Several posts ago the Monetizer revealed the 17 distinctions between rich and poor people, as written by T. Harv Eker in his excellent book. Eker's book "Secrets of the Millionaire Mind" is designed to put you right into the mindframe of a rich person. The basis may seem similar to other books on the subject with the motto "Think Rich, Get Rich". After all, people who think money is a problem and controls them, will have a very hard time getting rich. In Eker's book he outlines the various distinctions between rich and poor people and the end of each of them gives you some homework to do. For example jotting down phrases your parents used to say about money. Some parents might have thrown around phrases like "money doesn't grow on trees" or "you think I'm made of money?", and those impact how kids view money as they age. So if you get the book, consider getting a notebook or journal to accompany it.
Eker provides sound advice towards saving in terms of setting up various accounts for specific purposes, but overall he seems to teach positivity and money management. One technique is to get in the habit of managing every dollar you have by taking 10% of it towards investments or your savings accounts. You'll find some great tips and techniques to employ throughout. I enjoyed the book quite a bit, although at times it can get downright wacky. One example is Eker's suggestion for the reader to go out and buy a brand new tuxedo or elegant dress, then come home, put it on, get down on one knee and declare "I'm worthy from here forth!". It's silly, but it might be exactly what seem people need to get inspired for moneymaking.
I give the book a thumbs up, and if you can find a copy at the library or even buy it online at Amazon, you're doing yourself a favor. You're bound to get some interesting perspective and ideas from Eker. Also, with the more positive material you read, whether it's on money, personal development, health or any other positive subject, can only help you advance yourself. You don't necessarily have to subscribe to every word written, but there might be just one nugget of valuable advice that inspires you , so the book will pay for itself many times over.
Order Secrets of the Millionaire Mind: Mastering the Inner Game of Wealth
5/30/08
The Secrets of the Millionaire Mind
5/29/08
Buy & Sell Blogroll Links at Blogrolled.com!
The Monetizer usually tries to stay away from copycatting other make money online bloggers, but learned of Blogrolled.com from my daily email via John Chow's blog. The concept behind Blogrolled.com is pretty cool as it allows you to sell Blogroll links on your blog without the fear that Google often brings about. You could also use it to find good blog sites to buy link love for yourself.
The beauty of Blogrolled.com is they are doing their best to help bloggers avoid Google penalizing them for selling links. In the past there's been issues with bloggers who used ReviewMe.com or PayPerPost, because they've been required place links from various websites in the review posts. Therefore sales are made and the blogger who sold the blogroll link must manually put a link into their blogroll, no code required. Other bloggers or advertisers simply search through the listing of blog sites offering links, and choose which ones to purchase, for a monthly flat rate. Not a bad idea to get yourself some link love. I'd also recommend bloggers who use the Entrecard system consider messaging bloggers in their niche via the EC site. I've been able to get my page rank up on a few other blogs this way.
On the Monetizer blog here, I've used the "Tip Me" type link widget up on my sidebar. It's worked well, but doesn't necessarily give people the link love they need. On some of my other blogs I tried the free blogroll link exchanges, but also realize that some of my other blogs have better ranks and could possibly fetch some money. It's all about not leaving money on the table, if you're trying to profit online. So it just might be time to experiment!
Check out Blogrolled.com for more info!
5/22/08
Get Smorty's New Contextual Ads!
Although The Monetizer is signed up with Smorty's blog program for some other blogs, it's not something I've implemented much, here or there. However, I received this interesting email announcement from the folks at Smorty today regarding a new contextual advertising program you might want to add into your website and blogging mix:
Dear Smortians,
We have an exciting new feature! Digxa Mini Stores.
Publish contexual click through advertising on your blog with Digxa Mini Stores. This customizable solution allows you to place both standard and pop up product banners from related words within your posts. For example, the words "mobile phone" may generate a visible link that pops open a banner advertising a "mobile phone" if the visitor places their mouse over it. If this product is clicked on, you will receive a commission ranging up to $0.60.
A few things noted in their FAQ section:
- You can register up to 10 blogs for your account.
- Editing the code is a no-no and will get your banners removed permanently.
- It's ok to use Digxa Mini Store with other forms of advertising, like Adsense.
- You can choose the number of links displayed in your posts, 0-10.
- Payments are only made to valid Paypal accounts, 15th of the following month (after you've earned)
- Wordpress or Blogspot hosted blogs can't use Digxa Mini Stores code at this time. You will need to have your own server hosting the blog to use the code.
So there you have it, seems very similar to Kontera and other contextual ad programs. Smorty also offers paid blogging opportunities and a referral program as well. So if you're not a "Smortian" publisher yet, head over to Smorty.com and get signed up!
5/20/08
Entrecard Offers New Features & Credits!
The Entrecard system continues to update and expand, which is a great thing for all us bloggers. There's been some great recent changes made including the recent "add a blog" feature.
This gives bloggers the ability to add multiple blogs to one account. You can then divy up credits amongst them for easier, more efficient ad campaigns. Previously you would have to set up separate accounts for each blog you own, then log-in and log-out to do your advertising campaigns. It's much simpler to switch back and forth between blogs now.
Right now Entrecard is giving away 75,000 credits as well. They will be awarding 15,000 credits to ONE lucky blogger in each of these five different blog owner categories:
2-5 blogs in account
5-10 blogs in account
10-15 blogs in account
15-20 blogs in account
20-25 blogs in account
The above credits will be awarded to the winners on June 25th.
In addition, Entrecard recently released a free Entrecard ebook which anyone can download with helpful info about the EC system. Definitely something to have handy, as I've already downloaded my copy!
Best part of all this is Entrecard wants to reward any bloggers who help spread the word. If you blog about their new free e-book and contest, they will give you 2,000 credits on June 25th. So what are you waiting for? 2,000 credits is a good bit of advertising folks, so get in on the opportunity while it's still going on!
See Entrecard's blog entry about recent feature updates & e-book for more info on all the changes and the contests!
Using RSS to Get Deep Links
Every now and then I get inspired to work a bit on my Squidoo lenses and update them. As you may or may not know, The Monetizer is a huge fan of Squidoo because it's yet another free to use, free-hosted web real estate you can set up to make money. It can be a great passive source of income if you put in the groundwork. Squidoo is also invaluable in terms of promotion of your blog, affiliate links, referral links and much, much more.
While I was poking around Squidoo I came across a great leans which discusses using RSS feeds to gain deep links back to your Squidoo lenses. Of course, you can take this logic and also apply it to your own blog or website with its RSS feed. If you've burned the feed on Feedburner or another RSS site, you can start submitting to RSS directories and adding your feed to several other places.
If you have 1 blog or multiple blogs, consider setting up Hub Pages, Squidoo pages and even a Quarter Wiki page or two if you can afford it (they cost just a quarter a piece, you have to buy a minimum of 4). Facebook also allows for integration of RSS feeds into your profile. These are at least 4 places you can stick your RSS feeds in addition to submitting it to the various RSS directory sites. The great thing is that all the blog entry titles you have are part of your feed and these link back to your blog, as does your blog title. So the more places you submit the RSS feed(s) to, the better it will be for your blog in the long run!
Check out "How to Get Deep Link with RSS Feeds" and use it for your own blog promotion. There's some great tools, websites and advice discussed there!
5/16/08
Learn from the Cow vs. Conn MMO Battle!
Controversy creates cash is a famous motto someone once said. The more controversy you create, the more interest is generated in you or your product. Take for example the brutal sports entertainment known as professional wrestling, such as WWE. They constantly try to push the limits of stories in their brutal male soap opera just to gain more viewers, ratings and people buying their merchandise and monthly Pay-Per-Views. So it's really no surprise that the blogging world uses similar tactics.
Bloggers aren't necessarily competing in steel cage matches, but have a close equivalent of them in the blogosphere, using written wars and blog-based competitions. In fact, many bloggers swear by the concept of calling out other bloggers just to stir things up. A-list bloggers also realize the potential for a good blogging battle. Take for example the battle of John Chow vs. Shoemoney. The two powerhouse bloggers had a challenge to see who could gain more RSS subscribers during their contest. In the process they gave away some great prizes while doing an excellent job of adding more subscribers and fans for their blogs. Many people said both guys won in the process, as did the readers who followed along, or even won prizes.
Now we have two more bloggers going at it in the Make Money Online blogging world. I won't get into all the specifics, because I enjoy reading both their blogs, and don't want to be blacklisted from any A-list events they host. In essence, Garry Conn called into question some of the MMO practices of John Cow, prompting the Cow to "moo back". Eventually it got to the point where the two decided to have a good ol' fashioned battle to settle the feud. The guys really aren't mad at each other, but they still are going to have one heckuva "cowpetition" just to see who's best at MMO. So now we, the readers get to witness the Conn man vs. the Cow, and as you can see from the above image, both guys have already declared themselves the winner!
What's great about this sort of thing is both guys are offering free "classes" to those readers who want to see it all go down. The contest involves them each trying to build a niche site to see who can sell theirs for more on Sitepoint. So in this contest, everyone wins, because the readers can see firsthand what two successful bloggers do to make money online. By signing up for both John Cow and Garry Comm's class updates, you'll be gaining insight into the process it takes to build successful sites online and you'll gain valuable tips to aid your own quest online. Both these guys have done great work, so you'll be missing out if you don't sign-up or peek in on their cowpetition battle from time to time!
Check out John Cow's post about the cowpetition here.
Check out Gary Conn's post about the cowpetition here.
5/13/08
Make Money Online with Linkshare!
The LinkShare.com
Here's several of the benefits of the Linkshare affiliate program:
1 - Huge variety of affiliate programs - Everyone from Apple to Apple iTunes to Walmart and Dell is part of Linkshare. You're very likely to find at least a few programs with products you can promote on your website or blog. Another great example is the Kayak.com affiliate, which could be great on a travel website or blog since they offer all sorts of Travel Deals
2 - Easy to implement codes - You simply log in and then select the "Create Links" tab on your account dashboard. This will take you to a list of all programs you currently belong to and were accepted into. You click on the company's name and it will take you to their Linkshare page. For example with the iTunes program you can implement text/HTML or email code, banners, and even an RSS for the latest hot-selling songs. For a music blog or site this is a dream come true, if you have a good amount of traffic.
3 - Set your own minimum payout - You can receive a commission check for any amount you choose, with the minimum at just $1. It always feels better to know you've earned something for all your efforts, and Linkshare told me via email that payments are mailed once a week. So this could provide you yet another quick way to earn online. Set it at $5, $10, $25, $100...it's all up to you and when you'd like to have them "show you the money".
4 - Updated programs & offers - Many of the affiliates will send friendly emails to let you know they have new promotions you might benefit from. For example, there may be a new batch of TV and movie downloads at iTunes or a new credit card deal with an affiliate company. They take good care of you to let you know as soon as possible, so you can use the new campaigns on your site.
I think just about anyone will get accepted into LinkShare.com
Linkshare also sports a brand new and improved account interface, which works quite well on Windows XP and Firefox. It also provides a much better reporting layout, because the older version still seems to have "2005" as the latest date you can look at for payments.
Signing up for LinkShare.com
Click here for free LinkShare Membership
5/12/08
17 Bookmarking Sites that Dofollow You
The Monetizer uses the great website resource Socialmarker.com quite often to help spread the word about various blog entries and also help with getting link love. This plays a huge part in getting noticed by search engines like Google & Yahoo. I've noticed within a day sometimes that a blog entry I submitted to Socialmarker's sites as well as a few other places gets to the front page of Google search results. Not too shabby.
Here's a list of sites you might want to join, because according to Socialmarker these "Dofollow", meaning your links will have relevance and power on their sites. These can provide you with great links back to your content which can help increase page rank and your chances at being discovered.
Without further ado, here are the bookmarking sites that Dofollow:
Mister-wong.com
Spurl.net
Diigo.com
Rawsugar.com
Furl.net
Backflip.com
Bibsonomy.org
Myjeeves.ask.com
Connectedy
Buddy Marks
MyLinkVault
A1 Webmarks
myVmarks
OYAX
Bookmark Tracker
Health Ranker
Linkagogo.com
Utilize the above list sparingly. For example try not to send 10 entries to each site from your blog one after the other. This could get you banned and hurt your chances at gaining links. Also, if you get spare time you may want to check into networking on the various sites. As you gain friends and connections, they may do you a favor and also bookmark your content. Also if your in the make money online niche, these sites can help gain you new referrals in turn making you money.
To get all these sites you can use the website Socialmarker.com and click on the "Dofollow" link above all the sites if you want to submit to just those sites, but I'd recommend submitting your link to as many bookmark sites as you can.
5/10/08
$7.49 Domain Names!
If you want to add that professional look to your free-hosted blog site then you should seriously consider adding a domain name (www.yourblogname.com). I was reading the blog of Scott Fox over at Amazon.com. Scott is author of Internet Riches: The Simple Money-making Secrets of Online Millionaires
At GoDaddy.com where I've purchased domains before, you can get domains to start for $1.99, but only if you also purchase another product, like hosting. But after your first year, you'll pay the going rate for your domain which is closer to $10 for each year.
The $7.49 domain also includes FREE STUFF:
Online Photo Filer
Personalized Email Account
Web Site Builder
Starter Web Page
Domain Forwarding
100-Pack Email Forwarding
Total DNS Control
Take advantage of the $7.49 domain deal while you can, it's unknown how long this will last!
Saving and Earning Money with WaMu!
During the last Monetizer entry, the topic of "paying yourself" first was discussed. This included investing as well as putting money into interest-earning bank accounts. Today I want to discuss Savings Accounts and CD's which are available at WaMu. A savings account is a great idea for things like putting aside money for a rainy day, or to save for a fixed amount you need, say for a car or house downpayment. A Certificate of Deposit or CD is an even better way to save that money, with a few caveats.
The Monetizer browsed WaMu's banking site, which helps you decide on the proper account to open. It costs just $1 to start a Savings account at WaMu. Applications can be done online and your account can be managed via the internet as well. There's plenty of choices for ATM's you can use, should you need to pull out money in the "real world". The Monetizer tends to enjoy online banking as you can actually make sure your bills get payed the way you want them to. Sending a check in the mail isn't always the best way to pay a bill on time, so the extra control is nice. WaMu offers online electronic statements as well to help reduce paper and save some trees. The great part of these accounts is also that they pay you interest to save your money there. Depending on where you live, a savings account may offer 3.25% interest earned on your account. This rate will go up and down as the economy improves or declines. So in essence, it pays to save your money at WaMu.
At WaMu they not only offer savings accounts, but also higher-interest earning Certificates of Deposit. Among the choices are Traditional, Online and Liquid CD's. These can be a great place to sock your extra money and let it continually to earn interest for you. With CD's you usually can't get at your money as quickly as with a savings or checking account. A CD typically has a life of several months or years (12 to 60 months), after which you can take all your money out, or roll it over into another CD to keep earning money until you need it. The advantage is that the longer the length of your CD, the more interest it tends to earn for you. For example the 12 month CD earns you about 3% interest, while a 60 month (5 year) earns you 4% interest. WaMu offers a "Liquid CD" as well, which allows you to get your money out for certain transactions, but you'll need $5,000 to start one and the interest you can earn is considerably lower (1.25 to 2.15%). Many people use CD's to gradually save up the money to put down as a deposit on a home.
Keep in mind you will need at least $1,000 to start a CD, while you'll only need $1 to start a savings account at the site. But both options will earn interest on your money, giving you legitimate ways to make your money work for you at WaMu.
5/8/08
Pay Yourself First!
Something that a lot of us tend to overlook is the concept of "pay yourself first", which is a big recommendation many financial experts make. We all spend hard-earned money on ourselves but that money isn't really ours. It's being payed to a hair stylist, babysitters, the movie theater, a restaraunt, etc etc. Paying yourself first means making sure you have money put aside which is all yours, and turning into even more money. I want to cover two things I've done in the past that are great ideas for "stockpiling" your hard earned money and making it work for you!
1) High interest Money Market or Savings Account - There's a lot of these accounts online that you can check out. In the past I've used two different ones. Netbank and now ING Direct. The interest rate right now is down due to the economy. It's close to about 3% or less, when in the past it's been 5%. It should recover as the economy does. This MMA can become your "emergency fund" or savings fund for that home or whatever project you are planning. With ING you can actually refer friends and you'll earn $10 for each who opens an account (with $250 or more), while your friend gets $25 after their account is active for a month. Who doesn't love free money???
Bankrate.com - to compare different savings, checkings and money market accounts.
ING Direct Website - great savings or money market account, run online, connects to your bank account.
Netbank.com - similar to ING direct, they may have a higher or lower interest rate.
2) Investing in Stocks - I don't purport to be a big investor anywhere near the level of people like Mr. Warren Buffet or Wall Street mutual fund managers. But in the past I've used two cheap stock buying sites and done reasonably well, after research. The first is Sharebuilder and the 2nd is Buyandhold.com. They allow you to purchase small amounts of stock ($20 and up at a time) for a fee of about $3.99 or more per transaction. If you want to dabble in stocks, or start to build up your stocks slow, these are a great place to start. Of course if you have more money to invest, go for the places like e-Trade, Schwab and the other big boys who take $1000 or more to start up. I currently recommend BuyandHold.com. You could start up both a "play" stock account (if you want to try short term trading, etc) and an IRA there. I recommed the Roth variety as it won't be taxed when you retire.
BuyandHold.com
Sharebuilder.com
(Note: always make sure to do your research on stocks so you don't lose that money! I tend to like higher dividend blue chip stocks that continously pump $$$ back into your account every few months.)
By paying yourself first, you become disciplined to take 10% or more of all the money you make and devote it to your own welfare. Make the money you make work for you. There's no reason to pay everyone else and neglect yourself!
(PS: You may have credit card debt like many do, but that's still no reason not to pay yourself. Be mindful of the bills, but work on acquiring wealth at the same time, at whatever level possible!)
5/6/08
The Monetizer's Mom now has a Blog!
It's funny how whenever you mention to any person not familiar with the blogosphere or making money online, the idea that you can make money online, they become stunned. Multiple questions are raised and the wheels start turning...
"How does that work?"
"How do you do that?"
"They really pay you?"
"Is it LEGAL?"
Most recently included in the naysayers and non-believers was the Monetizer's own mom. After explaining some of the concepts weeks ago, specifically Google Adsense, out of nowhere mom declares "I need to start a blog". And so my mom now officially has a blog, which of course Monetizer has assisted with. Mom doesn't realize that blogging does take effort and work. If you could just throw a blog up with Adsense and be a millionaire, you wouldn't be reading any MMO blogs.. Anyways, with Mother's day approaching I feel this blog will be a gift that "keeps on giving", as it already is turning a profit, with minimal traffic.
Now for a bit of the background on Mom's niche blog which is a work in progress. I won't go into the topic, but here's the basics.
- - The blog is a free one, set up on everyone's favorite Blogspot.
- The blog was started about a month ago.
- The blog is monetizer using LinkShare.com
affiliate ads, Shopping ads, Commission Junction and Bidvertiser.- Traffic has been generated via Craigslist, Entrecard, social bookmark sites, and some search engine rankings work. The blog currently gets anywhere from 5 to 30 visits per day.
- The blog has about 12 entries and is updated maybe once or twice a week, if that.
- The blog ranks first page for a few keywords that bring in thousands of searches a month.
What's been done:
- We've submitted two different articles to over 20 directories with links in the resource box below the article.
- We rotate the Craigslist advertisement by US city maybe once a week or so. Craigslist has been an impressive way to really target specific traffic. You just have to list the blog or site right without being spammy.
- The Monetizer has been using Directory Submitter to submit to search engines. Google, Yahoo and MSN were among the first submitted to.
- We use Social Marker to bookmark specific posts we want to rank for on Google, and it's worked very well.
- I also tinker with which ads will offer the most profit on the blog. So far we've done well despite low traffic from search engines. That tells me with more traffic comes more profit, the basic principle most MMO pundits and bloggers will tell you.
Where we go from here:
- Wait for Bidvertiser to hit the minimum $10 payout. While Bidvertiser can give some additional income, it's not nearly as targeted to your topic as Google Adsense. Therefore a switch could mean more clicks and eventually a bigger payout from stray search engine traffic!
- Continue using LinkShare.com
There's some great lead-based affiliates with Linkshare. I recommend looking into a few for your blog.- Continue updating content on a weekly basis, and submit to more directories. Another article or 2 may be in store to submit to directories as well.
- Submit to blog directories and RSS directories. This is something I haven't even touched with the niche blog yet.
- I'm also considering the idea of using Clickbank to find a good product to recommend on the blog.
- Another thing that is always on my mind is the look and feel of a blog, which is just like a website. You may want to convey professionalism to visitors with banners, layout, etc. However, there's schools of thought as to "crappy-looking" blog sites will make more money, because visitors just want to "click out".
- I always toy with buying a domain name once a blog has churned out enough profit to buy it. However, you can't go wrong with free. One thing I never like with domain names is the WHOIS listing which gives the owner's name and address, forcing you to pay more $ to keep your identity safe.
So that's all there is to it.... Another day, another blog is born! With this I'm already starting to think of more niche blogs to open up, to get more income rolling in! I will continue to update the progress made on this latest project for dear ol' Mom.
The Monetizer wishes a Happy Mother's Day to Moms everywhere this coming Sunday. Hopefully you're blogging, or your offspring are setting one up for you! Be sure to check out the recent article below from Problogger discussing why Mom Blogs are the best thing since Moms and Blogs!
Also see:
Five Reasons Why Mom Blogs are the Blogs to Watch at Problogger
Cash in with LinkShare's Affiliate Marketing Programs!
5/5/08
My 1st DealDotCom Deal
The Monetizer was recently keeping an eye on "DealDotCom" just waiting for them to offer me a deal for relatively cheap, such as $5 and under. Mainly I wanted to see how good the deals are, and if it had the resell option, I figure it could more than pay for itself. The deal I purchased just yesterday evening was a $4 e-book about how to use forums for generating traffic. A basic concept, but I figured if it had at least one valuable nugget of wisdom, it'd more than pay for its cost. If nothing else, it did have that re-sell option and I could turn to eBay or elsewhere to make back the purchase money.
Nothing against DealDotCom, but I was a bit disappointed by the "deal". It was a 16 page e-book (PDF) which had a lot of already known info. It's a good reference for newbies to the game of getting traffic to their blog or site, but if you've been at this a while it doesn't give much. At this point, it'd be hard for The Monetizer to re-sell because it's not a product I would truly believe in. I also recently learned on another site that eBay has banned sales of eBooks on its site as well as domain name sales. Anyone heard this or to the contrary?
On the flipside, I do agree that forums are a great way to get traffic to your site and make money. Participating in the right forums can build up new readers for your blog, as well as provide valuable backlinks (from your signature) pointing to a keyword phrase you want to rank high for in Google.
Are you an active participant of forums within your niche?
5/1/08
17 Principles of the Rich & Poor
The following principles are derived from T. Harv Eker's book called Secrets of the Millionaire Mind: Mastering the Inner Game of Wealth
- 1. Rich people believe "I create my life." Poor people
believe, "Life happens to me."
2. Rich people play the money game to win. Poor people
play the money game to not lose.
3. Rich people are committed to being rich. Poor people
want to be rich.
4. Rich people think big. Poor people think small.
5. Rich people focus on opportunities. Poor people focus
on obstacles.
6. Rich people admire other rich and successful people.
Poor people resent rich and successful people.
7. Rich people associate with positive, successful
people. Poor people associate with negative or
unsuccessful people.
8. Rich people are willing to promote themselves and their
value. Poor people think negatively about selling and
promotion.
9. Rich people are bigger than their problems. Poor
people are smaller than their problems.
10. Rich people are excellent receivers. Poor people are
poor receivers.
11. Rich people choose to get paid based on results. Poor
people choose to get paid based on time.
12. Rich people think "both." Poor people
think "either/or."
13. Rich people focus on their net worth. Poor people
focus on their working income.
14. Rich people manage their money well. Poor people
mismanage their money well.
15. Rich people have their money work hard for them. Poor
people work hard for their money.
16. Rich people act in spite of fear. Poor people let fear
stop them.
17. Rich people constantly learn and grow. Poor people
think they already know.
The above principles definitely can be applied to blogging, your web-based business, or other online moneymaking endeavors. Fine tuning your beliefs so they are "richer" just may lead you on a path of riches! Eker also has developed a 3 day "intensive seminar" which deals with the topics above and those in his book. View more about Eker's Millionaire Mind Intensive Seminar at www.millionairemind.com
