How To Make A Living Online

Is Your Writing Style Affecting Your Website Traffic?

2010-09-21T16:37:00.000-07:00

Directly as a result of reduced income due to the daily challenges of really making a living online, I have decided to supplement my income by doing some part-time content creation for selected websites.

My writing style is free-form and tends to be "from Brain-To-Paper" or screen in this case. So I selected a website that promised to pay me a small fee for a 400~500 word article. I spent 15 minutes searching their database of 22,000+ selections and picked one within my area of expertise regarding "Playing Bass Guitar".

Spent the next 15 minutes composing my epic treatise on the subject, spell checked and added photos and sent it in for approval.

Imagine my surprise when the submission was "Rejected". I thought "What happened?"

Sad but true. It seems I had failed to follow a few of the site's criteria for successful acceptance of my 'perfect' document. Without following the requirements to the letter, the effort is rejected unannounced after a few rewrite attempts.

This was surprising until I actually read the requirements!

Turns out this particular site has all kinds of composition rules, including preventing plagiarism, copyright, and additional requirements for SEO-friendly articles. Keywords in the text are required for the search engines digestion, and concepts composed within the project are critical to match the keywords.

Ok, I got it now. Wish they had informed me of the quick rejection possibility, I would have submitted a very different document for approval.

In hindsight, having a strict set of rules in place levels the playing field somewhat and makes the approval process faster for clearly composed prose.

Here are some questions to ponder. Please respond with a comment below!

Are you using guidelines for your blog post's or just writing from your brain like I am doing here?

What would happen to your blog traffic if you implemented a particular style of writing that the search engines loved.

Would it bring more traffic to your site or blog?

Respectfully,

Nicholas Chase

Get Ready For A Shock to Your Tax Burden in 2011!

2010-09-05T21:26:00.000-07:00

In just six months, on January 1, 2011, the largest tax hikes in the history of America will take effect.

They will hit families and small businesses in three great waves.

On January 1, 2011, here’s what happens... (read it to the end, so you see all three waves)...

First Wave: Expiration of 2001 and 2003 Tax Relief

In 2001 and 2003, the GOP Congress enacted several tax cuts for investors, small business owners, and families.

These will all expire on January 1, 2011.

Personal income tax rates will rise.

The top income tax rate will rise from 35 to 39.6 percent (this is also the rate at which two-thirds of small business profits are taxed).

The lowest rate will rise from 10 to 15 percent.

All the rates in between will also rise.

Itemized deductions and personal exemptions will again phase out, which has the same mathematical effect as higher marginal tax rates.

The full list of marginal rate hikes is below:

* The 10% bracket rises to an expanded 15%

* The 25% bracket rises to 28%

* The 28% bracket rises to 31%

* The 33% bracket rises to 36%

* The 35% bracket rises to 39.6%

Higher taxes on marriage and family.

The "marriage penalty" (narrower tax brackets for married couples) will return from the first dollar of income.

The child tax credit will be cut in half from $1000 to $500 per child.

The standard deduction will no longer be doubled for married couples relative to the single level.

The dependent care and adoption tax credits will be cut.

The return of the Death Tax.

This year only, there is no death tax. (It’s a quirk!) For those dying on or after January 1, 2011, there is a 55 percent top death tax rate on estates over $1 million.

Example: A person leaving behind two homes, a business, a retirement account, could easily pass along a death tax bill to their loved ones.

Think of the farmers who don’t make much money, but their land, which they purchased years ago with after-tax dollars, is now worth a lot of money.

Their children will have to sell the farm, which may be their livelihood, just to pay the estate tax if they don’t have the cash sitting around to pay the tax. Think about your own family’s assets.

Maybe your family owns real estate, or a business that doesn’t make much money, but the building and equipment are worth $1 million. Upon their death, you can inherit the $1 million business tax free, but if they own a home, stock, cash worth $500K on top of the $1 million business, then you will owe the government $275,000 cash! That’s 55% of the value of the assets over $1 million!

Do you have that kind of cash sitting around waiting to pay the estate tax?

Higher tax rates on savers and investors.

The capital gains tax will rise from 15 percent this year to 20 percent in 2011.

The dividends tax will rise from 15 percent this year to 39.6 percent in 2011.

These rates will rise another 3.8 percent in 2013.

Second Wave:

Obamacare

There are over twenty new or higher taxes in Obamacare. Several will first go into effect on January 1, 2011. They include:

The "Medicine Cabinet Tax"

Thanks to Obamacare, Americans will no longer be able to use health savings account (HSA), flexible spending account (FSA), or health reimbursement (HRA) pre-tax dollars to purchase non-prescription, over-the-counter medicines (except insulin).

The "Special Needs Kids Tax"

This provision of Obamacare imposes a cap on flexible spending accounts (FSAs) of $2500 (Currently, there is no federal government limit). There is one group of FSA owners for whom this new cap will be particularly cruel and onerous: parents of special needs children.

There are thousands of families with special needs children in the United States , and many of them use FSAs to pay for special needs education.

Tuition rates at one leading school that teaches special needs children in Washington , D.C. ( National Child Research Center ) can easily exceed $14,000 per year.

Under tax rules, FSA dollars can not be used to pay for this type of special needs education.

The HSA (Health Savings Account) Withdrawal Tax Hike.

This provision of Obamacare increases the additional tax on non-medical early withdrawals from an HSA from 10 to 20 percent, disadvantaging them relative to IRAsand other tax-advantaged accounts, which remain at 10 percent.

Third Wave:

The Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) and Employer Tax Hikes

When Americans prepare to file their tax returns in January of 2011, they'll be in for a nasty surprise-the AMT won't be held harmless, and many tax relief provisions will have expired.

The major items include:

The AMT will ensnare over 28 million families, up from 4 million last year.

According to the left-leaning Tax Policy Center , Congress' failure to index the AMT will lead to an explosion of AMT taxpaying families-rising from 4 million last year to 28.5 million.

These families will have to calculate their tax burdens twice, and pay taxes at the higher level. The AMT was created in 1969 to ensnare a handful of taxpayers.

Small business expensing will be slashed and 50% expensing will disappear.

Small businesses can normally expense (rather than slowly-deduct, or "depreciate") equipment purchases up to $250,000.

This will be cut all the way down to $25,000. Larger businesses can currently expense half of their purchases of equipment.

In January of 2011, all of it will have to be "depreciated."

Taxes will be raised on all types of businesses.

There are literally scores of tax hikes on business that will take place. The biggest is the loss of the "research and experimentation tax credit," but there are many, many others. Combining high marginal tax rates with the loss of this tax relief will cost jobs.

Tax Benefits for Education and Teaching Reduced.

The deduction for tuition and fees will not be available.

Tax credits for education will be limited.

Teachers will no longer be able to deduct classroom expenses.

Coverdell Education Savings Accounts will be cut.

Employer-provided educational assistance is curtailed.

The student loan interest deduction will be disallowed for
hundreds of thousands of families.

Charitable Contributions from IRAs no longer allowed.

Under current law, a retired person with an IRA can contribute
up to $100,000 per year directly to a charity from their IRA.

This contribution also counts toward an annual "required minimum
distribution." This ability will no longer be there.

http://www.atr.org/six-months-untilbr-largest-tax-hikes-a5171

And worse yet?

Now, your insurance will be INCOME on your W2's!

One of the surprises we'll find come next year, is what follows - - a little "surprise" that 99% of us had no idea was included in the "new and improved" healthcare legislation.

Starting in 2011, (next year folks), your W-2 tax form sent by your employer will be increased to show the value of whatever health insurance you are given by the company. It does not matter if that's a private concern or governmental body of some sort.

If you're retired? So what... your gross will go up by the amount of insurance you get.

You will be required to pay taxes on a large sum of money that you have never seen.

Take your tax form you just finished and see what $15,000 or $20,000 additional gross does to your tax debt. That's what you'll pay next year.

For many, it also puts you into a new higher bracket so it's even worse.

This is how the government is going to buy insurance for the 15% that don't have insurance and it's only part of the tax increases.

Not believing this??? Here is a research of the summaries.....

On page 25 of 29: TITLE IX REVENUE PROVISIONS- SUBTITLE A: REVENUE OFFSET PROVISIONS-(sec. 9001, as modified by sec. 10901) Sec.9002 "requires employers to include in the W-2 form of each employee the aggregate cost of applicable employer sponsored group health coverage that is excludable from the employees gross income."

SOURCE: Joan Pryde is the senior tax editor for the Kiplinger letters.

Go to www.Kiplingers.com and read about 13 tax changes that could affect you. Number 3 is what is above.

So you want to make money online?

2010-08-22T19:50:00.000-07:00

Introduction
So you want to make money online? Join the club of hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions world-wide seeking this holy grail of 'easy-online-profits'.

Well, prepare to be disappointed by the news, your new blog will make zero income, no one will comment, advertisers will shun you due to lack of traffic etc.

Your Dream of Online Profits
Your dream of easy money will be shattered rather quickly unless you start with a plan. If you just start peppering your blog with ads, your readers will depart as they will see your true intent in blogging is merely 'for $$ bucks $$'.

What Not To Do
Rule # 1 is to be a real person, not a spammer, hacker or slimey marketer. You will find no long term benefit to being any of those types of people. Your online reputation is extremely critical to any long term success. The people who use poor judgement just get banned, ridiculed and quickly forgotten online.

Your Topic
What can you write about that interests a large group of people? Begin writing several posts related to your chosen topic of interest, and visit popular blogs in your specific market space to see what the trends, opinions and comments are. Contribute your own comments and be seen as someone who cares about the topic not just looking for people to prey on for money.

Building Out Your Online Reputation
Once you have a few posts under your belt, set up a Twitter account and include the link(s) to your blog post(s) in your tweets. Follow the market leaders in your niche and ReTweet their tweets. Visit their blogs, leave relevent and helpful comments there daily. Begin a conversation with them.

Do the same on Facebook. Set up an account and begin posting links to your blog as Wall Post's. Visit all of the relevant sites that are part of your interests in blogging subject matter.

Never copy anything from another website's post unless the website owner gives you written permission! Feel free to paste the links from your favorite websites into your 'blogroll'. Let the website owners know you are doing this. Eventually they will appreciate the traffic you are sending their way and maybe you can get their email address. Send them an email and tell them something about yourself and your goals.

Eventually all this goodwill will pay off. Start adding AdSense ads to your blog after you have a few weeks of posts on your blog.

Some blogs I can recommend for online marketing advice are:

John Chow
www.johnchow.com

Jeremey Shoemaker AKA Shoemoney
www.shoemoney.com

Jonathan Volk
www.jonathanvolk.com

Chris Brogan
www.chrisbrogan.com

Zac Johnson AKA MoneyReign
www.zacjohnson.com

Darren Rowse - AKA ProBlogger

Jim Kukral - Small business Consultant and Author

These folks have made serious incomes online and know what they are talking about.

I have met each one in person and can vouch for their marketing, blogging and advertising expertise over the two and one-half years I have been trying to make a living online.

If I had followed my own advice above when I started I would have saved myself thousands of dollars and a ton of grief. There is just no get rich quick scheme out there. Follow solid marketing principles, be honest with your customers and online friends.

This long-term approach will yield eventual profits and perhaps 'guru' status if that is your ultimate goal.

For now, check back tomorrow for my next post. And hey thanks for reading my blog!

Leave me a comment if you have time, I will respond.

Respectfully,

Nicholas Chase

Massive List Of eLearning Links Here

2010-02-19T16:45:00.001-08:00

Hello Loyal Reader!

Below is an eLearning Links list recently collated by a friend on LinkedIn.

eLearning websites

These websites have thousands of video lectures from the world's top scholars.

http://Academicearth.org
http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/web/courses/av/index.htm
http://worldlibrary.net/Collections.htm
http://worldlibrary.net/
http://freevideolectures.com/computerscience.html
http://freevideolectures.com/
http://videolectures.net/
http://lecturefox.com
http://scholarspot.com/
http://www.varsitynotes.com/
http://www.learnerstv.com/
http://OCW.ND.edu
http://OCW.Tufts.edu
http://iTunes.Stanford.edu
http://iTunes.Berkeley.edu
http://WebCast.Berkeley.edu
http://www.lynda.com/
http://oedb.org/library/features/236-open-courseware-collections
http://www.careervoyages.gov/education-videos.cfm
http://www.sba.gov/tools/audiovideo/deliveringsuccess/index.html
http://www.sba.gov/training/index.html
http://www.sba.gov/tools/audiovideo/Podcasts/index.html
http://www.openculture.com/2007/07/freeonlinecourses.html
http://www.videomd.com/featured_videos.aspx
http://www.freesciencelectures.com/
http://streaming.discoveryeducation.com/
http://education.usgs.gov/common/video_animation.htm
http://www.nachi.org/advancedcourses.htm
http://education-portal.com/video_library/index.html
http://www.serve.org/nche/ibt/aw_video.php
http://www.practisinc.com/interactive/patient-education-videos.php
http://www.teachers.tv/
http://www.ovguide.com/education.html
http://www.ocwconsortium.org/use/use-dynamic.html
http://www.oercommons.org/
http://www.schoox.com/
http://selfmadescholar.com/b/self-education-resource-list/
http://www.missiontolearn.com/2009/12/learn-foreign-language-online/
http://www.rfid4u.com/services/freeelearning.asp
http://www.4shared.com/dir/25834616/400fbf67/sharing.html

Youtube Channels:

http://www.youtube.com/user/activevision
http://www.youtube.com/user/AMDUnprocessed
http://www.youtube.com/user/Avayainteractive
http://www.youtube.com/user/carnegiemellonu
http://www.youtube.com/user/ccie12933
http://www.youtube.com/user/channelintel
http://www.youtube.com/user/CiscoLive2009
http://www.youtube.com/user/CiscoSmallBusiness
http://www.youtube.com/user/ciscozine
http://www.youtube.com/user/citrisuc
http://www.youtube.com/user/computerworld
http://www.youtube.com/user/CSCOPR
http://www.youtube.com/user/EyeOnTechnology
http://www.youtube.com/user/ITWorldVideos
http://www.youtube.com/user/lockergnome
http://www.youtube.com/user/macworld
http://www.youtube.com/user/MIT
http://www.youtube.com/user/NYTechSummit
http://www.youtube.com/user/ResearchChannel
http://www.youtube.com/user/sansinstitute
http://www.youtube.com/user/sunmicrosystemsgmbh
http://www.youtube.com/user/SunMicrosystemsInc
http://www.youtube.com/user/TechTargetTV
http://www.youtube.com/user/TigerDirectBlog
http://www.youtube.com/user/VidPR
http://www.youtube.com/user/wired
http://www.youtube.com/user/Harvard
http://www.youtube.com/user/stanforduniversity
http://www.youtube.com/user/uctelevision
http://www.youtube.com/user/ncstate
http://www.youtube.com/user/carnegiemellonu
http://www.youtube.com/user/georgiatech
http://www.youtube.com/user/UniversityofMinn
http://www.youtube.com/user/pennstate
http://www.youtube.com/user/wesleyan

Enjoy these links!

Respectfully,

Nicholas Chase

Affiliate Summit West 2010 - Are you going?

2009-12-28T17:27:00.000-08:00

Affiliate Summit West 2010 will be the premiere conference and networking opportunity for online marketers to start off the New Year with a real heavy 'positive body-blow' to the US economy.

Shawn Collins and Missy Ward always deliver an outstanding conference, with enough depth and breadth for the new marketers and the seasoned professionals. In addition there is an opportunity to support a charity while at the event, and help a cause dear to the hearts of many in attendance

Go here now and join Affiliate Summit: http://www.affiliatesummit.com/

Get networking and join the Affiliate Summit Social Networking Group as well.

There is an outstanding mentoring program for first-time attendees. This will help you to maximize your experience by guiding you to the people and companies you need to meet. The people you meet will be the ones who can offer experience, advice and assistance in launching a successful online marketing business.

I attended my first Affiliate Summit conference in January of 2009 and it was a remarkable experience for me. Three days of intimate sessions with plenty of time for questions and answers after the formal discussions concluded on each of the panels. The opportunity to network in the hallways was key to helping me to clarify where I should focus my PPC / CPA or CPM campaigns for maximum ROI.

Imagine hanging out with some of the nicest, most influential and helpful Affiliate Marketers and the great companies they are working with to learn how to make a serious amount of money on the Web.

People like Jim Kukral, Missy Ward, Shoemoney, John Chow, Jonathan Volk, Zac Johnson, Chris Brogan, Darren Rowse, and so many more. We all have to start somewhere, but the opportunities to network one-on-one with these thought-leaders is too good to pass up.

At Affiliate Summit 2009, I had a chance to spend some time with the vendors who provide the creative linkage to the service providers or manufacturer's of the products Affiliates advertise.

I urge you to make it to Las Vegas, for Affiliate Summit West 2010, at the RIO Hotel on January 17~19, 2010 for the experience of a lifetime.

I will be there to interview you about your experiences during and after Affiliate Summit 2010. The companies you contacted and Affiliates who took the time to reach out and say hi to you.

Following on after the conference I want to hear of what networking methods you continue to apply in your online marketing efforts and how you are doing.

Respectfully,

Nicholas Chase

Video Production for the Affiliate Marketer and Blogger

2009-12-26T18:08:00.000-08:00

Hello Affiliate Marketers and video afficianados.

I have been doing some commercial productions for Microsoft, Snickers and Coors Light.

I have also been trying to obtain a press pass to Affiliate Summit West 2010 in Las Vegas Nevada. This is the premiere conference for Affiliate Marketers and companies they work with on online advertising campaigns.

Shawn Collins and Missy Ward always put on a tremendous show, and you have the opportunity to donate to a worthy cause while attending.

I plan to interview new marketers and seasoned professional Affiliate marketers including Shoemoney, John Chow, Jonathan Volk, Zac Johnson and GeekMommy.

The Affiliate Summit takes place January 17~19, 2010 at the RIO Hotel in Las Vegas. Go to www.affiliatesummit.com and register now!

Previous to this I was the principal videographer for BlogWorld Expo 2008 in Las Vegas.

Investigating how to connect with Affiliate Marketers and Bloggers needing video production in the SF Bay area of California. I can shoot using my Sony HDR-FX1 camera and edit in 1080i 60P high-definition video, and then encode to web-sized videos, DVD's etc for maximum clarity for your web page.

I am currently also using a standard definition digital camera, the Canon XL-1S which has a very fine lens and produces crisp video at a lower bit-rate than the big Sony camera.

If you are a blogger thinking of getting some video onto your website, please consider contacting me here in the comments.

As my profile denotes, I have participated in the production and post-production phases of several thousand, movies, tv shows, commercial and music videos as well as live concerts in my extensive Hollywood career.

Let's discuss the best way to showcase your product, service or cause on the web.

Respectfully,

Nicholas Chase - Producer / Director
Nicholas Chase Digital Video Productions

We'll Be Right Back (after this short break...)

2009-11-06T17:40:00.000-08:00

Hi there loyal readers of this blog. I took a few months off to pursue Affiliate Marketing, Digital Video Production and other gainful employment.

My digital video production company has achieved some success. I followed Michael Jordan, Jerry Rice, Charles Barkley and Ray Romano around 18-holes of golf at the American Celebrity Classic golf tournament in July, at Lake Tahoe, CA.

Now Microsoft has me shooting some promotional videos. Also attending a UFL football game inside the HD video production truck next weekend.

I guess I need to re-purpose the direction of this blog so that it reflects more video and less marketing focus.

I'll try to post some video here shortly.

Still in touch with John Chow, Jonathan Volk, Shoemoney, Zac Johnson and other successfull Affiliate Marketers out there.

Guy Kawasaki's New Book - 'Reality Check'

2008-12-15T14:36:00.000-08:00

Hello Readers,

I just purchased Guy Kawasaki's latest book, Reality Check.

Guy has one of the best techniques for writing books about business! He not only makes them readable, he makes reading them fun and informative at the same time. This is something many business book authors fail to accomplish. Many authors are writing to an audience of other authors, and miss the point of the effort.

Unless your audience is made up exclusively of authors, you had better find another calling, because your book will not be read by anyone. Guy captures and narrates succinctly the start-up issues facing new companies. He provides a clear road-map to writing the 'business-plan', obtaining angel or venture capital financing, and most importantly exposes the things that will prevent you from succeeding at any of the above tasks.

He uses real-life examples of business foolishness, that really drives home his points completely. His writing style is brief, focused, and lively. Humor is a major component part of the book, and the 'dual-introductions' are hilarious, one 'final one' from "the fake Steve Jobs".

I met Guy Kawasaki at BlogWorld Expo 2008, after his lunchtime keynote with Steve Rubel. I mentioned that I had a copy of his earlier work, "The Macintosh Way". He paused and said, "oh, that's going back a few years!". Guy was so kind to hang out and answer questions after the keynote. He is accessible and puts his audience at ease. His knowledge of Silicon Valley is key to the depth and expanse of the information found in 'Reality Check'.

When I recently started following Guy's exploit's on www.Twitter.com and at www.alltop.com, I realized how multi-faceted he truly has become. He has a loyal following of former Apple Computer fans, who are now iPhone and Macbook users. Guy has stayed very current with Web 2.0 issues, and still pokes fun at the establishment, exhibiting an altruistic, helpful approach.

A recent photograph of Guy and Sir Richard Branson had Richard polishing Guy's shoes with his coat-jacket! Now that is truly customer service, and explains Richard Bransons considerable success with the Virgin Brand.

Please do go and find this book, buy it, read it and implement the steps Guy has defined. One day American business can return to the ethics, prosperity, and accomplishments that made it great.

I'm going to go and finish reading this book, and will post Part Two of my mini-review, in a few days. I purchased the book at a local Borders in California, and with my Borders discount the book was $25.00 + tax.

I would have been willing to pay twice that amount for the book, and plan on picking up a few more copies to send to ahem, companies that still don't 'get it'.

Please leave me a comment below, let's start a conversation and over on Twitter.com/nachase

Do You Ever Feel Like Quitting?

2008-12-06T12:00:00.000-08:00

Hello Readers,

It has been a while since I last posted. Locked in a research phase to determine the direction of my on-line businesses in 2009.

The on-line business world is challenging, competitive, confusing, ever-changing and frustrating. On-line companies are experiencing this phenomenon today.

News of lay-offs, credit markets tightening, government at a loss to cure the short-term effects of this waterfall downward. In a recent post I asked the question, "How will you innovate?"

So how do you react to this negative information? Is everyone losing their job around you? Are you depressed, angry, confused, bitter, feeling alone and not sure how to proceed? Join the club! Many on-line marketers have enough experience to see these changes as an opportunity, not as a liability.

Practicing the 'long view', will help them survive a brief change in their on-line income and prepare for the certain 'economic turn-around' when it arrives. Housing prices are down for one good reason, the 'American Dream' caused many first time homeowners to get in over their heads. Being unsophisticated in financial matters, they trusted their 'professional' mortgage lenders to handle the why and hows.

"Just get me in that house" was all they could say. Now that the adjustable interest rates built into their loans increased, in many cases their monthly payments have 'doubled' without a supporting income to match the new payments.

USA's foreclosures are at a record high level. The resulting 'bad loans' have caused AIG Insurance and Lehman Brothers Stock Brokerages to fail, as they cannot borrow cash to run their companies day-to-day expenses. Further abuses have been reported as lavish business trips to exotic locales has undermined the company's reputations. Huge cash bonuses paid to departing executives, while the rank and file worker is 'left holding the bag' are inexcusable.

The recent arrivals of Automobile executives by private corporate jets to the automakers bailout hearings in Washington, DC demonstrate a poor choice on their part to the consumer.

So, what do you do? You get busy! You read every blog post that has anything to do with on-line marketing, selecting those experts who have a trusted history of profitability and many comments on their blogs. Some recommended authors are below.

I have met all listed below in person, except Seth Godin, but he is always traveling and speaking at Google and other companies, advising them on various marketing issues they are experiencing. I hope to cross paths with Seth one day, 'he gets it'.

Read the blogs, both current and past by thought-leaders like: John Chow, Shoemoney, Chris Brogan, Seth Godin, Zac Johnson, Jonathan Volk, and other thought-leaders in their class. Comment on their blogs each time they post a new blog. Subscribe to their RSS feed to get updates when a new post has been created. Google their names to see all of the trade shows and seminars they attend. Go there and meet them, and ask them for help.

Join Twitter.com, not just a 'texting service' for adults, but a solid way to connect with people like Sir Richard Branson and Shaquille O'Neal. In this way, by conversations with the experts, and reading their post's, you will gain nuggets of information that will help you craft your on-line focus.

Feedback from those that have 'been there, done that' will also save you valuable time and money. So get out there and read and comment. Put a link to your blog in your comments. These blogs are read by thousands of people, and may just increase visitors to your blog.

If you liked this post, please leave me a comment below.

Respectfully, Nicholas

How Will You Innovate?

2008-11-21T08:36:00.000-08:00

Hello Readers.

I just Tweeted a challenge to leave a comment on my blog regarding how you will 'innovate' your way through this current economic downturn. Is your current 'day-job' at risk of ending? Have you thought of how long it may take you to obtain your next job?

Innovation is something our country has done from it's very beginning in 1776. The people who came here did not have satellite dishes or computers. They did not have banks, stock markets or financial advisors.

They came on ships, with a few belongings and started their lives in the wilderness with virtually nothing.

Contrast with today, we have incredible technologies, robotic surgeons and Blackberry's that connect us to everything, even Twitter.com/nachase. If we can continue to innovate we can survive this downturn and 'LEARN' from it's lessons.

Money is something people perceive as having value, but it's just paper and ink! Your brick and mortar company is of some value, if you have profit to pay the maintenance, salaries, insurance, heating and cooling, and electric bills, along with all of the other expenses, like crushing taxes!

Innovation needs to infect our marketplaces. If a few bad apples, greedy mortgage lenders and stock brokers can initiate a landslide down the hill to failure and bring this great country to it's knees, and spread this blight all the way to China, something fundamental is wrong with our 'perceived value system'.

I do not have any insurance from AIG, yet they have affected me. I had no stock at Lehman Brothers, yet their poor decisions have affected me. My government officials truly do not know what they are voting on, but the senators and congress merely meet in small groups and say "How are you going to vote on this 100 page bailout package?"

Without even truly knowing what's contained in the text, without a clue on it's impact to you and me, they rush something, anything to a vote and say they are 'working hard' for the folks back home. This is a practice that must stop.

Let's simplify the equation. If you are in need of financial assistance to buy a home, let's oversee this process with a simple form:

What are your expenses and income? _________________.

Is there room for a mortgage payment?_______________.

If not, you do not get the loan. Sorry, end of story.

My parents paid their bills and lived within their means. This generation has been so heavily marketed to the point of financial ruin. Personal debt is something that everyone accepted, mailing out credit cards by the bushel-full to eager shoppers, who now face a very different, less happy future.

Do you really need a $400.00 device to innovate? Perhaps....

Do you really need a $45,000.00 car with shiny wheels and a 2,000 watt stereo pushing the window glass away from it's mountings, to be happy?

What say you? Will you innovate or perish? Are you facing a bleak financial future? What suggestions do you have for your representatives in Washington that they will hear and act on now?

We are all in the same boat, and I am bailing out the water in mine like an Olympic athlete, trying to make a dent in this on-line marketing challenge.

What are you going to do? Leave me a comment below, and Twitter.com/nachase.

Lets Innovate!

Respectfully, Nicholas

An Informative 'Guest Post' from Adam Carn

2008-11-18T11:38:00.000-08:00

Please read and engage with Adam Carn, who is launching an exciting turn-key program to quickly get a money-producing website up and running. Enjoy!

GUEST POST
Climbing To The Top: Newbie’s Guide To Making Money Online.
By Adam Carn

If you're a newbie to making money online, you're either confused as hell or have information overload and don’t know where to start. I actually don’t blame you cos I was once a newbie too. Although it was a long time ago I do understand how it feels. I have come a long way and now and make a good living purely from the internet. You’re a newbie, I once was a newbie, we’re the same, I’m not some type of super human, I‘m not any better than you. If I could do it, then you definitely can too.

What I want to do is to clear your mind, I want to detangle your thoughts and put you on a straight path. I’m going to tell it how it is. REMEMBER, I’m just going to direct you, I’m not going to walk you through the tiniest step otherwise we’d be here all day!

1) Pick Your Passion.

Pick something you’re either good at or something you’re passionate about. Really think about this one. Don’t pick something like “weight loss diet” just because some expert said it’s a good money maker unless you really are passionate about the topic.

If you absolutely love Formula One Racing, pick that. If you’re good at hair dressing, pick that.

2) Your Online Presence:

How do you do that? Simple. You need a website or a blog.

Don’t panic. It’s not that difficult. If you’re a total newbie then I recommend setting up a http://wordpress.org blog because you can easily update that with new content whenever you want. To do this you will need a domain name and hosting.

You can get a domain name from http://godaddy.com
And for hosting I recommend: http://ezhost123.com

Pick a domain name related to your chosen topic. Pick either a .com .net .org or .co.uk domain name. Try keeping it quite short if you can. Pick a catchy domain name. Make it either professional or fun. Some will tell you that you need a keyword rich domain name, ignore all that, because you need to brand yourself! (more on this later).

You then setup your Wordpress blog onto your new domain name.

3) Two Words… BRAND YOURSELF!

I don’t care if you’re a newbie or a guru. You need to brand yourself. Brand your name, if you don’t want to use your real name use a pen name. Also name your blog. Don’t just name it, BRAND IT! Give it some POW!

Branding yourself or your blog/website is probably THE most important thing you can do. Why? Because this will be your online identity for everyone to see. Branding will give you recognition, with recognition you will gain trust, with trust you will gain power and with power… You will make money!

Here are some examples:

John’s Java Joint - johnsjavajoint.com - Coffee related niche

Kool Kuala Klub - koolkualaklub.com - Kuala related or could be a cool name for any niche you choose!

Passion For Fashion - passionforfashion.com - Fashion related niche

These are just examples (good ones though!).

TIP: When you pick a name for your brand make sure a domain name is also available for it. Your brand name and your domain name must match.

Branding doesn’t end when you have picked a name. Nope, you need a logo baby! A good one too! Not only that, your blog needs have a sharp, clean design.

Don’t know anything about design? Relax I got you covered.

You can design your own logo quickly and easily with this free logo designer: http://www.logoease.com

For your Wordpress Blog, there are hundreds of stunning free themes to choose from. They’re easy to install too. You won’t have any trouble looking good!

Wordpress blog is easy to install onto your domain name, for more info just search on Google.

Looking good is EXTREMELY important. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a novice or an expert. You need to have a strong presence on the net. Because like in the real world, first impressions count on the internet too. You wouldn’t go to a six figure job interview wearing jeans and t-shirt would you? You wouldn’t stand a chance.

4) Let The World Know Your Opinion:

You have an opinion right? Good, now express it. Don’t be afraid, go nuts. If you’re passionate about something it’s easy to express your opinion. Turn your views into writing and post it on your blog. Simple. Passion is magnetic, it’s not something we see much on the net really so use it to your advantage. People love reading passionate stuff. If you’re good at something people will want to learn from you.

You should develop a style, it can be wacky, it can be aggressive, it can even be slightly rude but you need to develop a style and it should show in the content create. This is all part of branding yourself. You don’t want to sound like the rest, you want to be unique because you are.

5) Getting Recognised:

Ok you got your blog, you branded yourself, you posted your first article on your blog now how do you get people to notice it?

Well first you need people to notice YOU before they notice your blog!

Here are my recommended methods.

-- Sign up for http://twitter.com (free). Twitter is a fast moving social networking platform where you update your friends on what you’re doing throughout the day and they update you as well. The beauty of Twitter is that it becomes so fast moving that you can literally chat with your followers. You can follow your friends friends, they can follow you, you can join in their conversations and build relationships with them, it can get really fun. It’s a fun and easy way to get recognised. Once you get some recognition you can show them your blog, they’d be happy to look at it and tell their friends about it. It’s all very powerful stuff. It’s like a viral effect.

Whenever you make a new post on you blog you can tell everyone on Twitter.

-- Use http://socialmarker.com to bookmark your blog on social bookmarking sites like Digg, Stumble Upon, Propeller, Delicious, Furl, Technorati and Reddit.

-- If appropriate, submit your post as an article to article directories such as: http://goarticles.com , http://articledashboard.com and http://articlecity.com .

These methods will get you a lot of traffic to your blog.

6) But How Do You Make Money?
Ok the easiest way to make money from your blog is by being an affiliate. An affiliate is someone who sells something on someone elses behalf and is paid commission for it. The best affiliate programs by far are from http://clickbank.com . Sign up with them, it’s free. Browse their marketplace for products related to your blog. Get your affiliate (hoplink) link. And put it at the end of your posts on your blog. Add a little description for it. With Clickbank you get huge commission like up to 75% and $70 per sale!

Other affiliate programs worth considering are http://google.com/adsense and https://affiliate-program.amazon.com

These don’t pay as much as Clickbank but I recommend them very much.

There you have it. If you get stuck on anything, a simple search on Google should be all that’s required. I have given you the plan, it’s time for you to take action.

If you follow these steps it won’t be long before you see money rolling in. And like a snowball effect it will keep growing, so will your reputation, so will your brand and so will you. Your recognition grows, your brand grows, your money grows, you grow and so on. You can really FEEL the snowball effect here can’t you?

Once your established in this, you’ll become a pro. You’ll be recognised as an expert. You will have power.

I hope you enjoyed this post.

Adam Carn
http://syteblack.com

---------------------------------------------

You can follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/adamcarn

SyteBlack.com your super sleek money making website. Totally newbie friendly.

Sir Richard Branson - Genius Marketing 101

2008-11-17T15:37:00.000-08:00

Richard Branson, yes 'that' Sir Richard Branson of Virgin Books, Virgin Atlantic et al, has launched a unique method for advertising and promoting his latest book, 'Business Stripped Bare'. A link to the video can be found, at the end of this post.

The Strategy
OK, picture this, a group of men and women dressed as businessmen and women, except without pants, just undergarments and knee-socks, strolling the streets of London during commute hour to promote Richard's latest book, 'Business Stripped Bare'.

They were offering the first downloadable chapter of Richard's book using a business card handout scheme, and getting the attention of all! How easy this was to implement, no huge marketing campaign, no public relations and product launch headaches, just people to people, a proven technique for generating sales for hundreds of years!

How I Found Out About This...
Mr. Branson recently started 'following me' on Twitter (www.twitter.com) a free, live messaging / contact service that has received the attention of some major United States corporations. I have of course begun following him.

I read his previous 'tweets' by looking at his 'Profile' page. There was a tweet and the URL within to watch the hilarious video, but also hugely successful marketing efforts.

About Twitter
Twitter limits your messages to 140 characters, and URL's are shortened to permit fitting them into the space allotted. Twitter permits the ability to read other users 'tweets', their individual outbound messages to add to the publicly-viewable stream of messages, or with the option to privately 'direct-message' those you are 'following'.

Start Using Twitter Today!
If you are not using Twitter, I highly recommend you begin at once! I have made some very important contacts, and received inumerable value from using the service.

In a previous post, a contact made on Twitter led to my attending BlogWorld Expo 2008 and meeting Shoemoney, John Chow, Jim Kukral, Robert Scoble, Doc Searles, Laura Fitton and Zac Johnson, the current 'thought-leadership' in Affiliate Marketing.

Here is the link to Mr. Branson's video:
http://entrepreneur.virgin.com/2008/11/12/nearly-naked-business-people-take-over-london-2/

Please leave me a comment if you liked this post, and buy Mr. Branson's book here in America please, we need the economy to turn around quickly! Respectfully, Nicholas

Jim Kukral Launches The Biz Web Coach Today

2008-11-12T09:58:00.000-08:00

Hello Readers!

I've been in a deep SEO-study for a bit, trying to see if this will enhance my on-line marketing efforts, or at least get slapped by Google?

Anyway, exciting news today! Jim Kukral @ www.jimkukral.com is launching his re-branded site today here:

http://www.jimkukral.com/

Jim is a very helpful, knowlegable internet marketing consultant and coach.

I met Jim at BlogWorld Expo 2008, where I videotaped approximately 20 sessions in two and one-half days of the Expo.

Jim was the moderator for many of the sessions, and he kept the sessions lively and informative.

Hoping that Jim has massive success with his re-branding launch today!

Respectfully, Nicholas Chase

Off the Radar Screen - Hunkered Down - Success Around The Corner?

2008-10-14T12:01:00.000-07:00

Hello Reader! You have probably wondered if I 'fell off the earth', as I have not been posting for a while. Truth is I've been hunkered down in my modest bungalow, trying to figure out my next on-line marketing move. With the current economic turmoil out there you would think I would just give up my dream of a home-based, on-line marketing empire?

The news media would have you believe that the sky is falling. This is mis-information. A few 'criminally-greedy' wall street players, have brought this upon themselves and the world market.

The government, in trying to clean up the mess made by others, is only exacerbating the issues.

Emotions run the stock market. Bad news causes stock to rise, a perverse reaction for sure! Bad news should not cause investors to profit, but it has been this way since the beginning of the stock market. The wealthy people are only going to get richer because of the government 'bail-out'. Are you going to see any of this bail-out money? Not unless you are a large bank like B of A.

The BlogWorld Expo 2008 experience in Las Vegas, really opened my eyes to what is possible in on-line marketing. The presentations I saw there like Gary Vaynerchuk's, www.winelibrarytv.com really drove home the point that hard work, long hours, and dedication to your dream, no matter what or who may try to talk you out of it, is the only strategy that will bring you success.

If you truly have done your homework, are or becoming a recognized authority in your chosen market niche, and have a passion for your chosen products or services offered on your website or landing pages, and you post every day, you will eventually find that web traffic will find you!

Gary stated that he responded to every email or comment made on his website for an entire year. He engaged the customer for his wine products in a meaningful conversation, and others discovered his knowledge and dedication were the real deal. He spent years studying wines and food, so that he was able to answer every question posed to the satisfaction of the requester. He also visited other authorities in the wine business, left comments on their blogs or websites, and started a conversation that helped him to grow his business to a current value of over $60-million dollars!

If you are genuine, people will sense your expertise and want to do business with you. If you treat people poorly, your reputation will be ruined, as news travels faster on the web than any other medium today. Newspapers are printing hours-old news. The tv news is at least 2 hours behind real time to assemble the stories and air them in edited-down video formats.

The web is instantaneous, Twitter, My Space, Facebook and other sites are read by millions of people per day, and this is the new paradigm for Web 3.0. People want the truth, a space that the traditional news media cannot compete with, nor do they have the time or money to fully analyze the data, and provide a resultant meaningful story.

Currently, they report something very irresponsibly, like "extremely high fire danger today!" And the insane person with the highway flares goes out to wreak havoc on an innocent society by startng fires on the day with guess what? "The Highest Fire Danger". How stupid can they be? Why not announce that the fire department will be attending training today, "Gee, I hope there won't be any fires today"? (I got off-subject here, but that 'high-fire-danger news-reporting' issue makes me mad!).

The relevance of the web is so pervasive, that people like Matt Drudge are now followed by Presidential Candidates! Matt has become a hit because he publishes timely stories, that are controversial to traditional news-gathering techniques and institutions, and he is quicker to publish before the mainstream media even can discern that the story is developing. Matt has become an authority in his space.

How will you become an authority in your market niche, and how do you convince your customers that you are the real deal? Most important technique taken from BlogWorld Expo 2008. BE YOURSELF! BE HONEST! Be the kind of marketer people like to talk about in positive terms. Become the best at what you do. Outshine the competition by being as authentic as you possibly can be!

Truly successful marketers put their customers first. Need to exchange a bad product? Fed-Ex it overnight and eat the cost. You will have gained the trust of a customer who was unhappy, and now is very happy with the way you have treated and valued their business. Go out of your way to be helpful and you will beat your competitor's who do not do this or do not even care!

This customer will talk positively about you, and cause others to want the experience of the same level of service 'that they are not receiving elsewhere'.

How many of you are tired of voice-menus? Companies used to answer their telephones. Now it's all buried in voice-menus, hoping you will quit before successfully obtaining the ear of an actual human being! Make sure you place your telephone number on your contact information page, answer you telephone on the third ring maximum, and if necessary call your customers back promptly.

They will be totally shocked and surprised at the level of care this demonstrates to them, and you can usually resolve the issue during this brief telephone exchange. Use this time to ask your customer if the experience could be improved, or if they could pass along their positive experience in a forum comment?

Customer Service has been pushed to the bottom of the priorities of most of the companies I deal with. And yet they tell you in their advertising, how much they value their customers! If you only do this simple act consistently, you will see a tremendous boost to your traffic numbers, serving the people who are making your company grow! Imagine a reader seeing all of the positive feedback from previous customers! Goodwill will be established, and you will be successful.

Social Networking is the current buzzword. I know of one software architect that is releasing his product using Social Media, and 'viral-marketing' as his main marketing focus. In this way he tightly targets his potential customers, who are already savvy web users or successful Pay-per-click, Affiliate Marketers, and his software tool will be much easier to market to this selected group! By the way, the product is called iSpionage at www.ispionage.com

Please leave me a comment below, I will respond! Respectfully, Nicholas

My Dinner with John Chow and Shoemoney!

2008-09-26T13:01:00.001-07:00

2008-09-26T12:56:00.001-07:00

BlogWorld Expo 2008 in Las Vegas! My dinner with Shoemoney and John Chow!

2008-09-23T23:22:00.000-07:00

Nicholas Chase at Market Leverage dinner with John Chow, a very happy fellow!
Photo Courtesy Gary Ng - www.iphoneincanada.ca (c) 2008

Market Leverage dinner winners with from left, Greg Morgan, a winner!, Zac Johnson, Jim Kukral, Nicholas Chase, also a winner!, Darren Rowse 'The Problogger', Ryan Hupfer of Hub Pages.com, John Chow, Shoemoney, Gary Ng, a winner! and Debbie another dinner winner!
Photo Courtesy Zac Johnson c 2008

Hello!

I've had a life changing event this week.

Check out this photo of me at dinner with the 'thought-leaders' of Affiliate Marketing and on-line advertising! The Market Leverage dinner at Envy Steak house, in the Renaissance hotel, Las Vegas, Nevada at BlogWorld Expo 2008!

I started on Wednesday, trying to get a pass to BlogWorld Expo 2008 in Las Vegas. Just missed one from a Twitter person I was following. I'm fairly persistent when I have a goal, so then I found one of the BlogWorld partners on Twitter, and offered my videography sevices to the BlogWorld team. Not only did they accept, but I was given an unlimited-access pass to all of the events.

As a videographer, the challenge was to setup and record each panel or presentation, with minimal time between speeches to move and reset the camera, recorders etc. I lost some pounds schlepping my hand truck with my gear all over the South Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center. Everyone at BlogWorld Expo 2008 was kind and helpful!

Rick Calvert and Dave Cynkin the BlogWorld management were simply amazing.

Thanks guys, you really helped me, I hope that I have been of assistance to you!

As a blogger and Affiliate Marketer, the information there was as cutting edge as it could be. A partial list of the presenters included, John Chow, Shoemoney, Zac Johnson, Brian Clarke, Jim Kukral, Shawn Collins of Affiliate Summit, Patrick O'Keefe, Dave Taylor, Darren Rowse, 'The Problogger', Guy Kawasaki, Steve Rubel, Michael Brito of Intel, Gary Vaynerchuk of Wine Library TV, Robert Scoble, Doc Searls, Timothy Ferriss of the '4-hour Workweek' book, and Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park.

Guy Kawasaki and Nicholas Chase after the Keynote Luncheon with Steve Rubel
Photo Courtesy Dave Cynkin c 2008

I visited with Guy after his Keynote Luncheon talk with Steve Rubel, very illuminating, especially how he expressed his feelings towards Steve Jobs and Apple Computer, and how for a mere $$$ five-million-dollar $$$ signing bonus he would come back!

As an added bonus, check out the photos! Yes, I had dinner with the thought leaders at BlogWorld Expo. John Chow, Shoemoney, Zac Johnson and Brian Clarke, Tyler Cruz and my Market Leverage team, including, Debby Phillips, Market Leverage's Digital Media Specialist,
my Affiliate manager Jennifer Fluker, Dina Riccobono, Marketing Manager, and the Market Leverage TV, Production Manager Judson Forman and the Market Leverage CEO!

The Unique Blog Designs team was there as well, Nate and the crew, as John Chow recently utilized their excellent services in redesigning his website at: www.johnchow.com

Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park with Nicholas Chase after Sunday Keynote
Photo Courtesy Dave Cynkin c 2008

Meeting Mike Shinoda of the band Linkin Park was a real highlight on Sunday. He was accessible and candid about how blogging had secured a Warner Brothers record deal for the band. He related how all of the band members were artists, and the band name came about because Lincoln Park, a real park in LA had been registered previously. To get the dot com they changed it to Linkin Park, brilliant!

Mike was adamant in his opinion that emerging bands no longer need a large record company, with the power of the web they can self-distribute digitally, and bypass the management hassles.

Timothy Ferriss, author of The '4-Hour Work Week' was very well received by the packed audience for the Sunday Opening Keynote with Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park, and Rohit Bhargava the moderator. Timothy stated that to be self-published these days was practically impossible, as the store shelves are dominated by the book publishers. As a test, Timothy printed some books, and stealthily placed them in a prominent spot next to other hardback books in a bookstore and then watched the shelves for a day to test his theory.

The Market Leverage Dinner

I arrived late after packing my video gear away, and Dina Riccobono introduced me around the room. All of the legendary bloggers and thought-leaders at the two tables were very accessible and nice to me, a newbie Affiliate and blogger. Their words of encouragement and sense of humor were genuine and fun! I was fortunate to meet my Affiliate manager, Jennifer Fluker, and she offered her professional assistance to my on-line efforts.

John Chow came over after the meal, with a huge wad of cash, and asked who wanted to hit the tables! Check out the photo of John and I and that wad of cash! Market Leverage had a cashinator machine set up in the exhibit hall, and you had one minute to 'grab-cash' before time was up. Tyler Cruz wore a coat into the booth, and won the cash, to be donated to another attendee later.

John and I, we had a good laugh about Michael Kwan crashing a Segway, version 2 in Canada at the factory test track! It violated the known laws of physics to see Michael crash the Segway, and break the Flip Mino video camera he was holding when he crashed! I believe NASA Ames and the defense department want to study Michael's brain, to insure none of his synaptic neurons gets into any future space vehicles! We laughed for a long time about poor Michael Kwan.... John kids him on a regular basis on his blog. www.johnchow.com

Zac Johnson had some encouraging words for me, and even offered to help, handing me his personal business card. Thanks Zac! Check out Zac's excellent blog at: www.zacjohnson.com

It was exactly this kind of community and family approach that all of the panelists and Affiliate / Bloggers attending the show exhibited all weekend. How refreshing from the corporate, button down, need-to-know environment of some trade shows.

BlogWorld Expo 2008 was a life-changing event for me, all launched becuase of a simple act of kindness on my part to assist where I could. This is an important recurring theme for all of us working 'on-line' to remember and practice daily.

Jim Kukral was helpful to me all weekend, even though he was busy moderating panels and watching the time for the panelists. He made sure that each panel had sufficient time for interactive Q and A and the attendees asked some very well-formed questions. I hope I wasn't in your way too much Jim, with my sensitive microphones and all that equipment! Check out Jim Kukral at The Flip Daily, www.JimKukral.com

I have started following these smart people on Twitter, an application that permits 140 characters per small instant text messages called 'tweets'. When you send a message you are 'tweeting' someone. They can 'follow' you and you can follow them, sort of a 'what are you doing now kind of tracker scenario.

Today I discovered something strange and wonderful, some of the thought-leaders are now following me! Ok, got to stay on track here, so much is happening so quickly, it's a testement to the 'Power Of The Web', how quickly one can get recognition for a small act of kindness.

When tweeting, "I'm making cheese-balls" does not have the same impact as saying: "I'm having dinner with Shoemoney and John Chow, Jim Kukral, Brian Clark, and Darren Rowse, Zac Johnson and Tyler Cruz at Blogworld Expo 2008!!!"

Shoemoney has the record for largest ever adsense check, over $133,300.00 for one month's profit on Google's adsense advertizing program! He spent some time with me after the panel he was on, and discussed family and how the web community is strong and vigilent in it's desire for self-informing each other, and not depending on traditional news outlets who move too slowly for the web attention span!

Shoemoney gave some time to me, after the SuperPanel to be interviewed, discussing the web community and being a real person to constituent bloggers out there. He said that he would remember me next year, and wanted to hear about my successes online. I'm even more dedicated now to make this online business grow! I'll try to host the video here real soon!

I'm tired but elated to be getting assistance from the best in internet marketing in the world! Oh, and after Shawn Collins of Affiliate Summit needed some assistance with his new microphone before his panel presentation, I assisted in temporarily mounting it to his tripod, we talked after the event, and he gave me a unlimited Platinum Pass to Affiliate Summit 2009!

www.affiliatesummit.com

I'm really just touching down after all of the excitement of the past five days. It's Christmas, and New Year's Eve, and my birthday all rolled into one fantastic present!

Keep tuned to these pages for more BlogWorld Expo photos, and how being authentic has certainly helped grow my on-line presence and reach.

Respectfully, Nicholas

IZEAFEST IN ORLANDO WAS AWESOME !!!

2008-09-13T13:37:00.000-07:00

Hi,

Just finished watching two full days, of all of the live streaming from IzeaFest in Orlando Florida. Shoemoney gave a very moving Keynote about how he has come to his current level and success, John Chow presented, and sat on panels, a wealth of information for bloggers, site designers, video incorporation and great giveaways for the attendees!

The IzeaFest live streams were all recorded and can be played here:
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/izeafest-streaming-live-from-izeafest-in-orlando%2C

Came away with some great information about:

Social Media Networking,
blogging,
Wordpress plugins,
video production for blogs,
being a real person on-line,
using Twitter and SocialSpark to connect to your community
Blog design no-no's

The interesting part of the Ustream feed was the interactive, 'live-chat-window'.

Attendees and on-line viewers could pose questions to the presenters live during the Q and A period. During the presentations, the URL links were entered into the chat window by the production staff or attendees to check out these links for value to each individual.

Very cool to see live chat running during presentations, although some attendees forgot that everyone could see their comments! Hope there were no attorney's watching, as some of the comments were a bit questionable for a live stream.

I have a ten page word document capturing all of the links from Saturday and Friday, plus notes on things to avoid when blogging, including concern for 'ACCESSIBILITY' concerns for non-sighted or hearing-impaired web surfers.

I am ready to make the changes to my seven blogs, including moving them off of blogger to Wordpress on my domain. Total control of my blog is then obtainable for design and templates.

Check out www.izea.com and ask for Trevor, he is a really helpful person! And please leave me a comment if you liked this post!

Respectfully, Nicholas

Purpose Inc ThinkTank San Diego Contest!

2008-09-04T18:43:00.000-07:00

A Truly Unique Opportunity!

Now we're talking!

Jeremy Shoemaker aka Shoemoney at www.shoemoney.com has an awesome contest running.

He will sponsor one winning blogger to go to the Think Tank in San Diego.

This post serves as my contest entry. The challenge is to describe what "I could offer the other attendees".

Nicholas's Top Ten Things I Would Offer While At The Think Tank

10. I would offer my undivided attention to anyone in attendence.

9. I would be a good listener, and offer a carefully considered response to questions, considering the attendee's are all thought leaders in Affiliate Marketing.

8. I would be willing to help in carrying, setting up, or tearing down, in any way deemed appropriate by the requester.

7. I would be respectful of those in conversation and would never interrupt or try to convince anyone that I was smarter than they are.

6. I would turn off my cell phone, during any speeches, or private conversations.

5. I would focus and concentrate on the information received, and when I have learned and practiced the techniques to financial success, I would at that time be willing to give back to the Affiliate Community as others have done who proceeded me in that regard.

4. I would participate in the Think Tank process with enthusiasm, respect and a genuine interest in the subject matter.

3. I would remember to thank Jeremy, in the future by sponsoring another Affiliate as he has offered.

2. I would renew my commitment to my goal to make Affiliate Marketing, and monetized blogs my sole source of income within one year from July 2008.

1. I would never forget what it felt like, to stand in a room with brilliant individuals who were willing to share what they know, with an absolute beginner in Affiliate Marketing.

Thank you in advance Jeremy, even if I'm not the winner.

Respectfully, Nicholas

PPC-Coach - Join them now!

2008-08-28T15:17:00.001-07:00

Based on the post I read at Jonathan Volk's Super Affiliate blog, I have decided to change course on trying to dominate the blog-o-sphere with monetized blogs. All of my efforts have brought some traffic, but zero income. After almost three months of trial and error, I feel like I'm in the Wild West, and the town has no police force, (excepting Marshall Google of course!).

I have been through all of the ebooks, web sites, trade shows for SEO and PPC, read countless forum entries and have come to a conclusion. No one save for Albert Einstein could fathom all of the minute details, and excessive hours spent in front of your computer, trying to make an online income. It just is not going to happen my friends. So, how about using the services of a successful coach, a guru who has been down the road I've just described, and is successful.

How much would you be willing to pay to get all of the free software tools, videos, an awesome forum, and the true support of someone who does not even know you, but feels compelled to share his knowledge?

How does $54.43 USD per month sound? That's cheaper than Junior College, with books alone over $500.00 per year! In addition he will personally review your account and suggest changes that will improve your bottom line. OK, I've already convinced myself and joined, what's stopping you?

Even though I believe that Google has indexed my blog(s) now numbering seven, six of them are hosted by Google themselves on Blogger.com. By pasting the Google Analytics code into my .html template, my blogs are achieving increasing page views.

When I read Jonathan's review of PPC-Coach, and visited the website to watch some of the videos I was convinced. Without a focused, measurable pay-per-click or SEO strategy you are not going to be successful in the current marketplace on the web.

Way too many blogs out there, just check the real-time statistics on www.Weblogs.com, to see what you are up against. So then comes PPC-Coach. Firstly when you join, you are immediately given access to the first two months of his success path for profit. Instead of some lame ebook, he delves right in to how to use all of the rich knowledge that can be found in the member area.

One guy has achieved the $35,000.00 a month club that they claim you can also achieve. I was reading his well over 1000+ forum posts last night, and his story is motivating. PPC-Coach will guide you through the murky waters of setting up your online campaigns, including joining Google, Yahoo and Microsoft's Search Engine marketing services, help you in setting up campaigns, and other marketing engagements, in order to insure that you follow the correct steps.

In addition, the Coach will truly be available to support you, answering emails, or IM messages in a timely fashion. Imagine, his email inbox as shown in the introduction video had over 3,000 messages in it, and only one unanswered one. That tells me that this guy is genuine and sincere.

You can visit the PPC-Coach here:

http://www.ppc-coach.com

You will be glad that you did!!

Respectfully, Nicholas

Unique Blog Designs One Year Anniversary Contest and John Chow.com

2008-08-26T10:07:00.001-07:00

Hello Successful Affiliates!

John Chow just posted about the First Anniversary of Unique Blog Designs!

http://www.johnchow.com/unique-blog-designs-1-year-anniversary-contest/

and a contest they are running to celebrate!

Unique Blog Designs has some of the most professional looking design templates on the web. Their creativity is legendary after only one year.

The contest giveaway is First Prize: 8GB iPod Touch mp3 player and a free, Unique Blog Designs template. Second and Third prizes are Unique Blog Design Citrus-themes (3-flavors) templates.

Check them out here: www.uniqueblogdesigns.com

Thank you to John Chow for his excellent post. When you visit JohnChow.com you will see a Unique Blog Designs design on his home page. Very Cool!

Check out my new post at the iPod Review Blog: http://theipodreviewblog.blogspot.com/
where I provide a link to a post from Dragon Blogger, about downloading YouTube videos to your iPod!

Respectfully, Nicholas

Search Engine Strategies Conference

2008-08-20T11:13:00.000-07:00

The Search Engine Strategies conference was held in San Jose, CA this week. Well over one-hundred vendors had booths set up in the exhibit hall, and the conference cost $2,000.00 to attend all of the speeches and course-ware. Due to budgetary constraints, I had to forgo attending the sessions. The show floor was packed on Tuesday, with the usual collection of marketers and attendees.

Search Engine Optimization is a topic that is widely implemented at major companies with a large web presence, and numerous niche markets on the web. The SEO technique includes using traditional marketing psychology, with targeted keyword research, to focus deep into a small niche market. Large companies do this by starting at the top of the market, and dividing down into smaller and smaller niches, hoping to discover those with the least competition, and the most participants.

Google was there demonstrating their 'Analytics' tools to a large crowd all day. A number of clever websites were using analytics to track their campaign's successes. Google has also started exploring 'social-marketing'. They nearly purchased digg www.digg.com a huge newsgathering and social contact type of site.

Microsoft was showing their new Live Search tool. The Microsoft Search Network has expanded greatly over the past months, with new features and tools for the small business. I plan on joining MSN this week.

There was a drawing for a 'smart-car' at the Omniture booth at the SES conference today, but I had to get back to my office and update my blogs, now numbering six! Trying to get enough daily traffic in each marketing niche, to begin trimming my blog count downwards. Learned a few ways to get web directories to find my site, so will report on the success of these tests in a future post.

Jeremy Shoemaker aka 'Shoemoney' was there, wearing an 'SEO Sucks' t-shirt. The reaction was either laughter or a blank stare from the show floor.

Here is a photo, courtesy of www.shoemoney.com, with David Naylor and Todd Friesen, legendary SEO marketers:

I was able to meet face to face with some of my Affiliate Marketing managers from companies like PepperJam Network and Affiliate.com. They were more than willing to spend time with me and explain all of the Search Engine marketing techniques that have evolved.

Most of my initial focus has been withing the 'Pay-per-click' space with Google Adsense and direct-linking, and some 'social-networking to get my name out there and discover the trends in thsi niche.

For someone like me just getting my feet wet in the web marketing space, software tools can be very beneficial in taking some of the guesswork out of campaigns. Smaller companies, like mine, start at the bottom, and try to discover markets too small to interest the large companies, but still containing enough participants to make a profit.

The amount of preparation required to enter these markets can be assisted by using tracking software such as Tracking202, you can check it out at: www.tracking202.com

Wes Mahler has provided a free sign-up and free trial so that you can see the benefits of the data from your clicks, who is clicking, where are they navigating within your site, which pages are most popular etc. Very professional tracking software, I am using it, and can recommend it personally!

So, go out there and make your mark, I am trying many techniques to get my daily readership and drive traffic to my various web properties. I do believe that I will have to pay someone to design my landing page at www.Chase-Marketing-Domain.com. Right now it's the Wealth Dr. of Beverly Hills, and his offers that a first-time visitor would see.

I understand that now that I have a domain, I can create sub-domains and host pages and other offers within these sub-domains. Respectfully, Nicholas

John Chow Cash Drawing

2008-08-13T12:17:00.000-07:00

Hello! John Chow sent out a post that he will give the cash he collected in the Market Leverage 'cashinator' at Affiliate Summit East in Boston. You can watch the video here:

http://www.johnchow.com/affiliate-summit-east-win-cash-money/

By writing a post about the contest, and sending a track-back link to John Chow, I am entered in the drawing on Sunday August 17, 2008. John Chow is a very generous person, who started out by blogging about restaurants he frequents around Vancouver, Canada. Now he has several web properties he promotes from www.JohnChow.com

There are already a few entrants, so I hope the additional five entries I receive from posting about the contest helps!

Respectfully, Nicholas

Monday August 11, 2008

2008-08-11T15:21:00.000-07:00

Hello! I took three days off to attend our local swim meet, a gathering of all of the swim teams in our city for one, big, three day long event. It was pleasant weather, there was good food and coffee, and our team placed higher in the rankings than in the past.

So I have installed FeedJit, on four of my five blogs. FeedJit is a tool that displays a map of the world, and puts little flags next to the country and city of the visitor's origin. So far, all of my blogs have shown increased visits, many in the USA, some from as far away as the Phillipines and Malaysia.

I have also created a podcast on PodBean, to record some samples of the 1951 Martin Acoustic Guitar profiled on The Guitar Blog: http://nachase.wordpress.com.

I have added Shopping Ads to three of my blogs. The ads are cycled in selected intervals, to afford the visitor an opportunity to click and buy the item immediately. Very cool feature, and I expect to see some revenue soon!

More plans to strategize with my Ad Network Affiliate Managers this week. Also plan on beginning rolling out my own web page on my own domain, and creating some sub-domains there for each marketing campaign I start.

More results will be posted, as I begin to see revenue from my five current income-producing web pages. I am sure enjoying the commute to work!

If you liked this post please leave a comment below, and thank you for taking the time to read this blog. Respectfully, Nicholas

Tuesday Status Report

2008-08-05T09:31:00.000-07:00

I am beginning to make myself known around the web. Publishing an article on one site with 42,000 daily readers, has provided an opportunity to network with some very experienced bloggers, affiliate marketers, and search engine marketing experts, and discovered a great way to earn residual income indefinetly.

My lijit searches ( www.lijit.com ) have come back with web search results, that Google www.google.com is beginning to index some of my blogs.

I just added a podcast at http://nachase.podbean.com/

A comment from www.guitarbench.com has already been received, from the United Kingdom.
I have recorded some clips of my 1951 Martin 000-18 acoustic guitar, one solo and one with drums and bass. Check out the article on The Guitar Blog: http://wwwnachase.wordpress.com

Found a great interview with Jeremy Shoemaker and John Reese www.shoemoney.com where he compares the results of placing adsense ads on your blog, to blog ads via 'monetized blogs', and selling adspace to advertisers on your blog.

Also he touched upon 'bumping-up' your payouts, by requesting this from your Affiliate Manager at the ad networks you use. He stated that you do not need a ton of traffic, just informing them that you will work very hard to promote their offers, and increase their ad's visibility on your site.

I continue to add friends to Social Spark, and approving selected EntreCard ads to run on my blogs. Not so much to market to these friends initially, but to get the pulse of what are the emerging trends, so that I can select the appropriate niche to begin my Yahoo Search Marketing efforts, and Google Adsense campaigns as I become more profitable.

It has been quite an education so far. I will be attending Search Engine Strategies in San Jose this month, that should provide additional contacts and education required for SEO techniques being used by the 'guru's'. For now I will continue to join ad networks, and expand my reach and web-presense using the methods above. To your continued success! Respectfully, Nicholas