Have flown back from New Zealand to the Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia to catch the official opening of the Skilled Park Stadium (Robina Stadium) which will be the new home of the NRL Team the Gold Coast Titans. I am covering the opening for my NRL site (NRLNEWS.COM - NRL Results).
I am really tired at the moment, a few nights of networking with various locals and officials (read: partying) it has taken it's toll and the game hasn't even started yet. Kick off is tonight at 7.30 and I am hoping to snare a few exclusives from the event. Have cameras ready and should have some live material up on YouTube in no time.
Am staying at Broadbeach which is a popular spot only 10 minutes from Surfers Paradise and has the Conrad Jupiters Casino and other handy local sports such as the Pacific Fair shopping centre and Oasis Shopping Mall right near by. (Oasis provides free wireless internet in their mall which is ok) It's only 802.11b and speed is average at best, but it does the job for basic connectivity and it's free - so all good.
Telstra provide a hotspot at good speeds but pricing is very expensive and certainly not worth it for most applications.
I've also added a new website to my niche video websites group (MFA - Made for AdSense type sites) and it can be found here; The Wiggles
My growth with AdSense is going well, am now earning $13 US consistently each day and as it continues to grow - I get closer to my target of $100 US per day as soon as possible.
Am planning to launch some more niche sites next week and continue to link build and SEO my current crop of landmarks
Broadbeach, Gold Coast Trip
Over the Edge Seminar Ed Dale and Dan Raine
The guru's over at Immediate Edge; Ed Dale and Dan Raine are running a course in April which I was extremely keen to get on board with. Open to only 30 places, I thought maybe the cost of this course would be around $1000 US per person.
But alas! No ...
The actual cost of attending the course is around the $5000 US mark .. Which sadly, places it out of my reach. It's a shame, because they are going to be teaching some nice internet marketing techniques by the sounds of things. Both Dan and Ed have solid credentials and I am sure they will have no problem selling the course out - I heard about them and learnt from them last year in the 30 Day Challenge which was an exciting course in itself (and totally free mind you!) and that was pretty much how this blog came about - The 30 Day Man was born... (Anyway thats another story)
But if you are interested in the course, then here's what they will be teaching:
The content of this seminar will include: (See video with Ed Dale, embedded below)
- 'Black Hat' Strategies - What you must know to protect yourself.
- Advanced Market Research Techniques.
- A new and refined 'Secret Sauce' strategy you won't believe.
- Plenty of Q & A sessions and the opportunity to spend quality 1 on 1 time with Ed Dale and Dan Raine.
- Advanced AV techniques.
Get more info on the course here: (no, not an affiliate link!)
http://www.tubbynerd.com/Beechworth08/
In other news I have been pretty busy link building of late, trying to promote some of my new sites which feature a large array of video scraps - some are pulling in strong hits from the SERPS and bounce rate and other stats have been strong, showing that the content is well targetted and not too spammy.
The Rubicon Project, Reviewed
I've had a chance to deploy the Rubicon Project on this site and early impressions are very good. For those of you who have heard, Rubicon is the future of web marketing. A smart piece of code enables webmasters and bloggers to automatically run selected contextual adverts from any number of providers; including: Google Adwords, Yahoo, AdBrite and many many more.
The reason AdSense is so successful and favoured by many new webmasters and bloggers, is because it's SO simple and you can be up and running quickly. Ok, it has it's limitations and doesn't pay all too high now - but Rubicon is set to keep Google AdSense honest and open up plenty of new doors to us.
While in beta stage at present, I have found the ad's that have been served up quite good. They have matched the context in most cases and for some reasons even the display of AdSense seems to perform better than when using AdSense code!
I am waiting to see how it performs for a month or so on this before rolling it out to my blogroll, but so far so good. The next steps are ensuring payment receival is easy and the amount of ad's served up continues to be vast.
I am liking it!
Smart Linking Techniques
Man, I have been flatout for the past few hours establishing a major backlinking campaign to get a few of my newer sites right up in the search engine rankings. Most of us know how powerful a one way backlink can be, more importantly it needs to be a quality backlink!
By quality I mean the following:
- Similar Niche to the Site being Linked To
- Correct Anchor Text
- Not in a 'bad neighbourhood' ie: link farm, pxrn site or something similar
- Decent PageRank from the linker helps
Now generating links en-mass can be a long haul. Yes, if your quality is good it will occur naturally through forum promotion and industry promotion, but many of us don't have years to wait for decent ranking in the SERPS.
Anyway, I have been drawing mud-maps for my linking so I know whats going where. It looks kinda crazy so I thought I would take a snap shot of it for y'all to see. Now, let me fetch my Kodak Old School 4 megapixel Z700 series digital camera! (See Pic Above!)
Googlebot seems to be picking up things a little slower at the moment. There might be a major dance (Google Dance) that is , right around the corner. Lets hope the Google Page Rank Update for Feb 2008 is a good one.
Niche Video Site Builder
I've written a few times before about my on-going plan to continue the creation of blogs to bring in AdSense revenue for me. I have a wide range of blogs at the moment and yes, some are a little basic - but they continue to each bring in $1-$2 a day and I consistently try and grow the group overall and keep adding blogs along the way.
Anyway, I found a new weapon in my arsenal and I have been stoked with the results that I have seen from this cool piece of software. The Niche Video Site Builder is basically a script that instantly creates you adsense ready video sites that have a tonne of depth.
There are a few packages out there on the market that will give you an instant 'you-tube' style scrape site, but I found the niche video site builder to have good adsense integration, plus great neat templates and best of all, an no-brainer setup. Just setup your domain or subdomain, give the niche builder server FTP access, pick a topic and press GO. Seriously, it was that simple.
I have mentioned recently I am building up my link directory site; Best Backlinks and also a new Casino Review site Hot Online Casinos. Well I setup subdomains off these domains to kick off my new video sites using the niche builder software:
It took me less than 30 minutes to setup the following sites; (just need to SEO them now before making the next batch)
Roulette Strategy
Blackjack Strategy
Poker Blog
Online Casinos
Free Links and SEO
NRL Videos
Footy Videos
They were simple to create, the templates look good and the depth of these sites is amazing. Depending on the keywords you choose, the tag cloud is created automatically and away you go. Social bookmarking options are built into the pages and I have been totally impressed with the software. Here's were I bought it from Niche Video Builder and yes, thats an affiliate link but if your trying to build an adsense revenue network then its well worth it.
In other news, my Link Directory site is going well. Through some minor promotion its getting good hits and has had plenty of link signups. Hopefully AdSense CTR continues to grow!
MMA and Kickboxing in New Zealand
I went to my first real Mixed Martial Arts and Kick Boxing event here in New Zealand and I must say I was impressed by the sport and see it continuing to grow rapidly all around the world. Apart from a basic kick boxing event I watched in Phuket, Thailand I have never really seen pro fighting up close and live.
From the early lightweight bouts with full Muay Thai rules, which means the use of elbows and knees to the head are allowed were exciting and very entertaining.
The MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) stuff I see as a huge growth area, the excitement of virtually no rules and contrasting styles of fighting is simply amazing to watch. While the competitors I was watching certainly weren't world beaters, considering the sport is in it's infancy here in this country their showing was quite good. There were some quick wins, with some early submissions and a few battles that went the distance where the fighters were dead on their feet.
It was great to be close up to the ring, here in Nelson, New Zealand with such a tiny population the crowd total would not have exceeded 500 I think and we were only a few rows back from the ring itself.
Certainly different to what I am used, back in Sydney, Australia where I have lived most of my life - events such as this would be hosted in large stadiums or arenas to the tune of several thousand spectators. But, while the crowd atmosphere wasn't huge - it was nice not to have to line up for food, drinks and toilet stops.
While I don't get to watch too much UFC at present, it's something I really want to get into. I noticed popular blogger Shoemoney is soon about to release his own MMA style website on a good domain name: fighters.com - I wait with interest, as I said - this sport is going to continue to rise rapidly.
Business Advantage: Smiling Helps
A funny thing happened today. In the most unusual spot, the local supermarket of all places! I got a shot in the arm that helped me reap a tonne more success during my day at the office.
A big part of my day to day role involves selling. Recent times have been pretty successful, I have made a stack of new clients through forms of networking, referrals and even some cold calling. However, today was fairly poor in terms of results and I couldn't work out why I wasn't firing on all cylinders.
Anyway, as I headed up to the supermarket to grab a stack of energy drinks (cheaper to buy in bulk) one of the shop attendants passed me and said "Hey smile, it's not that bad!" I was initially taken aback, but I quickly went over to her and said "Was I really looking that unhappy?" She laughed and quipped back "Yep, you looked way too serious! Lighten up."
At first I was a bit shocked about the comment, but then I thought hey maybe thats why I have been off the mark today in terms of generating new business. So after grabbing my energy drinks, I headed back to my office armed with the tip from the shop assistant.
I started making a few calls, some follow up calls at first then some cold calls. I was amazed, I got a much greater hit rate and even though these weren't face to face discussions, my attitude had gone from negative to majorly positive and suddenly it was rubbing off.
So my day ended pretty well and all because a young shop attendant gave me a simple little tip, that passing comment turned it all around. So just remember, smile it helps you in more ways than you think.
Happy Selling!
Shoemoney slaps readers in the face
Ahh every now and then a great video comes along to really put things in perspective. As a reader of Shoemoney, his latest Make Money Online video really caught my attention.
While I read Shoey regularly and I am sure many visitors here do to, you can sometimes get the feeling that Jeremy can be a little 'too cool for school' so to speak. There is no question Jeremy Schoemaker has achieved great success online, created and sold several web business, runs multiple successful websites and has his finger in a few pies - certainly deserving of congratulations.
Possibly I might be misunderstanding the guy, but at times I feel he sorta portrays the message "Hey I am mega successful, don't talk to me" - but upon watching his latest video (which is a good one) in which he chats candidly (while driving mind you! haha) about success and why so many people fail at making money online - I think certainly, that Shoey can be misunderstood at times because he demeanor in this video sort of gives you the feel that he is just a regular guy that has put in the effort to learn and build successful web businesses without relying or calling on others to help.
You can see from the video that Jeremy is being extremely candid, even mentioning that he himself feels his work ethic isn't great at times. I think the content on Shoemoney is so raw and from the heart, that it probably also contributes to the notion that he might be a tad pimp'ish. But on the flip side, thats probably what makes his blog so successful, in stark contrast to other bloggers - Shoey disregards the grammatical edits and stuff plus rarely if ever spends hours editing his content before release - it's just spewed out - raw !
Anyway, I really liked this vid so check it out and don't ever think about making money online or quitting your dayjob! :) (Seriously, nice vid Shoey)
Casino Review site now added to my portfolio
In a quest to expand my real estate online, I have registered the domain - www.hotonlinecasinos.info
Domains with the extension .info at GoDaddy are extremely cheap and using free online coupons (just search for Godaddy Coupons in Google) you get a nice little discount too.
I will now start writing up reviews for the 10 major online casinos and use affiliate links to refer traffic to their websites. Once my website is live, it will require some ongoing marketing and I will need to start targeting specific keywords and undertake a link building program to push the new site up the Google rankings.
One of the most important ingredients of basic SEO is your actual domain name. By picking a domain with 'online casinos' in the title - any keyword in Google with Online Casinos in the title will allow me a slight advantage over other sites that might only have 'Gambling or Review' in their domain titles.
My blog roll and online real estate patch is growing nicely, and my AdSense earnings are now getting close to $10 US per day which is a nice reward and very motivating. My portfolio now includes the following blogs and websites:
Sports Football (NRL News - is my flagship site covering the winter sport of Rugby League)
Self Help World (A blogger site where I post a combination of Videos and Text occasionally)
DOTA Tips (A blog where the popular Warcraft 3 game is discussed, getting 1.2k hits per day)
Best Backlinks (My recent experiment / a free link directory, hoping for bigger things)
World of Warcraft (My WoW site, which needs cleaning up - a little too ad based at present)
Sonny Bill Williams (The most popular Rugby League sports star within the NRL)
Cell and Mobile Phones (A work in progress, this blog gets semi-decent traffic and 4% CTR)
These are my main earners at present, while some need some cleaning up - they are each doing their little bit. The addition of the casino reviews website, along with some other niche sites - probably in the area of music, cricket and film are next on my list.
My goal is to get my network of sites pushing that $100 per day barrier.
Now, back to work ....
Lets talk finance in 2008.... again!
I have re-categorized this post due to an initial misplacement -
Regardless of which part of the world you are in now, the walls of the financial community are shaking. Share markets are dipping, housing markets and stagnant or falling and the outlook isn't too good in the short to mid term. Best suggestion is to throw your cash under the mattress for now.
Well that is unless you have some major nerves of steel and are ready to snap up some bargains. In the USA, interest rates are being sliced to generate some growth. That means an ideal time to grab those loans and try and drum up some investments through the fire sales that are happening all over the place. I personally prefer the housing market to shares, but hey - if you get in while things are at rock bottom, some good bargains could be had.
So start to compare credit cards, make sure you are on the best rate and then swoop in for the kill in other areas too. Secured loans might be a little bit scary, as that involves a little more risk - however if you look back over history, investments for the long term generally prove rewarding and if you have access to the capital to start building you empire.. who knows, you could be the next Donald Trump.
So be cautious, but don't be put off by the doom and gloom and inflationary expectations. Get into the fray and make the deals.
Starting a Casino Review Website
One of the things I have been wanting to do for a while is start a Casino Review website. For those that don't know, Online Casinos offer good affiliate programs for webmasters to send traffic their way.
Paying decent PPC rates and offering good bonuses when the traffic signs up, smart operators have now developed large scale websites purely targeting online casino reviews and the chance to get large scale referrals and of course juicy bonuses and payouts.
I have been doing some review writing for one of the major players in this market. I don't want to quote their name here for fear of losing my paid review role, but needless to say - they have a massive bankroll to spend on improving their review site in terms of SEO, exposure, amount of casinos on their books and of course the reviews themselves.
Through my paid review role, I have got a good look at what they are targetting in terms of keywords and what the future may hold. So with this in mind, I will look to kick off something similar very soon.
Stay tuned for more info once I get the domain registered and site up and I will be tracking and reporting on my earnings once it gets going.
Nursing Skills save lives
We had a bit of a situation earlier this week. One of our friends fell quite ill, very suddenly while we were at the beach. A lady in her late 50's, she was quickly dizzy and soon lost her balance. As we lay around on the beach, suddenly panic set in.
You think in those situations you have enough common sense to assist and aid the person in trouble, but it all happened so fast - yet when she was violently ill, we all felt helpless. A health lady, it may have been the sun that got to her. It's been quite hot here and the direct exposure to the sunlight may have caused her to fall ill.
Nevertheless, if we didn't have an off duty nurse nearby, then we truly might have been in more danger than we realized.
Such an undervalued profession, certainly in our part of the world - we don't have near enough nurses. Many nurses are leaving the profession and that is a sad shame. With the help of a nurse, we were able to quickly get our friend back to relative health and get her to hospital in much better shape than first thought.
It's for this reason I encouraged my younger cousin and her friends to get involved with nursing and look at it as a potential profession. Well respected and well paid, it is a job that would be satisfying no doubt - when you're helping people daily, and sometimes saving lives. Positions such as a Licensed Vocational Nurse who have undertaken LVN programs - truly have chosen a rewarding and special career.
Even Online there is plenty of information and access to things such as a Vocational Nursing Program or a similar study course that could get you into such a field. I certainly hope my cousin chooses such an option.
If you're looking to select a career that really gives back to the community and rewards you regularly - the please, investigate the profession of nursing and make a difference every day.
Frank Kerns Mass Control
Anyone around the internet marketing niche would have heard of Frank Kern's Mass Control system by now. Recently promoted and released to the public, Kern's training program aims to give budding internet marketers an advantage an insight how to sell a product in large volume.
I am always interested in seeing what the respected internet marketers have to offer and even with Kern's early promotional videos - some of the content I found quite valuable. Even some of the simple tips, (sometimes overlooked by all of us) were ideal in the area of list building, picking the right niche and ensuring that targeted customers are in a 'buy cycle'.
After following things up to the official release, I decided I would sign up for Kern's training program and try take my other ventures to the next level. As most IM's promise, the program would be closed after a certain amount of sign ups were accepted. This is usually hype and mega promotion but I was surprised to see the 'House Closed' sign up at the Mass Control website shortly after arriving.
So it seems Kern is staying true to his word and I now have to rely on blog entries and periodic free content releases. It's well worth checking out - visit www.masscontrol.com and see what you think. As I said, even the free content has value so you are sure to come away with something useful.
Recovering from the dead, finally!
A few days back, I really couldn't muster enough energy to do anything. I rarely get sick, but when I do - it seems to hit hard. But, the best way to bounce back is to get outdoors and start enjoying the sun.
This little part of New Zealand we are in called Nelson, has a huge amount of sunshine hours and the weather is generally perfect. Surrounded by mountains and great views - I got outside and let my little daughter cheer me up. Chelsea is around 1 and half years old now and starting to get very active and interested in everything!
She just loves paddling in her little pool and getting down to the beach when we can.
Here's a quick picture my wife took of me and Chelsea (above) with my aging Kodak Z700 4 megapixel camera. The camera is a little old now but is still able to take some good shots in the various modes.
In other news my AdSense earnings are consistently above $5 dollars a day now, which has been encouraging - as I continue to add new blogs, with new varied niche topics and good regularly content, the stream of hits is adding to daily revenue!
