If you are gonna be there, don’t forget to hit me up!

I’ve got a TON of niche blogs waiting to hit the right affiliate product (as always) so don’t forget your hidden gold gem in your bag, THAT’S ME!

Post from: I Make Money Online by Creating Free Content for the World with Blogs

CJU – Santa Barbara!

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The REAL secret to SEO isn’t about links at all really, it’s about knowing why SEO exists and why search engines are useful.

Truthfully, search engines simply exist so humans can easily find information on the web as if they were asking another human being.

So, what is Google doing?  They are making the best search engine that will give their users the best “human” experience.

Simply put it, I don’t give a shit about SEO, SEO only exists after the fact that search engine rankings are all about giving humans the best possible answer that Google “humanly” can.

There’s a ton of companies out there I know personally that are benefiting from gaming the system and you know what, that’s only going to go as far as how much they spend on buying links and whatnot.

I wouldn’t go there ever, that’s  a bad area to be if you have to try that badly to get your company’s brand noticed.

The better way?  Don’t be a cheater, be a human being, make a great product, blog about your great product, and let the rest follow.

How do I get great SEO rankings?

I just blog about everything, blogging is at the core of SEO because I truly and honestly blog about things as I see it, as a human being.

That’s the secret, if you can be honest to the world about your own feelings about something, you will always have a ton of SEO to follow.  It’s not the other way around though.

So, if you are going to spend a million bucks on your next SEO campaign, don’t, spend it instead on building great products and on companies like me who blog about it.  And yeah, I don’t charge you for it, you can contact me for your next social media campaign at zedomax [at] gmail dot com.

I do love free products though, and yeah, I have to disclose that too by the way if you are sending me free samples or even for products for review.

Man, I love life, blogging about everything and being open/honest about everything.   That, my friend, will get you further with SEO than the next thousand dollars you spend with another (black hat) SEO company.

SEO companies can suck my big middle finger rolling up slowly, they don’t do much other than trying to game what is supposed to be for human beings to decide, you and me.

Remember this as an analogy, it doesn’t matter if you show up #1 on Google for “Best New York Restaurant” if your restaurant makes bad steaks and customer service sucks balls.  But, it does matter if your restaurant is indeed the best restaurant in New York and you give the best customer service in the world because you will eventually end up #1 on Google.  THAT, is how you slice SEO for your company’s brand.

Yup, that’s the secret sauce baby and you should thank me because I told you my secrets to SEO.

Post from: I Make Money Online by Creating Free Content for the World with Blogs

The REAL Secret to SEO!

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Since I do own a number of domains, let me tell you that number, right now I own about 400 to 500 domain names.

Over 50% of them I actually don’t use but I register all the .com, .net, and .org domain names to shut out my competition.

Why?

Most search engines these days rank .com, .net, and .org domain names very high while domain names ending in .biz, .info, and others are pretty much worthless. (Not completely but it’s still hard to compete with a .biz or .info domain name.)

I know it’s ironic because this blog is a .biz domain name but believe me because I wouldn’t have done the same if I knew before.

So, how many domain names should you own?

It all depends on your goals. If your goal is to protect your brand and also your online business, my rule of thumb is to buy the .com, .net, and .org domain names.

Also, I would buy plurals/singular domain names too. For example, if you were selling “dog collars” and you owned DogCollars.com, I would buy up DogCollars.com, DogCollars.net, DogCollars.org AND DogCollar.com, DogCollar.net, and DogCollar.org.

This is mainly because other companies (or competition) can easily rank as highly as you can buy buying domain names that are singular/plural.

In reality, it’s all about protecting your brand, your company. If you don’t buy up all the extraneous, possible domain names that could mean competition for the future.

One more tip, I even buy up all kinds of variations too, I will leave that up to you but don’t “think” that buying extra domain names is a waste of money, it’s also buying up a whole bunch of internet real estate you can own yourself for the next 5-10 years.

I don’t care if you make money by blogging, PPC, or whatever, the rule of thumb is that you need to buy up all the domains, UNLESS you are willing to deal with competition or other annoying species that want to take a pie of your profits/branding.

So, just remember, don’t be frugal when you buy domain names, just BUY ALL OF THEM!

Post from: I Make Money Online by Creating Free Content for the World with Blogs

How Many Domain Names Should You Own?

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My father does this all the time. He sees an really old, traditional market, monopolized by a really, really old company that has been selling XY widgets for a billion decades.

He goes in there, introduces YZ widgets that are 10 times better yet 10 times cheaper and starts taking a BIG bite out of the market. After couple years of that, my father has a big share of that market and the lazy traditionals are PISSED!

Yet, that is capitalism, that is what “benefits” the end consumers.

So, my point is that you need to do that do make money online or offline.

TAKE A BIG BITE OFF THAT BIG PIE, YOU DESERVE IT.

Sometimes, that little stubborn attitude of yours that you want to win will win over many many millions of hearts and dollars.

That’s what I do, that’s how I make money online.

You fight the big boys, forget the tiny ones.

Win a big fight, then another one, then another one, eventually, you will become the big boy.

Anyways, keep bloggin’ hard baby, that’s how you get it done.

Of course, there’s always that “FREE” pie too, find that “blue ocean” and catch all that free fish.

Remember, there’s more than million ways to cut a fish, pie, market, or whatever, just learn how to cut it so you get the big cut.

And yeah, don’t forget to subscribe, I will be hinting on more tips.

Post from: I Make Money Online by Creating Free Content for the World with Blogs

How to Take a Bite Out of the Market!

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That’s pretty simple, first code is same but you just need to insert a second “else” statement to show ads for non-search/non-image traffic like this:

This added "else" statement will allow you to show ads to your regular visitors or when the cookie expires for first-time search visitors.
Replace myadcode goes here with your ad code and make sure to add slash(\) in front of any double quotes(") and the other slash(/).

Post from: I Make Money Online by Creating Free Content for the World with Blogs

How to Show Ads to your Regular Visitors/Readers Only!

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Anyways, for social media, YouTube is one thing you can not miss because it’s VIDEO and people love watching VIDEOS!

I know a lot of YouTube secrets and what they are worth, anyways, if you though I was going to tell you all the secrets today, you thought wrong.

But it’s okay, I am writing a new e-book called “YouTube Viral Marketing”. I’ve used my own YouTube viral marketing to achieve more things like bring web traffic to blogs, sell products over Amazon’s associate program, and a whole lot more.

You will be very interested.

Sorry, I cannot really give free copies for review but I will accept small donation of $20 (reg. $99) per “early” review copy and you will also get free updates as this social media and YouTube changes often.

If you’d like an “early”, never-disclosed secrets of YouTube, leave a comment with your e-mail and I will contact you when the first review copies are available.

Yup, I’ve even bought the domain name for that, it’s gonna be called YouTubeViralMarketing.com

Need a resume?

I’ve drove more than 2 million views to my YouTube videos within matter of 3 days for my last Android Tablet Prototype video in which it cost me zero dollars except for my time and video equipment.  This video was posted on various different sites like CNet, Engadget, Gizmodo, Wired, IntoMobile, and ton of other blogs/websites.

That’s not all though, that’s just tip of iceburg.  My new YouTube Viral Marketing e-book will teach you how to profit off YouTube channel time after time and also brand your business.

There’s a whole lot of communication on YouTube that most people miss out on, it’s like Twitter.  Well, I don’t want to give out too many secrets now, do I?

And no, I don’t use ANY blackhat methods but using a simple but effective strategy and planning.

I upload videos all the time, check out my YouTube channel at YouTube.com/zedomax

Also, you can check out my previous blog posts on YouTube Viral Marketing.

Post from: I Make Money Online by Creating Free Content for the World with Blogs

YouTube Viral Marketing!

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Yes, it’s that simple, if you could do “everything” quickly, there’s no reason why you wouldn’t be successful at anything. (well, except golf)

BE QUICK to realize where the future is headed, BE QUICK to make decisions that could affect the rest of your life, BE QUICK at what you gotta do.

Once when I was in high school, 17 years old, I used to deliver pizza at my local pizza hut. I am glad to say that I was the “quickest” delivery person.

Just sayin’, if you do everything quickly, you can beat life and time.

Remember time is your only enemy, if you can figure out how to stop time (perhaps build a time machine), you will be able to accomplish a lot more with a lot less effort.

How long it takes me to buy a new domain, install wordpress blog, setup the theme, and make couple blogs posts: 20 minutes.

I admit though I am a bit lazy, but I have picked up my speed again, being quick, quicker than Quicken, quicker than a cheetah, you get what I am saying.

Even if you work at McDonalds taking drive-through orders, you can be quick, or be slow.

If you want to get fired eventually and end up jobless, keep being lazy and slow, otherwise make my Large Regular Ice Coffee quick.

I know, because I’ve been at the bottom. Although I am not at the top yet, I know most successful people are very quick. Well, just sayin’, quicker the better.

You know why birds eat the worm? Because they are quick and they get up early. It’s as simple as that.

Be a bird, be early, be quick, and you will accomplish more.

But don’t drive quick, that will only make others swear at you.

Post from: I Make Money Online by Creating Free Content for the World with Blogs

Be Quick!

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My dad used to do that all the time, he still does. He copies other people’s ideas then invents his own inventions and they sell like hotcakes. Not all the time but when he does get a “hit” (off that b***), he hits it real good.

Actually he has a new invention that will be introduced at Las Vegas Market in August, I will have updates on my tech blog on Zedomax.com so watch out for there. You will know when that hits but I am not going to tell you what it is.

Anyways, I’ve “finally” figured out how to make “more” money online. That is simply to think of something new.

All of us probably focus too much on what we are doing currently, which is good and you should never stop focusing on your current money-makers, your cash cows but what you must also do at the same time is to think of new ways to add “residual” income to your existing business, boosting it to another level.

So if your A blog is already giving you $2000/month, keep blogging but try to make a new blog with your spare time.

Too many of you focus on your old, old blog that makes good income but it’s NEVER going to get you to your goals, that of making maybe double/triple your current income.

Don’t become stale (like I did), time is your only enemy and the sooner you realize that, you will take action.

See what other bloggers are doing on the side to make even more money. For example, I know Al Carlton who runs CoolestGadgets.com is always making new blogs like FoolishGadgets.

The point is, you need to act right now and find some way to increase your “average earnings per minute”. That’s how I define my earnings, by looking at how much my Adsense/Affiliate ads are making by per minute.

And if you can increase those earnings consistently, you will make a lot more money in the long run.

Well, just rambling tonight, hope that was inspirational.

Post from: I Make Money Online by Creating Free Content for the World with Blogs

Think Of Something New…

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Now, it’s not anywhere near where I want to be, I wish the boat got to my destination quicker but then again, I guess the “fun” is getting there, not actually being there.

So, couple months back, I realized I have been sailing sorta leisurely, which is good for my psyche but it’s like *nothing* was driving my life!

I began to realize that I needed to do something to make more money so my boat sails faster towards my destination.

Not knowing what it took to do that, I started reading all kinds of “how to make money” books and also even spent $5000 on PPC campaigns that lost money.

I then realized that PPC was just too hard, and it was a very risky business. Unless you’ve already spent a lot of money or you were lucky, you aren’t going to make a dime with PPC.

My core business was about making a dollar out of a dime, not spending two dollars to make a dollar.

Ultimately, I had to revert back to my old ways, that of just blogging, blogging hard, blogging when I am shitting, blogging when I am in my kitchen getting drunk, blogging on my netbook, blogging on my Android smartphone, etc…etc…

But, all those things helped me realize another big secret about the interwebs, and that is what I am doing right now.

I seriously “think” I can easily make couple hundred thousand dollars in couple days or maybe even millions.

But that won’t be known until probably next year. Hopefully I will have an e-book or online course (that will cost like $10,000 a pop) that will teach you.

Maybe, if I succeed. But then I don’t know if I should let out industry secrets, that would just invite all the black hat spammers out there and I don’t like them because I work hard for my money and I am an honest guy.

Anyways, I’ve figured it out I think, it’s sorta simple but it’s something I know how to do.

All I can tell you right now is that it has something to do with blogging, making blogs, and blogging a LOT!

I used to blog 40-50 blog posts when I was struggling to make a living online but I am actually doing the same thing now.

One thing different is that I am a lot smarter, I am 30 now! I can’t believe how old I am, it feels like life is just flashing by my eyes. I remember when I started this blog I was like 24.

Well, I try to look at everything positively, let’s just say I am maturing.

So, I will let you in a secret though that has really kept me going lately.

Don’t make one blog, make a thousand blogs!

If you spent $5 million in VC funding and had this “great” business plan, hired 10 great bloggers, and you failed to profit your first year (and second), you’ve probably failed big time.

That’s a do-or-die strategy. If you are working with experienced people, that might have a good chance of making it big but it’s certainly a big risk you must take and if you fall, you will fall very hard.

My strategy is different. It’s like betting at BlackJack tables in Vegas. I don’t have to bet $5000 to make $5000. Sometimes you can bet $100 that can get you that $5000.

That is what I am talking about.

If you make a blog and it doesn’t work, make another one.

If that doesn’t work, make another one.

And keep repeating the process until you have a hit.

It’s that simple.

That’s my strategy, “trial and error”. I know it sucks but since I can make the blogs myself, design/code everything, I can keep my costs down for creating a new blog.

Since I do rent a bunch of heavy-duty servers already, hosting costs are really negligent so it costs me $10 per blog plus how ever much time I put in.

FYI, I made about 5 new blogs over the weekend, and actually some of them are already profiting well.

But I need to make about 100 new blogs over the next 6 months or so and I think I can reach my goals.

Well, just sayin’, if you really want to make money blogging, you can. I used to say you have to keep blogging and blogging.

That’s true but what’s different now is that you have to keep making new blogs and blogging on them all the time until you have a “hit”.

It’s a cost-effective, low-risk strategy for me that takes a lot of time, work, and my focus but in the end, profit is near 99%.

Anyways, enough about that, that’s how you really make money blogging. I am not here to prove to anyone, I just wanted to let you in on my thoughts.

Post from: I Make Money Online by Creating Free Content for the World with Blogs

How to Really Really Make Money Blogging!

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Post from: I Make Money Online by Creating Free Content for the World with Blogs

Funny Rap YouTube Video about Makin’ It Online!

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After 3 and a half years, I think I can tell you how to “really” make money online.

Whether you are trying to making a living online or you just need some extra cash at the end of the month, there’s a secret to making money online.

And yes, I am about to spill my brains to you so hold on.

First, I will tell you outright no matter how many “make money online” e-books and guides you buy, they won’t help you make money online.

I’ve read thousands of such “how to” guides.  The problem with those guides is that you’ve got a million other people reading them, thus saturating your profit margins.

The real secret behind making money online is that you need to do something that no one else is doing.

For example, I am the only guy in the world who runs a tech blog, bed blog, bag blog, shopping blog, and other “niches” of blogs all together.

Of course, another factor is your “passion”.   I’ve found over the years that the subject I am the most expert at and passionate about, I can garner more blog readers which in turn translates into higher revenues.

The fact of life and business is that you can’t really make money by trying something someone else has done or doing right now.

What you really need to do is find an “idea” that no one has ever done and really push through that route.

You also need to realize that you will FAIL most of the time but think of it this way, try to get 2 to 3 hits out of 10 swings.

Simply put it, you can’t succeed your first time then try to succeed your second time, third time, and so on until you are so tired of FAILING, then that’s when you will find your creativity and inspiration to accomplish the biggest.

Anyways,  I hope you learn today that no matter what you do, if it ain’t different from your competition, you are not going to succeed.

Look at every business model in the world, Starbucks, Apple, Microsoft, Google, etc…etc…  They succeed because they’ve struck gold doing something someone else hasn’t been doing or took something and took it to another dimension.

Think about that.  If you want to make money online, you better be doing something different.

And I assure you, I do something radically different than  any other bloggers out there otherwise I wouldn’t be laughing my a** off right now at others who have failed because they were too stupid to be creative.

And yup, tomorrow is another day to try out my new ideas just like any other day.

Remember, the day you miss being creative  and creating new business plans is the day you are going to be lagging behind your competition.

Don’t do that, START NOW, start doing something every second of your life.

Post from: I Make Money Online by Creating Free Content for the World with Blogs

How to “Really” Make Money Online!

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When you start blogging, each blog post you write, if you want to write a good blog post that people will be interested in, ask yourself the big question,

Should I blog this or not?

When you can say yes to that question, you will inevitably write something that’s interesting for others to read.  Otherwise, you are probably better off picking your nose and killing time instead.

For example, there’s a lot of great writers in the world today, I don’t even come anywhere close to an “average” professional writer.

But one thing I can tell you, I can create a blog that will be full of interesting blog posts, stuff that people “want” to read.  That is probably why a person like me who got Cs or worse in English all his life through high school and college making money “writing” online while others who got perfect 800s on their English SATs fail to realize any of their potential in  life.

Seriously, I think earning a living online doesn’t come from just having the skills to write well, it also includes your ability to market yourself, having a business plan, and a little bit of everything.

The world is too full of “too smart” people and that’s good for some niche blogs but if you want to get your regular Joe who visits your blog interested in your blog post, you will need to focus on stuff that are simply interesting.  (No one wants to read your recent court hearing while they might want to read that you got caught going 150MPH on the highway.)

Have a great headline!

Your headline (or title) of the blog post is probably the most important part of your blog post.  I don’t care if you write even one sentence or 5 paragraphs, if your title isn’t going to be convincing, no one is going to want to read the rest.   Other than that, having a great headline is also good for SEO because search engines are constantly striving to find more “human-relevant” title and content.   If you have a great headline and great content to follow, SEO will take care of itself.

So, did I think I should have blogged about this or not?

I will give you a little hint, I was actually looking out my tiny window in my kitchen smoking a cigarette after cleaning all my dishes this morning, and suddenly it hit me this would be a good headline to write about,

To Blog Or Not To Blog?

Remember, if it ain’t worth it to write something (that ain’t worth remembering nor be helpful/funny to others), just go pick your nose instead until you do come up with something good.

Have fun!

Blogging is all about fun, making fun of things or even pathetic people you see.  Don’t be afraid to make blogging fun and enjoyable.  If you aren’t having fun blogging, maybe you should be flippin’ burgers instead or go slave away your life at a nice corporate cubicle 9 to 5.

P.S. Please don’t pick your nose literally, that’s just metaphoric, I find people who pick their nose in public disgusting. (and I have to tell my family/friends to STOP it all the time and yes I am a bit OCD.)

Post from: I Make Money Online by Creating Free Content for the World with Blogs

To Blog Or Not To Blog, That’s the Big Question!

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I have to admit I share the same life philosophies as GaryVee because I feel that you should be doing what you “really” want to do.  Right now, I make a living from blogging and other online ventures because I ENJOY IT.

The thing I enjoy the most about blogging is that I don’t sell any “physical products”, need “employees” that I have to meet everyday (and baby-sit), and that your business is making money even if you take couple weeks off or off to sleep.

It has been a dream of mine actually since I was 9 years old, when I did sell some digital products online using my 9600-baud dial-up modem and Prodigy.

Most importantly, I happened to be at the right place at the right time, after the invention of internet and after the dot com boom.  Had I been trying to start my blogging business back in 2000 or tried starting it now, the timing would have been off.

When I started blogging it was August of 2006.  Blogging was well known around the internet but most people didn’t know even what “blog” meant.   I would say that’s right before blogging sort of started taking off.

I saw the potential that blogging could bring over the next years and I took the chance to really “blog” it ALL.

Nowadays, virtually every company in the world have a blog if they want to have a visible online presence.  And I still see a lot of room for growth as blogging has not “fully matured”.

The point of this blog post is that I like living on the edge.  Even in real life, one of the favorite things I like to do is to go to the roof of a 90-story building and stand on the edge.    Blogging is like that, even though it has matured a lot already, it’s one of those web technologies that’s on the bleeding edge of internet.

It’s a feeling of “thrill” and adrenaline pumping up from your toes to your brain.   That’s what I call living your life and if you are not doing that every minute, perhaps you are not doing what you truly enjoy.

Of course, there are people who’s personality might be different and they enjoy being safe, having a stable job, and believing in what the masses say.  I will tell you right now I am not one of them, I like being a bit off, odd, or even weird to some extent, all so I can be unique than anyone else in the world.

If you want to change your life now and start living on the edge, try GaryVee’s CrushIt, highly recommended for a drastic change in your life.

Post from: I Make Money Online by Creating Free Content for the World with Blogs

Living On The Edge!

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It’s been a lot of fun meeting people like Guy Kawasaki, John Chow, Philip Torrone, Robert Scoble, and lots of other “famous” people.

My personal goals has never been to become famous as any of those guys nor do I want to make any money but one thing I do want to do in my life, make an impact on life of everyone’s life. That mainly consists of me fighting against big companies like Apple, AT&T, and others to make the world the way I see it. But that doesn’t always mean I am right, but I do highly believe my way of my life is the most down-to-earth, ideals that will satisfy the average Joe. I only fight for the average man because I am only an average man myself, nothing more.

That is my goal in my life, to satisfy the average Joe, not the billionaires/millionaires who have all the money. I don’t know why but I have never been greedy of too much money although I am highly of greedy of making sure every bit of my business is profitable. (It’s good to make lots of money but it’s not good to keep it for all yourself, especially if you “used” others to get ahead.)

For me, blogging has always been a measure of my self-worth, what I am really WORTH, not just the dollar factors. Seriously, when you die, do you think you will be able to carry all that money you earned you made to heaven? Thank God, you won’t. No matter how much you make, if you can’t spend it all before you die, it’s probably not worth your time. Rather, go enjoy the fine weather at the beach.

Hence my point, money can only get you to a certain level of happiness but that won’t fulfill your goals as a human being. My point, is that you can achieve everything you want if you are really “passionate” about what you do. You can have all the money in the world but that’s not going to make you happy truly if you are slaving 24 hours of a day to make that happen.  If you don’t believe me look at Bill Gates, he was making Windows but now he’s making cures for malaria.

Perhaps it’s true most people are millionaires because not they are smart but ‘caz they are “lucky”. Look at Bill Gates or Steve Jobs, none of their skills would make them where they are unless they were exactly where they were at, in the 80’s, 90’s, 00’s, and now. If Bill Gates was born 10 years earlier, there would be no Windows today. If Steve Jobs was born 10 years later, there would be no Apple today.

No matter how you slice the dice, I wouldn’t be even writing this blog post if I was born 10 years earlier than my birthday or even 10 years later.

Chances/destiny seemed to have an effect on my life, I am a witness to that I assure you.

My Point?

You can’t control anything nor your life, it’s something you cannot control. The more you control, the more you will lose control of. The more you let go, the more you will be able to grasp.

Blogging has been a “passion” for me, I just do it because it’s so much fun talking about myself and others who make the world better everyday. Whether it’s attacking one of the biggest companies that can affect their sales in the number of millions of dollar or just taking a poke at my competition for the helluvit, I do it because that’s the reason why I live, to fight for my rights.  I love talking about the positive stuff in life but I don’t hesitate to talk loud about something that is simply wrong either.

If you want to make a million buck making hundreds of automated blogs that do nothing good for the world, go ahead and do it. I know how to do that too and I might as go start the biggest drug gang too and make 100 times more money than you do but I don’t for a simple reason, Karma.

It’s not hard to steal a bank you know, I could think of one of the world’s most sophisticated ways to rob a bank, but I don’t because I wouldn’t feel at home afterwards.

No matter what you do in this life, it’s going to be an everlasting still-shot of what did for the next century or more.

*Disclosure – Author of this blog have had situations where it could be described as jumping off a building and he has succeeded in “flying” 100% of the time. Please take this “metaphorically”, the author does not suggest you to jump off a building.

Post from: I Make Money Online by Creating Free Content for the World with Blogs

Blogging For a Living, What Does it Really Mean?

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Last year when Palm Pre the smartphone came out to the market, I happened to be one of the first to get it, also I registered PalmPre-Hacks.com.  Well, for me, making blogs is fun but also it’s a way to make “residual income”.

Making money with blogs is hardly a new concept for me but while making the Palm Pre Hacks blog, I’ve begun to realize something, that is you can make very easy residual income with instructional blogs.

What I did basically with the Palm Pre Hacks blog is to write-up very detailed instructions on how to use your Palm Pre as a WiFi router by installing an aftermarket WiFi app.

But the instructions weren’t mine, I basically followed someone else’s instructions, which is also linked on my blog post with credits to the right people.  What is different with my blog post versus the instructions I used to make the blog post is that I’ve added “step-by-step” directions so even a 4th grader can understand, plus I uploaded a bunch of videos outlining the highlights of the instructions.  (You can also read up on viral YouTube videos, how to drive YouTube traffic to blogs, and see my viral Palm Pre Hacks video here.)

After making couple blog posts about the Palm Pre, the “viralness” was pretty amazing as people/bloggers linked to many of the blog posts I wrote, even Matt Mullenweg, founder of Wordpress, linked to my post about how to install a Wordpress on your Palm Pre.  That kind of links were unexpected but of course, I was exhilarated.  The weirdest thing happened also, I actually met Matt for the first time couple months later by random at San Francisco airport!

Anyways, the point is that there’s a ton of instructional blogs you can make including about home loans, credit repair, home repair, plumbing, and a whole lot more.

The key is to write great “step-by-step” instructions that actually work and people can follow it.

If you can do that, you won’t have to worry so much about SEO. I find that somehow people find your content through Google and other search engines.

Another thing I’ve realized is that once you make this instructional blog with about a dozen great articles, you don’t need to keep making more blog post, the web traffic levels grow by themselves because you have so much (great) content.  Plus, when you write such a “focused niche” articles, your Adsense earnings tend to be higher because your content is so targetted.

They key is that if you can make a bunch of these types of blogs, you could possibly making enough residual income to quit your job or earn extra money to buy a new car or a home.

I am sure everyone is an “expert” on something, I don’t care what it is, you should make some blogs and earn residual income on it.   Of course, the point of this blog post is that even if you are not an “expert” on something, you can still make instructional blogs by actually learning something new yourself.

How can you apply this to Affiliate Marketing or Clickbank?

You can probably find a TON of items that you can use as affiliate links on your instructional blogs.  For example, I put some Amazon widgets up on the Palm Pre blog, which converts amazingly well.

OR, you can write a instructional blog that teaches you how to get a second mortgage on your house.   Then at the end, you can “refer” bunch of more great Clickbank Mortgage HOWTO E-books.   (The main point is that you give out the information for free, don’t sell it. After that, you can refer other items that people can purchase.  If people try your instructions and they like it, the viralness and word-of-mouth marketing is explosive than you can ever imagine, and why I am making a blog post about it now.

The possibilities are endless.

Recently, I have also made Nexus One Hacks Blog, which is similar to the Palm Pre Hacks blog.   Not as successful as the Palm Pre blog but still growing by itself since day one.

No money is spent on SEO, PPC marketing, but just your time for writing-up a “dummie’s guide” on a topic is required.

I like these kind of projects because they are relatively low-risk.  If you do well, it’s 99% profit, if you don’t do well, you can try another topic.

Even this blog itself, is probably instructional.  I didn’t really give you step-by-steps though, maybe I will if enough people want it, leave comments!

Post from: I Make Money Online by Creating Free Content for the World with Blogs

How to Make Residual Income with Instructional Blogs!

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Internet has given us a lot of new opportunities for earning money and one among them are the very famous affiliate program. People who are involved in these affiliate programs earn a lot of money by affiliating themselves with famous online sites of the world. The idea is to advertise about a product or service of another company which in turn would get money on a percentage basis for the sale. As the affiliate program has gained a lot of fame over the years many companies and sites have introduced affiliation programs. But not all affiliate programs are very profitable; the trick of the trade lies in finding out the correct and high paying affiliate program.

Some of these affiliate programs even gives you a 50-60% of the earnings on a product or service, once you have attained a preset target. The affiliate program provide must have ethics in the organization, and there have been cases where the affiliation provider doesn’t pay the full commission amount and instead pays only a meager amount. They would make use of technology to take your links and take up your commission and one has to have an effective affiliate tracking program to stop this practice.

When choosing an affiliation, do look at the product that you are about to sell and look at its worth and determine whether the product could be sold to a consumer or if it is just a junk that no one would bother to buy. The health care field is an excellent field as far as affiliate marketing is concerned. This is because many people look at the net for getting solutions for their health care problems and by selling health care products more people would be attracted to your site and they would buy products from your site, thereby increasing your revenue.

About The Author:

Tomy is guest blogger and also IT Certification training professional currently providing Exams training via SelfTestEngine tool for exams like 70-290 and 70-291 for MCSE Certification.

People don’t know these days that how much money you can make via affiliate programs. Let me tell you that bloggers are not wasting their time but they are making thousands of dollars each month via affiliate ads. So, it is important to find out best and highest paying affiliate program related to your blog. In this article I tried to write a brief article about it.

Post from: I Make Money Online by Creating Free Content for the World with Blogs

How To Choose Highest Paying Affiliate Programs in 2010

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Anyways, here’s how to insert ads after 1-3 sentences after your content. (Or you can change the $tcount>=1 values to something like $tcount>=3 if you want to show ads after more sentences.)

You can even show additional ads at the bottom of your content if your blog post is a long blog post versus short.

Here’s the code that will let you insert ads at different places in your content.

You need to replace in your single.php file (usually) with the following code:

See here for the code

The above code will print your first Adsense block after the first HTML tag p, which is usually a paragraph block or 1-3 sentences.

There’s also an option to print a second Adsense block after 4 ps for longer blog posts. This ad block won’t show unless your blog post is super long. I don’t really use the second Adsense block much. You can also change the $tcount>=4 to something like $count>=2 if you want your second Adsense block to show after the 2nd

block.

There’s also many ways to customize this code such as detecting images. For example, I used additional code to detect whether there’s an image in the very beginning of the post. If that’s the case, I will want to show the ads under the image because I think it looks better as far as web design/usability goes. I can have that code up too if more of you guys want it.

Here’s some additional div tips for styling your Adsense ads.

If you want to wrap to the right for 336×280 ads:

Replace this line with Adsense code here

If you want to wrap to the left for 336×280 ads:

Replace this line with Adsense code here

If you want to just display ads without wrap, with Adsense left aligned:

Replace this line with Adsense code here

If you want to just display ads without wrap, with Adsense center aligned:

Replace this line with Adsense code here

In general, I find that wrapping your Adsense around text can be good for CTR plus look great with your overall site design.

At other times, I find that Adsense aligned-left with no text wrapping (with white space on the right) gets a lot better CTR.

Just test the different locations to see what works best for your niche.

Instead of putting the ad after the content, it’s simply common sense they will perform better if you put it within the context of your content and higher up on your blog post.

The amount of CTR increase skyrockets plus why not?

Of course, just make sure the overall site design and user experience are still maintained, no one wants to read ad-plastered blogs, even though I am on the very edge.

Enjoy and don’t forget to share the code with other Wordpress bloggers out there!

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Wordpress Hack – How to Insert Ads in the Middle of Your Content!

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You can also not show ads to image traffic as they don’t convert well most of the time.

But let me give you a simple javascript example that uses cookies to only show Adsense ads to your search engine visitors coming from either Google, Yahoo, Bing, Ask, or MSN.  You can easily add more search engines if you want to by modifying the code.

Another thing I am doing is to show ads for about 60 seconds using cookies until they expire. (after visitors enter the site from a search engine)  I think that is a good feature to implement.  You don’t want to show ads just to the landing page to your search engine traffic, you want to keep showing it while they browse other parts of your site because search engine visitors are most likely to be interested/click on ads.

Now that we got the theory/concept out of the way, let me show you how to make your Adsense ads behave so they don’t annoy the hell out of their readers.

This can be great for either sites that are performing poorly (low CTRs, mostly image traffic) or quality sites you don’t want to bombard with ads. I don’t use this for my main site Zedomax.com but I use it for my other sites where my web traffic is high but my CTR is low. Using this code, I was able to bring the CTR up on those high-trafficked sites while improving regular user experience by showing ads only to search traffic visitors.

First Code

Put this code somewhere in your header file.

Second Code

Put this code where you are going to show the ad:

First Code Explained

Let me explain the code a bit. Basically the first part of the code will save a cookie to the user's computer if they come from image search or regular search. The cookie is set to expire in 60 seconds so that there's enough time for your Adsense ad exposure while search engine visitors are visiting your site and ads don't show after those 60 seconds to not annoy your new visitors so much. But you can change the value to shorter/longer if you want to.

This first code should be in your header file such as header.php so you can detect where your visitors are coming from, no matter which page they enter from.

Second Code Explained

The second code is the actual adsense code written in javascript, you will have to replace the google_ad_client and google_ad_slot value with yours. Change the pub-xxxxxxxxxx and yyyyyyyyy to the one you see when you generate your Adsense code. Don't touch the quote characters as that will mess it up, copy exactly and only change the variables I told you to change!

Does my code change the Adsense code and violate ToS?

No, my code doesn't change the Adsense code at all, it just translates it into javascript. The actual output code is exactly the same as code provided from Google. You can actually use PHP to do the same but the reason I use javascript is because my blogs use Wordpress Super Cache, which caches the PHP code. When PHP code is cached, it will cache the detection function also. In essence, PHP code used with Super Cache won't work because it will stay on the last PHP if statement.

In short, javascript works well along most platforms because it's processed in real-time by the browser. So that is why I used javascript here.

What you can get from this?

If you are reluctant to put more ads on your website, you can use this code to only show ads to search engine traffic. That way, you don't drive away your loyal readers.

For sites with low Adsense CTRs, it might be a good idea to show ads to only search traffic as your CTR will skyrocket if you do. Poor CTRs can be mostly from lack of content or image search traffic, both which don't convert well into overall revenue. Especially for those of you who get a lot of traffic, having low CTR can be bad, as it can lower your overall Adsense earnings due saturating overall CTRs.

Credits

I didn't create this code all myself, I built on top of the code created by Stephen Cronin over at Scratch99.com. Thanks for the code Stephen.

What I added is the additional cookie code plus expiration so your ads stay around for a minute before disappearing.

Post from: I Make Money Online by Creating Free Content for the World with Blogs

How to Show Adsense Ads Only to Search Traffic! (and less annoying to your regular readers)

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For those of you who have trouble making any money with your Adsense revenues, you might want to try the above heat map.  And to those who have been following my older Adsense heat maps from last year, you might want to update it with the one I am showing you here because through the years, I have gotten better at improving my Adsense revenues through better placements.

Now, this map can be seen on the single articles pages of my main blog Zedomax.com (such as this one).

Let me explain why I made this Adsense optimization heat map.  It looks so simple yet there’s a lot of research and time I have put into this so please bear with me.

The best performing ads are (based on my 3+ years with Adsense and driving 30M pageviews) is the top left corner right after your blog post headline.

Why?

Because that’s where people’s eyes go first.   Also, if you have a sidebar on the left side or you have sidebars on both sides of your website, that’s fine too.  I have other blogs where sidebar is on the left side but people will still look for the content side, just make sure your ads are on the “left” side of the content side.

Also, you can embed your ads so they are integrated with the rest of your content but I usually don’t do that.

Why?

You want your readers to really focus on the ads first, just like TV ads.  If you have content around your ads, this will cause ad blindness more often than not based on my testing.  For some, it may work well, for longer articles.

So, have your ads clear of content.  You can put your content above or below the ads.  The main point is that you want to have focus.

If you think that will not look good for the design of your website, that’s fine too but just know that maximum revenues are achieved when you can make readers completely focused at the task at hand, that of reading ads first then content.

Why do I have no ads on this blog?

Ads are great for making money on sites with some good level of web traffic.  If you aren’t getting at least 1000 unique users per day, you shouldn’t really aggressively advertise but rather work to get more web traffic and loyal readers.

Trust me, I don’t even like putting too many ads myself and if you put ads on blogs/websites that don’t even get 1000 unique visitors per day, you are mostly likely shooting yourself in the foot.

I know, I know, you want to make money right away but you still also need to focus on building a readership and web traffic to a level.

Plus, for example let’s say you put ads all over your website that gets 200 unique visitors per day, you aren’t gonna get that much clicks anyways plus your revenue will be a lot smaller because you have such small number of visitors.

I have found that having at least 1000 unique visitors per day is a good rule of thumb to go by before you even start putting ads.  Of course, depending on your niche, this could be slightly lower, maybe 500.

This blog itself currently gets less than 1000 unique visitors per day, I will put ads on here someday but not until I reach the initial 1000.

Just use your common sense and don’t put ads on your site if you are not ready.  Or at least start with ads after the content.

Now, let me go on with the Adsense map here.  You will see that I have put a rectangle Adsense block, either of the sizes 336×280, 300×250, or 300×250.  Try to use the biggest ad size that will fit as bigger sizes mean higher revenues.

You can also put “private” ads on the right side of the Adsense ad to “fill” the blank space if you want.  But make sure you test and it doesn’t affect your Adsense CPC. Depending on your niche, this might differ.  In my case, filling the space on the right sometimes will lower my CPCs or sometimes it will raise it.  Just make sure to test both options and you will find the right combo.

Now, after the first Adsense rectangle block, I have content, perhaps 1-3 sentences.  I have used custom code for my Wordpress theme to put another Adsense rectangle block after the 1-3 sentences.

Why?

Because if you want to achieve the highest CPCs and higher reader-attention for the ads, you want to place your ads as high as they can be. (if your goal is to make the maximum revenue)

After all the content, I use Google AdManager and Adsdaq to serve private affiliate ads or CPM ads.   This is the worst performing spaces for Adsense so I put my private/CPM ads there.   Don’t put more ads there because it will saturate your Adsense revenues.  I try to stick with 2 big Adsense rectangles at most.

Don’t put Adsense rectangle ads on Sidebar

I don’t put any Adsense rectangle ads on the sidebar because simply they are the worst performers due to ad blindness.  People can easily recognize that ads on the sidebar are ads and will simply ignore it.  You can try testing it but I bet your results will be like what I said.  One more thing, don’t put ads on your header either unless it performs much better than the first Adsense rectangle.  I highly doubt it but you can always test it.

KISS (Keep it Simple Stupid)

When it comes to user experience of actually browsing your site, you need to keep your ads to a minimum.  Although I have a lot of ads on Zedomax.com, you will see that ads are “clearly” divided from my content.  You need to make it easy for users to distinguish ads from real content while you place your ads where readers will pay attention most. This keeps your readers as happy as possible while letting you maximize your revenue potential.

So, that’s it, you just need two big square blocks for your main article pages. No need for any extra Adsense blocks because you want to place your ads where people will read the most.  Otherwise you will saturate our own Adsense revenues because you are offering more ad spaces.

I used to have like a whole bunch of ads as seen in my very first Adsense heat map here but I am making more money now by having less ads but placing them higher on my blog.

Extra – Category Pages

Above heat map is for your article pages, where the actual contents are.  Now, for category pages, you can place more ads and customize it.

For my Zedomax.com blog, I actually rearranged my blog theme to have 1 left side bar, 1 ad block, and 1 content block, which is 3 columns.  You can see an example here.

Why a different layout for Category Pages?

I don’t want ad blindness so I have completely changed my theme so it looks “fresh”.  Plus I have blended my ads so they are informational and offer more options for users since they are not trying to read just “one article” rather they are trying to find something.  This means ads could potentially be more helpful if your readers don’t find the content they are looking for.

I won’t get into the details of how I did my category pages but it’s an example that you can make your website into different layouts for different sections.  By having fresh look to your category pages, you can avoid ad blindness and also offer the readers more options to choose from.

You don’t have to copy my style but if your theme is same everywhere throughout your site, you might want to look into giving it a fresh look for certain pages such as the category page.

I can tell you that my category pages perform 2-3 times better than before, where it was the same as my article pages.

Should you use Chitika along with Adsense ads?

In my previous heat maps, I told you that Chitika was a great source of revenue.  Based on years of testing, I have found out the opposite it true.  You can easily saturate your own Adsense revenue when using both Adsense and Chitika because Chitika ads will sabotage your CPC.   Just make sure to use 1 of them, either Adsense or Chitika but don’t mix them together as you will only be shooting yourself in the foot.  You can read my full in-depth analysis of that here.

Well, good luck and if you are having trouble or you want me to review your ad placements, you can always e-mail me at zedomax[at]gmaildotcom, tweet me @zedomax, or leave a comment.   I will be glad to help you as much as I can. (for free! hurray!)

Bonus – Show ad to search engine traffic only!

If you simply believe that above heat map will not make your website look good, here’s an alternative.  Instead of putting ads where they “look good” but will worsen your Adsense revenues (such as the sidebar), just use the above map but only show ads to your search engine traffic so you don’t annoy your regular readers with ads, see more on that here.

Post from: I Make Money Online by Creating Free Content for the World with Blogs

Adsense CPC Optimized Placement Heat Map!

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I noticed that SquadHelp has spammed my Whiteboard Idea TRG blog post comments line.  Upon closer inspection, I found out SquadHelp is actually a pretty good service for crowdsourcing domain name creating.

With SquadHelp, you can either make cool domain names for contests and win money or even hold your own contests to help your company make a better domain name.

You can actually browser their prizes page where people have been chosen winners.  A quick look tells me this crowdsourcing method works rather well, I might try it myself soon for my new web projects.  (and I suggest you to try it too.)

You know how hard making great domain names can be, nothing is better than if others do it for you, especially if the “crowd” does it.  Of course, one more feature I would like added to SquadHelp is ability for users to vote on the domain names, that way you get great domains and market research all-in-one.

There, I just helped SquadHelp leap into even a better service, for FREE!

If you need suggestions for your business, I guess you can try spamming my comments line.

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SquadHelp – How to Get the Right Domain by Crowdsourcing!

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Why?

The main problem lies in Chitika’s revenue share along with publishers.  If you just have one website and you already get a good CPC/eCPM with Chitika, that’s fine but for me, I need a different CPC/eCPM for every blog I run since I manage about 30 different blogs and CPC/eCPM tend to vary a lot depending on the niche/topic of the blog.

I have e-mailed Chitika team countless times (since last year) asking them to explain to me why I am getting the exact same CPC on every one of my blogs regardless of the niche.

At best, my CPC will vary between 1-3 cents, which is like saying they are the same or fixed CPC.

I usually get a response that they will take a look at it next week or next month.  I figure that either they have a bigger fish to fry or this is probably why they are making money.

Don’t get me wrong, I was one of the first to promote Chitika when it was starting out but sometimes I need to set the facts right and the only way I can do that is by blogging it about it when I can’t get a clear human response.

So, let me tell you an example why I am PEEVED.  For example, average CPC for Adsense on one of my better blogs is near 1 dollar while the CPC on Adsense for one of my shittier blogs is around 20 cents.

According to that, I should be getting something between 10 cents and something 5 times more around 50 cents on Chitika (if my shittier blog was getting about 20 cents on Adsense).  Even then, advertisers should have a good enough reason to keep using Chitika instead of Adsense to promote their products/services since CPC is cheaper on Chitika.

But no, Chitika gives me almost the exact same CPC for every blog that I have, that is around 12 cents on a really good niche and 8 cents on a crappy niche  while Adsense can vary from a dollar to 20 cents. That’s about 2-10 times difference and that works out to be a lot of money in the course of a year.

It would be wise for me to just put my shittier blogs on Chitika but I like Chitika, I want to put more of their ads on my premium sites.

So WHY IS THIS SO IMPORTANT?

Because if your CPC on Chitika is let’s say 5 times lower than on Adsense, it gives “incentives” for advertisers to advertise more on Chitika for the same website/blog.  In return, this “sabotages” your own Adsense earnings because advertisers are now bidding for the same keywords on Chitika instead of Adsense for 5 times less. Of course, depending on the placement of your Adsense and Chitika, it can vary but because Chitika gets a higher CTR (shown only on search traffic), it might make sense for advertisers to advertise the same product/services on Chitika instead of Adsense if there were two options.  Chitika ads target search traffic and U.S. traffic, which is where you get paid most on Adsense anyways.

I’ve actually done some testing and in about a month, I’ve lost about 20 to 30% of my Adsense revenues by having Chitika units along with Adsense units.  Of course, this is only true if you place Chitika units in premium locations such as near the Adsense unit. If Chitika ads are already somewhere in the way-bottom of your website where no one sees/clicks, you probably are not sabotaging your Adsense revenues.

Stop the Adsense Sabotage!

To test it out, I did stop using Chitika on most of my blog for couple months on my premium blogs for a period of a month or so from December 2009 to January 2010.

The results were rather fantastic as my Adsense earning rose by more than 20-30%.  I had the best Adsense earnings of my lifetime. The revenue I gained during this time on Adsense proved to be much more than revenue I would have earned if I used Adsense along with Chitika because Adsense pays you much more to begin with.

What can Chitika do now?

Chitika needs to be more open about how they do business, be more transparent. What us bloggers need to know is how exactly CPC is decided on Chitika and what kind of revenue share is offered.

And if revenue share is offered, publishers need to be paid the same percentage, not a flat CPC.

I know some top bloggers are using Chitika probably because they got a great revenue share but medium-to-small publishers like me can be “had” by being offered only a flat CPC that never changes.  (Yes, it’s like you work so much harder and paid the same, like a communist country or you are a slave/dumbass.)

Every time I asked Chitika to raise my CPC for my niche blogs that I know for a fact that make more money per click, every time they have either delayed (it’s been almost a year since I started asking them) the response OR ignored my e-mails.  (I have e-mails to prove it.)

When it comes to sensitive issues like me getting paid every month, things need to get resolved within days, not when-never.

So I am blogging it.

The Economics of Online Marketing

If you are already getting crappy numbers for your Adsense CPC/eCPM, you are probably not going to benefit from this blog post, perhaps work on getting more web traffic.  But for those of you experiencing the same thing as I am, you need to be aware that simple economics of the online advertising marketing says you will be sabotaging your own Adsense earning in the long run by using Chitika with it.

PPC companies like Yodle, have an automated bidding system for all types of PPC program such as Google Adsense, Yahoo Publisher, MSN, etc… etc…   This means that if their automated bidding system finds a cheaper CPC for the same site/keyword, it’s going to bid there, not at your high-paying PPC programs.

I am sure there’s many other similar systems out there and if they are out there, you could be sabotaging your own Adsense revenues by adding Chitika or any other lower-paying ad networks.

Simple Math

Let’s say you offer the same hotdog at Wal-mart(e.g. Adsense) for $5 and at Target(e. g. Chitika) for $1, where will you buy your hotdog?

Same analogy here, either you need to negotiate a really good revenue-share (CPC) with Chitika or you might be sabotaging your own Adsense ads.  If you can make up enough clicks with Chitika and get a good CPC from them, you might be better off Chitika.  This is true of my shittier blogs while it’s the opposite for most of my premium blogs.

The only way Chitika will come out of this is to offer publishers “fair/better share” of their CPC rates.  The greatest part about Google Adsense program is that it’s automatic, publisher can get paid anywhere from 10 cents to even 5 dollars per click, depending on the bidders and the market.  Publishers are paid fairly for the niche on Adsense while on Chitika, they seem to be human-controlled, resulting in a flat/fixed CPC, not reflective of the actual bidding market.

As far as I can tell, every publisher on Chitika is getting paid a flat fee of 9 to 12 cents regardless of how much they are selling those clicks for to advertisers.  That “flat fee” revenue sharing model is where the problem lies. Publishers can be driving a ton of more quality keywords/traffic and still get the same CPC.

Hey, if Chitika is indeed selling those clicks for super low prices, they can make more money by raising CPC of high-paying niches accordingly and also make more money for  the publishers in the process.  It’s a win-win situation.

Perhaps Chitika’s system isn’t set to do that right now and if it’s not, I am highly disappointed because all the years I’ve been using Chitika (almost 3 years), I have been losing thousands of dollars through CPC sabotage.

Chitika has been always been one of my favorite companies but if they can’t fix this problem , I don’t see how they can grow further.

Of course, it could also be that Chitika is already charging more for high-paying keywords (I don’t know because I’ve actually never advertised on Chitika) and taking most of the revenue share.  And that, my friend, could be why I am not going to use Chitika on my blogs anymore because Chitika is taking all the money while publishers do all the work.

For a company to succeed in the long run, they need to realize that their customers are smart and they need to treat each one as one of their best customers.  Chitika has been awfully great on new innovations such as customization of ads but the response for my CPC questions have been very deceptive.

But is this a deceptive practice?

Well, it kinda is because I’ve asked Chitika reps many times to clarify me on the topic but no one answers.  My honest wish is to keep using Chitika and that Chitika treats their publishers fair and square, answer their questions promptly and honestly, just like how your mother treats you.

Chitika need to be transparent about how they do business, especially when it comes to money.  Google might not be so transparent about how much revenue share they offer to their publishers but they are transparent about the fact that different keyword niches will pay lower or higher, and that isn’t 1 or 2 cents difference.  You can see it on your Adsense dashboard in real-time.

I work very hard for my money.

I am sure many of you bloggers/website publishers work very very hard for your money.  The reason I write this blog post is to let you know that your hard-worked money is well-earned and there should be no one in-between to sabotage your efforts.

The simple math of demand and supply I outlined in this blog post clearly says adding Chitika ads along with your Adsense ads will “sabotage” your Adsense earnings. It took me actually almost 3 years to realize this, I feel stupid.

I really hope Chitika team will look into this major problem of fixed CPCs and get their system straight.  Otherwise, I will be removing them from the rest of my shittier blogs too.  No hard feelings.

Don’t e-mail/call me again until you have fixed the problem, I know last time I got a call because I was testing this.

I just want you to know if you are one of those people and you are using Chitika along with Adsense, test out my theory and let me know what happened. (in the comments or at zedomax [at] gmail.com)  If your revenue stays the same I guess that’s fine but if it rises a lot, you know where to send Christmas presents to.

Post from: I Make Money Online by Creating Free Content for the World with Blogs

Chitika CPC Sabotage – WHY I Stopped using Chitika!

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If it is, there’s nothing to worry as it’s a “natural” result of the Christmas holidays.  A lot of people take long vacations and some companies shut down completely for 2 weeks near Christmas and the New Years.

Last year, I was a bit worried but noticed that Google had a history of decline just near the end of every year.

Especially, the days after Christmas and before the New Years where people will simply be enjoying the holidays more, spending less time online. (Also take a look at this chart)

So what?

Don’t fret, the holidays are really for you to enjoy, perhaps it’s time for you to take a good 2 week break off the computer.

Of course, revenue starts going up rapidly around January 2nd so that’s what you should be aiming for, a fresh, new start in 2010.

Anyways, I will probably not post anything for this blog itself as I too, have to go on a last-minute Christmas shopping spree.

Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas!

Of course, don’t forget to enjoy some Christmas Light Shows!

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What can you learn from these teenagers who can rack up more views on YouTube than companies literally spending millions to rack up the same amount of page views?

First, it’s not luck that these teenagers are becoming more popular on YouTube.  By nature, the topic of “make-up” can appeal to most women in the world as it’s something that practically all women do, make up their face.

Heck, I wish I knew how to do make up, I would be racking up million views in couple days like some of these teenagers.

What they have found is a “great niche” and a niche that a large number of our population can relate/associate to.

Of course, I remember about just 2 years ago when the YouTube HOWTO section wasn’t filled with make-up artists but rather with electronic HOWTOs.  Those days are gone, technology geeks no longer rule YouTube HOWTO section.

Perhaps, there’s still other hidden “niches” that hasn’t been explored on YouTube.

By the way, contrary to what some people believe, YouTube has really just hit the tip of the iceberg, YouTube I think will be the next “search” market.  Even Google is just “starting” to roll out video search ads.

In 2-3 years, I believe this market will become very competitive sorta like how Google Adwords/Adsense is right now.  So, what are you waiting for!

Find a niche that has not been exploited by other teenagers and go make videos and UPLOAD!

Post from: I Make Money Online by Creating Free Content for the World with Blogs

What You Can Learn From Teenager Make-up Artists on YouTube!

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(Photo I took at Sutro Baths cave yesterday, see more Sutro pics here on my San Fran Blog.  And yes, always realize the end of the tunnel is probably in front of your nose, not light years away.)

Here’s a good inspirational post that will help you get through those tough times.

Let me tell you a story about my life (again) where I had to go ALL IN in my business during times when I had no money but only “desire”
to succeed.

These are the most crucial points in your life where I urge you to go ALL IN, risk EVERYTHING for your dreams.

Like a Poker player, if you want to achieve your dreams, you will have to learn to go ALL IN at the last crucial moment where your life depends on it.  It could break you but it may make all of your dreams come true.  If you don’t take that chance, you will always be broke anyways.

First of all, I had really two times in my life when I had the chance to go ALL IN.

My Golf Career, where did it go?

First time in my life was when I just graduated from college, I was in the process of going ALL IN with my golf career so I can make it into the PGA Tour.  Well, I broke my finger during my ALL IN process.  During my recovery, I got a job and my mom also kept telling me I shouldn’t go ALL IN and that I should get a job.  (What a bad advice that was at the moment when all I need her to tell me was to keeping going until I fail.)

That was probably one of the biggest mistakes I made because I never had the “chance” to go ALL IN fully nor find out if I was capable of making the PGA Tour.  Thinking of which now, I think I am capable, I just need to break through by trying again very soon.

After that, a lot of things went south and I kept getting distracted with regular life.  After a couple years, I wasn’t even playing golf that much, let alone playing competitive golf.

That was the first time I could have kept going but simply people around me weren’t as supportive.   Everyone including my family and friends told me getting a “job” after college was the right thing to do.  It’s true, sometimes you must be the one who needs to be strong no matter what anyone says.

I think back now and I know that I could have made the PGA Tour, perhaps already famous as Tiger and other guys.  It’s totally my mistakes though, I never hung on after breaking my finger, I should have kept trying, trying, and trying.

But don’t be sad, the good thing is that I have actually been starting to get back on that path again, may be playing PGA TOUR in the next 5 years or so.  I am just glad golf is a sport that can be played until the moment you die, unlike other sports where you will retire before the age of 40.

Again, this failure to follow through the tough times haunts me till this very day I wake up.  At the time, I was playing fairly well, capable of shooting 66 on any given day.  Well, let’s hope I get back on track soon, you can follow my goals on my golf blog.

My Blogging Career, 2nd time around, I risked EVERYTHING!

Another time in my life where I had to go “ALL IN” was my blogging business.

About 2 years ago, I had a “dream” that one day I could run a network of blogs and make money for a living.   Well, I thought that dream would take me another 3 years to realize.

Something happened to me at that time, I lost my job.  But I still had my network of blog that didn’t make enough money to pay for rent.  Perhaps, that’s the best thing that happened to me because if I didn’t lose my job then, I would have kept trying to make money blogging, not as hard.

During the 3 months that ensued, I turned my blogging business completely around.  I worked 24/7 at home, just blogging away at bunch of blog posts.  Also, I found that I could make 5-10 times more money by optimizing my Adsense ads, placing them where it’s simply more visible to visitors.

After 3 months of losing my job, I was able to bring my online income to around $4000-5000 from $600 a month, allowing me to pay rent, debts, and keep going with my blogging business.

That was probably the most crucial time of my blogging career as if I gave up during that time I had credit card debt collectors calling me, I would be working for someone else right now.  I literally had barely enough money, food and rent was paid using cash advances on my credit cards!

Instead, I kept telling myself, “you can do it, just do it, kick ass”.  And eventually I did but don’t get me wrong, I was really stressed out because if I didn’t make it, I had NOTHING to fall back on. My credit card debts were reaching its limited near $50K and some days I felt so depressed I wanted to jump out my 12th floor window and kill myself. That was more pressure than any golf tournament pressure I felt because it was simply live or die.

I was so busy working on blogging, I didn’t see most of my friends for like 3 months straight.  All I did was work, drink, work, and drink.

Perhaps it would have helped if I didn’t drink but I was drinking to relieve the stress and pressure I was facing from trying to go “ALL IN”.

Why did I go “ALL IN”?

It still haunts me that I never got to fully go “ALL IN” my golfing career, I was determined to not let that happen again.

The outcome is surprising to me because I never expected that I would succeed.

After that incident, I have a ton of confidence in myself that I will succeed in anything I try.

My Advice to You

You may have similar experiences where you want something but family/friends influence you to do something else. I’d say fu** all them and do what you really *want* to do. That is my advice for being happy in life.

If you have a passion for something in your life whether that’s starting a new restaurant or even becoming a professional basketball, by all means, go ALL IN if you want to even have a speck of chance of succeeding.

If I didn’t lose my job 2 years ago, it would probably have taken me another 2 years to achieve my dream.  But because I lost my job, I HAD to make myself perform in just couple months, and I did.  My dream was realized about 2-3 years quicker than I have ever imagined.

Sometimes life is like that, you will come to a crosspath where you can either go ALL IN or play safe.

If you are passionate about succeeding in something, go ALL IN.

If you play safe, you will never get to take that chance ever again. (Perhaps later in life but it won’t be the same)

Just think if 10 years later you’d regret that you didn’t take that chance to prove yourself and go ALL IN.

Most of people in the world still never take that chance, number one reason why people still have jobs and work for someone else.

Don’t let that be you.  If you work HARD enough, SMART enough, you can accomplish your dreams QUICKER that you can ever IMAGINE.

Well, I hope this blog post inspires you to go ALL IN whatever you are capable of.   Trust me, if you haven’t had this kind of situation before, you will have it soon.

Just make the right choice.  It took me 2 years to realize that at some point I simply needed to do what “I” want to do in life and that’s not working for another person but for myself.

If you do succeed, don’t forget to write me an e-mail, I will post it on my blog.

Post from: I Make Money Online by Creating Free Content for the World with Blogs

How to go ALL IN in your Life and Business to Succeed!

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If I worked for a massive slave corporation, I couldn’t really have that, I’d be subject to that company’s set of rules.

When I blog, I make it clear what my opinions are of the world, as how I see it.  I know that sounds like too much “personal” info but that’s exactly what I love doing, saying exactly how I feel, even if that’s talking trash about some company who didn’t refund my money.

Okay, the point is, blogging is fun and you can be heard by the world by what you write.  Remember one of the constitutional rights of America is “freedom of speech”?

That is exactly it.  That’s what I love.

If you are not one of those people and you want to conform to the society’s beliefs, blogging is probably not the best path for you.  I see big media like TV, radio, and traditional forms of media simply don’t have that personality nor a “voice”.

So what?

That’s the pure power of blogs, that individuals like you and me can be heard by the world without use of TV, radio, and newspaper.

Even you are reading this because:

One, you found me through another blogger.

Two, you found me through a Google search or any of the other major search engines.

Three, you have been reading this blog and you’ve subscribed to all the crazy stuff I say.

Regardless of how you found this blog post, just remember that blogs are there for a reason.  Blogs are the social media’s core engine for the people’s voice.  If enough people “blog” about it, “tweet” about it, you are probably going to hear it on TV, radio, and newspapers.

Power of blogging!

Okay, I am just rambling today but I just wanted to show you reasons why I blog, I blog for freedom of speech.  I hope the bloggers are never regulated by government in the future, that will kill our freedom of speech as we know it.

Another point, I received a free Nike driver from Nike for helping promote it on my golf blog.  When I was working hard to get on the PGA Tour, “no one” gave me free clubs.  I just don’t see why people would start sending me stuff when I am simply a blogger, someone who speaks his mind, whether that’s right or wrong.

Btw, here’s a saying that I always remember in my head if I think I am wrong, “Whether you think you are right or wrong, you are always right!”

That’s right, your life is up to you, whether you want to become a blogger or a golf pro or work at McDonalds, IT”S ALL UP TO YOU, YOUR MIND and nothing else.

Happy blogging!

Post from: I Make Money Online by Creating Free Content for the World with Blogs

Why I Blog for a Living – Because I want to be Heard!

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If you come up to me to tell you the secret of making money blogging, I will tell you in the eye, “blogging”.  It’s that simple yet a lot of people fail to exactly that, blogging consistently.

Of course you can hire bloggers to blog for you but unless you understand the essence of “blogging” and have passion for it, I don’t think you will be successful at blogging business.

I probably said this about a million times on this blog, the only way you will make money blogging is to learn how to blog and actually blog.

Let me tell you a story during my hard times when credit cards were calling me 24/7, I had bootstrapped my new blogging business on $40K of credit card debt.   Of course, that wasn’t all, I had to pay rent, which was about $2K per month AND I had more bills that I don’t even want to mention here.   My credit card APR was about 24.99% for ALL my credit cards and I was paying about $400 per month just on INTEREST!

Completely flat-ass broke, I started making get-rich-quick themed sites so I don’t have to get a job.  I was getting more and more desperate and I did all kinds of weird websites that could possibly make me a millionaire overnight.

Boy I was wrong, every website I launched FAILED big time.  But that was probably the most “fun” I had in my life, playing with my life, not being certain that I would live another day without the landlord knocking on my door to kick me out.

Gladly, that didn’t happen.  The best thing was, I had a brand new 2006 Suzuki GSX-R motorcycle that I NEVER HAD TO SELL.  That little bike represented every little bit of freedom I had in my life and my last “thing” that would represent that I am finally FREE.

Why am I telling you all this?

Well, in the end, all my money-making schemes never worked out but I made stable income through Google Adsense on my blogs.  When I started realizing that Adsense could make some more money, I started blogging more, I did about 30 blog posts per day on different blogs that I run.

Even now I look back, I don’t even know how I did it.  Plus, I was drinking so much alcohol at the time, that was the only way I could escape all the pressure the world was putting on me.

Life is simple, you have to simply find a way to make something “click”.  For me, that was blogging and probably will be for the next decade.  Plus, I enjoy blogging, it’s a new phenomenon I happened to stumble upon somehow.

I was simply at the right place at the right time.  It took me awhile to realize the “real” benefits of blogging but I am glad I did find that.

Even now, I try new type of websites everyday, thinking of the next “big” idea that will hit the front news of New York Times, CNN, and the world.  But blogging is always the stable business and I have come to realize that my focus should be there more.

So what am I doing now?

Blogging more of course!  I realize that I simply enjoy blogging a lot and my writing has improved the more I do it.

So what should you be doing?

Blogging, stop reading blogs, BLOG!  That my friend, has save my life.  After I started blogging a LOT, I never had to worry about getting a job.  Even if you don’t make it at least you will write better.

I admit it, I do get lazy at times too and stop blogging but that’s what kills my business.  If you are in blogging business, you should be blogging everyday or better, like every hour.

You see how I’ve talked about my life and blogged stuff that’s on my mind?  It might not even make sense to some of you but at least “I am blogging” right now, right here.   And that is the point I want to get across to you, to keep blogging no matter what anyone tells you.

I used to make websites for friends and other businesses.  I even stopped doing that completely because it gets me off focus and I stop blogging.  I hate it that and now I am trying to blog more and more.

Secret to blogging – blog, blog, blog, blog, and blog more.  Don’t waste your time listening to other folks with get-rich-schemes, instead use that time to blog.   Do you get the message now?

(Image Credit)

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For me, I actually now enjoy working on weekends as it gives me a peaceful time with no one calling me, tweeting me, or whatnot.

I use my weekends to actually not “work” per say but work on new ideas I have or new projects I want to really push.

I actually don’t blog much on the weekends but use this time to work on new ideas that I might have procrastinated on.

So, how can working on weekends help you get ahead in life?

Let me tell you my story.  When I started blogging, I used to work at Comfile Technology from 8am to 5pm.   Then. thankfully, my boss/CEO was cool enough about me blogging at work too. (as my blog was mainly to promote Comfile products through DIYs and HOWTOs)

I would blog at work, I would get home, and blog again till 2-3AM until I couldn’t blog anymore.

That’s probably why I am still blogging, except now making a decent living from it.   (Well, I have a lot of ways to go before I can call myself successful but at least I got my foot in the door.)

Anyways, blogging was always fun for me, I did it because it was also a lot of fun just like I am writing this blog post.

A blog lets your ideas roam wild on the interwebs. (or internet they call it)

If I didn’t blog on the weekends, I might still be working for someone else.

Take Action, Work on Weekends!

If you’ve been putting off your idea for your new business or even blogging, do it on the weekends.  I find weekends are actually great for new business ideas and projects as you have all the time to think about.

Think of “work” as “fun”.  Or better, find “work” that will also let you “live” your life fully.  Find your passion whether that’s basketball or shopping.

Btw, one of my bloggers Jessica and I(we) just launched ShesSmart.com.  Check it out, it took us almost a month to get it launched.   It’s a “savvy” shopping blog for women.

Part of the reason I am making this new blog is because I have actually just finished reading Why She Buys, highly recommended for all business people, bloggers, and anyone who’s in business.  (It’s true, women buy over 80% of consumer goods and buying more every year.)

The new blog we worked on the “weekends” just to get it right.  I have so much blogging to do over the week and so many clients I have to support during the week so that is my proof that you can do something new on the weekends if you work at it.

Well, I hope that gives you nuff motivation and inspiration for the weekend, have a great weekend!  (It’s 3:15AM here again!)

Also read up on how I won myself a job overseas and brought it back here to the States.  (Recession is only in your mind, don’t let skyrocketing unemployment rates scare you.  Think of it as another opportunity.)

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It’s 1AM in the morning here in San Francisco and I want to share with you some “wisdom” about building an online business.   Hopefully, this will enlighten your goals on building your online business whether that involves blogging or other online products/services.

My father, who is a respectable international business, has been doing international trade for as long as I can remember.

He hires thousands of people, produces millions of products, markets those products, and make millions of dollars.

During my early years as a teenager watching him run this multi-million dollar business, I have secretly formed my own thoughts on building my own business while I tinkered with my first 386-DX25 computer when I was 9 years old.

You see, physical goods are simply a lot of pain in the ass.  You might make millions of dollars but that could mean hiring expensive salesmen at $200K/year salaries, accountants at $100K/year salaries, customer service to handle returns/complaints, graphic designers, factory workers, and etc…etc…

That all adds up to at least couple million dollars in overhead costs.  Plus, you will definitely have to make millions of dollars just to profit.

As someone who’s so close to a person who’s so successful at it, I simply did not want that path in my life as I saw how hard my dad worked, even if he made a lot of money.

When I was about 9, I started tinkering with then the first online sales selling Cable Descrambler instructions over dial-up online services, Prodigy.

Incredibly, I spent few  bucks on advertising and made $10 from one guy who decided to buy it.  I did print out the Cable Descrambler instructions on my dot-matrix computer and sent it to him.   My dad told me to stop since I didn’t write the Cable Descrambler instructions myself, I got if off a local BBS forum somewhere.

I also did involve myself in pyramid marketing over dial-up BBS where you send in $1 to the first 5 people in the list.  I actually made about $500 after a year when my mailbox filled with $1 bills, that was a lot of fun.

That was the first start in my online marketing but I didn’t expect cable/DSL modems would eventually take over 2400 baud modems and become what we see here today.

I feel very lucky because everyone in our time who’s pursuing online businesses are at the “right place” at the “right time”. 20 years ago, we couldn’t even dream of this day where literally millions of people are making money sitting in front of a computer.

Anyways, back to my dad, he hires thousands of people, invests millions of dollars, and generates millions of dollars in revenue.   Of course, he also make millions of dollar in profit too.

The worst part about the so-called “traditional” economy of selling physical products is that there’s a LOT involved including insurance for your employees, specific requirements for certain products, government testing of those products, and the list goes on endlessly.

What I am about to tell you might change the way look at I do my business.

I don’t make millions of dollars (yet).  I don’t invest millions of dollars.  I hire ZERO employees.  Yet, I can say my business is million times more efficient, million times less risk, and million times better because it’s “highly efficient” and I have “freedom”.

WHY?

Well, products I sell are “virtual”, they are not “physical”.

My business model is based on selling “virtual” goods, stuff you can’t actually “touch” or “smell”.

I always wanted to create the most “efficient” business model that involves no employees, no physical goods, and practically no need for my time during business hours.

This all resulted from watching my dad work so hard and having so much responsibility for so many people.

Of course, in 2006, I did stumble upon my business model, it’s called “blogging”.

I didn’t know it then but it slowly started growing into a small plant. (from a seedling)

I am sure it has long ways to go before it becomes  a big tree but I have at least accomplished the most important thing, “I have found a business model that involves no employees, no risky investment, and practically  no customer service AND it continues to grow if I water it, nurture it, and etc…etc…”

I know this, that I can actually create a business plan like my dad for a physical product and make millions of dollars.  I just don’t want to. I even have the perfect advisor, someone who has done it before but really, I don’t want to be tied “physically” down to my business.

If you gave me a choice between making $10 million per year running a “physical” company and $1 million per year for doing what I am doing right now, I will definitely take the latter.  I might make 10 times less money but I will have 10 times more freedom/time.

With all those employees hanging onto your massive corporation, your risk goes up sky high, you never know when you will go broke or when the sky will fall upon you.

Instead, I rather start small but make my business super duper efficient.  I will be happy so long as there’s stable growth over a long term.

Do I want to be rich?

Yes, I want to be rich but that’s only a point of reference. Being rich could mean having a million dollar for some people but it could be $300 million for others.

Of course, for me, I am rich already because I have everything I want in my life already, happiness.   Happiness is something even billion dollars can’t buy, it’s priceless, it’s like true love.

Another thing about me, I actually don’t want to ever win the lottery. I am not crazy, I just want to “earn” my living, never “given” to me in any free way or form.  I hope to God that I never do.

I am not telling you though, to be like those people who are “scared” of having a lot of money.  That’s not happiness either, that’s stupidity.  I am just telling you to “choose” what you want in life because you WILL GET IT.

My blogging business model consists of the following factors:

• Virtual online products no matter what! – Why would I want to deal with physical products, so I can setup logistics, customer services, and all the stuff that I hate to do?
• No Employees – I never want to have to “babysit” another human being than my own kids.  That’s some serious time-consuming job to be the “boss”.  No matter what, having employees will never make you “efficient”.  Of course, I have my bloggers who I hire not as employees but as “independent contractors”.  They do the job for me and I pay them.  They can do it anytime they want, wherever they want, in a happy place.  Also called outsourcing.  Tim Ferris, who wrote “The 4-Hour Workweek“, does a great job of illustrating how to do this, definitely recommended if you haven’t read it yet.
• Almost No Customer Service – I used to provide the most excellent customer service in the world as a Product Manager at various companies.  This is the most fun job but it is definitely time consuming and not the most efficient way to do business, especially over the phone.  Google does a great job of “porting” most of their customer service to online format such as e-mail.  Follow their example, the more you can move your communication online, the more efficient your business will be.  Also, physical products are more liable to “break” during shipments and you will have to waste a lot of time handling returns and whatnot.
• Shipping – Did I hear UPS, FedEx?  Forget shipping anything to your customers, that’s just more headache to deal with, even if you don’t do it yourself or outsource it.
• Office – To me, office is really like a prison.  Having office simply sucks because you gotta show up to work.  If you don’t have employees, you don’t need an office nor pay for rent.  Now any of my favorite places like the beach or parks are my remote offices with no rent to pay.  Plus, I don’t have to commute to work and fight all that traffic.  Again, that’s inefficiency in life.  If you spend at least an hour to commute to work, I am sure you’d rather be hitting golf balls instead.
• DIY Accounting – Accounting can now be automated using simple receipt scanners like NeatReceipts that will make your expenses a snap.   If you do sell online products/services, make sure they can easily be exported to accounting software like QuickBooks and whatnot.

My former boss used to tell me, “Don’t try to eat more than you can digest.“  It’s true, if you want to make millions of dollar with physical products and you have a great business plan, go ahead.  I am just telling you, it’s not as efficient and your freedom will suffer.

Again, this is simply a choice for the person whether they want to be “efficient” or “not as efficient”.

Some people “like” doing physical things and that’s fine, I am just sharing “my” ideal business plan.

Of course,  we can also get into investing “millions” of dollars into online services/products too but I won’t get into that, that’s TOO MUCH RISK.  But I will tell you, there are plenty of ways to make millions of dollars with a great idea and virtually ZERO investment.

My overall goal?

I want to have a multi-national blogging company with remote “home-offices” in different countries, with everything I cannot do outsourced to the right people all over the world, and have freedom.  I would like to keep traveling from my favorite world destinations, all the while managing my online business and blogging it all.  Coming soon…

Freedom means only one thing to me, to do whatever the hell I want, anytime I want.

I hope this blog post helps you in deciding what you want out of your life and business.

Make a list of what you want out of your life first then go on from there.  Perhaps, you do like being in the office and managing over thousands of people.  People are different.

I highly respect my father for what he has accomplished, it’s not an easy feat for anyone to do including myself, I have just built on “his business model to be more efficient” by learning from him.

Thanks Dad!

Post from: I Make Money Online by Creating Free Content for the World with Blogs

My Ideal Online Business (Plan)

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Anyways, today’s blog post is on “how to make viral content”.

What is viral content?

Viral content is something that can literally explode within days.  For example, you wrote a post featuring the latest spy shots of the new iPhone 4G (and it’s real), you could literally be expecting millions of views within a week.

Viral content actually has not much to do with the content itself but the subject. (or title)

Whatever you want to make it go “viral”, it must be something outrageously funny, weird, or no one has ever seen before.

The opportunities for “viral” content are endless, they can range anything from stupid, idiotic videos to things like cracking computer passwords.

The point is, when you write “viral” content, you can literally succeed overnight. (if it goes super viral that is)  Even if your viral content doesn’t land you on the front page of Yahoo News (for example), you can still get enough online exposure so much that your blog will catapult to another level.

I know I have emphasized that “quantity” rules of “quality” but you should also work on “viral” content, which is a completely different story.

In other words, “quantity” will always be your bread and butter whereas going “viral” can catapult your blog to another level by bringing in a flood of new visitors.

In fact, ONE SINGLE viral blog post can make you a multi-millionaire in 24 hours, seriously.  That is how powerful viral blog posts are.  I can’t really link to the examples here because I can’t give out ALL the secrets but you are free to subscribe to my blog and leave comments until I do.

I will try to give you a real-life example of a simple “viral” blog post (which I am currently working on) next time.

C YA!  It’s 12AM on a Saturaday night AGAIN and I am working!

“There’s never enough sunlight for me to keep hitting balls.” – Ben Hogan.

Post from: I Make Money Online by Creating Free Content for the World with Blogs

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Recently, I was helping one of my plumber friends here in San Francisco to help him with PPC campaigns on Adwords.  Well, since I don’t have the time to do it myself, I found a great company called Yodle, who was even featured on TechCrunch, supposedly competitor to ReachLocal.  (I even tried ReachLocal too, their services are pretty good but very expensive.)

Well, so I thought.  So I did a 1 month test with Yodle.  Even though they said I need to do a 3 month test, I “negotiated” a 1 month deal because I never want to sign up for anything long term, that’s #1 rule in investing in something you never tried before.  Yodle said we needed to do a 3-month test but I think that bs just to get their money’s worth if the campaign doesn’t work out, at least they get paid.  This is obviously great insurance for Yodle but bad for business risking their money.

Anyways, our campaign with Yodle was rather disappointing, we got 1 phone call and 2 e-mail leads.  Since we spent $800 for the month, that’s about $266.66 per lead.

We did however encounter some problems during the middle of the campaign where communication with my friend and Yodle stopped as my friend left for Philipines during the middle of the month.  But the point of this blog post is not about the mis-communication but that we spent $266.66 per lead!!! No matter what, Yodle should have stopped our campaign or at least be responsible for that.  There’s simply no excuse to spend that much for a lead.

Now, that said, it still didn’t make sense to me that we spent $800 on 1 phone call.  E-mails are not worth as much I think, especially for a plumbing business where deals are settled on the spot after a phone call.  E-mails are usually harder as a lot of times, it can simply be the competition trying to mess with you.

Anyways, I think if you have a lot of money to test the waters, Yodle might be worth a test but in my small budget testing, Yodle failed me big time.

I highly regarded Yodle because of their plumber video seen here where Joe the plumber spends $800 and gets a bunch of leads, makes up for more than his initial $800 investment.

Now, we can keep throwing at Yodle for another month to see if it works with more changes but I don’t want to keep risking my friend’s money.  If it doesn’t work again, it’s my reputation on the line, not Yodle’s.  I want to refer the best services/products in the world to my friends.

Victor, who was our sales manager, did help me greatly and he’s a great guy but I do business based on results, not friendship.

It’s even really hard for me to write a negative review about Yodle because Victor was a very nice guy.  But this is what I do – I am a blogger and I blog about what I do.

What I feel my plumber friend deserves?

Let me tell you a story first.  I used to work at Comfile Technology where we sold computer chips.  I provided the most excellent customer service in the world. I prided myself on going beyond “normalness” to make my customers happy, even if that was working from 6am to midnight to finish some code.

I remember one time a customer accidently “fried” about $1000 worth of computer chips he bought.  (It was completely his fault even though he tried to lie to me.)

Since the company had just launched in the U.S., (parent company was in Korea) I simply shipped $1000 worth of computer chips free of charge because I wanted to really show that Comfile Technology cares about its customers. I knew in the long run, the customer would order more computer chips and his “word-of-mouth” would be “viral” and he’d tell all his friends about it.

I was director of Comfile Technology at the time and wanted to do whatever necessary to make customers happy. (and I had the power to do so which was great!)

Most of us simply “work” at a company and do our jobs “normally”.  I tended to work “harder” and did literally everything I could to make the customer happy.  It’s simply in my nature to do so.  A lot of times, I even “fought” my boss for my customers.  It was like I worked for my customers, not my boss.

Because of that ethic, I no longer work for someone else and I do still apply that in every part of my own business, keep the customer happy no matter what it takes.  That’s how you never lose one single customer. A lot of people focus on frying “that big fish” but it’s a lot of “small guys” that can make you big too.

A lot of salesmen do this but the wrong way.  They “sell” first and never following through with world’s best customer service.

My end goal in this blog review is that the CEO/President of Yodle reads this and offer my plumber friend a month of free advertising on them.  I know in business, things can be done.   If not, my review will stand here and end here.

If companies can really stand behind their products/services, they should go far beyond normal expectations.  That will pay dividends in the long run and build a truly everlasting company. If not, you will always be like “everyone” else.

In fact, if Yodle did succeed in bringing more customers with their money for another month, I am sure my plumber friend will pay more money to use Yodle’s services for months to come, and this blog review, well, could ultimately end up as proof that Yodle provides the most excellent customer service in the world instead of ending here.  Plus, I have a ton of friends to refer to Yodle but it’s on hold now.

My challenge to Yodle?

If you can stand by your products, I am giving you a chance to redeem yourself.   Why spend thousands of dollar on marketing when you can make a case study out of this and prove you are indeed who you are?  I don’t ever do this, it usually ends here.

UPDATE: Yodle CEO Court has accepted my challenge, he’s actually giving my friend 2 more months free of advertising:

Hi,

This is Court – the CEO at Yodle – and we are 100% up to the challenge. The reason we ask for 3 month contracts is not to reduce risk but to give us time to optimize campaigns – we usually see a big uptick in results in month 2.

To prove this I would like to offer your friend 2 months of free advertising and we can post the results here AT THE END of the process. Reach back out to Victor and referecne this message. if you could also direct message me on twitter with your contact that would be great @yodlecourt.

Thanks giving us the chance to do what we do best.

Court

I will have an updated post after the 2 months is up.  I am hoping for the best for my friend and Yodle.  Thanks Court again for listening to your customers.  I have more friends to refer if this works out well.

Post from: I Make Money Online by Creating Free Content for the World with Blogs

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So, here’s my advice instead,

Just Do It!

Sometimes, 3 words can do a lot more than 1000 words, just like a picture is worth a 1000 words.

Post from: I Make Money Online by Creating Free Content for the World with Blogs

Just Do It!

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For those of you who have been trying to promote your online services/products or website(blogs), you will have to understand first why Google has succeeded, taking over power players like Yahoo and MSN using “relevancy”.

Relevancy is the key to success in any online business.  Whether you sell potato chips online or provide content on your blogs, being “relevant” in anything you do online makes you stronger, bigger, and better.

Look at Google’s Adwords and Adsense systems, the one single ingredient they use is called, “relevancy”.

Even you and me, constantly go in vicious search cycles on a daily basis because you need to find websites that are most “relevant” to the keyword you are searching for.

The greatest part about Google is that they base everything including their ads on relevancy, something Yahoo has a LOT of catching up to do.  I am also a Yahoo ad publisher and one of the biggest reasons I cannot promote them as much as Google is because their ads not relevant.

Google also does not show ads if they do not have inventory of advertisers that are not relevant to the content.  For example, when you do a search on Google and sometimes there’s no ads.  That’s because either there’s no advertisers for that keyword or the ads simply aren’t relevant.

How can relevancy help your online business?

EVERYTHING, if you make your ads relevant to the sites you are advertising on, you will raise your online conversions or you will make your readers happy.

The worst thing is to put ads that are not relevant to your blog such as “buy a knife” when you have a blog about stopping wars and peace.

Whatever it is you are doing, you will gain much from making your ads relevant to your content.

Well, that’s my thought for the day.  Build relevance into everything you do online and the people will come.

Post from: I Make Money Online by Creating Free Content for the World with Blogs

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Anyways, here’s a short story of “How I Survived the Recession before it even Began!”

When I graduated from college, basically I was facing a recession economy since all I did during college was play golf, party, and focus on fixing my cool import car.  I did try working as an intern during the summer months but with the crazy personality I had, I could never sit at a desk for more than an hour.  (and I had to quit all of my intern jobs after about a week.)

Heck, I submitted my job application to many, many silicon valley companies.  I think I did about 5,000 on one weekend.  (I’ve always thought quantity ruled.)

Boy was I wrong, after about 3 months of job search, I didn’t even land ONE SINGLE interview!  I even tried to work at my local burger flip In-N-Out and they wouldn’t hire me because I have never flipped burgers before!

LMAO, so what the hell did I do?

First of all, I didn’t sit on my ass.  I kept thinking of ideas and thought about “supply and demand”.

Obviously, corporate America didn’t want to hire me, whether because I had little work experience or whatever, the demand wasn’t there for computer engineers like me. (For god sakes, computer engineers are supposed to get jobs!)

I could have easily ended my life there and worked at PizzaHut for rest of my life. (which I have worked for when I was in high school and I still love my job at PizzaHut delivering Pizza in my import car!  If it wasn’t for money, I’d deliver pizzas just for fun and the thrill of getting away from cops!)

I kept thinking hard and realized that I had an “international” advantage over in Korea as I speak fluent Korean and I came from there when I was 9 years old.    I decided that I would simply go over to Korea and find jobs there, even if it paided 1/3 less than in America.  Living costs are about 1/3 of here in San Francisco so I figured it’d work.

So I applied to about a dozen computer engineering related companies in South Korea and lo and behold, I got about 12 job offers back.  People love me over there I thought.

What I realized was that no matter how bad it is here in America, you can always go anywhere else in the world to find a “job”.  Just go where there’s “demand” for your skillsets.   I am sure you can use your English degree “highly” anywhere except America, whereever English is not the primary language.  I am sure people in Latin America can pay you to work there if you just got out of school of dentistry.  Or whatever, I am sure there’s a “goldmine” somewhere else in the world waiting for you.

I ended up working in Korea for about a year and literally “brought” my job back to here in Foster City, California AND I got paid more than what most of engineers earn here on average.

Now, that is what I call beating “recession”.  If you can’t join them, BEAT THEM. (not if you can’t beat them, join them.)

I could have sat on my ass, kept being jobless, depressed and smoked crack.

But I kept searching for answers and went half way around the world.  Actually, that’s probably one of the best experiences I’ve had.  I got to live in the middle of Seoul city, on the 11th floor of a high-rise condo, within walking distance to all kinds of bars, clubs, you name it, I left my mark there, I have witnesses!

I even bought a used $2000 motorcycle, which I learned to ride it on the first day and drove over a bridge.  That was the scariest moment in my life because I took a chance with my life.  I asked the shop owner how to ride the motorcycle and rode off after about 5 minutes of practice.

Believe me, it’s a lot tougher to drive a motorcycle around a big city like Seoul where motorcyclists literally get killed on a daily basis and taxi drivers yell at people for no reason. (Seoul is the 2nd largest city in the world btw, next to Mexico  City. )  There’s even big LED signs everywhere in Seoul that tells you in real-time how many people died from accidents that day.

I love the city life though, here in San Francisco we have a very small downtown with very few skyscapers, it saddens me sometimes that there’s so few skyscrapers here.  I might have to move to New York later to satisfy my desires to be in a big city.

But I do like the fresh air, the beaches, and stable 70 degree temperatures all year.  And yes, I miss the snow and “real” autumn” in Korea.

Oops, I am getting a little off topic here.  Anyways, that was a little bit more on my life and how I beat the recession before it even began.  To me, life after college was always a recession, I had to fight for life, everything, including getting a job.

The American system is flawed.  The school system makes you get a degree and people end up not using them most of the time.   I know that more than half of my college buddies don’t use their degrees now except as wall decoration.  That is the saddest part of American college life and most kids don’t realize that until they graduate. I wish teachers/professors STOP telling kids to “GET A J.O.B.”  And yes, J.O.B. stands for “Just Over Broke”.  Please, don’t tell your kids to get a JOB, don’t tell your friends to get a JOB, that is the WORST ADVICE I’ve got in my life.  I will never GET A JOB AGAIN PLEASE!

I know now it’s even worse, college graduates are getting nothing nowdays.  BUT, I think internet offers them the opportunity to make money blogging.

Now, corporate America, I BEAT YOU with my street smarts, not with the piece of paper I got from UC Davis.

Finally, here’s my middle finger to all those companies that didn’t even bother to interview me or even take the time to look at my resume.  .|.  (Damn I wish there was a key on my netbook for that, I’d press it all day long.)

Anyways, cheer up, recession is not really that bad, there’s opportunities all over the world!  You just gotta find it.  That’s the moral of the story.  Keep lookin’, you shall find the answers.

Ironically, I am still using the same “supply and demand” method to run my own business, including hiring bloggers where there’s more supply, not where there’s demand.

Demand & Supply, learn it as I failed my economic classes in high school and college.  If I can learn it, you can probably get a masters degree in it.

Peace Out!  No More Wars!  Remember to tell your kids to be like me and be a CEO, not a corporate slave worker!

This post inspired by CEO of Saddleback Leather Company. – Read Dave’s story, it will inspire you.  It’s 6:24AM in the morning, I need to get some sleep.

Post from: I Make Money Online by Creating Free Content for the World with Blogs

How I Survived the Recession Even Before It Started!

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1. Blog more blog posts per day instead of however many you have been doing.
2. Make sure your blog posts get “tweeted” automatically by using free tools like TwitterFeed.  If you are not doing this, you are losing on web traffic from your Twitter.
3. Go to Twitter and make lots of Twitter friends in the same industry as you are and exchange “follows”.
4. Don’t twitter too much, maybe 1 hour per day may be enough, spend your time wisely and divide up your time between tasks.  Twitter is great but that’s not ALL of it.
5. Go digg your best blog posts at Digg.  Doing this on a daily basis will help you get residual web traffic over time and good SEO.  Again, don’t spend more than 20 minutes on Digg, your “time” is EVERYTHING, let’s work effectively.  Don’t put all your eggs in one basket!
6. If you have any blogger friends, ask them if you can do a “Friday” post featuring all of your best blog posts for the week and tell them you will do the same for them.
7. Go reddit your best blog posts at Reddit.   Reddit can sometimes quickly go “viral”.  One of my blog posts received over 20K visitors from 1 good reddit.  Reddit also has lots of “niche” fauceted reddits, go to those if your blog posts apply to them.
8. Start a simple contest, give out something on your blog such as a Palm Pre or something worth a lot of money.  I find anything below $300 don’t work well, people like something in the $300 or more range.  You will still get contest entries but you get more when you put a big prize money.  There’s a point where it’s effective and not.  When you send out $100 prizes, it’s not worth your or their time.
9. Go to famous blogs where they let you put your website link and leave relevant, smart comments.  Whatever you do, don’t sell anything and don’t spam.  No one likes being spammed including spammers themselves.
10. Write a press release for your blog.  Press releases can be great for web traffic and SEO, especially if you sell any kind of services or products.  I recommend free PR services like PRFree.com.  If you have a $100, I highly recommend PRWeb.com.  It’s effective, affordable, and can go “viral”.  Stay away from expensive PR sites like PRNewsWire.com.   I find them expensive and they don’t work unless you pay like thousands of dollars.  Remember, the more effectively you use your money, the more your business will grow.  This is “guerilla” internet marketing, NOT “I work for a multi-billion dollar company and have millions of dollars to waste.”
11. Inter-link your blogs if you have more than 1 blog.  Send traffic from one blog to another.  This is a great way to send traffic from your own blogs to each other.  Why not?
12. Go to sites like Neatorama.com, where they let you submit blog posts for free.  If your blog post gets promoted to the homepage, that’s free PR.
13. Go make use of free guest blogger account at my Zedomax Network.  Currently, Zedomax, Bedzine, and RingOBlog provided free blogging services.  That’s awfully cheap PR for your services/products.  ZERO!  That’s about 30K eyeballs(pageviews) to your guest blog post for FREE!  I will also set them up for rest of my blogs later when I have time so…
14. Go to relevant blogs that let you “tip” the editors.  Send them your best blog posts and if your blog posts get published, you will get a lot of exposure for FREE.  I’ve done this to my new blog over at Palm Pre Hacks blog and got posted on Lifehacker and many other top name tech blogs.   The blog averages 1000 uniques after THREE DAYS since launch, that’s called “viral”.  (and still does)
15. Go write a blog post about how to get more web traffic to your blog like this one.  It will help people and you will get a lot of free web traffic in return.
16. Go pick your nose and think about more ways to bring more web traffic to your blog.  (j/k)  Learn to take a rest and take jokes while you work.   I like to listen to explicited comedy on internet radio using WinAmp while I work.
17. Re-categorize your blog categories to feature your “best” categories.  Don’t make more than 5 main categories as a general rule of thumb.  Otherwise, you are diluting your pagerank EVERYWHERE and that will bring your pagerank down.
18. Outsource your blog commenting to outsourcing companies for pennies.  Commenting your blogs grow your blogs also and bring back your visitors.  You don’t need to do this yourself if you are super busy.  (but I do it myself because I want my penny!)
19. Use blog commenting services like Disqus, where you can put all of your comments in one place and also integrated with Facebook/Twitter and other social networks.
20. Go to really, really crowded blogs like TechCrunch and leave relevant comments.  You can easily get extra 30-100 uniques by commenting on those type of blogs.  Mashable is great too.
21. Get your blog featured on KillerStartUps for free if you haven’t yet. (or you can pay a little for more exposure)
22. Find a relevant forum for your niche blog and help others.  (Make sure to set your forum signature to your blog so you will get residual web traffic.)
23. Go make a sticker for your car and put it on your car, your mom’s car, your sister’s car, your brother’s car, your aunt’s car, your uncle’s car, your best friend’s car, put it EVERYWHERE!
24. Make T-Shirts for your blog and give them out to your family and friends.  (And wear them yourself everyday like me!)
25. Make stupid, hilarious youtube videos and upload them daily.  Trust me, there’s a lot of stupid people out there who would love to watch your videos, click through to your website, subscribe, and buy your services/products.  Also read up on my blog posts on how to make viral youtube videos.
26. Everytime someone calls you (whoever it is) and they have a website, ask them to exchange links with your website.
27. Sign up for free blogger networking services like BlogCatalog or MyBlogLog, both are great for creating small residual traffic.
28. Go leave comments on Guy Kawasaki’s blog, a lot of people read it including me.  Plus, you might get some better advice than me.
29. John Chow has a great number of followers, especially internet marketers.  If that’s your target market, go leave comments there or even order a blog review, they WORK!
30. Well, pick you nose more, you will think of more ideas. :,-)  Is that a bugger I see?  My dad told me that every human being in life has once liked to pick their nose, roll it, and flick it somewhere, the other day I found out it’s true.

(Even though this blog gets almost no traffic, web traffic growth has been reflecting the number of my blog posts.  I will try to keep going to make this blog itself a case-study of how you can increase web traffic through pure will and effort.)

Post from: I Make Money Online by Creating Free Content for the World with Blogs

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Today I feel a lot better after taking 6 tylenols, taking the battery out of my Palm Pre, and getting a full 10-hour sleep.

Anyways, last post I told you how to slow down and not be a squawker.  Well, today, let me change the subject a little bit to focus more on blogging itself.

Today’s subject is on how to get free links from other bloggers to your blog/website.

This is a pretty simple and basic method I use and works better than sending out spam-like link requests like some of you SEO companies do.  (Btw, if you ever send me one of those, they end up in my spam box.  Anything automated pretty much does so I never even see it.  No hard feelings but anything you send automated will get an automated response, plus I get about a thousand of those daily, I don’t have time to read those.)

What I do is actually wait and sit on my ass until I get a complaint on one of my blogs for not linking to another blog.(or any other complaint)  When another blogger contacts me and complains (whatever they are complaining about), I help them fix their problems and simply ask them if they want to exchange links with my blog.  A lot of times, I make a lot of these complainers into my friends. (Making your enemies into your allies may be one of the greatest powers of an entrepreneur.)

Probably not the best method but it’s one of my methods of turning a simple customer service request into free link opportunity.

What you don’t want to do is contact someone and squawk about your problems, that will ultimately burn bridges and you might be missing out on “free blog link” opportunity.  If you are going to complain, also find ways to make that into opportunities to get to know the person better, don’t just squawk!

Another way to get free links is to make personal “friends” with other bloggers by going to their blog and commenting, connecting on Facebook/Twitter, and other social networks.  For example, I know Josh from Unconventional Marketing and have met him through many different social networks.  We even met up couple months ago when he was in San Francisco.   I don’t hesitate to link to him because he’s my personal friend.

When you become someone’s personal friend, it’s not a matter of business, it’s matter of friendship.

To sum up, if you simply make a lot of great friends online/offline, you will get a lot of free links from other blogs/bloggers.

Bloggers love to link to others, it’s THEIR JOB!

You can also find blogs out there that provide “Top Commentator Plugin” like this one but I don’t really recommend that method (as the only method) as it’s not a permanent link and you will lose it when you stop commenting.

Well, I hope these tips help you gain more online exposure with your blog/website and my advice is to stay away from any automated tools as they might help you in the short run but will “kill” your online business in the long run.

Post from: I Make Money Online by Creating Free Content for the World with Blogs

How to Get Free Links From Other Blogs/Bloggers!

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Last blog post I told you to think of 30 new ideas everyday and take an hour of your time daily.  And, I told you that I would tell you why that is important.

Let me tell you story of my life. (AGAIN!)

I used to play in the mini-pro circuit golf before I dived into the Web 2.0 world.

I might not be the best professional golfer in the world right now but I can tell you that there’s a lot of things I know about golf more than most people.

One of those things that I do on a consistent basis (when playing competitive golf), is slooooowing down.

If you read a bunch of golf books on how to play better golf, you will find that most top pros will tell you to slow down EVERYTHING.

To play well in a pressure-packed golf tournament, a player has to learn to control his emotions. (basically your heartbeat.)

When your heartbeat pounds too fast during a golf tournament, you will ultimately hit bad shots or hit shots with too much power.

Because of this, a professional golfer will prepare for a golf tournament by driving slow to the golf course before the tournament even begins. (or walk if not driving)

Famous golf pros like Gary Player even suggest you to drive at least 10 miles below the speed limit before playing golf.

WHY?

Because you need to control and pace yourself. If you eat a large hamburger and run out to your tee time, you will inevitably end up shanking your tee shot or worse.

Even during a golf round, a pro golfer must pace himself/herself by walking at a constant pace that he/she is comfortable with.

What does this have to do with anything?!?

It has everything to do with your blogging business. If you can learn to do things effortlessly, you can go longer.

For example, in arm wrestling, it’s usually not the person with stronger biceps who wins but the other guy who uses his brain and keeps his “reserve” power for last.

Like such, you need to do thing effortlessly so you can put that extra energy to good use, such as thinking of 30 new ideas for your business.

How to Lower your Heart Rate and Reduce Stress

Here’s a simple exercise that will actually lower your heart rate, reduce stress, and make your daily commute more effortless and enjoyable.

The next time you drive, try to keep like 5 seconds between your car and the car ahead of you.  In other words, drive at comfortable, relaxed speeds.

When you accelerate your car, do it very gently.  When you come to a stop, do it gradually.

These tips will not only actually help you “control” the traffic around you and get to your destination faster, they can also save a LOT of extra gas plus the environment.

Likewise, if you simply learn to slow down your life, you will be able to think faster and get more things done in shorter amount of time.

Don’t be a “squawker” or someone who constantly keeps “busy” for nothing important. Take enough time to do everything in your life whether that’s cooking food or even brushing your teeth.  When you start making time for everything, you will actually have more time.  I am sure you know many “squawkers” in your life, they probably will stay in their box forever.  Squawkers usually whine about everything instead of focusing on things that will actually help their life and business. 

Even myself, I have been guilty of being a squawker most of my last 12 months and I came back to realize that’s simply not the way of life.

Stress is simply “self-imposed” actions that complicate your life.  There’s no need for you to stress about anything if you take everything slowly.

Another exercise that can help you deal with stressful situations is to simply “slow down” everything you do.  I have seen many grocery clerks who use this method when customers start being obnoxious.  They will slow down to a point the customer gets mad but the stress goes to the customer, not the clerk.

Next time you get in an argument with someone, simply “slow down” whatever you are doing.

When you “slow down”, you will think clear and realize there’s no reason to stress.

The only reason you stress is because you try to do things too fast and your brain cannot catch up.

You can also do breathing exercises by breathing in 4 counts and out 4 counts;  this can help you control your heartbeat and slow it down.

I know it might not make sense for some of you but you really need to think out of the box on this one.

There’s no need for you to hurry anything.

Believe there’s enough time in the world for you to accomplish everything if you simply slow down.

(Image Credit)

Post from: I Make Money Online by Creating Free Content for the World with Blogs

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Well, working hard is going to pay off but without great ideas, all that work could be simply useless.

Let me add another thought, “30 New Ideas Per Day!”.  (and yes please yell this out loud in the morning.  Don’t worry, your neighbors will think you are just crazy, which is perfectly fine.)

Today, I thought of 30 new ideas for making money online, some of which included Twitter, automation, and ecommerce.

You get the idea, think of new ideas that could catapult your online business to a new level and make sure you do it on a daily basis.

What I like to do is get high on some cups of coffee with my plumber friend Josh and we hit up some really loud rap music in his car.  During that time, we think of over 30+ ideas, new business start-ups that could possibly be our next jackpot.  (Yes, it’s like Mario and Luigi or super mario world.)

Here’s another exercise I’d like for you to try if you want to make more money blogging or even for general business.

Take 1 hour of your day and do something relaxing such as grabbing a cup of coffee at Peets, then simply think of new ideas that could help your business.

As stupid and time-wasting as it sounds, this is actually the key to succeeding making money blogging.  If you can control your mind to the point where you can actually “control the world”, you will be successful.  Trust me, the brain has more abilities than your fingers can do.

Next time, I will tell you my experiences in professional golf and how it applies to all this “brain” thing.  I am not just bsing you here, I’ve been there and done that.

I’ve drove myself into so much stress and work, work, and work.  The solutions don’t lie in your work, they are in your brain; you simply have to “digg” them out.

(Image Credit – Yes, your brain is key to your success.  No matter how much you work, it won’t matter if you don’t use your brains.)

Post from: I Make Money Online by Creating Free Content for the World with Blogs

30 New Ideas Per Day!

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1. I am currently working on a new infomercial ecommerce site that requires online and offline order processing call-centers.  Plus, this new site will accept recurring billing/payments.  To automate this, I have found a great solution called UltraCart which does automated recurring billing and other great things such as 1 Click UpSell.  I find it a better solution over other similar products out there such as 1ShoppingCart and QuickPayPro for the purposes mentioned above.  UltraCart also comes “loaded” with other cool features so check it out.I will have a full analysis on this “viral” marketing which involves infommercial, automated ecommerce site later down the road if it’s a big hit.
2. My 12th floor 1 bedroom apartment has great ocean views but sadly I will be moving out soon as I have a need for a bigger space and perhaps a house so I can start taking golf tutorial videos for my pro golf blog.  Definitely, I need a bigger office space, I’ve got like 10 computers/laptops crammed into my 1-bedroom apartment.  Plus, parking is getting horrible here, the only thing I don’t like about living near college campuses.

I told you, it was a short update!

P.S. I have also been sick like last 2 weeks, mostly because I have worked straight without much break for the last 2 months.  I cannot stop working and I cannot go to sleep for some reason.  I believe the cold I have now doesn’t let me sleep much, thus I keep working and keep staying sick.  LMAO, at least I am blogging a lot.  I will be back in full force though.  I believe you get stronger everytime you get sick, immune to more stuff. 

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What I am Working on Right Now!

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Well, it’s true, when you work like 30 people on a daily basis and keep updating your blog, your blog will simply get more web traffic, more visitors, and make you more money.  As simple as it sounds, this is actually the hardest part which 99% of bloggers starting out cannot accomplish.

I hope this blog serves as proof to that as I will be updating it more often now, I am tired of this blog not getting as much traffic as my other blogs!

How to win at blogging and life -

“Work Like 30 People!”

I told my plumber friend Josh about this and he got so excited about the idea now he yells, “Work like 30 people!” really loud when he gets up from bed.  I guess it’s annoying the heck out of his neighbors but I still think it’s a great way to get yourself motivated in the morning.

I thought this was a such a great idea, I started doing it too!

Here’s how to video on that:

Click Here to View in Full Screen Mode

For the next 30 days, I’d like you to try this if you can.  I am sure you will start working like 30 people soon if not already.

Be Crazy, no Lazy.

Post from: I Make Money Online by Creating Free Content for the World with Blogs

How to Win at Blogging and Life – Work Like 30 People!

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In essence, you want to copy the “good” but not the “bad” of other blogs you are copying.

I don’t mean copying content here but copying great “ideas”.  For example, when John Chow started using Top Commentator plugin way back in about 2007, I started using it.  Of course, I think this plugin is great for attracting more comments because visitors are rewards for commenting on your blog.

I’ve actually stopped using that plugin on most of my blogs except this one because I feel comments should be “genuine” and people shouldn’t comment just to get something in return.  (But for this blog, that is okay so…)

Anyways, back to the subject of copying other blogs, you want to copy the great ideas such as:

• Wordpress Plugins – There’s a ton of new Wordpress plugins created everyday.  If you want to stay ahead of the blogging game, you should be using the best Wordplugins that can enhance your SEO, look and feel, and more such as comments.   Don’t simply copy and use what other bloggers are using.  Try them out for yourself and test to see if they make your blog better.   If they do, keep them, otherwise, throw them AWAY!

  For comments, I highly recommend Disqus.  Disqus lets you gather all of your comments from all of your blogs into one place.  Plus, Facebook and Twitter are integrated, meaning you can easily “broadcast” your comments all over Facebook and Twitter.
  Another advantage of using 3rd party comment system like Disqus is that it puts less load on your web server, bringing your overall server costs down.

• Site design and structure is another faucet of Wordpress that can highly enhance visitor experience, loading times, SEO, and a whole lot more.  You will probably notice that I tinker with my blogs very often including this one.  The search bar at the top was actually one of my ideas that I created.  I thought that blogs in general lacked an ability to search since many blog posts can be hidden and archived away.

  Anyways, copy the great ideas you find from other bloggers.  A lot of bloggers use free Wordpress themes and you can usually find the theme site by checking the footer of the blog.

• Have you noticed that virtually every top blogger has a Twitter button now?  If you don’t have one, go make one!

Well, there’s plenty more stuff you can copy from other bloggers without infringing on copyrights and whatnot.  It’s out there, you simply have to search for it.

This process of copying other blogs’ ideas have been an ever-building process for me, I do it on a daily basis.  I am constantly searching for new ideas that can bring more web traffic and make my blog even more popular.

I can go on and on about these things I find but the most important thing is to realize that some ideas may work for my blogs but not yours depending on the niche and target audience.  So, go out there, find new ideas, implement it and test it!

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What do I mean?

Well, let’s say you have a blog about iPhones.  You get so much web traffic you decide to include other cellphones.  Well, that’s a no-no in blogging because you are essentially “diluting” your market.

However, what you CAN do is to make another blog about other cellphones and link to it from your iPhone blog.  (You can see example here of how successful these Crackberry guys have branched out to other cellphones.  Look at the bottom of Crackberry homepage and you will see the new blog/websites.)

Whatever you do, you can start out “broad” and go “niche” but never the other way around.

If you are going to start a blog about iPhones, stick with iPhones.  In the end, your smaller web traffic will be worth 10 times more than a general “broad” cellphone blog that covers every cellphone out there because your visitors are “highly targeted”.

I too, actually made the mistake of starting “too broad” over at Zedomax.com.  I have WAY too many categories and it’s probably the most inefficient way to make money blogging.  If I started it all over again, I’d probably only concentrate on DIYs or just Hacks.

As a result of my earlier mistakes, now I try to focus highly on targeted visitors. (You can see an example of my new Palm Pre Hacks blog, which is highly targeted towards Palm Pre hackers and Digital LED Watches blog, which is highly targeted towards consumers interested in browsing cool digital LED watches.)

I am also working on a new membership blog that I will be releasing the “real” secrets behind blogging soon so watch out for that too.

C YA!

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(Image Credit – Yes, I LOVE Cs NOW!)

Well, I am really sick tonight and can’t go to sleep even after taking bunch of tylenols.

So, here it goes, story of my life and why getting C average in college will get you ahead.

My father, who is a well-respected international businessman (something I can’t call myself yet…), told me before I went to college, “Son, just get Cs, you don’t need to get As, just graduate!” (It’s also ironic and interesting to note that my dad graduated as a valedictorian at the top of his class in college with all As in every class he took.  Now that is an unbelievably believable advice.)

And low and behold, I partied most of my college days and passed most of my classes with a slightly above C average.  (I know very few people who got worse grades than me in college, I don’t think they even add up to one….arrrr…)

At the time, I felt worthless, other college students were getting As while I slacked off and barely passed.  One time, I failed a class because I slept too much.

Well, that’s not all of bad things, I did do pretty good on classes that I “liked”, I passed them with As, some without even reading the textbook because I knew it already.  (That such class was C programming class, something I had started learning since I was 9.)

So, what did I even learn from my dad’s advice and my failures to achieve perfection in college?

That to be a businessman, you actually don’t want to be good at anything.

Even now, I honestly admit that the only thing I am really good at is golf.

I do have skills in graphic design and designing websites but nothing compared to the best in the world.

I do have skills to hack/manage web servers but nothing compared to the best linux hackers in the world.

I do have skills to learn new programming languages on the go like PHP, MySQL, C++, or whatever but I am nothing compared to the best programmers in the world.

I do have skills to barely manage my company’s finanaces but nothing compared to a professional accountant.

In the end, yes, I really suck at everything and probably get Cs in all those skills mentioned above. (except golf…hehe)

But what I am really good at since I was young, was the ability to put things together such as puzzles, presentations, and whatnot.  I could take parts from the garbage and make it into something cool.

Well, if you add up all those sucky skills I mentioned above, you get the ability to run a blogging business very very effciently by cutting down on most of overhead costs including web design/web site management/creation oof new websites.

I don’t even know how I even ended up where I am but I know one thing, all those sucky skills can make up a whole lot more than if I did graduate college with As in all my classes.  (I bet I’d still be working like a slave if I got As in my classes because I’d be too smart and I am sure some big name company such as HP would love to hire me for 30+ years as their slave programmer/workload processor.)

Anyways, my advice to any college students out there and people with teenagers,

“Son/Daughter, just get Cs in college, you will just be fine.”

Yes, I do suck at everything I do but that is the secret to running a blogging business.  If you had a bit of skills in everything, that is always better than being good only at one thing.

Well, there’s goes me rambling again… but it’s true, being mediocre can make you a winner.

Okay, final advice, “Use your strengths and put something together”.  This doesn’t have to be just blogging business, it could be anything.  Perhaps you have some skills in customer service, logistics, and cooking.  Why don’t you try opening some kind of food franchise?

The point is, making money can be fun and easy if you adapt yourr skills to it, not the other way around.

First, enjoy life, relax, and everything will fall through. 

Good luck my friends.  Well, I am still trying, not there yet.

Post from: I Make Money Online by Creating Free Content for the World with Blogs

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Well, today let me tell you that a blogger not only works “everywhere”, he/she also works “all the time”!

Today, I couldn’t go to sleep so I took my car and went to the nearest parking lot so I can start blogging. (again!)

Interestingly, I just realized that bloggers work “anytime” they want unlike jobs that only let you work during business hours.

For example, if you work at McDonalds, you couldn’t make money at 3AM in the morning unless you were “scheduled” to work at that time and the McDonalds you worked for opened 24 hours.

In contrast, a blogger can work anytime he wants to, even 3AM in the morning, as I write this very blog post in my car at 3AM.

Plus, I noticed the other day I was at the mall that people at retail stores were actually “not” working  most of their day, just sitting on their ass, waiting for customers to arrive.

There will come one day where those jobs will be give to robots who are more suitable to doing “nothing” most of their lives.

So what is the point?

I don’t have a point other than blogging frees you from location and time.

Ever since I have started working for myself, I have realized more and more that “time” is only relative to you.

Now, I don’t really even consider “weekends” real weekends anymore.  I simply make my own weekends during the weekday so I can enjoy things without the traffic and waste of efficiency that most people face.

I might be cocky here but I am simply trying to motivate all of you to blog, blog, and blog it all.

I have been asked bunch of times by my friend’s mothers and fathers how to teach their college kids how to blog.

The solution to that problem is very simple actually, just start blogging.

9 out of 10 people can’t do that, that’s why that 1 person makes money blogging and the others don’t.

Start blogging today if you have a passion for freedom of life and work.

My future goals in my blogging business is to eventually set up home offices all over the world so I can travel and blog from all over the world.   Well, I will let you when that happens.

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(Image Credit)

Since my online blogging business doesn’t require me to work in an office or my house, I am usually working in random locations such as by the ocean, golden gate bridge, or anything with ocean and parking lot.

My plumber friend is actually the one who got me addicted to working in my car.  Couple months ago, we went out to get some coffee and started blasting some rap music really loud in his car and working on some of my websites via my netbook and broadband card.  It seemed like a great idea so I kept trying it out.

Well, I got so addicted that I started working out of my car ALL the time.  I never stay home since I can go park my car at my favorite beach spots and work while enjoying the fresh ocean breeze and great views.

Anyways, I realized that there’s actually something more to it than just enjoying the views.

First, when you work in your car with a netbook and broadband card, you work with limited resources, meaning you can “focus” deeply into tasks at hand.  I have to even turn off all my IMs like Google Talk since broadband access isn’t the fastest for blogging on the go.   This is actually very helpful because now you got rid of all the distractions and you can focus on one thing, that of blogging and making money online.

Plus, I find that I don’t have as many distractions as I would find in my home.   The only thing I can really do in my car is blog, blog, and blog some more.

Second, I can actually be very efficient with my time.  For example, as I am writing this blog post, I am actually parked at a golf course near the beach, where I can go hit golf balls to take breaks.

Third, you can “train” yourself to work anywhere and everywhere.  The next time you go on a vacation, you will be ready with your gadgets and not have to worry as you will be able to be efficient.

How cool is that?

I even ordered some cellphone signal boosters so I can get more bars in more places I travel to.

Overall, limited resources can actually help you focus more on the most important things you  need to do.

Instead of sitting in the office, chatting to your buddies or IMing your family and wasting 1 hour of your day, I highly suggest you to get a netbook, some kind of broadband connection, and try out your new office!

That’s right, I expanded my business with like dozens of new offices around the SF bay area where I live.  And rent is FREE!

I guess sometimes you need to be home on a faster computer but anytime else, there’s no reason to stay home or your office.

Live your life, blog it all, blog it everywhere.

Your truly,

Max from the golf course.

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Long time ago, I released my Adsense optimized heatmap for increasing your CTR (Clik Through Rate).

Well,  I have some more great news for you, I have further optimized my Adsense ads and here’s bunch of quick tips that will help you make more money with Adsense, all the while making your regular visitors happier.

• Don’t put ads on your homepage and index pages.  These are the main pages of your blog, particularly those from index.php.  The reason is that the homepage of your blog isn’t “targetted” content since you might have more than 1 blog post in the same page.  Thus, your Adsense ads won’t be as relevant so your CTR will be a lot lower than your single pages. (single.php)  I’ve started removing all ads from the homepage and has increased my overall CTR and CPM.  Plus, another great benefit for you is that site visitors in general don’t like a website cluttered with ads.Furthermore, you don’t want your first-time visitors to click away from the homepage, you want them to stay longer.  By having zero ads on the homepage, you guarantee that the first-time readers will at least click once within your site to an interesting blog post they like.
• Put your ads on single pages.  These are the pages that receive most of your Google organic traffic.  The single pages are highly targetted because they contain one blog post.
• Test the different Adsense ads provided in my Adsense heat map and take out any ads that don’t perform.  As a general rule of thumb, I remove any Adsense ads that do less than 1% CTR.  I rather put another affiliate banner or private ads in those less performing spots.  You want  to increase your overall CTR, that makes your site more valuable for advertisers on Google.  This is simply common sense.  If you were an advertiser, you would want to advertise on ad placements that get most attention and most clicks.  Even me, if I want to sell an affiliate product, I place it where it gets the most attention/CTR, not bottom-right sidebar banner that no one will look at.

For now, that’s the 3 tips that can change your Adsense earning as much as whopping 25% based on my testing.  Results may vary but if you keep testing, you won’t regret any positive results you get while you can always go back to your old format if it doesn’t work out.

You don’t make more money because you bring more traffic, you make more money by bringing in higher “quality” traffic.  The only way you can prove that to Google Adsense and advertisers is to optimize your ads and improve your overall CTR.

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Ben Hogan is one of my idols who really inspire me to beecome a pro golfer.

The point of today’s story is that like golf, life is not perfect.  Golf is not a game of perfect but trying to reach perfection.

Let me get to the point.  No one’s life is perfect, not even the world’s most wealthiest people.  In fact, I bet you more rich people are miserable than others because they have achieved more than they needed.

Life is a progress of you trying to be as best as you can be, that does not mean you need to be perfect.

I want you to try something for the next 30 days.

Don’t try to be perfect at everything you do.  Focus on the big picture and start “planning” more than “working”.

Working hard means you need to think smart, not working long hours nor trying to be “perfect”.

Let go of your blog design to be perfect, stop trying to get your bloggers to correct every grammar mistake you find.

Instead, focus on things that will get you ahead such as optimizing your ad positions to make the most money out of your ads or even schedule a meeting with your investors to talk about what kind of things will help your business in the long run.

You see, no one is perfect.  Perfectionists are the people who don’t do well in business.  Entrepreneurs are people who can put together a puzzle, not make the puzzle pieces.

That’s my advice for today and being “mediocre” may actually help you make more money and free yourself away from details and stress.

“Think like a painter, make different brush strokes to make your paint perfect, you don’t need a carbon-copy of reality.  Color copiers exists for that.”

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Even me, I started with “viral” blog posts in the beginning where those blog posts got a massive amount of pageviews and YouTube views.

So, how to go about making “viral” YouTube videos?

Whatever your niche, you need to be able to “WOW” your audience.  You can do this several ways by covering the “top news” of the week or making a hilarious video that’d make anyone laugh.

Here’s a great example of a viral video FedEx has launched:

Click Here to View in Full Screen Mode

The greatest part about making viral YouTube videos is that you don’t need millions of dollars in digital camera equipment and marketing.  All you need is a great idea, a decent digital camera, and start recording ALREADY!

Not all of your YouTube videos might go “viral” but if you keep trying hard enough, you will get there.

Here’s another video about Web 2.0 bubble that got millions of views within days:

Click Here to View in Full Screen Mode

These examples weren’t actually homemade as you can tell but that doesn’t stop you from making your own original “viral” YouTube video.

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Before, the “Guerilla Internet Marketing” was a good term but it didn’t really stand out among the crowd and say “who” I am.

Instead of sticking with a dull phrase, I decided to revamp the title of my blog to a more “personal” one that describes “who” exactly I am and how I make money online.

For others who have at least made a living online, I would say never be shy about the fact that you make a living online, it’s a good thing to share with the world.

Why sudden change?

Change is good, don’t ever sit still.  Like a lot of internet marketers say, “test! test! and test!”

Before I was overwhelmed by people asking me how I make money online, it used to be a thing I didn’t really want to say but now I feel the opposite.  The more people know what you are about and what you do to thrive in this recession economy where seeing a foreclosed house is very common, the more they will be able to know about you and trust you.

Trust isn’t something built overnight nor can you buy it.   It’s something inside a brain that tells the person whether you should keep listening or not.

I might be rambling here but please bear with me as I rant and blog all my thoughts.

I don’t know about you but I feel making blogs is basically becoming a “content publisher” to the “world”.  I have to emphasize the word, “world” here because you are dealing with people from all over the world.

The other day I got an e-mail for our Bedzine.com blog asking me to ship a mcqueen kid’s platform bed to Singapore.

I did have the nerves to maybe order it myself from Amazon and ship it to him.  That would be a very nice thing a human being can do for another.

But I sent back an honest reply, “We are a web publishing company, we don’t ship products, sorry.”

At that moment, I felt proud to be part of a publishing company, even if it’s one I created.

But the most ironic part is that I hated English classes and anything with any kind of editorialness to it.  I have always been a gadgets-geeky-gangster type of guy who like to live on the edge of life and technology, not a content maker/publisher/whatever.

Anyways, to make the story short, this blog isn’t even one I am trying to make money on, it’s just a personal blog where I randomly shoot out my thoughts to my humble visitors.

Well, couple days ago I decided I will somehow make money on this blog and try to rejuvenate it. (and everything else I am doing)

A lot of times, you will realize that you spent the whole day doing practically nothing but tweet to your friends, poke friends on Facebook, and end up day reading Digg’s top story.  Well, that is a good thing but you still need to realize that life must go on, you need to encourage yourself to be something, make a change in the world.

For that, I will be creating a new Twitter app/site that will benefit the homeless in San Francisco.  If it goes viral, we will be donating 100% of profits to the best homeless non-profit foundations right here in San Francisco.

“You don’t need to change the world, change yourself and the world  will follow you.” – That’s my quote of the day thanks to Twitter, my quotes are getting better and better!

Peace Out Yo!

P.S. Don’t forget to make  a great title for your blog too bud!  Puf Puf Pass! Ahem…Choke…

Post from: I Make Money Online by Creating Free Content for the World with Blogs

How to Make a Great Title for Your Blog!

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Actually, I got this term “mobile traveler” from my best “homeless” friend who happens to be a “mobile traveler”.  He insists on himself as a mobile traveler or someone who has the freedom to go  where he wants, anytime he wants.

Well, pro-bloggers have it just like a homeless mobile travelers except pro-bloggers are making money while traveling.

Even as I write this, I am sitting in my SUV outside a local McDonald’s, enjoying my large regular ice coffee while trying on my 10″ netbook geared with a Sprint broadband car and in-car AC adaptor just in case my 9-hour battery happens to run out.  Oh, yeah, I did get the Palm Pre yesterday, it’s an iPhone Killer for sure.

Again, bloggers are mobile travelers, don’t get me wrong, pro-bloggers don’t work at home, we work EVERYWHERE!

It’s true and I know a lot of pro-blogggers I hire travel practically ALL the time.

Especially if you are single and have no family to be responsible for, you could be practically traveling the  world all year long while paying your travel expenses with revenue generated from blogging.

Now, what is the point of all this?

Pro-blogging is a new type of “job” or “career” if you want to call it.

It’s an open “free market” where there’s still plenty room for others to join in.

If you want to join this exclusive online society of pro-bloggers, you can start right NOW as I give you the ultimate secrets on how to succeed as a blogger absolutely free other than your brain and pure efforts.

Read my last post on the “secret” of blogging.

(Another mobile traveler… image credit)

Post from: I Make Money Online by Creating Free Content for the World with Blogs

A Pro-Blogger is a Mobile Traveler!

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When I first started blogging, I did about 30+ blog posts per day.  Each of those blog posts weren’t long but surely they were a LOT of blog posts.

I tend to emphasize the fact that you need to do a lot of blog posts in order to make money blogging.

A lot of experts will tell you that you don’t need to even blog at all and you can “outsource” these tedius tasks and you need to focus on the big picture.  (when in reality, the opposite is true)

Well, let me tell you straight in your face today that would only be true if you already had about $20,000 to invest for the next year or so.

The other option that you have is that you can do these blog posts yourself and save yourself about $20,000 of work.

So how many blog posts do you need to do a day to be profitable?

If my life depended on it, (which it is), I would start doing at least 30 blog posts per day.  Actually, I copied this idea from Phillip Torrone at Make Magazine blog.  He used to do about 30 blog posts per day and he’s the very first blogger I saw/admired so I simply copied his work habits.  Yes, talk about finding the right person to copy, hahaha.  (Back then, I thought that was the ONLY way!)

Really, if you want to make money with blogging or any other business, you really need to put your life as guarantee, otherwise you will probably waste away your efforts.

There’s a saying that might inspire you, “If you don’t risk anything, you gain nothing.  If you gain nothing, you have risked EVERYTHING.”

“If you risk EVERYTHING, at least you will gain nothing and more…”

WHY 30 MOTHE*FREAKIN BLOG POSTS PER DAY!?!  ARE YOU FU**ING CRAZY?

A lot of times, I get this type of response from most of my visitors.  And yes, you must be crazy about blogging in order to be successful at it.

If you don’t want to be that crazy about blogging and make a living from it, I suggest you to find a JOB like 99% of the population.  Trust me, getting a job is helluva easier than trying to make a living on your own.

And yes, sometimes I do like 100 blog posts over a weekend if I need to catch up.  No kidding, I have witnesses!

Anyways, let me just tell you the real “secret” why 30 blog posts per day makes sense.

If you do 1 blog post per day for 365 days a year, that’s 365 blog posts you do in 1 year.

Now, if you do 30 blog posts per day for 365 days a year, that’s 10,950 blog posts in 1 year.

That’s again, 365 blog posts for the lazy guy and 10,950 blog posts for the crazy guy.

Who would you rather be?

The answer to blogging, golf, and life is simple, if you try harder than someone next to you and do way more, you will always win.

Think of it this way, when you do 30 blog posts per day instead of just doing 1, you are essentially doing the work of 30 people.

That’s right, every human being in this world has the potential to do as much work as 30 lazy people, now THAT is pure effort and power of one human being.   That is what I am talking about, the pure hard work that will turn YOU into an AWESOME blogger!

Don’t go search on the internet on “how to make money blogging” and spend $500 on worthless material that’s just going to get you confused.

All you need to do to start making money blogging is to start blogging NOW!

This very second, you must choose to do 30 blog posts per day for the next 365 days on your favorite topic.

If you do this for at least 2 years, I guarantee you that you will make enough money online to make a living.

I am dead serious here, if you simply blog more than anyone else you know, you will make money blogging.

DECIDE RIGHT NOW YOU WILL BECOME THE MASTER OF YOUR OWN LIFE BY WORKING VERY VERY HARD EVERYDAY!  THE CHOICE IS YOURS…

P.S. You don’t have to do 30 blog post per day forever, just until you can be profitable enough so you can re-invest your profits into the business.

One thing I see common among successful internet marketers, “they all work harder than everyone else, or at least in their mind they do….”.  I didn’t say working harder meant long hours, it just means you will do whatever it takes to achieve your goals whether that means blogging in your toilet or simply knowing all the “shortcuts”.

Take a look at some of the most successful bloggers online today and you will see they are constantly “blogging” EVERYTHING they do, even what they ate for lunch.  THAT, is how you need to blog, every day, every hour, and every second.

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