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.