The other day when I sent out my weekly updates, I mentioned that I was recruiting a couple of people to join a site flipping team of mine, well, it seems quite a few people were interested so let me give you some more details in general about it.

First, depending on how many people are interested in joining in this will help me determine if I want to start more than one team or simply continue with the original plan and deny all others.

I don’t want to reject anyone because I’m sure you guys are interested in working as a team, learn from the experience as well as make some money (hopefully). Though, I want to be coordinated and have some dedication into these projects. Basically, I’m looking for four or five members for a group and if I get more than that, I will start a second group.

In each group I’m hoping to get a couple of key members:

A Team Leader – I’m sure a lot of you guys were expecting me to lead the team and honestly I don’t mind. Though, since I’m a pretty busy guy I can’t always whip you guys into shape. So, whoever the team leader ends up being, they need to basically keep us on schedule, nothing huge.

A Designer – Though, this is not fully needed, it definitely helps out a lot. Plus, it cuts out additional costs and expenses we may have.

All Others, Bloggers – You don’t have to be a blogger but you need to be able to write with decent enough grammar and punctuation. Also, I’m looking for people to be somewhat dedicated and if that is not you please don’t join. You’ll be wasting both your time as well as your team members and that’s a hassle I rather not get into.

What I’m looking for in team members:

Dedication – I can’t stress this enough, I need some dedication if you’re planning on joining. If you are not somewhat committed then you will slack off with the work and then everyone will complain about how they’re doing more yet we all get the same share of the money.

See, too much drama for me and I’m sure you guys don’t want working relationships and friendships to go sour over something like this.

Communication – If you’re part of a team, communication is what helps everyone succeed. If we’re all on the same page or not, then we need to speak up and share your ideas, thoughts and whatever else that may help the group.

And I know dedication is important but we all understand if some emergency happens and you’re unable to keep up for a few days. But please, communication is important so we don’t assume the worst. For instance, when my laptop crashed.

Because you know what they say about assuming things, you only make an ass out of yourself. Or something like that?

Whoever joins, please have an instant messenger handy. I prefer Yahoo messenger because we can all join in a chat room to toss our ideas around.

Writing Skills – I’m sorry but if your writing skills are horrible, I sure hope you’re a killer designer! I’m looking to split the work evenly among the team so writing posts is part of it.

I’ve had quite a few people contact me already regarding this, and I think I replied back to a few. The others I haven’t because I’m still trying to recover from my laptop crashing and all my information possibly being lost.

If you have Yahoo messenger, feel free to add me (djay182) and we can discuss it there.

Thanks.  Oh, and I know the photos are corny but tell me it doesn’t bring back memories!

The other day I mentioned that my laptop broke and it sucks because most, if not all, of my business online stuff was stored on there. Honestly, it sucks because I’m at somewhat of a standstill and if you guys have any information, feel free to drop me a line!

The story of what happened to my laptop…

It happened on Sunday night and I wasn’t doing anything out of the norm when I was on it. I use Windows XP and I had a few tabs open with Firefox, I was logged into one of my blogs and also had Google opened. Next thing you know my antivirus program, McAfee, popped up a bunch of messages saying “Trojan detected, blocked and removed.”

Now, I didn’t think too much of this because it happens and I had my antivirus working. But all of a sudden, I get about five more pop ups with different “Trojan detected” messages and removed.

Of course, I got very curious. And weirdly enough, I look at the bottom right where my antivirus icon is and it says “You are not protected.” Before I even got a chance to scan my computer, I was just trying to turn everything back on.

Then I get these internet explorer pop ups and I think “Damn, I got a bunch of spyware!”

So, I proceed to trying to scan my computer with McAfee and noticed that none of the images were displaying when I open the program up. All I see is the broken image files of it and the text. I then click scan and then it pauses and I get an error message and it won’t scan anymore.

Odd. I also have this program called “Spy Sweeper” in which it is a spyware remover so I decided to try that out. Same thing happened; I scan and then get some error message.

At this point, I have no idea what is going on and I’m pissed. Next thing you know I’m getting these pop up messages that say my computer is not protected and that I should download this antivirus software. A little balloon message also pops up from the bottom right where you icons are saying something on the lines of:

“You are not protected and you need to download this antivirus program. Click on this baloon to proceed.”

If you noticed, “baloon” was spelled incorrectly so right then and there I knew it had to be some sort of spyware wanting me to download some crap. I still had access to the internet so I decided to re-download my Spy Sweeper and re-install it figuring I could do that to try to scan.

When I tried that, the download worked but when I went to re-install, the entire program froze. That didn’t work…

I decided that I would restart my computer and start it in “safe mode”. When I did that, none of my programs would work. Matter of fact, I couldn’t open any of the folders.

After playing around for a while trying to figure things out, I decided that I would try my “system restore” and just restore to a previous day… maybe like a week before any of this crap happened.

You would have thought that worked, huh? Wrong! Just like all the other programs not working, my system restore wouldn’t work either.

Now if I try to turn on my computer, half the times it doesn’t load to Windows and the other half it does but I can’t do anything (can’t open folders, programs, etc).

Anyone have any advice? I could use the help because I just need to get some documents off my laptop.

Oh, and if you sent me an e-mail and waiting for a response, please be patient because I’m trying to get everything fixed. Thanks!

First, my laptop crashed with some crazy virus or spyware and now it’s not turning on so I lost most, if not all, of my information on there. Currently, I’m on someone else’s computer and I’ll write a separate post about it. So, if you sent me an e-mail, it’s not that I’m ignoring you, I’m just trying to get everything fixed.

Did I not say a contest was coming soon? Of course, the lovely Dina of MarketLeverage commented the other day hinting on my contest; it’s because the one and only MarketLeverage has been generous enough to sponsor this contest as well!

You’ll be able to win a brand new Flip Mino HD or an iPod Nano, not to mention some additional prizes on top of that!

There are two different parts of this contest in which both are related to affiliate marketing and MarketLeverage. But don’t you worry your pretty little head off; this is not an affiliate marketing challenge but rather just sharing your affiliate marketing tips.

The Prizes:

- A Flip Mino HD or an iPod Nano (Blue)
- Amazon Kindle
- $100 ML Rewards Card
- $50 iTunes Card

How to Enter:

Submit a video or text tips related to affiliate marketing – it’s that simple. You can do so by either posting your affiliate tip (or secret) as a comment here, as a blog post or you can even e-mail me if you want.

If you submit a video, please send me the link. Also, keep in mind that if you are the winner chosen, you may be featured on MarketLeverage’s blog. That’s added exposure to you and your site. Hint, hint!

But here are some things to keep in mind when submitting your affiliate marketing tips and the contest as a whole:

a.) You can only use MarketLeverage as an example network. (Makes sense, especially since ML was nice enough to sponsor these lovely prizes for you guys)
b.) I will choose the best affiliate tip from the contestants and they will be handed their choice of a Flip Mino HD or iPod Nano
c.) This contest is also featured on tons of other sites, you can check out the other sites here.
d.) The winner from each site will then be entered for a chance to win the Amazon Kindle, $100 ML Rewards Card and/or the $50 iTunes Card. The blog owners that are running this contest will then vote for their favorites and that’s how you win!

Deadline:

December 31st, 2008 I know, I’m sorry for posting this late but again, my laptop and ALL my information crashed so that pretty much sucked. And see, my birthday is this week but I’m giving YOU a present instead. (Well, technically MarketLeverage is on my behalf )
e.) I can’t vote for the winner from my blog, I can only vote for the winners from the other blogs that are featuring this contest.

Simple enough contest if you ask me. I feel as though I’m missing something but if I am, I’m sure Dina of ML will come and yell at me.

Make sure to subscribe to my RSS Feeds to stay updated to see if you won!

I think I’m going to start to get a little more organized here at DatMoney and with that said, I will start (or try) to provide weekly updates so you guys know what to expect for the upcoming week, changes and projects I have going on.

I figured not too many bloggers or online entrepreneurs update you guys enough on what to expect from their sites or even with themselves. Plus, wouldn’t you be interested in the type of posts or events I have coming up as teasers?

Since this is a short introduction of my weekly updates, I’ll try not to make this too long (but no promises).

Password Protected Posts - I probably won’t have too many of these but there are just some posts too valuable to give out to some random person who stumbles over here. But if you are an e-mail subscriber, you have first preference.

Though, I usually send out the password to everyone at once, so for the stranglers or anyone that never receive the password, shoot me an e-mail (from the e-mail address you subscribed with) and I’ll hook you up.

I’m still getting people asking about the $100/Day Adsense Password, please send me an e-mail (with the same e-mail you subscribed with) once you subscribe.

New Contest – I will be launching a new contest on Monday which is the same type that has been circulating around the Blogosphere already. But don’t worry, the prizes are still good and it just gives you more chances to win. Look out for that because it’ll be pretty easy to enter!

Brand New Mascot/Toon/Logo – I’m currently working with a great designer to try to get myself a mascot/toon to use here. I figured it’s finally time for me to separate myself from others and get myself branded so whenever my toon is seen, it’ll remind you of DatMoney.com.

I’m sure a lot of you guys are wondering why I don’t just make one for myself, well, I’m not good with mascots/toons when it comes to designing. Plus, it takes a lot of work and time.

Considering Discontinuing Designing 125×125 Buttons – I’ve been considering this for quite sometime now but I’m still up in the air with it. It’s going to be almost a year since I officially launched the idea of creating 125×125 buttons and I’m sure my long-time followers may remember my $1.00 design promotions, right?

I’m just getting too many requests and I don’t charge too much for them to begin with. And being as busy as I have been, it’s tough trying to fulfill all these requests. Though, I think I will continue to work on logos/headers but it probably won’t be as quick as it was before.

Q&A Session, Ask a Question and Receive a Backlink – I barely promoted this but it looks like not too many people were interested in asking me a question or getting backlink in return. Well, it’s still up if you want to ask a question or get a backlink. I’ll probably have those answers by mid-week.

Looking for a Team – I’m sure you guys remember that I was in a site flipping group and it went well (we sold our site for $2,000) but now I’m looking to continue a team. I currently have two members and I’m just looking for one or two more people to join.

You don’t have to be an expert but then again, I’m not looking for a newbie. I’m mainly just looking for someone that can participate, be dedicated and good at communicating with others. I know we all get busy and it’s understandable but if you think you’ll make a good team member, shoot me an e-mail.

Upcoming Posts – Besides launching my new contest and the Q&A answers post, I will probably discuss some marketing techniques as well as various niche site ideas and strategies.

My Birthday is Next Week – Yup, it is. It’s on December 19th but I don’t think I’ll be doing anything special. Matter of fact, I might do something to celebrate with you guys here. But I guess you’ll have to stay tuned for that!

Anyways, those are a few things to expect in general as well as for the upcoming week. Hope you guys check back or at least consider subscribing to my RSS Feeds.

Have you ever needed a new avatar and/or a character to separate yourself from the thousands of other bloggers out there? If you didn’t know, there are tons of avatar and character creators out there that can help you in a matter of minutes.

Avatars are a good way of making you distinguished and recognized by the masses. It can even get the attention of those who may not have even known your site existed.

I’m not going to lie to you; ever since I put up the BlogCatalog and MyBlogLog widgets there have always been certain avatars that stand out more than others. For instance, as I wrote this post I saw an avatar of a female’s ass. I mean literally, a female’s ass on one of those widgets.

Normally, I’d be curious enough to click on it to see who BlogCatalog approved to have an ass as their avatar. Luckily for me, I can just move my cursor over the image and the title tag states “Sexy Celebs Celebrities”.

Eh, probably not my type of site to visit. But do you see how important it could be? I would have never known about that site if that avatar didn’t stand out like it did. I’m sure cartoon characters are just as good, especially the fact that it will be remembered by most if it’s unique.

If you are cheap (or too poor, or maybe just don’t think it’s worth it) and don’t want to spend $600 to get one professionally done for you, just make one yourself with the various free avatar and character creators on the web.

I’m sure you have seen a lot of people with personalized Simpsons or even South Park avatars before, well, you can make one as well in a matter of minutes. Just go to the South Park avatar creator page and just pick out what you want created.

I made one myself just for the hell of it and you can see it below. For the record, no it’s not one that resembles how I look, how I dress or whatever.

I made a random avatar in which the character just came back from laser tag, so he’s smokin’ while taking a break and holding up a sign on who he supports (sort of like the presidential elections). Oh, and he has a hoodie on because it’s winter time.

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