The main reason why I’m posting is simply the fact that a couple of people e-mailed me and requested a quick mention of something going on their blog. So, ask and you shall receive!

1. First, Gyutae of Winningtheweb.com started his version of the top Internet Marketing blogs which is a little more in depth for an overall blog as they have more metrics to rank each site.

Rather than just Google Pagerank, Alexa and Technorati ratings, they also base it on RSS Feed count, StumbleUpon Reviews, Del.icio.us votes, Compete ranking, as well as Yahoo Inbound links.

Of course, with every metric system, there are flaws and things people will not agree with. I’ll be e-mailing Gyutae back when I have a moment with my feedback.

2. Trent of SPMM is running his first contest (I believe) on his blog. His contest is for adults or anyone that makes (or wants to make) money with adult sites. There’s a few ways you can enter, either by signing up through his referral link for adult affiliate networks and make the most money, blog about the contest, subscribe or even just comment on his blog post.

He has some great prizes including your very own paysite for free!

Just a quick suggestion, though, the prizes should be highlighted under its own headline. That way people will know exactly what they have a shot at winning, which usually determines if they want to enter the contest to begin with.

Hurry because the contest ends on December 31^st .

3. Suzanne of Suzannefranco.com intrigued me to post about one of her strategies she used for the Blogging Idol competition. She basically contacted some internet guru’s for their support . She even took it a bit further and made an entire video asking for support.

Of course, John Chow responded by giving his support, posting her Youtube video as well as getting her quite a few subscribers.

Nice strategy Suzanne!

4. Jim of Thenetfool.com had me dying with his TylerCruz Spoof Post simply making fun of Tyler Cruz’s fifty million affiliate marketing challenge contests. I’m not going to lie, it’s definitely a good way of easing things up on a MMO blog but also to get the attention of some big names.

Plus, it’s definitely a good way to get some traffic as well! I may consider writing a spoof post on Jim!

5. Jay of Suitej.com let’s us know that the Revolution WP themes are now FREE ! This is actually old news because it happened a few weeks ago but then again, I haven’t posted a link love post for quite sometime now.

Plus, I’m sure there are still a lot of people who don’t know they are free. Make sure you check out the Revolution themes site and download them now before you have to pay for them again.

There were more posts that caught my attention and definitely interesting enough to post but I honestly can’t remember all of them. If you have (or know of) any posts that you’d like to mention on here, just send me an e-mail. If I think it’s worthy or interesting enough, then I’ll post it.

But don’t worry, I think every request has been approved!

Since Blogging Idol officially started, my subscribers have increased as much as 70 but currently, I’m only sitting on 60 which ranks me in 25th place. But I haven’t been able to promote as much as I want simply because I have priorities from previous commitments I have made.

Honestly, I’m at a point in which I’m so behind in the contest that I’m not sure if I should devote so much time and effort in trying to get myself back into it. Don’t get me wrong, it’s definitely doable because I have some ideas in mind.

But just like any ideas, that’s all it will be if I don’t execute. I had an entire list on how I was going to get subscribers but I simply haven’t been executing my ideas like I wanted to. All my ideas to increase my RSS Feed subscribers are about 90% fool proof but unfortunately, it does take time to get it done.

For instance, I barely tested out this one method and it slowly but surely shot my RSS Feed count up 200+ previously but I stopped that method and so did my increase.

And before anyone points fingers, my methods are not blackhat methods at all. Let’s say it works a lot better on a blog that isn’t in the same niche as DatMoney.com but I wanted to test my luck with this blog instead of any of my other ones.

Now, I’m not going to beg anyone (please, PLEASE!!! Subscriber two or three times if you have to!) to subscribe to my RSS Feeds but it does have its benefits. Besides getting great content delivered directly to you, you’ll also be eligible to get the password to the $100/Day Adsense post.

Of course, I’m going to be writing a post very soon on easy tactics to increase your backlinks. A couple of them may be on the borderline of unethical but I don’t think so.

Oh, and not to mention the fact that if I do win Blogging Idol, I’ll be giving away $500 to one of my lucky readers.

The benefit for subscribing to my RSS Feeds doesn’t stop there either. I will show you, all I ask is for you to give me a chance.

Before I go, I am looking for blogs to guest post on. It doesn’t matter which niche it is in, just as long as you have over 200+ subscribers then I’d be interested in submitting a guest post.

Let me know if you know of any blogs that wouldn’t mind me guest posting for them.

My friend decided to go through a cheap hosting company, one that I have never heard of before. Matter of fact, I think he’s been with them for a few months now as they currently host two of his sites.

Of course, just recently the hosting company decided to suspend his account for having an “open relay” which is apparently against their TOS.

If you have any idea on what that means, please do let me know.

But my friend essentially has not changed anything to his hosting. I mean, he is only hosting two Wordpress blogs on there, how suspicious can that be?

Anyways, he let me read his entire conversation with their customer service and to sum it up, they were not helpful or friendly at all.

First, they did not explain properly what an “open relay” was besides the fact that it was against their TOS. They would not let him access his own files to even transfer off their servers. They said they were going to help get this situation corrected but after two days they still have yet to do anything.

If you’re an online entrepreneur, you know each day and each hour you’re unable to access your sites means you’re losing money. Of course, my friend tried to explain that to them and was asking what they would do about the situation or if there was going to be any reimbursements at all.

Guess what they said? They had the nerve to reply back saying that a day or two is not going to hurt him drastically with their revenue and they “know how advertising works.”

I don’t know about you guys, but I got pissed off myself when I read that part. And trust me, if you had the opportunity to read the entire transcript of their conversation, you’d be even more pissed.

But my friend did some research and found out that this situation has happened to others before. Matter of fact, he showed me some review sites of the hosting with people commenting saying they steal people’s site files! I read the comments as well and let’s say most of them were horrible reviews, especially about their customer support.

At this point, I honestly didn’t know what to tell my friend besides the fact that he probably shouldn’t have gone with a cheap web hosting company. If you do, you’re going to get what you paid for.

And that goes with anything, if you decide that you want to save an extra two dollars to get your money’s worth, well, in the long run you’re going to pay a lot more than what you bargained for.

Lessoned learned! Now go sign up with Lunarpages instead!

But before you do, here are a few things that I learnt from affiliate marketing so far. Don’t make some really stupid mistakes I have made. But also, I have learnt some interesting things I wouldn’t have known if I didn’t jump into action instead of just letting my words do all the talking.

1. Keyword research is key to PPC affiliate marketing – If you’ve mastered keyword research then PPC affiliate marketing should be that much easier for you. Most of it is finding the best keywords that convert at the cheapest price and narrowing down your selection to the best ones.

2. Put “{keyword}” at the end of your affiliate links – I read about this and it definitely helps you a lot with PPC marketing. When you type in {keyword} (type it exactly as shown), it lets you track what keywords your visitors are coming from, which ones convert, and so on. This will definitely help you narrow down which keywords aren’t converting for you.

Ask your affiliate manager where to find it and if you need help with it.

3. Always read the TOS for each affiliate network – Most affiliate networks have similar TOS and guidelines but you always want to remember to read it carefully because if you screw up, you might lose more than just your money you’ve earned.

4. Be careful with your marketing techniques (especially with social networking sites) – Like I said previously, make sure you read the TOS of your affiliate network carefully. For instance, when doing search marketing, Market Leverage has one for social media and bulletin boards:

Social Media and Bulletin Boards. MarketLeverage strictly forbids the use of social media profiles (e.g., Facebook or MySpace) and bulletin boards (e.g., Craigslist) to advertise or distribute Search Marketing Content. Notwithstanding the foregoing, this does not preclude You from purchasing keywords which reside on social media websites to advertise and distribute Search Marketing Content.

5. Keywords you cannot bid on – Did you know you can’t bid on certain keywords such as “diet pills” unless you have a pharmaceutical license? Oh, but it doesn’t stop there. There are plenty more keywords like that, and you wonder why those keywords were so low when you were bidding for them, huh?

6. Quality Scores suck – If you don’t know what quality score is, it’s basically a ranking system for Google to determine if you have enough content on your site/landing page. If your landing page doesn’t meet their criteria and requirements then more than likely your bids for the keywords for those campaigns will be extremely higher than normal.

7. Be careful writing your Adwords ad campaigns – First, your display URL has to match your destination URL. For instance, if you have an affiliate link that’s like iBlogtoBlog.com/yourkeywordshere , that would go in your destination URL but then you would have to put iBlogtoBlog.com as the display URL and not DatMoney.com

Also, there are certain words you cannot use on your ads. Honestly, I can’t remember the example I wanted to give but Google will basically tell you that you can’t use those terms.

Additionally, I would suggest not lying on your ad campaigns because yes, you might get tons of clicks and traffic but if those visitors are lied to, they weren’t convert. To sum it up, you’ll just be losing money! (I should’ve made that it’s own point)

8. Always check the landing page you’re promoting – If you create your own landing pages for your campaigns, then you don’t have to worry. But say you’re taking one straight from the affiliate network and linking to it through PPC, make sure you check it because that may determine if you should promote it or not.

There are various reasons that include the quality score of the landing page and if it’s a spammy site, but one thing I didn’t know was the fact that Google does not allow sites with pop-ups to be advertised through their PPC ads.

Of course, one campaign I was promoting didn’t have it but a few days after I was making money, then must have added it because Google shut down my PPC campaign because of it.

9. Don’t rely on “estimations” for PPC – Before you bid on keywords, you can always check an estimated amount that each keyword is going for through Google’s Traffic Estimator, but in my experience, they are usually inaccurate by a lot.

For instance, I would look up a keyword and it’s estimate is about $0.50-$1.00 per click… then I get to Adwords and the minimum bid is like $6.00! Good lord that’s a huge difference!

10. Don’t pick campaigns based on how much they will pay you – Yes, it sounds nice that you’d get $75/sale, right? But just because you would potentially get that, it doesn’t mean you will. You have to remember that those campaigns need to convert for you to get anything, if they don’t, more than likely you’d be wasting your money and your time.

Also, if you’re starting out and pick a campaign that pays you $3.00/lead but you’re spending $5.00 bidding on keywords through PPC, you’ll get tons of people to convert but overall you’ll be at a loss no matter what .

Well, unless all the keyword competitors just drop which I highly doubt in this day and age.

I’ve learnt a lot more from affiliate marketing but these 10 points are just a start, especially for people who haven’t tested out affiliate marketing that always wanted to.

Again, I never claimed I was an expert in affiliate marketing but at least I’ve taken action and I’ve gained a lot more knowledge to build of off.

Let me know if you have any questions!

Remember when we sold ListLunatic.com with the latest site flip and whoever guessed the closest to the sale price would get a piece of the profit? See, I’m just trying to share some of my success with you guys. I won’t beat around the bush with this, if I win, you guys will win.

And just as long as I continue to succeed, I’m going to try my hardest to bring you guys with me. Though, that means I would actually have to win this competition just like we had to actually sell ListLunatic.

Well, if I win Blogging Idol, I will be sharing up to $500 of the winnings with you guys. Of course, there are two catches: first, I have to actually win the competition for you guys to get a piece of the winnings. And secondly, you guys would have to be subscribed to my RSS Feeds via e-mail to be entered for a chance to win.

I know I’m sounding like someone running for president or governor trying to get your vote and promising all these things to you if I win. But fortunately for you guys, I’m not a politician so I won’t be lying.

Anyways, if I do win, I will be randomly selecting five winners at $100 each. But don’t worry, you have a chance to win all five times and up to $500 if you do!

All I’m asking is for you guys to stay subscribed (or subscribe if you haven’t already done so), spread the word about helping me win Blogging Idol as well as anything else you think would help me.

Because when it comes down to it, if you help me, obviously I will help you!

So, again, if I win Blogging Idol, I will randomly select five winners at $100 each from my e-mail subscribers list.

Good luck to me as well as to you guys!

Side note: For everyone who sent me an e-mail asking for the password to the $100/day Adsense post, I will be sending that out in a large batch sometime randomly this month so just pay attention to your e-mail!

A lot of people continue to e-mail me asking for the password to the "how I made $100/day Adsense" post and instead of replying to everyone individually, I will make you guys a deal – just subscribe to my RSS Feeds via e-mail and you’ll get it.

A few people thought I was just bullshitting trying to say I protected that post as a publicity stunt but in actuality, there were a few readers that didn’t want me to expose how I did it because spammers would find out and it would hurt those that know how to do it (including myself!).

You can even check out this post to see some commentators calling me out as well as people that have already tried this technique and knows that it works. So, without a doubt, my way just proves you can make $100/day strictly from Adsense alone . Matter of fact, you guys should be able to make more than me because I tend to procrastinate and I’m pretty, um, lazy.

But in addition to that password protected post, I will also have upcoming posts that will help you step by step on how I make money online, but in full details. And unlike most people, I will also give you a URL so you can see proof and go through the site so you can replicate it yourself, if you wanted to, of course.

I was going to write an eBook but I think that method is a little overrated and it does take additional time in which I don’t have. Plus, this is an easier way of handling and managing it on my end.

The only thing I ask is for you to subscribe to my RSS Feeds via e-mail and I will send you the passwords to my $100/day Adsense post as well as any future password protected posts. Unfortunately, I will only be sending the passwords to those that subscribe via e-mail so if you have DatMoney in your RSS readers, I would suggest subscribing via e-mail.

But don’t worry, I understand that some of you guys hate having posts delivered to your inbox every single time I write a new article. I’m not asking for you to stay subscribed via e-mail forever but just until the beginning of December.

Of course, if you stay subscribed via e-mail, you’ll also be automatically entered into any future contests I hold. And just a sneak peak, I will have a pretty good prize for an upcoming contest so look out for that!

Anyways, if you are interested, just enter your e-mail below and confirm and you’ll receive passwords by the end of the month.

I have a resignation letter template for you guys when you finally quit that day job and do something that you’ve always wanted to do; let’s say, working online full-time?

As a lot of you guys know, I currently work a day job on top of all the things I do online. Yes, I have a lot of student loans to pay off on top of all the bills I have on a regular basis but I just can’t wait for the day I’m able to submit my resignation letter to my current employer.

People tell me that I motive them and give them inspiration with all the things that I do online but I say you guys give me the motivation I need to reach that goal to work online full-time. I enjoy what I do online and I’m sure a lot of you guys do. I mean, who doesn’t like to work their own hours, be their own boss, make a lot of money and so on?

I do. And I have my resignation letter prepared for that day that I can say “I no longer need this job. I have paid off all my student loans. I want to be happy doing what I like best… working online.”

Can you say the same? If you can, you’re already a step ahead of me.

I hope this post gives you motivation because in life, we just need that extra push to our goals. And what better motivation to quit your day job than a reminder of a resignation letter that is on your wall?

Anyways, below are a few sample resignation letters for you to use:

Basic resignation letter:

Dear (supervisor’s name),

I hereby tender my resignation from my position as (your position).

My last day will be on (last day of work – usually at the end of the week on a Friday), two weeks from today, as per our contractual agreement.

Sincerely,

(your name)

Relocation resignation letter:

Dear (supervisor’s name),

This resignation letter is to inform you that my last day at (company name) will be (last day of work – usually at the end of the week on a Friday), two weeks from today. I will be relocating to (city, state) to pursue a new endeavor.

I have appreciated the opportunities and experiences that have been provided to me during my (number of years with company) years of service for (company name). If there is anything I can do to be of assistance during the transition, please let me know.

Sincerely,

(your name)

Sincere/more personal resignation letter:

Dear (supervisor’s name),

I am writing you to officially tender my resignation from (company name) effective Friday, (last day of work).

Working for (company name) has been a wonderful experience. I could not ask for a better group of colleagues. I have grown in many ways here and will always treasure the opportunities provided for me by (company name).

I will be accepting a position as (position) with (company name). While I will miss my friends here at (company name), I feel that it is time for a new challenge and experience in my career.

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask.

Best Wishes,

(your name)

Good luck and if there is anything you ever need help with, please feel free to just drop me an e-mail.

The following is a paid review in my honest opinion. Being paid is good but it does not influence the review. If you’re interested in a review of your site or product, please visit my advertising page .

I know a lot of people are interested to jump into affiliate marketing and if you don’t know where to begin, well, StoreStacker can definitely help you out in more ways than one.

As I was checking out StoreStacker.com , it impressed me because it literally sets you up with an affiliate online store or website within minutes. So, if setting up landing pages was your biggest concern for getting into affiliate marketing, well, you’ve just crossed off another thing off your list for getting started.

But that’s not even the best part, all the affiliate products are imported to your site or store automatically . I know what you’re thinking, “I don’t want just random products all imported.” And you don’t have to worry either. With StoreStacker , the user is in complete control of everything that includes the product listings (in which you have access to over 10 million products) for whatever niche you want, the content, how the site looks and so on.

As a StoreStacker user, you also have the ability to import on-topic videos from Youtube as well as relevant articles from any RSS Feed source. And if I read currently, they’re one of the only sites who actually does that. Additionally, they have videos to guide you through the entire process. I know I’m a visual type of person so that definitely helps!

Don’t worry, it gets better. Personally, I’m one of the laziest people you will meet so getting everything as automated as possible is what my goal is (and it should be yours too!). For instance, they have an automatic SEO and content updater for your site which takes off all the stress of trying to get ranked in Google.

StoreStacker.com is definitely an interesting way of starting your affiliate career and you can be extremely profitable as well. Most BANS or store-generating tools seem to only have eBay for products but StoreStacker much more including Amazon, Clickbank, Overstock and more.

Again, it’s automated so it’s right there in your face without you having to do tons of work searching for random products.

Some additional features that may interest you include:

- Commissionjunction is going to be added to the mix within the next month or two.

- It comes with 12 templates, user manual, video tutorials as well as on-call e-mail support.

- You can build it from scratch and add it to your current site to take full advantage of the traffic you’re getting now

- One time purchase. Most places sell you a license in which you can use for only one site, and if you want to use it on other sites, you have to pay more. Well, to join is just a flat rate and you can use it on as many sites as you want.

Lastly, you get to keep 100% of your commission you earn from your affiliate products and like I quickly mentioned previously, it’s a one time fee to join StoreStacker with absolutely no recurring fees whatsoever.

Okay, there’s a catch. I mean, there always is, right? The main catch I can see is the fact that you need to pay $97 for an unlimited domain license and $25 for additional featured plugins. That definitely isn’t bad, given the fact that most affiliates pay way more for that to get a lot less.

So, if you want to get into affiliate marketing but you’re lazy like me, try StoreStacker because it might help you out more than you think!

So, most people know that we started this site due to the fact that there was a site flipping contest that was going on at siteflipu.com . And unfortunately, that contest went right down the drain due to the lack of people participating; in addition, I think some people were just intimated by our group.

My group members included Girish, Sean and Forest and it was a pleasure working with all of them. But I think a lot of the credit has to go to our group leader, Girish, because he was the one who negotiated the sale and also he spoke up when we were all slacking off.

The site now belongs to a gentleman named Tom. I haven’t met him directly but Girish says he seems like a pretty good guy, so that was good enough for me. I would like to thank Tom for taking the time out to check out our site and for the purchase but also a special thanks to my group members.

Personally, I will be working with Girish on a site flipping project once again if anyone is interested.

Okay, enough with all the babbling because you guys are probably wondering who guessed the closest to the sale amount, especially since I said I was going to give a small percentage of my cut to whoever guessed the closest.

It was definitely interesting looking at everybody’s guesses especially since I didn’t provide too many stats for you guys so you were guessing blindly. There were guesses on how much the site would sell for ranging anywhere between $50 and $2,500.

In my mind eyes, I thought the site was going to sell for somewhere in the $500 range but it actually sold for a total of $2,000 which was split into four ways. Technically, Bruce (guessed $2,500) and Downloadic (guessed $1,500) were the closest guesses. Since we have a semi-tie, I can either just put you guys in a random.org pick (which I already did) or I can let you guys split that small chunk of change.

I figure 10 percent of my personal cut which is $50 would be a decent amount just for guessing. If you guys want to split that cost, feel free to do so or random.org will just determine the winner from the two.

Please contact me via my contact form with your decision and Paypal info so I can send that money over to you.

Anyways, congratulations to everyone! If you missed out on this then I guess you aren’t a subscriber of mine. Well, this just adds to another benefit of being one of my subscribers so feel free to add me to your RSS Feeds.

Plus, I will be writing up a detailed post (maybe even an eBook) on the step by step process of how we sold the site and what we did to accomplish that. Only e-mail subscribers will get the password/eBook so make sure you subscribe or just enter your e-mail below:

There have been a few changes this time, especially the fact that the first one was extremely controversial in the sense that people were accused of cheating.

Basically, Blogging Idol is a contest to see who can gain the most RSS Feed subscribers within a given period. Of course, it’s only the difference. So, if you have 1,200 subscribers but gain 10 by the time the contest ends, your entry was 10 total subscribers and not 1,210.

A few changes have been made including which blog I’m entering into the contest.

The first Blogging Idol was almost a trial and error but they’ve definitely made it a lot better with the rules, point system, prizes and even judges.

I’ll just point out the differences from the first one:

-This time around, any blog that has 2,000 subscribers or less can enter. I believe last time it was anyone less than 1,000.
- They started a point system. Points will be awarded from three main categories: highest increase of RSS Feed subscribers, highest number of votes, and judges decision.
- Judges. They didn’t have judges, just Daniel. Now they have 3 judges just like American Idol.
- $4,500+ in cash and prizes. Last time it was definitely less than that but they still managed to keep the $1,000 in cash.

In the first one, I entered iBlogtoBlog.com because I had this strategy in store for it. Unfortunately, I had too many things on my plate and I didn’t get to implement it until the last 2-3 days of the contest.

I ended up with a measly 70 subscribers for my entry to the contest.

This time I will be entering DatMoney.com into the competition because I’ve been procrastinating on a lot of things including building up my stats. I’m not sure how I’m going to do but I have a few things in mind, I just need to actually implement these strategies.

The best part of the contest (besides the prizes which includes $1,000 in CASH!) is the fact that everyone tends to work together and everyone only benefits from it. I mean, I can guarantee we will all increase our traffic simply from entering.

Look at it like this: you’ll get a backlink from Daniel which has 14,000+ subscribers already, some of his readers will check out your blog, in addition, all your competitors will want to see how everyone else is doing and what strategies they’re implementing.

To enter, simply send Daniel an e-mail via his contact form. Personally, I’m still waiting to hear back but let’s hope my e-mail reached him just fine.