2009 Inauguration Ticket Ceremony!

Today marks a great day in American history with the official inauguration of Barack Obama, our 44th president and first ever African-American president. The inauguration ceremony itself was a grand affair in Washington, DC with everyone from John Kerry to the Clintons, Bushes and Carters coming to see Obama officially take office. And there were "common folk" spectators on hand as well as there were 240,000 free tickets given out to lucky individuals and families. They estimated that many more than that number attended the event.

While inauguration tickets were free that didn't prevent many entrepreneurial-minded individuals from scalping theirs. eBay and StubHub were outlawed from allowing sales of the inauguration tickets. According to WashingtonTimes.com:

Inauguration-related tickets have become such a hot commodity that people have gone to the Web to buy and sell them.

However, the Internet sites eBay and StubHub have decided not to help broker tickets at the request of Sen. Dianne Feinstein, California Democrat and chairman of the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies. Mrs. Feinstein introduced legislation, passed by the Senate Tuesday, to make scalping of inauguration tickets a criminal offense. Passage by the House before the inauguration is uncertain.

Interestingly, this eBay auction here was for an offical Obama inauguration T-Shirt plus 2 "free" tickets to the swearing-in ceremony. The shirt sold for $699. So technically that person made the smart sale, side-stepping the scalping concept. See the completed auction here.

Not only were inauguration tickets a hot seller but so were any other event nearby the inauguration such as a Jay-Z concert on 1/19 and a Gala ball featuring singer Rihanna. There were even inauguration invite letters and subway tickets which pictured Obama selling on eBay.

Check out the numerous eBay listings here

Read more about the 2009 inauguration tickets at WashingtonTimes.com.

Circuity City Officially Closing!

An ailing economy strikes again, and this time levels one of the most well-known names in electronics retailers. Circuit City officially announced on Friday that they will be shutting down all stores, and in the process liquidating all merchandise in those stores. There's approximately 34, 000 employees for the retail stores across the United States, all of whom will soon be jobless. There's a 60 day notice for all employees losing jobs and anyone dismissed earlier receives pay and benefits for that 2 months. The retail chain cites the bleak economy and challenges to their business as reasons they will need to liquidate all store items in order to pay creditors. Hopes for emerging from Chapter 11 Bankruptcy have been squashed for the company which has existed for 60 years.

As for the liquidation sales, those start at many stores on Saturday, January 17, 2009. If you've been mulling over getting a new piece of electronics such as a Blu-Ray DVD player, LCD HDTV or new laptop, this just may be your opportunity. The Circuit City website reveals no details of any of the clearance deals, so you'll need to stop in and check out your local stores. CircuitCIty.com has more details, in fact that's all it has now, a page of text discussing the store's closing.

See all the details about Circuit City's closing here.

Study the Best & Replicate Success

Many personal development gurus including Anthony Robbins recommend the idea of studying those who are successful in what you want to achieve, then modeling their habits, traits and mindsets. As far as the make money online realm goes, two of the most successful bloggers are John Chow (Johnchow.com) and Darren Rowse (Problogger.net). John Chow recently layed out the plan for how to get your blog business to really take off in 2009.

Here's the major points John makes:

- Get a domain and Wordpress blog
- Brand yourself
- Post frequently and regularly
- Use Twitter
- Build a mailing list

Some people will quickly say "The Monetizer uses Blogspot". Correct friends, but 2009 will be my year to move one of my blogs onto a hosted domain. I believe this alone can take a blog to that next level, and I regret not doing it sooner with another blog I run. Opposing viewpoints correctly claim that one can make money using free Blogspot blogs as well, but if you want a blog that not only makes money but can also be sold for a hefty sum one day, getting a domain is key.

Branding is very important as we all know. It's what sets you apart from the rest, giving you a distinct look, feel and presence online. My brand is the adorable green moneymaking man, The Monetizer. Some call him "shifty-eyed" or may view him as greedy, but all in all he works for the good of money. 2009 is a great time to evaluate your blog or website's brand concept. Logos can be cheaply purchased by freelancers these days.

Here at the Monetizer blog I will admit there's times when I'm positing several entries a week, and times when my other blogs have exhausted my energy. I'm going to make a goal in 2009 to post much more regularly with at least 3-5 entries per week here. If you've got just one blog there's really no excuse not to be posting 3 times a week, if not daily. This can help you get discovered by search engines and gain new subscribers.

I don't currently use a mailing list but definitely see the advantages in having them for your blog or website. If you were to use your feedburner account to email all your RSS subscribers "Hey buy this cool moneymaking product", you'd quickly find your RSS count diminishing. A mailing list allows you to send out newsletters highlighting blog posts, insider tips and of course affiliate or commission-based products to people who opted in to the mailing list.

The Monetizer uses Twitter but not like others use it, and that may change in 2009. Many twitterers use the program to gain a massive following, but also to propose questions, network and find out about news, deals, websites and events. Many businesses are jumping on the bandwagon, such as Amazon.com which posts its latest MP3 album deals and more on Twitter. For bloggers, there's also a great program available that automatically will post your blog links to Twitter as they publish. This way anyone following you can click the link and arrive to the post. John Chow and others have even suggested that Twitter may become the new RSS.

Of course debates run rampant amongst bloggers as to the value of using Twitter or how often you should post, but it doesn't get much more simple or logical than what John suggests. He's been able to take his blog from $0 to over $30,000 a month, and that track record speaks volumes in itself. A few other things that John Chow has done to achieve success: networking, paid reviews, media spots such as TV & magazines, and last but not least, eating and taking pics of his meals. Follow in Mr. Chow's footsteps with your blog and you just might find similar or greater success. Just like someone can always "build the better mousetrap", it's still possible to build a better "make money online" blog. Here's to your success!

Free Copy of Suze Orman's 2009 Action Plan!

Last week Oprah Winfrey had a week full of shows to help everyone get in gear for 2009. Included were important topics ranging from your health to spirituality to our favorite topic here, MONEY. Appearing on the show about personal finances was none other than financial guru and author, Suze Orman. As a gift to all Oprah viewers (and even non-viewers), Oprah & Suze currently have a free download of Suze Orman's 2009 Action Plan for free until midnight this coming January 15th (Thursday).

The book is chock full of great financial advice especially now that we're facing some tough economic times. While Suze Orman does tend to stay on the conservative side with her money advice, I noticed some gems of advice regarding credit card debt, saving and investing while browsing the free PDF download of her book. Suze tells the younger population specifically that if they won't need their investment money for 10+ years, that they should be 80-100% invested in stocks. Suze believes that younger people can buy many stocks on the cheap right now (after doing homework) and profit greatly several years forward. After all the stock market won't be down forever, just as it wasn't down forever in the Great Depression. I couldn't agree more. If you're not investing during these times, you're doing yourself a disservice and will be kicking yourself 5, 10 or 20 years from now.

Suze Orman's 2009 Action Plan is a 227 page PDF download offered for free right now via Oprah.com. It's ten chapters deep, featuring specific Q&A style paragraphs covering the essentials such as getting out of debt, saving, investing, paying for college and more. Suze's book offers solid advice to help people get on the right track for a healthier financial picture in 2009 and beyond.

Download Suze Orman's 2009 Action Plan (PDF) here.