So, I’m sure you guys should know what Twitter is by now. Well, I decided to start a brand new Twitter account strictly for DatMoney and I’m going to let you guys follow how to get more Twitter followers quickly with me.

I had my own account previously but I barely used it. Matter of fact, I’ve only been using it lately to enter random Twitter contests. I decided that I would start one to try to brand DatMoney a little more. Unfortunately for me, when I signed up for Twitter (again), the username “DatMoney” was taken by some random loser who wanted to sign up for it, leave 3-4 updates and never go back to it.

What a waste of branding for me!

Now I’m officially @DatMoneyDotCom for those of you guys that want to follow.

This is a test and since I just created this new account about 5-10 minutes ago, you guys will see I have absolutely no followers when this post becomes live. But that’s a good thing, I’m going to show you guys how to get more Twitter followers quickly and easily. I don’t know how quickly it will be but I’m guessing if these methods work, I should probably have a few hundred within the next week or so.

But just a heads up, there are a few techniques I will be trying out and supposedly all of them work just fine.

One of the methods I’m going to use is the basic promotion - letting people know the Twitter account for DatMoney actually exists, hold a contest, follow others, leave comments, etc. But since you guys already know that basic stuff, I won’t get into that unless someone requests that I do. (A lot of people still have no idea what Twitter is and how it can benefit them in a lot of different ways).

Now the other method I will be trying is somewhat automated and a lot of people may consider it unethical. But I’m the type to test things out just to see how it works. Although, I probably won’t do it for the long run.

Again, I’ll be doing it just for testing purposes to see how it works and if it actually does. There are various Twitter tools that can help in the process as well. But in the meantime, I’ll just sum it up and write a more detailed post sometime in the future when and if I see a large increase in followers.

The quick summary would be:

1. Sign up for Twitter
2. Sign up for the free Twitter tools (I’ll post the details later)
3. Do a search on Twitter for your targeted audience (for instance, make money online)
4. Let the Twitter tools get the followers for you

That sounds pretty easy, right? I’m sure a lot of you guys already know this method, if not, you can follow me @DatMoneyDotCom and see if this works and if it does, you can do the very same thing!

More to come on how to get more Twitter followers… stay tuned!

This is part two of the site flipping series and you guys should all know this one: How to pick a domain name and registrar. I’m sure a bunch of you guys still use dot blogspot blogs but technically you can’t sell those sites. And when I say “technically”, I think it’s actually against their TOS to sell it so accepting money then transferring is still illegal.

There are plenty of domain registrar sites to buy your domain name from and people prefer ones over others for whatever reason. I tend to go with reputable sites because I’m a name brand type of person (most of the time). I feel as though you get what you pay for. It’s almost equivalent to cheap hosting, in the long run you’re probably going to get screwed.

You guys should all remember my post “This is Why You Should NOT Get Cheap Web Hosting.”

Which Domain Registrar Do I Use?

Personally, I usually go with GoDaddy but with all the additional things that come with it, it gets expensive. I mean, keeping your information private, business stuff, etc. But the good thing about them is the fact that they always have coupons and discounts to save money.

The other one I started using half way through last year was Name.com. The reason why I started using them is because they started off at like $5.99 for dot com names. Next thing you know it just keeps inflating until $8.99.

Though, that’s still pretty cheap especially the fact that the private WHOIS (where they keep your information private) is completely free. In addition, you can use Google accounts with it as well at no additional charge.

So in the long run, you pay $8.99 and not $8.99 + $4.99 + $6.99.

How to Pick a Domain Name

Honestly, this all depends on the person. You can use just about any domain name if you know exactly what you are doing but essentially, you want to pick a domain name in which people would remember. You want it to be brandable and if you have a specific keyword/niche you’re trying to target, you might want to try to include that within the domain, if you can.

There are a bunch of ways and methods I use to pick a good domain name.

Use your Main Keyword as the Domain - Let’s say you already did your keyword research and say your main keyword is “Xbox 360 Cheats”, you would try to get “xbox360cheats.com”.

Of course, this is extremely hard because most of the highly searched for keyword domains are gone. But there are still a lot of them left. Plus, you can always try to go with something like “BESTxbox360cheats.com” that way you’re still including your targeted keyword within the domain.

The reason for this is because having the keyword in the domain name could potentially help you rank in search engines. I’ve done it a bunch of times on smaller sites and it actually works with very minimal linkage.

Shorter = Better? Not necessarily but if you can get a domain name with four characters or less, that is pretty rare. Honestly, if you can, I would consider just selling the domain name instead of creating a site for it. I’m sure you can get some decent money just off of that.

Brandable and Easy to Remember Domains - If you are creative (or lucky), you should have no problem with this one.

Like I mentioned, if you can get a short domain name then that’s golden. Unfortunately, nowadays you won’t be able to find a three letter or even a four letter domain name that is available. If you can, then you are one of the lucky few!

But just because it’s not short, it doesn’t mean you can’t get a easy to remember or brandable domain. You want to come up with something catchy, that sticks in people’s heads. Who cares if it’s corny or cliche, they will still remember it.

You guys remember “ListLunatic.com”, that was pretty brandable and easy to remember.

You Want to Avoid Words that Connect with Each Other with the Same Letter - For instance, “gamecodessite”. Notice how there are two S letters right next to each other. More often than not, when someone is typing that into their web browser, they’re going to forget about that second S. Which could possibly have you lose out on another visitor, subscriber, buyer, etc.

A majority of the time, I go to instantdomainsearch.com because it’ll tell you if it’s available or not instantly. Though, sometimes they aren’t 100 percent up-to-date but for the most part it’s pretty handy.

When it comes down to it, you don’t really have to have a great domain name to flip a site. Though, I almost always try to get a brandable domain name simply because it’s just another good selling point to convince your buyer on the worth of your site.

Anyways, how do you guys pick domain names and registrars? Let me know!

If you make money online whether it’s being a blogger, webmaster, online entrepreneur or whatever, today is the last day to file your taxes for the past year!

Honestly, I’m hoping you guys have already filed your taxes instead of waiting for the last day. So, let’s assume you guys already did but got a headache running around trying to scramble to do so; let’s go over a few points for next year so you guys are a little more prepared for it.

Document Everything!

Personally, I didn’t do a great job in documenting for this past year so don’t be like me. The main thing I didn’t keep track of like I should have were the expenses I could have deducted. And this means keeping receipts, tracking them on spreadsheets, keeping them all organized in a folder, etc.

I wrote a post on “Tax Deductible Expenses for Self-Employed Online Entrepreneur” a little while ago that should help. But essentially, anything and everything you think could be deducted, more than likely it can.

So, keep track, save receipts and pay less on your taxes!

Keeping track of the income coming in was a little easier because I usually get paid two ways: through Paypal or via check in the mail. Once I officially get paid, I save the paystubs for the checks and I document how much I got paid on a spreadsheet.

Don’t Wait Until the Last Minute!

When I say “don’t wait until the last minute” waiting until the last month to get all your stuff ready is just about the same thing.

Each month you should essentially keep track of your income and expenses and a simple spreadsheet and foldder could do wonders for you. This way when you do taxes next year, you’re not running around scrambling once again making sure you didn’t miss something. You should have everything ready from the get go.

And yes, I was one of the many who was scrambling around making sure I had everything all set.

Be As Accurate As You Possibly Can or You Might Be Audited

You want to file your taxes to the best of your ability because if you don’t report everything, there is a chance you’ll be audited. And no, that’s not a good thing when you are being audited for money issues.

Now, it’s hard being completely accurate when you scramble at the last minute but you want to report as much as you possibly can. I heard if you report your income and next year you happen to pull in like 10 times more than the previous year, then that might throw up a red flag.

Although, that is extremely possible in some cases, you want to be safe and have everything ready. Some people tell me they track back up to 10 years when doing audits. So, if you’ve been doing this online entrepreneur stuff to make money online for the last five years, make sure you have all your taxes intact for the last five years.

Put Money Aside to Pay Taxes

If working for yourself is the only income you have, make sure you put enough money aside to actually pay for the taxes you owe. Every area is different so I’m not sure how it is but generally I would save up to 35 percent.

For instance, if you made $10,000 last year, make sure you save $3,500 because that’s what you would be potentially paying back in taxes.

Tip: What I would do is create a savings account (there are plenty of online savings account like ingdirect) and each time you make a transaction, calculate 35 percent of that and just deposit it into your savings. This way you’ll be making money in interest while you save to pay back in taxes.

Luckily for me, I also have a day job so instead of paying back taxes out of my own pockets, they basically took it out on what was owed to me from my day job.

Conclusion

Don’t wait for the last minute and try to be prepared. Working for yourself has its benefits but it is also hard work as well.

Also, if you guys file for taxes in different countries outside of the states, please let me know. I’m a bit curious and I’d like to compare.

Any questions? Feel free to ask!

I just wanted to bring to your attention on people hijacking your awarded links on the top commentators plugin. Stu actually brought this to my attention the other day in a comment (and I’ve known about this before as well) but I never got a chance to address it.

What Is Top Commentators Hijacking?

If you don’t know what top commentators hijacking is, its basically finding a site that has the top commentators plugin installed (made to reward people who comment on blogs with a sitewide backlink to their site) and commenting using someone elses’ name to steal their backlink.

In the example with a reader and commentator of mine, Stu, he commented quite a few times within the past few days and he made it on my top commentators list. Now, someone else used the same name “Stu” to comment on the most recent post and he took over the backlink juice.

Though, the comment didn’t even get approved as it was still pending to be moderated by me, it still took over for some odd reason.

I don’t want to point and accuse people because I’m sure there are a lot of people who use the nickname “Stu” just like tons of people I know who are also “Jay” and stuff like this can happen accidentally.

On the other hand, some people take advantage of this knowledge and use it for their own personal evil plots.

How to Avoid Top Commentators Hijacking

There is no real way of avoiding it if someone decides to be an ass about it except expanding on the name you type in. I would suggest putting in your blog’s URL or something next to your name so that would narrow down who’s trying to steal your links.

I would do this especially if you have a common name and you tend to only comment with your first name.

For instance, instead of putting in “Jay” which I know tons of people have that name, I would put in “Jay - DatMoney.com” that way if someone did try to hijack my link, it’s easy as hell to spot who is trying to do so with proof.

Suggestions to Top Commentators Plugin Creator

I’m sure the creator gets lots of suggestions as is but one of the suggestions I would ask is to possibly change the comments getting approved compared to it being pending. In Stu’s instance, this person’s comment was still pending approval, yet, it hijacked the backlink almost instantly.

Conclusion

I’m sure I hijacked a lot of peoples’ top commentators and vice versa, only because I have a very common nickname “Jay” but I’m starting to change that to “Jay - Site URL” and I think you guys should too.

Anyways, what do you guys think about this?

I know a lot of you guys already know how to cloak affiliate links manually or maybe you already have an affiliate cloaking plugin such as the Ninja Affiliate Plugin (like I do) but if you don’t know how to or don’t want to pay any money, here’s how to do it.

I think there are a few different ways you can go about cloaking affiliate links manually but I think the easiest way is to just redirect your visitors.

First, I would open up a blank notepad and copy and paste the following html code:

<html>

<head>

<title>TITLE OF YOUR AFFILIATE LINK</title>

<meta name=”robots” content=”noindex,nofollow”>

<script> window.location=”YOUR AFFILIATE LINK GOES HERE“; </script>

<meta http-equiv=”refresh” content=”1; url=”YOUR AFFILIATE LINK GOES HERE “>

</head>

<body>

<p align=”center”>You are being taken to the correct page.

<br>If the page doesn’t load after 5 seconds, <a href=”YOUR AFFILIATE LINK GOES HERE“>click here</a>.

</p>

</body>

</html>

Now, this is basically a redirect link with the option of having your visitor link through if the page doesn’t load correctly. But that rarely happens but at least you’ll have the backup just incase.

The only things you have to change are the title of the redirect page and simply insert your affiliate link in the proper areas (which I highlighted in red for you guys).

Once you get that done, just save the notepad document with an easy name to remember for the affiliate link and add “.php” as the extension.

So, say you’re cloaking a link for MarketLeverage or something, just save the notepad document as “marketleverage.php” so it’s easy to remember.

Now that you have the redirect file, you want to put that onto your server. I would suggest creating a subfolder titled “goto” or “go” and put the file in there.

Okay, you’re just about done. Now, when you link to your cloaked affiliate link, just use the URL as “http://www.yoursite.com/goto/marketleverage.php” and whenever someone clicks on that, it will redirect them to your affiliate link.

I hope that’s easy enough for you guys. Let me know if you have any questions!