Enough Bullshitting… Let’s Make Money In 24hrs Or Less!!!

Dealing with Kid-Related Emergencies
Prevent Weight Gain

So word has it that I haven’t made many good posts lately that help people make cash. Well, I agree, so here’s how you can make some bank quickly and easily without breaking the bank too. Let’s take a quick look at Pay Per Click (PPC) Marketing and see how underrated it is and how you can seriously make some cash without getting too wrapped up and hung up on the usual things that stop you from moving forward.

1- Create a site. If you don’t know how to, well, get someone to do it for you. It’s not that hard, hell, even I can do it and I am a retard when it comes to tech/design stuff. So buy a domain, get a cheap hosting account for it, toss up a WordPress blog and theme (takes the hassle out of creating a site), and you’re in business.

2- Depending on what your domain theme is, if it has one, make the site around an affiliate marketing offer. It can be a product, a service, doesn’t really matter which. Just pick something! There are no bad ideas or good ideas, everything can work in it’s own right if done correctly. If you are being a lazy bastard and need me to pick one for you, then choose a product that is cheap for the end user and serves some type of beneficial purpose. Ad networks have a billion offers, I’m sure you can find one. But try and keep out of finance/mortgage and ringtones for now, because those take lots of research, time and cash.

3- Great, you have your product picked out, now make a blog post about it. If you don’t know all that much about it, do some quick research on Wikipedia or Google. It’s also a good idea to put a banner up or a full page ad for it if you aren’t going to write a blog post about it. Either way, make sure the theme of the blog is about the product you are promoting. Maybe make the color scheme the same as the page where the user will buy something or fill out the lead.

4- So let’s assume you have your domain, host, blog with the offer all setup. Alright, so now comes traffic, the fun part! Let’s use Google Adwords and MSN AdCenter for it. Take $100 and deposit it into each of the accounts. You probably won’t use all of it, but it’s good to have it in there. With Adsense we can begin right away, but with MSN you may have to wait 24 hours or so until their slow asses get to approving the account. With both though, there are tons of free cash coupons and promo codes out there, and some on WickedFire.com that you can use and get some free cash to use.

5- Time for some keyword research. Before you start to use every keyword tool under the sun, let’s do a bit of manual work. First go and look at the advertiser’s page and pull keywords off there by hand. We want to focus on something called LONG TAIL KEYWORDS. We don’t want the one or two word keywords because they are very general, expensive, and usually being looked at for research purposes and don’t have many “buy now” people using them. A long tail keyword are those 3, 4, 5+ word keywords that really target a product. So for example, a good longtail mortgage refinance keyword I would use is “refinance los angeles california” or “bad credit refinance new york” INSTEAD of “refinance new york” or “refinance la”. You can even compare the prices, and you’ll see the longer ones may not get much traffic on it, but they are so cheap compared to the other more general ones.

6- So you have some general and longtail keywords. Fantastic. Now some people use misspelling tools and whatnot, which is a good idea, so go over to SEOBook.com into the tools section and use Aaron Wall’s misspelling tool. But don’t do that just yet, because that’s the last step. What you should do first is get a nice long list of longtail keywords of what you think people are using when they are in “buying mode” when searching on the engines for your product. So if the product is some kind of insole for a shoe, your keywords would be: buy shoe insole, cheap insole for shoes, doctor recommended shoe insole. Those are pretty good, and sure, they are nowhere near as robust as something like “shoe insole” or “shoe pad” but they are more likely to be in buying mode than researching mode. So your job, for the next 1-3 hours is to gather up as many of these keywords as possible. If you want to use keyword tools to do it for you, by all means, knock yourself out, but if this is your first time doing something like this, and you want to learn how to do it right, do it by hand, the old fashioned way, just until you get the swing of things. When you’re done collecting the keywords, run it through the misspelling tool, and save the end result. Make sure to also group the keywords into 5-15 keywords per group for Adwords and AdCenter. You’ll thank me later.

7- We have our keywords, the site, the domain, the product. Wonderful, now on to getting some traffic finally! Take those groups of keywords and make one primary campaign for them in AdWords and the sub-campaigns for them based on which keyword theme they are. You don’t want to put too many keywords into one group because you want to keep your ads as relevant as possible for that group of keywords that it represents. So go ahead and make your ads. I typically write out 3-4 ads in the beggining, but sometimes as little as 2. It really depends on how confident you are of the keywords. Make sure to include the keyword, or the main idea of the base keywords (meaning, if the keywords all revolve around “back pain” make sure “back pain” is in the ads). Don’t be boring with the ad copy either, try and liven it up to get the attention of the searcher that will make them want to not only click on your ad, but also buy or fill out a lead for your product. Use your domain and page/site for this. Make sure all the traffic goes to your killler blog page.

8- Once you’re done with all of the above do something very important now.. Change the keywords so they are all EXACT and PHRASE matches. You can even go as far as to create seperate ad groups if you really want to, but sometimes that’s just overkill and may also screw up your other campaigns for good keywords. The reason you don’t want to go with broad in the beginning is because you’re on a mission now. That mission is not to make money, but to get your CTR up to a nice level. You’re going to want to be doing this for a good day or so. Don’t worry, you won’t lose much money, and afterall, a lot of those clicks aren’t just going to go nowhere, they’ll be going to your blog/promo page. You still have a great chance that they will also result in a sale/lead. So no need to fret about it.

9- Wow step 9 already, look how quickly we flew through this tutorial. Granted there are a lot of details being left out, but you will learn them on your own and pick them up pretty quickly too. You have to admit, this is a hell of a lot easier than you thought it would be right? So the reason I want you to use a blog or something with content on it and not just a redirect or linking directly to the affiliate code is because Google and MSN have this algorithm called QS aka Quality Score. They say, that if a site looks like it’s not selling something exclusively, meaning, that the site’s sole purpose is to spread information rather than sales then it should not be paying as much as a commercial site that has a huge budget. Also these types of results (your site) are relevant for users and give them what they are looking for, instead of a sales page and a “buy this thing now or you will die!” approach. We want the users to buy or fill out leads, but we don’t want to give them the impression that it’s ALL we want, so maybe tack on a newsletter signup link. You can use Aweber, they are cheap and good. Also tack on a few information links on the blogroll or in the posts. To really beef up your QS, send some inbound links from other blogs, directories, sites, forums, wherever really. Just pretend you are SEO’ing it as well as using it for a PPC campaign. Within 2 weeks or less your QS should jump, your CTR should jump, and best of all, your PPC bid price will drop! In the wise words of Borat.. Wowaweewa!

10- This is not over. Just because your ROI is 2:1-3:1 or better doesn’t mean you are leaving this alone and moving onto the next thing. Your ass needs to go over everything, step by step. Keep a list. What went wrong and why? What changes did you make to it, and what type of effect did it have on the sale/lead/traffic? Ask yourselves as many questions as possible. If you can’t answer it yourself, go to the forums and ask someone there. There is an answers to almost any PPC and affiliate marketing related question on WickedFire.com somewhere, and if we don’t have it, another forum will, or ASK about it, because as great as we may seem to think we are, we can’t read your mind and see what’s going wrong. Be as detailed as possible too!

So there you have it. A blog post of value, quality and meaning. Will it make you millions? I doubt it. But be realistic, you need to try things out and learn them for yourself before you can pass judgement on it or decide it’s “too hard”, because this is not hard at all. This is easy shit compared to any job offline that you may have had to do for a paycheck. So quit sitting on your ass and reading this, and go out and do something about it! The rest is up to you boys and girls, so go make me proud and try it!

[Via Aojon.Com]

Is 'Anyone Can Do It' Just A Marketing Schtick?
Celebrity Castoffs - How To Make Money Selling Used Celebrity Clothing
By Kids For Kids Kicks Off 'Get Your Head in the Game' Maryland Sports Invention Challenge

How to Make a Lot of Money as a Franchisee

Want Your Start-Up to Be Successful? Appearance is Everything

This is such a fun topic. It reminds me of the joke we used to tell as kids, “How can you immediately double your money? Fold it in half and put it back in your pocket!” So how can you make a lot of money as a franchisee? At the risk of sounding trite, the easiest way is to start by selecting a franchise opportunity that is capable of making a lot of money.

Actually, there are a number of things you can do to increase your chances of making good money as a franchisee. Though picking the right opportunity where others are making a lot of money is a good start, it is no guarantee you will do the same. The key secrets to making as much money as possible include:

1. Starting with the right definition. This goal begs the question, “what is a lot of money?” Many people think of this answer first in absolute terms such as making a fixed amount like $100,000 per year. I think it is wiser to define “a lot of money” in terms of return on investment. If you can invest $5,000 and get a return of $25,000 per year, I’d contend you’re making a lot of money on that investment by any reasonable standard of measure.

2. Starting with the right opportunity. It’s essential to select an opportunity that matches up well with you, in which you are willing and capable of performing the primary role of the franchisee. As just one example, I know of a franchise that cleans public restrooms. This can be an intensely profitable business with a great return on investment, but many people simply wouldn’t want to be involved in such a business. Their reluctance would probably mean they wouldn’t make a lot of money, because they couldn’t project the excitement and enthusiasm necessary to sell a prospective customer on the value of a sparkling urinal.

3. Keeping the investment size reasonable. A host of franchises can produce a great return on investment. Make sure you focus on ones where the per-unit investment is reasonable given your net worth and the liquid capital you have available to invest. Remember what your mom told you about not putting all your eggs in one basket.

4. Reinvesting to achieve your absolute goal. If you find an opportunity that fits well for you and has a great return on investment, and you’ve got your first unit up and making a lot of money, you can reach your absolute number goal by acquiring additional units. This can either be done through further out-of-pocket investment or through the reinvestment of the profits you’re making into growing the business. I have a good friend who owns more than 40 haircutting franchises. The return on investment in each unit is great, but the absolute dollars in any one unit don’t meet his overall total income goal. He found that by adding additional units over time through the reinvestment of profits, he could realize a total income far in excess of what his absolute goals were when he started the business. In the example mentioned in the first point, if you want to make $100,000 per year, make four of the $5,000 investments and you’re there.

5. Following the system. The biggest reason to get a franchise, as opposed to starting an independent business, is to acquire the rights to use a proven system to achieve predictable results. A good franchise company has developed its systems through extensive trial and error and should be able to tell a new franchisee exactly what to do to make a lot of money. All you should have to do is execute the system well to achieve the success you want. If you want to make a lot of money, don’t be an innovator—just pick a great system and execute it well, and you’ll get your wish.

6. Capitalizing your business properly. This is a corollary point to the one about making sure the size of the investment for each unit is reasonable for you. There are many ways to capitalize your new business, including using all cash or using some portion of your cash combined with loans or leases to come up with the total investment. Most franchisees use a combination approach. When you’re evaluating how to capitalize your business, keep in mind that the service costs of loans or leases will reduce the amount of money you’ll have for other purposes. Too much leverage can be very dangerous and get in the way of making a lot of money.

7. Working with a good accountant. One of the hard lessons of life is that there can be a big difference between the money you make and the money you have. The difference is taxes, and they take many forms. One of the most important steps to making money that stays in your pocket is to use a good accountant to help you structure your business entity and ongoing activities in a manner that reduces the tax bite whenever possible. The entity selection can help you avoid double taxation of earnings and/or business specific taxes like B & O tariffs. In terms of your business activities, some techniques can be as simple as the timing of investments and major purchases or the type of capital structure you use. It’s typically well worth paying some accounting fees to ensure you’re minimizing the tax bite if your goal is to make a lot of money in your franchise.

Finally, keep in mind that in any successful franchise system, many people have traveled the path before you. Whether they are other franchisees or the franchisor, take advantage of their experience by asking for advice whenever you have doubts or your results aren’t what you expected, especially when you’re first starting out. They’ll be happy to help you, and you can return the favor to other new franchisees in the future.

Jeff Elgin is the "Buying a Franchise" coach at Entrepreneur.com and has almost 20 years of experience in franchising, both as a franchisee and a senior franchise company executive. He's currently the CEO of FranChoice Inc., a company that provides free consulting to consumers looking for a franchise that best matches their needs.

American Theocracy: The Peril and Politics of Radical Religion, Oil, and Borrowed Money in the 21stCenturySauce startup a fresh take on a traditional product
The Multimillion-Dollar Super Bowl Gamble

The A,B,Si's of Hispanic Marketing

Around the House

If they're not on your marketing radar, chances are you're already one step behind your competition. The U.S. Hispanic population is growing exponentially, and so is their purchasing power.

According to HispanTelligence, Hispanic spending power has skyrocketed to $700 billion and is projected to reach as much as $1 trillion by 2010. The latest U.S. Census Bureau figures estimate the total U.S. Hispanic population at 42.7 million, making them the largest minority group in the country. They're also the fastest-growing group: From 2004 to 2005, the Hispanic population grew by 3.3 percent. By 2050, Hispanics are expected to reach 102.6 million and will constitute 24 percent of the nation's total population.

Because of this intense growth, Kagan Research estimates that Hispanic advertising is expected to reach $5.5 billion in gross advertising revenue by 2010. What differentiates Hispanic marketing from traditional forms of marketing? Gerry Rojas, director of Hispanic marketing with the Urban Concepts division of New York City-based US Concepts, says it's all about relevant marketing. "Anyone can do Latino marketing, but to be relevant is the challenge. You use a lot of the same marketing strategies as traditional advertising, but then you fine-tune them to fit your target consumer, and that's the key," says Rojas. "You don't have to reinvent the wheel, but you do have to be cognizant of who you're talking to."

Marketing directly to Hispanic consumers can be a risky move--not only do you risk offending the very group you're trying to target, but you also risk offending groups you aren't targeting. Last month, Bank of America announced a pilot program offering credit cards to customers without Social Security numbers--typically, illegal immigrants. The move was met by opposition in Congress and from critics nationwide. The National Illegal Immigration Boycott Coalition says it's collected more than 11,000 signatures on a petition calling for a boycott of the bank. But Bank of America stands behind its decision and says it plans to continue the program.

Controversy also sparked for pizza-restaurant chain Pizza Patron back in January, when founder and owner, Antonio Swad, announced the "Pizza por Pesos" program. The Dallas-based restaurant chain decided to accept pesos in exchange for their pizzas, and was met with a torrent of criticism, including death threats, vicious e-mails and obscene phone calls. "The campaign was immediately tied to the very hot, bubbling issue of immigration, particularly illegal immigration in the U.S., and somehow people wanted to throw that around my neck," says Swad. He explained that his team expected some controversy, but had no idea it would reach such extreme proportions. "We got a lot of brand impressions in those three weeks of media frenzy, I'm certainly not complaining," Swad says.

Though the program was expected to end in February, Swad has decided to continue it for the time being, saying it's still serving his customers. Swad says it's hard to say just how much the "Pizza por Pesos" program has affected his earnings, since their sales were already on the rise in January, right before the launch of the program. "I can tell you that January and February are typically the worst months in the pizza business, but that's not the case this year. In fact, many of our stores are achieving all-time sales records," says Swad.

Traditionalists vs. Second, Third and Fourth Generations
Rojas points out that it's important to differentiate between two very different types of Hispanic consumers: traditionalists and second generation-plus. He refers to recently arrived immigrants as traditionalists because they integrate their traditions from their countries of origin into their lives here in the United States. Rojas, whose father emigrated from Mexico to the United States, mentions his mother and grandmother as examples of this group.

Second generation-plus refers to Latinos who live the Latin lifestyle, but speak English. Rojas says marketers are missing out on this booming key demographic--choosing instead to advertise to the traditionalists in Spanish on Spanish-speaking TV and radio stations. "If you're going to market most of your dollars and spend them within Univision or Telemundo, that's fine for my mother and grandmother, for example, but who's talking to me? What brands are talking to that second generation-plus?" Rojas asks.

Rojas says he's trying to get his clients to grasp this concept because this is where he sees the biggest growth in the Hispanic market. "The third and fourth generations aren't watching novellas in Spanish. They're watching Ugly Betty," says Rojas.

4 Ways to Advertise Authentically, Not Offensively
As Rojas mentioned, understanding your target consumer is vital to a Hispanic marketing campaign. But there's more to it than just that. Both Rojas and Swad offer their advice for what to do and what to avoid when advertising to Hispanic consumers.

1. Know your market. Swad, who is Italian and Lebanese, says you don't necessarily have to be Hispanic to market Hispanic. "I made a conscious decision 21 years ago to work with the Hispanic community and adopt their culture as my own," says Swad, who believes he's so well accepted within the community because of his effort to make a connection at the community level. Pizza Patron participates in small community activities that larger chains tend to ignore. For example, in November, Pizza Patron showed its commitment to community soccer by sponsoring the Copa Lowes soccer tournament in El Paso. The chain also recently sponsored the Festival Hispano de la Salud in Dallas, a health festival dedicated to teaching families healthy habits for free.

2. Be aware of cultural nuances. "What's good for one Latino can be bad for another. Make sure you really look into the cultural sensitivities of the group you're targeting, be it Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, Spanish-speaking Hispanics, or English-speaking Hispanics," says Rojas. "When I first started, people only thought Latinos should be marketed to in Spanish, but nowadays, marketers are realizing that Latinos speak English, too."

3. Be sincere. "You really have to search your heart and find out why you want to market to this group," advises Swad. "If it's strictly because you want to have a measurable monetary return, it never works that way. You have to build your brand awareness, and it takes time." When Swad opens up a new location, one of the first things he does is post a sign on the door with the words "proudly serving Hispanic communities since 1986."

4. Follow up. "It's important to follow up after planting the original flag in your campaign. Some people are so eager to tap into this market that they expect instant results, but that's not going to happen," Rojas says. According to Rojas, you can't just sell your product and leave. If you're serious about marketing to this demographic, you need to take the time to develop a program, not just a one-time deal. Rojas has helped his client Jose Cuervo succeed by creating a long-term campaign called "Cuervoton." The campaign is actually a U.S.-wide talent search for the next generation of Latino artists in urban music. With this campaign, Rojas says Cuervo is ensuring the longevity of Latinos in the music industry. "It's marketing that shows you really care about this demographic. Cuervo is actually doing something for their target customer, and they'll be rewarded--Latinos are very loyal," says Rojas.

My Secret: A PostSecret BookFive Signals That You
Selling Cyber-meals

Should You Start a Business Blog?

jamel comedy club , frederik show !!!

In just a few years, blogs have become a phenomenon. Every day, an estimated 175,000 new blogs and more than 1.6 million blog updates go online, according to Technorati, a blog tracking firm. As of late January 2007, Technorati was tracking 63.2 million blogs.

This explosive growth raises the question: Should your small business start a blog? I believe you should, if for no other reason than to take advantage of an effective marketing tool. In a recent survey of business technology marketing executives by research firm MarketingSherpa, blogs were voted the No. 4 tool for generating sales leads.

Like any other marketing tool, blogs are most effective when used properly. Here are some suggestions for successful blogging, plus some background for those who aren't familiar with blogs.

The Backstory on Blogs
The word "blog'' is derived from the term "web log.'' In essence, a blog is a web page or site that's part online journal--hence the term "log''--and part open forum. Some bloggers post new updates constantly; others write updates weekly, monthly or only occasionally.

In most cases, blog entries are short and might include photos or links. Sometimes blog readers can post their reactions to the blogger's entries. Other readers can then add their two cents to those comments, thereby continuing the dialogue.

The so-called blogosphere contains blogs on practically every conceivable topic. Some blogs exist on the website of an individual or business, while others are hosted on public blogging sites, like Blogger and Windows Live Spaces.

Why You Should Consider Blogging
Aside from generating new sales leads, blogging also offers the following potential benefits.

• A blog allows your business to engage with current and potential customers in a direct, informal, no-pressure way. You can communicate the strengths of your product or service, the expertise of your top executives and the breadth of your company's experience in ways that traditional marketing and advertising don't allow. This can help engender a better understanding of your company as well as inspire customer loyalty.
• Because of its collaborative nature, a blog can help you gain insight into customers' needs and interests. You can then use this information to develop new products or services or fine-tune existing ones.
• A blog can make your company appear more "alive'' and approachable. A website promoting your products or services is an essential marketing tool. But a blog, in effect, gives your company a personal voice, which also can help boost customer loyalty.
• Blogs cost little, if any, money. Some public blogging sites are free; others charge only nominal fees. Also, blogs are often extremely easy to set up and update, with virtually no training required.

How to Be a Successful Blogger
If you decide a blog makes sense for your business, here are some things you should keep in mind.

• Start by setting goals, policies and tone. Decide what you want to accomplish with your blog and let those goals influence your content. For example, you may want to establish yourself as a "thought leader'' in your industry, boost your site's status in search engine results or differentiate your business from the competition. Also, if your blog will have multiple in-house authors, decide on basic ground rules, such as never trashing the competition. If possible, make a staff member the blog editor to check entries before they're posted for grammar, typos, tone and consistency.
• Keep it relevant and personal. Blog readers want to know what you--or others in your company--think about the trends relevant to your industry. If you run a local real estate firm, your readers would likely want to know your thoughts on buying and selling trends in your area. Make your entries personal by speaking to readers directly. Tell them a story. Use an authoritative yet conversational and informal voice.
• Make it useful. When you offer helpful tips and links to other resources on the web, your readers will be more inclined to tell others about your blog. For instance, have you read a new book that's relevant to your readers' interests? If so, write a short review of that book in your blog. If your blog is an information resource for your industry, other bloggers and website owners will want to link to it. And the more sites that link to your blog, the more likely it will show up near the top of search engine results.
• Use relevant keywords throughout your blog. This is another way to boost your blog's chances of showing up at or near the top of search engine results.
• Keep readers hungry. If your blog entries are clear, concise and compelling, readers will want to return again and again.
• Use a soft sell. Don't use your blog to re-purpose press releases, brochures or other content originally created for marketing, PR or advertising. Readers can smell a blatant pitch a mile away.
• Update often. Readers expect blogs to be refreshed regularly. If you update your blog once a month or less, you may not develop a devoted readership. Shorter, more frequent updates are preferable to longer, infrequent ones.
• Consider sharing the duties. Blogging requires a time commitment. Sharing the blogging duties with others in your company can take the pressure off. Plus, multiple voices can make a blog more interesting.
• Stick to it. If you decide to start a blog, make a commitment to keep it going. An abandoned blog won't give readers a favorable impression of your company.
• Be prepared to evangelize. Because blogging is still relatively new, some stakeholders in your company may be unconvinced of its potential return on investment. Explain how a blog might help your business. Provide examples of blogs you admire and, if possible, how those blogs translated into sales leads, better customer relations or other benefits.
• Consult with trusted advisers. Before embarking on any new marketing initiative, it's always a good idea to consult with those whose opinion you trust. Do you know a business owner with a business-oriented blog? If so, ask what impact the blog has had on their business. Also ask your in-house or contract marketing expert for input on your blog's goals, content or tone. Finally, talk to your webmaster, site designer or other web-savvy adviser. Should you add a blog to your small-business website or create one on a separate, public site? What keywords would they recommend using?

Something to Say
Ultimately, a blog can be a highly effective and low-cost marketing tool for differentiating your business from the competition and encouraging customer loyalty. All that's required to be a successful small business blogger is planning, creativity, commitment and, most importantly, something worth saying.

Peter Alexander is Entrepreneur.com's "Tech Trends" columnist and vice president of worldwide commercial marketing at Cisco Systems Inc., the leading supplier of networking equipment and network management for the internet.

Library Lion by Michelle KnudsenBecoming a Better Developer
The Single Greatest Copywriting Success Secret