As I continue to count down the days until I move overseas, I had another opportunity to do some cash work today - with a scrap metal company that primarily retrieves old, unused cars from the poorer ghetto's and slums of Sydney, Australia.
What an eye opener this was for me!.jpg)
It was an eye opener for two reasons actually. As an office based IT worker all my life, I have never before worked in blue collar trades or jobs that exposed me to how the poorer folk live and interact. So just seeing and experiencing the ghetto culture albeit for a few hours was gobsmacking, the kids roaming unwatched by their parents and the absolute appalling conditions people live in was the first major shock of the experience. You hear and read of the struggling areas, but until your working right in the heart of it - it has to be experienced to be believed. The kids were running around rubbish piles, the stink of the houses was like nothing I have ever smelt! Just being near the front door; you could smell the damp, mold and general beyond repair state of the places. Kids roamed in unwashed clothes as they walked through uncut knee high grass! Man this was just a whole new world.
The second surprise was the amount of money to be made out of scrap metal. Not only were the abandoned cars netting big dollars for the companies searching for them, but the additional earnings from: tyres, car radios, speakers and other accessories off some of the older cars was a very interesting sight. These guys could literally get close to 300 or 400 in total from salvaging the abandoned car and are doing close to 10-15 cars a day. A little known, but very profitable niche thats for sure.
So anyway, as this computer nerd continues to get his hands dirty with these odd jobs from day to day until I jetset out of the country - its nice earning cash dollars too, the tax benefits make up the short fall in earnings :)
I thought I would take some photos with my Nokia 3G Phone (Nokia 6680 Model) - which only has a 1.3 mp camera - (yes I know I need an upgrade) but anyway, the photos give you an idea of what I was up to.
Money making in the Ghetto
Wife Kills Blogger
How much do interruptions hamper your blogging efforts? Whether it be loud outside noises, your kids or even your pets - getting away from it all to think about and write a blog post can be tough.
For me, the wife is the killer.
It usually starts along the lines of "Can you step away from that PC for just a few hours!" and if that is not successful, regular yelling or attempted conversation from a large distance usually follows. And because I struggle to hear at the best of times, I usually have to leave my desk and find the lovely wife to finish the conversation or risk a verbal dressing down.
Unfortunately I have don't have the budget of a John Chow or Shoemoney so I can't afford to build a sound and bomb proof bunker to do my blogging in. (Oh how nice that would be, especially Shoemoney's custom built PC bunker - sensational) Anyway, I had a cheaper solution in mind.
Go Mobile.
I went out and bought a new notebook. An ACER Aspire 5720G, I thought this would be ideal - I could simply take my blogging to the lounge room, the bath and even the toilet. Yes, believe it - many good posts are made while relaxing in the hot tub. (I won't talk about my posts on the toilet) But anyway, it's a pretty good escape.
My problem now is not putting finger to keyboard, but the interruptions while I think of blog posts are bringing on writers block! Yes the dreaded word, something I have never had before - the painful nagging of the wife is causing me to lose my will to blog. Yes it could be true - wife kills blogger.
A more inspired post soon! (PS - Am working on a new banner for the site and hope to have some more pictures and video up soon.)
Million Dollar Ideas
I read a really good post this morning over at the Business Opportunities Weblog; the best 7 niches that will enable you to make your first million dollars. Maybe you have that million dollar idea? I have rattled off the 7 ideas in my video, here they are in text format:
1. Anti-Aging Market
2. Fast Food / Franchising Market
3. Coffee Market
4. Senior Citizens Market
5. Technology/Web Market
6. Pet Market
7. Marketing and Sales
I started tossing around ideas for a startup in each category -
1. TV Show: Aging Idol? (Public votes on youngest looking senior each week)
2. Home Delivery: Taking McDonalds and KFC type food to the door
3. Office Delivery: Similar to above, taking coffee to the cubicle
4. Travel: Develop new, safe and enjoyable travel tours for seniors
5. Internet Rehab: A program to reduce reliance on computer and internet access
6. Pet Cams: A cam and speaker allowing you to chat to a pet from anywhere
7. eBay Store ideas; massive world wide marketplace
Quick Cash in Hand Jobs
With my upcoming relocation overseas, I have recently put my house up for rent and had quit my job a few months ago anticipating a quick lease setup.
Things had dragged on a little longer than I first thought, so going without the monthly pay packet started to become tough. While I have had plenty of time to blog and try and forge my niche online, I am not really ready to retire from the workforce just yet! (On current earnings anyway)
With my relocation overseas only weeks away, it wasn't practical to sign up for a new job in my IT background - typically roles are permanent, even contract roles are at least 3 months; so I had to think of ways to earn some quick cash.
After putting the word out to friends I was after some odd jobs, the requests came rolling in. From computer repairs, to removalist work and finally a taxi service!
Just today I assisted in a removal service. Unloading a shipping container and transporting household goods to the residential streets of Sydney. It was hard work, my IT nerd background not the ideal setting for heavy lifting and fitness work - but it was several hundred dollars cash for only a few hours work.
The request for taxi work was a surprise to me, I had several friends of friends mention their need for transport after late night drinking expeditions. Getting use of a van, I was able to do some people moving during the early hours of the morning after big nights out and earn myself some more cash.
So whats the point of the story? Well, when you really sniff around there are plenty of ways to turn around some dollars without selling your soul to a boss. While it's a goal for many folks to earn some bucks online, sometimes when you just look in simple places in the real world - quick and easy cold hard cash is waiting to be earned. Go Get Some!
Chris Crocker; Overnight Success
Who is Chris Crocker? A 19 year old kid from the USA, a seriously devoted fan of Britney Spears and a regular YouTube poster of crazy video's of himself having seriously wacky nervous break downs. Check out all of this weirdo's videos here: http://www.youtube.com/user/itschriscrocker
The mainstream media picked up on Chris Crocker in the past few weeks, his YouTube video on Britney Spears now exceeding 8 million views. It seems his crazy little home video has launched him into worldwide fame, the crazy teenager has now been signed by a major TV network and will have his own TV show in the not too distant future.
Here is his outrageously funny YouTube video:
The viral spread of this video through the internet and it's quick pick-up by mainstream media shows exactly how quickly a virtual unknown person can become discovered overnight. Ok, so Chris' niche is kind of weird, whacky and emo-like - but hey, it shows that anyone can make it. Right? Hahaha.
It made me think of the Star Wars Kid. If you haven't heard the story of the Star Wars Kid - check out the whole story at this Wikipedia Link
Good luck to these guys, they are weird, whacky and different - lets hope they can make some bucks from their time in the spotlight.
Joel Comm Joins Us
Thanks to a recent post by Jim Kukral, I went about monetizing the blog here and setting the template up in readiness for advertisers.
While the fear is always that too many advert's can scare potential readers away; I took a deep breath and began reshuffling the template. Look at the likes of John Chow, Darren Rowse and The Shoe Man; they have made pimping their templates an artform - rightly so, these big boys of the blog world have earnt their stripes and churn through massive amounts of traffic.
After setting up some 100x100 ad squares in my top left hand corner, I finalized the advertising offer page and set about chasing up some initial sponsors. To my surprise, I got a positive response from Joel Comm. Joel is one of the foremost experts on AdSense, not to mention affiliate marketing, web business creation and of course the creator of the series 'The Next Internet Millionaire'
Over the years I have taken plenty of Joel's tips and used them for myself, I had only spoken to Joel a few times via email - yet he has agreed to jump on board to give things a kick along! And for that I thank him.
While my blog is still very new, traffic is growing nicely and is averaging above 100 hits a day now and RSS subscribers is approaching 50. (Thanks to everyone for visiting and coming back!)
If you would like to get on board and advertise with our early bird rates and get in as a foundation sponsor - please check out our Advertising Page Here.
Reap More Rental Returns
A few weeks ago I mentioned how I decided against selling my house and chose to offer the property for rent; which would allow me to continue building my property portfolio.
I already had a small investment property and I thought renting my primary residence might stretch the finances too far! Anyway, thanks to some nifty refinancing - I was able to rent the property out and soon began advertising to the public.
I set the rental price a little higher than the current rate for my area, but was excited to see a good response and some strong leads this week.
Now one couple in particular were quite keen on the house and came for a second inspection today. I am asking $350 a week for my 3 bedroom, 30 year old split level home in a quiet cul-de-sac, the couple inspecting my place we comparing mine with another property in a much more prominent area that was only a few years old. The asking price of the other property was $375 per week.
I thought I had no chance of securing this ideal couple to rent my place!
I made sure I cleaned the house quite thoroughly today and ensured the yard and surrounds were also pristine. When the couple came back for the second inspection, they excitedly agreed to sign-up and rent my place for 12 months.
When I asked them why they chose my place over the newer option; they stated simply "Well, while the other place was new, it was very bland and had no character. We thought yours was much more like a home, than just a house!"
Will the old cliche might sound a little corny, it obviously rings true. Somehow my old place was able to charm it's way into the hearts of the perfect renting couple! I can now rest easy for the time being knowing that some rental returns are coming in. (Which is a good thing, as I am not working at the moment and my blogging earnings aren't setting the world on fire! hahaha)
Bloggings Future Queen
I've been lucky enough to get one of my favourite female bloggers to write a guest post for me today! Ange from over at 'Buzzing with Ange' has some deep thoughts for today, and as always raises some good questions and provokes plenty of pondering! She has a big following and is fast becoming an influential female in the Blogging world! Thanks for stepping in Ange!
Create your day
How do you create your day. What is the first thought that you have when you wake up. The alarm clock goes off and most of you think 'Groundhog day. Just another day. Same old routine. Get up and go to work.' Sound familiar.
How about when you wake up you say 'I'm having a great day.' Say it out loud and clap your hands. I am sharing this with you because when you start the day in this manner, your whole mindset changes. Immediately you think I am having a great day. No matter what, you have to have a great day.
When thoughts are put out to the Universe, everything changes so that your thoughts are a reality. No matter what it is. Whether or not you want that reality, it is YOUR reality.
Voices in your head
We all have them and whether or not you choose to listen to them is your CHOICE. It's like if I ask you 'Chocolate or Vanilla, choose.' Why did you choose that. I choose chocolate because I love chocolate. Wrong answer. Again. 'Chocolate or Vanilla, choose.' I choose chocolate because I like it better than vanilla. Wrong answer.
The correct answer is 'I choose chocolate because I choose chocolate.' That's right... because you CHOOSE chocolate. You can choose to listen or not and then that is what your reality is. When those vocies start talking and say to you 'you're not having such a great day because you got a flat tyre on your way to work, see I told you you couldn't have a great day.' Whether or not you choose to listen to that voice is completely up to you. You could instead say to yourself, 'What is great about this.'
The Secret
It's not such a secret anymore but some of you still refuse to believe in it. I spent this morning chatting with my tech guy, Basil, aka Jamie, because my blog decided to disappear. We talked about what it could have been and he was stumped. Now I'm not the most clever techgal but I am into modelling my mentor, Sean. So I did some remodelling to my blog and I unknowingly broke the links. You will be happy to know that all is sorted now.
So Basil and I were trying to figure it out and we got talking about The Secret and what's opening up for him now that he has found it when all of a sudden, he worked out what I had done and it all got sorted.
So the Secret is to think of the things that you want and not what you don't want. Be aware of your thoughts as your thoughts are things. Imagine yourself already holding or being what you want and the Universe will shape and shift to give it to you.
Love the life you live
Ange
Buzzing with AngeAffiliate Marketing: Must see Video!
I was link baited to a very impressive Affiliate Marketing video today, well worth a look. The post title was 'HOW TO MAKE 1 MILLION IN AFFILIATE SALES' - anyway, the video contains some good points and will be useful to both beginners and experienced marketers alike.
The full website can be found here.
BlogRush: The Next Killer App
It launched to a fair amount of fanfare on the weekend, but new Blog widget 'BlogRush' looks to be a winner. A very cool idea and one that is sure to earn plenty of free traffic for interesting and active Blogs on-line.
By installing the BlogRush Widget on your site, you immediately get a feed of their latest blog post headers from a network of similar blog sites. BlogRush owners accumulate 'credits' by the amount of their own blog traffic combined with the traffic generated from their referrals to BlogRush. So the pyramid theory goes to work and early adopters get a decent leg up in the game!
Ok folks, here is the referrer code: http://www.blogrush.com/r14481673
Head on over and get yourself involved early!
Get a FREE 24" LCD Monitor
Who doesn't want a giant 24" widescreen LCD monitor for pure viewing bliss?
Calling all bloggers, gamers and nerds! This is your chance to get a FREE 24" LCD monitor; in a competition being run by "The Evil Lord of the Blog" - John Chow you can earn multiple entries into the LCD giveaway by following a few simple instructions:
* Write a blog post about the 'The Million Dollar Wiki' and of course the competition being run by John Chow dot Com giving away the super cool 24" LCD monitor. (When signing up for the Million Dollar Wiki - don't forget to mention JohnChow in the coupon box to get $10 off your keyword / page) - Doing this will get you 2 entries into John Chows cool comp
* Secondly, if you want 5 entries into the 24" LCD Monitor comp - just buy some real estate on the Million Dollar Wiki ! Of course jump over to John Chow's site and let him know you've done so ok?
What is the Million Dollar Wiki you say? Well some smart chap is offering 'keyword' based pages on the Wiki for $100 each. Traffic to the Wiki is growing big time, as more bloggers and main stream press pick up on the theory. Plenty of keywords have been snapped up, so it's definitely worth a look - get over there and see what you can snap up. The flipping opportunities at Million Dollar Wiki are huge, so pick a smart keyword and flip it when the site gets even more coverage!
The LCD model is an LG L245WP and is the latest award winning unit from LG. The wide screen LCD features digital HDMI input, 1920×1200 resolution, 1000 to 1 contrast ratio and a fast 8ms response time.
Its the kind of uber monitor that nerds go wild for, so settle down kings of the keyboard and wipe that drool from your chubby little face! Get your entries in and cross those fingers and toes - you could be sitting in front of the 24" LCD banger very very soon!
A Frustrating Week!
It has been a frustrating week for me! No success with my credit card company, so I have closed my account and saved around $200-300 in fees.
My romance with Clicksor advertising was very brief. It's over! My traffic levels aren't quite 5000 unique visitors per day - hence Clicksor ended our quick affair.
With Google still posing relevance problems, I think I will be running Auction Ads for now in my left column and see how that goes.
In other news, I have started some Google Arbitrage today and am testing a new site of mine: Self Help World
Good Video on Arbitrage:
More information about this in my latest video, and I will update progress and earnings as time goes by.
In the mean time, I have put a photo of John Chow on my wall. Why? So I can when I feel like it I can simply punch it and at other times use it to motivate myself to get my earnings levels to that of his daily blog. :) (Sorry John, you just make me a tad jealous.)
Beat Annual Credit Card Fees
One of my pet hates is annual credit card fees and credit card rewards program fees! Don't you just hate them, they appear when you least need it and can slug you for anywhere from $50 a year to $300 a year!
Well, in previous years I have called my credit card company and asked for the fees to be waived. My main credit card is an ANZ Platinum VISA attached to a Frequent Flyer rewards program.
Up until now, I have been able to get the annual fee waived by phoning in and simply asking! This year it failed, my credit card company ANZ declining to waive the fees - despite my high spending habits and regular good payment history.
I spend anywhere from 2 to 3k per month on my card (including a supplementary card for my wife), I have rarely if ever used any of the major features; such as concierge assistance or global travel / medical insurance.
I also have 3 other credit cards with other companies; so I have decided it is consolidation time! I am ringing my main card issuer ANZ tomorrow and asking for the card account to be closed and I eagerly await their response. Hopefully they may elect to waive the fee and continue to keep me as a customer or it might be time to go our separate ways!
Stay tuned tomorrow ... I reveal the results of the phone call.
What fee's are you paying in your location? And what features do you get with your cards?
Alternative to AdSense
Been searching for a good alternative to AdSense? Google Adsense has been consistently paying less per click as growing numbers of part time bloggers and spammy websites sign up for the service.
I have also had problems with the relevance of the Google Adsense Advertisements and have been wanting to find something better for some time.
My search is over! Clicksor - a relevance based advertisement serving network, with an easy sign-up, many advertisers and no tax forms or red tape!
It was painfree to get my banners up and the referral program is quite nice, anyone signing up to Clicksor under my link will give me a small on-going royalty from future earnings! Very impressive.
I have also begun to clean up the template. I have decided to stay with Blogger for now, because Wordpress still scares me - so bare with me while things are improved and streamlined.
Make Money from Video
Most of us know the potential of on-line video content. How can you harness on-line video to make money from the content?
The likes of YouTube are now massive players in the on-line world and everyone is scrambling to get a piece of the video pie.
A recent partnership between Ninemsn.com.au, PBL (Publishing Broadcasting Limited) and Revver has launched a new video start-up called 'yourCut'. The yourCut service aims to build on the original video platform of Revver; which is a free service allowing you to store and display your content. The carrot for new users however is the chance to earn advertising revenue from your video. Any advertisement displayed in association with your video earns you 50 percent of the revenue that yourCut makes.
Remember; continue to build you on-line video library just like any online content - the more you have on-line the more chance you have to profit from it and establish your 'real estate' before others come along.
Smorty Review
For those that don't know what Smorty is; it's a 'pay for post' service. As a blogger you can choose to discuss topics and advertisers on your blog that are recommended to you by Smorty. As the 'middleman' Smorty link you the blogger with the willing advertiser and for your trouble, you get paid a few dollars.
I joined Smorty a month or so ago and signed up with my complete blogroll. I have 7 blogs that were approved by the Smorty team, so when a certain product or pay for post is available from Smorty I am able to reap more financial benefits having multiple blogs. The average advertisement pays around 6 dollars for posting a description about it on your blog - however if the advertisement is able to be displayed across all 'niches' the multiplication factor kicks in and you can be receiving 50 dollars less than 30 minutes work. (The payout or approval process from Smorty can take up to 30 days)
It's a great concept and now that I have been successfully paid out by Smorty, I was willing to discuss the service here on my blog.
The key to succeeding with Smorty is not just having multiple blogs to multiply your earnings, but accepting advertiser requests as they arrive in your inbox. The longer you wait, the more chance of blogging competitors stealing the limited post opportunities.
So check Smorty out, it's worth a look and doesn't require you to jump through hoops like 'PayPerPost' do.
The Blogger Template
Apologies for the problems with the current blogger template. Unfortunately my custom 3 column blogger template, that was supposedly compatible with the 'new blogger' platform is having problems in all browsers except Mozilla Firefox.
As you may have noticed (depending on your browser) the right column may disappear on some versions and the other major problem I have had with this template is getting the Google Adsense display adverts to match the content in the centre column. The Google Adsense seems to be detecting to the domain at times and not generating relevant ads off the centre column content. (I have also added custom lines of AdSense code to direct the Google engine to the content - this is only working on occasions)
After Blogger moved out of beta and the 'new blogger' or Blogger 2.0 was made available by Google - a lot of good templates and template designers discontinued their trade for Blogger. While there are some decent 3 column templates available for Blogger - it seems most of the support and coverage is really swinging towards Wordpress.
While the majority of the top notch Bloggers are churning out their posts on the Wordpress platform, I have continued to stick with Googles' Blogger / Blogspot platform due to its simplicity and ease of low level modification.
My only problem has been template hunting for Blogger / Blogspot - especially a good 3 column template that's easy on the eyes.
If you know of a good designer or where I can get my hands on some nice designs - please drop me and email or comment below.
In the meantime, please bare with me while I clean this template design up.
Property Investment is Smart
Sounds like an obvious statement right? The reason I wanted to talk about Property Investment is because I have recently been given a lucky break, a very lucky break!
In the past few months I have had my house up for sale, eventually I had an offer close to what I wanted and I took a deposit from the interested party. Here in Australia, the period of 5 days following the sale of a house is classed as a 'cooling off' period. In this time the buyer will generally arrange pest and building inspections and get their finance organised from the relevant institution.
In my case, the buyer seemed to have difficulty with their finance - as they requested to extend the cooling off period and that initially made me a little nervous. Upon accepting their request for more time, towards the end of the extended period - the buyer pulled out of the deal.
While initially disappointed, I looked upon the situation as a 'stroke of fortune' - I rang my mortgage broker and began to look over the figures to see if turning the property into an investment vehicle was possible.
I had originally ruled this out, as I already owned an investment property and further extending the debt and mortgage level was a little daunting. However, upon looking over the figures and realising that even at 'interest only' levels - renting the property out only required a small injection of cash each week to keep things ticking over.
So we all know property investment is smart; but remember not to be too scared of debt and use it as your vehicle to financial success. I took what could have been a frustrating situation
and used it as a 'last chance' opportunity to setup an additional property investment strategy.
Writing an eBook
Adam Sutcliffe
I've decided to try the other side of the affiliate marketing coin and write an eBook, I have regularly used ClickBank to discover and market some of the better eBooks on the Net - however I have never written an eBook or created a product for myself.
I am aiming to write the eBook over the next week or so and will be reporting my progress here on my blog. I will be basing the eBook on dating and relationships; and while I know many of you will say "This niche has been pimped big time!" - I still think there is a market there for quality material that is targeted at the right people inside this niche.
Once I have the eBook created and ready to distribute - I will also be reporting my progress as I list it on ClickBank and will reveal what earnings I am able to attract including what the uptake on the eBook is.
If the eBook is successful enough, afterwards I will also list my steps on how I picked the target market, how I went about formulating the eBook and every step in between getting it together and getting it marketed.
Has anyone written an eBook? I would love to hear your thoughts, difficulties, tips or victories you may have had when writing an eBook.
(Ensure you're viewing this blog in either Internet Explorer V7 or higher OR Mozilla Firefox. As Internet Explorer V6 does not display the new template and layout correctly)
Affiliate Offers
Most website owners or affiliate marketers will tend to use ClickBank for their affiliate offers and market place trading - as ClickBank is one of the largest marketplaces on the internet for advertising your product or marketing someone else's product on your website; which is called affiliate marketing.
One of the more niche players in the affiliate marketing arena that I like to use is Commission Monster they are an Australian centric affiliate house which may discourage some international internet website or blog owners - however their database of customers and offers is quite large and they do carry advertisement offers for other countries such as the USA, NZ and others. So international affiliate offers and marketers are welcome
They have plenty of deals from large, reputable companies including Banks, Insurance Houses, Betting Houses and Car Companies. The interface is very good and simple to use, and they generally will 'authorise' blogs or sites before allowing them on-board which cuts out a lot of the spammers and ensures real website owners get the premium products to list and of course the benefits. Definitely worth a look; head over to Commission Monster today. See below for some of their recent offers and deals:
Google Peer to Peer Searching
Using Google in a similar fashion to 'Peer to Peer' type searching is possible using the techniques in this video.
Using the right extensions and switches you can use Google to find many file types all over the world. This method is extremely powerful for Internet Marketers, allowing you to find 'ebooks' and similar material that are located on servers spidered by Google.
Be sure and adhere to copyright laws in your part of the world, but watch this video and test out the power of Google when used for file searching. Using Google this way makes programs such as Limewire virtually redundant and also creates a headache for copyright crusaders who have shut down software in the past such as Napster and KaZaa.
I look forward to your feedback and results from using this Google search method:
Difference + Traffic = Success
What makes a blog different?
I subscribe by RSS to a stack of blogs and as I browse through them daily, I can't help but notice how similar some are getting. Sure, a lot of these blogs are in a similar niche - but that doesn't mean they need to talk about the same things!
Obviously if a blog post is interesting and unique it will stand out, a catchy idea, a competition or a controversial statement of point of view is sure to excite your readers and keep them coming back. However, when you blog is fairly new and you are still building a reader base - how do you launch an idea? As you may launching a good idea but too a new and limited audience.
I have tossed a few ideas around recently:
- A competition, awarding a prize to one of my readers if they could get my blog mentioned on a major blog (excluding the comments section). (ie: Copyblogger.com, ProBlogger.com or JohnChow.com) - In terms of a prize I was thinking something that would be easy to ship, such as a CPU chip from Intel or AMD.
- Evil promotion tactics! Pretending to sell your blog on forums for a ridiculous price or formulate a bogus press release stating that a big company such as Google has bought your site. Ok, this is a little extreme but it may bring a flood of traffic if the press release gets good coverage and you are all set to launch your idea to a big audience.
- Guest Blogging. If you can attract a high profile guest blogger, this maybe just the ticket to bring the traffic with the guest writer. If you get a quality writer that is well known, the crowds will come and hopefully will stay. Another perfect chance to launch your idea or promotion with the crowds in place.
Finally, I would like to get readers opinions on placing videos within this blog. As a reader do you find videos too time consuming? Too intrusive? or are they a better tool than simply reading plain text? Any feedback is welcome!
