Hey folks, I had the awesome opportunity to meet up  with Dan Andrews from The Lifestyle Business Podcast, The Tropical MBA and Outsource to the Philippines at a local coffee shop here in San Diego and get to know the man behind these three sites. For me Dan Andrews and his partner Ian were somewhat of a mystery. They talked about business pursuits and strategies, have good content, are entertaining, but never said what exactly they make or do. I finally got to find out at the coffee shop and demystify the mystery.

Not only did Dan tell me some of the industries they have their hands in, but the exact products they manufacture and sell. Dan and his partner Ian are no longer the mystery they used to be, they are THE REAL DEAL. They don’t talk lifestyle theory and try to sell you some product, they live the life, and use the techniques and strategies they talk about. They walk their talk. In fact they JUST recently put up a product for the first time for sale on The Lifestyle Business Podcast, the first 3 seasons of the podcast(AL)!

I’ve listened to podcasts where there’s 30-45 minutes of fluff, and maybe 10 minutes of an actually real tip, but not with these guys, these guys aren’t trying to shove product down your throats, they are all content and loads of fun. If you haven’t listened to their podcast yet you’re leaving money on the table. Go there now, listen to their podcast and leave a comment and tell them Larry @ The Niche Think Tank sent you, you’ll be glad you did.

Here’s some show notes:

Outsource to the Philippines

The Tropical MBA

The Lifestyle Business Podcast

Dan’s Beginning (@TropicalMBA)

Courier Flights for Cheap Travel

Interrogated in Vietnam

Prototypical Tim Ferris Realization

Ian is The Niche Machine (@AnythingIan)

Relationships are Key

Relationships with people doing what you want to do, will give you opportunities.

Srini @BlogCastFM

To Twitter or Not to Twitter

BLEEP, BLEEP, BLEEP

Zero-Sum Market

The Origin of Balla!

Hey Support the Lifestyle Business Podcast and get some great content too, CLICK HERE(affiliate Link).

BTW, there’s a bit of bleep-bleep in the podcast this time. Forewarned.

Podcast:

Related Posts:

• 10 Ways To Monetize a Forum
• Steve Chou’s Wife Quit Her Job – Podcast Interview #3
• How Pat Flynn Got Started In His Niche Market – Podcast Interview #1
• One of my Niche Sites – Disclosure.
• Income Report for October 2010
• The Real Life Struggles Of An Online Entrepreneur
• Google Search Results Are Skewed – How To Get Real Search Results
• I’m Looking For Podcast Interviewee’s – Help Me Out Please

How To Get Rid of Google Personalized Search

Many people may already know that Google personalizes search results based on your search and browse patterns, but I didn’t realize how it affected me and my business until just recently.  When I thought my websites were climbing in the ranks to page 1 of Google they really weren’t on page 1, they were more on page 2 or 3.

Google is using what is commonly know as Personalized Search. This changes the search results based on the websites you’ve previously visited. While this might be  great in some instances, it’s very misleading in others and can hurt your web based internet business and keep you from really attaining the #1 position in Google if you’re not careful.

Because I visit my websites more than other websites in the search results when I do a search of my keywords, the search rankings and results are skewed and not as accurate as some believe.  This gives a false sense of security and reality for those who have no idea Google is customizing the search results based on search history.

So me, being a niche marketer who depends on knowing his ranking in the Search Engine Results Pages, needs to know where I stand with the Google, as most of my traffic will come from Google. I need to know so I can determine what course of action I should take for getting my ranking higher, or if I just need to maintain my current status. I also need to have an accurate result so I can best assess my competition based on their true ranking, and not what Google thinks I want to see. Make sense?

There are several things you can do to get a true search result. One is go to an anonymizer search system such as Scroogle.org and use their un-skewed results and also get no ads. Another thing you can do is turn off Google’s Personalized Search by reading their instructions HERE.

I use both Scroogle and Turned off the Personalized Search and now get the more accurate results when I search my keywords and look at my competition.

Thanks to Pat Flynn at smartpassiveincome.com for the Scroogle Tip, and be sure to read the little fiction story on Scroogle.org Called “Scroogled“, pretty good read.

Related Posts:

• Income Report for October 2010
• 10 Ways To Monetize a Forum
• One of my Niche Sites – Disclosure.
• Duplicate Content Hurts EVERYONE
• Hellraiser Puzzle Box meets the economy from hell
• The Real Life Struggles Of An Online Entrepreneur
• Dan Andrews @ Lifestyle Business Podcast – Podcast Interview #4
• Income Report for September 2010

It’s been a little over 2 months since I posted last, in fact December 6th was the last post. I had been busy making sites and getting them indexed for the rush of Christmas traffic, and just got caught up in the whirl wind of excitement. LOTS of things happenin’g and happened since then, one of which I am not too happy about, Trademark Infringement.

Yep, that’s right, I infringed on someone’s trademark, Amazon.Com. Ooopsss…

Basically it’s been a while since I had read the Amazon OA(Operating Agreement), and didn’t realize that I built a website that would eventually have them contacting me about. Thou Shalt Not use any of Amazon’s trademarked names(Amazon, Kindle,Etc.) in a domain name/URL. Two that I had and were running were www.kindlecoversandcases.com and www.thekindleboard.com.

Kindle covers and cases was a niche site that made a good deal of money over the course of the past year with December being a really great month. Then I sorta sandboxed myself a little with over zealous back linking. But that’s for another post, which I will tell the whole story and how I got out of the Google sandbox. The other site, thekindleboard.com was a forum for discussion of Kindles, eBooks and eBook authors, as well as other eBook readers.

I received an email, founding it in my spam folder, and read it:

We recently contacted you about our concerns with your domain names, and we have not received a response. Please know that we value your participation in Amazon’s Associates program. By requesting that you use alternate domain names, we are attempting to make sure that there is always a clear distinction between the official “Amazon” site and other third party sites. Your current use of the (insert domain name), (insert domain name) and (insert domain name) domains is a violation of the Associates Program Operating Agreement. The registration of these domain names also violates Amazon.com’s trademark, proprietary and other rights. Please review the Associates Program Operating Agreement for more details.

Please choose new domain names and transfer your content to those names. Amazon will purchase your domains (insert domain name), (insert domain name) and (insert domain name) for the initial registration prices, provided that you agree to not register any domains containing Amazon brands, or a misspelling of those brands, in the future.

If we do not hear from you regarding the above within two weeks from the date of this email, we will have no alternative but to close your Associates account and withhold payment of all advertising fees in accordance with the Agreement.

So does this David fight the Goliath Amazon and take a chance on losing all my earnings for the past 3 months? Hell no! Are you kidding? Would you throw away $4000 in affiliate sales? Yeah, I didn’t think so. I actually had 9 domain names in total with the word “Kindle” in it, but only using 4 of them. Rather than give Amazon only the 3 they listed, and still use the other 6 domain names and take a chance on losing my Associate income and my Associate account, I decided to hand over all 9 domains. They promptly paid me $10 each for a total of $90.

Another interesting thing with Amazon is they don’t want you using other peoples trademarked names either. So names like Revlon, such as in a domain name RevlonMascaraReviews.com would be a no-no. I know many people who DO use trademarked names in their URLs, and don’t get caught, but is it really worth losing your income, house or other because of it? Not in my book.

So what am I going to do with the traffic from those sites? or what am I going to do with the brand I had built up? I could just let it go or I could get another domain name and do a permanent redirect to the new site. So what did I do with those sites I built up? I moved them each to a new domain: eBook Covers and Cases and eReader Forum.

I’m happy that Amazon.com was cordial enough to work with me and just take the domains off my hands and not my income I had acquired. Lesson learned.

Related Posts:

• The Real Life Struggles Of An Online Entrepreneur
• How To Form An LLC and Get your Amazon Associates Account Reinstated
• Income Report for September 2010
• Making Money on Christmas with Affiliate Sales Through Amazon
• Blogging, One Year Later, Where I’ve Been, Where I’m Going…
• March Income Report – A Watched Pot Never Boils
• Speech Recognition for Bloggers – The Ultimate Guide
• What I have learned from blogging

I’ve been rather busy lately, putting out some niche sites, because it’s the Holiday Season and people are Buying like crazy! Great time to have an amazon powered Niche Site, pulling in sale after sale. I also recently listened to a great podcast over at Smart Passive Income with Chris Guthrie, Author of Niche Profit Course.

You can read how Chris got his start at making money online at his site www.makemoneyontheinternet.com. He posted one little video he made about the game called HALO, and having it go viral. Pretty cool story.

I downloaded his Free Guide, and then ended up getting his complete course which is basically his free guide and then a bunch of videos going over each step, but then some secrets to making large sales and continued sales. This is a great product which to me is worth the money I spent on it.

He also recommends using the plugin-in called ReviewAzon, which I also bought and have been using ever since. I can’t tell you how much time the plug-in has saved me when doing my niche sites. What used to take meat least an hour to post 2-3 posts about products for the Amazon Affiliate program, now takes me minutes to post twice as many. What a time saver, AND it posts a nice looking post with images and user reviews that are pulled directly from Amazon and shown in the Amazon fashion. If you’re going to be doing Amazon Associate review sites, you need ReviewAzon.

This plug-in saves me time, money and enables me to put up several sites a day if I needed too, which I have last week, in a record time. It posts great professional looking posts which give people a nice feeling when they see the posts. Amazon has brand recognition and people trust Amazon, so when you start posting professional looking posts associated with Amazon.com, the sales come in even faster.

The links above for the products are affiliate links which, when you use them to buy, help to support this blog, and my family, as I get a commission. Thanks for your continued support!

Now on to the income report for August. I know it’s a bit behind, but I’ve been very busy with my newborn girl, and making affiliate sites, as well as blogging on here more often and now doing a podcast. This report shows -72.04, less than July’s Income Report, but still 2168.72, for the month of August. Still not totally the amount I need to be fully self sustaining, but getting there. The next few months you’re going to see a big jump in Amazon sales and Google Adsense income.

Finally, here’s August’s income report:

Amazon – 139.74

Dating Sites – 504.09

eBook Sales(Mine) – 47.82

Affiliate Sales – 223.22

Clickbank Sales – 53.20

Text Link Ads – 47.15

Google – 363.50

Side Jobs (Hosting, WordPress Installs) – 790.00

Total August – $2168.72

Last month (July) – $2240.76

Difference of $-72.04

August 2010 Income report

Related Posts:

• Income Report for October 2010
• Income Report for September 2010
• July Income Report and a Day in my “Glamorous” Life.
• June Income Report
• May Income Report
• April Monthly Income Report
• March Income Report – A Watched Pot Never Boils
• Compounding Online Income Streams and December’s Income Report

I was researching a topic last week for a few new niches and stumbled upon something that’s quickly becoming the next cool thing to have, an Android Smart Phone.  With Googles new Droid, HTC’s Droid and Motorola’s Droid, there’s going to be a bunch of new cases and skins for the new smartphone craze.

I did my research, looked for a good domain and was amazed there weren’t more domains snatched up. I decided to get a couple different domains, ranging from $9-$12 at Godaddy.Com, and started building the sites. Things are going great, one site is already on the first page of Google within 2 days! Awesome!

The site looks great, cool Android type font, color is great, it’s going to be a great money maker. So I start to add products and after adding several from Amazon.Com I realize the price is so low, I’m not going to make anything. Well, at least not like I want.

A typical Android Phone Case or Cover is anywhere fro .02¢ to $20.00, with the majority being under $10.00. Wow, what a waste, sorta. I spent all this money on domains, then the time to build the sites, and then I realize the price of each item at Amazon.Com is so small, I’m going to be working hard to drive traffic to make any kind of money at all, if any.

The one saving grace is if there’s a lot of traffic it will drive my product count up, which will in turn drive the percentage I make from Amazon.Com up too. At Amazon.Com you make 4% to start. Then sell a certain number of items, and the percent goes up to 6% and then up to 6.5% and on up to 8.5% I believe. So if you have a site that sells larger, more expensive items that people are on the hunt for, like cameras, Kindles or Baby Car Seats, then you will make a nice chunk. At .02¢ a pop for an Android Case,  I won’t be making squat, I mean what’s 6% of .02¢? Get my point? I will probably do a minimal of build up on these sites and then just get rid of them at Flippa.

Related Posts:

• Income Report for October 2010
• Income Report for September 2010
• Steve Chou’s Wife Quit Her Job – Podcast Interview #3
• Blog Flipping when bored with your website

How Pat Flynn Got Started In His Niche Market – Podcast Interview

(Podcast is at the bottom)

I had the pleasure of interviewing Pat Flynn for my first podcast interview, and get the details of the story of how he got started in Niche Marketing. I because aware of Pat when I stumble onto his blog on August 27th, 2009. It was a post about parents think making money online is ridiculous, and I could totally relate to this as my parents are the same way. Because I could relate, I started following Pat and watched him and his blog grow from there on out.

His story starts out with how his market chose him, instead of him choosing his market. A chance happening with luck and  fate and how he now makes $20K a month from his online ventures. This story is a reminder that sometimes we don’t get to choose our niches, they choose us. This is a good thing for some of us that this happens, because if it were left to our own choices, we might not be succeeding in the niche of our choosing.

Today, Pat is involved in several different venture that bring in income. From his eBook about the LEED Exam, to iPhone Apps, to smaller niche sites that are now making a passive income to augment his monthly income stream. You can follow Pat’s progress and watch his monthly income reports at his blog SmartPassiveIncome.Com, for a better idea of how he does this.

Mentions:

• Making Money Online is Ridiculous
• Having the drive to succeed in online business
• Top Secret WordPress Plugin
• Being able to be a stay at home parent
• Coffee Shop offices and Quality of Problems
• The current economy and the Great Depression
• iPone apps from www.lolerapps.com
• Joel Comm @ Joel Comm(website),  Joel on Twitter: @joelcomm
• Adam Baker @ ManvsDebt.Com(Website) Adam on Twitter: @manvsdebt
• Naomi Dunford @ IttyBiz.Com(website), Naomi on Twitter: @NaomiDunford
• Tyrone Shum @ TyroneShum.Com(website), Tyrone on Twitter: @tyroneshum
• Niche Duel Hub at SmartPassiveIncome.Com
• Flippa for Niche Sites and Keyword Research and targeted Niche Traffic
• My Product on Niche Websites and Niche Marketing
• Being an A-Lister
• David Crandall @ Heroic Destiny(website), David on Twitter @davidcrandall
• Darren Rowse
• http://www.greenexamacademy.com
• Advice to New Bloggers with little to no money, to boost financial worth
• e-How, Info Barrel

Podcast:

Related Posts:

• Dan Andrews @ Lifestyle Business Podcast – Podcast Interview #4
• Steve Chou’s Wife Quit Her Job – Podcast Interview #3
• Adversity, The Catalyst for Change and Success
• Hellraiser Puzzle Box meets the economy from hell
• Income Report for October 2010
• The Real Life Struggles Of An Online Entrepreneur
• 10 Ways To Monetize a Forum
• Google Search Results Are Skewed – How To Get Real Search Results

I love Michigan J. Frog. For many of you my age(46) you know exactly who I am talking about, for the younger crowd, you may know him as the WB Frog. However he is not the WB Frog, he is Michigan J.

Michigan J. Frog has a valuable lesson to teach us, in this little cartoon from 1955, and I would like to see if you can guess it before I give away the answer. To help you figure it out, I am including the cartoon here for all of you to watch and see for yourself, all the right things were there for him to become a huge hit.

All the right marketing and promotions, the word of mouth, the discounts and bonuses(free beer), and a large crowd gathering to see the singing frog. Only one thing was missing, can you guess what it was?

Many times in today’s world of online marketing and lifestyle design, we get everything together and we try to give, sell or release a product to our potential audience. We’ve got a great design for the site or blog, we’ve got all the right marketing colors, the right set price, the promotions are taken care of and everyone is waiting for the launch of our new product.

We launch and everything goes right, and then… everyone wants a refund. Why?

Watch the video, see if you can guess what is missing, and then scroll down to the bottom for the answer. I’d really like to have some interaction, so please, post your reactions, thoughts and guesses to what you thought was “Missing”.

Want the answer?

Scroll Down…

Michigan J. Frog

Keep Going…

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The Answer Is…

Make sure your product performs for your audience,
and not just you, before you try to sell it.

Comments please…

Related Posts:

• Income Report for October 2010
• The Real Life Struggles Of An Online Entrepreneur
• 10 Ways To Monetize a Forum
• Dan Andrews @ Lifestyle Business Podcast – Podcast Interview #4
• Google Search Results Are Skewed – How To Get Real Search Results
• Steve Chou’s Wife Quit Her Job – Podcast Interview #3
• How Pat Flynn Got Started In His Niche Market – Podcast Interview #1
• Adversity, The Catalyst for Change and Success

Ranking the Niche Site Website in Google

I was pleasantly surprised to find today, that my site is on page 2 of Google SERPs, at #16, after starting out as not ranking at all, then on page 28 at #286 last friday. This is how I do my indexing strategy for this site.

Step 1

I installed WordPress and all of the plug ins that I was going to use for the site. I also started to modify the site to make it look a little different and to what I wanted. I make a custom header image, which I may still change once I can get my busy Graphic Artist Wife on board(Unless someone want’s to get pimped out with a design and a mention).

Step 2

I wrote 3 posts optimized for the key words I was going for, primary Russian Kettlebell Training. I added the header tags for the 3 main search engine sites and authenticated it with them, and added sitemaps.

Step 3

Bookmarking with Facebook, and Twitter to get some initial traffic, and some people even retweeted and passed the link on. I also did some social bookmarking with Digg, StumbleUpon, and Reddit.  Having done that I was confidant that the site would be indexed pretty fast with Google.

Step 4

Added more content including a cool video of a Russian Girl juggling the kettlebells, which got a lot of traffic for the content itself. It was also getting traffic through YouTube for the video. All total was added were 7 articles, and that’s where it stands today so far.

step 5

I received my content from the article writers I use, and I’ve added a couple articles to Ezine Articles, and 1 to GoArticles.com. So far no traffic from them as they were added yesterday. I expect a couple days to be added and indexed. I also was granted Expert Author Status with EzineArticles.com finally, for all the articles I’ve written and published with them. I’m adding a couple articles a day for the next week, to let the articles be approved and added over teh course of a couple weeks. I don’t want to blast the internet with links all of a sudden, I want to do link generation slowly and naturally.

Searching for Validation

So Friday when I was looking for my site in Google SERPs, I noticed a post about Kettlebells on worldsstrongestlibrarian.com, a blog I recognized from a podcast interview by Yaro Starak. The Blog belongs to Josh Hanagarne, or The Worlds Strongest Librarian.  I thought I would drop by and read some and decided to post a comment and talk about the site I was building, and just make myself known.

A few days later I was looking for my site again and saw Josh’s site on page two with the link to my site in the description, which means Google indexed that new comment with my link in it, and while it is a no follow link, it may still have some credence. I continued to look for my site and found it on page #28, at #286 position in Google’s SERPs.

Moving up in Google’s SERPs

Yesterday I looked an was happy to see I’ve moved up in position to page #2, at the 16th position. Today I checked again and sure enough I was still there ranking for Russian Kettlebell Training, I also have a counter on the site and saw that I ranked for kettlebell pelvic alignment. For that phrase I was on page 2 of Google, and at position #14. So that’s 2 phrases so far I am ranking for, and will most likely be ranking for more phrases shortly.

Adding more content and Backlinks

I’ve been using Market Samurai to find articles that I can re-write for content on the niche site, and that’s been working quite well. I also use Micro Niche Finder for my keywords, as I am not totally versed yet in  the ways of Market Samurai. So I will add more content in the way of posts and videos at a rate of about 1-2 posts every other day. I’ll be building more backlinks with article directory submissions, and I’ll go spy on Pat Flynn’s Micro Niche Site on Security Guard Training, and find out where and how he’s getting backlinks.

I am confident that I will be doing quite well as my site is already on page two of Google, I just need to widen the number of keywords it is ranked for, preferably keywords like Kettlebell Exercises, Kettlebell Routines, Kettlebell Workouts, etc.

Adding Adsense

I’ve already got affiliate links and banners on the site, but I think I will be putting Google AdSense on there as well, but I am going to wait. I am doing a heatmap on one of my other sites to see where people are clicking. I am going to use this data to decide how and where to put AdSense or other affiliate banners.

All in All, I am happy with where things are going with this site so far. I haven’t really done much at all, but I think the way to making a great niche site is to first research your market, and the niche being looked at. While there is a flood of Kettlebell sites out there, I am positive I will still rank well for several keywords and make a decent amount of cash, as well as getting healthy from the workouts I am doing with the kettlebells.

Added Keywords Since the Writing of this:

russian kettlebell exercises

Micor Niche Website Ranking in Google

Related Posts:

• Micro Niche Site Challenge – Part 2
• Micro Niche Site Challenge – Part 1
• The Real Life Struggles Of An Online Entrepreneur
• Income Report for September 2010
• Niche Site Espionage, Spying on the Competition and Finding Niches
• Niche Market Ideas and How To Find Them, Streetfighting for Bloggers – Part 2
• Adversity, The Catalyst for Change and Success
• Niche Market Blogging or Streetfighting for Bloggers – Part 1

Micro Niche Challenge

Ok so I have my domain russiankettlebelltraining.com, and I’ve started to add content, slowly, maybe one to two posts per day or every other day so far. I’ve also ordered my articles for the article marketing a few days ago, from seoarticlewritingpros.com. They charge 10$ per article of you order at least 10.

Content Strategy

I know the articles may be more than I can get from someone in the Philippines, but I’ve had one bad experience with PI, and I don’t have time to research for a new one. So I am basically paying for convenience. Now I am not sure if they outsource to the Philippines, but when I receive the articles they are great! Good grammar, well read and ready to post to article directories.

Double Your Moneys Worth

Once I have posted my articles to Ezinearticles.com, and they get approved, I slightly re-word them and post them to other article directories. This way there’s no duplicate content being posted, and I get double, triple or quadruple use out of the articles. BTW did I mention the articles are original content? They also pass CopyScape. So that’s where I am with my content and articles so far.

Theme and Site

I have adjusted and manipulated the default theme for WordPress for russiankettlebelltraining.com. I made it clean and pretty basic, so it’s easy to read and lot’s of white space. I changed the background color to something I like, and will probably change the font in the sidebar too.

Monetization

For monetization I am an affiliate with Dragon Door Publications, the largest seller of Kettlebells and Kettlebell Books, and Kettlebell Training Videos and DVDs. I will eventually put AdSense on there from Google, but I am waiting a little longer to do so, I think I want to wait till I am fully indexed before putting AdSense on there.

Ranking

I am not ranking yet, I am indexed, but not ranking, that I can find for my keywords, but I did run into a post by Josh Hanagarne at The Worlds Strongest Librarian on Kettlebell Training when searching for my site in Google. Great article and glad I ran into it, I posed a question for him about kettlebells and brands,as I intend on buying one this week so I don’t have to keep running to the gym to workout, I can do it at home. I figure since I am writing more I will have less time to drive to the gym so I should at least workout at home.

Personal Benefits

While the main benefit from a niche site is money, there is another very good reason I decided to do this Niche Topic on Russian Kettlebells. I am about 48 lbs. overweight and decided to make this a double challenge.  After seeing Pat Flynn’s P90X Results, I said what the heck, I’ll not only kick his butt with my niche site, but I’ll also get in shape too. The other reason for this is to gain a better perspective on the Niche Topic itself. I CAN’T write about things I am not passionate about, much less interested in, so I figure this will also help me to write articles about Kettlebell training, and I’ll have a place to document my successes and failures.  If you see some guy named Demetri posting on there, that’s me, my Kettlebell Alter Ego. I know, I’m a dork.

So the benefits will be many:

• Doing a strict Niche website in which I am challenged and competing with others
• Doing the niche site *completely* start to finish(Not getting distracted and moving onto another shiny object)
• Getting healthy in the progress of it all
• eventually, maybe, flipping it on Flippa.com for more cash when I am either done or bored with it. Flippa is a great place to flip a site, especially if it’s ranked and making money. People are happy to pay you for a money making site already built and running.

Be sure to check out the Niche Site Duel Hub for updates. And we have some newcomers to the list of  Duelists:

• Eric from My 4 Hour Work Week
• Fabian from Websidual.com
• Mark from BloggersJournal.com
• Jason from 67Dollars.com
• Bruce from BruceLevick.com
• Eugene from BloggingRevenue.net
• Harlan from TheRenderq.com

Well that’s it for my update on this Micro Niche Challenge, Here’s a little video with Pavel, the guy responsible for Kettlebell craze in America.

Related Posts:

• Micro Niche Site Challenge – Part 3
• Micro Niche Site Challenge – Part 1
• The Real Life Struggles Of An Online Entrepreneur
• Income Report for September 2010
• Niche Site Espionage, Spying on the Competition and Finding Niches
• Niche Market Ideas and How To Find Them, Streetfighting for Bloggers – Part 2
• Adversity, The Catalyst for Change and Success
• Niche Market Blogging or Streetfighting for Bloggers – Part 1

Sometimes, things just gotta change…

Naomi Dunford wrote a nice post for Problogger’s Birthday, and it gave me the inspiration to write about my own adversity in life.

The Adverse Incident

On April 15th, 1987, I was told I had a life threatening illness and was given about 1 year to live. It was mind numbing. As the doctor handed me a packet of information, I got up and walked out of his office, as his voice slipped into that hollow sort of echo-y distance like in the movies. I walked out to the parking lot where I fell to my knees and started to cry. Life as I knew it, was over.

All sorts of things were going through my head – How long do I have? Is there a cure? Would anyone ever love me again? Would anyone want to make love to me anymore? Would they see past the scary, ugly monster and see the real me, a person, a real person, not just this scary dis-ease? Was I damaged goods? Will I be alone for the rest of my life? On and on ad nauseum.

After a year or so of living in worry about how long I had, I realized that things might be ok. I decided I was still alive and I should go on living. I was put on a medication that made things manageable, and told there was no time limit. So on I go, but still the questions persisted: Will anyone ever want to be with me ever again?

The Push

There was a time, after this diagnoses, I was seeing a woman for a short period of time, and I decided it was time to tell her about my illness. We were sitting in her car after having a date night, kissing and laughing and then I decided it was time. I got sort of quiet and then started to tell her, that there was something I felt she should know.

After I told her she sat there quietly thinking. She didn’t know what to say and said she needed to go home. Right then, she leaned over, opened my door and pushed me out! Can your Believe that?!? She pushed me out of her car and I fell on the ground. As she drove away I just sat there for a few minutes, wondering if this is what I could expect for the rest of my life.

The Catalyst for Change

Fast forward nine years, I’m in a relationship with a young lady I had been seeing for almost two years now. Previous to this, I had no real relationships to speak of, things were great, or so I had thought. Soon after the 2 year mark we broke up. I was heart broken to say the least. Was this to be how life was going to end up, alone, no one in my life to speak of?

The Move to Change

That’s when it hit me, a dating service was needed for people like me. What we needed was a place to meet where people were alike, where we wouldn’t be shunned, ridiculed or rejected for the illness we had. I didn’t know much about running a website, much less a dating service. All I knew is it had to be done.

I searched around on the Internet and found some software for  dating sites, and started the dating site that I am still running today. At first I didn’t charge for the site, it was free, people loved it and I received emails of thanks and success stories. Then I noticed there were some other sites starting to pop up for the same health niche, and they were charging for their services. I was pissed. How could they do this to me, to us, to this niche of people?

A Business is Born

Then I was introduced to the Nigerian Scammers. Someone emailed me telling me how they met someone on my site and they sent them money to come see them. As soon as the money arrived, they heard nothing from this person ever again. They said I was responsible for this loss of money and what was I going to do about it. Thus was born the FAQ about Internet dating scams and how to safely date on the Internet. And that’s when I decided  to start charging for the dating site.

I implemented the “Paid” dating site. You couldn’t send messages to anyone unless you had a subscription. This was in part to help keep the scammers off the site and to keep legitimate users on. Then it happened, I received my first few payments and I had extra money in my pocket to spend. Maybe I could do this for a living? Maybe I should have been doing this all along?

Since that time, I’ve been running the site for 14 1/2 years now,   and was making a few dollars per month with subscriptions, and almost $100 per month in AdSense income. Not a whole lot but it was something. I then started hanging out in a private forum for Yaro Staraks BlogMastermind group, and after talking to a few people about the site, I did some serious optimizations. I also implemented “Recurring” subscription payments, and the site now pulls in a modest $1,o00+ a month in subscriptions, AdSense, and affiliate sales. The income has become a large part of my monthly income and has been much needed since the demise of my I.T. company due to the economy. While I still run the site as a place for people looking for a safe haven to date, with this certain health issue, I look at it as a business now, and have for some time.

What’s a good Niche? Where to find a Good Niche?

Since then I have been hitting up various health care niches for income and affiliate sales. This is a prime example of what Alexis Dawes talks about in “Desperate Buyers Only“, find a niche where people are desperately seeking a solution to something socially embarrassing, health related or a fear. Once you have this you have a niche to explore. When people are embarrassed about Acne or some other related “Socially Visible” affliction, they seek out solutions, this is what we seek for niches, the same goes for health issues, cancer, diabetes or hepatitis. The same is true of fears and phobias.

And that, my friends, is how I got my start in online business.

Adversity, The Catalyst for Change and Success...

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