The 4 Hour Work Week

I am half way through "The 4 Hour Work Week". WOW, what a book. Even though I am only 1/2 way through I am planning on listening to this one a second time.

Timothy may not be serious about only working 4 hours a week. There are things he says that don't match up to a 4 hour work week. But I may change my mind after putting his ideas into practice.

One of the things I did at lunch today was think about a 2 hour work day. If I were to only work 2 hours a day, how would I use my time. I had to think outside the box a little, but I do think it can be done.

There is one thing that really hit me like a fireworks explosion. Relative Income is more important then Absolute Income. That info alone was worth the price of the audio book.

I like the "Distribute mini-retirements throughout life" idea. This of course is much easier to do if you can get your work week down to 10 hours or less.

I hope to finish the book tomorrow and give it a second listen over the weekend. If the second half is as good as the first I will also be buying the hardcover.

Michael

Book Yourself Solid - Everything From Sales To Internet Marketing

Here is my latest Audible reading list. Keep in mind I also read printed books as well.

Today I finished listening to "Book Yourself Solid" by Michael Port. For me the first half of the book was the most interesting. In the second half Michael talked about websites and many things already covered in greater detail in other books. It was nice coverage for people who are new to websites and internet marketing.

As mentioned yesterday Michael suggests working in something you are passionate about. There are some great networks skills mentioned and a few tips on following up with prospects and customers.

I give "Book Yourself Solid" 3 1/2 stars out of 5.

My next project will not have a solid profit model. But it is something I am passionate about, so even if it doesn't make money I will have fun with it.

Since I do have a $1,000 by end of year goal I will have to work on another site in a couple months with a focus of making money.

At any rate I better get back to work.

Feel free to post comments about book you read or your book list.

Michael

Book Yourself Solid

This past weekend I downloaded 2 audio books from Audible. The first one was "Book Yourself Solid" and the second was "The 4 Hour Work Week". Every month I listen to 2 business book and read at least one real book.

So far I am 1/2 way through "Book Yourself Solid". One thing that really stuck out is to focus on your passion. That is what I mentioned a few weeks ago and the more I hear others say it the better I feel about my project decisions.

Learning is very important for growth. Never stop reading. Books, magazines, blogs, audiobooks, etc.

I noticed in doing some research that a few blogs getting 100,000-300,000 uniques per day only have a time on site of a few seconds. I get far less traffic, but many of the people who visit this blog spend 1-3 minutes here. Thank you!

Today I decided to start some advertising for this blog. I wanted to avoid advertising for as long as I could. After some thought I figure it would be best to pay for traffic with money instead of time.

Guess I better get back to my research.

Michael

John Chow Knows How To Deliver

I don't know if you subscribe to the John Chow blog or not, but today there was a big announcement. John put together an awesome report that he is giving away for free. Right Click here and save to your computer. This is one great read.

Much of that PDF is right from his blog, but there is some great stuff in there.

I agree with John that some stuff should be given away for free. I feel that how to make money information should be freely given. But some information should be sold instead of given away. There is no one rule that applies to selling information. It depends on the market.

More project research tonight and I might do a little re-design of the blog if I have time.

Michael

I Am A Hot Member On MyBlogLog

I am a "Hot Member" on MyBlogLog. What an ego boost on a rainy day. Thank You Icinq.

A followup on my visitor value series part 2. There are a few comments added and I would like to thank everyone who is adding even more value to that series.

Part three of the visitor value series will be out on Friday or Saturday.

There are still 3 days left on my Blakeize.com Ebay auction listing. So far no bidders, but that is ok. I think of this domain like a stock investment. If it doesn't sell now I will hold onto it when the value shoots up. If Blake puts out an album there is a good chance the value of Blakeize.com will increase.

Time to get back to work on my $100 project. On the first of this month I will update my stats and at that time will be over $100 in my project balance. I'm planning on using this $100 to fund my next project with a goal of $1,000 by end of year.

I want to give a shout out to Matt Huggins. The content on his blog is top notch and he deserves to be recognized for it.

Does anyone know if I move this blog to my own domain will I loose my PR4 ranking? I understand that I am loosing future benefits by keeping this blog on blogger. I had to start with blogger because in the beginning I didn't have money to work with. My concern is all the inbound links I already have in place. I don't want to loose them. Something to think about I guess.

Have a good memorial day. Blessings to all those who serve our country.

Michael

Is It Work If You Enjoy What You Do?

I decided to do a post today even though I said I was not going to work on Sundays. Thing is I enjoy posting to this blog, s it really isn't work.

Tomorrow is Memorial Day. Thank You to all those who serve and have served to protect us.

Do you promote affiliate products or your own product? I do a little of both and there are benefits to each.

Now that I know I cleared my $100 goal I am really fired up about my $1,000 goal. It would be nice to find an auction to go to tomorrow, but so far no luck in searching online.

I'm not big on yard sales, but I know there is a huge one in a couple weeks.

Other product source ideas include jobber, overstock and discount stores. More on these sources later in the week.

Michael

What An Auction - Competative Buyers

This morning I went to an auction to pick up some items to sell on Ebay. I figured with the holiday weekend there would be less buyers.

Well I was wrong. There were multiple buyers for each category. Often when I go to auction there is only one or two other buyers in my category. Today there were 6 or more that were active bidding.

There were two items I really wanted, but the prices went beyond my margin limit. If I can't make $10 profit from an item it isn't worth buying.

I don't like beer, but decided to add a "Buy Me A Drink" link to this site. This is a popular option on one of the forums I belong to. The idea is that if someone learns something from your post or they really enjoy your writing they might buy you a drink.

MyBLOGLog added a new TAG feature on Friday. It is hard to tell how this will be used in the future, but so far I like the layout and ease of use. You can tag a person or a blog.

Michael

Make Money On Memorial Day

If you have a BLOG, what is your biggest source of income?

Wouldn't it make sense to focus on the activities that produce that income. I can't tell you how often I loose focus and waste my time doing something that only earns me $2 an hour.

But, here is the kicker. Sometimes those things might make $2 an hour at first, then without any extra effort there is a payoff where more money comes in.

I mentioned this before in my Passive Income series.

Here is the challenge for this weekend. On Sunday don't turn your computer on unless it is to play a game. Instead do a little reading and think about what you can do to make more money. Either now or in the future.

Happy Memorial Day.

Michael

Make Money With Ebay

Today I listed Blakeize.com for sale on Ebay. Even though Blake didn't win there is a good chance he will put out a CD. And if it is as good as his beatbox performance from last night then he will be a star. Who knows he could even name his first album Blakeize and then the site/domain will be worth 100 times or more then what I am selling it for.

I was working on my business model and spreadsheet again today. The numbers are really tight to hit my goal of getting a beach house in 2 1/2 years. I hit my first goal of $100 and that will be updated on the 1st. My goal after that is $1,000 by end of year and that should be easy. The goal after that is to be able to afford a beach house mortgage. But for now I need to focus on the $1,000 by end of year goal.

It is time to really focus on working. The only problem is I am a morning person and have to work my full-time job during the day when I am at my peak. But having a goal will help me focus better in the evenings.

I am still working on getting things ready for my new site. To conserve funds I decided not to use Aweber for now.

Please note that I had to add an additional rule to the $50 contest. So far there are no entries, so the contest will change if there are less then 5 entries by the deadline. See my post from a few days ago.

Don't forget to list your stuff on Ebay today to take advantage of the special price.

Michael

Website Testing and Tracking - Visitor Value Part 2

Welcome to Part Two on my Visitor Value series. If you missed part one, you can find it here.

Now that you have a rough idea what your visitor value is lets look at improving it. This time we are going to discuss tracking and testing.

Website Tracking

There are many free and paid website statistics services. I wrote my own a few years ago, but the features in some of the free ones passed my custom design that I now mostly use two free services.

The first is feedburner. Yes feedburner helps with creating RSS feeds, but they also do an awesome job at tracking your stats as well.

Rumor has it that feedburner was purchased by Google, so things can only get better.

The other site I use is sitemeter. Feedburner is my first choice though.

The important stats I look at are "Searches" and "Other Sites". This tells me how people are finding my site.

Review where your traffic is coming from. You may notice that people are finding your site using keywords you didn't realize and can increase using those keywords.

For example a few months ago I did a post on "Sweet Popcorn". Interestingly enough Saturday I had a visitor from Google searching for "How To Make Sweet Popcorn". This is a long tail search term. Not one that I was looking to be indexed for, but it does prove an interesting point.

There are other stats you can look at, but I focus on what words people use to search for my site and what websites are sending traffic to my site.

Website Testing

Before changing anything you need to record your statistics before the change. I like to keep track of daily stats. Then I aggregate this information for review once a week. This is also when I record my income stats. Then at the end of the month I review the weekly data and the final totals for the month.

When I am going to make a change I do it at the beginning of a week. That makes it easier for me when reviewing my reports. If I am spending money on advertising I will closely watch the change for 2 or 3 days so that I don't loose too much money if my change fails.

On a dynamic content site like this BLOG there are many things that can be tested. Header graphic & text, above the fold layout, below the fold layout and bottom layout just to name a few.

Even though AdSense is one of the most popular advertising networks that people use, there are many others. I like to test offers from 3 or 4 advertising networks. Many of these companies give you better control over what ads are displayed then AdSense does.

The key is to use a minimum amount of targeted advertising. Remember we want our visitor to come back again some day. So provide advertising that is related to what you are blogging about and a little bit of contextual advertising for visitors that would rather leave then continue reading.

I could easily fill a book will all the details of tracking & testing, but this should get you started in your own testing and tracking.

Part three in this series will be out next Wednesday, please come back. Check out Visitor Value if you missed the first part.

Michael

American Idol, Visitor Value and Ebay Stuff Equals a Busy Wednesday

Looks like today is going to be super busy.

Tonight is the night that someone will be named American Idol for season 6. Jordan is going to be hard to beat, but Blake can still pull it off. I think Blake will do a better job of putting out original sounding music, so I hope he wins.

Either way Blakeize.com will go up for sale one last time on Ebay. Tomorrow I will list Blakeize.com for sale and the starting price will depend on if he wins or looses.

Later tonight we have soccer and after that I will finish and post part two in my visitor value series. I have some awesome spreadsheets created that I will need to convert to PHP and push them out so you can use them. Very cool stuff.

Tomorrow is 20 cent listing day for Ebay. Don't waste your time listing 99 cent items, focus on the more expensive stuff. Take advantage of the discount as much as you can. I still have the records from my previous purchase and might list them again.

Don't forget about my Blogging contest where you can win $50.

Michael

The Future Of Making Money Online Contest

"The Future Of Making Money Online" Contest. Lets start off with the facts then move into the details.

Who: Anyone where entering this type of contest is legal
What: "The Future Of Making Money Online" Contest
When: Enter May 22, 2007 thru June 4, 2007 8:00PM EST. Final 3 announced June 7, 2007 8:00PM EST. Voting is from June 7,2007 8:00PM EST to June June 12,2007 8:00PM EST.
Where: Penny Project BLOG, Your BLOG, Online
Why: $50 USD Prize.
How: BLOG 400 words or more about what you think will be the future of making money online. Link to 1 or more of my posts from this BLOG. Link to this post with the text "The Future Of Making Money Online Contest". Fill out the entry form with a link to your post(s).

Lets start with the prize. On June 7th I will announce the best 3 entries as chosen by me. Then You my loyal readers will choose the winner from those 3 entries. The winner based on your votes will get $50 USD (Money Order or PayPal).

I know what you are thinking... How do I enter to win the $50 prize!

To be qualified for the $50 prize:
1. winning a prize of $50 must be legal where you live.
2. Your BLOG must be a real, family friendly BLOG. No SPOLGs, Porn, Gambling, Illegal or Hate BLOGs.
3. On your BLOG write 400 words or more on "The Future Of Making Money Online" with at least 1 link back to posts on my site and a link back to this post with the text "The Future Of Making Money Online Contest". Write about what you think the future of making money online will look like or what you think is important to do now to be successful at making money online in the future.
4. Fill out this contest entry form. Your information will not be sold, rented or given away and I promise not to bombard you with email.



If you have more then one BLOG, feel free to enter up to 5 of your BLOGs as long as you create a unique post and don't just duplicate what you wrote 5 times.

I already have an idea what I think the "The Future Of Making Money Online" is, but your idea doesn't have to match. There is no right or wrong answer, just write what you think.

Update 5/24 7:19pm Since there are no entries yet I am going to add an additional rule. If there are less then 5 people entering the contest then the winner will be selected by me and the prize will be reduced to $20 US.

Michael

Want $100 to promote your BLOG? Check out Text Link Ads

Making Money Online - Future Thoughts

Yesterday was a great day off. I got a great idea and if it works out I will report on it next Monday or Tuesday. I also had some time to play in a poker tournament.

This is going to be a busy week. The second part in my Visitor Value series will be out on Wednesday.

I'm still working out the details of my contest, but the theme is going to be "The Future Of Making Money Online". Start thinking about it now and stop back on Thursday for the contest announcement.

I have two ideas for a prize and I might let the winner choose. I'm also thinking that I will choose the top 3 and let my visitors pick the winner.

My next project is still in the research and market research phase. I want to review my business model and process design before I commit money to starting a new site.

Michael

Back From Hershey Park

We are back from Hershey Park. What a fun filled day. I don't like rides that go upside down, but I did get to ride some fast and tall roller coasters. It was good to be with friends that I didn't see in a while too.

The biggest business lesson I learned from Hersey Park is that You can sell a 20oz bottle of water for $3 like crazy. The drink and food prices at the park were very overinflated. So the lesson is when you have a monopoly and a captive audience price is in your control.

Not that this lesson fits into making money online, but it is what it is.

I thought a little more about holding a contest. Tomorrow is my day of rest and Monday I need to work on part 2 of my Visitor value series. So Tuesday or Thursday I will post my contest.

Michael

Are You Doing What You Love?

I don't have much time because we are leaving for Hershey Park in about an hour.

Last night I was working on the business model for my next website.

Some of the work isn't what I would consider fun and other parts I love. So this morning I was thinking about the model again and it came to me. Why don't I find people who love the parts I don't and pay them.

There are a few problems with this. One you need to know the value of each task as a part of the whole. That amount also has to be of value to the person you hire. And second you have to trust the person you find to work for you.

This only works in your favor if you can then do more of the business model that you love. If the part you love is dependant on the work of someone else, then there is a problem in your design.

Something to think about.

Michael

What Is The Future Of Making Money Online?

I was thinking about this today.

What is the future of making money online?

You figure getting first page SEO position is going to get harder as more websites and BLOGs are created. Even CPC advertising will start to reach the point where margins are very low.

So how do we prepare now for a future where everyone is fighting for traffic.

Well one thing I mentioned the other day in my Visitor Value post. I have an idea what an even more important part of making money online might be. I'm considering making this into a contest.

So if I do decide to run a contest on this, what would you want as a prize?

Tomorrow is Hershey Park. If I have time later in the evening I will post an update.

Michael

Project Updates And Questions Answered

Project research continues today.

Going back to my post yesterday on Visitor Value, I am going to include some value and profit margin research. Like my grandfather used to always say "Measure twice, cut once". I hope to do enough research before starting my next website so that it has a chance at success.

I'm still wavering about starting two sites or one. I may start one site and a free BLOG. It will depend on my research.

If you recorded American Idol last night and don't want to know who got voted off, skip ahead ot the next paragraph. Ok, if you got this far in the paragraph then you must know that Blake Lewis made it to the final two in American Idol. When it got to the final four I figured it would be Jordan and Blake in the finals. They have the right sound for todays music style. Based on what I see online it will be a close vote between Blake and Jordan. I'm voting for Blake to win, not only because I own Blakeize.com, but because I like his beatbox mix into popular songs. Blakeize.com is for sale at $100 US. After the finals if Blake wins my price will be $500 US. Obviously if Blake wins the word Blakeize will get used more often and get more type in and search engine traffic.

Next Wednesday will be part two on my "Visitor Value" series. Here is a link to part one and don't forget to post your comments or questions.

Valentin - Thank you for your comment. Yes, you are correct about bandwidth. 1.2 Gig of bandwidth isn't much, even 1 T a month would be affordable to someone making $2,000 a day. I appreciate your input.

Steven - I started using Aweber (aff) over a year ago. There are other choices, but I figure it is best to deal with a big company that can work with ISPs to get email delivered. I find the interface easy to use and I like looking over the reports and watching my subscribers grow.

Many thanks to all who post comments here. I enjoy the opportunity to communicate with my audience.

Michael

How Much Are Your Site Visitors Worth?

Do you know how much each visitor to your website or BLOG is worth?

Knowing your visitor value is important because you need that figure for calculating how much you can afford to pay for a visitor. Would you pay Google 5 cents per visitor when you only make 2 cents per visitor? Many people do.

First, lets start with some simple math. Lets say you had 1000 unique visitors yesterday. Of those 1000 visitors you made $20 from your 3 advertising accounts. Every visitor to your site would be worth 2 cents.

$20 divided by 1000 visitors = $.02 per visitor.

If you paid more then 2 cents per visitor then you are operating at a loss. Even if a percentage of the traffic was free your income is limited by the amount of traffic you can buy at below 2 cents each.

Now lets look at a more complex example. Lets say you had 1000 unique visitors yesterday. Of those 1000 visitors 1% subscribed to your RSS feed and 1% subscribed to your email newsletter. Income for the day was the same $20 so the visitor value remains the same. But lets look at what happens a week later.

It is now 1 week later and you had 1050 unique visitors yesterday. 50 of your visitors came from either your email newsletter or your RSS feed. This time you made $21 from your 3 advertising accounts. This is still a 2 cent visitor value, but this time you made an extra $1 from return visitors. So the 50 visitors from your newsletter or RSS feed are worth 4 cents when you include the original 2 cent value from the day they registered.

$20 divided by 1000 visitors = $.02 per visitor.
$1 divided by 50 visitors = $.02 + $.02 previous value = $.04 per visitor.

As you can see we now have two types of visitors. The first type of visitor stopped by and left either by clicking a link or closing their browser. The second type of visitor subscribed to the RSS Feed or newsletter and came back to the site.

Growth is achieved through return visitors and by adding other forms of income that interest your visitors. <-- Read that sentence again.

Looking long term things really get advanced. We can easily end up with 10 classes of visitors with values ranging from 2 cents to thousands of dollars.

The second part about visitor value will be posted next week. Please post your questions or comments here and I will address them in the second part of this post.

Michael

One Penny Project

The Project Time Focus

I decided to pick 2 "passion" niche areas for my next project. I'm still doing the research, but I feel that this is the right thing to do.

The plan is to spend 40% of my time on niche 1, 40% on niche 2 and the other 20% updating this BLOG and my other websites.

If all goes well I hope to finish my research before the end of the month and start developing my sites in June.

Tonight I want to do an update on the CTR post that I did last night. Many thanks to all those who left comments or linked to that post.

To clarify I am not getting 4 million visitors per day, per month or even per year. I was just trying to show how many visitors would be needed to reach a specific income based on CTR and amount per click. There are other factors that should be added in as well when figuring income goals. But the spreadsheet is a nice way to get a picture of how to reach an income goal. More on that later too.

Michael

One Penny Project

How Much Money Can You Make From 4 Million Visitors Per Day?

Here are some interesting numbers to think about. If you make one cent per second you would make $864 per day. Lets say you earn at least 2 cents per click, so one click per second would be $1728 per day. That is based on a 2% CTR.

Sounds easy, right. Well take a look at the last column. At a 2% CTR you will need 4 million uniques per day! These are just "spreadsheet" numbers. Anyone who can generate 4 million unique visitors a day has to make more then $2,000 a day.

Please feel free to double check my math and let me know if I made a mistake.

I didn't get a chance to start my market research yet. In addition to the numbers I will be looking at key words. Those key words will come in handy later.

I have 4 domain names in mind, but don't want to buy any until my research is complete. I am planning on using an autoresponder too. I already have experience with Aweber so I will probably use them.

A domain name, hosting and an autoresponder will eat up a good percentage of my capital. This new site will be long term, so I don't expect it to be in profit until the fall. If all goes well I should be set to make over $1,000 by year end.

I got an email that says the 30 day challenge is going to run again this year. When I know more I will update you.

Michael

P.S. I am outside enjoying the nice weather using my wireless internet. Gotta love it.

Research to Zero In the Broad Market

As of this morning I now know what the general theme of my new website business is going to be.

It isn't even one that I had on my list, but just popped in my head as I was getting ready for work. I love those moments when things just start to click.

Now I need to do more research, plan the sections, decide what web 2.0 to add and design the site. This will take a good bit of time, but I feel that I am now on the right path.

Don't worry, I still plan to do daily posts here.

Best of luck to all.

Michael

DVD Recorder Helps To Focus

On my day off yesterday I watched some TV. During the week, instead of watching TV I used our DVD Recorder to record my favorite shows. We stopped using a VCR about 2 years ago.

I like using a DVD recorder because I have the option to play the DVD in my laptop on the road. Plus blank DVDs are much cheaper then blank VCR tapes.

My time during the week has less interuptions from TV and I have somethign to do on Sunday that takes my mind off work.

I am really liking this don't work on Sundays thing. I get to relax and watch some of my shows.

Today I worked on a profit model for my new "passion" project. At this point I didn't narrow down what niche I am going to focus on, but I have a good idea of what the model is going to look like.

We are going to Hershey Park this Saturday, so I don't know if I will have time to pick up any stuff to sell on Ebay. I really want to get back into selling on Ebay.

My Penny Project Community on MyBlogLog.com is growing. There are people with 1,000's of members. One of these days I hope to hit 1,000 or more. I'm guessing the people with large numbers must be doing some advertising.

Time to get back to work.

Michael

Test Your Site or BLOG and Kontera

I just checked my BLOG on my work computer and noticed that one of my ads is not showing. The messages says that it is blocked for phoning home.

My guess is that our spyware software thinks the ad is spyware when what it is really trying to do is dynamic content generation. Something to keep in mind when testing a new technology is that it can get tangled in old technology.

This is one reason we should always test design and layout on various computers and on different networks.

Yesterday was my day of rest and I will update more on that tonight after Soccer.

I am happy with my decision to remove Kontera. If and when they can control how many ads show within a specific word count, then I may consider them again.

Michael

New BLOG Advertising Network Test

Thanks for the comment on Kontera Aaron. And Thank You to all who post comments on my BLOG. I appreciate the time you spend here.

Here is another source of income to be tested ...



I belong to at lead 10 advertising networks, so I have access to plenty of different advertisers. But Chitika seems to offer something different. Their MiniMall looks interesting and the dynamic content is a plus.

Since "Products" are not a good fit for this BLOG I will have to test Chitka on one of my other BLOGs or my new "Passion" site when it is done.

Michael

Make Money Project Update

Once again I decided to stop the Kontera contextual advertising. This second test was with green text underlines. I like the green better, but the problem with Kontera is that they put too many ads close together. On some of my posts it looked junky, while others may have had only one link. If they come up with a way to limit how many ads show within a post then I may try them again.

My daughter did great at Soccer and scored a goal for her team. I was away when she scored her first goal in a game, so I am glad that she was able to score a goal for me to be there for her.

Instead of hitting the yard sales after Soccer I decided to visit Borders instead. I could have spent all afternoon there. My intent was to check out all the magazines for potential "passion" interest or missed markets.

I mentioned before about checking out the magazine stand for niche ideas. You don't have to buy any magazines. Just note how many there are in the niche you are interested in and what types of products are advertised in those magazines.

Time to get back to my research!

Michael


Magazines

Knowing When You Are On The Right Path

I have good news and bad news. At least for me anyway.

The good news is that I found in my research yesterday that I was on the right path. Even though there are benefits to having multiple niche websites, it is better to focus on one or two. And being passionate about the nice you operate in is very important.

The bad news is that my decision on what "passion" to focus on is not going to happen this weekend. I really wanted to be able to start focusing on my passion market Monday. Since this is a very important decision I want to do more research and thinking before I pick the one passion to focus on.

I love to play poker and would love to use that as my passion. But there are two reasons I won't promote poker. First, playing poker online for money is against the law in the USA. Second, I didn't (and don't) feel right promoting something that people can become addicted too.

I am happy to announce that I made over $10 so far this month in advertising. That will be recorded on June 1st. At that time I will probably invest my project balance in a domain name and some advertising.

Since I know I am going to make my $100 goal I plan on purchasing some stuff to sell on Ebay. Making money with Ebay is easier when you do plenty of market research. So I only plan on purchasing things I know about instead of guessing like I did with the records.

Michael

Update on Core Research

What a morning.

The first thing I did was walk around the house and look at all the stuff I had. That helped me remember things I like to do but haven't had the time for in months.

While walking around the house with my notebook I identified 17 of my passions. One turned out to be a desire, so scratch that one.

Of the 16 passions I identified I then created a second column to mark "High, Medium or Low" as to how passionate I was about that niche.

This leaves me with 6 niche areas that I am highly passionate about. Or at least would be more so if I didn't have to work so much.

I then went over to PayScale.com to see what kind of income people earn. I used some of my niche research and also looked at general areas and top hourly billing. This was more for curiosity then for research.

My next step will be to do market size research. For example one of my "Low" passion niches is "Making Bread". I love to make bread, all kinds. Fresh bread is the best right out of the oven.

But I can't imagine spending 60 hours a week focusing on "Making Bread". And since my ultamite goal is to work online, "Making Bread" might not be the right fit.

I need to get the grass cut before the rain comes and then get to my market research.

Take Care,

Michael

Research Plans For Today

Today I have a vacation day from my full-time job. My plan is to do research on my core niche.

Up until now I was spreading myself thin over 30+ markets. To spur growth for this project i am going to spend today doing research and picking 1 or 2 niche markets to become my core focus.

There are two main questions I am going to start with.

What do I enjoy doing and what am I good at.

Once I have the answers to these questions I will do research on market size and needs that I am able to fill.

Ebay will still be a part of this project, but not be a core focus. That is unless a market I enter uses ebay for transactions.

Michael

One Penny Project

Ebay Business Model

There are a bunch of auctions this weekend. With a soccer game on Saturday morning I will probably only have time for 1 auction. If I can find some yard sales I might check them out after soccer.

When you sell on Ebay do you have a business model?

Most people just ship out their item to the winning bidder. I like to keep my options open and try to retain this customer for future purchases or an affiliate product.

Two very easy things to start with are your Ebay AboutMe page and package stuffers.

The Ebay AboutMe page is very easy to set-up and you can place links to your website. Then on your website you can get them into your email autoresponder or sell them other stuff. You can't sell the sames things on your site as in your Ebay auctions, but you can sell related items.

Package stuffers can be as simple as a business card with your website address on it all the way up to a full color catalog. When I use a stuffer I print a 1/2 sheet of paper with some text and a link to a special page on my website.

There are other ways to improve the Ebay selling profit model, but this is a good place to start.

The American Idol results will be announced shortly.

What Is Success?

I worked on the Internet Marketing Cloud a little more today. As always I decided to change the design a little. In a few days I might give you a sneak peek.

What is success?

The answer is ...

However you define success. For some success might be to make a few $100 a month. For others the figure could be much higher.

Today I decided to set my final goal for this project. My current goal is $100 by summer. After that I want to make $1000 by the end of the year.

My final goal for this project is to get out of debt and purchase a beach house. Now that is a big goal! I am thinking the time line will be about 2 1/2 years.

So for me the definition of success has 3 time sensitive answers.

How do you define success, what are your goals?

Michael

Marketing Mind Map For Making Money Online

What an beautiful day it was today. My allergies are still acting up, but I love this warmer weather. Reminds me of Louisiana.

Today at lunch I came up with a neat idea. As I try to focus on my core tasks it is easy to drift off. So I figure out a way to concentrate my focus.

I am going to develop an internet marketing mind map. I don't know if it would be something I would sell, but at the very least it should help me focus. I did a rough sketch at lunch and am very happy with what I have so far.

My mind map will be different then your marketing mind map. For example some things I might list as a benefit to a marketing method, you might not like. I guess it would be easier to explain with a picture. Hmmm, no picture right now, sorry.

I am going to start random posting "Thank You's" in my BLOG posts. I appreciate all the people who leave comments on my BLOG and on my MyBLOGLog profile. No guarantee that I will link to you for leaving comments, but when I am in the mood you might get a shout out from me.

Thank You LinkyLove.net for being a friend on MyBLOGlog and all your comments here and on MyBLOGLog. Many thanks also to FoodSpark for her comments. Check out her very cool yin-yang picture.

I am still testing the Penny Project Alexa re-direct. I noticed Dosh Dosh doing it and today I found at least 5 more.

We have a soccer game on Saturday, but I hope to hit an auction afterwards to buy some stuff to sell on Ebay. So far my Ebay sales have not produced any income, but I know there is money to be made on Ebay.

Guess I better get back to working on the business side of this project.

Take Care,

Michael

Make Money Project Update and LinkyLove Review

With all my traveling I forgot that I was supposed to do a review of LinkyLove.net, but in the end I am glad that I didn't do the review right away.

When I went to LinkyLove.net today I noticed that she changed the design of the BLOG. I must say LinkyLove.net now has a very nice design for content and ad revenue. Much like this BLOG she talks about making money online.

For a fresh view of making money on the internet check out LinkyLove.net

Now for the project update. As you know I took the day off yesterday. But today I looked back on my day off and found some interesting business lessons.

The biggest lesson was while watching the "Miami Ink" marathon. Normally I don't watch much tv, but since I had the time I figured why not. On Miami Ink Kat specializes in portrait type tatoos. If you watch the show you will see that her stuff is top notch. But the owner gets on her case for not doing other kinds of tattoos. From an owner perspective I see his point, but when you have a talented artist that can produce top 1% work in a specialty, let them do it.

It is better to be good at a few things or the best at one thing? I would say, be the best!

Take Care,

Michael

Get Free Google Ads

Since I am taking Sunday's off this will be my last post until Monday evening.

I just found this great info product on The Secret to Getting Google Ads FREE. At first I thought it would be just info on how to get a voucher or something like that. But then I read further and found out that his secret has nothing to do with getting vouchers or using tricks.

Even though it was a busy day today I had some time to think while I was cutting the grass. With taking the day off tomorrow I should be refreshed on Monday to complete my thoughts and start my next part of the project.

Michael

The Biggest Way To Loose Your Money

What is the biggest way to loose your money online?

Don't test.

You may have noticed that I stopped the inline context ads. The plan was to run the test for a week. But after some review of the stats in my accounts I decided enough is enough. The inline context ads were doing poorly and dragging my other income sources down as well.

This may not be the same for you, but in my tests inline context ads didn't convert well. As a matter of fact I test so much I don't think any two of my sites run the same layout and design.

Take Care,

Michael

US Postal Rate Increase and Alexa Trick

Two quick notes.

First, there are some big changes in the US postal rate system. In a few days the rates go up but the biggest part of the change is that size matters. Yes, we all herd before that size does not matter, but the USPS says it does. Check out the USPS website for complete details. This will eat into Ebay profits for those who do not watch their shipping closely.

The second note is on Alexa. I noticed someone putting out links to their site that were re-directs thru the Alexa site. For example here it my Penny Project link. I guess this helps with getting Alexa credit. We will have to wait and see if others start doing it as well.

If you have comments or thoughts on these items, post them here.

I will try to do another update later tonight.

Take Care,

Michael

Plan Ahead For Success

Today I spent a little time organizing.

I am going to partition my tasks into 3 sections. 50% of my time will be spent on "Core" tasks. I will go into more detail later on what the core tasks are. 25% or my time will be devoted to this project and online auctions like Ebay. The final 25% will be for checking email, forums and maintaining my sites that don't require much effort.

There were teo great articles in Target magazine today. "Words that work, It's not what you say, it's what people hear". And "Lights, Camera, (Sales) Action". This one really hit home. That is something I was planning for my next project and now I am more motivated to go that direction.

There will be a post tomorrow and I will be taking Sunday off.

Take Care,

Michael

Make Money Statistics

I decided to put the free stats counter back on the blog. My plan is to compare the stats counter numbers to the numbers I am getting from the affiliate programs.

Most of my other blogs have the stats counter on them, but when I upgraded this one to the new format I forgot to put the code back in.

Last night I did some cleanup of the domains I own. If I get the guts to let go I will shut down a few more tonight.

Today at lunch I hope to pinpoint a direction for my next project. I have a rough idea. The problem is that I have so many ideas that I started and never finished.

I have decided to focus on only 3 niche areas instead of the 20+ I am in now. This includes the sites and blogs that I own that are not part of this project.

Michael

Make Money With Advertising

Starting last night I added a new advertising model to test on my BLOGs. The inline ads are supposed to convert better, but I really don't like the way they make the BLOG look.

For the next week or two I will let the new ads up. After that I will either keep them and remove my other advertising or get rid of the inline ads. It depends on how the test turns out. Who knows depending on the niche I might have to mix and match.

Blake Lewis was safe last night and made it into the final 4. Blakeize is getting a little natural traffic, but unless it picks up I probably won't get full value for the domain when the show is over.

Starting with this week I am only going to work 6 days a week. We decided to keep the sabbath and do no work on Sundays. Since we did most of the housework on the weekends, this will now have to spread out over the week.

I will be testing something