork) and a bottle of Red Horse. Red Horse is a very strong beer with 7.9% alcohol. It&#8217;s the most popular beer with Filipinos and guarantees [...]]]></description>
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</p><p>I&#8217;m sitting in a local karaoke joint with a cute girl. Life is good.</p>
<p>In front of me is a bowl of delicious Lomi (a Filipino noodle dish with pork) and a bottle of Red Horse.</p>
<p>Red Horse is a very strong beer with 7.9% alcohol. It&#8217;s the most popular beer with Filipinos and guarantees a hangover if you have more than one bottle. There are even rumors that it contains the same stuff that is used to conserve corpses (and the frogs in science class).</p>
<p>There are 3 Filipinos sitting at the table in front of me. They&#8217;re singing and are drinking a few bottles of Red Horse.</p>
<p>Suddenly, out of nowhere, 5 police men armed with big shotguns storm the place. The music shuts down.</p>
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<p>I start to get nervous. I heard too many stories about local police men trying to squeeze white guys for cash.</p>
<p>My friend Tom always has a few thousand Pesos in his pocket: In case of emergency, he throws the banknotes into the air and walks away while the officers are busy collecting the money.</p>
<p>I already start to prepare my bribe money. Shit! There are only 300 Pesos in my pocket (about 6$). There&#8217;s no way that is enough to bribe 5 guys.</p>
<p>The police in this country don&#8217;t have the best reputation (e.g. the recent bus hostage-drama in Manila). A few months ago, a armed, drunk police man shot a Korean in one of the local red-light bars because they were fighting over a hooker.</p>
<p>I hope they don&#8217;t shoot.</p>
<p>The police walk right past me &#8211; over to the 3 guys that are sitting at the table next to me. They arrest them. The guys don&#8217;t seem to be happy, but they don&#8217;t resist.</p>
<p>One of the officers must have noticed that I&#8217;m a little bit nervous. He walked over and said in a friendly voice: &#8220;Don&#8217;t worry. We&#8217;re just inviting them back to the station. You can relax.&#8221; Another officer salutes as he walks by and wishes me a good evening.</p>
<p>The music starts playing again. I take a massive gulp of Red Horse. Puhhh &#8230;.<br />
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</small></p>
<p style="text-align: right;"><small>Photo by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/dullspork/4523273546/sizes/z/in/photostream/">Jay Adan</a></small></p>
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