MediaThrone is currently in its early stages, and there are a few tasks which need to be accomplished before it is fully launched. I am actively looking for parties interested in the project to be a part of it, so if you have ideas, comments and critiques - feel free to share them below or contact me directly. Here is what needs to be accomplished

• Writers: I am currently in search of a group of people who are passionate or know a good deal about current film, television and music news. Interested parties kindly head over here: Become A MediaThrone Writer
• Suggestions: I am open to your suggestions for any additions or removals to the site. Your opinion for the site’s look and feel is welcomed.

Some of the articles that are available thus far are as follows…

• Must See TV: Kyle XY
• Lady Gaga Rocks The Charts
• Original Karate Kid Speaks Out
• Prison Breaks Comes To An End
• Heroes Heading Back To Its Core

A big part of MediaThrone’s philosophy is to deliver content that people are looking for, as opposed to serving up content to a demographic which is too narrow. At the moment, the focus is largely on actors, film, television and music, with less of a focus on ‘Hollywood’ because I don’t live in the US to get that intense coverage. I trust that you will support MediaThrone as much as you have SmallFishBigMoney over the years. You can help by Subscribing to the MediaThrone RSS Feed, Joining our MyBlogLog Community and following me on Twitter. Thank you all for your continued support and contribution.

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• Focus - Are posts focused or all over the place?
• Quality! - Do you believe that my posts are of a high standard?
• Comprehension - Are the posts easy for you to understand?
• Locating Content - Can you find what you are looking for?
• Community - Do you feel included in the community?
• Easy To Contact - Can you contact me easily?
• Easy To Ask - Do you feel comfortable enough to ask questions?
• Frequency - Are you satisfied with the amount of content I provide?

“How Can I Better Serve You?”

Your input is valued and is taken into great consideration, so come on out of the feed reader or email client and drop a few lines sharing your experiences with the site thus far - I want to hear what you have to say and I look forward to hearing your insights and opinions…

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I have been surfing the net for a while now; and I started this blog to track my journey of earning a living online. Along the way, I learned a few things, one of which is the basis of this post. Internet Marketers enjoy using buzz words and phrases which create hype, one of such is the discovery of a ’secret formula’ of which very few people know of. First things first, if it is a ’secret formula’ why are you selling it to thousands of people…not so secret anymore is it, but this kind of publicity and hype works, for a certain period of time.

Hype Is Counterproductive

The amount of hype that Internet Marketers can generate is respectable, what is not respectable is the amount of buyers they can lose as a result of it. Hype should be used very carefully, if you exaggerate a product and it does not deliver, as an internet marketer your reputation has been flushed down the pipes. Sorry, if your product did not deliver, I will not be buying from you anytime soon, nor will anyone else for that matter.

Eating Lots of Sugar

It is like having lots of sugar and confectionery and feeling really sick afterward, except worse, because this time you didn’t get the candy for free. You actually had to pay for it, so it hurts even more. The message here is that you always need to over-deliver, anything you put your name on says something about you - make sure it is good for at least 90% of the people who buy it; and try and recover any trust or customer services issues from that other 10% to make them become your loyal supportive fans again.

Getting Called Out

Mediocre product creators exist in an abundance online; and they do get called out. When this happens, things get really ugly. I have seen it happen before and people lose a lot of potential market reach from it. The most important thing to remember online is that it is a highly transparent community, if you do something wrong, it is virtually impossible to hide it, so stay on the straight and narrow. Deliver amazing products and provide amazing services, this is how you will thrive. Mediocrity breeds mediocrity, aspire to success.

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Every once in a while you discover a blog that stops you in your tracks, that helps you to redefine your life and realise how you can improve yourself and learn from someone’s experiences. A few months ago I discovered Yin Teing’s blog, thanks to a couple of comments she had left on my blog. Now I want to share it with you all, because I truly believe that Yin’s blog should be shared, the advice she gives, the experiences she shares and ultimately the life lessons she has discovered.

A Few Articles From Yin Teing’s Blog

• Why Self-Help Books And Therapy Sometimes Don’t Help
• We Cannot Have Everything In Life
• How Watching Too Much TV Changes Your Values
• How A Successful Blog Loses Its Readers
• Friendships That Transform Lives…
  

The above are just a small selection of blog posts which really resonated a lot with me. A big part of Yin’s posts is the fact that it is the total opposite of the huge amount of ‘heartless’ advice which exists on the net. Yin relates it to her life and talks about how it has impacted her and shares her personal views of things. Her logic and narration are very impressive and that is what makes her blog posts so powerful. She’s also an EzineArticles.Com Expert Author - Yin Teing.

My Testimonial

“Yin is personal and down to earth, she tells it like it is and is genuinely interested in sharing her life experiences. The best part about Yin’s blog is the fact that it is not like all that re-hashed processed content you find on the net, it is fresh, new, invigorating and raw - a truly remarkable combination. Yin’s posts are powerful, they continually help me to redefine my life and see life from a different perspective, Yin’s Life blog is something special. Thank you Yin, for sharing your thoughts, your experiences and your discoveries which help so many people. I recommend Yin’s Life Blog to every single person who reads this post because you will definitely find value.” - Fabien (SmallFishBigMoney.Com)

Check Out: Yin Teing’s Life Blog

This post reflects my personal opinions and views of Yin Teing’s Life Blog. It has been created to share a blog with remarkable content which I thought you may enjoy. It has not been influenced by Yin in any way or form, nor have I been compensated for it. [Photo Credit]

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1. Take Control of Your Subconscious - Change Your Life Now

Wayne Liew leaped into the blogosphere in 2006, he currently makes thousands of dollars every month using affiliate marketing. I am delighted to have been able to get an exclusive interview with him. In the interview we discuss his journey in business and how get got into affiliate marketing. You can find him at www.WayneLiew.com, www.AffBoom.com and Twitter/WayneLiew I am pleased to introduce the man himself, Mr. Wayne Liew Yee Piao

Personal Blogging

Fabien: When you entered the blogosphere in 2006, did you enter with the mindset of generating an income online or was it more of a hobby?

Wayne Liew: When I got started at that time, my blog was purely personal. I provide my thoughts on some local news and only my friends and family who were visiting the blog.

Fabien: So, What motivated you to start checking out ways to actually earn an income online? Did you ask questions to gurus or read a few industry-related blogs?

Wayne Liew: At that time, I knew nothing about HTML, XML and stuffs in order to customize my Blogger blog. So I went to www.bloggerforum.com (no longer active I guess) to post some questions of mine. While I was there, I saw a section catering for monetization questions that other bloggers have so I started reading every thread posted. I was amazed at how people are actually making money off their blogs. The first guru that I really came across was Maki from Dosh Dosh. I didn’t email him a lot with questions but his blog posts are really good in providing ideas about blogging skills. And yes, I follow 200+ RSS feeds of blogs currently.

Saturation and Competition

Fabien: That’s definitely a lot of feeds to keep up with, I’m up to 80; and it does get addictive to click that subscribe button, Hehehe. On Twitter (http://twitter.com/WayneLiew) You post a lot about your affiliate marketing endeavours, what made you decide to change from ‘blogging’ to ‘affiliate and internet marketing’ as a stream of income? Are they more profitable or quicker than blogging?

Wayne Liew: To be honest, I got tired of the blogging about blogging industry, which was the niche I was in with Wayne Liew Dot Com. Blogging about blogging is like running around circles and things you say today might be rehashed tomorrow. When people think about blogging tips, there are only a few blogs that they will go to. ProBlogger by Darren Rowse, Daily Blog Tips and some other, not Wayne Liew Dot Com. The slow scaling of the niche is what prompted me to leave the niche and my blog altogether.

Fabien: I have to agree with you there Wayne, I don’t know how many times I’ve read the same type of post over and over again. Competition is high and profits are considerably lower than other niches.

Wayne Liew: Affiliate marketing is definitely easier than blogging for profits in my opinion. You don’t need to become an expert for a niche in order to squeeze money out of it.

Affiliate Marketing

Fabien: I think there are a lot of bloggers in the same situation as you were - they want to find a more profitable way to generate income online - but they do not know how, what advice can you give readers to get into affiliate marketing? Perhaps you could provide readers with some insight into some affiliate networks which you have found to be particularly effective in their functionality and profitability

Wayne Liew: Well, CPA marketing has been booming for the last few months and promoting them took my earnings into greater heights. Some of the great CPA networks to work with are Market Leverage, Hydra Network and NeverBlueAds. If you want to test the waters of affiliate marketing, you can either purchase Super Affiliate Handbook by Rosalind Gardner or follow the step by step tips for no cost affiliate marketing tips over at my affiliate marketing blog (http://www.affboom.com).

Fabien: I’ve been to your blog a couple of times Wayne and it definitely has some no-nonsense tips about affiliate marketing, so a second recommendation to go there and get tips for free! A lot of readers probably want to know how easy it is to set up a site and start generating some income from it, what is your time record for building a site and making money from it after. Weeks? Months?

Wayne Liew: Again, affiliate marketing is easy. If you are using WordPress as your platform for an affiliate site, you can literally generating income off your first blog post itself. For me, it will be days, right after Ezine-Articles got my articles approved. Of course, it depends on how hardworking you are in churning out articles (marketing), the niche you are in and the type of blog post that you put up.

Fabien: Definitely, that was going to be my next question, but you beat me to the punch, so hard work and dedication are obviously a very big part of it.

Wayne Liew: Yes. Some of the gurus or super affiliates out there are way hardworking than you see from the outside.

Outsourcing and Control

Fabien: Last few questions here - In 2008 outsourcing has been a big thing for many bloggers and online business owners, how effective do you think it is in terms of helping entrepreneurs to succeed quicker in business? - They like to make it seem easy those Super Affiliates!

Wayne Liew: Well, when bloggers and affiliate marketers start out. They are basically doing everything themselves and the truth is, you can’t achieve great success by doing them all by yourself. Successful corporations like Coca Cola and Toyota will not be able to enjoy their current success if they are just an one man organization. Outsourcing is not easy. You are losing control over certain tasks and the worry will definitely be there. I always give a trial period to people, especially those from countries like India so they won’t screw my mood for the day! LOL

Niche Profitability

Fabien: Hehehe, an interesting piece of advice there - very important and true. I know I may be going into dangerous territory here Wayne, but do you have any ‘broad’ advice to help point readers in the right direction with respect to profitable niches? Just a few hints and tips will do.

Wayne Liew: Haha. Yes, definitely. There are some evergreen niches on the Internet. Financial niches like payday loans, grants and debt relief always work out great. Forex and stock investing is another. Targeting shopping niches can be great during holiday seasons.

Business Success

Fabien: Fantastic Wayne, clear, concise and to the point. Thank you very much for your time, your advice and tips will definitely help people looking to get into affiliate marketing and online business. That pretty much wraps up our interview - Any last words of advice or encouragement you have to help readers in their path to business success?

Wayne Liew: Anyone can be successful. If you are not having success online, you may be the perfect material for top executive positions in big corporations or perhaps you may become the next maverick for offline businesses. Who knows?

Fabien: Definitely true, I’ve read some pretty amazing stories of people succeeding in the most difficult circumstances. Success is definitely possible. Thanks again for your time Wayne - we hope to have you back at SmallFishBigMoney.Com again in the near future. All the best in 2009 and beyond!

Wayne Liew: Thanks Fabien for the opportunity. Fabien: No problem, you are welcome back anytime.

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1. Earn A Living Online Using One Of Five Proven Blogging Business Models

If you are in a job, you are getting food on the table and you are relatively happy, there is nothing to push you or to motivate you to do better, in essence, the basics are being met. That is…unless you desire to live a better life, buy a better home or develop a new group of friends. This is when you can alter the path of your life by making conscious decisions which will ultimately alter your subconscious thinking thus raising the awareness that the betterment you seek is a definite possibility.

Our subconscious is a determinant factor in the way we live our lives. We often hear people saying the following types of things on the surface level:

Artificial Mind Barrier 1: Laziness

• I want to make millions online
• I want to be more productive
• I want to a better person

Artificial Mind Barrier 2: Addiction

• I want to stop smoking
• I want to stop drinking alcohol
• I want to stop gambling

But what is going on in the subconscious is a totally different story…

Subconscious

These two categories are split into laziness and addiction. Why? The first deals with the fact that most of us are lazy; and that is the one thing preventing us from achieving beyond our perceived potential. The second relates to the fact that our bodies have become so attached to something that wanting to let it go consciously is not enough which is why people believe that hypnotherapy has some scientific grounds for helping people to end their addictions.

The media often circulates a lot of ‘rags to riches‘ stories. People who are in dire straits use that as the motivation to get them out of the rut, there is, of course, some personal ambition in there too.

“The power of a need is far greater than that of a want, so instead of wanting something, ask yourself why you need it.” - Fabien, Owner (SmallFishBigMoney.Com)

Creating attainable goals and outlining your steps to achieving is where success begins.

Setting Goals

• Create attainable goals
• Set a time limit on those goals
• Plan on how you will achieve them
• Identify problems and find solutions
• Work step by step to achieve it

Failure and disappointment are natural, they will help you to refine your techniques and methodology in the future.

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1. The Life Jottings Of Yin Teing - Straight From The Heart

Email Marketing For Community Engagement

The blogosphere was recently flooded with authorities and gurus recommending email marketing solutions as an addition to creating a ’successful blog’ (not particularly quantifiable).

They extalled the virtues of various services and outlined that email marketing would help to strengthen the community bonds which were being formed every day - which has proven to be very true for many bloggers.

Darren Rowse (ProBlogger.Net) and John Chow (JohnChow.Com) have been particularly prominent in promoting a GetResponse competitor as a powerful platform for email marketing solutions. I decided to go with GetResponse instead, find out why…

What Features Does GetResponse Have On Offer?

• GetResponse Email Marketing Software provided me with exactly what I needed at a very reasonable price. They were also very quick to provide me with solutions to any issues I had (that which I had very few of).
• Quick Account Activation - My account was activated within minutes of having purchased the services.  After receiving a confirmation email, I immediately started to capture new leads.
• Good Customer Service - I had one small issue regarding their loyalty program and I was contacted within a few days (I bought it on a weekend)
• Track Sales and Subscribers - GetResponse allows me to track sales quickly, lets me know how many subscribers I’ve obtained for a particular week, month or all time. In addition to this, I can quickly create campaigns and followups in a few clicks.
• Learn How To Use It (Tutorials) - Although I did not really need to make much use of them, GetResponse provides several tutorials and guides for users who may not be tech intuitive.
• Import Your Existing List - You can import an existing list of subscribers to GetResponse (CSV Format, Two Columns or more, Name and Email).
• Confirm Your Existing List - These susbscribers will receive a confirmation email - once they confirm they will be part of your list once again. Contrary to popular belief, this is a great thing because it also acts as a screen test to differentiate passive subscribers from active subscribers.
• HTML Lead Capture Wizard - Live a stress-free life with a very simple and customizable HTML Opt-in box generator, simply click, copy and paste the form’s code and you’re capturing leads!

Why Did I Choose GetResponse Over Competitors?

I chose GetResponse because it was more affordable and it had all the features I needed. Ever since buying it I have had virtually zero problems with the service and I highly recommend it to people looking to make a start into Internet Marketing.

Did You Know? Other competitors actually increase the amount you pay dependent on your subscribers count. GetResponse, however, charges you a flat fee based on the amount of time you want to purchase it for. Hence, it is more affordable and it provides very similar features.

Free 30-Day Trial - MoneyBack Guarantee

GetResponse will allow you to buy their BRONZE package (1 month) to try out all the features they have on offer. If you are not satisfied with the product you can simply get all of your money-back within the first 30 days! That is definitely a sign of quality guaranteed [Guaranteed by Simon Grabowski - CEO GetResponse Email Marketing].

I highly recommend GetResponse as they actually help you get started in your internet marketing endeavours, they want you to succeed; and they help you to do this by providing as many different tutorials and free downloads as possible to further assist you. In addition to this they publish their own blog which delivers great email marketing tips very frequently! What are you waiting for? Capture leads, recommend products and generate income!

Interested? Try GetResponse Right Now!

Please Note: This post is a review of a product which I have purchased, it was not influenced or compensated by GetResponse in any way or form. It reflects my personal opinions. It’s purpose is to inform and educate you about a product prior to purchasing it.

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1. The Adverse Effects Of Running On-Blog Contests, How You Can Actually Lose Readers

The first business model based on blogging is the notion of the ‘authority blog‘, this is achieved by becoming an expert in a particular field or niche and truly pumping out copious amounts of remarkable content consistently. The content you output must be useful (highly), it is often good practice to optimize it for social media, so use lists and make it easy for readers to scan.

The best idea for this type of blog is to ensure that content is easily accessible, so people do not have to pour through archives - they can simply click and go. By maximizing site usability and functionality, you will retain more returning visitors and achieve higher page-views which will in turn increase revenue, advertisements are usually limited in these types of blogs but they are found in high converting locations. An example of this type of blog is Darren Rowse from ProBlogger.Net.

Tip: Before Reading The Entire Post, Hear The Other Side of The Story - The Shortcomings of Blogging As A Viable Business Model

2. Business Model: Personal Blog

The second business model revolves around opening yourself up to the world and being very personable with your audience. It also involves heavy amounts of advertisements in less converting areas, hence the requirement for increased advertisements (so more revenue can be generated).This kind of blog will usually have a crowd that is very familiar with the author and has thus developed a close and solid relationship with them. This personable rapport makes readers more receptive to the authors recommendations because they are familiar with the person recommending the product and trust them more than average.

This type of business model requires the blogger to have a lifestyle which is more active than the Average Joe so that experiences can be shared with the readers, compounding the already existing relationship. The readership are more likely to complete tasks asked of them by the blogger, they also tend to visit the actual blog instead of reading the feed (largely due to the great on-blog atmosphere), so an integral part of succeeding in this type of blogging is to ensure that your blog can be interacted with in multiple ways. An example of this type of blog is John Chow from JohnChow.Com.

Idea: Think You Are Ready To Jet Off And Put Effort Into A New or Existing Blog? Check out my post about the 5 Features of A Winning Monetization Strategy

3. Business Model: Paid Blogger

The third blogging based business model is that of the paid blogger. These types of blogs exhibit a sole purpose, to review products and services and be paid for it. The blogger may not make themselves known and it may seem quite ‘faceless’ at times, regardless of this, if the blog has a respectable Google PageRank, a working site design or theme and a solid writing style, they could end up earning thousands. A paid blogger may have ’some’ traffic and a few advertisements.

These kind of blogs are usually not interested in attaining huge amounts of traffic because their income is earned from reviewing products and services, not by having visitors click on ads, sign up to services or buy products. Being a paid blogger is highly rewarding, it is, however, very time consuming and requires you to sometimes review products you have not fully experienced  or tested previously. Some people have earned well beyond $5,000 per month by being a paid blogger.

Goals: Want some long term motivation to keep you focused? Find out how by checking out What’s Motivating You To Become An Entrepreneur

4. Business Model: Internet Marketer’s Blog

The fourth type of blog is that of an internet marketer. It is usually an ‘aside’ for most internet marketers, where they talk about their lives, upcoming product launches and recommend other Internet Marketers’ products. The readership is often very receptive because the internet marketer has pitched their own blog to their mailing list - thus attracting the most responsive subscribers (which means a higher chance of comments and interactivity on the blog).

To own this blog, you must first become a dedicated ‘internet marketer‘ and this often takes years to occur. So, the path to this is similar to authority blogging, but in this instance you must develop products and services (free or paid) which demonstrate your expertise in the niche or field of expertise. A good example of a personable internet marketer’s blog is Joel Comm of JoelComm.Com.

Advice: Don’t stress! It takes time to become a successful entrepreneur, so in the meantime find out why you should Stay Focused and Keep On Innovating

5. Business Model: Affiliate Marketer’s Blog (or Spam Blog)

I include the word ’spam blog’ in brackets because some people may refer to this type of blog as a spam blog because it is seen as a repository for mounds of reviews of affiliate products or services (often with lifetime residual income for the affiliate). Nonetheless, it can succeed if constructed correctly, the trick to succeeding with this is to make your blog look and feel like a real blog, including posts of real written content and links to a few pages of ‘recommended products and services’ which is where your cash will come from when people sign up to services or buy products.

The easiest part of a blog like this is finding affiliate products, places like ClickBank and PayDotCom have literally thousands of products for multiple niches simply waiting to be sold (at good commissions of 70% to 90% of the total price!).The hardest part is gathering a loyal following, you need to be able to show that you are recommending products, but you are also outputting useful and practical content which people can use to better their lives or their own sites, whilst also coming across as honest, credible and genuine (recommendations from other bloggers, gurus and accreditation from institutions help in this area).

Discover: Know How The Business Models Work? Now Find Out What Services To Use To Earn A Living Online - Learn How To Earn Money Online

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1. The Shortcomings Of Blogging As A Viable Business Model, Insights Into Make Money Blogging
2. How To Employ Socially Responsible Business Practices To Enhance Your Brand

Website Grader

Many readers may already be familiar with Website Grader due to its success in the blogosphere and beyond. It has been included because it is a truly invaluable tool, providing you with information about your site, amount of pages indexed in Google, your Technorati and Alexa ranks; and solutions to issues a site may have.

CrazyEgg

CrazyEgg is a nifty little tool which allows you to investigate what users are clicking on when they come to your site, it generates heatmaps and other associated data to show you what users click on and what they do not. Perhaps it’s time you removed that blogroll with a few too many sites on it as you may be throwing away a few too many visitors. CrazyEgg is available for free and paid for further extras.

QuarkBase

QuarkBase is a powerful solution to discover a few extra pieces of information about competitors in your niche. It is especially good at providing data about social media popularity (i.e. How popular an article was on Del.icio.us, Digg, Reddit etc…) It is a highly recommended tool if you want to find out about more than just the basics of a site.

LinkVendor Professional SEO Tools

LinkVendor has quite a broad range of SEO tools, all with a different purpose in mind. There are a few fun tools like the ‘SEO Challenge’ where you can compare two sites in terms of their SEO, one wins, one loses. There are also other extras which are good to know about and use, for example the website speed test, multi Google PageRank checker and keyword density analysis amongst others. Highly recommended.

SpyFu - Spy on Your Online Competitors

Want to know if a site is paying for traffic? Now you can, SpyFu provides keyword data for both organic and paid keywords. It is particularly useful if you are interested in finding keywords which your sites ranks for (organically) and working on those to better your ranking in the search engine ranking pages. They also offer SpyFu Kombat, where you can once again compare two sites with regard to their organic and paid keyword strategy. Essential for online success.

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SmallFishBigMoney Splash: What’s Breaking Waves Worldwide?

Hey everyone! I would like to welcome a brand new section of the site called ‘SmallFishBigMoney Splash’, this is the SmallFishBigMoney version of a community and link-love post. After a long time of pondering the creation of this type of post, I went ahead and did it. The biggest difference about the splash is that it’s a bit of a relaxing post as opposed to one that requires you to think about a specific topic, system or concept.

It’s a ‘keeping in touch’ post, so I can talk to you more regularly, share some great finds and fulfill the site’s primary mission, which is the spirit of community and open conversation. Personalized, includes information about where I get my motivation and inspiration from.

The Link-Love River Flows…Interesting Posts, Great Reads and Remarkable Content

• Stefan from DivitoDesign.Com - 6 Ways To Add More User-Interactivity To Your Blog
• Max from MoneyBites.Com - To Sell Or Not To Sell, That Is The Question
• Bryn from Bryn.Me - Talks About Ethics In Affiliate Marketing
• Rajaie Talks - Fame, Fortune or Fun - Why Do You Blog?
• Sly from SlyVisions - Want To Start A Make Money Online Blog? Think Again.
  
• Raivyn from IdiotsGuideToBlogging - How To Keep Readers Coming Back For More

Liberation, Freedom Of Conversation, The New Theme and The Blog’s First Birthday!

The Splash is definitely liberating, it’s more of a free conversation environment; and it feels fantastic. But, it will have a definite structure so it will not be an open ended ramble about nothing consequential. The new theme was launched in late September 2008, just in time for our first birthday! The new theme was designed to be simplistic, fast-loading and cleaner than the old one. Overall, it turned out quite well - I would love to know what you think, so share your thoughts in the comments! Thanks.

SmallFishBigMoney Developments, Updates and Releases

I released the Thinking Bigger manifesto to coincide with the launch of the custom theme which I have named ‘Atlantis’ (keeping in the realm of fish and the ocean). The manifesto tracks the life of this site, why I moved away from the ‘make money blogging’ niche and what new developments you should head into for a more profitable experience online.

I also emailed my newsletter subscribers with the opportunity for some extra link-love for their site (to be part of the newsletter, simply subscribe). I also opened up the SuperStars! section, the list for the blog I read on a regular basis, have great community spirit and useful, resourceful or remarkable content. I have been working on the improvement of the make money online page and I plan on adding a tools page very soon (for SEO, Site Analysis etc…).

More From The Link-Love River, It’s A Never-Ending Stream Of Great Content

• Stefan from DivitoDesign.Com - Single Author or Multiple Blog Authors?
• LifeHack.Org - Productivity Be Good Or Your Actions Will Come Back To Bite You
• ProBlogger.Net - 8 Reasons To Add A Newsletter To Your Blog
• Ryan McLean - How To Become Well-Known By Commenting
• MrJavo - How To Launch Email Marketing Campaigns Successfully
• FranklinBishop - Blog Title Writing For Good Search Engine Ranking

Quick Wrap-Up And Discussions About Life and Productivity

As you know, I am still in school and I’ll be heading into my final year in 2009. The most important thing to remember is that SmallFishBigMoney will stay alive, but if you are part of the newsletter subscribers (it may seem more alive) as I will send updates and news from time to time. As several life factors begin to take their toll, a major one being school, I have to give more time to revision and study for exams, so I’ll be posting considerably less in the next month, things will resume back to normal in December.

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1. ‘Thinking Bigger’ - The SmallFishBigMoney Manifesto

1. Real Life Example: When You Read Publications…How Do They Look?

I was asking myself why some people were somewhat confused or annoyed at the use of text formatting on some of my previous posts. Then it dawned on me that, put simply, they had reason to be! When reading a book, a newspaper or any other printed publication, I am lucky if I can find more than a couple of words in bold throughout an entire article. Here I was, using bold, italics, underline etc…on practically every second sentence. I realized that things needed to change, so I checked out some popular blogs and came up with the following points. Coincidentally, I also learned that using real-life examples or relating personally to the post helps to make the post original, personal and shows your character and personality, that which many readers enjoy.

2. Use Formatted Text Sparingly: Only Highlight Significant Points

On some websites I did not find any sign of text formatting, yet they still managed to yield significant comment numbers, pull fantastic RSS subscriber readerships etc…So, I learned that it’s not so much about the formatting of the post, it’s really more about the content and how much value it provides. My good friend Jim from TheNetFool was one of the first people to be slightly confused about the excessive bold-ing of my posts; and I thank him for pointing it out to me. Only use text-formatting for extremely important keywords, phrases or quotes which help to embody your posts’ message.

3. Use Block-Quotes To Style Your Post And Denote Importance

Block-quotes, I discovered, were a great way of directing the reader to the important sections of a post, but it should also be used sparingly to denote actual quotes and significant parts of the text. I also identified that I was making use of block quotes a bit too often in my posts, so another aim to improve my post-formatting was to use block-quotes sparingly; and only to emphasize actual excerpts of text or focal points of the post.

4. Use A Numbered List And Bullet Points To Help Skim-Readers

After stumbling upon a few articles about human eye behaviour and reading some posts about social media users, it reaffirmed my preconceptions that very few of them actually read the entire post. Therefore, using numbered lists and bullet points are highly encouraged for maximum engagement and heightened reading duration; in addition to this I learned that you have approximately 3 seconds before a user decides to stay or leave. So, I needed to make use of lists, bullet points and images earlier in order to grab more readers.

5. Use Titles For Link Hovers To Help With Contextual Relevance

Using titles for link hovers helps with contextual relevance. It has also proven to be very good for search engine purposes, this is because it helps the spiders to crawl your site and make more sense of where the links are pointing to and how relevant they actually are (more relevance may mean you attain better rank). So, I embarked on a mission to find a theme that makes use of many tool-tips (the small yellow box when you hover over a link or an image), this meant that my site was optimized for better search engine relevance and this also helps your readers.

6. Use Images To Draw Attention To Sections Of Your Post

This one was sort of second nature to me, I already knew that a large percentage of the world’s population is visually oriented, so using more images to draw attention to post sections was a no-brainer. I did, however, discover that the type of pictures you used impacted on the reader, funny, clever, arty or happy images may provoke reader response, alternatively, plain, boring, urban and moody images may send visitors packing. I had to make use of images with a positive message to engage readers and get them interacting more.

7. Ensure Consistency Within A Post, It Relaxes Readers

From personal experience, I realized that posts had to be consistent. I had encountered a couple that were all over the place. From multiple perspectives, it was a badly formatted post, incomplete ideas, excessive waffle, too many images (with no apparent structure or flow) and a heap of other issues…The human brain enjoys creativity and ‘mash-ups’ but it also enjoys logic, flow, consistency and relevance. So, keep ideas brief but also allow for user response or additions.

8. How Do You Style Your Blog Posts…Noticed Any Trends?

Since October 2007, I have discovered that many of the above are quintessential to generating a fantastic blog post that encourages reader response and participation.  Oh and, asking questions at the end of, throughout or anywhere in a post is a great way to get more participation in the comments area and beyond. Have you got the combination right? Do your readers go crazy in the comments section? Or maybe, you’ve had difficulty getting reader response. So, what are your ideas about posts that generate buzz?

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2. The Adverse Effects Of Running On-Blog Contests, How You Can Actually Lose Readers

1. Socially Responsible Business Practices

1. There are basically two ways to go about it, to put it into layman’s terms you can either ’support’ something or ‘go against’ something.
2. Specifically, you can resist something or assist it, this could mean that your organization supports a charity organization, the planting of trees to offset carbon emissions or make your company do something proactive and volunteer and sponsor a big event funded by a charity.

2. Credibility Of Organizations You Support

There are thousands, if not millions, of charity organizations around the world, you need to find a credible one - or one that many people know. When you think about it, big names like Red Cross, UNICEF and WorldVision come to mind. Going for less known organizations will not have as much of an impact on the readers as a well known one, bigger organizations mean a greater amount of credibility and stronger brand association with positive connotations.

3. Developing An In-House Strategy For Social Responsibility

1. People will look at your company in a new light. You can create a custom-made in-house strategy for making your business socially responsible.
2. Google is currently using several sources of renewable energy and has servers that run more efficiently than typical servers, these are custom built.
3. McDonalds makes use of it’s Ronald McDonald House Charities program which means that it does not have to rely on third party companies to create a positive brand image. This means there is more directional control for crafting the brand.

4. Creating A Socially Responsible Online Business Or Website

If you want your enhance your online business brand, you need to find out how to offset the carbon emissions produced by it. As weird as this may seem, the server that your site is hosted on and your hosting may not be a green organization. In extreme scenarios you may want to move to green hosting. You can even give away some of your monthly income to charitable organizations (like I do here). Developing office strategies to cut down on electricity use, water wastage and paper use are also equally as effective.

5. My Personal Opinions About Socially Responsible Business Practices

1. Socially responsible business practices can do a world of good for companies who want to gain some extra publicity for themselves, this is why most companies implement the practices in the first place.
2. They put their marketing strategy ahead of the actual charity work; and this is the bone of contention for me, I think that if your company is looking into being socially responsible, the resistant or supportive strategies should be put ahead of the marketing.

6. Your Opinions About Socially Responsible Business

Okay, now it’s your turn! I’ve mentioned what I think about socially responsible business above, but what is more important is what you have to say! Share your thoughts, comments, opinions and feedback about companies using socially responsible business practices as a marketing gimmick instead of being genuine about it. What say you?

• Do you believe that all companies should have some form of social responsibility in their business?
• Would you consider implementing socially responsible practices into your business?
• How much do you think socially responsible business can transform an organization?

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1. The Shortcomings Of Blogging As A Viable Business Model, Insights Into Make Money Blogging
2. Earn A Living Online Using One Of Five Proven Blogging Business Models

In October 2007, I created SmallFishBigMoney.Com - a site for news about internet business, online monetization techniques, marketing and entrepreneurship. In October 2008, I relaunched the site with a new theme of ‘Thinking Bigger’. Alongside this launch was the SmallFishBigMoney Thinking Bigger Manifesto for 2008. This manifesto is an 8-slide report outlining my discoveries since October07 till October08. As regular SmallFishBigMoney Readers, this report is available for free - here is an excerpt…

“If you want to earn a significant income online, blogging is probably not the best place to start. For a blog to succeed, it takes copious amounts of time, effort and money; and that is a definite rarity for most. Earnings may not even begin to accrue for the first couple of months, even if you are marketing your content heavily, there are no guarantees, traffic or monetary.

Good business models are built upon the knowledge that you are providing a service to people who need it. This is the most rudimentary education one should recognize before jumping into any business. Since I started blogging, I realized that there was ‘some’ demand for people looking for ways to make money online, but in my case, there was excessive supply and little demand, i.e. too many people could provide the basics of making money online. But I found a loop-hole…“

Originally it was going to be available only via email subscription, but I decided that I would lose a lot of potential readers of the manifesto, so it is now a direct download link!

You can read more by downloading it at the link below…

Download The SmallFishBigMoney Thinking Bigger Manifesto Now!

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If you are serious about making a name for yourself or popularising your site, getting a custom designed theme is quintessential. Here are a few important notes to remember when downloading or using a new theme. They are the overarching principles of functional and accessible web design.

• Make it simple to use and easy to navigate
• Ensure it is visually pleasing, but also fast loading
• Use a light colour scheme, 3 or less heavy colours

2. Give Away A Free Report Or e-Book

A classic way to increase your readership base and reader loyalty is to offer something for free. Free stuff always works wonders and it is something that people can keep. You can be guaranteed that if it is good enough, people will continue to refer to it in the search for answers and success.

• Free reports should be short and concise, clearly stating a point, theme or message
• A well designed report should contain a linked contents page for ease of navigation
• Visually pleasing reports will make them memorable

3. Post Resourceful Content And Lists

Numerous studies have proven that humans never read everything on the screen unless it is something extremely vital or crucial to their lives. This means that providing resourceful content and lists are essential for creating a site that is successful in attaining a constant flow of new readers, subscribers and customers.

• Resourceful content should have a logical flow or sequence
• Different ideas or topics within the content should be clearly denoted with headings
• Lists used intermittently within a post will grab reader attention

4. Write Clear And Concise Posts

Get to the point! No one is interested in reading a post that is constantly going off on a tangent about what they had for dinner last night. Clarity and conciseness within a post is what people admire, this is the kind of stuff that people will bookmark because a point is stated in less than one or two thousand words.

• Use proper text formatting to emphasise the important points
• Do not excessively bold, italicise or underline the text
• Say what you mean and mean what you say, don’t candy-coat
• Remember that you have about 3 seconds to win or lose a visitor

5. Remind Your Visitors To Subscribe

A site actively seeking subscribers will use reminders in their header and after a post; and sometimes, in the footer, in emails etc… Subscribe To www.SmallFishBigMoney.com Via RSS or Email Now! Upon analysis, the previous sentence seems like a normal subscription line, but what does it make use of?

• The text has been properly formatted and it looks visually pleasing
• It uses the word ‘Now’ as a definite Call To Action
• It has a link with the anchor text as the site URL
• It provides multiple subscription options for readers

Your Thoughts, Comments, Opinions, Suggestions and Additions

Your Feedback, Suggestions and Comments: What do you believe are the most effective ways of increasing RSS readership count and, in turn, getting more returning visitors?

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“Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, but concentrate the mind on the present moment” - Siddhartha Buddha

As a people, we are influenced, positively or negatively. From the start, we are taught how to act, react and behave. We are taught what is right and what is wrong; and soon enough we begin to see that most of what we are taught is correct, but we also make our own judgements and decisions based upon knowledge we learn on our own, be it from our mistakes or our inspirational figures.

Life is rushed, we go from A to B and most people have a 9 to 5 job, they make money to survive, but they never get any family life as such. Freedom and financial security are the ultimate, but sometimes, in that search for those two goals we get sidetracked, we lose hope, we lack motivation, we need inspiration and guidance…and this is only natural, because we’re human.

“If you are patient in one moment of anger, you will escape a hundred days of sorrow.” - Chinese Proverb

I had to tell you to forget about your perceptions of the world, enter the remainder of this post with a clear mind, because you will need it. Although we have a deadline as a living thing, many of us are hindered by this deadline, we always search for speed, ease, efficiency, convenience…Why? We think that by doing so, we can increase the time we have on earth, but many of the conveniences we resort to have negative outcomes.

Becoming an overnight success takes work, it takes tenacity (persistent determination) and it takes time. World famous ‘billionaires’ did not get rich overnight (unless they inherited a fortune). People like Donald Trump, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Darren Rowse and so many others all have a story; and their story rings true to the message of this very post, becoming an overnight success takes time. So what now?

People who cut corners, who fall for short term solutions to long term problems, will eventually hit a brick wall. People who take their time, people who innovate and understand others, they will be the winners in the end, because they are the individuals who went to get their plant pot fixed at a potters as opposed to putting some duct tape over it.

“When we try to get things done quickly, we rarely ever get anything done.” - Fabien, SmallFishBigMoney.Com

This post is not about telling you to do what you’ve always done, because if you do that, the results will always be the same. The last part of the title says ‘keep on innovating’ and this is essential to any of life’s successes. You cannot sit around and hope that what works today, will work tomorrow, because 99% of the time it will not; and that is when a businesses vanishes into oblivion, or in the case of the Internet, cyber-oblivion.

“Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson. Being patient does not means being passive and counter-productive, being patient simply means taking steps you are able to take now and work towards a bigger goal you aim for in the future, whilst still remaining focused on the present moment. You cannot get to the end before beginning. Above all, learn to be patient as a person; and then in your doings. In life, people will carry out useless tasks that don’t result in anything, that’s 95% of their lives, the other 5% is free time, it can either be used to achieve great things, help others and be selfless, or it can be placed alongside the 95%…doing nothing, the choice is ours and no one else’s, make the right one.

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They Take Risks

Yes, entrepreneurs take risks, but contrary to popular belief, these are calculated risks. As a people, the media has influenced us to believe that rich businesspeople have risked it all and yielded great results, these are to an extent true, but they have been highly exaggerated by screen producers in order to lure viewers by giving them that all important feeling of hope. The ‘hope’ that they may one day become like the man or woman or corporation whom they are watching on television. One message for the viewers, get off the couch and take action. Those who don’t take risks are fearful of failure.

They Take Action

Leading on from risk-taking, entrepreneurs take action and this is probably one of the most significant points of this entire post. The one factor separating a success from failure is ACTION. You have to do something in order to attain results, you’ll get nowhere by procrastinating or putting things off, an idea is good, an idea in motion is better, an idea seen to completion is great, an idea worked upon after completion is powerful. They took a leap of faith and decided to invest some capital into an idea worthy of a trial. The results? Success or experience, either are better than having done nothing at all.

They Innovate

After an entrepreneur takes action, they innovate. They work on an idea, they tweak it and do this continuously; and for some this is a never-ending process. Innovation is key in business and in anything you do, because the world is a changing place, nothing is ever a certainty, except death and taxes that is. Reacting to volatility and fluctuations in the global market allows you to yield greater results, know what people want and understand how societal behaviour is influenced by factors of modern day life.

They Outsource

Entrepreneurs, idea developers and the like all understand one thing; and that is that they can’t do everything themselves. In Robert Kiyosaki’s model, he talks about self-employed people who want to do everything themselves and how that will ultimately, result in lack of success or restricted success. Outsourcing is vital to creating a truly remarkable product or service to people.

If you’re really bad at web design, get a company to do it for you. Don’t have an identifiable logo? Get someone to design one for you. Don’t know PHP, hire a coder. By outsourcing you’ll be able to focus your energy on what you’re really good at doing and not waste any of it trying to do something you hate or are not so good at. Doing everything yourself results in a product or service with loop holes and flaws.

They Network

Networking is the cornerstone of being an effective entrepreneur; and it is a skill that some are naturally gifted with and one that others work hard at and struggle with. Effective networking means you leave a truly lasting impression. The essentials of networking face to face lie in your body language, facial expressions and overall vibe. Here are a few tips, smile, be warm, ask conversational questions; and the cardinal rule, don’t talk about religion or politics. Give them your card!

They Communicate

Business owners, directors and CEO’s all must have the ability to communicate effectively, and not only must they do this, they must be able to motivate and influence their employees. To be a powerful communicator you have to have a sense of presence, a passion for what you are talking about, a good posture; and a broad knowledge of what you are talking about. You must also be able to inspire your employees and engage them, bringing your vision to light and lifting their spirits to make them feel that they are part of something special, something that is great.

Entrepreneurial Drive, Do You Have It?

Entrepreneurial drive is the persistent determination to succeed, it’s the quality that gives you the inner strength to overcome pitfalls and bounce back with new ideas and creativity. Everyone has the ability to unleash it within themselves, it’s a simple principle of mind over matter. If you’ve tried launching a business and failed, try again, but this time learn from your mistakes and do things differently. Keep on tweaking, keep on analysing and after a certain period of time, you’ll hit the right combination and you’ll use that knowledge of your previous failure or ‘experience’ to guide you in a better direction.

What Do You Believe Makes A Successful Entrepreneur?

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Blogging Is An ‘Okay’ Business Model, But Why Can’t It Make The Leap To ‘Great’?

Blogging is not a great business model, it’s more of an ‘okay’ one. There are bountiful amounts of reasons people can use to tell you why it’s fantastic, but when it comes down to it; it takes up a lot of time, and for some, it rarely yields any significant results. In addition to this, blogging has the ability to cause you stress and burn you out; and no amount of passion can prevent this from happening. We’re human after all, we get tired even when we’re having the time of our lives. One-man-band blogs may never succeed in making a significant income online; and this depends largely on their marketing, commitment, motivation and dedication. High proficiency in writing is an invaluable tool, especially if you’re looking to ‘make it big’.

The Successful Blogs, Ones That Actually Make Money Online…What’s The Secret?

There is no secret, you need only look at their blogs and they will tell you all you need to know. Successful blogs are usually backed by a team of dedicated writers, editors and chief executive officers. These people have built entire companies based around blogging and these companies have solid foundations. These companies include the likes of TechCrunch and b5media. Other reasons for bloggers being successful include the fact that they started very early (when it was much easier to get readers), wrote interesting material and continue to entertain or inform their audiences (they’ve kept up with the times). Blogs covering hot topics like celebrity gossip and news opinion may also attract significantly greater audience because they are broad topics which many are interested to read about often, even if the blog is only six months old.

Does ‘Blogging’ Even Have A Sound Business Model? Is It All Just Fluff And No Puff?

Blogging in essence does not have a viable or feasible business model as such, for a lot of people it revolves along the lines of banners or text advertisements and affiliate marketing. The problems associated with making an income this way revolves around traffic, content, design and offers. A blog needs to have all of those going for it in order to make a significant turnover. Little traffic, average content and mediocre affiliate offers will not get you very far. You need to have the ability to drive the masses, keep up renewed interest and keep pushing your content diversity; because without diversity and progression, people will lose interest. A good affiliate company always helps to maximize profits as well because they provide you with top-notch, contextually relevant offers for pay-per-lead or sale.

The World Of “Make Money Blogging”…Is It All It’s Cracked Up To Be? Maybe It’s Just A Fad.

The ‘make money blogging‘ craze started three to four years ago. It has since spawned a plethora of small and insignificant little blogs struggling to make a couple of pennies online by blogging. They were told that they could make thousands per month by having advertisements on their blog and attracting people to their blogs. This is most certainly an example of hype and one that has caught out so many individuals online.  A huge percentage of blogs are lucky if they can pull off their monthly hosting costs and blessed if they can attain a profit. The point is that very few blogs actually succeed and pull through, some blogs get to the ‘out of the darkness’ stage (some people know their blog exists) and never go further than that.

Skyrocketing Your Blog To Success And Stardom…How Exactly Can This Be Achieved?

Your blog can succeed, but competition in the industry is only getting tougher, more and more bloggers are coming out of nowhere and are gaining credibility in their respective niches and markets. Skyrocketing Your Blog To Success is no easy task, but it’s not extremely hard either. It comes down to presentation, process and promotion. These three P’s are the most important factors in deciding your blogs success. They are a streamlined way of looking at your blog and ensuring that all the cogs and gearwheels are truly interlocking.

Presentation

This refers to your blog and it’s overall appearance, it also relates to your own personal appearance. In addition to this it includes your demeanor towards people, your personality, how you respond to emails, messages etc…You have to always be focused, caring, generous and positive, especially when replying to reader comments, reader emails, business emails or client messages. An aura of positivity will welcome the reader to visit your blog more in the future. One email not responded to may lose you a reader for a lifetime, or at least the next six to twelve months. First impressions are everything, don’t lose visitors because of slow load-time, excessive ads, bad content, obscene language etc…

Process

Process is more about your content writing than anything else, but it also involves your work and life schedule. Processing your blog posts means that you ensure your points are clear, concise and convincing, you should also aim for them to provide new value as opposed to older post points being rehashed in a new post. Your writing process should include a clear writing, editing and proof-reading stage, graphic enhancements are optional as some people want to reduce blog load-time and opt out of using them altogether. Streamlining your life has many benefits, it means that you spend less time procrastinating and more time doing actual work. Procrastination occurs when you feel you have the time to do so, make your deadlines and work margins razor sharp so you don’t have as much free time.

Promotion

The most important stage of the blog posting process, and the most forgotten stage of the blogging process. If you don’t promote your blog post…who’s going to read it? Yes, I know you may have RSS subscribers, but you really need to boost your readership further. Twitter, Plurk, FriendFeed, Pownce, Identi.ca, Digg, Mixx, StumbleUpon, Reddit, Delicious, MyBlogLog Members, BlogCatalog broadcast, email list subscribers and the list goes on…Develop big networks on the above social media sites and use them all when you publish your next post, you’re bound to get a couple of hundred extra visitors.

Can You Really “Make Money Blogging”…Is It The Result Of Excessive Hype And Buzz?

All in all, being a blogger can earn you money, but it is truly hard work (especially for people starting anew who don’t know much about social media etc…). I often refer to my blogging journey as a 180 degree roller-coaster experience because I’ve just learnt so much about Blogging, Programming, Writing, Social-Media, SEO, SEM and so many more topics. Successful, Money-Making and Hot Topic blogs are the result of a profound understanding of people, what they like to read, how they interact with a web-site and what makes them ‘tick’ or inclined to respond. In the end it comes down to the age old expression -

“You only get out what you put in“.

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Jim started TheNetFool in October 2007, coincidentally, that’s also when I started developing SmallFishBigMoney.Com. The Net Fool has grown and flourished in a relatively short space of time. When I think of The Net Fool, the first thing that pops to mind is stock market, making money online and last but definitely not least, the logo.

Thanks for your time Jim; it’s great to have you here at www.SmallFishBigMoney.com! You’re currently enrolled at Penn State, a very highly ranked university. Was the application and acceptance process difficult as a result? How’s the overall atmosphere at Penn State?

You know, I applied to around 10 colleges… so after awhile it’s all a blur. Definitely a challenge (and a headache) to apply to colleges, but once you do a few, the others aren’t too miserable. I really chose Penn State because of the Smeal College of Business, which is consistently ranked top-twenty in the nation. Being a part of “Nittany Nation” has its advantages… and the atmosphere is the best in the world without a doubt. Nothing like having tens of thousands of students trapped in the middle of the mountains with nothing to do, eh?

How do you balance your blogging with university related work? Is it something easy to do? What are your tips and techniques for balancing life activities and successfully managing time?

This is probably the hardest thing to do for me. There’s a lot to do at Penn State, so while you may say that all college kids have “down time“… blogging really can only happen in spurts when I both don’t have classes and also my friends aren’t bugging me to throw around a football or whatnot. My best tip would be to wake up early for classes and do it then, something that I never have and probably never will do. It’s the best time of day by far. Otherwise, you have to do like I do and try to squeeze in posts between classes and before bed… which is not the most fun thing to do haha.

As an entrepreneur with a growing presence online, The Net Fool has a very distinct blog design and logo; how much value do you place on branding and brand recognition?

If you don’t spend a bit on your design from the get-go… you’ll be in a world of hurt and you probably aren’t going to see any significant amount of traffic. I was blogging hard for about 10 people for the first 5 months of my career as a blogger. Yeah, five months… ouch. That’s when I realized that something needed to be done. That’s the point where I went out and made what you see today with some outsourcing and some elbow grease, started actively marketing my stuff, and got my foothold in the industry. So branding is definitely the first step any serious blogger should take.

The Net Fool is a rapidly growing blog destination, what has influenced your RSS readership growth the most? Does social media play a large role in this?

I would say that social media plays a “limited at best” factor in my RSS development. I’ve never hit a front-page on Digg or anything like that, so I’ve basically gotten what is cheap and sporadic traffic from the typical social book-marking websites. Most of my growth has come from word of mouth, high-ranking Google results for niche terms (based on good content, not SEO tricks), and contests that encourage people to actually enter in the ol’ email address.

As a blogger, I know I always find myself developing, furthering and fostering the author and reader relationship. Do you believe this is important? Why?

Absolutely, I think of myself as an online financial advisor of sorts. I leave my contact page open to anyone who wants to drop me a line or ask a question, and boy do they. What’s good now is that I have so many posts that I can just respond with a link and “go here” to help them out. But I answer pretty much everything that comes my way and like to form solid relationships with my readers.

There’s really a lot you can do here to form a partnership with everyone that comes. And I do things like throw 500-subscriber parties and mix in random advertising giveaways throughout the month to keep the troops entertained when they aren’t asking me a question. Active commenting is another great way to show your appreciation for visits. I did a LOT of commenting in the early days, and that’s an essential part of getting off the ground.

How do you stay in touch with your readership? Do you find services like Twitter, Plurk, Pownce and FriendFeed valuable to use as a communication tool?

They are, I just don’t use them very much. I’ve started to try and use Twitter more as I go along (http://www.twitter.com/thenetfool) and do answer the direct messages and such that come through, but I’m really a lot more open to instant messaging and email communication above all others.

To date, what has been the most effective way to drive traffic to your blog and subsequently convert these visitors into fully fledged subscribers and potential customers?

Contests. There’s no hiding it, give people free stuff and they will come.

Which social media sites do you believe are the most valuable hence frequent more? Why?

I’m really not that big on social media websites, as you have probably picked up on haha, but the ones I use are Digg and StumbleUpon. I’m always on instant messenger or something, so I get people about every 15-30 minutes just shooting me a quick “stumble/digg this?” and I usually just do that from the get go. I like helping other people out, so I leave those two social media websites well traveled in order to drive some traffic around… I feel like it’s a win-win.

What is the best piece of advice you can give to SmallFishBigMoney.Com readers who want to grow their blog or site into something more than it already is?
Follow your dreams. Never surrender… never back down…just kidding!

My real advice would be to get an RSS reader and just start subscribing to blogs like SFBM and TNF so that you can learn from the best. Don’t be afraid to use the contact pages to get to know the pro’s in whatever industry you are involved in, and feed off their success! When I got my first start, it was a lot of question-asking and learning that I took from other bloggers. I’m not afraid to say it… use those that already know things to your advantage!

Thanks Jim, It’s been great having you here at www.SmallFishBigMoney.com On behalf of the readers and I, thank you for taking the time to answer these questions and in turn enabling us to broaden our knowledge!

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Blog contests and ‘contests’ in general have become an increasingly popular way to generate buzz; and boost popularity for web-sites which are seen to be ‘below the radar’. One of my biggest frustrations to date is the fact that bloggers and webmasters alike spend enormous amounts of time running these on-blog contests (on-blog meaning the contest appears as a physical post on the blog). Less quality content is produced as a result and some part of your readership may be affected by this, and they may, in turn leave.

I believe that webmasters develop and launch contests for two main reasons. The first being, to get links for better SEO and the second, to boost popularity and generate buzz (as mentioned above). If you have developed a steady flow of readers over time, it’s probably because they enjoyed reading your content; they didn’t come as a result of your contest, but they might leave as a result of your contest. Quick anecdote: If a supermarket sells high quality products one day and sells a cheaper brand the next…You go to another supermarket. It’s as simple as that.

This time spent running these contests means less premium content and more garbage stuff which, if a reader hasn’t followed from the beginning, will make them lose interest in the particular blog. This is the basis for this post, you may gain readers from a contest but you may have also left twenty or so regular readers behind or in the dark…You’ve lost them because they were not there from the start. I’m not just pulling this stuff out of a hat, it’s proven knowledge, when I go to a blog running a contest and I wasn’t there from the start, I don’t go there for a couple of months…What do you do? The problem with a contest is that you have to keep track of it, something many people don’t have the time to do.

Using a newsletter to manage your contest has many positives and virtually zero negatives, it allows you to stay in touch with your community, whilst also maintaining high readership numbers because the blog stays clean and content rich. Newsletters have the added benefit of being able to track the behavior of your readers with statistics provided by some email marketing software such as Aweber, GetResponse and iContact. I believe that using a newsletter is a more personal and is a much less intrusive way of running a contest. Email Newsletters are a more logical and structured way of generating contests to send to your active readership and they usually yield greater results.

Save your readers! Every single reader counts. Contest posts look messy and sometimes reduce the overall quality of your blog; I’m not saying ‘Don’t run contests’, I am saying if you do want to run a contest make sure it does not interfere with the blog’s content quality and its daily proceedings. You can have on-blog contest posts, just make sure they are clean and they are quickly followed up by quality posts about your blog’s topic. Even then I still highly recommend opting to the email marketing solutionsI provided you with earlier, it just makes life less of a hassle.

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As bloggers we are all (whether we consider ourselves them or not) businesspeople. You may not realise it yet but like all businesses you probably have outgoings (to cover hosting, design etc.) and probably incomes (from advertising or donations). Though many of you reading this will be operating on a small scale at the moment it will help you enormously going forward if you get yourself into good business habits. So this is how you can learn to treat your blog as a business:

1. Go to Work.

Blogging is not such a simple life. You may believe, and this was certainly true of me when I started out in 2007, that you can sit in front of the TV with a laptop and write any old rubbish which someone is bound to like. It’s important to find a nice working environment which is quiet and distraction free so that you can fully concentrate on the task in hand. This will make you much more productive and give you more time to relax after work.

It may also be good to get out of the house. After all, it’s better for your family if you don’t mix work and home life. If you are really serious and can, rent out an office or try this. If you don’t want to, work from home but use an office space and make sure to separate this from your home life. Make sure you leave work by 6pm each evening and come home even if it is the same building.

2. Get to work on time, and then use it wisely.

If you intend to make money from your blog your will need to put in the hours. Set yourself a weekly timetable and stick to it. Within the timetable you’ll need to assign time for different things that need to be done.

GET TO BED EARLY - GET UP EARLY.

This has affected me from time to time when I wanted to do something but ended up wasting a day because I stayed up too late the night before. Even if you’re not an ‘early bird’ you should get up by 8, even if you don’t start working until 10. Here is a fantastic post regarding this issue from ZenHabits.Net: Benefits Of Rising Early

3. MIT – Most Important Tasks.

In Business deadlines must be met. If not you may face a slap on the wrist, disciplinary hearing or even get fired. The disadvantage of blogging is that you are your boss and so these things won’t motivate you to complete a task before the deadline and you’ll get lazy. If you blog with a partner or team of bloggers then discuss in the morning what you want to achieve during the day and by doing this you will subconsciously feel a bit of pressure because you don’t want them to know you have failed.

The majority of you will work alone however and you cannot get this pressure from others, you need to exert it upon yourself. Here is where MIT’s come in. As Leo of www.ZenHabits.net says, you should allocate yourself at least one MIT per day. This is not your sole aim of the day, but a task which must be completed. He also recommends

“Do your MIT’s first thing in the morning, either at home or when you first get to work. If you put them off to later, you will get busy and run out of time to do them. Get them out of the way, and the rest of the day is gravy!”

I would also suggest that writing this down on a chart first thing in the morning would help keep it at the back of your mind so that you are compelled to do it.

What is an MIT?

• Write a blog post
• Post 5 thoughtful comments
• Set up a social media profile.

4. Organise your ‘Company’s’ Finances.

This may seem pointless at first but this is another way of keeping your home and work lives separate. It may help you to open a separate bank account. I have 2 bank accounts. One holds my savings and one holds a smaller amount of money which I use from day to day and also use to top up the other account from time to time. My rules are that I don’t touch my savings and that I continue to add to my current account regularly.

I would imagine that many people (especially beginners) couldn’t or wouldn’t be bothered to take the finances of their blog seriously. If you are blogging for pleasure or enjoyment and don’t wish to worry about money perhaps this is not applicable, but if you see blogging as a career or a lifestyle (even if it’s only a little earner on the side) you should invest some time in this.

For most people, this will involve nothing more than a piece of paper detailing advertising earnings and perhaps a new PayPal account. But if you adopt this habit from day one you’ll be in control and aware of your finances and you can devote more time to creating magic with your pen. For some however, such as those of you who blog at sites like these; keeping track of money may be a bit more difficult.

Final tip: Make one sheet with two columns: the left for outgoings and the right for incomes. Make sure you control what you spend on your blog by balancing the left and right sides.

5. Quality not Quantity.

I will begin this point with a metaphor. Say you went to a shop with the intention of buying strawberries; if the strawberries had were covered in mould you definitely wouldn’t buy them and you probably wouldn’t go back there looking for strawberries.

The same applies to content online. No matter how many ‘strawberries’ you offer, you’ll get no sales if they’ve gone off. So instead of concentrating on chucking content out there, slow down. Seriously consider how many blog posts you can afford to write without compromising the quality. There’s no point in writing 3 ‘knee-jerk’ posts. Instead allow yourself to mull over what you’re going to write and get your conclusion set in your mind before you start, make notes if it helps you.

But I think the most important thing is to write the post carefully. Take your time without compromising productivity. For example, I wrote this post in three one-hour sittings over three days. This gave me plenty of time to consider my thoughts before I finished the post. There were one or two occasions where I disagreed with what I’d already said but because I wrote the post over a longer period I had chance to change what I’d written. Finally and most importantly you must check over what you’re going to submit.

Why does Quality Matter? Within this post alone quality has been displayed. Not by me necessarily but by those stories I have linked to. The better, more informative and even entertaining a post is the more likely it is to get linked to and recommended and all that adds up to more traffic to your blog.

I hope you found these tips useful and would encourage you to implement them. If you have any of your own habits to share please leave them in the comments. Thanks.

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1. The Shortcomings Of Blogging As A Viable Business Model, Insights Into Make Money Blogging
2. Earn A Living Online Using One Of Five Proven Blogging Business Models