No but I must admit that I did not update my blog a lot in last few months. I had to deal with personal issues thus my time on this blog and elsewhere(web, IM) were not my focus. But, that's life!

One of the good news is that I took charged of some aspects of life and one of them was my weight issues. Being an Internet marketer added a lot of pounds on me. Of course, I was not an active person in the first place.  I had mentioned it back in May. Since then, I lost 55 pounds plus the 5 pounds since the beginning of the year. That's 60 pounds less and a lot of new clothes since. I still have some weight to loose but it's good for me. Okay, my way of loosing it  is not for everyone but what counts is that it's working for me.

Also, since I turned 40, I'm more in a positive state ... most of the time. When I see something negative, I try to find a positive side to it. It may happen to me or to a friend. For example, I look at most physical activities(boring or not) as exercise and a way too loose more calories. It's practical that way since I'm not a fan of going to a gym alone. I do walk outside but less now days(rains) and when possible, I will use my Wii Fit. It's a worthwhile investment that I do recommend to people.

US Auctions Australian Auctions Austrian Auctions Belgian Auctions Canadian Auctions French Auctions German Auctions Hong Kong Auctions Indian Auctions Irish Auctions Italian Auctions Dutch Auctions Polish Auctions Singapore Auctions Spanish Auctions Swiss Auctions UK Auctions

Best Match Time: ending soonest Time: newly listed Price: lowest first Price: highest first Price + Shipping: lowest first Price + Shipping: highest first

New White Steering Wheel fit Wii Remote Mario Kart Game    US $.01

Nunchuck Game Controller fit for Nintendo WII white    US $.01

New Nunchuck Controller Fits Nintendo WiiBLACK    US $.01

New Nunchuck Game Controller fit for Nintendo WII white    US $.01

New Nunchuck Controller Fits Nintendo Wii    US $.01

2X New Wii Steering Wheel Controller fit Wii Remote    US $.01

Have garden a blog? Add garden related items instead

Now, I'm a still single man and it's something I'm trying to "resolve". I have my goals thus this make it harder to find a partner. Most women in my age group don't want the same things thus it's limiting me. But, that's life/love! If you have a better half,  then you are one step ahead of me.

In the last days, I finally decided to convert 2012movies.net to MyStarterBlog. I only had to convert phpbay to the MSB eBay Plugin. That was easier/quicker that I expected since it was mostly cut and paste. You know I had to plug MSB . Plus, I had a older version of  WP that was not auto upgradable. Yes, it was that old!

In the last months, I did add new sites to my IM portfolio and I will need patience until they start to make me money. My MyStarterBlog sites are doing well for me but not enough. In the meantime, I'm looking to other alternatives to refind the social aspect(real people) of a "regular" job.

It's something I found myself missing too. Don't worry, I still believe in IM and what it can do for people(part time or full time).

I did used MyStarterBlog to setup a real site(not IM) for a friend. This showed me it's a good way for people to make money using MSB for local businesses. Heck, she even went on a local radio show thus I added a page of the  photos on her site. I was there too but taking the pictures. The site did not even crashed since MSB is light weight. That was my worst fear during the show.

I don't promise I will update the blog often but will try since I'm looking at starting something soon for me and related to IM too. This should be a good case study to update my blog.

AuctionSiteWriter
See free movies legally(and make money too)

ShareThis

The official launch of ND is today but take a look now at the video.

Today, I created 10 new sites for eBay. That script is so wonderful! If you want to enter into Internet Marketing with something simple, that's the way I would recommend. The biggest time it take me is to find products on eBay. Otherwise, the script is so simple to install. It's a no brainer. It support eBay, Amazon and Chitika ads so you can diversify your income stream. For now, I'm using eBay but later will create  other type of sites.

For $97, it's not much to pay for what you get. It's only for 14 days.

Get ND now to starve !

AuctionSiteWriter
See free movies legally(and make money too)

ShareThis

Rob who made the MSB eBay plugin recently launch a plugin for WP with a few friends. I which them great success with it.

This new plugin allow you to have a page be rewritten thus creating new content for your blog and thus bypassing the duplicate content penalty. This is great to bring traffic to you niche sites. Since I'm moving away from WP to MyStarterBlog, I did not bought it but some of you might want to look at the video.

The second product is a fast niche site creator working with no MySQL backend. This one, I did bought it. I had a chance to use  for the last week and boy! does it make it simple to create niche sites in a few minutes. I'm using $1 .info for now thus lowering my cost. The official launch is in 1 day but take a look now at the video. It support eBay, Amazon and Chitika ads. For each site, you only use one method only.  I can create multiple sites per hour. However, it will be selling for 14 days only. After that, it's bye! bye! bye! no more.   If you are strap for money, I would bye that one first and then the other later with the money you will make.

The default theme is simple and it's not meant to be a competition with MyStarterBlog. The goals are different and both works.

The other product is for creating sales pages and giving you tips on how to do that.

I believe in the diversification of income streams and this one goes into my overall method to make money online.

Like I said, it cost nothing to watch the videos.

AuctionSiteWriter
See free movies legally(and make money too)

ShareThis

Can strippers make money online? yes and so can everyone else.  But this post may surprise you.

For many months now, I'm part of a closed group of Internet marketers. What is interesting about the group is we have people from all over the world, we have men and women, young and old, expert and new comers, technically savvy and new to the Internet/computers.

Note: If you are offended because I used the stripper world, I really don't care.  You should still read this post since, again, you will be surprise.

What about Strippers?

I don't think we have some but if we do, it's their life/choice.

Anyway, because of their line of work, a stripper have more opportunities to make money online than most of us. She could remain in the adult entertainment industry by selling web cam memberships or sell nude pictures/videos of her on her site or third party sites.

The downside is that it will limit her options like not using PayPal, finding an hosting or ISP that allow adult content ... Yes, it's possible since the industry as many companies that cater to that need.

This post is not about that.

Stripper and SEO

You can make a comparison between a stripper and SEO(search engine optimization).

In Quebec, a stripper is not paid when she dance on the stage in some adult strip clubs. The stage is a way for her to attract potential customers. She will have to do a lap dances for her to get paid.

In Internet Marketing, if I don't get links to my site, I can't attract targeted buying visitors to buy my offers.

You could say that linking is the equivalent of dancing on the stage and buying the offer is my lap dance.

Stripper and Internet Marketer

She and I have somethings in common: we are independent businesses, we have to manage our time/schedule and if we don't do the work, we don't get paid.

However, I have on advantage over a lap dances. My sites will continue to give me some pleasure long after it's finished in the form of passive income.

Increasing revenues by upselling

A stripper have to wait for a customer to get a lap dance. Let's say that a lap dance is $20. When the lap dance is over, she could offer the customer 2 more dances for $30. If the customer declines, she could offer one dance for $15. Yes, it's less money but she will be optimizing her time by having the client ready instead of waiting for the next one.

In Internet marketing, you would sell a product and you can also offer the client related products. Most of the time, the upsell is discounted more than usual.

In both cases, you already have the attention of a paying customer.

What about the needed skills?

A stripper must be able to read the types of clients, work the room, be approachable, dance in a erotic way, get regular customers ...

In Internet marketing,  you must know basic HTML/CSS, able to FTP file to the host, manage a host/domain name, use software ... You don't have to be an expert but at least be able to search online when you get stuck. Fortunately for us,  a lot of information is there to help us.

Because of their work, strippers are able to learn those skills when they don't have customers or when it's slow.

What about the social issues?

A stripper must deal with negative social stereotypes and that stress, must be able to deal with  not making enough money, deal with stupid/drunk clients or owners ...

In Internet marketing,  you will work mostly alone, work long hours and most days of the week, people will not understand the business ...

In both cases, you must find others that can support/understand your business. In my case, having my family and the group of fellow Internet marketers is helping me. I'm sure strippers have a forum or local group.

When are you getting paid?

A stripper will be paid before the lap dance start.

In Internet marketing,  if I create a site today, it may take 6-7 months or be tomorrow to get paid. Patience is needed.

What business model to follow?

I'm a big fan of diversification. In my case, I made up a model for me. I use the $1/day, sell AuctionSiteWriter and MyStarterBlog and do a little offline consultation for clients.

In the $1/day model, I expect that each site will produce an average of $30 for the month. I could make $0 a month but $60 the next month.  If your goal is to make $100/day, then you will need 100 sites minimum. Those sites are set and forget thus requiring little management.

Some will create 1 site and try to make it a big success.

If you have a spouse or teenagers, you could teach them your model since the money will be used by all thus in their best interest.

A stripper could decide to invest one lap dance per night to get a new domain name if she follow the $1/model.

Once you start making money, you should reinvest that money in the business. Eventually, you might have more than 100 sites. If a site is not performing well, the new ones can compensate instead.

Conclusion

I decided to use the stripping world to show similarities with Internet marketing and make my point . I could had used any jobs that require selling but it was more fun that way. lol

If you currently have a job(stripping or not), you can and should start now. But because strippers have a shorter work life, it's even more true for them to start early to plan their "retirement" of that business.

Many people in my group have jobs and are doing that. Eventually, most will be able to quit their day job.

Can strippers make money online? YES and everyone else too!

To get you started, you can buy my affordable ebook: See Free Money Legally (and make money too).

AuctionSiteWriter
See free movies legally(and make money too)

ShareThis

At last, I'm BANS Free and phpBay API Free!

But how did I do it you may ask?

Since the launched of MyStarterBlog, one of my goal was to replace every one of my BANS and phpBay auction sites by using Rob's MSB eBay Plugin(MEP).

Don't get me wrong, BANS and phpBay are 2 great way to display eBay items. For those new to creating that type of sites, it's a good alternative but pricier than MSB and the plugin.  At this time , the combo is about $14($7 each). So, it's way cheaper than the other 2 ways.

Tapping new markets

But, for the last weeks, I have been testing the beta(v2) of MSB eBay plugin. The price will increase because it's even better than before. I don't want to talk much about it but I expect to find other markets using the same sites.

For example, using the phpBay Pro WP plugin, 15-20% of earnings came from Canada on those sites. But with BANS and phpBay API, I was only able to target US visitors. The new MEP fixed that. To be fair, I was using phpBay API v2.5 while v3.0 added more features too. Maybe BANS will follow suit in v4.

What I learned from the conversion?

I'm waiting for the final version of MEP soon so I will have to update my sites again. I knew that but I wanted to test it more using real sites.

Also, I took notes because I used AuctionSiteWriter to create the basic site and then loaded it into MyStarterBlog to tweak it more, add content...This will mean new versions of both software soon.

I did add some features in the last versions of both software but by converting more sites, it gave me more insight in the whole process.

Comparing BANS, phpBay and MyStarterBlog

I once gave my opinion on BANS and  phpBay when I started creating auction sites. It's time to make a quick update by adding MyStarterBlog.

Conclusion

MyStarterBlog is growing beyond what I expected by supporting other type of sites. Is it perfect? No but no software is perfect since we use "version". In the auto industry, they use "recall".

In the end, I'm glad I'm BANS Free and phpBay API Free!

AuctionSiteWriter
See free movies legally(and make money too)

ShareThis

Last year, I had to register to SEDO to be able to make an offer on an domain. The owner and I did some testing and I concluded that the domain, for me, was not worth it for the price he was asking. Also, the Canadian dollar took a beating around that time and did not want to invest that much money. Yes, I'm missing last summer 1:1 exchange rate.

Once the testing was done, I made an offer based on the traffic he was sending from that domain.

The seller also had another related domain with half the traffic for sale but not making that much per day from SEDO parking. I made an offer and he accepted(day 1).

I had to enter my PayPal information to be paid when parking domains but also when buying the domain.

Once the seller agreed to my price, SEDO sent me an email. From there, I had to first pay the SEDO(escrow) and select the registrar.

Day 2

I had to send info to switch registrar.

Day 3

Got the authorized code to transfer registrar.

Day 4

All the transfers were done and the seller was paid a few days later.

For the first domain, they did not transfer the domain to my chosen registrar for some reasons. It could had been me too. But, I needed to wait 60 days more to do redo the transfer. The second domain was okay. If you have the same registrar, it's faster.

I since done other transfers because it's fast and secure. When I sold one of my domain, I had to pay a 10% fee for the escrow service. This way, I'm protected.

The aftermath

After I taking possession of both domains, I noticed I was not getting the traffic I got from the stats from SEDO that the seller sent me on one of them. I was only getting 10%. How could that be? Why the major drop? Did he mislead me? One thing for sure, I was mad!

Up to that time, I never got any troubles with the seller based on the previous testing phase. I sent an email to the seller since I paid for x amount for the traffic.  I offered him 2 options: explanations or partial refund based on the traffic I was getting.

But if he was dishonest, I was also ready to out him in public for being dishonest. Reputation is hard to gain but easy to lose. However, that was my last course and I wanted explanations first since he was honest before. Thus, I gave him a chance to explained himself.

My email was not received well and he did not like the tone. After reading my email, I admit I was a little too  direct. "Screwed me over" reflected the feeling I had at that time. Plus, I was accusing him of being dishonest when using those words.  But, I could had posted to my blog while never giving him a chance to give me his side. After that, I apologized and I was more diplomatic when choosing my words. Before that first email, I did asked a few questions but he never really answered all of them properly while answering others correctly.

He offered explanations and he pointed out a mistake I had made when receiving the incoming traffic. Yes, I admit, that part was my fault. After I made the modifications, I was getting the right amount of traffic.

I received 2 more replies later on. In the first reply, he accused me to be the dishonest one and that it was his last reply. The second reply, a few minutes later,  was that he was going to contact everyone that was sending me traffic to that domain. I never replied to either of those replies.

The lesson: Choose you words carefully. For both of us, English was not our first language. Maybe I used word that was more misinterpreted on his side.

Dealing with existing traffic

For those curious, I was only processing domain.com/index.html?uid=9999 when I should had process domain.com/index.php?uid=9999.I had only seen the .html

When you setup a site, you should check the 404 errors more carefully. With all my previous pre-owned I had bought, I never had that situation like this one.

Dealing with SEDO traffic

SEDO will give you the traffic they actually count as traffic. When domains are parked, they will show ads thus sending traffic is against the TOS.

Both domains are still receiving a lot from many traffic exchange services thus SEDO is not counting them. I can't do anything about it either since it's it's not from me. I do get regular traffic from backlinks too.

Also, SEDO will show the total hits for the last 30 days. So, if the domain was added yesterday, SEDO will show that total in the "last 30 days". If you see a low amount, it could be higher than that.

With those 2 domains, 95% is non converting crap traffic. At least, by using a few NB offers, I was able to almost double my money within 3-4 months from those 2 domains. I must mentioned that the second domain did not convert well. But, I took a gamble and I won this time.

Conclusion

Buying domains with pre existing traffic from SEDO or other services is good IF you can know where it comes from first. If you are lucky, the traffic is not being manipulated in anyway.

Otherwise, you might be stuck with a high priced lame duck. If it happens, you can always build links to get better targeted traffic but you will need to be patient until Google counts them.

Now, I check the traffic but it's not the major stat I look at. I check the number of backlinks, name, what it was used for and.... if it's in my budget because both were more than what I pay for pre-owned domains.  

AuctionSiteWriter
See free movies legally(and make money too)

ShareThis

When you watch this 911 video below, you see how home owners can use a home webcam security.

You can get home webcam security from below. Of course, the more you pay, the more features, software options and video quality you will get. This can help the police identify the burglars in case they arrived to late.

home webcam security

US Auctions Australian Auctions Austrian Auctions Belgian Auctions Canadian Auctions French Auctions German Auctions Hong Kong Auctions Indian Auctions Irish Auctions Italian Auctions Dutch Auctions Polish Auctions Singapore Auctions Spanish Auctions Swiss Auctions UK Auctions

Best Match Time: ending soonest Time: newly listed Price: lowest first Price: highest first Price + Shipping: lowest first Price + Shipping: highest first

True 13 MP USB PC Camera Webcam Built in Mic Security    US $4.98

13MP USB PC Camera Webcam Builtin Mic Security    US $4.99

13MP USB PC Camera Webcam Builtin Mic Security    US $4.99

13MP USB PC Camera Webcam Builtin Mic Security ^^^^^^^    US $4.99

Web Cam Security Camera Recording Capture PC Software    US $7.49

Turn your webcam PC into a security system Software    US $9.95

Have garden a blog? Add garden related items instead

Me, I got a Logitech QuickCam Pro 9000 last December because the reviews were overall good.

US Auctions Australian Auctions Austrian Auctions Belgian Auctions Canadian Auctions French Auctions German Auctions Hong Kong Auctions Indian Auctions Irish Auctions Italian Auctions Dutch Auctions Polish Auctions Singapore Auctions Spanish Auctions Swiss Auctions UK Auctions

Best Match Time: ending soonest Time: newly listed Price: lowest first Price: highest first Price + Shipping: lowest first Price + Shipping: highest first

Logitech Quickcam Pro 9000 Refurbished 2MP 30fps USB    US $.99

Logitech QUICKCAM PRO 9000 Web CamBest price    US $4.69

Logitech QUICKCAM PRO 9000 Web Cam    US $21.00

Logitech QuickCam Pro 9000 20M Effective P 960 000048    US $21.00

LOGITECH QUICKCAM PRO 9000 NIB    US $26.75

Logitech QUICKCAM PRO 9000 Web Cam NIB    US $28.50

Have garden a blog? Add garden related items instead

I can say that home webcam security is one cheap way to go if you keep your computer on 24/7

AuctionSiteWriter
See free movies legally(and make money too)

ShareThis

When I launched MyStarterBlog in February, I converted a static WordPress blog to MSB. That blog had 200+ posts thus perfect to make an importing WP test. That site was not updated since mid March of 2008.

Unlike a conventional site, this one is mostly consisting of pictures so the content is not very search engine friendly for long tail keywords. I keep that site because it's a door to a niche that most IM might stay away.  If you have read my blog before, I wrote about that niche and blog once about it.

Some stats

Because that blog mostly relied on very cheap CPM ads for revenu, the loading speed is very important.  The more pages that are viewed, the better the visitor will stay or click on an ad.

The results are preliminary but I noticed that I had an increase in revenue of 66% versus February. Of course, the site was converted to MSB on February 21. I also changed host and February is shorter by a few a days.  Even if I take that into account, I can say that my revenu did overall increased.

To be fair, I checked my history and March is my biggest earning month so far. It beat the December record by 12% and January by 14%. Those were the 2 previous months with the highest earning. Also, a lot of people have Holiday vacation thus had more time to surf.

The page viewed for March was 3.34 pages/visit versus 2.50 pages in December.

The month of April/May will give me more data but I do expect to earn a little more from that site. I did not add links to that site for a very long time either.

Conclusion

Any additional increase in revenue is a  good thing in this economy even if it's small.

The upside of using MyStarterBlog now is that I don't have to deal with upgrading Wordpress anymore.

So, if you have a simple static WP blog, why not convert it to MyStarterBlog?

AuctionSiteWriter
See free movies legally(and make money too)

ShareThis

Today, you might had noticed the Free Traffic Bar banner I put on the site. I started to play with it to see how I could use it to get free traffic to MyStarterBlog. Since I use my browser all day long, why not drive free traffic at the same time?

What is it?

The idea is simple: You install a plugin(Firefox, IE) that will show me a small toolbar ad in my browser. When I browse in Firefox, I earn credits that will show my own ads to others too. Now, I do expect the CTR(click trough  rates) to be low but would expect the conversion to buying MSB a little higher.

At this time, they have 45236 members. I'm guessing that a lot are Internet marketers but you can select the type of ads your want to be shown. This way, the ads are more targeted.  Plus, social bloggers could use that to their advantage by showing non money ads to be different.

Free vs Paid

The free version offer limited options unlike the paid version where you get a lot in return like free monthly credit, more ads, discount on ads....

I recommend that people try the free version first to see if they like it or not. After a few months you should reevaluate how much traffic you gained.

The one time offer

But if you have the money to spare, you should consider the first one time offer. It's not cheap since it's $297 but does offer 1 million credits, 25000/credits each month after that and more. I did not think about it so it's too late for me. But, I can still upgrade later but with 500 000 credits and lose some of the exclusive.

Here is how it can pay out for you if you buy the 1 Million credits.

You sell a $7 ebook.  If .001% of the 45000 buys your ebook, the one time offer would pay for itself.

45 x $7 = $315

I can be wrong but the 1 million credits would show your ad more often than not in front of users.

Btw, they do offer other lower monthly plans: $3.99, $9.99, $19.99.

Conclusion

In my case, my ad for MyStarterBlog is being shown to "Web Site Management::Content Management Systems/Blogs" only. If I can make a few sales just for browiing, I don't have any problem with that.

Watch the video and download the Free Traffic Bar.

P.S. I made this post Part 1 because I expect to make an updated post later on.

AuctionSiteWriter
See free movies legally(and make money too)

ShareThis

Last year, I started to buy all kind of expired domains. In most cases, I never heard back from former owners. But for the few times I did, I got 2 different kind of messages. So, this post is for former owners that want their domains back.

Why you lost your domain name?

If you lost your domain name, it's your fault not the new buyer. The main reason is that you forgot to renew the domain. It's that simple in 99.9999% of the time. So, check that your domain is using current payment information or your contact email with the registrar is still good. In many cases, the host/registrar are the same.

Contacting the new owner

It's not STEALING so don't accuse the buyer of that in your first email. Learn ALL the facts first.  If you are polite, the new buyer will consider this. At least, I do. If you are a jerk, this will not be in your favor.

That's the 2 kind of message I got: Polite(mostly) and Jerks.

Getting the domain back

In a few cases, I had won the auction but the new owner was able to get it back during a few days. Check if you can first from your registrar.

Making an offer

If the owner agree to sell you the domain back, make a reasonable offer.

In most cases, I paid more than the registration fee. For example, I paid last year $250 for a domain name but I earned it back within a few months. It had traffic exchange but still some traffic I could use.

Also, I do research before and after buying a domain. But, sometimes the domain is parked because I did not have time to get around to it after it was bought.

I don't work for free so that's where the reasonable offer comes in. I want to be paid for my time and for the price I paid for the domain. It's only fair and it's business.

Buying the domain

If you and the seller agree, you should use an escrow service. In my case, I used SEDO. They charged me a 10% fee. I think it's worth it since one or the other might back down or not complete the transaction.

Conclusion

Being polite will be more in your favor to get your domain back. Those that buy older domains will use them to make money whatever the name is.

For example, Google does not mean anything yet it's making money because of what it offer on the site. It will be the same with your domain name.  You might just had use it for personal use but I can use a domain to make money from it.

AuctionSiteWriter
See free movies legally(and make money too)

ShareThis