How Blogging Should Be Like Selling Kiwi

With a little better understanding of retail and marketing philosophies, we may be better situated for making money online!

I was sitting around tonight thinking about this whole making money online niche and something occurred to me...we're working really hard to re-invent the wheel here! The very first rule of retail is this...if nobody is buying, I'm not making any money! The same rule applies online!

Look, if you owned a brick and mortar business you would do retail one of two ways. The first way is to be everything to everybody, always have what the customer is looking for. I'll call that the Wal-Mart way. Alternatively, you could focus on a very small segment of the business and be very specialized. I'll call that the Kiwi Stand way. These are not new principles, they are time tested over hundreds of years.

The real irony here is that because we've switched from brick and mortar to click based retail, we thing all those principles don't apply any more. We've even introduced a new "principle" that I haven't quite named yet. It mainly consists of standing there proclaiming yourself to be an expert at something and pointing people in "the way they should go." Its kinda like the homeless guy giving me home buying tips. Wait...THAT'S IT! The Homeless Way!

Wal-Mart didn't start out as the largest retailer on the face of the planet. They started small just like everyone else. They got to where they are by huge volume and taking advantage of suppliers. I mean come on. Don't most mom & pop store owners have to ask their suppliers what a widget costs? Wal-Mart gets to tell their suppliers what they will be paid for the widget...and the suppliers are so desperate for Wal-Mart's business (i.e. validation) that they agree...whatever the price.

Now the kiwi stand guy is willing to pay a little extra for his kiwi because he want the best. He is willing to invest in providing the best, most specific product his customer is looking for. In return he is rewarded with customers who are willing to pay a little more to get exactly what they are looking for. The kiwi stand owner is also the most likely to help out the store owner around the corner because he knows the value of a good relationship with fellow retailers.

And then there are the Homeless guys, who have neither the most, nor the best...hell, no product at all...but he knows where everything is and has no problem telling you where to get the best kiwi...for a dollar! Oh, and he know about all the fruits too so there's no reason to ask anyone else...he is the final authority.

So what? What does this have to do with blogging or making money online?

Well, I'll tell ya. If you haven't already figured it out, I'm going to draw some parallels between these retail principles and bloggers.

First, the Wal-Mart's of the blogging world, yep you guessed it. These are the John Chow's of the blogosphere and his ilk. Doing massive volume and taking advantage of everyone that crosses their path. And while you may find a few really good items in the inventory, they are the exception. Most of it is just crap, and for some reason, people keep going back to get refills of the same crap!

Next, we have the Homeless bloggers like Caroline Middlebrook. No real experience, no real product, just self-proclaimed experts who, for just $99.95, will tell you everything you need to know to get where they are! (which, by the way, you're probably already there!)

Finally, we have what I want to be, the Kiwi Stand Guy. If you've ever been to or lived in NYC for any amount of time, you'll get this. Vic from BloggerUnleashed would be a perfect Kiwi Stand Vendor in NYC! You're laughing but am I wrong? ("Hey, ya need a friggin kiwi?") Vic along with Griz (How to Make Money Online) and Court (Internet Marketing) round out the Three Wise Men of Internet Marketing in my book.

I've been trying to get started making money online for well over a year and in the past six weeks of listening to the Three Wise Men of Internet Marketing, now I'm actually making some progress. Not a millionaire (yet, maybe never) but lets just say the months of $0.90 AdSense are over!

Vic, the vlogs are the best and it's like I said in some comment the other day. Your stuff is golden but sometimes its like trying to get a drink from a fire hose! I'm glad I can go back and play them again. Thanks for all you've done for me and for the rest of the blogging community!

Court, you are the keyword master! Your latest on Keyword Sniping was actually a real encouragement to me, you know, finding out that even the master can get sandboxed! Thanks man!

Griz, wow, talk about pay it forward! Not only do you make it seem so simple, you've got no problem sharing and helping us noobs get started. You are one of the good guys.

If you don't read these three blogs and you want to make money online, you should quit now. You may make a little money, but you'll starve before you make any real income.

If you read these guys you will now understand my retail analogy and the Kiwi Stand.

You don't have to have 100,000 customers a day that come in, look around, and leave. You just need the 10 or 20 who come in and BUY a kiwi! (remember...if they don't buy, I don't make any money?) Oh, and you need a couple of thousand cheap fruit stands that sell what people want to buy (kiwi, oranges, limes...whatever) on the the streets where Wal-Mart won't bother to go.

Blog on Three Wise Men of Internet Marketing...and thanks!

Make Real Life WebMoney With Project Payday

After laying off the WebMoney theme for a while, I was inspired by Griz today to think about How To Make Money so I looked around and found my Project Payday membership and decided to get to work... Here goes!

The really sad part is I can't for the life of me remember / figure out how I signed up for it before. So alas, Griz got a referral click from me today...you're welcome!

Project Payday is a IFW scheme for generating WebMoney (IFW stands for Incentivized Freebie Websites). Griz did a much better job explaining this than I could in his post Project Payday Review - What's an IFW | How to Profit but here is the meat and potatoes...

You have all no doubt seen a 'get a free ipod' promo or a 'get paid to take surveys' blurb or 'get paid to shop' advertisement. You know the spiel - sign up for a free or small fee promotion and you will receive a brand new ipod, flat screen TV or whatever. The promo you have to sign up for is usually something like Columbia House CD's or efax or a credit card company. The gist of it is that the website giving away the free ipod gets paid for each person it refers to the vendor (Columbia House pays the website for getting you to fill out the promo offer). It turns out that this isn't a scam as you might first think - I know I did. The website actually gives away free ipods - the catch is that to get the ipod you have to refer 5 or 10 friends to sign up for the new Columbia House promo as well. The website gets - lets pick a number, say $25 - every time they refer someone. They make you refer 5 people to get your free ipod. The website makes $125 and gives you an ipod that they bought for $50. Everyone wins, Columbia House gets 5 new people to bombard with CD's (for the rest of their sorry lives) the website makes a $75 profit and you get a brand new ipod.

All of that is well and good and it is in fact why I signed up for Project Payday many many moons ago, the problem was that I'm lazy and doing all that is a lot of work. I realized today however that there is a much easier way to make a little WebMoney off ol' Project Payday...sign ups.

See the good folks over at Project Payday are willing to pay $1.50 just to get a name and email address (and I don't think they even take the time to verify the address, hint, hint). In other words, if you click on my Project Payday link, enter a name and email address, I get paid $1.50.

Whoop-tee-doo, what's in it for you? Hello... McFly...

I shelled out a grand total on $1.95 today to get signed-up and verified by Project Payday. By clicking on my Project Payday link (or any of the Project Payday ads on the site) you can do the same thing and add this revenue stream to YOUR site(s) and add a little WebMoney to your purse! After all, that's why you / we're here isn't it? Yeah, sure I get a little scratch off of it, but hey, Griz made some off me today so pony up!

*** UPDATE ***

There is a new website out called Project Payday Review. I wanted to give you the link so you had a fuller explanation of the whole program. And in the interest of fair play and equal time Project Payday Scam.

The Women of Dancing With the Stars

At the risk of turning this into a TV show blog, I just HAVE to make a few comments on last night's episode of Dancing With the Stars on ABC.

If you know me at all you know I don't watch much TV so to be writing about two shows is a pretty big deal. I was flippin through the channels last night looking for WebMoney ideas and came across Dancing With the Stars season six. Now I didn't see Monday night's show where the men danced but last night it was just the Women of Dancing With the Stars...and they were pretty good.

First up was Shannon Elizabeth on Dancing With the Stars. She actually did a pretty good job and the crowd sure seemed to like her.

Next was Monica Seles on Dancing With the Stars. The former tennis player didn't do quite as well on the dance floor as she did on the tennis courts. She was stiff and obviously nervous. I'd look for her to be the first woman eleminated from Dancing With the Stars Season 6.

We also say Kristi Yamaguchi on Dancing With the Stars. The world champion and olympic gold medalist skater performed up to her expectations...very well. An early favorite because of her skating background Kristi Yamaguchi proved she would glide around the dance floor just as well as the ice. (Please...pardon the puns...i'm on a roll today!)

The last dancer of the evening was Marlee Matlin on Dancing With the Stars. The award winning actress is totally deaf and Marlee and her partner put on a stellar performance! She could go a long way on Dancing With the Stars season 6.

Far and away however was the performance of Priscilla Presely on Dancing With the Stars. I was shocked. Despite Priscilla Presley age and being the poster child for how to NOT have plastic surgery done, her performance was awesome! New leader in the race to win Dancing With the Stars for sure!

Money Magnet Review

After posting my earlier article on Making WebMoney with Money Magnet, I looked it over and thought... I can do better than that. So here goes.

After a bit of my daily web surfing yesterday I stumbled across a new little gem of a WebMoney widget called Money Magnet. It is so simple that it only took a few minutes for me to see how easy it would be to make some extra cash with this Money Magnet thing.

Making money online is the brass ring of the Internet and the Money Magnet guys have found a cool way to do it. Very simply you purchase a Money Magnet widget with PayPal from a site or blog that is displaying one (like THIS BLOG, hint, hint) for as little as $10. After you pay, you are taken directly to the page with the HTML code you need to put the Money Magnet widget on your site.

The cool thing is as soon as your PayPal payment clears, the owner of the site you bought from gets paid IMMEDIATELY! No waiting for minimum payouts, you don't even have to wait for the end of the month. Your commission is deposited to your PayPal account INSTANTLY!

Another interesting thing about the Money Magnet widget is that you can buy widgets in different monetary amounts! I bought the cheapest at $10. The higher the dollar amount you purchase, the more you earn. For instance, with the $10 Money Magnet widget I will earn $5 for every sale originated through my site, even if the sale is for a $100 widget. Bummer right? Well, not exactly because with the $10 widget I can sell ANY Money Magnet widget ($10, $20, $30, $40, $50, and $100). If I bought the $100 widget I'd earn $50 per sale but I could ONLY sell the $100 widget.

So go ahead and add the 125x125 Money Magnet widget to your blog and see what kind of cash you can receive. All that's left is to get the traffic! Check out more information and buy your own Money Magnet to start earning at www.GetMoneyMagnet.com.

Enjoy!

- Thom

Making WebMoney With Money Magnet

It's been a while since a wrote about webmoney, but never fear!

The InterWorld is never short of new ways to earn a little scratch, and I've discovered one. You should be seeing a little yellow widget to the right over there entitled Money Magnet. This is my newest webmoney widget. The idea is simple...

1. Buy a Money Magnet widget by clicking on my widget over there->
2. You'll get the code to put a Money Magnet on your web site or blog
3. Encourage people to buy Money Magnet widgets from your site

There are several denominations you can buy from $10 to $100, I bought the $10 widget. With the $10 widget, I get $5 for each Money Magnet widget that is sold from my site(s). If you but a higher denomination, you get more per sale (it's all explained very well on the Money Magnet site).

So go check it out. It's simple and looks like it could be a pretty easy way to make a few bucks.

An Alexa Milestone Day!

Back in December I was inspired by Daniel's 2008 Goals blog writing project over at Daily Blog Tips, and I published my blogging goals for 2008. Well, I've made at least one of them already!

Admittedly, back in December I was a bit unsure what my goals should be, after all I had only gotten serious about this blogging thing a couple of weeks earlier. But that didn't stop me from laying them out there for the world to see.

I has planned an update on the goals for the end of this month to mark the end of the first quarter but I got such a great surprise yesterday that I decided I couldn't put it off any longer!

Goal Number 7: Break into the top 5,000,000 on Alexa (currently 8,167,786). I blew past the 5,000,000 mark weeks ago but seemed to be stuck just over 1,000,000 for forever...till yesterday. When I opened my browser and looked at the Alexa Rank I was rewarded with 958,194.

Now it doesn't take much surfing (um, or mathematical acumen) to know that there are still almost 1,000,000 sites ranking higher than mine...but hey I thought it was worth celebrating!

Ok, so here's the update on all the rest!

Write at least one post every day. I've definitely not been making this goal on this blog alone, then again I have about a million times more blogs than when I wrote this goal too. Realistically, I'd like to post 2-3 times a week here so....there's my UPDATED goal for 2008.

Network with (not just link to) other bloggers. I've done ok with this one I guess. I've been working diligently in the local niche arena lately and I've been in touch with lots of folks there. I also had the pleasure of making a guest post at The Writers Manifesto entitled 3 Tips To Make Working At Home Easier. Thanks Monika for the opportunity!

Average at least 100 daily unique visitors. Wow, just went to calculate this and I'm embarrassed to post it... maybe next time! (As kind of a consolation I will say that my local niche site East of Huntsville is averaging 44.4 per day!) (Another side note, my series on LOST on ABC has helped a lot)

Average at least 300 daily page views. Again, too embarrassing to print. (East of Huntsville, 82/day)

Have at least 100 RSS subscribers. Today the number is 13. I don't watch this one every day because it is the least dependable and often most depressing number. I am satisfied with the progress overall in this category though because the trend is up! (BTW, if you'd like to subscribe to my feed...)

Average at least 3 comments per post. Well, this number isn't very good yet either but here tis: .38 per post, yes, you read that correctly. The average is less than one...but it's not zero!

Break into the top 5,000,000 on Alexa (currently 8,167,786). Already addressed this one (yeah!) but since I've hit on East of Huntsville, I thought I'd mention that EOH's Alexa page rank is 986,715 today! Not bad for a site I hadn't even created when I wrote my goals!

Generate at least $500 monthly. Well, progress here is slow but it is still progress! January and February were still less than $10 each and the trend is increasing. I've added two new revenue generators this month, ProjectWonderful ads and Yahoo! Publisher Network ads. We'll see how they go.

Ok, there's my update. As always comments with praise, ideas, or just to say hi are always welcomed and encouraged. And remember, you can be sure to get future updates by subscribing to the feed.

If you follow BloggerUnleashed.com then you should already know about the Mission Possible contest that Vic is putting on. If you haven't, stay tuned here at jtrigsby.com and you can follow my progress at jtrigsby.bloggerunleashed.com, that will be my blog for the contest. thanks for your support and see you soon.

Great prizes on EzMoneyOn.Net first contest

Ok, back to connected posts...at least for this one!

There is another contest out there on the net and I thought I'd let you know about it. The good folks over at EzMoneyOn.net are working the make money online theme and they are sponsoring this contest.

Its pretty simple to enter, in fact they give you some choices about entering. You can write a post about the contest and link back to their blog (eg. THIS post). You can subscribe to their feed via email or a reader. Finally, you can write recommendations for the blog on Entrecard. All of these get you various numbers of entries into the drawing.

The contest runs through March 11th so head on over and drop your name in the hat. What could it hurt? To get more details, be sure to check out their blog and read the post on Great prizes on EzMoneyOn.Net first contest.

How Blogging Is Like Morse Code and Sudoku

Ok, I know it sounds like a strange topic so stick with me here for a few minutes.

I created my first blog before I learned Morse code or sudoku, but I never really did anything with it. I was like the hundreds of thousands of others that thought, "what am I going to have to write about." Don't believe me, this is the first blog I created, go back and read my first post First Things First, if you dare (but fair warning...it sucks!)

It wasn't until I had finished reading the Internet one day and just started chopping at the keyboard that I stumbled across the blogging as an income idea. I think the first one I really latched onto was Brian over at GeniusTypes.com, but that was just the beginning. Now I try to be a faithful disciple of the Three Wise Men of blogging.

Anyway, I digress.

When I first started blogging as an income, it all seemed pretty complicated to me, hence the morse code and sudoku reference. You'll know if you've read Adventures in Amateur Radio that I'm an amateur radio operator or ham. One of the requirements (at the time) to upgrade from an entry level operator was to learn Morse Code. I failed my first two tests because I was trying to hear every letter rather than listening for words...

Still Confused?

Ok, how about sudoku. My first attempts at sudoku were very granular, only one row or one column or one square. It wasn't until I started seeing and playing the puzzle as a whole that I really had a breakthrough.

And Now for Blogging...

Now don't get me wrong, I'm now where near an expert at this stuff...yet. But I am beginning to see whole puzzles rather than just the individual pieces. Having one blog is ok and you can have great fun with it...but that's about it. Don't expect to make any real money, at least not in the short term. It will take forever, and most people will lose interest. BUT, if you have several that support each other, well now we're getting somewhere.

As I continue down this new path there seems to be something new around every corner. The trick here is that while it is new to me, there are probably hundreds if not thousands of other bloggers that have already figured this out. If you can learn from other people's mistakes, you'll get there a lot faster.

Look at your blogging portfolio as a whole, not a list of individual blogs each competing for your time and attention. Whip those blogs into line and have them all working for you instead of you working for them!

Happy Blogging!

An Update to Microsoft's Bid to Buy Yahoo!

Following up on my post from last Monday about What the Crap is Microsoft Thinking?, we read in the news this morning that Yahoo! has formally rejected Microsoft Corp.'s $44.6 billion takeover bid. Apparently many analysts expect Microsoft to raise its offer to $12 billion to entice Yahoo to sell. Yahoo is believed to want a bid of at least $56 billion, or about $40 per share.

Again...what is Microsoft thinking? I guess that's one way to make (and spend) WebMoney?

Apparently Yahoo! is fighting back too! News out on the net says Yahoo Opening Up Talks With AOL as well as outfits like Google and Disney. It seems Yahoo!'s lifespan is to be short lived and for some reason they don't want to get in bed with Microsoft!

Looking For a Wedding Photographer in Huntsville Alabama?

Need a Wedding Photographer in Huntsville, Alabama?

Neither do I, but I'm sure lots of other people do. As you may have gathered, this is a post not so much about weddings and wedding photographers, but mainly about boosting the linked page in results. Oh, right, the links.

I'm going to point you to Finding a Wedding Photographer in Huntsville Alabama, mainly because I really dig the picture! It's pretty funny.

For my regular readers and subscribers, I know you didn't sign up because you were interested in weddings or photographers (although you might be interested in Huntsville, Alabama!) Thank you so much for your support and understanding with this post. I promise I'll be back to more meaningful stuff in the morning!

How To Work In the Internet - Part 1

Life In the Internet is about living and working in the connected world. Ok, well how do you DO that?

I remember back in the 80's business Utopia was the Paperless Office! Well that didn't work out...yet. I was sifting through my Reader feeds this morning and made my way over to a couple of new blogs (well, new for me) that inspired me. First I found Skellie over at AnyWired.com. She had 30 Ideas to Help You Start Working Through the Web that I thought were very fab!! (Check out her article, you'll notice some of her ideas as I move through this series) Thanks Skellie! While I was browsing her site, I found a 125 ad for Stephen over at Productivity in Context. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not even in the same league with Stephen when it comes to organization, but don't let that stop you from checking out his blog.

Anyway, these two kinda got me thinking about HOW I do what I do and thought it might be a good idea to showcase some of the ways I work mainly in the connected world and leave very little residue behind in the UNconnected world. Here goes.

Start With The Basics

It might be a good idea to back-up just a bit and hit a little history. I've had the jtrigsby.com domain for many many moons now, I don't even remember how long I've had it. The web portion of the domain has gone through several iterations, most of them requiring direct access to the server, FTP access, or something of the like. What a hassle. And then there is the email monster! Yuck!

I stumbled across Google Hosted Apps almost a year ago. Like a lot of things (like blogging) it took me a little while to figure out how to take advantage of this fab tool, but I finally got it. If you missed my story about Google Apps (The Latest Killer App!), Google Apps is a hosted application (meaning its all on-line, nothing on your computer) developed by Google. It provides users with email, calendar, web hosting, docs, spreadsheets, and presentations. And the best part is...IT IS FREE!

Needless to say, free is good!

So I signed up! Now, you are not required to have (or buy) your own domain name, it will work just fine using a Google sub-domain, but since I already had jtrigsby.com, I redirected it over to Google Hosted Apps and the rest was easy. I now get to use a private branded Google Mail app for all the mail sent to jtrigsby.com, have my own calendar, and my own document repository. All on-line, all free. What? You don't see the big deal? Well let me tell you. My email, calendar, documents, spreadsheets, and presentations are now available from any computer with Internet access and I don't have to deal with or manage server, connectivity, spam, or backup issues! In fact, I've got the world's single largest hosted apps company doing all that for me...FOR FREE! Wow.

Now Google Apps has a web hosting feature, they even have a pretty slick little on-line web page editor. And yes, it is on-line so I could access it from anywhere, and did. I started my WebMoney series on the old site. I spent lots of time writing and editing the pages, saving drafts, etc, etc. Then the blogging light bulb clicked on (finally)! I spent weeks working on the traditional web site and it only took a couple of hours to move all that data over to Blogger...and that includes getting the blog setup and the domain name redirected!

So now I have email, calendar, docs, and a blog/website. The basics of my Internet Empire are in place. With this array of applications, all on-line and web based, I'm mobile and don't have to carry anything with me to stay connected. As long as I can borrow a computer (dare I say even a Mac!) I can stay in touch, answer emails, and get a little work done. This is something that's really important to me since I'm on the road a lot and away from my desk. It's also pretty cool that I can setup a user account (the first 100 are FREE) for Vickie and share my calendar with her so she can see what I've got going on, where and when. How cool is that?!?

What tools do you use to stay connected? Are you still using a pc based email client like Outlook? Any tips? Be sure to leave a comment below and share all that you know with the rest of us.

Next time...Keeping Up A Social Life, Online!

Be sure to stay connected to Life In the Internet by subscribing to my feed. You'll automatically get the latest and greatest...as soon as it's published!

The Web Store Is Growing!

It only opened a couple of weeks ago, but the web store is growing!

My Internet store is open and growing! With just under 100 products traffic is picking up and business is booming!

Some of the most popular categories of products are

• Dallas Cowboys Fan Gear - Don't let the playoffs start without your gear!


• Chess Anyone? - Chess sets for every occasion and budget


• Civil War Collection - Figurines and memorabilia from Civil War times

All orders are processed by Google Checkout so you can rest assured that your information is private and secure! Visit the store at shop.jtrigsby.com today to get in on all the action!

$500 from Barter Genius

Here's a chance to win an easy $500

The owners of Can I Make Big Money Online is holding a contest for their new barter site called “Barter Genius“. They are giving away 500 dollars to one lucky winner and all you have to do to enter is write a blog entry like this one. For more details about the contest click here.