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My First eBook Done And Ready To Be Sent Out

Jay — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 14:43:55 +0000

So, I finally finished my first eBook and it should be ready to distribute shortly to my e-mail subscribers for free. I wanted to keep you guys updated but it actually took me a little longer than I expected but at least you guys aren’t waiting for a whole year anymore!

I originally started this guide as a simple step-by-step for my team who were already somewhat familiar with Wordpress but I decided I would turn it into a full guide so anyone can do this with their Wordpress blogs. The title of the eBook is “How to Write Posts to Get TONS of Search Engine Traffic in Wordpress” and although I’m a little iffy about the title and how long it is, I felt it was better than “How to Write Posts for Search Engines”.

And I wanted to thank Edie for looking it over and proofreading it for me.

This eBook guide is 17 pages and it includes information such as setting up your Wordpress to be SEO friendly with various customizations as well as the specific posting process I have been using for the last couple of years to get hundreds of thousands of unique visitors every month on a couple of my other blogs.

As you know, search engine traffic is best especially if you’re looking to get people to click on your ads or trying to potentially get them to purchase or sign up for something. Most of my traffic from my sites come from search engines.

Some of you guys may have been expecting another type of eBook like “how to make money doing X, Y and Z” but that will come with time. I figured I would dip my feet into the eBook waters first before I jump and do a cannonball. If this eBook gets positive reviews then this will be a stepping stone to a bunch of future eBooks to come.

And if it doesn’t get good reviews, well, that means I just have to work a little harder on the future ones.

Anyways, I’m sending out the link to the eBook later today as well as the passwords to my protected posts to all of my e-mail subscribers who are active. If you are not subscribed via e-mail or have not confirmed or activated your e-mail subscriptions then you will not receive this e-mail to the PDF.

Since I’m not signed up with Aweber or any other e-mail services just yet, I’m doing this all manually so please bear with me. And if you haven’t signed up to receive my RSS Feeds via e-mail, I would suggest doing that soon!

And to end this, I was too lazy to create an eBook cover because I wanted to get this information out to you guys sooner than later. I’ll eventually create one but until then, I hope you enjoy the info!

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How To Convert Word Document To PDF

Jay — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 17:55:36 +0000

How To Convert Word Document To PDF – I just finished my first eBook/guide so I figured I would share how you convert Word docs to PDF format manually for free. Honestly, it’s quite easy and there’s no additional downloading required.

For the most part, I try to type out everything in Microsoft Word so I can see if there are mistakes that really stand out and easy to catch. Since I just finished my eBook (which will be distributed later this week), I figured I’d share with you guys on how to convert these Word documents to PDF format without going through any other website or downloading some program to do it for you.

Of course, I’m sure there’s easier ways of doing this but this is how I have been doing it.

In your Word document, click on “file” and “print”. Simply change the printer name to “Adobe PDF” or “Adobe Distiller”. Next you want to check the box “Print to file” and then press enter.

It should look like this:

When you press enter, it should prompt you to name your file and then save it.

Next you want to open either “Adobe Distiller” or Adobe Acrobat”. One or the other should be already installed on your PC if you’re using Windows. If not, I believe you can download that for free on the Adobe website.

Once you have the program open, simply click “file” and “open” then look for the file you just saved. It should look like “myfile.prn”. Once you open it, it’ll convert to a PDF file for you and all you have to do is save it.

Now wasn’t that as easy as pie? I’m sure there are easier ways of doing this like a simple click of a button but the way I do it is pretty easy as well.

Hope that helped! And yes, the eBook/guide will be sent out this week!

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Would You Steal Someone’s Idea?

Jay — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 13:36:38 +0000

Very simple question: Would you steal someone’s idea? Of course, the answer may not be as simple especially if you have morals and all that good stuff but if you think about it, an idea is just an idea unless someone actually puts that idea to good use.

The other day, I was sitting at a cafe having some lunch with a friend just minding my own business and playing with my new cell phone when the people at the table next to use starting talking about their ideas on a niche website.

Now I wasn’t eavesdropping, the table was literally right next to me. And it’s a pretty small cafe to begin with. But their conversation went something like this:

Cafe Person A: “Hey, can I tell you about my ideas on this new niche blog I’m doing?”

Cafe Person B: “Sure, I’d like to hear it.”

Cafe Person A: “I’m starting this niche site directed at X which will help people out, it has very low competition and I have everything mapped out already. This site isn’t going to go live for at least the next month while the site is being created. The name of the blog is X. What do you think about the name and domain name for it? It doesn’t sound too forced or anything, does it?”

Cafe Person B: “No, it sounds very good. It fits what you’re trying to do with X completely.”

Cafe Person A: “Now with blogs, you need to have some sort of tagline. My tagline is X. Does it sound too much like I’m forcing it?”

Cafe Person B: “I think it’s pretty straightforward. What are your other tagline ideas?”

Cafe Person A: “I have two other ones. Tagline X and Y.”

As you can see, the conversation kept going on and they were literally going over a step-by-step plan. And quite frankly, the idea, plan, website name, etc was actually pretty damn good. I mean, I wouldn’t be writing an entire post on this if it was a stupid or bad idea.

Of course, right after they left, I decided to check if that domain was actually purchase (since they won’t be setting up the site for another month) and it was. And I did some quick research on the very targeted niche and the competition was actually lower than I excepted.

Again, ideas are just ideas unless someone actually does something about it… or copyright it. But in this situation, it is not. Would you potentially take this specific idea and use it for yourself if you knew it would be very targeted and potentially be worth pursuing?

Personally, I’m not sure if I will but of course, I’ll be keeping it in the back of my head. I mean, it’s not about who comes up with the ideas first, it’s almost who does the idea better.

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My New Cell Phone… And New Winner Chosen

Jay — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 12:38:47 +0000

Almost two months ago I asked for your advice on what cell phone should I get and a lot of you guys were very helpful. Also, as a small thank you for taking the time to give me your opinions and advice, I offered a 125×125 ad for free for a month.

Unfortunately, when I announced the winner in my last DatMoney weekly updates I never got a response from the winner so I’m going to narrow down the winner now based on who voted for the cell phone I picked.

But before I do, let me bore you guys with the new phone that I got so you can either tell me how stupid I am or how I made a good decision. Either way, the phone should help me in more ways than one in the long run.

What cell phone did I end up getting?

I ended up purchasing the Samsung Moment (you can see the image below):

This phone is a Smartphone, has the touch screen feature, has a flip out keyboard and has a camera. The main reason for my upgrade is because I wanted something that was somewhat attractive, something that has easy internet access and something I can use for working online as well as personal use. Plus, I wanted to be picky because this is something I’ll probably be using for at least the next couple of years.

I’m not going to lie, I actually wanted the HTC Pro 2 but it was a little too much for my liking. It is the exact business type phone I wanted and it fulfills every personal need a cell phone has. The bad part was the fact that it’s $599.99 at regular price and $299.99 with savings from the upgrade.

That is definitely too much for me. I mean, the regular price is equivalent to a new laptop or desktop computer!

Anyways, I ordered it on Monday, received it at my house on Tuesday and now I’m talking about it today.

Besides activating the phone, one of the first things I did was try to customize it the way I wanted. I added a ringtone or two here, changed the settings there and the first application I downloaded was the Wordpress one.

Isn’t that shameless that the first application I download would be something that would help me work online? I guess that’s where my mind is! Lol!

Update: It looks like I don’t even need the Wordpress application to work on my blogs. I can use just type in the address on the browser like on my pc.

But anyways, so far there are a couple of minor things I’m not a big fan of but overall it was a huge upgrade for me and it’s going to help me in more ways than one.

Let’s get to the new winner (since the last person never claimed their prize)… unlike last time when I picked a winner from everyone who left a comment even before I actually picked which phone I was going to get, this time I’m actually only picking from those who mentioned Samsung Moment as a referral. There were only three people and I just went to random.org and let them pick for me.

The winner is… Syn who left the comment:

I bought the Samsung Moment a couple days ago (used to have an Instinct) and I LOVE this phone. I love the fact that there are hundreds of applications available and most of them are free. I downloaded several last night for my preschool age child (ABC’s, shapes, colors) to keep her occupied during my dr appointment today. Worked great! The twitter app is cool. There are even guitar apps that I downloaded for free to help me with chords. There are free apps for wallpaper, ring tones, communication, finance, etc. I like the keyboard better than any other I’ve tried though the space bar sometimes doesn’t seem to recognize the push (unless it is just me getting used to using this keyboard coming from just a touch screen that my Instinct was). I have to say that out of all the Sprint phones we’ve had (we have five lines and have had sprint for several years so we’ve had quite a few phones), this one is the best so far. The only other thing I’d want to change about it, and hope to see on a future phone, is a 5.0 megapixel camera like the HTC has (that didn’t have QWERTY slideout keyboard so I nixed it from my list). The 3.2 does a good job, better than any of our other phones, but I am a picture taker so I am looking forward to seeing higher megapixels in the future.

Man, talk about a full detailed and helpful comment!

So Syn, if you’re reading this, please contact me and we’ll set you up with an 125×125 ad spot here for one month.

Thanks!

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Tax Brackets 2009 Single | Tax Brackets 2009 Calculator

Jay — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 15:33:09 +0000

Tax Brackets 2009 Calculator - Since we’re still in tax season and a lot of people like to wait until the last minute to get their taxes done (including myself), I figured I would continue on our discussions of taxes by getting out the tax brackets 2009 calculator.

First, let’s go over the tax brackets for 2009 singles. The reason why I’m focusing on singles is simply the fact that I am “single” which basically means I’m not legally married with a spouse living in the same household. Plus, a lot of internet entrepreneurs aren’t married so this list should help them a little bit, especially if this is one of the first times they are filing taxes (or they’re doing it themselves without an accountant).

Here is the tax brackets 2009 single:

- 10% on income between $0 and $8,350
- 15% on the income between $8,350 and $33,950; plus $835
- 25% on the income between $33,950 and $82,250; plus $4,675
- 28% on the income between $82,250 and $171,550; plus $16,750
- 33% on the income between $171,550 and $372,950; plus $41,754
- 35% on the income over $372,950; plus $108,216

If you’re in need of help trying to figure this out, well, I’ll try to explain it.

Basically, whatever amount of money you make within a calendar year would determine your income amount. Of course, you want to minus your tax deductible expenses from that total amount. Once you find out your actual income then you would find out which tax bracket you fall under.

I think most people would fall under the $33,950 to $82,250 so we’ll use that as an example. Say you make $50,000 then you would automatically pay $4,675 which is a flat rate for that bracket. You would also pay 25% of the income as well.

So, until you hit the next tax bracket, you will be paying that amount.

In addition, a lot of people use these tax brackets to figure out other ways you can save by increasing deductions.

I hope I explained this somewhat right LOL!

Anyways, I was trying to embed the tax brackets 2009 calculator but it’s not working out the way I wanted it to so here is a link to a calculator that figures out your estimated tax amount you’ll be paying. The link is http://www.cpasitesolutions.com/content/calcs/Tax1040.html

I hope that helps!

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My First Copyright Infringement Claim

Jay — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 18:30:05 +0000

When I got back home last night I received an odd e-mail from my hosting company with the subject line “Account WILL Be Suspended Urgent Response Required”. Of course, I’ve had numerous chats with my hosting company for help and support so I already knew this e-mail was legit. But I was very curious on what I did wrong to potentially get my account suspended.

As you know, you should always abide by their rules and regulations because they can delete your entire site(s) if you break any of their TOS without even warning you. I’m just lucky they notified me because it looks like a company filed a copyright infringement claim against one of my sites. Well, technically, it was one single post that was apparently ranked second for a popular search term.

My hosting company doesn’t automatically take sides but just like any other claim they have to take it extremely serious. And I’m taking this pretty serious as well and cooperating. They never accused me of anything but when it comes to legal stuff they obviously have to take things seriously.

Of course, I deleted the URLs that I was being accused of because it’s simply not worth the hassle.

Though, I’m not 100 percent sure what I did wrong given the fact that I wrote that post myself. I’m going to have to assume it was either the image I used or maybe I posted about a trademark company. It could very well be both but as of right now I couldn’t tell you until I hear back.

The reason why I’m posting this is to inform you guys to be careful on what you post about, what you include in the posts (images, URLs, etc) and where you get the information from. More importantly, always read TOS carefully before committing to anything.

I try to be positive and look at this situation in a brighter light. I’ve always said that the more haters you have and the more attention your sites are getting whether it’s positive or negative, you’re definitely on the right path to being successful.

Think about it, if I wasn’t ranked on the first page of that particular popular keyword, do you think they would be after me? Probably not. I’m a nobody. Well, a nobody that was ranked second in Google.

But this was my first copyright infringement claim and I am hoping this will be my last as well. Has anyone else had a similar experience before? What do you think was the reasoning for mine?

Any legal people out there? I would definitely like you to drop some knowledge on this. Thanks!

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What Cell Phone Should I Get?

Jay — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 17:00:30 +0000

What cell phone should I get? There’s no trick to this question and this post probably won’t help you too much unless you’re looking for a new cell phone or possibly a new cell phone carrier in 2010. But since I’m in need of a new cell phone, I figured I would ask you guys for your opinions. Hey, you help me and I try to help you guys, right?

Matter of fact, if I end up choosing a phone you recommend, I’ll give you a 125×125 ad spot for one month FREE. But keep reading for details…

What Cell Phone Should I Get?

It seems as though I’ve been getting pickier and pickier on my decisions as the years go by. And that’s not just cell phones, it’s a lot of things. But here are the main things I’m looking for in a cell phone: internet access to surf any webpage anywhere I go, camera, video camera, text and the ability to actually talk on the cell phone.

More recently, I’ve been attracted to touchscreen features but for some reason I don’t want an iPhone. On top of that, if I talk on the phone, my greasy face will be pressed up against it. Though, the Android or something equivalent seems to catch my attention.

Below are just a couple of choices I managed pick out that caught my attention.

Palm Pre

The thing I like about the Palm Pre is the slide-out keyboard feature, touchscreen, internet access, camera with flash as well as the 8GB internal storage for your music, pics, etc. Also, you can also view Word docs, PDF, PowerPoint so that would be helpful for my business aspects.

The biggest downfall that I noticed is the fact the Palm Pre does not have a video camera feature!

Samsung Moment

It seems as though I’m favoring the Samsung Moment because it’s like the Android but a little better. The things that I like are the slide-out keyword feature, touchscreen, internet access, corporate e-mail (outlook) which can hook up any of my sites e-mails, SD memory card, camera with zoom and video camera (but no flash)… also, it comes with an optical joystick.

The thing I’m not a big fan of is the size and weight. I think it’s slightly larger than the iPhone by half an inch. I usually like to carry my cell phone in my pocket and, well, it’s huge man!

HTC Phones

There are various HTC phones and they are similar to the other two phones mentioned here except smaller and with a few things missing. Though, the biggest thing is the cost difference is almost twice as expensive as the previous two mentioned.

Others

Any other recommendations? Also, I’m not a huge fan of the Blackberry’s for some reason. Don’t ask me why but I just don’t find it too appealing or comfortable for my needs. Also, keep in mind I’m currently with Sprint… and with that said…

What Cell Phone Provider Should I Get?

My contract is up with Sprint and even with all the bad reviews and things people say about them, I don’t mind them. They have good service and most of the bad reviews is because they have sucky customer service even though good customer service is what they try to preach.

On top of that, the rare times I had a dispute with them over the past few years, they mentioned to fix the problem at no additional cost and supply me with additional free service stuff. And even when I replaced my phone they didn’t charge me a dime (usually you have to pay the insurance fee or whatever for like $50?).

The main cell phone providers that I know of are T-Mobile, Verizon and AT&T. And honestly, I’m not a fan of either and I also heard bad things about all of them as well.

I would probably cross off AT&T already because the only reason why I would sign up with them is for the iPhone but since I’m not getting one, it’s an easy decision.

With T-Mobile, I heard the phone service isn’t that good but they have a lot of cool phones and features.

Verizon, well, I have them for my internet provider and home phone and I’m not really impressed either lol.

More than likely I’m going to stay with Sprint unless I’m convinced otherwise. What do you guys think?

Win a Free 125×125 Ad Spot for a Month

So, help me pick a cell phone and if I end up buying that cell phone, you could win a 125×125 ad spot here for one month. Of course, a lot of people may end up picking the same phone for me to get and if that happens, that group of people will go into a random drawing for the 125×125 ad spot.

Also, keep in mind that I do not want to advertise spam, porn, illegal or any site that will get me in trouble or whatever.

I’m sure there will be a fine more guidelines coming out but as of right now, I’m pretty open.

But… um… help? Please?

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Pagerank Update 2010

Jay — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 13:18:25 +0000

I’m a little late but I actually just noticed this earlier last week. There was a pagerank update 2010 that was apparently done on New Year’s and we’re all seeing it now. Of course, I’m always mentioning that pagerank means nothing and pagerank is useless and so on but some of you guys like to live and die by it.

Currently, DatMoney is still a PR0 on this update and I’m perfectly fine with that. I checked most of my keyword rankings and nothing has drastically changed. I may have moved up a position or down one but all and all, it seems as though I’m still ranking just fine in Google. That’s all I care for and that’s all you guys should really care for too.

Some people assume things about how valuable pagerank is but in actuality, you don’t need one to get ranked on the first page of a popular keyword. If that were the case, a lot of smaller blogs would outrank just about everyone!

One of my sites is a PR4 and ever since the new pagerank update, I swear I’m getting ranked and indexed worse than I was before. I see a lot of my posts getting ranked 10-15 when previously it was in the top 5. Also, I noticed that instead of my posts getting indexed within a day (or two), it seems as though it takes about a week on average now.

Shoot, I rather have a PR0 and have my posts indexed within a day than a PR4 and having it index a week later! I guess that’s just an example that pagerank is basically useless.

It’s pretty useless similar to this post. I just figure some of you guys like to know when Google updates their pageranks and stuff so I figured I’d mention it. Though, most of the time I’m just bashing how worthless a pagerank really is and how unimportant it is when it comes to getting traffic or making money online.

Anyways, how did you guys do on this pagerank update?

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Affiliate Summit 2010

Jay — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 13:51:42 +0000

Is anyone attending the Affiliate Summit 2010 that is taking place in Las Vegas? Well, it starts this weekend and I heard it’s going to be a blast. Unfortunately, I will not be attending (again) because I have other responsibilities. Though, who wouldn’t want to go to Sin City?

I’ve had plenty of chances to go to previous Affiliate Summits particularly the one that was held in Boston, where I currently live. The unfortunate part is I don’t plan ahead too often and there’s a reason behind that. Most of the time when I plan far in advance, those same plans just collapse and nothing goes right.

On top of that, I have a busy schedule to begin with. Remember I still work full-time at my day job as well as try to keep up with all my online stuff. And of course, I try to balance that out with somewhat of a social life to keep myself sane.

But if you have never been to an Affiliate Summit, such as myself, then I heard you’re missing out. Every single time a new summit comes around the number of attendees just continue to increase. And since this time around it’s going to be held at Las Vegas, I would assume that they will have even more people attending.

I heard they have a lot of events that sound interesting enough to join. This year, in particular, they are going to have a charity poker event on top of the expo halls, interviews, dinners, etc. I’m sure you guys know that I’m a big poker fan and I’ll play when I have a chance. Unfortunately, I haven’t had as much time to go dedicate myself to playing poker as of late.

Besides going to Las Vegas, enjoying the scenery and events, the other primary reason why I would go is the simple fact of networking and finally getting a chance to meet a bunch of other online entrepreneurs. I’ve been networking more and more and it’s always nice meeting people, learning new things as well as teaching.

Plus, meeting people in person is completely different from meeting online. They will actually get a chance to see who you are, talk to you and get to know you. I’m a goofy/funny guy who almost always has a smile on my face and if there are some people like me, it’s always good to see who that person is behind the computer screen.

Anyways, are any of you guys attending the Affiliate Summit West 2010 or have you ever attended one before? Let me know and I’d be interested in your experience with it.

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Get Paid For Your Ideas?

Jay — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 15:22:21 +0000

So, I’ve run into various places in which you get paid for your ideas but to me, it’s all on an honor system and believe it or not, a lot of people are not honest.

There are plenty of websites like this. The very first one I ran into was a website in which you come up with domain name ideas for potential clients and if your domain name idea gets picked, you get paid.

The one I noticed most recently was on Sitepoint. They have a new section on their website entitled “Name My Thingy” in which people post what they are looking for and you guys come up with the idea and get paid for it. The thing I’m not a big fan of is the simple fact that you really have no way to prove an “idea” is yours.

Of course, you can go through the whole legal system, create a blueprint of your idea and get it copyrighted but then again, who really wants to go through all that hassle to get paid a few dollars? A few hundreds? Okay, if it were thousands, then I would definitely consider getting my “idea” copyrighted.

But the thing about it is when most people see someone offering $100 for an idea they think that’s a bargain. What if they liked your idea, decide not to pay you and then use your idea anyways? There’s nothing you can really do but report them to Sitepoint or whatever third party company you’re using if you actually see them doing it, right?

On top of that, I’d feel kind of weird if my “idea” was used by a company and it exploded into a million dollar theme. For instance, the guy that came up with the slogan for Nike, “Just Do It”.

Anyways, I guess this just became more of a rant with question more than anything. If you guys are interested in paying someone for ideas, Sitepoint’s Name My Thingy is currently FREE to get things listed. Take advantage of the free opportunities while they’re still around.

But have you guys ever tried out places that pay you for your ideas?