They’ve ruined online businesses that help support peoples families, thereby sending parents of children scrambling to find work, or other ways of supporting their families and this being in a BAD economy.

Legitimate businesses who have nothing wrong with their websites, cannot be found on Google right now because of Google’s latest update. Try it yourself. At least do a few searches and see.

Related Posts:

• Google Search Results Are Skewed – How To Get Real Search Results

A Virtual Assistant is usually a self-employed professional that provides administrative, technical, or creative (social) assistance to clients from a home office.

Hiring a Virtual Assistant and Why?

Back in June 2011 I hired my first VA through oDesk. Like many people out there thinking about hiring a VA I had some fear about hiring someone I didn’t know, let alone hiring someone for the first time. I was worried about relinquishing that control over the work I do. Worried that it wouldn’t get done, or wouldn’t get done the way I wanted it done or as good as I would do it myself. Sound familiar? I have to tell you it was the best thing I’ve done for myself since I started doing niche sites and oDesk helped to eliminate that fear. I’ll tell you how they eliminated my fear of being ripped off  down below.

First off, I hate backlinking. Completely hate the mundane chore of sitting here for hours and backlinking so I can raise my Google Search Engine Results. Not only is it a waste of my time because I could be best using my time elsewhere, but I tend to procrastinate when I try to do backlinking. I tried some of the automated backlinking softwares like Article Marketing Robot with little success except to sandbox my sites that I used it on. The only thing I have found that is working reliably for me is to use a real human to do my backlinking.

The method of backlinking I use is Joseph Archibalds 40 Day Challenge that he had on the Warrior Forum for a while. I used this method to teach the VA I hired how I wanted my backlinking done. I gave him the eBook to read and drew him a diagram on how it should “look” andoff he went. It’s worked so well that I have 12 niche sites that are in the #1 position of page 1 of Googles SERPs for the keywords I wanted them to rank for. Of the 32 niche sites I have they ARE my main bread and butter winners of the niche sites. These sites have consistently ranked #1 on Page 1 of Google for the past7-8 months now. These sites DO NOT include the dating sites I also run which also bring in a healthy flow of income.

So how did I land the VA I hired on oDesk? Here are the steps I took:

Work Accountability

After opening an account with oDesk I reviewed several listings and a few VA for hire to get a feel for the place. I also looked into how they prevent people from taking a job and not doing work and getting paid for it. What I found is they have a software that the worker has to log into in order to accumulate hours. This software takes screen shots of the workers desktop for you to look at and review. What this means is you can actually watcht eh person working on your stuff while they are logged in. This is the ONLY WAY for them to attain billable hours for you. So they can’t just accept a job and do nothing and get paid for it. This was the clincher for me. I was worried about giving someone a job and them not doing anything and me having to pay for it.

Posting a Job in oDesk

We you first sign up you have no jobs posted. So you create one. After looking at some jobs that were posted and people that did those jobs I came up with my own job offering.

oDesk Job Posting

After posting my job I sent a job offer to several VA’s I looked at and liked, and had several dozen more applicant within several days time. I picked on of the guys I offered the job to initially. The hourly rate I am paying him is about $2.80(American). To some of you this may sound like a rip off or being cheap but in all actuality it’s not. My VA is from the Philippines and their cost of living over there is nothing like it is here in the USA. For them, $2.80 an hour for 40 hours a week is a good paying job that they can support a small family on. He is very happy to have the money and never complains and I always give him bonuses.

Monitoring The Work

Once you’ve talked out the details with your newly hired VA you set them to work and monitor the progress they make through screen shots like this:

oDesk Work Diary

These screen caps are expandable and include more info when you expand them. If you see something wrong or questionable you contact your VA and correct it. You can also do checkups with your VA via email to just get status updates. I’ve also asked my VA to send me a list of all the backlinks he’s done and the placed they were placed at so I have a further check on the work he’s done. After working with my VA for 9 months now, I trust the man and rarely look at the screen captures anymore. I still get the link reports and occasionally check those. And with the help he’s given me with my link building I’ve attained the #1 spot on the 1st page of Google for 12 of my niche sites that bring in money every day now. And by money I mean between $50-$200 a day. A service well worth the money I’ve been paying, which is a fraction compared to the money I’ve been making.

Relief of Stress and The Mundane

Thanks to my VA, I’ve gotten rid of much stress because I dreaded backlinking. It took me a long time to do and he’s very fast at what he does and has a great system down. Not only is the stress of backlinking gone, but the feeling of well being has replaced it now since my work at building these niche sites is paying off.

The Difference Between Spot # 3 and Spot #1 on Page 1 of Google

Each week I give my VA a list of URLs and the keywords I want linked for that URL and tell him to either do so many links per URL or do as many as he can, depending on the age of the URL. The older the URL the more links it can handle in a short period of time without Google penalizing me. New sites get maybe 10 new links per week until they are a few months old and I start adding more links per week the older they get. Since working with this person in this way I’ve had no sandboxed sites and they all start ranking within the first week or two, and all have made it to #1 on page 1 of Google and stayed there.

When I started working with my VA I had a few sites ranking on the 1st page of Google and they would get some hits, but it wasn’t that great. After a few weeks of him building backlinks for me my sites started to move up in rank and I kept adding new content. I hit the #3 spot for most of my sites in a few weeks and the traffic was great but after a few more weeks and more new content my sites pushed out the #1 person and the traffic has tripled and quadrupled since. I pushed the #1 person out of the #1 spot and have been there ever since in several niches I have and the traffic amount different from #3 spot to #1 spot is very very big! So big it’s why so many people are jockeying for that #1 position.

Important Advances

Getting a VA is the single most important thing I’ve done since doing these niche sites and it’s enabled me to be more location independent and freed up more of my time to do other things like build more niche sites. It’s also allowed me to pay more bills on time and to take a 2 week family vacation that I just got back from at the Grand Canyon. This was my goal since I started building niche sites and reading the 4 Hour Work Week. Of course I still run several successful dating sites and have 3 very small IT clients, but the bulk of my income since 2011 to now has been from the niche sites and the dating sites. No more day job for me.

BTW there is another place you can get a VA and that’s Elance.

Notable Mentions:

Joseph Archibalds 40 Day Challenge (Affiliate Link)

oDesk (Affiliate Link)

4 Hour Work Week (affiliate Link)

Elance

Related Posts:

• Dan Andrews @ Lifestyle Business Podcast – Podcast Interview #4
• 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
• Steve Chou’s Wife Quit Her Job – Podcast Interview #3
• How Pat Flynn Got Started In His Niche Market – Podcast Interview #1
• What can New Internet Marketers Learn from Michigan J. Frog?
• Income Report for October 2010

Amazon Associates Cancellation Letter

I used a company called InCorp to get my LLC set up so I could get my Amazon Associates account reinstated.

This is how you can form an LLC and get your Amazon Associates account reinstated and this is how I did it. It’s super easy, it takes just 1-2 days to set up. The best part about it is the money you should have made while your account was non-active, you will see it as soon as you are reinstated. That’s a nice bonus.

The company I used is InCorp and the cost to start an LLC through them was only $360. It took only 2 business days to get my LLC started and by the beginning of the 4th business day I had my Amazon Associates account reinstated. The money I should have made while my account was inactive was in the account when it was reinstated.

Some other reasons to form an LLC are to protect yourself from debt and being sued:

Like a corporation, a limited liability company or an LLC, is a separate and distinct legal entity. This means that an LLC can obtain a tax identification number, open a bank account and do business, all under its own name. The primary advantage of an LLC is that its owners, known as members, are not personally liable for the debts and liabilities of the LLC. For example, if an LLC is forced into bankruptcy, the members will not be required to make up the difference with their own money. If the assets of the LLC are not enough to cover the debts and liabilities, the creditors cannot look to the members, managers or officers for recovery.

So what happens when you start an LLC using InCorp is this:

• You get a Registered Agent, which is a business address and entity that is authorized to receive mail for your company, and they forward any mail to you at an address you specify. A registered agent is also recommended when starting an LLC for legal purposes and the state may require it depending on which state you are doing business in. I chose Nevada and wanted all mail to be forwarded to me.
• The next thing is they prepare and file your Articles of Organizations to the state, pay the fee and you are good to go. This and the previous step took about 2 hours, all I did was wait for emails to come in with the attached documents.
• The next thing you do is have them prepare and file for my EIN or Employer Identification Number, which if you are a sole proprietor you would normally use your Social Security Number. This also distinguishes you as a company doing business and is better in the long run for legal purposes, such as if someone were to sue you. This will also give you the ability to open a  business banking account and it also opens up a lot of other doors for you such as corporate financing capabilities. Because I got started late on a Friday afternoon, this was completed Monday morning.
• As soon as you have your LLC you are able to change the address in your Amazon Associates account. Once that is done send the associates help line an email and ask to have your account reinstated. Give then a couple days they are most likely bombarded with email right now.
• The next thing they did was give me the contact info of a man who worked with Bank of America that works closely with them so I could open a Nevada bases bank account. Your business is in Nevada( or whatever state you live in) so you’ll need a bank account in that state. Just a simple basic one will do.
• If you have a Godaddy or other registrar account with many hundreds of websites and domain names like I do, you can easily change the “Ownership” of the account and the domains by changing the account info and the domains contacts in the control panels of your Godaddy or other registrar account. I’m not a lawyer but this should help to put your sites under the LLC umbrella.

It took 2 days to have my Amazon Associates account reinstated because the email assistance is most likely overwhelmed right now. I was getting impatient and actually called them on the direct line and had the person look up my account. She stated that it looked like someone was just in there and reactivated my account just 5 minutes before I called her.

When I got off the phone I looked and to my pleasant surprise, there was money in there that I would have normally made had this not happen. I say Kudos to Amazon for keeping track of those purchases and giving me the commission for the money I made for them.

It’s a very simple process and you can do this all in one afternoon. The staff at InCorp is very helpful and knowledgeable and quelled any fears or concerns I had. I also used the expedited service to have the office prep all my stuff and send it through the system and get it all back in just a few hours of giving my credit card.

Once you have an account with InCorp you’ll have a dashboard with a few important tools, such as a calendar which is automatically populated with important dates, such as filing annual reports (or you can order their service that does it for you), contact info with direct contact to your manager, a virtual documents folder and many other items that will be of help to the newly established LLC in the state you do business in.

InCorp LLC Management Dashboard

InCorp LLC Management Dashboard

InCorp was very helpful, especially when I forgot to ask questions and called them back several times for just one or two questions. It was so painless and easy to form the LLC I couldn’t believe it. Many people will probably not even try because it may sound big and scary, but it’s super easy. With InCorp, they are like having a Virtual Assistant to take care of forming your LLC.

Related Posts:

• The Real Life Struggles Of An Online Entrepreneur
• Amazon Trademark Infringement, Ooopsss…
• Making Money on Christmas with Affiliate Sales Through Amazon
• Income Report for September 2010
• March Income Report – A Watched Pot Never Boils

I’ve been blogging on here for a while now relating my successes and struggles. I also read many other blogs on success, making money online, personal improvement and the location independent lifestyle. One thing I have noticed about most, if not all, is the lack of struggles that happen. I don’t read much about the struggles and hardships they go through and many write about how everything seems peachy and rosy.

I’m not here to bitch and complain, but I think people should see or hear what some of us go through, because it isn’t all peaches and cream in the life of a successful blogger/online entrepreneur. There have been things that have happened that make me question why I am doing this, why I continue to try to make it big like others, and do I want to press the Publish button when I am done writing this post.

Everyone talks about being authentic or being transparent but I never hear about the bad shit. Show me you’re a real person and tell me what’s really going on in your life once in a while. I want to know you are for real.

I have this blog and things have been a little rough the past few months, and I need to write about it.

Business Stuff

Back in December things were really looking good, I mean really good! Income was going through the roof thanks to Christmas, the niche sites were really working well and I felt like I had finally made it to the big time.

Then Google hit with the Panda Update.

Some of my main money makers took a hit, a huge hit. My Adsense income went from $20-$30 a day to $2-$8 a day and my Amazon Associate sales feel quite a bit too because of the lowered traffic my sites had. You can read This Thread at the Google Webmasters Forum and see all the others who have been hit. People who have good sites with original content, yet are losing traffic and income because of the Panda Update, all in one fell swoop.

On June 16th Google pushed out Panda 2.2 and many people, including myself, have seen some recovery from the initial Panda update. This is the latest and just one of several updates done to Panda since it’s release back on February 24th.

My Adsense income has gone back up to $20-$30+ a day again and it’s been a much needed change and recovery. But it’s guarded. What I mean is that I can’t and won’t put much trust in Google again. Well let me say this that I never really trusted Google to begin with anyway. Having a monopoly on search engine traffic and customizing peoples search results isn’t being quite honest in my opinion. This is why I diversified my online income, so my eggs weren’t all in one basket, but it was a good part of my arsenal. I am further diversifying my arsenal for the next time something like this happens. And it will happen, trust me.

Family Stuff

One thing that has had me way distracted and very angry was the lead test that came back positive for my daughter Sarah. The landlord had done some renovations which weren’t conducted properly, nor was the clean up done properly, and my daughter was exposed to lead dust.

This house was built in 1927 and it is covered in lead paint. Most of the time, if the paint isn’t disturbed things are ok, but the lead laws in San Diego make it mandatory that a lead certified construction company do the lead abatement whenever there are renovations going on. This was not done.

Consequently my daughter tested positive for lead and when I asked the landlord to pay for testing to find the source, he refused. Further investigation lead me to the Lead Safe Neighborhood Program of San Diego. After telling them my story they opened a case on this house, came and tested the painted surfaces, took dust samples and cited the owner. The owner had 45 days to comply or be hit with heavy fines for violating health and safety codes.

New renovations have been done by a Lead Certified company and removed even more lead paint from this house in the safety of containment containers. However the owner and the rental agency have made us feel as if we were the bad guys for calling the city on them. It still really bothers me they did this, actually it makes me so damn angry, it’s not even funny. We still have yet to get an apology from the owner.

We’ve been looking for a new place to live and we don’t need their attitude. I am also sure after the “No Retaliation” period of 6 months is over, they will give us the boot. Either way, moving sucks but we need a place to live that is attitude and lead paint free.

In doing my homework I found what removes lead from the body: vegetables high in Iron like greens and Apple juice to name a few. Three months after the initial lead test we had her tested again and the lead has been eradicated from her body. Thankfully she didn’t have to go through chelation therapy. We are relieved and happy to have this lead removed from her tiny body, yet we still have to take her to get evaluations for her growth and learning progress to see if there are any long lasting effects from the lead poisoning.

It’s been almost 6 months since her initial lead test came back positive, the lead is gone but we are still dealing with the after effects of this situation. Doctor and therapist appointments, feelings of anger and helplessness, and wondering if her IQ has been affected or not. It’s not something a parent wants to hear has happened to their child knowing it could have been prevented.

Amazon Associates Program Gets the Ax in California

Here’s a screen shot of the letter I received from Amazon:

Amazon Associates Cancellation Letter

I had waited a week before hitting the publish button just to make sure I really wanted to publish this post. I guess there was another reason I waited and now I know why. Another blow has hit online entrepreneurs who reside in California. This blow comes in the form of the cancellation of the Amazon Associates program in California. This is because Amazon and other companies like OverStock.com are taking a stand on what they feel is unconstitutional and counter-productive.

Many, many people in California, and other states(California isn’t the only state who did this) who’ve been axed, depended on the income that Amazon Associated Program gave them. Many people have been ruined and some have probably lost their homes and livelihoods or worse. I counted on the income from Amazon too, but it wasn’t my sole source of income, as I said previously I diversified my income and it was only a part of my income. While it is making things interesting, it is not the devastating blow many people have felt.

Amazon isn’t the only affiliate program that has given Californians the boot. I’ve been kicked out of no less than 5 other affiliate programs due to the new law. Mainly companies who have no physical presence in California. I’ve had to search for comparable affiliate programs, but the biggest blow for me, is that many of my niche sites are dependent on Amazon for the products in the niche. Amazon has a HUGE, no, THE HUGEST inventory of just about anything you can think of. I looked at Barnes & Noble and Borders, and neither of those giants have the selection of the books or products I need to make money with my niche sites.

So what am I doing?

Some of my sites are being sold on Flippa, such as this site: Kindle Covers and Cases which brought in $1,649.10 in December of 2010 and it continues to bring in sales each month.  I could get an LLC in another state to continue to work with Amazon, but I don’t really want to go through the hassle of getting an LLC in another state to continue to operate with Amazon Associates. At least not yet. I am hoping the tax law will be over turned and we will get our associates program back. For now I am selling it on Flippa, as well as some of my other sites.

Another thing I am doing…

Another thing I have been doing is focusing on niche sites that I have an active interest in and selling eBooks, such as my Boudoir Photography Poses website. This site, on average right now, has an average of 46 daily visitors, and it sells between $25-$50 worth affiliate sales in eBooks each day on the subject of Boudoir photography Tips.I started this site after the Google panda update hit the first time, in an effort to supplement the lose of the Adsense income I had. This along with the recovery of my Adsense income has helped to offset the lose of the Amazon Affiliates Program.

Dealing with stress and remembering what’s important…

In May of this year we had a family wedding to attend in Ohio. We stayed at my sister-in-laws in Kentucky which is right across the Ohio River from Cincinnati, Ohio. I decided that I wasn’t going to do ANY work at all. I had at first thought I would do some posts and get caught up on this blog, but decided not to. I did however have to review and approve personal profiles for the dating sites I run. This is about 10 minutes per day just before bed and that was all I did.

Taking time for the family…The Attitude of Gratitude

First, I spent lot’s of time with my girls: my wife and my two daughters.

My daughter and I on a quiet Kentucky dirt road

The next thing I did was not worry about business, knowing that whatever is supposed to happen, is going to happen no matter what I do. I just tried to do the next indicated step. Knowing that no matter what happens, everything will be OK. I’m an entrepreneur and entrepreneurs are survivors. I’m a survivor. If one thing fails I go to another thing or way of making money.

The next thing I did was spend some time with my parents who came down just to baby site and see the girls. That was nice. My dad hadn’t met the younger one, Hannah, and my mom hadn’t seen her since she was born. We went to the zoo with my parents and the kids and spent the day feeding the goats in the childrens zoo, riding the miniature train(Sarah loves trains) and just enjoying the free time of not having to work.

Worrying about what’s going to happen, does nothing but make you sick and paralyzed. There’s nothing that worrying has ever solved for me, so I just went with the flow. I just turned 47 last month and I’m not getting any younger so spending time with my daughters is paramount in my daily life. Who knows what the future holds for us, but I remember an old saying, ” Yesterday is gone, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift.”

Another saying is “If you have one foot in the past, and one foot in the future, you’re pissing on the present”.

Things do happen in the lives of successful people and their not always pleasant. Staying grounded and keeping what’s really important close to your heart, will help you get through anything. My grandfather used to say ” If you have a shovel you can always dig ditches”. My head is the shovel, life is the ditch. I dig life, it’s an adventure worth living.

So what Amazon is gone for me now, maybe it will come back, maybe it won’t. I’ll do other things that help to support the family and my lifestyle of working at home, close to the family. So what Google made my traffic almost nil for some sites and my income go down a bit, I’ll just do something else like sell eBooks and do photography. So what all this is happening around me, what really matters is what’s important and close to my heart, my family. That is what’s truly important.

Without the bad we wouldn’t be able to gauge the good or know true happiness.

This post goes out to my mentor and teacher Yaro Starak. My thoughts are with you and your Mum.

Related Posts:

• Amazon Trademark Infringement, Ooopsss…
• Adversity, The Catalyst for Change and Success
• March Income Report – A Watched Pot Never Boils
• Hiring a Virtual Assistant and Clearing the Plate
• How To Form An LLC and Get your Amazon Associates Account Reinstated
• 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

Since I run several forums as well and need to monetize them too, I thought I’d research the topic and document my finding for everyone else to benefit from.

Since forums are sometimes the place I find answers to questions I have I thought that they would be a great place start. Then read some specific posts about monetizing a forum, and then try a few of the ways myself.

Forums are great for generating content and traffic as people contribute answers to problems, ask questions about problems and discuss findings too. As you know The Big G(Google) likes fresh content all the time. A ravenous appetite for content Google will find forums a feast of plenty, IF you have a good topic for your forum and lot’s of traffic. Even mediocre traffic can generate good content and give Google something to chew on.

So let’s dive into my findings…

1) Adsense – Adding Adsense to your forum is pretty simple given the add-ons you can get for the forum software you use, or it may even be built in, therefore making it that much more simple. You can place Adsense just about anywhere on a forum but just remember the Google Adsense rules for the number of placements per page.

I’ve read arguments for both sides of this. Some people say this is a great way to monetize a forum and others say forums with Adsense have a low CTR(click through rate). Some say “Ad Blindness” meaning we see so many ads from Google all day long we stop seeing them eventually. Depending on what you decide, Adsense will serve up ads for the topic of that post or the forum itself.

2) CPA and CPM Networks -  Often times called Publisher Networks, CPA is “cost per action”, usually a sign up of some sort or a completed survey or some sort of “Action”.  This might be like those ads you see where you get something for doing something. These are typically lead generating actions, which can pay anywhere from $.50 on up to several dollars or more. I use this type of thing on several of my niche sites and have done very well with them.

CPM is “cost per mille”, Mille being a Latin word meaning thousand, so cost per thousand clicks usually. This is ok if you have a lot of traffic and they like clicking on things, especially if it’s free or they get something really cool. It might do well for some people but not others.

3) Affiliate Networks – Similar to CPA and CPM, Affiliate networks generate Sales as opposed to Leads. The main sales force behind these products are called affiliates. You put an Ad on your site to sell something and get paid a commission for the sale of the product. Some affiliate networks are  Commission Junction, Share A Sale, LinkShare, and more.

4) Selling Text Links – Text-Link-Ads.Com is where I go to sell my space for text links. If you’ve got a PR3 or above site and want to earn money effortlessly, go to TLA. Basically all there is are Text Links, that’s it. Either you add them by hand manually, or you put some code on your site that automatically adds them to your page as they advertisers add you to the list of sites to run ads on. Fairly simple and easy, and as one of their ads says, “Earn Money while you Sleep”.

5) Selling Banner Advertisements or Ad Spots – If you have a niche forum and Google just isn’t doing a good job of putting the right kind of ads in their ads for your site, then sell ad spots yourself. One way people do this is to directly contact the prospective advertiser and offer them some space on your forum. So let’s say you have a forum on Salt Water Aquariums, you could sell ad space to an online (or offline) aquarium dealer. Or maybe ad space for a complete pet supply shop or a specialty fish shop. The possibilities are endless.

6) Selling “sticky” threads – Selling sticky threads is like selling ad space. If you’re running a forum you should know what a sticky thread is. A sticky thread is one that sticks at the top of each forum board and stays there all the time, never moving with time or threads so it is always at the top, where it can grab peoples attention.

7) Sponsorship – If you have a really niche market and have a lot of good traffic, you could get sponsorship. There’s a story about Tivo, the Television Recording service that people fell in love with. When Tivo first came out someone started a Tivo Forum for hacks and tips and fixes. Tivo, rather than claiming trademark infringement, rather sponsored the forum by giving them money and had some Tivo Technicians talk in the forums as well. The only catch was that the people in the forum couldn’t talk about how to hack and bypass the payment system. The owners and moderators agreed and police the forum for such topics and therefore Tivo is happy and so is the forum owner who get’s paid by Tivo for that community.

Private Members Area – Just as it says “Members Only”. Charge for a premium membership to exclusive board on the forum. Warrior Forum does this and so does many other forums in a niche culture. I belong to a private forum for Yaro Staraks Blog Mastermind program. This is a blogging program for people to learn to become successful bloggers and earn a living from blogging by producing good content. While the members only forum comes with the program, I paid for the blogging course and have lifetime membership to the forum.

9) Donations – Yeah really! Donations. Put a donation cup on the forum sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. If people find good content or fixes for what troubles them, people are likely to give a donation.

10) Sell Something – Sitepoint forums, a place where you can learn a lot about building sites with PHP and many other web related things, including internet marketing. Sitepoint was once just a place to learn and talk but the owner needed to monetize the site otherwise it was going down. He tracked where the users were most going and found the areas of what they were looking for and made a few print on demand books in the areas of PHP/MySQL/ CSS. Now the site makes tons of money from these publications with their second book generating over $1 million in the first 12 months of it’s release.

So you’ve got a forum on Black Banded African Gerbils? Sell either an eBook or Print on Demand book on The Complete Care and Feeding Guide for Black Banded African Gerbils.

10 ways to monetize your forum, hopefully will bring you 10 ideas per point, to give you at least 100 different ways to monetize your forum.

I really appreciate your support of this blog and the use of my affiliate links.  It’s because of you that this blog is alive, growing and informing.

I’d love to hear your comments, suggestions or success stories.

Thanks for all your comments in previous posts, and please keep your questions coming.

Related Posts:

• One of my Niche Sites – Disclosure.
• Dan Andrews @ Lifestyle Business Podcast – Podcast Interview #4
• Google Search Results Are Skewed – How To Get Real Search Results
• Income Report for October 2010
• Duplicate Content Hurts EVERYONE
• Hellraiser Puzzle Box meets the economy from hell
• Hiring a Virtual Assistant and Clearing the Plate
• The Real Life Struggles Of An Online Entrepreneur

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:

• Hiring a Virtual Assistant and Clearing the Plate
• 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.
• 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

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:

• 10 Ways To Monetize a Forum
• Income Report for October 2010
• One of my Niche Sites – Disclosure.
• Duplicate Content Hurts EVERYONE
• Hellraiser Puzzle Box meets the economy from hell
• No More Google – For Me
• Hiring a Virtual Assistant and Clearing the Plate
• The Real Life Struggles Of An Online Entrepreneur

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
• Making Money on Christmas with Affiliate Sales Through Amazon
• Income Report for September 2010
• 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 started using ReviewAzon, and streamlined my WordPress Installations(I’ll talk about this in another post), I’ve been able to build and post to about 2-3 new sites per week. This means I upload my WordPress files and theme files to the web server, configure it, and then start posting to the site for content, and completing a site in just under 1.5 days each.

It takes about 3 days to 7 days to get a site indexed in Google for me, which some people may say that’s impossible, but it’s not. If you start with a new site, and go social bookmark it in StumbleUpon, Digg, Mixx, FriendFeed and a few others, then do some comment marketing, you’re site will get indexed in less than a week and I’ve seen as fast as one hour. Really!

The ReviewAzon plugin has really made posting product posts and reviews so much easier and faster, that it only takes me about 1/4 of the time to do 4 posts in the time it took to do 1 post manually. I still like to customize my posts to a degree with ReviewAzon, but it’s still so much faster than before. Before I would hand post or code my reviews, and then add images manually that I edited and then make a cool looking post image for the front page. Sometimes that in itself took almost an hour at times. Depending ont he product.

With ReviewAzon, it’s already configured to make a pretty post. I make a custom image for the front page every other post or so now, instead of every one. Partly because I am trying to get content up to be indexed in Google, but also so I can hit as many keywords as possible in a short amount of time. Remember, these are new sites so they need a bit of content before being hit my the search engines. More keywords mean more chances of someone needing what I have. Chris Guthrie has also been a great help with a few questions I’ve had about his course.

The next few days I will post more about my past income reports which I am backlogged on, but I will tell you about what’s happening this month, and last month since Black Friday. So far this month I’ve been making a steady average of 51$ a day with my Amazon affiliate sales, which if, in the long run will be about $1,550 per month. That’s if the sales don’t go up, or down and if I don’t build anymore sites.

This week I have had several sites start to get traffic, and growing, as they were indexed by Google over the weekend, and are now getting traffic daily and making sales. I also have to say that there are many items that still haven’t shipped yet that were ordered through Amazon, so there is going to be commission coming in from that stuff too, on top of the sales made daily. I expect the average daily sale will go up soon, and that figure of $51 will go up along with it.

Ever since Black Friday, this is the way it’s been, sales, sales and more sales. many people don’t want to venture out into the crowd and get frustrated. Many people also know they can find whatever they want on Amazon, and will avoid the crowds this way. No need to get trampled at your local Walmart, just shop on line and avoid the crowds, confusion and frustration.

I know that after Christmas, sales will drop off a bit, but I also know that with all the traffic from successful searches to my sites will help keep my sites high in the index in Google. I also know I will have returning customers. I still make sales from other affiliate programs, and those have grown as well. This month will be a great month, and I expect by the end of the month I will have a small army of Amazon Affiliate sites to draw from.

Related Posts:

• How To Form An LLC and Get your Amazon Associates Account Reinstated
• The Real Life Struggles Of An Online Entrepreneur
• Amazon Trademark Infringement, Ooopsss…
• Income Report for September 2010
• March Income Report – A Watched Pot Never Boils

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