Happy New Year 2011 - I Am Ready, Are You?

2011 is almost here as we say goodbye to 2010. I learned so much in 2010 and once again saw my business grow leaps in bounds which I am very proud of. You have to feel blessed to work in such an amazing business with so very little overhead versus return. I have learned in 2010 to outsource even more than I had in the past years and allowed myself to test several different things along the way this year. I had great success with new ventures into the autoblogging field as well with getting good out of the box type sites done with Keywords To Websites. 2011 will be another busy year for me and the wife and I plan to enjoy the fruits of our labors a little more than usual in 2011. We have already scheduled 5 trips for 2011 and I look forward to them all.

In 2011 I will be moving to a 3 post a week schedule on this blog as I have accomplished my original goal for this blog that ends tonight. I want to free myself up a little more time going forward, so I have chosen to cut from 7 to 3 post a week here. This blog continues to exceed my original expectations set forth many years ago and cutting back will not hurt it's income one bit and yet still satisfy the readership. There will of course likely be weeks where I post more, but with all the play time the wife has scheduled, it only makes sense.

As you head into 2011, make sure you have your plans in line as well. If you can only dedicate a few hours a week to your business, make sure you know what direction you are going in these hours. The biggest thing most do wrong in this business is to look for the easy way without learning the basis of the right way. You can never go wrong with good keyword research, great SEO and solid, on topic, original content. Everyone acts like there is some hidden secret and refuse to do just the basics. Everyone wants the guarantee that if they do X, Y & Z they will get X amount of dollars guaranteed. There is a ton of blind faith in this business that those of us that have had success had to conquer first. You have to learn how to build a great site first and then back out everything from there. Stop reinventing the wheel. Master a site the way the niche store guide teaches and go from there. How many of you have actually done that? Probably not many.

I hope 2011 is a prosperous year for you and I enjoy all those people that make this blog a usual stop and what it has become. Keep pushing forward and know there is always room to learn more and you will never be an expert. It is what drives me everyday and hopefully drives you as well.

Happy New Year and I will see you all in 2011!!!!!!!!

WP Spin Wordpress Plugin Coming Soon

Have you heard? Mike Johnson is about to release a new plugin on January 4th for Wordpress that is fully integrated with The Best Spinner API. It can access the entire 1 Million Plus synonym database, plus he has also added a database of 50,000 common word and phrase variations that will enable you to literally spin your posts into perfection.

But that's not all. WP Spin, as its called, can also take the spinner syntax created inside your posts and then use that syntax to create new, unique post updates that you can literally schedule for any day, week, or month you want. Watch the video below and you will get a better idea of it in action.

Antivirus For Wordpress Plugin

Sorry for the late post, but I am sure you know how holiday unannounced company can be. I stumbled across a Wordpress plugin I had not tried before and it is called the AntiVirus for WordPress plugin. In a nutshell, the plugin scans your Wordpress template files for potential hazards and it does a good job as I tried it non a theme I know had an exploit from long ago and it caught it. If you are hacked and they inject code into your PHP files, one of the first places to be infected is your theme. This early warning system will monitor and clean your theme files for you. The plugin was last updated 10/27, so that is refreshing. I consider it a piece of mind plugin especially if you use a theme off the beaten path that you are unsure of.

Michael Gray Updates Wordpress Plugin List

Michael Gray has updated his Wordpress plugin list and while you will find many on my Top 40 Wordpress plugin list, he has several that I do not list. You can also see he has become a fan of the WordPress SEO plugin by Yoast that I have talked about quit a bit recently. The WP-Print I have used before and forgot about. Also the WPtouch plugin I have used but do not think I have ever touched on. 2011 will surely be another banner year for even more great Wordpress plugins. I am teaching an out of work friend how to build and develop with Wordpress as he is an old html guy. These plugins I show him blow his mind. Make sure to bookmark his site or add his feed to your reader as he writes great stuff.

Shoemoney Crazy Affiliate Summit West 2010 Contest Now Started

Shoemoney is once again doing his Crazy Affiliate Summit West Contest and here is what the winner gets:

• A platinum pass to Affiliate Summit West.
• 2 nights hotel accommodations paid for at host hotel.
• $500 Airfare Reimbursement.
• $2000 to gamble on 1 hand of blackjack (can you handle the pressure?).
• Roll with me at Affiliate Summit.
• A pass to the Epic Advertising Playboy Mansion Party this fall.
• Go here for all the details!!

Shoemoney has had this contest for the last 5 years and is a man of his word. I get nothing for pointing you to it, it is just a great contest. To find out what you have to do to win, just click on over to his post.

Google To Look Closer At Cloaking In 2011?

Matt Cutts posted earlier today on Twitter that in the 1st quarter of 2011, Google will look closer at cloaking. He states in the tweet that not just page content matters, but different headers and redirects of the Googlebot as well instead of users. Now the Tweet is pretty vague as he does not address link cloaking, that up until now has not seem to hurt by doing it. That said, I have always shied away from link cloaking just by personal preference. I suspect Matt will elaborate on this more in a webmaster video or blog post, but it is something you might want to be aware of just the same. If I get a clearer confirmation, I will pass it on to my readers as usual. In the mean time, it is just one of those FYI type things, but it was important enough for him to tweet about it. Be advised.

Merry Christmas Everyone & Happy Holidays

I am going to actually rest and relax with some relatives tonight and eat some yummy food and Christmas snacks. I wanted to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. I hope your Christmas season was a profitable one. I will not be posting on Christmas day as we are likely going over to the casino to blow off some money and do mindless stuff. Get those goals ready for the new year and get ready to hit the ground running after the holidays. Some entertainement below.

Vimeo Free Video School

Vimeo has launched a video school! Vimeo Video School is a new section of Vimeo where anyone, from any skill level, can learn how to make better videos. For free.

Vimeo has crafted a series of fun, original videos to teach you about the basics of making better videos in an entertaining way. They have also written a variety of lessons that gather tutorial videos from across the site and help break down the details into bite-sized nuggets of wisdom. If that's not enough, they have organized almost a thousand tutorial videos made by other Vimeo members covering almost every topic you can imagine.

Want to make a sweet time lapse video? Want to learn tips about editing in iMovie? Video School has lessons and tutorials about all sorts of cool stuff. Check it out frequently for new lessons as there is something for everyone.

Introduction To Facebook Marketing

I was emailed a question about Facebook marketing and while I am still pretty much on the learning track and experimenting side of things myself with it, I had this great Introduction To Facebook Marketing post bookmarked from earlier this year by Tim Soulo. Soulo gives a step-by-step Social Media Marketing strategy for promoting a business on Facebook. He has gathered, in his opinion, all the best practices and tips that he has used himself along with some advice he has gotten from others and is confident will work. Facebook and Twitter are heavily integrated into the social web world. Facebook even moreso than Twitter from my own views. I am willing to bet if you randomly polled 10 people, more would admit to using Facebook than the would Twitter. I myself will be diving even heavier into Facebook in 2011 and if you are new to it, this is as great as any place to start the learning process.

New WP Robot Version Released

Yesterday the last major update of WP Robot was released for the current year. The new version 3.32 does, besides some minor bugfixes, add a feature that has been requested for a long time: A campaign specific author setting on the "Create Campaigns" page to have different users create the autoposts of different campaigns! Also new is a "Merchant" setting for the Linkshare module and a rewriting tag that allows you to fine-tune where you want to use TheBestSpinner.com API (support for which was added with the last update) in your posts. As usual you can find a complete list of changes as well as instructions on how to use the rewriting tag in the support forum.

IMAutomator Secondary Submissions Are Now Live

I have used the IMAutomator by Caroline Middlebrook for a while now and she is now proud to annouce that Secondary Submissions feature is now live! This new feature for Pro members will allow you to gain many more new backlinks by re-submitting your existing links to any new sites that were added to the system since the original submission. In the case of members who have upgraded from Free to Pro - all those links you submitted as a free member with the 15-site limit can now be re-submitted using the Secondary Submissions feature to gain all the other possible backlinks! For members who have been with us for a long time and submitted hundreds or even thousands of jobs in that time - you guys have a LOT of new backlinks waiting for you! To understand how the feature works and how to use it you can see this training page or watch the tutorial video below.

Finish Goal Setting Now For New Year

Here we are a week out from Christmas and the next two weeks will really fly by for you. Before you know it, 2011 will be here. It is time to get your goals finalized for 2011 now, not later. I always look forward to this time of year as I try to roadmap out where I want to be in so many areas of my life, not just my businesses. I try to set intermediate goals as well and be time specific with them. I also set income goals and try to stretch myself to around a 25-33% income growth over the previous year. Goal setting and planning has played a huge part in my success over the years, it is a road map of sorts for me. There are plenty of videos on Youtube and plenty written online for you to research works best for you. The key is to get it down on paper so your subconscious can absorb it going forward. heed my advice and get this firmed up now. It works.

My 2010 Big Money Maker Affiliate Programs

As 2010 winds down here are the affiliate companies that have done me the best in 2010 in no particular order.:

Amazon - I took a ton of pressure off of EPN in 2010 and it paid off greatly. Good targeted sites will convert that one day cookie. Great plugins like the PHPZon Wordpress plugin make it easier than ever to earn with the Amazon affiliate program.

Google Adsense - I doubled my 2009 Google Adsense income in 2010. What more can I say? I am very happy with the program and have a good understanding of what sites it works best on. I could live of that income alone.

Ebay Partner Network - Although no longer my top earner by choice by taking the pressure off of it and diverting it to other programs, I learned how to best maximize the EPN QCP model to my liking. It remains a solid way to earn money, especially using the PHPBay plugin by Wade. Program has earned me a ton of money over the years. Still love it.

Share-A-Sale - This affiliate company does not get enough recognition, but represents some great companies that convert fantastically. If you have not signed up and looked around at what they offer, you really should.

Commission Junction - I have been with these guys for a long time. I have a few companies that I represented for years that do very, very well for me. No complaints.

Clickbank - Great company to sell ebooks on. Easy to manage. I do a ton with this blog and another MMO blog that I run with them as well. Never had a problem with them.

Google Affiliate Network - They get more and more new companies every week it seems like. I have a few favorites with them.

Pepperjam - They have had their struggles, but I have a few sites that do well with a few of the companies they affiliate manage.

Linkshare - Same as Pepperjam really. What I do point their way, does convert.

Neverblue - Just really scratching the surface with these guys, but got several checks in 2010 from them. I want to try to use more of their stuff in 2011.

These are really just my major ones above and I use another handful of companies as well. Webmaster Magazine has a great article in the January 2011 issue of the top 50 advertising and affiliate networks for 2011. Worth a glance.

Mobile Search Intent

I talked about my future dedication to mobile a few days back and came across a great post today on Understanding Mobile Searcher Intent that takes in account a real life experience. I have found myself also wanting type-free shortcuts along with hating to come across a page that looks like might not be optimized for mobile and waiting for it to load.

The key thing going forward with mobile will be of course speed, easy navigation and getting the surfer exactly where they want to go with the less typing possible. Sure this is what we try to do with traditional sites as well, but the competition in mobile is much less right now in my opinion in mobile sites that can master this. Apps will likely play a big role in this as well as an extension to your site. Many of you could give a flip about mobile right now I am sure, but much like Twitter and Facebook, you better start learning about it and slowly embracing it. I have a ton to learn about it and have just barely scratched the surface. Reads like this is what I will be looking for going forward into 2011. I guarantee you will hear more and more about mobile in 2011.

Don't Be Stupid - Shop Using Your Own Affiliate Code

Outside of weekly groceries, there is not much that the wife and I do not buy online. The internet & UPS were made for us, especially at Christmas time where we really go crazy. It is so easy to get caught up in the shopping aspect that often times you can forget that there might indeed be an affiliate program that you either already belong to such as Link Share, Commission Junction or Share-A-Sale for example that manages the place you are about to buy from or it might be a program you can join quickly and get approved. Now of course some programs will not reward this way, like Amazon, but many others will. I like to buy calenders this time of year, to the tune of about 200 bucks worth. I blindly almost forgot myself just the other day to check this and remembered the last second. It of course was a Share-A-Sale run program and I received credit for my own purchase on top of the free shipping the company was offering. Not a bad deal and I bet several of you forget to do this. It is easy to do and it is instant money back in your pocket.

I should add a disclaimer that you should check the rules of each program if it is indeed OK for you to buy from yourself. Outside of Amazon & Ebay though it is pretty wide open. Amazon will not punish you, they just will not credit you, at least they don't credit me. Ebay has frowned on this for a while. When in doubt, just double check the rules or email your affiliate manager.

Working Harder On Ebooks, Mobile & Social Sites In 2011

2011 is right around the corner and a few areas I am going to dive into even bigger and better in the coming year are ebooks, mobile optimization and social sites. None of these areas are new to me, especially the social sites, but I believe I have just scratched the surface on what I can do with them. I have reaped HUGE benefits in 2010 by paying attention to social networks more and I will continue that growth along with writing 12 more ebooks next year. More and more people everyday are accepting ebooks. They can buy them on a moments notice and read them just seconds after purchasing. I wrote 4 ebooks last year and 2 are doing amazingly well. As far as mobile goes, not only will I be optimizing towards it even more I want to delve deeper into the app world and have a goal for the release of 2 apps in 2011. Now is the time to start getting those goals together and it is my primary focus this time of year. That and watching my wife enjoy the fruits of our labors. Get ready 2011, I am coming.

Love Playing With Yourls URL Shortener

My newest toy I have been playing with is the great free Yourls URL Shortener script. You can easily set up your own URL Shortener to work not only on site with a Wordpress plugin, but through Twitter and Facebook with Twitterfeed & Tweetdeck as well using your own API. Thanks to my good buddy Hank at Money Code, I got a sweet toolbar plugin portion figured out to show ads above linked to pages not on site. It is included free as well. There are so many things you can do with this if you use your imagination. The coding is solid and pretty secure from all of my scans through it. Quite a few sites use it as you can see in their showcase. This is not for a novice, but is pretty easy to get installed if you have been around the block a little while.

It's Beginning To Look Alot Like Tax Time

Christmas is almost here and a week after the end of 2010. Ebay Partner Network wants to remind you to double check the accuracy of Your W9 Information for 1099-Tax Forms by December 31st to ensure you get your 1099-MISC form. Of course you will only get a 1099 if you are a United States citizen or legal resident and you had $600 reportable tax activity for the year 2010. Hopefully you are over qualified for both of these criteria. While you are at it, I would suggest you go through ALL of your affiliate accounts to make sure that you have the correct W9 info filed with them as well. It is just better to be safe than sorry. Hopefully one day I can live to see a fair flat tax, but that is a post for another day. I hope your holiday season is going as good as mine is. Keep your head up and keep working. The rewards are tremendous.

How To Use The Twitter Advanced Search Feature Video

Wow! What a great video put together by Mashable on how to use the Twitter advanced search feature to return great search results. Well put together video. Gives me tons of fantastic ideas.

With Amazon Wordpress Plugins My Loyalty Stays With PHPZon

Someone emailed me yesterday asking about a certain new Amazon Wordpress and wondering if I tried it. There are new plugins that come out all the time to have the ability to show Amazon products on your niche sites. I have used quite a few over the years, but my go-to Amazon plugin remains the PHPZon plugin by Wade. why? I trust it and I know it converts when I build my sites right. Does this mean that other plugins are not as good? Absolutely not, I just have no reason to play with them or test them. Wade is always on top of any API changes and continues to support all of his plugins like no other developer. The same goes with his original PHPBay plugin for the EPN eBay program. In addition, the forum you get access is full of information and great ideas. If you have yet to tackle the Amazon route, you need to and the PHPZon plugin is the perfect plugin to get started with. I have used it for a LONG time and have no reason to try another one.

Rand On Improving Share-ability Of Your Content

I am a little under the weather today as it feels like the flu bug might be coming on. I wanted to point you to the SEO Moz Whiteboard Friday video and post today in which Rand goes over Improving Content "Share-ability". Another well put together segment and very informative as well.

SEOmoz - SEO Software

Yoast On Duplicate Content

If you have read my blog for a while you know I follow every word that Joost de Valk, better knows as Yoast, preaches. Today he has a super post for you to better understand the different causes of duplicate content, and how to find the solution for each of the causes. This is straight and to the point and something you will likely want to bookmark and refer back to. I also am a fan of his new SEO Wordpress plugin I have talked about recently. You will want to consider learning how to use it. He is a master of Wordpress and SEO and anything he puts out, I subscribe to. Make sure you follow him on Twitter @Yoast.

Search Meter Wordpress Plugin

I came across the Search Meter Wordpress plugin the other day and have been playing with it. I am not sure how I ever missed this one as it is fantastic. It is yet another free plugin that tracks what your visitors are searching for on your site. Full details of recent searches are available, as are statistics for the previous day, week or month, including whether or not users are finding what they are looking for. The thing I like in addition to the stats is how you can show show your readers what the most popular searches are. The Popular Searches widget displays a configurable list of recent popular successful search terms on your blog, with each term hyperlinked to the actual search results. Make sure you give this great plugin a workout.

MaxBlogPress X-Mas Deal: - 70% Off

I have advertised MaxBlogPress Subscribers Magnet, Ninja Affiliate, Wordpress Wizard 2.0, $365K Blog Traffic Formula and the Daily Traffic Blueprint for some time and own every single one of these. I bought these on a special discount sale like is being offered now by MaxBlogPress. The MaxBlogPress Christmas Deal is for a very limited time and you, can grab all five of these great products and get instant access for less than a $140, one-time investment. That is a savings of $338 and 70% of retail. This deal will expire on the 14th December at Midnight [EST]. If you have it in your budget, I highly suggest this deal. It has never sold near this low.

New Ebay Listing Analytics Tool

I missed this new eBay tool somehow but the makers of Terapeak, Advanced Ecommerce Research Solutions, have created a free eBay desktop application that provides analytics for individual eBay listings, similar to what Google Analytics does for a website. eBay sellers can now track traffic, clicks, impressions and other web data to better understand the conversion process.

“Thanks to our work with eBay, ecommerce merchants have increasing access to sales information that makes ecommerce sellers as a group among the most sophisticated merchants in history. Terapeak’s continued growth is testimony to this fact, where tens of thousands of online merchants rely on us to provide up to date statistics on pricing, competitive moves, buyer trends, the most profitable listing methods, and the hottest categories,” said CEO Fred Speckeen.

“The addition of listing data to the daily analysis we provide on more than 10 million global eBay transactions will give eBay sellers even more insight to drive their business strategies and make more profitable decisions. We expect over 500,000 Listing Analytics users will be optimizing their listings using this exciting new tool by the end of February 2011.”

Features:

* Search for a listing by keyword to instantly see its rank in search results. Robust, easy-to-use filtering and sorting capabilities will allow you to filter results by format, sort by column, and drill down into the details of each listing to better understand your best and worst performing listings.

* View impressions, clicks and sales metrics to better understand the behavior of your buyers. Find answers to the questions: Are buyers finding your listings in search results? If so, are they clicking to view your listings? Once they click, are they buying?

* See how your listings stack up for impressions, clicks and sales against the top five results for similar Fixed Price listings.

* Get rolling 30 day trending data for impressions, clicks and sales for both active and completed listings.

* Get tips and best practices to help optimize your listings.

Found A Great Wordpress Template In My Spam

I love getting spam mail. Unfortunately I do not get time to go through it all but will sift through it every now and again to see if I missed anything worth value. Today I came across this great free theme and Wordpress plugin from Matts Marketing Blog. The plugin is a simply ad management plugin, nothing fancy. The Theme is great for niche sites and is very easy to customize. You can watch the video below that shows you how to go about using the theme. Great spam and I will be making use of this theme soon myself. Always sift through your spam, you never know what good junk might be in there.

Guideline To Finding The Perfect Wordpress Theme

Someone emailed yesterday and asked what makes a perfect Wordpress theme. I think that is a broad question, but I do know what to look for in a theme as far as functionality thanks to this older post by Joost de Valk. Yoast walks you through 10 of the most important things in his eyes for a Wordpress theme to have. Most themes usually abide by these, but you will run into some that don't and often times you can fix it yourself. As far as looks and layout goes, there is more than one type of layout and color scheme that works. As usual, I always say the less cluttered and the cleaner the better. If you are not good with graphics, do not pretend to be. All text themes can be just as good as those with top notch graphics or logos. The key is good SEO and great content.

Twitter & Facebook Influence SEO According To Google & Bing

I am way behind today, but wanted to point you quickly to this post by Rand Fishkin in which he covers that both Bing and Google have confirmed via Danny Sullivan) that indeed, links shared through Twitter and Facebook do in fact have a direct impact on rankings. As you know I have been a big fan of using Twitter, Facebook and other social networks for some time now and I suggest you make it a point to include them more going forward into 2011 once this holiday season is completed. Good stuff in that post.

Image Hotlink Protection In Wordpress

There are certain hotlink Wordpress plugins that do the job of hotlink protection of images on your site. If you are using Wordpress, you can simply create a .htaccess file from the code below and upload it to your uploads folder which is in your wp-content folder. Make sure the filed is named .htaccess In the code below make sure to change the yourdomainname.com to whatever your domain is. Also add any other file extensions you might want to prevent being hotlinked. to this group jpg|jpeg|png|gif in the code below. Usually though it is just images that folks want to protect. After you upload it. Clear your browser cache and test that an image can be hotlinked at a site like this. There are many of these sites all over the net. No matter how busy or slow a site is, it would not be surprising to see an image of your hotlinked every now and again. This htaccess folder can also be used in any other folder where you might use images as well.

# BEGIN HotLinkProtection
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^$
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http(s)?://(www\.)?yourdomainname.com [NC]
RewriteRule \.(jpg|jpeg|png|gif)$ - [NC,F,L]
# END HotLinkProtection

I Hope You Too Got Some Of The $1 Billion Spent On Cyber Monday

WOW!!!!!! What a day Monday was? I am still going through some stats, but it by far was a record for me. It seems that I was not the only one as Mashable reports that the newest data from the tracking firm comScore suggests that Cyber Monday just might have been the heaviest online spending day in history with a record-breaking $1.028 billion in online spending a few days ago. According to their report, that is a 16% jump in spending when compared against the same day last year.

By no means does this mean everything is perfect with the economy, but I think we can safely say that we are on the way up from the bottom. It will take several years for certain investments and real estate values to recover, but you have to be excited if you are in this business.

Is this all new to you? Maybe the affiliate business is not new to you, but you are looking to get more involved and get your piece of the $1 Billion pie. All you need is the free Wordpress platform, a Hostgator hosting account and the PHPZon and PHPBAY Wordpress plugins. These are the basics, but will get you on your way to building towards a very lucrative Cyber Monday in 2011.

Reminder: Auto Blog Blueprint 2.0 Closing Access Tonight!

I know several of you have taken advantage of the low offer going on Auto Blog Blueprint 2.0. I wanted to give everyone else that has not purchased this program one final shot at taking advantage of the of the One Time Only Low Price of $67 before they close the doors at 11:59 PM US Eastern Time to get started on the new 3.0 version which by purchasing now, will get you access to that as well. If you ever wanted to learn about Auto Blogging you will want this great course and step by step instructions. No coupon codes or anything needed tonight.

Free Tube Fool Software

Alex Goad and Mark Dulisse are currently giving away a free Youtube marketing tool called Tube Fool. You can watch the demo video below and I have yet to give it a go as of yet as I want to get past the holiday first. It does look pretty cool and of course you will have to opt in to get it and the course. It may or may not be up your alley, so give it a look and see if it is something you might want to play with. They say new features are coming which I am sure will be where they charge. Unclear at this point.

Cyber Black Monday Is Tomorrow

As most know already, Monday is known as Cyber Black Monday. This day is known as the busiest day of the online shopping season and is the first Monday following Thanksgiving. So far all of the media reports are strong for retail and online sales. I myself have seen record days as well since Thanksgiving.

The average amount spent per person from Thursday to Sunday was about $365, more than a 6 percent increase over last year, according to a survey of about 4,300 Americans by the National Retail Federation, a trade group that reported results on Sunday afternoon.

You have to be real excited about this news and make sure to monitor your sites and traffic starting yesterday. I hope all of you blow it out on Monday. It is going to be a great holiday shopping season.

50% Off Incansoft Thanksgiving Coupon Codes

I always try to let my readers know when Big Mike from Incansoft has a deal on his software. I own many of these programs myself and he is offering everything in the Incansoft catalog for 50% off through this weekend. The coupon code for the discount is THANKS (all caps). There are two exceptions though as the coupon code for GFX Writer is GRAPHICS and the coupon code for GFX Video Writer is VIDEO. So if you've been waiting for a sale to pick up another product, or buy additional licenses, now is the time to do it. If you experience difficulty adding multiple products to your cart, try using Internet Explorer. The software catalog is at http://incansoft.com/Catalog.php

Black Friday Hostgator Firesale 50% Off

You have a little over 4 hours to take advantage of the HUGE Black Friday 50% off firesale that Hostgator is offering right now.

HostGator is currently offering 50% OFF EVERYTHING until 12:00AM CST

This applies to ALL Accounts and ALL Term Lengths. So you will have the opportunity to receive 50% off of up to 3 years worth of Hosting! That would come out to $35.64 for 3 FULL YEARS on a shared hosting account.

I have used Hostgator for many years as one of my many host and if you are looking to add another host to your portfolio, now is the time to do. It is always good to have at least a couple of host should one go down or an emergency happens.

GO HERE NOW TO GET IT!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone

I have so much to be thankful for as it has been another outstanding year. I hope you and yours have had a great Thanksgiving day today and a great start to the holiday season. May your Black Friday be HUGE tomorrow. Here is a funny Turkey day video. Hope this was not you.

Always Room To Outsource More

If there is one thing that I have learned this past year is how to outsource more. Some things I can not automate like some types of directory submissions and certain social bookmark submissions so those are easily outsourced. It goes without saying that I have firmly embraced outsourcing a ton of my article writing and product reviews/descriptions. All of this has freed me up to concentrate on the little things like keyword research, and traffic research. I have also found a great graphics guy that knocks out any custom work I need for headers or banners on a day turn around. On any new review/product site I build all I need to do is the initial market research and install and put it together. That is pretty much it. If it is a niche I know a ton about, I will still knock out the articles that get written and spun with The Best Spinner that go out to article sites and places like SEO Link Vine. I plan on outsourcing the spinning too in 2011. Also next year, I hope to continue to try to build only one great site a month as I have a very full stable of sites that is already earning very well and mostly just needs better managing to squeeze even more income out of them. Do not be afraid to outsource anything that will free you up to do the more important task. It has worked great for me.

Shopping TV & Keywords To Websites Plugin

It is the time of year when I will watch the shopping channels during the day and see if there are any quick and trendy niches I can try to cash in real quick over the next 30 days with the Keywords To Websites plugin. If something catches my eye, I will have a look at the keyword demand and play around with some drill downs to see if I can find a little hole. I will slap up an out of the box Keywords To Websites site with about 10 pages or so and throw some quick social bookmark links at it to make sure it gets indexed fully. If the next 30 days it produces a few sales, I will expand it out as a review site following the holidays. This time of year, you can get a ton of ideas from QVC & the Home Shopping Network. Give it a go.

If You Auto Blog You Need A VPS Host

The discount code for the Auto Blog Blueprint 2.0 has been quite popular and a few that bought have emailed me questions. As Michael Johnson suggest, you will not want to set these up on shared host like Hostgator. Now there is nothing wrong with Hostgator mind you, it is just when you get a few of these going, they will set off a red flag and they might suspend your account or shut your sites down until you stop the auto blogging. You might get away with one, two or even three, but they will catch you. I use 6 different hosting companies and the best choice for auto blogs is Servint Essential VPS. They are great with phone call support and getting you set up as well. Make sure whatever hosting you use, make sure it is a fast VPS that allows auto blogs. You have been warned.

Keywords To Websites Plugin Adds Content Spinner

I forget to write about the most recent update to the Keywords To Websites Wordpress plugin. Hopefully you own this, but if not you should get it now before Black Friday starts. you might be able to get a niche or two or three up very quickly and take advantage of some quick indexing. The latest update features an added content spinner.

Per the directions:

Directions:
Anything between { and } and seperated with a | will be randomly selected. Anytime the plugin finds **keyword** it will replace with your actual keyword.

Here's an example:
{Information about|Our page about|Details for|Learn about} the **keyword**. We {looked high and low|searched|hunted|scanned|browsed} for {information|details|pictures|facts|prices|content} on the **keyword** and {put it all together on this page|compiled it here|organized it for you}.

The example will generate results like this using the keyword **monkey tv**:
-Learn about the monkey tv. We scanned for details on the monkey tv and organized it for you.
-Our page about the monkey tv. We scanned for content on the monkey tv and organized it for you.
-Details for the monkey tv. We searched for pictures on the monkey tv and compiled it here.
-Our page about the monkey tv. We scanned for prices on the monkey tv and compiled it here.

The more complex you make your template the more unique and awesome your spun text becomes.

I also want to thank everyone that took advantage of the Auto Blog Blueprint coupon code yesterday. I see most know a deal when they see it.

Auto Blog Blueprint 2.0 Coupon Code - 80 Bucks Off

Auto Blog Blueprint 2.0 will close it's doors to new members at the end of November in preparation of the Upgrade to the Auto Blog Blueprint 3.0. They are having a membership drive from now until the end of the month and you can get $80 bucks off right now if you order and use the coupon code A837D5D98B. All members of the Auto Blog Blueprint 2.0 will still have full access to the course and forum. These will not close. Also, all members will also get the upgrade to the ABB 3.0 for FREE when it is released in February. This course is chock full of training and I use it myself using the WP Robot software. If you ever wanted top learn the right way to set up an auto blog, Mike Johnson's blueprint is the way to do it. I have promoted this since buying it myself many moons ago. I paid full price and found it to be way under priced. He gives a 90 Day Money Back Guarantee if you do not believe what I am telling you. You have nothing to lose. Do not wait to New Years to jump start this. Start now as this is too good of deal to pass up.

Friday Motivation Poem

A little fun after a hard worked week. This type stuff makes me work until 4 in the morning and go on only 35 hours a week of sleep. The poem is called "The Guy in the Glass" and it was written by Dale Wimbrow circa 1934. I hope it hits home with you.

The Guy in the Glass

When you get what you want in your struggle for pelf,

And the world makes you King for a day,

Then go to the mirror and look at yourself,

And see what that guy has to say.


For it isn't your Father, or Mother, or Wife,

Who judgement upon you must pass.

The feller whose verdict counts most in your life

Is the guy staring back from the glass.


He's the feller to please, never mind all the rest,

For he's with you clear up to the end,

And you've passed your most dangerous, difficult test

If the guy in the glass is your friend.


You may be like Jack Horner and "chisel" a plum,

And think you're a wonderful guy,

But the man in the glass says you're only a bum

If you can't look him straight in the eye.


You can fool the whole world down the pathway of years,

And get pats on the back as you pass,

But your final reward will be heartaches and tears

If you've cheated the guy in the glass.

EPN Announces Custom Banner Improvements

You may or may not be aware of it, but EPN (eBay Partner Network) has announced in a new blog post that they have changed the way Custom Banner handles keyword inputs. According to the post, you are now able to use a large variety of operators to define your keyword input in greater detail. This helps to bring the custom banner more into line with keyword searching functionality on the eBay site. You can able to enter these operators and queries directly into the search box in the Custom Banner interface starting now. They are suggesting that encode any keyword query you place directly into the Custom Banner code instead of the interface and recommend you to do this by using the tool located here. Make sure to click the images to see what they are talking about. I plan on putting one of these to use tonight.

New Yahoo Clues Search Keyword Tool

Came across the blog post on a fun new Yahoo search keyword tool today called Yahoo Clues. Put quite simple, the new tool gives you insight into the types of people searching for specific keyword phrases and shows related terms based on those searches and searchers. The video below will introduce to Yahoo clues and how to use it. It also gives some examples that highlight some interesting uses for Yahoo! Clues as well.

Holiday Spending Expected TO Be Up 9% Over Last Year

Analytics firm comScore reported on Tuesday that they expect online spending during the holiday season to increase by 9 percent over last year. What great news this is for all of us. Back in October put the word out that they expected an increase of 7 to 9 percent. At that time they also warned that any turn downward in the unemployment rate, price inflation or setbacks in the stock market would weigh on consumer spending. In the months of November and December of 2009, U.S. online sales rose 4 percent. In addition to that report the The National Retail Federation has said it expects 2010 holiday retail sales, which also exclude online sales, to rise by 2.3 percent this year to $447.1 billion, compared with a rise of 0.4 percent last year. Online retailers such as Amazon.com & Ebay.com as well as traditional retailers like Wal-Mart view the net as a key target of consumers, who shop online and research prices in order to avoid the hassle of going to stores. Personally I have been very satisfied with what I have seen increase wise over the 30 days leading up to Black Friday. I think it is going to be a fantastic holiday season for us.

New Adsense Interface Videos

Hopefully you have noticed already that Goggle Adsense has a new interface available for you. I really like the improvements after thumbing around on it for a while. I did take some time out to view the Adsense tour videos on the Inside Adsense Youtube channel. In the videos they tell you what has changed and the videos and other tutorials. You really should watch these. I have added the story video below behind building the new AdSense interface.

Post To Wordpress By Email

I just came across this video today and thought I would pass it along on how to post to your Wordpress blog by just writing an email, from your desktop, the web, or even your cell phone. Many of you this is not new news, but to some of you it may be. This comes courtesy of the great Wordpress.tv site. Great video tutorials there.

Stop Using The BlogPress SEO Plugin

You may or may not have been turned on to the BlogPress SEO Plugin over the past few months. If you have, you might want to heed the advice of Wordpress guru Joost de Valk and delete the plugin and change all passwords. The plugin is advertised as being able to add backlinks on other blogs that use the same plugin. As Joost points out, it is not only a link scheme, it is also malware as he posted in a recent update to the post he did. Luckily I never got mixed in with this plugin or type of link building and I suggest you don't either. Happy Saturday everyone.

Cosmetics Last On A Site Rebuilds

I am all ready for the meat of the holiday shopping season on most of my sites and am now turning most of my attention to a few more sites that need rebuilds from the old BANS days. I plan these out, but try to move very methodical on them so I do them right. I don't like it to eat of large chunks of my day either. The biggest urge I have to fight is trying to play with the looks and cosmetics first instead of functionality. This is a big no-no, because the site needs to function right and all links, plugins and addons taken care of first. It is better to have a site working right using a base default Wordpress template, instead of having a pretty site that is half done. I tell you this from experience. Doctoring up your look, headers and CSS styles can get time consuming if you let it. Make this the last thing you do on a rebuild. There are many times when I wish I would of followed this very advice. Of course if you have the time and means, you can have EVERYTHING ready and done on a test domain or subdomain. This way you just move the theme and etc over to the rebuild. However you do it, make sure this site is down as little time as possible.

Veterans Day 2010

My area Rotary Club District puts on a Military Appreciation Day luncheon every year and brings in a speaker to talk. This year it was Lt. Gen. John F. Kelly. That was on November 1st. This past Tuesday, his son, Second Lt. Robert M. Kelly was killed after he was struck by an improvised explosive device while on a foot patrol in Afghanistan. Today is Veterans Day and my wife and I went downtown this morning for the Veterans Day parade and ceremony. It was very moving. Please make sure you thank a vet or service man every time you see one. They sacrifice so much for us and some pay the ultimate price with their life.

Perfect Domain Article

Heather Lutze has a regular article in Website Magazine and this month she authored a great article on the Perfect Domain. In her article she list 5 major points in an Action Plan to determine if a domain should be acquired and for what price. She includes great links to Sedo Domain Law and the USPTO which really should be in everybodys bookmarks.

Also if you do not have a subscription to Website Magazine, you should put it on your Christmas list or give it to yourself for Christmas. It is an excellent resource that every webmaster should have. I have subscribed for years to both the print and the web version. Good stuff and well worth the money.

ReviewAZON & WP Robot Amazon Updates Now Ready

I posted about the PHPZon Wordpress update the other day and hopefully you have the changes in place to meet the new Amazon API changes. In addition, ReviewAZON and WP Robot have also announced that they too have made updates to their plugins as well to meet these new needs. You should of received the email notice if you own these plugins, but this is your heads up if it landed in your SPAM bucket. If you do not already own any of these plugins and are thinking about adding them to your arsenal, you can now sleep easy that all 3 are now Amazon API ready. I have been busy making these changes myself along with some well needed tweaks. Busy, busy.

Free Squeeze Page Generator Wordpress Plugin

If you ever intend to build a opt in list of any kind, you will need a great squeeze page to entice surfers to opt in. The well known Alex Goad is giving away a great Wordpress plugin in anticipation of his new Wordpress theme that he is launching. The plugin he is giving away free is a squeeze page generator plugin. It automatically integrates into both the Aweber and Getresponse email services and he gives you a step by step video in using as well. You might not be ready for it today, but I promise you will cross this bridge sooner or later so optin and download it for later if that indeed is the case. Be on the lookout for his new theme that is also coming out of beta very soon.

URGENT: Major PHPZon Wordpress Plugin Update

Wade Wells just sent out an email that there is a major update for phpZon Pro and it should be downloaded and installed as soon as possible. Per Wade, this update involves changes to the Amazon API that goes into effect on November 8th, 2010. This version of phpZon Pro complies with the new Product Advertising API version and also introduces new features (for the Wordpress version) such as caching data which is indeed a welcome feature. wade says he will be updating the API version of 1.x this evening and make a forum post when it's ready. Wade does a great job keeping all of these plugins up to date and if he says you need this, you need to heed his advice. His plugins are not free, but you get what you pay for along with great piece of mind.

Great Shoemoney Video On Making Money With A Blog

The great Shoemoney has a video up that is very very informative. It is the presentation that he gave at the BlogWorld conference in Las Vegas last month. He talks about how he started his own blog and also what he feels is the keys to its success and popularity. He also covers how he monetized it and created his great income. The video is 28 minutes long and moves along pretty quick. You may want to want to watch it twice as it is that good. Great tip he shares is write on your blog like no one is reading but you.

Google Adding More Ads To Top Of Search Results

Here is one for the Google haters as Barry Schwartz posted that Google is testing Adwords at the top of search result pages to show a total of up to 11 ads as you will see in his post. The extra 8 ads are shown when you expand the section and of course shifts down the free organic Google search results. I have not payed too much attention to this myself, but I can tell you that my organic search traffic is better than ever from Google right now. It also is due to the arrival of the early Christmas shoppers who are indeed already buying. Who knows when or if Google will implement this full time, but I would assume that they would wait until after the Holiday shopping season. We shall see. You can now put the tin foil flaps back over your eyes and ears. Happy Friday everyone. It has been a great week and going to be an even better weekend.

SEOLinkVine Members Now Get Free Spinner With Access

I just talked about SEO Link Vine yesterday and today they have announced that members get free access to their content spinner that has been finalized and added. I have been using the Best Spinner, but will indeed be working out the SEO Link Vine one on my nest submission going out on Sunday. I really like the Best Spinner and the price is just a drop in the bucket for me. If you are not a member of SEOLV, they are a great article syndication network that I have used for quite a while and love it. While article marketing is not the only way I use to build backlinks, it is indeed on e of the many ways I do so slowly over time as I mentioned yesterday. If you can afford it, you should be a member.

Learn To Slow Down

We all are crunched for time. Even me and I am full time in the niche site building business. It is very easy to get in a hurry and make mistakes. The same goes with the rush to build too many backlinks too fast. Now does that mean that something can't go viral? Absolutely not, but remember that something that does go viral will have certain characteristics. In other words, a site that gains all article backlinks or all social backlinks in one week or month will certainly set off alarms with Google. Things that go viral show up on Facebook, Twitter and so on and so on. Google knows this. The days of spamming the net quickly are nearly over for ranking purposes. Does this mean you should not spin articles and send them off to SEO Link Vine and other directories? No, of course not, but pick your spots. You have more than one site I hope, if not, you likely are not getting the monies worth out of SEOLV. Do not limit yourself to just one source of backlink either and do not get so caught up in building 400 backlinks in a month. The first 30 days should be spent making sure the site is getting indexed fine and is up to snuff quality wise if it is a product review type site. I no longer build a site and head straight to backlinks. Why? I have found I get the site seeded well in 6 months by taking my time in all facets of link building.

Slowing down also relates to the building of the site. I have a written flow chart I use on product review type sites that works for my style and time budget. It helps ensure I pay attention to the details of building the site the way I know works. I work 99% of the time with Wordpress, but as easy as a platform that it is, mistakes are easy to make. My dad always said growing up, do it right the first time so you don't have to go back and do it again. Check all your links and every page of the site to make sure everything is loading and nothing has been overlooked. There is no reason to be in a hurry now, make sure you do it right. Take your time.

Plenty Of Time To Still Vote

I wanted to give a PSA of sorts to remind everyone that is a registered voter in the United States of America, that there is still plenty of time for you to get out and vote. The media will tell you that this is a very important election, but in fact every election is important and you should vote in every one of them. Now is the time for us business owners to stand up and take back this fine country of ours. Business built this country and helped make it what it is today. The government and society as a whole seems to have forgotten that. If we continue down the path we are on, we are headed for a complete and total meltdown of Western civilization. Please get out and vote and let's change this today. Your vote is important.

Cutts Shooting Down Domain Age As Ranking Importance

I missed this video a few days ago and just got around to seeing it. In the video below, Matt Cutts all but shoots down domain age as a HUGE ranking factor in Google. This has been debated back and forth forever, but as Matt let slip, 6 months to 1 year is a great starting point to start targeting ranking good. Read between the lines. I have always targeted 6 months and my results go along with what he is saying. Interesting response nonetheless.

Boo! The Slashing Blekko Is Open To The Public

A new search engine has entered the arena as Blekko has finally opened to the public. This new way to search gives a surfer an interesting new way to slash or create vertical type search engine for any search topic. Blekko has several other new type features and as time goes on it hopes to improve search relevancy. When you get done with your trick or treaters and your belly is full of candy, take it for a spin. It has a long way to go, but has different twist. Who knows what the future will bring. They said Google would never last. Happy Halloween!

50% Off Incansoft Halloween Sale

I forgot to pass this along to everyone, but Big Mike has everything in the entire Incansoft catalog at 50% off through the Halloween weekend. The coupon code to take advantage of this discount is HAUNTED (all caps). He has quite a few great programs that I use and you can not go wrong with 50% off deal. The coupon code for GFX Writer is GRAPHICS and the coupon code for the GFX Video Writer is VIDEO if you are interested an either of those two programs. I own both and they both do as advertised.

A Little Awesome Motivation

Happy Friday everyone, what an awesome week it has been. The human mind is powerful thing and if you dream it, you can achieve it. I though I would post a little compilation video I was turned on to of some awesome things people can do. You are your own limitation. Believing and planning is powerful. Enjoy!

Best Of The Web 20% Off Directory Listing Coupon Code

Best Of The Web is a fantastic and trusted web directory to be listed in and you have 3 days left to take care of a nice 20% off discount before it expires. Using them is getting a quality link from a well trusted source and now is your opportunity to do so. The coupon code you need to take advantage of this offer is SAVE20 and it will automatically knock off 20% of the regular price which ends up being a nice savings. There are only three days left to take advantage of this offer so you need to decide quick which sites you want to get listed or you can wait for the next discount to be offered as they usually do this a few times a year. I am taking advantage of it on quite a few of my sites this go around. I have used and advertised them for some time now.

Amazon Has The Trust

It is no secret that Amazon is very iconic and very trusted in the eyes of web consumers now. Their affiliate program was once frowned upon in the early days because of the short cookie. I am proud to say that this month, Amazon will take over the lead for my income over EPN and Adsense. I have been conscious over this last year to alleviate the direct pressure off of sites that were mostly living off of EPN without losing the EPN income. I have long owned and used the PHPZon and ReviewAzon plugins and just made sure to use them more in the forefront with EPN. The results have been amazing and the EPN earnings on those same sites have hardly suffered in the process. I am also working on slowly fazing out EPN on sites where the conversion rates are extremely high on some sites as it is stupid to give an option that produces less income when another produces more income at a better rate. This is not every site mind you, but the obvious ones are quite obvious. These type sites are your basic type sites that are built close to the way it is taught in the niche site guide. Nothing fancy, just using the basics along with great content. Amazon is not going anywhere and people trust it. Have you integrated it enough into your own sites? Have you tried adding it to sites using EPN. You might be surprised at the results.

Yoast WordPress SEO Plugin Updated

Yoast has worked out a ton of the early bugs in his latest SEO Wordpress plugin. The newest free version has been released and can be downloaded from here. Make sure it is indeed version 0.1.3 that you install up update to. If you want to see what all is fixed, you can see the changelog here.

If you do not know or are new to all of this, the plugin maker Joost de Valk , is a pioneer in optimization of Wordpress. This plugin is the one to have and I suspect most of the bugs have been worked out by now. Give it a try on one of your sites to test, it should more than fit your needs.

Free Wordtracker SEO Videos

Tonight I came across these great free videos done by Mike Mindel of Wordtracker that gives beginners a great overview of SEO. Mindel is the founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of Wordtracker.com, a tool that has been around for ages.

* SEO Your Web Page for Google - In the 1st video, Mindel shows you how to SEO your site, so you can rank for the keywords you choose and attract more traffic from Google.

* Discover a Profitable Niche for a New Website - This video is an overview of how to find a profitable niche market for a new site. Great to use at the start of your research process.

* How to Plan Your Site Structure for Maximum Traffic - In the last video Mindel explains how to plan out your site structure and why using category and content pages is the best way to do it.

These are not earth shattering, but they are great basics that often get overlooked.

Clickthrough Data & Google Analytics Skewed Matches

Matt Cutts recently answered a question that many might have had on why click through data for the keywords in your Google webmaster tools report does not always match your Google Analytics data. Most of it deals with the surfers and javascript in their browsers.

Learn To Hit The Ball Before You Hit A Homerun

I was asked yesterday by email if every site I build is a "homerun". I see what he was asking and the answer is obviously, no. I do consider though a site that averages a $1.00 a day though a success. $365 bucks a year off a site that might have $100 bucks or so invested in it is a success. I use the $1.00 a day as a low side as well. I have a few that earn less than that, but not many and most are earning that because of mistakes on my part. Bad market research, keyword research etc.

I think most vision getting one, two or three sites up and sitting back and watch the money roll in. You will have your "homeruns" the more you do. I have several, but it does not stop me from learning to hit the ball better. I love the sites the have about $150 bucks invested in them and earn around $5.00 a day. Does that start in month one? No, not always for sure, but by around the 6 month mark they are. They then payback that same $150 bucks every month. Sometimes more, sometimes less.

Stop focusing so much on hitting the homerun every time and focus on hitting the ball better. The homeruns will come and your bank account will grow just off of line drive base hits. Don't over think this business, just swing the bat.

20% Off Coupon Code For phpBay Pro or phpZon Pro

Wade Wells has a deal going right now where you can get 20% off either phpBay Pro or phpZon Pro by using the coupon code E907DB07EB

I have used both these great products for a long time and Wade is quick with any changes that either affiliate programs makes. Both these plugins are in my top 40 Wordpress plugins list and are a MUST in your toolbox. You can make a living off of using just these two plugins and Wordpress alone.

Most of you already own these I am sure, but you can not go wrong at this price. The forum also is top notch and worth the price of admission alone.

Exact Match Domains To Be Penalized Soon?

What a great post today by Rand Fishin ON SEO Moz as he addresses the question of if exact domain matches are too powerful and if they will be penalized in the future. Some experts believe that Google is rewarding sites too much right now for exact domain matches and believe you could indeed see a shift in the next 6 months. Right now it seems to be highly educated guesses on this, but owning quite a bit of exact domain name matches, I will be watching a little more closer than normal starting around the 1st of the year. My view is that Google should be able to take other on page things into consideration instead of just throwing the baby out with the bath water so to speak. The best way to combat this is too build sites that do not suck and hopefully you and I have been doing it all along. Sure I have some more spammy than others and will get around to upgrading the quality as I get back around to them. Some great comments in that post as well and I highly suggest chiming in there as well to add to the conversation. Great post as usual by Rand.

What’s Hot In Affiliate Marketing With JJ McCarthy Of EPN

The latest video episode of Chatting with eBay Partner Network is up now and I must admit they are getting better at these then when they first started. In the latest episide, JJ McCarthy discusses what’s hot in affiliate marketing and shares examples of leading content curators. Depending where you are at in this business, you may or may not learn something here.

Chatting with EPN: Episode 9 from eBay Partner Network TV on Vimeo.

Cpanel Operations Wordpress Plugin

I came across the Cpanel Operations Wordpress plugin today and tested on a site with no problems. The plugin is billed as a quick solution to creating an email account and/or ftp account on their cpanel from within their WordPress site. You can see the screen shots here. Now this is not a plugin you of course will need on every site, but I have had a few in the past that I needed to have multiple email addresses for and this makes it easy to do. Also having the ability to create a FTP account on the fly might come in handy some day, especially if you needed help from someone and wanted to quickly get them access to the server. This too is not an everyday need, but you can tuck this away or bookmark it should the need ever arise. I would be tempted to disable it when not in need though.

Fresh Blogger Template Designs

A few of you still may utilize blogger as a main blog or a feeder site and I came across a Mashable post I bookmarked that features 10 fresh blogger templates for any type application. Although EPN frowns on you using Blogger with their affiliate program, Amazon endorses it. I hate to see people not be able to make money because they are technically challenged by Wordpress, hosting or are just flat out broke. If you are any of these, you should start with Blogger. These templates are easy to use, the platform is easy to use and there are tons of free videos on using the platform out there. You can indeed build a review type site very easily using Amazon or many of the other affiliate programs out there. It is true you do not actually own the site, you can easily back it up and buy a domain to forward to it. If for some unknown reason you delete the site or Blogger takes it from you, you still have the domain you can point elsewhere. Enough about that. Where there is a will, there is a way and these Blogger templates look like they will do the trick for you.

Twitterfeed Adds Easy Monetization Option With Skimlinks

I came across news yesterday that TwitterFeed is introducing a new promotional partner, called Skimlinks. When you become a Skimlinks publisher you can earn money from your blog’s content effortlessly and transparently, by converting your normal links into affiliate links, and turning product references in your content into relevant, geo-targeted shopping links as well. You can learn more about Skimlinks in the video below.

69 Days Until Christmas

I keep a little app on my computer that runs your around that lets me know how many days there are before Christmas. Why? It really motivates me year around. I can already tell that online buying has started for Christmas as it shows in my traffic and earnings. Realistically the real HEAVY buying season does not start until Thanksgiving, so you just have over a month to try to get a few new sites built, indexed and backlinked. With the right niche and the proper use of social media, it is never too late to start. Let the countdown to Christmas motivate you. I myself have a few sites I installed a little while ago with the Keyword To Websites Plugin that are ready for their makeover with purchased original content from my writers. These sites are primed in some hot niches that I expect will do even better once we get past Halloween. It is never too late to start, even if you build out of the box sites to break the ice.

Video On Basic Tips Of Image SEO

Happy Friday everyone, it is Friday and that of course means there was a White board Friday video posted up on SEO Moz, one of my all time favorite sites. This week, Danny Dover tackles the basics of image SEO and offers up what is being termed as experimental ways to SEO images that may prove useful now and in the future.

Google Third Quarter 2010 Financial Results Released

I am WAY behind today thanks to a charity bake sale project my wife sprung on me late this afternoon. Crisis has been diverted and now everything has been baked and cooling down. Damn I am good! Who else is good? Google of course. I have owned Google stock since early 2006, so I love to hear when their financial results are released to skim through them. Admittedly, much of the stuff on the statement is not important to most webmasters, but on the flip side there is a ton you can take from these as well. I think Google is just scratching the surface of total world domination. Is that good as a whole? Probably not, but they put a ton of money in my pocket through Adsense and affiliate programs and the last thing I want to hear is instability. To hear Eric Schmidt talk, instability is no where close as Google had an excellent quarter. Long Live Google!!!

Easy Wordpress SEO & More On The Yoast SEO Plugin

Often times it is good to go back to the simple things to refresh what we do or do not know and what we may have forgotten. Such is the case with this post from Siobhan on the Wordpress & Multisite blog. This post is another great basic and easy to follow SEOing of Wordpress. You will also notice several plugins from Yoast included in this post as well as the WordPress SEO Presentation at A4UExpo London that he did a year ago. Also included is a video on how to setup the WP Super Cache Plugin For WordPress.

You may remember the new SEO plugin I posted about a couple of days ago that is in beta, well Daniel Haim has a flattering review of as well. He goes in further detail how that plugin eliminated 7 different plugins that he uses and you will definitely recognize them. GET THIS PLUGIN NOW!!! I do not know how much clearer I can be on this. Go over the SEO post as well.

Are you Ready For WordPress 3.2 Using PHP5?

When WordPress 3.2 comes out it will be dependent on your host running PHP 5.2 in order to install or upgrade to WordPress 3.2. Now is the time to make sure you know for sure if your host is with the times or not. I came across this PHP 5 testing tool that is designed to help you find out whether or not a certain site is ready for WordPress 3.2. The tool simply looks at the information returned by your server. If the server you test doesn't identify the PHP version being run on it, instructions for an alternate method will be provided. This tool is more of a point and click type tool and if you have any real concerns, you should contact your host to ask them the hard questions. If the server is not ready for the new version of Wordpress, you should consider switching host as by now, most should be able to accommodate this. HostGator is currently running either PHP version 5.2.13 or 5.2.14 and is fine for lower volume sites that are not auto blogging.

Yoast SEO Wordpress Plugin Now In Public Beta

The day has finally arrived as Joost de Valk has released his long awaited SEO Wordpress plugin to a public type beta. I have followed Joost (known as Yoast) for a long while as he is an authority on making Wordpress dance and optimized to it's fullest potential. I highly suggest using this on a site of your own and read all of the post on it. This should become the end all, do all plugin for Wordpress heading into 2011. Get it downloaded and going today and make sure to subscribe to the Yoast blog and follow him on Twitter. He has helped me tremendously over the years as I have learned so much from him.

Using Social Network Profiles For SEO

I am getting caught up thisd evening on some blog reading and have not been to SEO Moz the last few weeks to see the Whiteboard Friday videos. I am glad I did though as Rand had a great video the first of the month about Using Social Network Profiles For SEO. In this video, Rand goes over five ideas for using these types of sites to help with your SEO strategy.

Do Picture Only Blogs Work?

I was recently asked what I thought about autoblogs that post only pictures. I can say that I have only 2 set up using the WP Robot plugin that post only pictures from Flickr and they each earn 20-30 bucks a month mostly with Adsense ads. Now you may have seen the one Michelle McPherson has had up for a while targeting Cool Tattoos. This site has been around for a while and I believe uses the Photo Dropper plugin. Now 20-30 bucks might not seem like a bunch, but that is 300 a year earnings based on 25 bucks a day. Now some niches are better suited than others, but 300 bucks for a $169 plugin you can use to do a myriad of things with is a great investment. That is if you you only use the Flickr Module. If you are new, just start with that and slowly learn how to maximize the use of other modules. Also if you only use the Flickr module and post only photos once or twice a day, you should be able to fly under the radar of a shared host like Hostgator that normally frowns on autoblogs because of the load it places on servers.

Oh, The Things People Will Buy

First off all thanks for the many emails I received on the passing of my grandfather. I certainly appreciate it. Surely you all have read, "Oh! The Places You'll Go" by Dr. Seuss. If not, run to your local Books-A-Milion this weekend and grab a cup of coffee and knock it out. It will not take you long. I call this post "Oh, The Things People Will Buy" just as a play on words, but it amazes me at the things people really do buy. Not always what I am trying to sell them either. That is what is so great about this business. You set the line for a tuna and catch grouper and amberjack at the same time.

There are not enough hours in the week for me and sometimes I concern myself more with stats and earnings and not so much what I sell. I made an effort late last night to go over the huge reports of products I have sold, and uncovered 3 very untapped niches with a wealth of untapped keyword phrases and exact domain name matches unregistered as well. These sites will all get a quick install this weekend of the Keywords To Websites plugin I talked about in my top 40 Wordpress plugins post until I can get back around to giving them content and converting them into full fledged review/product niche sites. I have 100% confidence these will do splendid right out of the box and even better when I get them built to their final stage.

I highly suggest looking over your sold reports in Amazon, EPN and whatever other affiliate program you belong to that lets you see what you sold. If you are new to the business, but do not sell much currently, pick a day and just surf aimlessly through Amazon and eBay. Make notes for about 30 or so different items and then do your research. Do not pre-judge anything, let the research tell you the good or bad. Your own stats and numbers have so much information that we often ignore.

New Google QR Code Generator

Been a busy day as my grandfather passed away this morning. He was 90 plus, so he did not get cheated and went down hill in just a few days. No lingering and suffering. Regardless, it has me tied over over the next few days into next week. I am headed back out to family here shortly, but wanted to pass along a link to the new Google QR Code Generator. As Mark Sprague points out in the post, it has a long way to go, but you will be seeing more and more of that type code image in magazines, newspapers and the web. It is used already in Website Magazine and has been for quite a while. Do not ignore this going forward.

2nd Page Sniper WordPress Plugin Released

Todd Dickerson just released a new Wordpress plugin called the 2nd Page Sniper. I have only downloaded the plugin and plan to put it to work on a test site on Friday as I have way too much on my plate until then. The plugin goes hand in hand with this PDF he created called Beyond Link Building in which he describes his 2nd Page Sniping concept and introduces the plugin and how to use it.

In short, the 2nd Page Sniper logs all incoming search queries from Google, Bing and Yahoo to your website including the page that you are currently ranked on in that search engine. It will then display those links in the sidebar of your blog that it determines to be most likely to create significant ranking increases for with the greatest traffic potential. I should warn that with any plugin like this, you should experiment with it on a test blog before implementing in your entire network of sites. The concept is interesting, but once again I have yet to tackle it myself.

Matt Cutts Talks Html Sitemaps

In the latest webmaster video by Matt Cutts he covers the need for a html sitemap in addition to a xml sitemap. Cutts goes over the advantages of having one and how simple or expanded you can go with them. Even an archives type tree in the sidebar could suffice if using a platform like Wordpress. I have talked about a plugin called Sitemap Generator Plugin for Wordpress by Dagon Design as well. See video below.

Do Not Ignore The Trust Factor

I think what I have learned most with building niche sites over the years is not to ignore the trust factor of a surfer. It is very important as they must trust in order to buy. That is most of the time mind you. I have broken down 4 areas on your site that the trust factor must not be ignored on.

Look - Does your site look trust worthy? Does it look like a 5th grader built it? Sometimes less is more and it is a trap we all fall into. A simple clean layout with a small professional logo is more than enough. Also stick to just two or 3 colors. Black, white and one primary is perfect. I have gotten over creative before. You likely have as well.

Content - Does your content make sense? Does it read right? Is it factual? I love the Best Spinner, but it can be used to the wrong way very easily to create plain crap that is unreadable. Also make sure the facts are right about a product or an article. Surfers pick up on inconsistencies very easily. You do not need to be a Pulitzer Prize winner to create simple, to the point, factual content. Use your content to paint a pretty picture and sell the product. It is not hard to do.

Ads - Are the ads you are showing trustworthy looking? Do the banners look good? Do the ads match what you are selling? No obnoxious clams? Any stats you can look at for the banner conversions inside your affiliate admin panel? This is often overlooked. Too many times we head for a banner we like and fail to look if there is one that has been converting better. It draws clicks because the surfer trust it.

Exit - Are you sending the surfer to a trustworthy site. Did you trick them to go there? Are they going to where they think they are going? Will where they are going have what they need or are looking for?

A Great Free 158 Page Ebook

A bit under the weather today and am behind getting some task done, but I came across a great new 158 page pdf ebook written by Anik Singal and wanted to point everyone to it. In it he teaches how to build an online business empire from scratch like he has done. He has laid it out nicely and you can currently opt in and get it for free for a limited time. Let me tell you that it is not earth shattering, but you can learn quite a bit from it as it is easy to follow. He goes over research, site creation and list building. Without giving too much away, just go download it. You have nothing to lose.

Video Marketing At SES London 2009 & Facebook Jumps To #2

I have talked a ton about video over the last year and recently Greg Jarboe of SEO-PR discussed YouTube and Video Marketing at SES London 2009 in a video interview below. There is also a post up on Search Engine Watch that covers the comScore Video Metrix of US video sites where not so surprisingly, Facebook.com has jumped one position to capture the #2 spot with 58.6 million viewers of video in the US.