Cash-Bandit.com

Choosing the Right Affiliate Marketing Program is Crucial

Moderator — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 17:10:27 +0000

Affiliate marketing is one of the greatest ways for a person to make money online. There are a wide variety of affiliate marketing programs that are available today, so choosing the one that works best for you can be difficult.
from Internet and Businesses Online: Affiliate Revenue Articles from EzineArticles.com

Choosing the Right Affiliate Marketing Program is Crucial is a post from: Cash-Bandit.com

My New Cell Phone… And New Winner Chosen

Moderator — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 17:10:25 +0000

Almost two months ago I asked for your advice on what cell phone should I get and a lot of you guys were very helpful. Also, as a small thank you for taking the time to give me your opinions and advice, I offered a 125×125 ad for free for a month.

Unfortunately, when I announced the winner in my last DatMoney weekly updates I never got a response from the winner so I’m going to narrow down the winner now based on who voted for the cell phone I picked.

But before I do, let me bore you guys with the new phone that I got so you can either tell me how stupid I am or how I made a good decision. Either way, the phone should help me in more ways than one in the long run.

What cell phone did I end up getting?

I ended up purchasing the Samsung Moment (you can see the image below):

This phone is a Smartphone, has the touch screen feature, has a flip out keyboard and has a camera. The main reason for my upgrade is because I wanted something that was somewhat attractive, something that has easy internet access and something I can use for working online as well as personal use. Plus, I wanted to be picky because this is something I’ll probably be using for at least the next couple of years.

I’m not going to lie, I actually wanted the HTC Pro 2 but it was a little too much for my liking. It is the exact business type phone I wanted and it fulfills every personal need a cell phone has. The bad part was the fact that it’s $599.99 at regular price and $299.99 with savings from the upgrade.

That is definitely too much for me. I mean, the regular price is equivalent to a new laptop or desktop computer!

Anyways, I ordered it on Monday, received it at my house on Tuesday and now I’m talking about it today.

Besides activating the phone, one of the first things I did was try to customize it the way I wanted. I added a ringtone or two here, changed the settings there and the first application I downloaded was the Wordpress one.

Isn’t that shameless that the first application I download would be something that would help me work online? I guess that’s where my mind is! Lol!

But anyways, so far there are a couple of minor things I’m not a big fan of but overall it was a huge upgrade for me and it’s going to help me in more ways than one.

Let’s get to the new winner (since the last person never claimed their prize)… unlike last time when I picked a winner from everyone who left a comment even before I actually picked which phone I was going to get, this time I’m actually only picking from those who mentioned Samsung Moment as a referral. There were only three people and I just went to random.org and let them pick for me.

The winner is… Syn who left the comment:

I bought the Samsung Moment a couple days ago (used to have an Instinct) and I LOVE this phone. I love the fact that there are hundreds of applications available and most of them are free. I downloaded several last night for my preschool age child (ABC’s, shapes, colors) to keep her occupied during my dr appointment today. Worked great! The twitter app is cool. There are even guitar apps that I downloaded for free to help me with chords. There are free apps for wallpaper, ring tones, communication, finance, etc. I like the keyboard better than any other I’ve tried though the space bar sometimes doesn’t seem to recognize the push (unless it is just me getting used to using this keyboard coming from just a touch screen that my Instinct was). I have to say that out of all the Sprint phones we’ve had (we have five lines and have had sprint for several years so we’ve had quite a few phones), this one is the best so far. The only other thing I’d want to change about it, and hope to see on a future phone, is a 5.0 megapixel camera like the HTC has (that didn’t have QWERTY slideout keyboard so I nixed it from my list). The 3.2 does a good job, better than any of our other phones, but I am a picture taker so I am looking forward to seeing higher megapixels in the future.

Man, talk about a full detailed and helpful comment!

So Syn, if you’re reading this, please contact me and we’ll set you up with an 125×125 ad spot here for one month.

Thanks!

Random Posts

from A Famous Entrepreneur In The Making | DatMoney.com

My New Cell Phone… And New Winner Chosen is a post from: Cash-Bandit.com

Devo on the fate of the world–and Chatroulette (Q&A)

Moderator — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 17:10:23 +0000

At SXSWi, two band members tell CNET that Chatroulette is a natural home for Devo and note that the Net is a lot cheaper than TV for promoting a big project.
from CNET News.com

Devo on the fate of the world–and Chatroulette (Q&A) is a post from: Cash-Bandit.com

When tweets can make you a jailbird (AP)

Moderator — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 17:10:22 +0000

AP – Maxi Sopo was having so much fun “living in paradise” in Mexico that he posted about it on Facebook so all his friends could follow his adventures. Others were watching, too: A federal prosecutor in Seattle, where Sopo was wanted on bank fraud charges.

from Yahoo! News: Technology News

When tweets can make you a jailbird (AP) is a post from: Cash-Bandit.com

How to Make Money Online by Picking Keywords

Moderator — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 17:10:18 +0000

Guest Post by Shaun Connell

Every moment of every day, millions of dollars are spent over the net. Type in a keyword, click, and a ‘personal shopper’ called a search engine has scanned thousands of data bases and found just what you’re looking for. And, the only ‘legs’ needed for this virtual shopping expedition are keywords. From anywhere in the world, people are searching a global mall where their choice has been narrowed down to a few top rated web sites—and all this, because someone somewhere knew how to make money online by picking keywords.

Keywords Make Money
Anyone who knows the net understands the enormous marketing and advertising impact of keywords. Every day millions of dollars are paid to the people who create, develop and disperse keywords. Whether by advertiser cost-per-click, blogs, or creating links to a well-written hub, the people who know how to make money on line by picking keywords are making lots of money. And although content is important, in some cases, it is not automatically ‘king.’ If an on-line marketing company is tasked with helping to restore an individual’s or company’s reputation, their chief concern is to implant keywords throughout the text, ‘the story is not important. What is important is that the anchor text is worked seamlessly into the narrative 3 times.’

Location, Location, Location
To find the best keywords, know exactly what the customer is looking for; what is their Unique Selling Point? What words are triggered for example, if people are looking for ‘how to make money online by picking keywords’? If an aunt or uncle were looking for information about this topic, what words would they use? Once discovered the keywords should be placed within every piece of text. Notice some stores have the same goods located in different areas throughout the store; keywords are just like that; they must be everywhere a search engine might look. The same keywords need to be mirrored in the web content, blog and every article submitted or linked to hubs.

Window Shopping is Good Advertising
Of course, every article needs to be useful and informative otherwise people won’t be bothered to read it. But if the text doesn’t have the keywords embedded in it, it’s a waste of time as far as the virtual shopper is concerned. Keywords are the highlighted passages; which clearly mark the way to a web site. Without them, potential visitors will be left searching in the dark and they may never find what they are looking for. Keywords also help keep the text remain focused and to-the-point. If the text is vague or ambiguous people will get lost. If the text is about ‘lower left back pain remedies’ it’s no good putting in a keyword about hot-tubs (unless that is the specific remedy), so keep keywords relevant, and specific. Finally, for people who are interested in how to make money online by picking keywords they need to be word smiths. A client may want their text to be ‘not promotional, self-serving or comparative.’ In other cases they may want, ‘a story which reflects the subject in each hyperlink. Whatever the style of writing in all cases it keywords are critical.

Author Bio:
Shaun Connell runs several websites dealing with debt consolidation loans and loves to teach others how to make money online.

from Make Money Online

How to Make Money Online by Picking Keywords is a post from: Cash-Bandit.com

It’s Not About Making Controversy, It’s just Being Me

Moderator — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 17:10:17 +0000

If you’re a long time reader of this blog, you probably have seen me a lot of times really go into a certain topic and just write on it freely, most of the times really pouring in a lot of immature controversial statements as oppose to just being balanced enough and having a milder take on things.

But it’s just recently that I’ve been quite getting some flak for that attitude and that lead to me writing this very interesting post about my take on things.

It’s not Being Controversial, it’s just being me

I don’t think a lot of bloggers have this attitude but when I write, I just speak myself out. I try to be as spontaneous as possible and I think it speaks very well on how transparent I am. But that doesn’t mean that I am being irresponsible. Obviously when you write based on how you feel, you’re most of the times wrong. And that’s what I try to avoid. I can always assure you that I do my research or own study before really speaking on things. For all those people out there, it’s crucial. If you don’t do your research first, it may ruin your credibility.

Back to being transparent, I think most people here have liked my spontaneity and personality. That being said, it’s equally important as well to try to connect to your readers by just being your own. Sure at times we feel quite pressured not to sound too personal (and quirky) fearing to lose our credibility, but the truth is what all our readers care for is our own view on things. You could talk about this, talk about that and talk about all those latest trends but at the end, our readers will only care on our own tack on those issues and that’s why they comment on the first place. They either agree or disagree.

Controversy gives more risk as a blogger

A lot of people have gone down to this path. They start a blog, and to make a shortcut or to get noticed quickly, out of nowhere they hit big bloggers/people. They try to criticize them even though it’s not reasonable, they tend to create a lot of controversy so that they can get traction in as little time as possible.

I would tell you first and foremost to avoid that tactic. It’s an old blackhat practice and I don’t think it is going to work if you do it solely for bullshitting other people. Sure it can yield you great spikes in traffic but unless you give people enough proof on those, all of those craps are just deemed claims. And claims are just stuffs that you should never believe into.

Striking a balance

All in all it boils down to striking a balance between both. I am always a firm believer that you can get more people to read you by just being yourself, not pretending to be a lawyer or what. On the flip side, more people will actually then BELIEVE you by doing your research, thus boosting your credibility as oppose to just reading you.

Striking a balance is quite a work if you ask me. Sometimes we tend to be not fair but that’s where our readers come and rescue us. I always feel glad, actually really glad when a commenter opposes to what I believe and then explains his side on the comments.

What do you think about this topic?

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from TheMelvinBlog | MelvinBlog.com

It’s Not About Making Controversy, It’s just Being Me is a post from: Cash-Bandit.com

Online Money Making Ideas That Work 100%

Moderator — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 17:10:13 +0000

I recently wrote an article about avoiding money pits where I explain the problem with “money making systems” that are only designed to earn money for the developer. Today I´m giving tips about online money making ideas that work 100% if you are willing to work.

1. Blogging:
You can make an income online blogging.This means you must write high quality content and choose the right niches.To make a full-time living from blogging you need to choose several niches and build small blogs that work their way up in the search results.You earn money by having Adsense ads on the blogs in strategic places and other monetization like affiliate programs for instance.

2. Hubpages:
Hubpages.com is a site that allows you to write articles about any topic you choose and earn money from Adsense ads, Amazon and eBay.The site has lots of different tools, you can add RSS feeds, pictures and videos to your hubs.Hubpages is a trusted domain by the search engines meaning your hubs would start getting traffic quickly after you have written them.For best results you need hundreds of hubs in different niches.Some hubs earn more money, some hubs earn next to nothing.

Choosing the right niche is essential and this can only be done by writing hubs in different niches to see which work and which does not.(Hubpages has great statistics tools where you can see how the hubs perform.)Top hubbers have hundreds of hubs and earn thousands of dollars per month.Marketing the hubs is also important, the easiest way to do this is to join a forum and place the URL in the sig-file.

There are many similar platforms on the internet that allows you to write articles for them and shares the income with you.Squidoo.com, Infobarrel.com and WorldVillage.com to name a few.To make the most of it, start writing for all of them.You could also consider outsourcing the writing of the articles, this would be a very good investment because every article you send to these sites will generate income for you day after day, year after year.This is the best “set and forget” way to make money online.

3. Clickbank:
Clickbank.com is a huge marketplace with over 10,000 different products.You can promote other peoples products for a commission or create your own product and let other people promote it for you.To come up with a great product idea I recommend browsing forums and discussion boards to see what problems people have and think of a way you can help them.You must choose the right niche that has “money in it”, meaning people are willing to spend money to solve a problem.Hobbies are often a good choice.

4. eBay:
Many people buy and sell on eBay and earn a very good living from it.Others make their own products to sell there and others buy from the auction and sell for a higher price.eBay is one of the best online money making ideas, but can be quite tricky in the beginning.

Leave a comment below and share your best online money making idea!

Would You Walk Away From It All?

Moderator — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 17:10:12 +0000

Every now and again… an opportunity crops up and you have to evaluate what you really want to do with yourself going forward. That opportunity has once again stumbled in front of me… and I have been approached to be a part of something that could be very big! I’m not talking about ANYTHING to do with the affiliate marketing world, but a local opportunity that would take advantage of my 15 years of skills on the web, programming, sales, business management, etc… to do… well… I don’t really want to talk about it! :-O

Part of the opportunity however requires that I hang-up ALL of my current affiliate site efforts…

Meaning:

Close or Sell the Niche Store Builder site!
Close or Sell ALL Affiliate sites!
Close down my own Local Business!

Not for competition purposes… but to give the owner the confidence I will focus 100% of my efforts toward the business.

What Would It Take For YOU to Do It?

Would You Walk Away From It All? posted from the Niche Store Builder website.

My Resolutions for the New Year!

from Niche Store Builder

Would You Walk Away From It All? is a post from: Cash-Bandit.com

The Guest Posting System

Moderator — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 17:10:10 +0000

As many of you already know, guest posting is a great way to promote your sites. No site can live on an island and the more links you can get from other sites, the better.

The biggest problem with guest posting has always been the difficulty of getting a post onto other sites. You have always had to email the blogger who owns the site, talk about ideas for a guest post, get the thumbs up, and then proceed to write a post that’s good enough to get published on their blog. This isn’t an easy process and for that reason, most people never get around to it.

I’ve done a lot of guest posting the hard way and can tell you that it’s definitely worthwhile. However, I can also tell you that getting a post up on a site will take a lot of work and time. Even though it’s useful for bloggers and site owners to get free content, it can be difficult to establish the connections that make guest posting actually happen.

Introducing The Guest Posting System

Mark and I have been thinking for quite some time about how we can make it easier to connect with site owners and bloggers who want to receive guest posts.

With that in mind, we created an interface that allows site owners to locate sites that are willing to accept guest posts and also allows them to write the guest post and submit it to the blog of their choice, all from one location. So far more than 700 blogs have been added to this system. These blogs are organized according to categories to make it easier for people who are looking for blogs to post on.

Though we are going to eventually offer access to this service as a stand-alone product (it isn’t going to be free), the members of our program can already use it. So far the results that people have been getting are amazing. People have REALLY been liking it.

Receiving Guest Posts

Those who would like to receive guest posts from other site owners can install a simple plugin that hooks them into the system. Once they have installed the plugin, their blog will be included in the list of sites that show in the interface. When people submit guest posts to their site, those posts will show up as drafts in their WordPress admin. Currently the interface is only set up to send content to WordPress blogs.

To protect the blogs that actually publish the content, we have set up some security measures. Before a post is sent to a blog, we check it for duplicate content both inside our network and in Google’s index. This prevents spammers from being able to use the tool. Only original content can be used in the system. On top of that, the blogger has complete control over what is actually published on their site. They can reject any article that doesn’t meet their quality requirements. If an article is rejected, it simple goes back to the person who submitted it. They can submit the article to another blog or they can edit and resubmit.

Rules For Using The Guest Posting System

1. Only posts that are 300+ words can be submitted using the system.
2. Two links are allowed within posts.
3. Duplicate content is not allowed.
4. Spun content is not allowed.
5. Bloggers who receive guest posts can reject at their own discretion. Those who submitted these posts can of course submit them to another blog or they can edit them and resubmit.

Words That Work by Frank Luntz

Moderator — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 17:10:08 +0000

Words That Work by Frank Luntz is one of my favorite business books.

You may know Frank Luntz from TV appearances around election time. He has a dial system that reflects how voters react to the words of political candidates.

Frank Luntz has also worked with dozens of Fortune 500 companies to fine tune the use of words in their messaging.

The subtitle of Words That Work really says it all: “It’s Not What You Say, It’s What People Hear”.

The book is excellent for anybody in the business of communicating. As a marketer, the case studies and tips are priceless.

In the first chapter, Frank Luntz the ten rules of successful communication (the book goes into detail on each of these rules):

Simplicity: Use Small Words
Brevity: Use Short Sentences
Credibility is As Important As Philosophy
Consistency Matters
Novelty: Offer Something New
Sound and Texture Matter
Speak Aspirationally
Visualize
Ask a Question
Provide Context and Explain Relevance

Anyhow, I’d highly recommend Words That Work as a great primer on using words that have the most impact, whether it be to customers or colleagues.

Video: Words That Work by Frank Luntz

This post originally appeared on the Affiliate Marketing Blog by Shawn Collins

Read and comment on Words That Work by Frank Luntz

Disclosure policy for the Affiliate Marketing Blog.

from Affiliate Marketing Blog by Shawn Collins

Words That Work by Frank Luntz is a post from: Cash-Bandit.com

Mecom forecasts 35 per cent digital revenue growth

Moderator — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 17:10:06 +0000

The chief executive of the European newspaper publisher Mecom, David Montgomery, has announced plans to increase its digital revenue by €100m (£90m) over the next three years.

Despite an 11 per cent fall of digital revenue in 2009, to €67m, Montgomery believes that the company's target is achievable. He pointed out that turnover of Mecom's online news newspaper websites had increased by 5 per cent in 2009 and that web traffic had increased by 31 per cent over the same period. The revenue decrease was down to various standalone sites, he explained, including recruitment and classified advertising, that had been hard hit by the recession.

Mecom owns 30 newspapers and operates 200 websites across Norway, Denmark, Poland and the Netherlands.

Montgomery said that they plan the digital growth to come from advertising and various paid-content products, rather than paywalls.

"We are not contemplating direct paywalls. We see standalone [paid-for] products [working] only for highly specialised or unique content. Online newspaper revenue has continued to grow and we have started 2010 strongly," he said.

This article was brought to you by Newsvend – delivering online news, blogs and other unique content.

from MoreNiche Affiliate Marketing Blog

Mecom forecasts 35 per cent digital revenue growth is a post from: Cash-Bandit.com

Free EncryptStick Webinar

Moderator — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 17:10:03 +0000

All successful sales professionals know that you can’t effectively sell a product if you don’t understand it. We’d like to give you the opportunity to learn how EncryptStick works, and how to best sell the product to your customers through a free webinar. We strongly urge you to participate, as we’ll give you all the tools/strategies that you’ll need to successfully market EncryptStick and most importantly make money through our affiliate program.

WEBINAR DETAILS:

Round 1
Sun, Mar 21, 2010 6:00 PM – 7:00 PM EDT
https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/260771162

Round 2
Tue, Mar 23, 2010 10:00 AM – 11:00 AM EDT
https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/447483778

RSVP required. Use the contact forms through the links above, or email me and I’ll send you login information.

AGENDA:

Introduction of panelists [2 min]
Tyrone Phipps. CEO Onix International

Review the agenda for the webinar [1 min]
Tyrone Phipps. CEO Onix International

Explain the format of the webinar [2 min]
Tyrone Phipps. CEO Onix International

Demonstration of EncryptStick application [20 min]
Tyrone Phipps. CEO Onix International

Benefits of EncryptStick from a Security Perspective [5 min]
Mark Smail, CTO Onix International

Question and Answers [10 min]
Everyone in attendance

Final comments [2 min]
Tyrone Phipps. CEO Onix International

ABOUT THE FORMAT:

This presentation will be run via an interactive website using a webinar format [i.e. web plus seminar]. You can participate from the comfort of your own home, plus there’ll be lots of chances for you to ask questions throughout the event.

WHAT YOU NEED TO JOIN IN:

1. Computer connected to the internet.
2. Headphones or speakers to listen to the presentation.
3. Microphone to ask questions [optional - you can also ask questions using text based chat].

BONUS:

As a bonus, attendees will receive a free license to EncryptStick [a $39.99 value].

Please get in touch with any questions/comments/feedback; I’m looking forward to speaking with you at one of the webinars!

Have a great day!

from Affiliate Marketing Blog by AMWSO

Free EncryptStick Webinar is a post from: Cash-Bandit.com

Links for 2010-03-15 [del.icio.us]

Moderator — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 17:10:35 +0000

Source: Aviemore Business Blog

Competition launched for businesses in the Cairngorms National Park Aviemore Business Blog

from Aviemore Business Blog

Links for 2010-03-15 [del.icio.us] is a post from: Cash-Bandit.com

The SXSW Keynote With Ev Williams You Had Hoped to See

Moderator — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 17:10:33 +0000

This afternoon, as most of you know, Ev Williams, CEO of Twitter sat down for a much-anticipated and heavily-attended keynote interview at the South By Southwest conference in Austin. After thousands of Twittering geeks and quasi-geeks alike had settled in to the packed exhibition hall and overflow rooms to hear the latest updates delivered straight from Twitter’s leader, their excitement soon turned to boredom and finally, severe annoyance, as the interview’s pace, tone and content fell well below expectations. After an hour’s time, the halls in Austin were more than half empty, and an opportunity to showcase one of technology’s biggest successes in the last few decades was for the most part lost.

For a huge number of attendees at SXSW, Twitter epitomizes a new form of communication. Their friends are on it. It’s where they chronicle their lives and connect with like-minded people and businesses. That the keynote was the draw of the week would be a dramatic understatement. As I sat upstairs in the Austin Convention Center, letting my laptop get some electricity in anticipation of live-blogging the keynote, the escalators jammed with hopeful starry-eyed nerds awaiting a visit from their blue-tinged oracle.

I have met Ev twice myself, including quickly Sunday night at the Google Reader/Blogger party, exchanging a few pleasantries and shaking hands, but by no means consider us close. That said, I expect I will see him again, while for many of those attending today’s event, this could be their first and maybe only time to hear Ev’s words directly. He doesn’t do major speaking opportunities often, and SXSW is one of the biggest geek meccas of the year. Even if it was not an opportunity to announce something amazing, both Ev and the interviewer would have a huge platform to talk to the audience and be interesting. And they failed. Ev may not be the charismatic leader in the image of Steve Jobs, but he really had no chance, being served a syrupy mosaic of cotton-ball soft questions that dealt with feeling, culture and “awesomeness.”

As I summarized the keynote in a running transcript on Google Buzz, I hoped my own fatigue wasn’t seeping through the text, but the pedantic non-inquisitive approach had me fidgety, featuring insightful questions such as:

“It was you or Biz that said if it was awesome people would use it, and when you talk about creating something, it is about awesomeness? What is awesomeness for you guys?”

At other points, I wrote… (Questioner keeps agreeing with Ev and saying that’s “cool” rather than asking questions) and (Questioner recaps his own previous blog posts)…. When I looked up at the conclusion of the keynote, the once-packed overflow room I was in was tired, quiet, and very empty. The row I was sitting in, once packed elbow to elbow, sported five empty chairs to my left, and a pair of folks to my right with a few empty chairs in between. The talk had clearly missed the objective, and people were sorely disappointed, compared to what they had obviously hoped would be something special.

Here’s what should have happened.

For me, the keynote speech fell far short, not because the questioner was friendly, but because there was very little substance. One can question a speaker in an interesting way without being contentious. What failed to happen was any detailed questioning into competitive markets, technology, challenges or relations with developers. Instead, we got questions about management principles, overly long descriptions of Wal-Mart, ambition, whether partnerships should be “win-win”, or if Twitter could be a force for good.

I respect Ev and think he had hoped for a lot more. I would have challenged him and asked:

Has Twitter finally escaped the scalability problems that plagued the service in 2008? If not, what’s left to solve, and what kind of technical challenges remain?
There was talk that Facebook once was interested in purchasing Twitter, and you chose to remain independent. How do you see Twitter’s role in a world alongside Facebook? Where do you compete and where could you potentially partner? How did their acquisition of FriendFeed change things?
When you saw the launch of Google Buzz, did you feel like the old company you once worked for was looking to stab you in the back?
You talked about being an open company hoping to foster strong developer relations. How can developers on the Twitter platform be sure advances in your own services won’t compete with them and put them out of business?
While you have opened up the firehose to select partners for revenue, can anybody who wants to pay gain access to the firehose feed? If not, how do you set the criteria for doing business?
There are many different Twitter clients out there. What are aspects of third-party clients which you like the most? What attributes of these clients can we expect to see in Twitter.com?
The Twitter search engine still is extremely broken and only returns a few days worth of tweets. Will this ever be solved, and how big of a priority is it for your team? What is left to do and how soon can we see the true search engine come online?
The company has recently reversed its approach to a Suggested User List, but as you know, many people on Twitter have followings in six or seven figures that benefited from the old model, and have incredible reach or influence because of that approach. How can the playing field be leveled?
It is assumed that your relationship with Betaworks has also led to your use of Bit.ly as the primary URL shortener on the service. How soon until you purchase Bit.ly outright? Should we also assume closer relationships with other Betaworks companies, such as TweetDeck?
So far, it appears you are avoiding revenue models that include advertising in the stream, similar to Google AdSense, but we have also been promised advertising we will love. Can you explain how this advertising will work, and if I can block it?

To sit down with the CEO of one of the most interesting companies in all of technology and not talk about technology or competition or specific tools in any meaningful way was a dramatic letdown. That the interviewer did not recognize the fatigue of the audience as they scurried out of the cavernous halls was shocking, and now, Ev, who seems to be more on the shy side than the screaming and yelling type, like Steve Ballmer, may think twice about another opportunity, which is unfortunate.I recognize a public interview on such a stage can be a real challenge. We all learned about Sarah Lacy’s struggles in that space back in 2007. But those of us who use Twitter and really care about these products deserved more. The SXSW community deserved more. They voted with their feet and they voted with their retweets. While one can remain civil and not throw barbs at the speakers, there was no question this could have gone a lot better than it did, and Twitter will have to promote its new @ Anywhere platform in a better way, for today, it was seriously overshadowed by a train wreck we found ourselves stuck watching.

More: louisgray.com | RSS | Buzz | E-mail | Cell: 408 646.2759

from louisgray.com

The SXSW Keynote With Ev Williams You Had Hoped to See is a post from: Cash-Bandit.com

Why Choose Affiliate Marketing Online?

Moderator — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 17:10:33 +0000

Affiliate Marketing seems to be the way to go when it comes to making money online. It’s not as complicated and demanding as some other online businesses might be.
from Internet and Businesses Online: Affiliate Revenue Articles from EzineArticles.com

Why Choose Affiliate Marketing Online? is a post from: Cash-Bandit.com

Things That Used to be Good but Now Suck

Moderator — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 17:10:30 +0000

Growing up in the 80’s, I was a avid collector of baseball cards. Since the Oakland A’s were my team, my favorite players were the Bash Brothers, Mark McGwire and Jose Canseco. As the two players achieved early success, I had foolish dreams that my Canseco and McGwire rookie cards would eventually be worth tens of thousands of dollars. Fast forward twenty plus years and a couple of steroid scandals and I would be lucky to get $100 for both of their cards.

As a result, my McGwire and Canseco rookie cards are a good example of something that used to be good, but now sucks. Here are a couple of more examples:

1. Cracker Jack Prizes–You used to be able to at least get some kind of cheap plastic ring or top. Now all you get is a cheap piece of paper or sticker. They are so lame that I don’t even open the prize anymore.

2. American Idol–Who knew that the one of the main reasons most people watched the show was to see what kind of medication Paula Abdul took that day and how it would affect her???

3. The New York Knicks–After making the playoffs for 14 straight years from 1988-2001, the Knicks have not won a playoff game since 2001 and haven’t even made the playoffs since 2004.

4. Toyotas–Do I really have to explain?

5. Lindsay Lohan–This childhood Disney star showed us her talent in movies like The Parent Trap, Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen, and Mean Girls. Now she is best known for making terrible movies like I Know Who Killed Me, forgetting to wear proper undergarments, and for suing E*Trade.

6. Myspace–Once “The Place” to be on the internet, now Myspace is now just a glittery back ground graveyard that auto plays the popular music of 2003.

7. Scrambled Adult Channels–A long time ago (okay about 20 years ago), the adult channels came in scrambled unless you subscribed to them. Unfortunately for me, my parents did not subscribe to these channels so I had to resort to watching the scrambled version to see what was going on. Fortunately for me, sometimes the scrambling was not that great and I could see (and hear) what was happening.

Now, in this internet age, millions of boys going through puberty will never enjoy this rite of passage. Instead, they are exposed to hard core pornography every day. Yes, those parental controls that you put on your computer can be easily bypassed by your tech-savvy seven year old.

8. AOL Instant Messenger–This weird yellow guy was on every computer in the United States a couple of years ago. Now only preteen girls and pedophiles seem to use this service.

9. Tiger Wood’s Publicist’s Job–This quickly went from the easiest job in America to a candidate for an episode of Dirty Jobs

10. Saturday Morning Television–Even though I have never been a morning person, I used to at least try to wake up early on Saturday mornings to watch all the good cartoons. These days, you are more likely to see an infomercial on a Saturday morning than some Looney Tunes.

Can you think of any other things that used to be good and now just suck? Leave a comment to let me know.

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from The Red Stapler Chronicles

Things That Used to be Good but Now Suck is a post from: Cash-Bandit.com

Should I Start a Youtube Channel?

Moderator — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 17:10:28 +0000

I have been thinking about this for quite sometime now but I’m still unsure if I should actually start a Youtube channel for DatMoney. As you guys know vlogging is really popular and if you know how to pull the right strings, it can work wonders. And when I say wonders I mean to say you’ll get a lot of subscribers (for your Youtube channel and blog), lots of traffic to your individual site as well as many a good amount of money.

Why Start A Channel On Youtube? Benefits?

Technically, I already have a personal one but I don’t use it. I think I created one years ago but forgot about it. But why should I start one for DatMoney? Well, there are a number of reasons and a big part of it is to take my blog to the next level.

If you’re an internet entrepreneur, you find ways to expand your business, take advantage of the opportunities that are in front of you as well as experiment on what works and what doesn’t. For instance, everyone takes advantage of social media sites like Digg and Reddit, social networking sites like Facebook of Twitter and social video sites like Youtube.

So, what are the benefits of starting a targeted Youtube channel for DatMoney? Well, it’s simple – money, traffic and subscribers.

Money/Additional Revenue Source – I’ll get more into it when and if I decide to go about this but you should be able to make money from both the Youtube videos as well as your own website. If you know me, you know that I try to have multiple revenue sources incase one dries up then I have a backup.

But again, I’ll go into full details if I actually do it for DatMoney.

Traffic – In the big picture, traffic equals potential money and subscribers. Not only that but you can brand yourself even more with videos and a expanded audience.

Subscribers – Everyone tells me that building a list is good and people always tell me how it will benefit me if I do it right. Well, let’s save that topic for some other time.

But you’ll want to get subscribers for your website but also for your Youtube channel. The reason why you’ll need it is to make money with Youtube directly in the future.

Downfall For Setting Up DatMoney’s Youtube Channel

There are a few downfalls I can think about if I were to set up a Youtube channel for DatMoney.

Lack of Time on Time Consuming Project – Believe it or not, you’ll probably have to spend a good amount of time with making videos. I mean, it’s not just point, shoot and upload. You have to know what you’re saying in the video, give examples and keep it interesting, edit the video, upload it and also get people to view it.

I’m sure there’s more to it but only if it were that easy.

Not My Ugly Mug – Personally, I don’t think I want my ugly mug on all these videos and there are ways around this but it makes it more impersonal.

Of course, one of my thoughts was to get a good looking woman to discuss my topics for me. But there are a bunch of downfalls for that in itself.

Providing Videos People Want to Watch – The whole point of this project would be to make money, get subscribers and get traffic but if the videos aren’t up to par then that would be strike one, strike two and ssstttrrriiikkkeee out!

If I were to set up a Youtube channel for DatMoney, more than likely I would go into full details and examples on how people can make money online, get traffic, build a website and a bunch of things most people aren’t aware that you can do online. I wouldn’t discuss everything I discuss here like site updates, personal stuff like rants and dedicated web hosting, etc.

So, Will I Start a Youtube Channel?

It’s hard to say because of the time involved in it. I’m actually considering doing it for something completely separate from DatMoney but the potential is there. The reason why is the fact that you actually don’t have as much competition in this niche on Youtube if you become a trusted source and separate yourself from spammers.

Of course, the hard part is to build that trust and, well, separate yourself from all those spammers.

But I had a chance to watch a couple of the “make money online” videos and they aren’t really helpful at all. If I can separate myself from them by going get full details then I’m sure it will be just fine.

Anyways, what do you guys think? Does anyone else have a somewhat popular Youtube channel?

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from A Famous Entrepreneur In The Making | DatMoney.com

Should I Start a Youtube Channel? is a post from: Cash-Bandit.com

Google optimistic about Android in China

Moderator — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 17:10:24 +0000

Despite Google’s problems with the Chinese government, the company’s CFO expects Android smartphones to “flourish” in China.
from CNET News.com

Google optimistic about Android in China is a post from: Cash-Bandit.com

Break the law and your new ‘friend’ may be the FBI (AP)

Moderator — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 17:10:23 +0000

AP – The Feds are on Facebook. And MySpace, LinkedIn and Twitter, too.

from Yahoo! News: Technology News

Break the law and your new ‘friend’ may be the FBI (AP) is a post from: Cash-Bandit.com

Five Tips for Selling Items Online

Moderator — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 17:10:19 +0000

Guest Post by Thomas Westling

With many services and Web sites available today for consumers to sell products or services online, it can be challenging to figure out which one will work best for you. But regardless of where you decide to sell online, there are basic sales principles you can follow that will make a difference between achieving a profitable sale and having a prospective customer skip right past your product listing. Following these rules will help call attention to your listing and put your offering in the best possible light to prospective buyers.

1. Be honest. If your item is five years old, don’t call it brand new. Describe how long you’ve had it and what wear it has gotten. Otherwise you are wasting the potential buyer’s time and creating distrusting.

2. Do your research. When selling a product or service online, spend some time researching similar items for sale and how they are being advertised. This will help you decide which information to include in your listing, what features to highlight and what price to ask for your item.

3. You’ve gotta see it to believe it. People want a chance to see an item before offering to buy it, so include a high-quality photograph showing the item. If it’s a large object like furniture or a car, use more than one photo with multiple angles in your listing. Research by the advertising industry proves that photos catch more buyers’ eyes and increase sales.

4. Pay atention to speling and grammer. See what we mean? A successful listing is written and proofread carefully. Is all your spelling and grammar correct? Many sites allow you to preview your listing before posting, which could save you from losing a potential buyer.

5. Don’t forget this is a business deal. Respond to all customers promptly and politely. Answer all emails with a greeting and closing, full sentences and your name. Be clear and complete in your descriptions of the product, price and delivery options. If you meet a buyer, be punctual and courteous, no matter how the negotiation goes. If you send your product to the buyer, be sure to package it securely to protect against damage and make sure it arrives to the buyer promptly. You are selling yourself just as much as you are selling your old things, so pay careful attention to how you deal with potential buyers.

Author Bio:
Westling is the founder of AmericanListed.com, a new online classifieds site presenting consumers and businesses with a more effective way to sell and buy products and services within their cities, towns, or even within the ultra-local confines of their neighborhoods. AmericanListed.com is the only free site offering a user and family-friendly online selling arena.

from Make Money Online

Five Tips for Selling Items Online is a post from: Cash-Bandit.com

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