One Penny Project

The One Penny Project - Review

2010-11-05T18:40:00.002-04:00

Hello All,

Looks like I haven't updated this blog in almost a year.

Too much work on other projects and not enough time to research and write for this blog. The topic of making money online has always interested me, but in the grand scheme of things only a few make it big.

I am always interested in hearing how you are doing, post in the comments on what projects you are working on.

Thank you for stopping by,

Michael

Merry Christmas

2009-12-24T15:06:00.002-05:00

Merry Christmas and a safe, Happy Holiday to all.

As this year comes closer to an end and another year almost upon us, I wish you all the best.

Peace & Happyness,

Michael

4 Hour Work Week

2009-11-14T11:00:00.002-05:00

Hello Again,

I listened to The 4 Hour Work Week again by Tim Ferriss. It is a good read if you are interested in mini retirements and some work at home techniques.

Tim has led an interesting life and that adds to all the great content he provides in his book. There is an updated version out later this month or early next month.

I am planning on changing the design of this blog around a little. Seems like my list of tags has grown beyond what looks nice on the screen. Plus I want to re-arrange some things.

Take Care,

Michael

Entertainment Book Coupon Deals

2009-10-27T07:20:00.001-04:00

Thanks to my 2010 Entertainment Book I got a Free Hershey Bears Ticket. I used the BOGO offer in my coupon book.

With the money I saved on only 2 of the offers so far I almost have the book paid for. And it is still loaded with tons of good deals that don't expire for over a year!

I buy an Entertainment Book every year because I always save many times over what the book costs.

Pick up your 2010 Entertainment Book and start saving today!

Michael

Future Plans for OPP

2009-09-24T19:20:00.002-04:00

Hello All,

Thanks for stopping back.

Are any of my readers still Affiliate Marketing? It has been well over a year since I thought of promoting affiliate products. For those that are doing affiliate marketing how much are you making per month and divide that by the number of hours worked. I would love to hear your results.

How about PPC marketing? Is the old getting paid for a click model still viable. My guess is that companies are getting smarter about who they will pay for a click. Click to sale conversions were always a low percentage. Same as above, are there any marketers reading this that make their primary income from PPC marketing and if so what is your monthly take and hourly income amount?

I am looking to revive the One Penny Project and have a few ideas, but want to go down the right path. Gotta love the stock market these days, but too risky to be part of this project.

Take Care,

Michael

Ride The Economy Wave

2009-04-21T17:09:00.000-04:00

Have you noticed the news lately?

One day the stock market is up, next day it is down. Gas prices go up, gas prices come down.

I wonder how we will look back on this time. What will we tell our kids about 2008-2009 (2010)?

I stopped blogging a little while ago because I lost interest. It was fun and I enjoyed pointing out interesting sites to help my readers.

My daughter is having some troubles with her writing assignments at work. I just might have to see if she would be interested in doing some guest posts for me.

Now that I think of it I wonder what she thinks of the economy.

Best of luck to everyone, more posts to come.

Michael

Three Month Blogging Vacation

2009-04-15T07:16:00.002-04:00

As you may have noticed it has been 3 months since my last post.

I took a little break from blogging. At this point in time I am undecided if I want to continue the blog and post on a regular schedule or sell the blog.

With almost 650 posts covering a few years I don't want to just shut it down. There is some great info in here and the traffic is still flowing in.

I am off to Florida in a couple weeks for the Collaborate 09 conference. If you remember the past 2 years that is the one conference I always try to go to. As in the past I will post a photo of the free stuff I get. The session content is Oracle EBS related, so I won't write about that here.

If you are interested in purchasing this blog, leave a comment below include your offer and your email address. I won't show the comments. Next week I will decide if I am going to sell of get back on a posting schedule again.

Take Care,

Michael

New Projects for 2009 and MyBlogLog Goals

2009-01-15T12:32:00.003-05:00

Hello Loyal followers and new readers to this BLOG.

Not much going on with new projects for 2009.

I did start a new blog but haven't put much time into it. After the first few posts I didn't feel like writing on that subject anymore.

I'm keeping my eyes and ears on the pulse of website/blog traffic ideas. Seems like I can only generate a trickle of traffic no matter what I try.

How awesome to have over 900 MyBlogLog members. Looking forward to breaking past 1000 this year.

I have 2 remaining websites left that will expire in a couple months. I'm going to hold onto LBOO.com because 4 letter domain names are hard to come by. One of these days I will get an offer I can't refuse.

As for the other site I will probably just let it die off, don't know yet.

Free BLOGs are the best, no hosting fees, or at most $10 a year for a domain name.

At any rate, thats all for now. Next post will be in February. I'm going to switch to a twice a month posting schedule. But if something important comes up I will post it here.

Michael

Happy New Year - Almost 900 MyBlogLog Members

2009-01-01T08:12:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year!!!!!!

With the first day of 2009 I am happy to say that I have reached almost 900 members on MyBlogLog. Not bad for this little blog of mine.

I don't have any new years resolutions. There is no reason to start good habits on a special day. If I am going to change something I won't wait until January 1st to do it.

My blog goals for 2009 are minimal. I plan to do 4-6 posts per month on this blog. If time allows I will start a second blog to test some marketing ideas. But for the most part in 2009 I am going to focus on upgrading my education.

I am looking forward to hitting the 1000 MyBlogLog members mark in 2009.

Take Care,

Michael

The Best of Success

2008-12-23T06:50:00.000-05:00

I would like to say thank you to all those that have followed this BLOG over the years and also to those who have just stopped by today.

This will be my last post for 2008.

2008 was filled with plenty of ups and downs, both personally and in my online business. As with all areas in life there is no way to know what tomorrow holds.

During this Holiday Season live life like you have never lived before. I'm not saying go out and spend all your savings. There must be a balance in life, but all too often we forget to live life and it slips by.

Take a moment to do something you enjoy but haven't done in a while. Call a friend that you haven't herd from in months. Tell a family member how much they mean to you. the little things in life sometimes turn out to be bigger then we thought.

For 2009 I wish you happiness in your life and the best of success in your business ventures.

God Bless,

Michael

Free Blogger BLOG Designs

2008-12-15T16:23:00.000-05:00

I like the blogger platform provided by Google for my blogging. The default templates are so heavily used, I always make little changes to stand out.

In January I am going to start a couple new blogs for the projects I have planned. Once I have the topics picked I will write a few posts in notepad before actually starting the new blogs.

Then after I have a few posts ready I will set-up the blogs and pick a design. I'm thinking of doing some research and picking out something that will stand out.

I enjoy writing so the new blogs I start will be on the topics I enjoy and about things I participate in. It is easier to write about something that you enjoy then it is about a topic that you think will bring in more money.

The new projects for 2009 will all be $0 cost projects. I will use free blogs and free methods of promoting the blogs. the focus will be on writing on the topics I enjoy and not on making money.

Take Care,

Michael

Read to Write Ratio

2008-12-09T09:59:00.000-05:00

What is your read to write ratio? In other words, how much do you read compared to how much you write.

For me I would have to say my read to write ratio is 6:1 or better. I love to read books, blogs, ebooks, magazines, you name it.

Writing is great mental exercise and I enjoy it. I guess if my ratio was the other way around I would end up writing a book a week ... at least.

I am getting things read to start new projects in 2009. There are currently no tests in the works and I am not starting anything new until January 1st.

If you are looking to make money from your BLOG, check out BLOG Inferno. Colleen shows you step by step how she makes $100,000 a year blogging about an hour a day.

I love to learn, experiment and write about the experience. Subscribe to my RSS Feed with the big orange button near the top of the screen.

Best of Success!

Michael

Blogging Projects for 2009

2008-12-05T08:45:00.000-05:00

How far ahead do you plan your writing? The other day I mentioned that I had a rough plan for 2009.

I like to plan about 2 weeks ahead for specific content. For the large scale topics I will plan the direction about 3 months out. A rough plan covers at least 12 months.

In 2009 I am going to cut back the number of blogs that I have, yes again. And I have plans to a few more. I love free blogs, no need to worry about needing to make enough to cover server costs. That is why my future projects will all use free blogs.

As for making money online, It is always nice to get a check in the mail that you wern't expecting. My focus isn't on making money it is on writing about the things in life that I enjoy. The little money I make from it is a bonus.

Take some time and plan ahead for writing on your BLOG(s).

Have a good day!

Michael

Starting With Nothing

2008-12-03T06:44:00.000-05:00

Back a few years ago I started this blog with intentions of making over $100,000. Not from the blog itself, but from following specific tactics.

As you can tell I am still at it and if you read back in my posts you will know that I have not reached my goal. No worries though.

The reason for starting this blog was to act like a diary somewhat like the one red paperclip guy. Looking over my past posts you can see some of the various ways I tried to make money.

I have some great ideas for 2009. Too early to discuss, but I will lay out my rough plan sometime before Christmas. I'm planning on keeping my projects to under 1 hour per week.

Enjoy the time you have, you never know when it will run out.

Peace,

Michael

Cyber Monday is Today

2008-12-01T07:43:00.000-05:00

Unlike the hustle and bustle of Black Friday, Cyber Monday is much calmer.

From the comfort of your own home you can shop the best deals online. With just a few clicks you can have all of your shopping done.

No need to drive to the mall, search for a parking place and fight the long lines.

Just log onto your computer and shop away.

I started buying stocking stuffers over a month ago, but have a few items to get yet. Because of some changes this year I won't be able to afford to spend much. Hence the sticking stuffer purchases. But I will be looking at a few things online Monday to see if there are any great deals.

For all you bloggers, do you change your ads that display to match what is current. For example, do you have Cyber Monday ads running on your blog?

I started using the offers at LinkShare to better match my blog niches and the current seasons. Just like cutting back to only a few blogs I also cut back to only a few ad merchants. LinkShare is my primary source of advertising for most of my blogs.

Shop smart and stay safe. For those that make money from their blogs, check out LinkShare Today!

Take Care,

Michael

Entrecard Test Number 2

2008-11-28T16:51:00.000-05:00

The results from my second EntreCard test are complete.

I spent a little over 700 credits on advertising. A couple ads were 64 credits and most I picked up days before the test at 4 credits.

My best performing ad cost 64 credits and generated close to 80 visitors. This is by far the best ad I have ever purchased.

What did the visitors do that came in from Entrecard. Not much. I picked up over 100 drops and about 5 RSS subscribers. Comments increased by a couple. But overall not much happened.

My suggestion for Entrecard is to spend the credits you have on advertising. Spend them all. Check back once a week and spend whatever credits you have accumulated.

If I am in the mood to browse new blogs I might do some dropping, but I don't see any value in dropping as a means to earn credits.

Entrecard is a nice site, but the traffic is not worth spending time earning credits.

Michael

The Economy News Mover

2008-11-25T12:39:00.003-05:00

Have you noticed the sharp ups and downs on Wall Street. Investors are buying and selling like crazy.

Have you noticed the news media around the current state of our economy. Notice any trends?

Everyone wants to know where the bottom is so they can buy back in or buy more to offset their losses.

The only problem is there is no way to tell when we are at the bottom until prices go up and keep going up.

The news constantly reports how bad things are. For example a couple months ago the big story was the price of gas. But instead of mentioning how cheap gas is now they report that the price of a barrel of oil dropped and how bad that is for the economy.

Sounds to me like the media should look for the positive in things and report the truth in a positive manner.

The 3-4 day cycle we are currently seeing is showing no signs of letting up.

I am not one for giving out financial advice. I just pay attention to the news and the markets. Heck I don't have much invested, so even if I am wrong I can't loose much.

What are your thoughts on how the news media can move the markets?

Michael

Grow Your BLOG Network And Traffic

2008-11-21T07:35:00.000-05:00

Growth Over Time

Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow, it doesn't matter what you read in the news. We are in a recession, but what does that mean for you.

Are you working harder to get traffic to your BLOG?

There is no guarantee, but over time a regularly updated BLOG should continue to grow. Growth is ultimately limited only by market size.

What can you do now to grow your BLOG readers and traffic to your site. The ideas below will help you work smarter and faster.

Participate

I joined The Internet Marketing Inner Circle (TIMIC) to network and learn from successful internet marketers. Many that make over $1 Million a year and plenty that make a full time living selling online.

I participate in the forum and in the group projects. It is like having a personal coach help me navigate making money online. Great people and great ideas. I recommend TIMIC to anyone who struggles to make money online.

There are free forums too like Warrior Forum and Webmaster Talk. But I frequent TIMIC. You know what they say about free ... you get what you pay for.

Fill Your RSS Reader

Plan to add 5-10 new RSS Subscriptions to your RSS Reader at least twice a week. This isn't to say that you should load your RSS reader with junk. Subscribe to BLOGs that interest you and unSubscribe from the BLOGs that don't continue to deliver great content.

The RSS URL for The One Penny Project is http://feeds.feedburner.com/OnePennyProject

If you are not currently using an RSS Reader, welcome to 2008. It takes me 10 minutes to review the 58 updated sites in my RSS Reader. That would easily take over an hour if I had to visit each one. And that doesn't include the time saved by using the notepad and save features of my RSS reader.

I use the Google RSS reader at reader.google.com but there are plenty of free readers to choose from.

Get Lucky

I know what you are thinking ... that is another kind of BLOG.

I once read that Luck is when Chance and Opportunity meet. Not that 5 lottery tickets are better then 1 or marketing 100 BLOGs is better then 5.

Opportunity involves learning the skills needed to succeed as a Blogger and putting those skills to use in the right way. It is a circle. The more you learn the better you get and the better you are prepared when an opportunity to get "lucky" comes along.

My current test is almost complete and I will post the results here early next week. Please stop back.

Do what you love and the money will follow.

Michael

My Second Entrecard Test

2008-11-19T08:40:00.000-05:00

Today I started the steps to test EntreCard a second time. This time around I am going to do a much larger scaled test.

Did you know that EntreCard provides a ton of useful stats to help you make decisions? Oddly enough I never clicked on that button thinking it was the same info provided on the dashboard.

I was wrong. The stats page showed me the EntreCard cost per click for my past advertising campaigns and placements. Very cool stuff.

This second test will take a few more days to get completely set up and about a week to 10 days from there to complete.

The hard part will be to avoid dropping during the test. I did that last time and think it may have skewed my results slightly. This time I am going to not visit EC during the 3 day test period.

Best of success!

Michael

How Does the 20% Rule Apply to The Economy

2008-11-17T10:21:00.000-05:00

This is a thinking out loud post. You know what I mean. There is stuff in my head that may not be formalized, so I think about it out loud and organize it later.

Please excuse the mess, this is just a brain dump on my thoughts about the Economy.

What I don't understand is how the CEO's of these big businesses involved in the bailout can walk away with huge salaries. Forget fairness for a moment, the amount of money these guys made for poor decisions is beyond understanding.

Where is the 20% rule in all of this?

Could that be what is going on in the stock market. Bargain hunters looking for the 20% that are going to explode in growth and value once the economy improves.

From an internet marketing perspective what are the trends that will emerge as a result of decreased spending. Will advertising prices drop because of decreased effectiveness and lower conversions.

I tend to look for the positive in bad situations. What do you think will be an emerging internet marketing trend in this current economy?

Michael

EntreCard Test Results

2008-11-14T05:34:00.000-05:00

I mentioned a few days ago that I was back to using EntreCard again. Mostly because it is a free form of advertising.

But like everything in life Free does not always mean free. For example to earn EntreCard credits you must visit other blogs and drop your card on the EntreCard widget. If you have a popular BLOG you can also earn EntreCard credits when bloggers purchase an EntreCard ad on your blog. The higher your traffic numbers the more an ad will cost on your blog.

For my test I purchased an ad on a blog for 256 credits. The BLOG I picked to advertise on was in my niche and because of the ad cost I felt it was a blog that got good traffic.

My results ... I am satisfied with the traffic increase during the time my ad was running. I also picked up a few new RSS Subscribers during that time. Card drops were up the day of and the day after my ad ran. This helped reduce the "cost" of my ad by replenishing some of my spent credits.

Cost: Free, no money spent on this test.

Time: About 30 minutes to earn credits and find a blog to advertise on.

Income: Not Tracked, this was a traffic test.

Benefits: Received 1 visitor for every 6 credits spent. Traffic to BLOG increased, EntreCard drops were up and there were a couple new RSS subscribers.

Once I have enough credits built up I will do another test with a top 3 blog. Subscribe to my RSS feed so you don't miss the results.

Michael

MyBlogLog Traffic Secrets

2008-11-12T08:20:00.002-05:00

Do you use MyBlogLog to drive traffic to your BLOG?

I have used MyBlogLog off an on way before Yahoo bought the site. I remember back when the site was new and the features were few.

Today I have over 10,500 contacts listed on MyBlogLog. And my pageviews is well over double (almost triple) that number.

The best way I found to get traffic to my BLOG from MyBlogLog is to add people as my contact.

Its that easy. Not posting messages with links on peoples profiles. Not requesting community join swaps. Not anything unethical.

I simply add contacts to my list and a few of them visit my BLOGs.

There is a trick that I figured to help me get a higher percentage of visitors as opposed to just randomly adding contacts. For now, that will be my secret.

No matter what you do and how well you thing you are doing it, always look for ways to improve.

Take Care,

Michael

FaceBook on Your Cell Phone

2008-11-10T21:10:00.002-05:00

I joined FaceBook a while ago. Myspace never interested me. It seemed to be filled with Junk.

But when FaceBook started to get popular, I hopped on and joined. It took about a year for popularity to take off to the point that it is now one of the sites I need to check daily.

Last week I hooked up the mobile portion of FaceBook to my cell phone so I can get my friends status updates and a few other things sent to me as text messages on my cell phone.

The process was simple once I found the right place to fill out my cell phone info. On the upper right side, click on settings, then click on the mobile tab. Once you fill out a few fields on the mobile tab you will get a code sent to your cell phone. Enter that code in the form on FaceBook and you are set. After your phone is confirmed you may want to edit the default settings to limit how many text messages you will get sent in a day. You may also want to add your friends status updates to the list. This didn't default, I had to pick each one from the list.

The line between the internet as we know it and our cell phones is growing thinner (like my hair). One day we may all be using our cell phones in place of full size computers and laptops.

Take Care,

Michael

Trading Time For Money

2008-11-04T19:30:00.003-05:00

It doesn't matter if you are self employed or if you work for an employer. We trade our time in exchange for money.

For those that work for someone else. Working harder, learning more and becoming an asset to the company often lead to promotions and a higher salary. That equates to more money for the same amount of time.

The same doesn't always hold true for the self employed. Many start-ups and small business go out of business within the first 3 years. For those that are successful hard work pays off with increased earnings and more money for time spent working.

How about blogging, internet marketing, affiliate marketing, selling on ebay or the 100's of other ways to make money online?

I spoke before here on the One Penny Project BLOG about leverage. Doing things that can be re-used to produce income in multiple niches. Using automation or tools to become more efficient.

It isn't about how many hours per week we work, it is about how much money we make during that time.

Would you rather work 4 hours per day at $50 per hour or 10 hours per day at $20 per hour?

Over the next few days I will be writing about ways to automate your online business. I also will do a writeup on my current Entrecard test.

Please consider subscribing to my RSS feed and also check out some of my older posts.

Michael

The Big Secret of Making Money Online

2008-11-01T07:54:00.002-04:00

Do you know how to make money online?

Doing a quick Google search you will come up with millions of websites. Hit the forums and there are thousands of people telling you to join their program or buy their product.

But how you make money online or otherwise is based on you. What you do is unique. That could be why so many fail to succeed.

What works for one may not work for another. What I found is to learn as much as I can and test ideas for myself.

For example on one of my sites a 125x125 ad works best, but on another a 160x300 skyscraper converts the best. Some sites AdSense works and others generate noting.

The key, for me at least is to learn and test.

So what is the big secret of making money online? Well that would be unique to you, but the best way to find out is to learn as much as you can and test what you learn on a small scale before going big with it.

Michael

Investing For Bloggers

2008-10-27T21:16:00.002-04:00

Jack Humphry did a post over on Friday Traffic Report about investing money and how investing $1000 in beer was a profitable idea compared to the sharp decline some stocks have taken.

Granted the post was made in fun to show and not meant as real investment advice. Obviously the goal of investing is to try to improve the financial outcome, not lower it.

If you had $1000 to invest what would you do with it?

This is what I would do. I am not telling you to do this and I am not doing this myself, I am just saying for point of comment that if I did this is probably what I would do.

I would invest $200 to have a couple quick read information packed info products created that promote a few affiliate products.

Then I would promote those info products on free niche specific blogs and give them away free, just for providing an email address. Not rocket science here, I know this is stuff you herd before.

Lets see I still have $800 to spend....

Ok, I would then spend $300 on Google AdWords to promote my free blogs. This would obviously be to collect subscribers into my email autoresponder.

For the last $500 I would hold a contest where the winner gets the $500 for writing about my free blog. They could make a video or whatever. The idea being bloggers generating buzz about my blog, and I pick a winner.

In the end I have a list and hopefully made some affiliate sales through the links posted in my info product.

If I did it right I would hopefully also have made at least my $1000 back.

If you had $1000 to invest right now, what would you do? Post your answer on your blog and link back here.

Take Care,

Michael

Use Networks to Control Your Income

2008-10-22T09:15:00.001-04:00

Using Merchant Networks to control your advertising.

One way to control what advertising your blog displays is to join merchant / affiliate networks. I often use
MaxBounty to find offers to place on my blogs.

Many times the payout is much better then what you would get from a PPC ad. Last year I found an offer that was so good I used PPC to promote it and made almost $1000. Haven't been so lucky this year.

Try taking control of what ads display on your site or blog and join an affiliate / merchant network. They are free to join.

I have been paid by
MaxBounty and I have talked to my affiliate rep in the past. That reminds me. When you join MaxBounty they hook you up with an affiliate manager. They work with you to pick out offers if you need help. (hint: you can ask them questions for free)

Enjoy your day!

Michael

Extra Cash with Ebay

2008-10-18T14:01:00.003-04:00

Last year I went to local auctions and purchased items to sell on Ebay. It was fun because I purchased items that I liked, but the process was very time consuming.

An easier method for making money online or on Ebay is by using a dropshipper that gives you wholesale prices. I did this before too in the BBQ niche.

I built a site that sold nothing but BBQ stuff, then 2 months later sold the site for $500. Had I kept the site it would probably be making that much per month by now.

There is no need to build a whole website anymore. BLOGs are a great way to talk about your niche and introduce products to your readers. Enjoy the hands off selling using a wholesale dropshipper.

Take Care,

Michael

p.s. Check out Doba for products to sell on your blog or on Ebay.

It's all about your choice

2008-10-16T12:24:00.000-04:00

The current economic crisis is global. Depending on what expert you listen to we are either in a recession or headed towards one.

How you choose to react now will have a great effect on your future. Not just in your bank account, but also in your lifestyle.

Only you can make the right choices for yourself.

Is now the time to start blogging and building a community? Should I go back to school to improve my employment status? Should I start an online business?

Be realistic in your expectations and don't jump into anything.

For example if you have a headache and take an aspirin you wouldn't take an aspirin again in 10 minutes if you still had a headache, you would wait a couple hours first.

Evaluate your skills and your goals. What do you want to do and what do you have the ability to learn?

There are some parts of affiliate marketing that are easy to learn, while others may take some time. I started marketing online 3 years ago and I am still learning new methods.

One great way to get a jump start on your training to make money online is with the Clickbank Blueprint. Explode your skills now by following a step by step system to make money online and control your future.

Best of success,

Michael

The Economy

2008-10-09T21:55:00.002-04:00

A couple weeks ago I move my 401(k) money into something safer.

Considering the beating the stock market is taking now I am happy that I did. Many have told me that what I did was not a smart move.

Advice is not a one size fits all thing.

I stopped putting money into my 401(k) a few years ago. So moving my current balance into a safe fund was the right move for me.

When the market turns around I will buy back in at a lower rate. If I fail to buy back in then there is no benefit to my selling off of the higher risk funds.

Right now when I look at my account I figure out how much I "didn't" loose. At some point the stocks I sold will be of a higher value then what I sold them for. I need to buy back in before that happens.

I don't have any advice as to what you should do with your money. Just pointing out what I did with my 401(k).

Take Care,

Michael

Entrecard Drops

2008-10-06T16:53:00.002-04:00

I am back to using Entrecard again.

The system is great for checking out new blogs. As a bonus you earn credits that you can use to advertise on other blogs. Very cool, I love free advertising.

The key is to not go overboard. There is no value in surfing Entrecard 3 hours a day just to get your BLOG Ad on a few sites. It would be cheaper in the long run to pay for advertising. What is the value of your time?

On the other hand, spending 10-15 minutes checking out some new blogs is great. As you know I love to read and blogs are a great source of reading material.

Check out my Entrecard link to the right and sign-up if you are not already a member.

Michael

How Many BLOGS is enough?

2008-10-03T17:44:00.002-04:00

I used to have over 12 BLOGs. Today I only have 2.

Some of my BLOGs were for testing and others were just to get traffic. I have decided to start up a couple more BLOGS on the topics I enjoy.

Much like doing research and writing for One Penny Project I have a few hobbies. It won't be hard for me to write weekly on those hobbies.

As mentioned above traffic is key. That is if you want to make money with your BLOG.

I like to write, so even if the BLOG doesn't make any money I am doing it because I enjoy it. You can tell when a blogger is only in it for the money.

Money is nice, but there is so much more to life then trying to squeeze $10 of income out of blogging.

Michael

Halloween & The Economy

2008-10-01T13:00:00.002-04:00

Can anyone figure out how so many big financial industry companies filled with super smart people can make so many mistakes?

Granted the increase in loan and mortgage defaults isn't the fault of big company CEO's. But as the company visionary shouldn't they have done better to protect the company from such defaults?

Here I am busting my butt to pay down my credit card debt and now it looks like I am going to have to help bail out the financial troubles of some large companies.

Lets hope someone makes the right decision to get this situation fixed and the economy turned around.

Do you think it will be Obama? How about McCain? I doubt they will be able to get things in order fast enough to fix this. I wonder what America would be like today if Ross Perot had been voted president some years ago.

At any rate, it looks like we will all have to tighten our belts and try to pinch the pennies a little tighter.

Now on to Halloween.

I like Halloween, probably because I love to eat candy.

I'm off to look for some good Halloween CPA promotions. Not Halloween Costumes, the market is too crowded. I like to stick with the path less traveled.

Michael

FaceBook is not for Marketing your stuff

2008-09-29T12:28:00.002-04:00

FaceBook is a great site for networking with past classmates and co-workers. They make it easy to keep in touch with my friends and family.

I only have real people that I know in my friends list. At one point I would add anyone who requested me as a friend. After some cleanup My friends list is really my friends who are on FaceBook.

How often do you get notices about joining a group, or giving someone a token or whatever? Avoid the clutter and tell your friends to stop inviting you to some application where they can build up their status.

There are some useful apps, but what it all comes down to is networking, not self promotion.

What do you think about the new FaceBook design?

I like the news feed about my friends, but the layout isn't as good as it used to be.

Michael

Money For Nothing ... And Your Checks For Free

2008-09-24T21:32:00.003-04:00

Sorry, had to do that. It isn't often that a good blog post title pops in my head.

I got a check from Clickbank today. Funny thing is I haven't promoted CB digital products in about 6 months.

That is the great thing about the internet and selling digital download products. Once the initial work is done you can earn money over and over again without doing anything else.

Granted "Nothing" isn't 100% factual. I did have to create a blog post or article to promote the clickbank product that earned me the check I got today. But the fact is I didn't do anything with that page in over 6 months.

Do you want a blueprint for making money selling clickbank products? Check out Clickbank Blueprint today.

For those that have promoted CB products before and failed, Clickbank Blueprint shows you with real world examples. Start with a successful blueprint and start making a profit with Clickbank.

I'm off to work on my blueprint for making more and larger clickbank checks.

Michael

Can RSS Increase Your IQ?

2008-09-22T21:04:00.003-04:00

I was thinking about this the other day.

I subscribe to a bunch of RSS Feeds. Many of them are updated daily or at a minimum weekly. Each with targeted information relative to a specific topic.

Education is key to intelligence growth.

How does this relate to your IQ? That I can't say. I am working on studying for the MENSA test. I did well in the pre-test with my weakness being in vocabulary. Not that I suck at vocabulary, but the questions were really out there. I did great at the logic and the rest of the other types of questions.

Did RSS give me the skills to take the first step at getting in MENSA? I doubt it, but overall I am able to follow niche topics very efficiently.

Take for example Hack A Day and Hacked Gadgets. I don't read the complete RSS feed for either, but while interacting with others I have often been able to relate to something I learned. Same holds true for most of the RSS feeds I subscribe too.

Have a good one....

Michael

Internet Marketing For Everyone

2008-09-12T12:45:00.002-04:00

I am not as active doing internet marketing as I was in the past. It is nice to have the checks still come in from work I did months and even years ago.

Looking around on the internet I see that the big name Internet Marketers and bloggers are still around, but not many new names are on the list.

Is this a sign that the little guy should not waste his time trying to make money online? Or is the little guy just keeping his mouth shut about how much money he makes?

My guess is that most of the money online is made by a small select group and the rest of us barely break even.

The Red Paperclip guy is going to be close to where I live later this month. I'm thinking of checking out what he has to say. Maybe it will inspire me to work on my blogs more.

If you aren't having fun, do something about it.

Michael

We Remember September 11th

2008-09-11T07:15:00.002-04:00

On this day 7 years ago, tragedy struck the lives of many in the United States.

Construction can rebuild or replace a building. But our memories and feelings will last forever.

Please take a moment of silence today to pray.

Michael

Spending Money vs. Making Money

2008-08-14T12:30:00.002-04:00

I like spending money, but in order to do that I need to make money.

That is one of the reasons I experiment with ways to make money online. As you can tell from my blog I try all kinds of stuff. For me much of it just doesn't work.

Most of the ways to make money online are not worth your time.

I tried EBay for a while. Things have changed a little and there is more competition, but you can still make money on Ebay. I went to auctions and bought items cheap that I would re-sell on Ebay. While I did make a profit, the time involved gave me an hourly income rate of about $10. I could have worked it a little harder and found a higher end niche, but the experts would have crushed me. I made some spending money, but it wasn't worth my time and effort to continue. One area the I wanted to test yet, but didn't was selling home made videos on Ebay. I purchased this guide Sell Videos on Ebay but haven't put it to use. Worth looking into if you are serious about making money on Ebay.

I also tried CPA marketing. Since CPA marketing has a broader range then selling items on a specific site, let me break this down a little. I tried selling items that other people paid commission to me if I sold. Basically, a commissioned sales person. The problem with this is finding great products with a profit margin that exceeds the cost to advertise. My best month was 5 figures, but all the rest were under $200. More on this in a future post where I discuss my journey back to the 5 figure a month income.

Then there is CPC marketing. While CPC marketing is one of the lower income models, it is also the easiest to get started. For me this is just a starter to see if I can get some of the other numbers I need to really make money.

That is all for this week, stop back next week for more on the journey to make some spending money online.

Michael

P.S. Good luck to all the 30 day challenge participants.

The 30 Day Challenge 2008

2008-08-04T12:24:00.001-04:00

Hello Readers, sorry for the delay in posting.

The 30 Day Challenge has started and if you are into internet marketing is worth checking out.

I participated in the first 3 30 Day Challenge events. Each time I made a little money and learned a great deal of info.

This year I will not be taking advantage of the great training provided by Ed and his group. To many things going on and not enough time.

I started moving into my new place on Saturday. Looking forward to getting settled and enjoying my changed life.

Best of luck to all.

Michael

What Do The Numbers Mean

2008-06-19T20:02:00.002-04:00

How often do you check your stats? Does it really matter if you only look at your stats weekly.

I have found through my current life changing situation, that no it doesn't matter. I can check my stats once a day or once a week. They don't change no matter how often I check them.

Guess what, stats aren't the only thing that works that way. My one junk website sells stuff every once in a while. Thing is it is my junk site. I use it to test code and build some temporary landing pages. Nothing is optimized, it is just there.

Yet every once in a while it sells something.

What do the numbers mean? The answer lies in what is important to you.

What are you missing by watching the numbers? By trying to make big bucks with internet marketing? Is it worth spending your time trying to make money online?

Only you know the answer.

Best of luck to everyone.

Michael

30 Day Challenge & Contact Me

2008-06-16T12:08:00.002-04:00

I am not going to participate in the 30 Day Challenge this year. It was fun to do the past 3 years and I did learn something each time.

But in the overall scheme of things I don't see any reason to waste so much time going through a process that in the end produces very little income. Yes a couple will hit a hot niche and a couple others will make a small profit month after month.

Heck the blog I created for last years 30 Day Challenge still brings in $5-$10 a month even though I only do 1 post a month. How much effort would it take to bring that up to $500 a month? A ton of effort and a good bit of luck.

I'm on the lazy train (humming Ozzy's Crazy Train) from here on out. Life is just too short to focus so much energy on something that has terrible odds of success and profit for the time spent.

As for contacting me. If you email me you will never get a reply back. Only the people who I have met in person know my personal email address. For everyone else, you must use my contact form until we meet.

Michael

Why Try To Make Money Online

2008-06-10T12:17:00.002-04:00

Time for the next update.

As mentioned a few posts ago, I stopped all paid advertising on my sites and blogs. The reason was not that I was loosing money, but that I didn't want to spend as much time managing my online business. If you don't keep an eye on your advertising you can go broke quick, so I figured that should be the first to go.

Since then I cut back on a few other things including my virtual server that I was only using half of.

I love free blogs for making money because the risk is so low. Not that it is a good idea to create a blog for the purpose of making money. But low risk because if I can't update every day it won't cost me any money.

I am back working on some Entrecard tests. So far I love all the changes they made. Spending all of my credits has by far been the smartest move I made with that system. To fully benefit from EntreCard you need to spend your credits.

Later,

Michael

Do What You Love

2008-06-08T18:33:00.002-04:00

Ever notice how much easier it is to write when the topic is something you love.

Fortunately for me I am into a bunch of things. I love to do research and try new things.

Life is what you make it. From time to time we are delt a truckload of lemons, but it is what you do with those lemons that matters. It is a choice.

Choose to complain or find a way to turn that negative into a positive.

If you remember back a few months I read the One Month To Live book. I'm thinking it might be easier to think of only having one day to live.

What would I do today if I knew it was my last. Obviously I have to go to work, or the bills won't get paid. But it is still a good idea to put things into a day to live perspective.

Michael

Plan Ahead or Just Wing it

2008-06-03T12:44:00.002-04:00

When writing for your BLOG, do you plan ahead or just wing it?

For me I do both. It depends on what blog I am working on at the moment.

Depending on the topic some content can't be written on the fly and requires a bit of research and testing first.

My favorite blogs are the ones where I can just type stuff as it comes into my head. Everything related to the topic I am writing about, but not planned. Just targeted based on my current thoughts.

Some bloggers do research on keywords and stuff like that. I don't see any reason to take the time to research keywords that pay the most. I would rather just write and accept whatever money I happen to make from that post.

Michael

How To Write A Book

2008-05-30T12:37:00.002-04:00

This is something I have been thinking about for a little while.

Should I write a book that goes into greater detail then what I post on my blogs?

Now this book will not be about making money online or anything like that. It will be on one very specific topic. As with all books a great deal of research and effort will need to be put forth as well.

I'm probably not going to get picked up by a major publisher, but with POD I can self publish and manage my own ISBN if needed.

Best of luck on all your money making efforts. Take some time to take a break, you know what they say about all work and no play.

Michael

You Never Know Until You Live It

2008-05-28T12:50:00.003-04:00

I read the book 30 Days to Live not long ago. Many of the chapters I read quickly because I felt my life was in order.

I picked up a few tips and even made a few adjustments.

But then my world turned upside down.

30 Days to Live became a reality. My world had completely done a backflip and I was delivered a truckload of lemons.

Fortunately I had the recipe for lemonade and my friends came to the rescue. My life is changed and I plan to make the change a positive one even with the truckload of lemons.

So when you sit back and think if something happened this is what I would do. It probably isn't. Because until you have lived it you have no idea how you will react.

If you noticed that I don't blog here as much as I used to you are right. Posting on this blog will be 3 times per week when things clear up. I will post once a week until then.

The schedule on my other blogs will stay the same as I was only updating them a couple times a month anyway.

As for my sites. I got rid of my virtual server to save money. It doesn't make sense to manage 20+ websites for the amount of money they were making.

From now on I will stick to free blogs and use my free hosting from Wealthy Affiliate. More on WA in my next post, but that is one expense that I am not going to give up!

Michael

The 4 Hour Work Week

2008-05-19T12:44:00.002-04:00

I am going to have to cut my work week back to 4 hours a week. This is something I wanted to do before. But I always figured I had to wait until I made it big to cut back my hours.

At this time I need to focus on my family and spend less time on the computer. I am in deep sorrow that I did not recognize the need to do this much sooner.

That said I will continue to run tests and update all of my blogs. But I will be cutting back on things that cost money like site memberships, Aweber and probably my server.

If I cut out most spending I should be able to go for days without worrying about an advertising spend explosion.

This does mean that it will take longer for comments to get approved if I take a few days off in a row.

I am going to try 30 minutes a day and see how that works. If I have to I will start cutting back on some of my test blogs and just work on the ones that interest me most. (like this one)

Michael

My 2 Cents on The Economy & Tax Rebate

2008-05-15T12:13:00.003-04:00

I got my Tax Rebate notice the other day. Most of it will be spent in a few weeks when we go on vacation.

I will spend the whole thing and watch to see if the Economy gets stimulated. That is said tongue in cheek as it could take years for the economy to improve.

What else can be done to stimulate the economy? Keep in mind credit card debt and gas prices continue to rise. Add in Health care and the cost of groceries and there is barely anything left to stimulate the economy with.

Fortunately in addition to my day job I make some money on the internet too. A little money for entertainment, nice dinners out and a car payments.

There are many benefits to making money online compared to my real job, but there are downsides as well.

Time to get back to work on my online business to see if I can make more money to spend.

A little disclaimer here. I am not saying that you should spend all your money. In my real job I have a great retirement plan, so that is where I save my money. That way I can spend all the money I make online (after taxes). Your results may vary and if you don't have some savings built up, please do that first.

Michael

Stand Out In A Crowd

2008-05-14T17:06:00.003-04:00

Where I work we are raising money for "Make A Wish". The goal is to raise enough money to fulfill a wish for very sick children.

Each of the departments came up with a different idea.

So now when you get on the elevator you are inundated with small posters promoting a departments fund raising idea.

I love the ideas, they are great.

But the problem is that none of them stand out. When you walk in the elevator there are so many it is hard to focus on just one.

There is one poster that has some standout stuff, but no memory factor.

So, the idea isn't just to stand infront of your customers. But to stand where they can see you and clearly recognize you.

Michael

How to spend Entrecard Credits

2008-05-12T21:10:00.002-04:00

As mentioned last week. I love Entrecard. More so now that I figured out the best way to use Entrecard.

Spend your credits by advertising on other blogs.

Very simple and very effective.

I always drop my card on the blogs I like to read. I also mark them as a favorite and often advertise on them as well.

Some days I drop more cards then others. My drops inbox always shows me new blogs to check out.

I'm more picky about placement then I am anything else. If it is an above the fold placement like I have here on my blog then I am willing to pay more to advertise on that blog.

Once a week I spend most of the credits in my account. I get advertising all week long.

Michael

Happy Mother's Day

2008-05-11T07:31:00.000-04:00

Happy Mother's Day to all. Even if you don't have kids you may have given motherly advice to a child in the past. So to all I wish a Happy Mothers Day.

Yesterday was jam packed with outside work. Hopefully today I will have time to work on the project I mentioned yesterday.

I also have to practice for my big poker tournament later this month.

Take Care,

Michael

Interesting Testing Results

2008-05-10T09:07:00.002-04:00

I had a nice surprise yesterday. I checked my stats on shareasale.com and noticed that I had a sale. But not just any sale, since I often have sales promoting their merchants.

The surprise part was that I had a sale for a merchant that I was planning on testing. I was working on a landing page and was going to promote using AdWords. But I didn't start advertising yet.

So the page was found with a natural search. After checking the page stats it doesn't get much traffic.

I may have found another winner. Now I will have to use the tools over at Wealthy Affiliate to figure out the best keywords to use on AdWords.

I could just load a campaign with 100's of keywords, but I found that using the tools at Wealthy Affiliate save me time and money. Now I only need to have 15-25 keyword phrases in my AdWords campaigns.

Have a good weekend.

Michael

Buy One Get One Free

2008-05-09T15:59:00.000-04:00

Why run a special to Buy One and Get One Free instead of offering 50% off?

I don't know the answer to this question and would imagine that it is complex and varies by business and purpose.

Could it be to reduce stock on hand. If the product is consumable will the customer have to also buy more of another companion product. For example shampoo and conditioner.

There isn't an easy way to buy one and get one free with ebooks. That is unless you have 2 ebooks and are selling them together as a set where one is free.

Could this be a new way to joint venture. Buy my product and get Mr.x's product free? Well I guess that wouldn't be too new, but not common.

What are your thoughts on this as it relates to selling digital products online?

Michael

Tax Rebate & Why I Love EntreCard

2008-05-08T12:50:00.002-04:00

First an update on the Tax Rebate for those of us in the USA that qualify. Always be thankful, it isn't much but it is better then nothing. In the end all we have are memories anyway.

Now on to Entrecard. I am starting to like EntreCard more. At first I thought the work to results ratio was not worth my effort.

But then I made a slight change and now I don't have to work as hard. I was dropping over 100 cards a day. But now I drop about 20 and because I like to see who the new blog are that visit me and I drop another 10-20 on blogs that I like to read. So I am down to about 40 from over 100 (close to 150).

Want to know what the big change was that I am so happy about ... keep reading.

When I first started I was dropping and visiting blogs. But I wasn't spending my credits.

The true power of Entrecard didn't kick in until I started spending my credits.

Now I earn more EntreCard credits per day when I did over 100 drops with much less effort.

More bloggers see my ad on other blogs, visit my blog and purchase an ad worth their EntreCard credits. It is a win-win for all involved.

There you have it. To take full advantage of EntreCard you have to regularly spend your credits.

Michael

Update on my Projects and Tax Rebate

2008-05-06T17:27:00.005-04:00

Today I thought I would give you an update on my projects and answer a few comment questions.

Poker - Yes, I love to play poker. If you would like to play poker with me, just go over to Club WPT and sign up. My name is localpoker. Feel free to add my name localpoker in the referred by field. The cost is $20 a month to play and it is legal in the USA. They operate under a sweepstakes format, so you play with points instead of money. I love it, later this month I will be playing in a tournament with a $10,000 prize pool.

Wealthy Affiliate - Don't forget today is the last day to lock in the lower monthly membership rate. Where else can you get one-on-one mentoring for only $30 a month? Sign up at Wealthy Affiliate today to lock in the low rate.

Tax Rebate - While the plan was to only spend 1/2 of our tax rebate on vacation and apply the other 1/2 to a credit card, we decided to spend the whole thing for vacation. But here is the deal. Before the Tax Rebate the plan was to skip vacation and focus on our debt. So we are still paying down our debt, but at the same time taking a vacation. As for if my spending $1500 is going to stimulate the economy, no, I don't think so. There is something smarter that could have been done instead of the tax rebate, but there isn't enough time to discuss that right now.

$170 Project - I did not invest any of the $170 from my $200 prize. I donated $20 to MDS and $10 was for the PayPal fee. The research is started, but I never finished it. Like much of what I do, I start something, let it sit for 2-3 weeks, then finish it. So look for an update on how I invested the $170 later this month.

Blogging - I maintain about 12 blogs and a few websites. Most get a weekly update. Income levels are slightly below normal. Maybe the tax rebate checks will stimulate the economy to buy some of my ebooks?

Social Networking - I am getting close to 10,000 contacts on MyBlogLog. That is the easy part. My almost 800 community count for my Blog on MyBlogLog, now that I am proud of. Not many blogs can grow and maintain above 600. My goal is 1,000 within the next few months.

There are a few more items to give updates on, but I have to get ready for a meeting on the other side of Lancaster. I don't care for the long drive to and from, but the meetings are great. I serve on the Outreach Department for the Donegal Presbytery.

Michael

Tax Rebate Check

2008-05-05T21:18:00.002-04:00

What are you going to do with your Tax Rebate Check?

I was going to pay down some debt, or make a few advanced car payments. But then we decided to stimulate the economy.

Looks like we will be taking a vacation this year. We were going to skip taking vacation. But thanks to the relief payment from the government we decided to plan a vacation.

More on that later.

I have a poker tournament in 10 minutes, other then that no work tonight.

Michael

Use Tools To Help You Make More Money

2008-05-04T08:25:00.001-04:00

The best way to make a hard job easier is with tools.

It will hake hours to cut your lawn with scissors, but a lawn mower will make the work easier and produce better results.

The same holds true for making money online. That is why I use the tools at Wealthy Affiliate.

Big things are happening at Wealthy Affiliate and in addition to the tools already offered, more are on the way.

I use the competition spy tool to help me spy on markets before I start promoting within a niche. Works great and saves me a ton of time.

If you are serious about making money online now is the time to join Wealthy Affiliate. The price goes up on Tuesday, but you can lock in the current low price if you join now. Thats right, join now and pay the same price for as long as you are a member.

I don't know what the new price will be, but the tools alone are worth 3 times the price of membership. They also offer free website hosting for 3 sites and have free tools to help you build sites quickly.

Join today before the price increase and start using tools to help improve your online income.

Michael

How To Schedule BLOG Posts

2008-05-03T14:44:00.003-04:00

The blogging platform I use now has a feature to schedule posts.

So now I can write up posts for when I am away and they will show up daily as if I were able to write and post them that day. This is a great feature for vacations and travel. Other then that I prefer to write and post at the same time.

To do a future post in Blogger all you have to do is click on the Post Options link. Then under post date and post time just set it be when you want it to post.

Simple as pie.

Many things going on right now, so I better get back to it.

Michael

Make Money Advertising

2008-04-30T18:36:00.003-04:00

I read an awesome report today about making money using AdWords. There are many out there, but this one was like no other.

The guy made over $1 million in 9 months.

I use the tools over at Wealthy Affiliate to help me tune my advertising and find new products to promote. So I was already doing a good job of keeping my cost down while still maintaining a high ad position.

The report talked about having an upsell on the backend. I haven't tried doing an upsell yet, so I will have to check the forums at Wealthy Affiliate for some tips and advice.

So many things going on right now. Big poker tournament tonight.

Michael

One Blog or Many Blogs?

2008-04-28T21:25:00.002-04:00

One of the comments I got yesterday asked why so many blogs.

Do you think it is better to have one blog or multiple blogs? There is no one right answer, but below is my answer.

I prefer to have multiple blogs based on topics. Would you keep coming back to my blog if I posted about solar power one day and mountain bike tires the next?

I create a new blog for each topic that I am interested in. Some of the blogs only get one post per month, others once per week and others once per day.

By keeping the topic content together I get better search engine results. So this benefits me in the SERPs and benefits my readers as they don't have to weed through content that they are not interested in.

Michael

Project Planning

2008-04-26T11:25:00.002-04:00

I was considering promoting some clickbank products next week. But instead I am going to promote some shareasale.com programs.

There is normally less competition in PPC advertising when promoting niches from networks other then Clickbank.

I found one that only has 3 advertisers promoting it. Good chance I can write a better ad and conversion copy.

Rewards are something I have noticed the offline world picking up more and more. It isn't as easy to do online, but something I am going to look into.

Michael

Past the 600 Post Mark

2008-04-25T19:33:00.002-04:00

This is post number 601. Hard to believe that I made it this far.

Now if I could only break the $200 a day barrier.

Traffic picked up on one of my blog. I love when that happens. Guess I will have to increase the posting frequency.

Most of my blogs I only post once a month or once a week at most. This is my only blog where I post almost daily.

Time to do some research and start planning next week.

Michael

I Joined The Mile High Club

2008-04-24T17:34:00.003-04:00

While in Denver I joined The Mile High Club. Well, not the one you are thinking.

As you can see from the photo I visited the Capitol building and had my photo taken on the 15th step. We all took the 10 minute walk from the conference center to visit the capitol.

What did you think of the post title. Using attention getting text is important. But you have to use the right mix and not overdo it.

Stop back next week to see how I start using the $170 to test selling some products.

Michael

Tools For Blogging Success

2008-04-23T19:37:00.002-04:00

I see that FaceBook added a chat application today. I know that most of the email providers also have a chat option. But I like the ability to chat with contacts no mater what email provider they use.

Over at Wealthy Affiliate they keep adding new tools to help me make money online. I love the research tools, saves me a good bit of time and money. They provide much at a very low price.

I haven't invested my $170 yet. I will probably use it to test 2 products with AdWords, but haven't decided yet.

My MyBlogLog community is growing nicely. Almost at 800 and it should hit 1,000 this summer.

Michael

What Can We Learn From Events

2008-04-22T17:43:00.002-04:00

As you may know I was in Denver last week at a conference.

While there I attended a bunch of educational sessions and talked to a couple hundred vendors. It was neat to see how each of the vendors did their marketing.

Some were offering a chance to win a big prize like a Mac notebook or iPod touch, while others were handing out small trinkets. Some even gave pins to put on our conference badge.

At first I thought the big prize vendors were missing something by not having a handout at the conference. But then today I got an email from one of the vendors with an announcement of the iPod Touch prize winner.

And what did I do. Well I opened it and read the whole thing. In addition to announcing the winner (wasn't me) they told me about a free webinar that I can register for next week.

How smart is that.

There is just one more thing this vendor could have done to get me closer to being a customer. And that is to present on one of the session topics.

I give credit to the vendors to freely give of their time to come to a conference and offer free training.

More on offline and online marketing over the next few days.

Michael

MyBlogLog Widget

2008-04-21T19:47:00.003-04:00

So far my community count isn't increasing any quicker by displaying the MyBlogLog Widget. I had hoped my count would go up quicker but it didn't.

Traffic is the lifeblood of any web business. I get traffic from multiple sources and MyBlogLog is one of those sources.

Where does your traffic come from? All one source or multiple sources?

For some of my sites I do paid advertising, but this blog is for research, testing and reporting, so I don't advertise it as much.

Time to check in on my Facebook profile and get some work done.

Michael

BLOG Design Changes

2008-04-19T18:46:00.002-04:00

I made a couple changes to the blog design.

I removed some elements from the right column. Currently I have the new MyBlogLog widget showing, but I may remove that if it slows down page load time. It does look cool, so I will probably keep it there.

I have to modify the top text links and the bottom banner. That will be another day.

I noticed that traffic died down after Entrecard changed their advertising algorithm. My site was getting good traffic and my ad rate was over 70. With the new alg I am looking at 32 or 64 on most days, with a high of 128.

Michael

Back From Denver CO

2008-04-18T14:19:00.002-04:00

I am back from Denver. This photo is of the stuff I got from the Event Booths.

This Year Collaborate 08 was in Denver, CO. I don't mind the cold, but it was odd to travel into colder snowy weather when spring is starting to warm up where I live.

I won't go into details about Collaborate from the educational and networking side, but I do want to mention the vendors. Like all previous years, the vendors work their magic to lure you to their booth.

Most have something to give you in exchange for a scan of your badge. That gives them full access to my contact info.

So what do they give away. I got at least a dozen pens. Not all of them made it into the photo. Some were giving away an iPod or more expensive gift as a prize drawing.

Does the SWAG matter if you are interested in a specific product or service? I don't think so.

As a matter of fact one vendor stood out way above the rest. Their SWAG was not as good as many of their competitors. But they knew that trinkets are not what convert prospects into customers.

While I have your attention, I donated $20 of my $200 prize money from WinningOnTheWeb to MDA. Someone I know was soliciting donations and I felt it was a good cause.

As for the remaining $180, stay tuned for some testing. I am anxious to find and test more products to sell online.

Michael

New Tools At Wealthy Affiliate

2008-04-09T20:18:00.002-04:00

I just got an email today. Great news, Wealthy Affiliate is going to be releasing some new tools very soon. As early as Friday there will be some new tools on Wealthy Affiliate
that other sites charge over $100 a month for.

I am excited. I already feel that Wealthy Affiliate is under priced and this really drives up the value. That reminds me I can use their page builder to whip up a site for that niche I found on Monday.

Since I will be away for a few days I won't get to play with the new tools until I get back.

Michael

What To Do With $200

2008-04-08T20:46:00.003-04:00

I spent some time thinking about what to do with my $200 prize winnings. PayPal took $6.10 of it off my hands and I will be donating $20 to a charity or my church.

So I have $173.90 to invest, spend or hold.

My first thought was "Spending money for my Denver trip". But for the most part that is paid for and I don't want to spend that much on stuff. My second thought was credit card debt.

I have plenty of credit card debt, so that would be a guaranteed return above what I could get in a savings account.

But on the other hand if I use it to test some offers I could find one that will convert that money at least 50% every month. With $173 I should be able to find an offer that brings in at least $50-60 a month in profit. The hardest part is getting past the testing and keyword refinement stage.

I did look on Wealthy Affiliate last night and found a product that looks awesome. It is an under the radar mover, so right now competition is very low.

The only down side is I don't have a site already in that niche and I would have to build one. Since I leave for Denver in a couple days, I don't have time to do that.

I will probably Spend $70 of it in Denver and use the rest to test 2 offers/products.

More on that in a future post. I will also provide an update on some of my advertising tests in a few days.

Michael

Thanks to AffSpy

2008-04-07T17:39:00.002-04:00

I got my $200 prize today from AffSpy. If you remember a couple days back I mentioned how I won $200 from AffSpy in a contest on WinningTheWeb.com from March.

The AffSpy tool is awesome and for those like me that promote multiple merchant networks a real time saver. With my research at Wealthy Affiliate I can quickly go to AffSpy and search offers to promote.

I am off to Soccer practice. My daughter plays on a local U8 team. While I am there I will have to ponder how to spend my $200.

Many thanks to AffSpy for offering this prize on WinningTheWeb last month.

Stop back to see how I spend the $200. I would like to try and at least double it by the end of April.

Michael

The Week Before Denver

2008-04-05T07:34:00.003-04:00

Next week at this time I will be heading to Denver for a conference. Collaborate 08 to be exact.

I am heading there as part of my job for a big project later this year.

The Internet Marketing portion of this is about advertising.

There will be about 15,000 people there all with interest in the same thing. So I took a peek at how much it would cost to advertise there.

A 10x10 booth in the expo costs $10,000. Floor Decals cost $3,500. Bottled Water cost $15,000 for 2 days.

At first I thought some of these vendors are paying $2 or more per "impression". But then I realized that these people are selling $20,000+ products. So 1 or 2 sales would be a profit for them.

Something to keep in mind when we advertise online.

This time next week I will be on my way to the airport. The conference starts early Sunday, so I will be heading out Saturday.

Michael

The Shopping List of Keywords

2008-04-03T19:01:00.002-04:00

I got to thinking today about Keywords. It is absolutely amazing how 1 word can make the difference between a sale and just a visitor.

Imagine this.

You own a store in a shopping mall. Every customer that comes into your store is either holding a shopping list or they are there to look because they were told by someone else that you sell good products.

Now of all the prospects that have a list only some of the prospects actually buy and become a customer.

As it turns out all the customers who bought have matching lists. If even 1 word does not match, they didn't buy.

Believe it or not, this is real in the online world. It just happened to me.

As you know I am constantly testing new products to sell. I use Wealthy Affiliate to find products and research keywords to promote those products with PPC. I use the techniques they teach at Wealthy Affiliate.

I added 1 keyword phrase that is much like the others in my keyword list, but only different by one word. Guess what happened. Prospects started turning into customers.

Or should I say prospects were able to find my store because what I was selling matched what they have on their shopping list. Now to go in a weed out all the keywords that don't convert, then I will head back to Wealthy Affiliate to look for more products to promote.

What an awesome feeling that was to discover the power of ONE WORD in the right keyword phrase order!

Michael

I am a Winner !!!!!!

2008-04-02T19:28:00.002-04:00

I won a couple prizes over at Winning The Web.

You may remember me telling you about the contest early in March. Well I did most of the stuff to earn entries and my effort paid off.

I won $200 from AffSpy and a 125x125 banner for one month on Blog About Your Blog.

Gyutae is heading away for a conference so I won't get my prizes for about a week. I'll update on what I do with the $200 when I get it.

I just may have to look for more contests to enter.

Michael

Hang With Me Online

2008-04-01T21:26:00.002-04:00

Are you my friend?

The best way to find me is on MyBlogLog, just click the My BLOG Community link above and join my community. You will need a Yahoo id, free if you don't already have one.

Another option is FaceBook, again just click on the My BLOG Community and then on my FaceBook icon. You can also see my YouTube and Twitter links there as well.

I tend to hang out online for a couple hours a day, so there is a good chance we will meet sooner or later.

I am getting close to having over 10,000 contacts on MyBlogLog. That is my current goal for MyBlogLog.

Michael

The One Step Process To Make $1 Million

2008-03-31T19:50:00.002-04:00

I know you have been waiting for this a while now.

I am happy to report that there is just one step to make $1 Million. Funny thing it was much easier then I thought.

Last year I planted a $100 bill in my back yard. With the warmer weather I noticed a vine sprouting from that area. Just today I saw the corner of a $100 bill from 10 of the sections of the sprout. If this keeps up I will have $1 Million in no time.

By the way, don't forget to check my other posts from April 1 (give or take a day).

April Fools - Happy April Fools Day!

Michael

Track Your Advertising - AdWords and Paid Links

2008-03-30T10:53:00.001-04:00

Sorry for the delay in updates. I was working on a big project and had to focus my energy on that product.

Once a month I review my traffic and advertising for each of my sites and blogs. This helps me avoid throwing advertising money away.

First I check AdWords and adjust my spending based on how many sales I got. For products I am testing I adjust prices and keywords. Some of my product tests may be dropped if not enough sales convert.

Then I check my paid links to see how many visitors I got from those links. If my cost comes below 3 cents a click I may choose to buy another months of advertising from them. In most cases I find that text links don't bring in that much traffic.

Weekly I check and adjust advertising on some of my testing products and on new tests I always check daily. I use the tools at Wealthy Affiliate to help me find new products to promote and also with keyword selection.

Michael

What Does It Take To Make Money Online

2008-03-26T19:44:00.002-04:00

A popular question with new bloggers is can I make money with my blog.

The simple answer is yes and no.

Yes, you can make money with your blog, but it takes a good deal of work. An no there is no guarantee that you will make money blogging.

That said, learning from others is a great way to get started. I just joined 2 new affiliate networks the other day and will be reporting on them soon.

Google AdSense is a popular form of income for bloggers because it is easy to install and Google is well trusted. I do run AdSense but if you read my past posts you will see that most of my money comes from other sources.

Traffic is the lifeblood of your blog. Do you know where your traffic comes from? Do you know how to get more people to see your blog?

More on that in a future post.

Michael

Tools To Make Life Easier

2008-03-24T21:42:00.003-04:00

Do you know what products to promote on your BLOG?

I use the tools over at Wealthy Affiliate to find products to promote.

I also use their tools to spy on the competition and find new niches to market.

Did you know that you can be a member of Wealthy Affiliate for less then $2 a month? Heck they will even pay you to be a member. They pay you $14 per month for every person you refer that joins.

So just refer 2 people and your membership costs only $2 a month.

This is a win - win situation. You get your membership for almost free or make a profit and the people you refer get full access to the best website online for those who want to make money online.

If you join Wealthy Affiliate post a comment here and we can chat on the site.

Michael

Know Your Advertising ROI

2008-03-20T19:10:00.002-04:00

Do you track your advertising spend vs. income?

If not you could be throwing money away.

I track a good bit of advertising online, including the competition. It is important to know what advertising is bringing in a profit and what advertising is throwing money away.

Some bloggers may advertise to build their brand, but I have a small budget so I need to see a profit.

There are multiple ways to track advertising, traffic and income source. Many of the networks allow tracking ids and this makes life even easier.

Michael

March Madness Internet Marketing

2008-03-18T18:30:00.003-04:00

Do you play the brackets for March Madness? You know the office pool where you pick NCAA college basketball teams, narrowing your selection down to the champion.

I like basketball and enjoy playing the March Madness basketball pick games.

How does March Madness connect to Internet Marketing.

If you think about it, the teams are all seeded or ranked within their devision. In internet marketing we have a seeding in that Google ranks websites and blogs.

With March Madness there is competition. Again we compete in Google for top position. If Google doesn't give it to us through a "Seed" we have to buy it with AdWords.

And finally the champion. Well I guess that would be every internet marketer that makes more then they spend.

Best of luck on your basketball picks and your internet marketing.

Michael

One Month To Live

2008-03-17T12:32:00.002-04:00

Yesterday I mentioned about the book "one Month To Live" by Kerry & Chris Shook.

Since you are only supposed to read one chapter a day I will have to add a second book to my current reading list.

So far I love the book.

I may not have agreed to roller skate on Saturday had I not been reading this book.

What does that have to do with internet marketing?

For me when I think about only having one month to live and the work I do online. It helps me to focus on what is important and cut back what is not.

The 4 Hour Work Week did a great job of guiding my thinking at eliminating things that were not important. But 30 Days To Live does so with a thread of purpose throughout.

What good is working only 4 hours a week if you are not going to use the free time for something important.

Before you spend 3 or 4 more hours surfing the net today/tonight. Cut back by 50% and head to the bookstore to purchase "One Month To Live". No, this isn't the book that was given to me for free to review. I think it will change your life, that is why I suggest it.

Michael

Bright Sunny Day - Great Day For Outdoors

2008-03-16T13:38:00.002-04:00

Today is a bright sunny day. Still a little on the chilly side, but overall a bright sunny day.

Instead of spending too much time behind the computer I am going to take a break and spend some time outside.

My bike needs some adjusting so that it is ready to ride in a couple weeks. The car needs washed and the list goes on.

One quick topic I want to hit today.

Live life as if you are going to die in 30 days. Don't go out and max all your credit cards. I'm not talking about that. Hopefully you don't plan on leaving your kids with a ton of credit card debt.

What I am talking about is not putting off for tomorrow what you know you should do today.

Tomorrow I will have an update on some of the changes and projects I am working on.

Michael

Blog Moved to OnePennyProject.com

2008-03-15T09:55:00.002-04:00

I am pleased to announce that I finally purchased a domain name for this blog. I will let Google supply the free hosting to save space and bandwidth on my virtual server.

Today I purchased OnePennyProject.com to replace the one-penny-project.blogspot.com URL that was pointing to this blog.

Same great content, much nicer looking URL.

There is nothing wrong with using a blogspot domain name. Heck most of my blogs still use a blogspot URL. But I figured this blog has grown to a point where it desirved to have a custom URL.

Wish I would have done this before I purchased my latest advertising. But at least I finally did it.

The next step is a professional header graphic. I currently have a project open for a graphic designer.

I like the design of this blog so I probably won't re-design the layout. I may re-arrange some of the widgets, but nothing major.

You may notice that Google is confused about what ads to display. This should be fixed in a day or two when they realize that OnePennyProject.com replaced one-penny-project.blogspot.com

Michael

How To Run A Contest On Your Blog

2008-03-15T08:40:00.002-04:00

I am currently participating in and watching an awesome contest run by Winning The Web.

The prize pool is currently over $9,000. Now that is one way to get attention for your contest. And the great part is most of the prizes are donated by sponsors.

I am a participant in the contest and this review will get me 10 entries. Would I do the review even if I didn't get the 10 entries, well yes. This contest is the best of 2008 and I doubt anyone will be able to beat it. I would be a fool not to tell my loyal blog readers about it.

As you can see on the Winning The Web blog I purchased a text link. Earlier in the week I mentioned testing an advertising source. So far the clicks are lower then expected. But I do get an added bonus that non-advertisers don't get. I see how many uniques per day his blog is getting. This alone is worth the $24 I paid for the text link.

Good luck to all who enter.

Michael

Awesome Clickbank Profit Info

2008-03-14T18:37:00.003-04:00

I just watched a video that Frank Kern sent out to his email list. It wasn't Frank, but the info in the video was great.

I had seen this same tip before but not in combination with Clickbank. I use Wealthy Affiliate to help me identify products to promote. And that will save me a ton of time since I won't have to go through all 10,000 products to find the profitable ones to promote.

But with this tip I now have a better chance of finding the sweet spot keywords. I would just do some light research and then see what works. But by using the site level keyword search on Google AdWords now I know what the primary keywords to bid on are.

Granted this won't work all the time. But with the help of the tools at Wealthy Affiliate I should be able to find a few more products to promote with very little effort.

Michael

Where To Get Massive BLOG Traffic?

2008-03-12T17:31:00.002-04:00

Where To Get Massive BLOG Traffic? Note, this is not a statement, but a question.

I often test advertising. Google AdWords, Yahoo, MSN, advertising on blogs, bumper sticker on my car, the list goes on a mile long.

ROI or return on investment, being time or money, is important when advertising.

Yesterday I spent $24 to advertise on a blog that is doing heavy promotion right now. This blog isn't getting a ton of traffic, but with the volume of promotion I know it is going to spike soon.

That is why I got in quick. When the traffic spikes, so will his advertising rates.

So far my ROI is very poor. Only 4 visitors came from that site.

I'm not worried because I still have 30 more days.

Google AdWords is the easiest form of advertising, but you can loose a ton of money quickly if not done right. I use the tools at Wealthy Affiliate to help me find good keywords as well as products to promote.

Take Care,

Michael

The Perks of Being a Blogger

2008-03-10T20:54:00.002-04:00

Every job has its perks and blogging is no exception.

Today in the mail I got a hardback copy of "Crucibles of Leadership - How to Learn from Experience to Become a Great Leader" by Robert J. Thomas. This book is hot off the press.

Most of the books I read are about Business: Marketing, Growth, How To, Fortune 500 or Religious: Mission, Outreach, Prayer.

"Crucibles of Leadership" looks like a great How To business book based on extensive research and experience.

Currently I am reading "A Shepherd Looks At Psalm 23" by W. Phillip Keller. The chapters are filled with interesting stories and this book makes for a great daily devotion.

I will do a full review of "Crucibles of Leadership" in about 2 weeks. How is that for smart marketing. The price of a book and shipping will get this author a free review that would have cost $60.

Michael

P.S. Thank You to everyone who sent me books. If anyone wants to send me a book they wrote or a product they sell I will gladly do a free review. Contact Me and I will give you my address.

Blog Posting On The Weekends

2008-03-08T09:13:00.002-05:00

I hear many bloggers say that traffic on the weekends is lighter then through the week. In the past I would do a re-carp of the week on the weekends because of this.

Looking at my stats I can see that some weekends are lighter while others have the highest traffic for the week.

I was posting 7 days a week and at times 2 or more posts a day. Over the past month I cut back to about 5 days a week. I found this works out best for me in terms of content and time.

Keep in mind this is just for the blog you are reading. I have MANY more. Some get updated more then others, but for the most part they are on a pattern.

I found the key is to write about a targeted niche and stay on target. The search engines then give you more weight in the search results for that niche.

I love the comments, keep them coming.

Michael

Short Posts or Long Posts

2008-03-06T18:14:00.002-05:00

Do you prefer short blog posts or longer blog posts?

I read a ton of blogs every day in addition to about 3 books a month. The problem I have is finding a place to stop.

I prefer short blog posts and short chapters in books. It makes it easy for me to find a stopping point and mark where to continue the next day.

Pictures are a nice feature as well. I will have to start adding more photos to my blog posts.

What are your thoughts on blog post size?

Michael

Multiple Streams of Blogging Income

2008-03-04T18:58:00.002-05:00

Regular readers of my blog already know this, but I will bring it up again for my new readers.

It is important to have multiple ways to make money with your blog. If you stick to just one method and something happens then your source of income could disappear.

Not that having 100 things for sale on your blog is a good thing. Too much selling will drive visitors away.

Focus on helping your readers. Start with products and services that you use. For example I am a heavy user of the tools on Wealthy Affiliate for making money online. So it is easy for me to tell people about them.

Often when I buy an ebook that I like I will do a review and post my affiliate link.

On a rare occasion I will promote a product that I don't own or use, but in most cases I try to avoid that.

While AdSense is easy it is also a low earner. All of my blogs start with AdSense, but none of them survive with just AdSense.

Michael

Changes at MyBlogLog

2008-03-03T18:31:00.002-05:00

Looks like they made some changes at MyBlogLog.

My guess is that the new design should deter automatic message posting. I was manually editing messages posted on my profile to remove the ones with links. With the new design I am not getting as many that need deleted.

Hopefully the new design will give way to some new features.

MyBlogLog has great potential. For bloggers being a member of MyBlogLog is a must.

What features is MyBlogLog missing that you would like to see?

Michael

February Blogging Income Report

2008-03-02T13:41:00.002-05:00

February was much like January. Direct sales of products I own the license to were my biggest earner. I did have some other money come in, but only 3 affiliate sales in February.

Expenses were unchanged, but advertising was a little lower. I didn't get to test as much because of going to New Orleans.

I have a few PLR products that I want to start promoting in March. I'm also going to start testing a landing page for a few niches I found on Wealthy Affiliate. I used the competition spy tool and found some products that must be selling well. All I have to do is make a landing page and promote the same product.

Later this month I am going to write and give out some free reports. I may develop an info product for one of my niches, but probably not in March.

Michael

How To Share Photos

2008-03-01T08:22:00.002-05:00

There are many places online that allow you to share your photos. I belong to a few of them, but often I just email photos or burn a DVD to give out.

Today I uploaded to FaceBook some photos of my mission trip to New Orleans. While I could have uploaded the photos many places, I wanted to allow my friends to add comments to the photos.

I am starting to use FaceBook more for networking. As long as they can keep the pushy style of marketing out, it will be a nice place to network.

Time to get ready for a busy weekend. Feel free to check out my Photos on FaceBook. You will have to join if you are not already a member.

Michael

How Much Time Spent Blogging

2008-02-29T19:16:00.002-05:00

How much time do you spend blogging?

I have a bunch of websites and BLOGs. In addition to my BLOGs I write articles, free reports and info products and that doesn't even count all the reading and writing I do offline.

Much of my time is spend reading, thinking and writing. Something I love to do.

I can't nail down how many hours a week I spend reading and writing, but I know it is close to 30 hours if not more.

I'm off to prepare for a speech on Sunday and then watch a little TV.

Michael

Time To Pay The Tax Man

2008-02-27T19:23:00.002-05:00

Now that I am back from New Orleans I need to work on my 2007 Taxes.

If you make money online, keep track of all your income and expenses. The best way I found so far is to use a spreadsheet. Include a category column that matches the IRS categories for small business. That way you can create a pivot table to sum it up for you.

If creating a pivot table is not in your skillset, just pick up a 4 column notebook and keep track that way. Or use the spreadsheet and manually choose the rows & columns to add for each of the IRS categories.

This year I am cutting back a little on the networks I promote. There are 3 good ones so I will stick to those 3, plus AdSense.

I'm going to be selling on Ebay this year, so that will add another layer of record keeping.

Trust me, keep your papers in order throughout the year and it will save you time and hassle at tax time.

Michael

Learning From The Right People

2008-02-25T20:35:00.002-05:00

Would you rather learn how to make money online from a free forum loaded with people how want you to buy their product? Or would you rather learn from people that are successful and doesn't let "Product Pushers" mess up the forum?

I do read a couple free forums from time to time, but I find my time better spent on the forum over at Wealthy Affiliate. People on Wealthy Affiliate are there to learn and to teach.

No need to buy tools for research, all the tools you need are included. No need for web hosting or a website builder. You can build 3 websites and host them as part of your membership.

There is so much more to Wealthy Affiliate, but you have to try it to believe all the cool stuff you get to build, grow and improve your business.

Michael

Back From New Orleans

2008-02-24T13:26:00.002-05:00

I am back from New Orleans. The trip was a safe one. It is good to be home with my family, yet there is much rebuilding to be done.

Now on to internet marketing.

Looks like MyBlogLog is having a problem with adding contacts again. I will test this on my laptop as well, but I think it is a process problem, not a PC problem.

Today is catch-up day then back to work tomorrow. Even though I tried to check in this past week, there is plenty I need to get done.

Looking forward to starting a new site and testing some new advertising.

Take Care,

Michael

Don't Get Stuck In A TrafficJam

2008-02-21T07:27:00.003-05:00

John Reese just released one of hs new websites to the public. I have yet to join BlogRush for various reasons. Income may be done some day, still waiting for that one.

I see no reason to jump on the TrafficJam bandwagon. I know the ins and outs of Technorati, so why bother with another blog tracking site.

John is a great marketer and no doubt there is some value with TrafficJam. But for me I will stick with Technorati.

I have a new product that I will be promoting when I get back. I didn't get a chance to review the product or sales letter yet. The membership I belong to gives me master resell on a product they create every month. Works gret for me as it would cost 5 times as much to have the product written.

Things are going well in New Orleans. Today it is rainy, but all of our work will be inside. This might slow down the drying time of the drywall compound though. Hopefully we can get all the walls ready for paint if not completly painted by Friday evening.

So much to do, so little time.

Michael