Another MarketLeverage Contest!

I must say the guys and gals at MarketLeverage went all out in last months sponsoring contests.  I thought I’d just point out one of the last MarketLeverage sponsored contests I can find in the blogosphere.  Tay at SuperBloggingTips had a pretty decent contest going with a Flip Mino, a $50 prepaid credit card and a 2gb USB pen.  The advantage with Tay’s contest is that there aren’t a lot of people entered so I’d recommend you enter today, your chance of winning is fairly high (at least better than any John Chow contest, lol).   Check out the contest here! I heard that Jason (The University Kid) will be having an awesome contest in the future as well.

~ Reid

I Went Flying Yesterday:

I finally got up flying yesterday after 2 canceled lessons due to inclement weather.  This was my first time flying in almost 11 months so I was nervous to start but started to remember all the tricks quite fast.  We reviewed stalls and slow flight while flying in the practice area.  For a power off stall we pull the throttle pack to idle and try to keep the plane flying straight and level.  As the speed falls we need to pull farther and farther back on the controls to keep flying level until the plane can no longer hold level and the nose falls, we then lower the nose to gain speed, apply full throttle and get back to flying straight and level.  On Monday I’m taking my radio operators permit test and will be practicing in the circuit.

I won a Flip Video Mino:

As you saw last week, I posted about The Net Fool’s contest sponsored by Market Leverage.  I won the 1st price of a Flip Video Mino.  I can’t wait to receive it so that I can start testing out some video posts.  I’d like to thank Jim of TheNetFool.com as well as MarketLeverage.com.

MooneyQuest Theme Updates:

Over the past few days I’ve been catching up on some of the blogs I used to read before I went away.  I’ve really noticed how the difference between a decent looking blog and a great looking blog can make a difference on whether you read it or not.  It’s almost a matter of credibility.  I’m going to start reworking the theme I use to make it look more professional.  I’m going to install OIO Publisher and remove some of the old ads I’m running (*cough* TopHostingCenter *Cough*).

Upcoming vBulletin Job:

One of the things that got me started working online was vBulletin forum software.  I’ve been making money installing and upgrading forums for almost 2 years now.  I just got an email from an old customer of mine and he wants me to move 2 of his forums to a new server and upgrade both of them.  This job should net me $400-500.  I think I will write an eBook eventually about how easy it is to make money with vBulletin.  If you have any knowledge at all with FTP and know how to upload a few files, you can easily make $75 for an hours work.

Got a VOIP Number and Looking to Buy a Headset:

I signed up with vBuzzer.com yesterday and purchased a phone number.  For $25 a year I got my own phone number and unlimited incoming and outgoing calling within Canada and the USA, not a bad deal eh.  Normal phone lines cost too much in Canada.  I once called Godaddy in the USA and the phone call cost me $8 for 9 minutes.  Now all I need to do is buy a headset and I’ll be away to the races.  I found a nice set at NCIX.com for $199, it’s the Sennheiser PC350 and it includes a free copy of Quake Wars.  What do you think?

Tomorrow I will be posting part 2 of my “Guide to starting a forum series”.

~Reid

As many of you noticed by my post 2 days ago, I’m back!!!  I know hope many of you have missed me but I thought I needed to take some time off to recharge my blogging batteries.  I know I could have posted more in the past but I would hate to post short meaningless posts.  I’m going away on vacation for the weekend but will be back Tuesday again.

I’ve given a lot of thought about what I would like to talk about in my next posts.   Some of these topics will include:

• The continuation of my “How to start a forum” series and posts about the launching of my forums.
• My first shot at affiliate marketing.
• My possible attempt at entering the stock market.

I am also planning on writing eBooks again.  Every time I write an eBook I tend to earn $700-1000 off a few hours work.  I’m currently brainstorming ideas of what to write about.

~ Reid

• Mandatory –> Registration and 1 Ticket: Subscribe to our RSS feed via email
• 1 Ticket per Submission: Submit one of our posts to social media networks Digg, StumbleUpon and/or Mixx
• 15 Tickets: Make a 300+ word blog post that links back to this contest at theNetFool.com and Market Leverage
• 25 Tickets: Create a video and submit it to YouTube

You can read the full details about the contest at TheNetFool.com!

PS: Happy belated birthday Jim!

I’ve read a few posts on forums such as Blog Premiere asking about advice for starting a forum. For many people, starting a forum is confusing. In my opinion, starting a forum isn’t complicated, but it will require a lot of dedication and hard work to get started. I will be writing a three part series on how to start a forum. This guide will tell you everything you need to know to start your own forum. I am a vBulletin tech, so I have setup and modified many popular forums in the past. I am planning to start my very own forums soon, so I will be blogging on that shortly as well. This guide will start off with the basics and move onto the more important stuff in parts 2 and 3.

Picking out a domain for your forum:

One of the trickiest parts of starting a forum in my opinion is finding a good domain. With domainers picking up a lot of domains and holding them, this can be tricky. When you want to pick out a domain for your forum, I strongly recommend you get a .com domain, if you can’t get a .com domain, go for a .org domain. I’m planning a few forums, and found some very nice domains, but had to go with a .org domain. Don’t worry, .org domains generally do just find. Do not buy a .info, .in, or any other crappy TLD domain as you will be shooting yourself in the foot. You can buy your domains from GoDaddy, but I strongly recommend NameCheap as they offer free WHOISGuard protection.

I have a few domains I will always check first when I’m thinking of a forum name. First of all I always check the domain ending in forum/forums, such as AviationForum.com, or TechForums.com. Normally these will be taken buy you can always email the owner and see if he’s willing to sell (see next part). Then I move onto checking other domains that are short but suit the topic well. If you want to buy a domain for a forum, try checking for available domains in this list that would suit you.

www._________forum.com

www.——–forums.com

www.——–spot.com

www.——–central.com

www.total———.com

www.———zone.com

Basically, check your topic of the forum with a simple word at the end. Don’t try and make your name so fancy that its hard to spell or remember. Some of the domains I own include TechCentral.org, TotalAviation.org, WebmasterSpot.com and DetailersEdge.org. As you can see, all of these domains consist of 2 words and are easy to remember.

Domain taken? Attempting to buy an already owned domain.

Sometimes you will think of a domain that would be perfect for your forum. You check NameCheap to find that the domain is already taken and that there is no live site on that domain. At this point, I’d highly recommend you try and contact the current domain owner and see if he wants to sell the domain. To do this, visit Whois.sc and enter the domain which you want to buy. If the domain is not protected by WHOISGuard, it will bring up the owners contact information. Send him/her an email and hope that you can negotiate a good price.

A Word About Backordering Domains:

A while back I was talking to a friend about a domain I wanted to acquire. He told me I should backorder the domain with Godaddy.com for $19.99 so that I’d get it when it expired. I strongly advise you to not use Godaddy’s backorder system, you are very unlikely to get the domain that way. Basically, each registrar gets is allocated a certain number of servers to ping the ICANN database to try and catch the domain as they drop. You are much more likely to get the domain by backordering the domain with Pool.com for free (you pay $60 once you actually get the domain) or SnapNames.com These registrars have far more servers than Godaddy, and thus a better chance at getting you the domain. Remember, it is likely cheaper to try and contact the owner of the domain first as sometimes domains are registered and the owner will keep renewing them.

Stay tuned for part 2 of 4 which will talk your options for forum software and content management systems. I will also let you in on a great quality hosting deal.

Anyways, I’m going to keep this short, as I woke up a couple hours ago… but if you want to start making money online, you need to be organized.

Trust me, I didn’t think you needed to - heck, a few days ago my room was the messiest you’ll ever see, however I made it a point to clean stuff up and I’m a lot more productive for this.

By being organized, you can worry less about looking for things and whatnot and more about the object at hand - that is making bank. It’s no coincidence that since I’ve cleared up my room, I’ve been hitting $300 - $500 a day in earnings. And you should be too.

How do you get organized?

1) Neaten stuff up.

This is extremely hard if you’re a teenager, but take ten minutes a day, at the beginning of the day to neaten up. You don’t have to do your full room, but wherever you’re working - for example, I’m at my desk where my computer is, so I clear it (by clear it, I mean dump everything on the floor). This leaves place for other things, one of which is…

2) Keep a Notepad.

I always have ideas - sometimes I need to jot them down otherwise I’ll forget. I used to do this in MS Word, but it works a lot better if you actually write it down as it is more apt to stay in your memory as well as giving you the potential to expand (drawing spider webs, for example).

If you do not have a Notepad, go to the store and get one now and write all the ideas you have down… see what comes up. It’ll help.

As the common thought goes, time = money and you’ll save a lot more of the former (and thus make a lot more of the latter) if you organize yourself. So stop reading this post (but comment if you wish first, and read TUK too ) and get yourself cleaned up.

I’m just getting a quick post in from the house I’m staying in.  The internet  connection is horrible so I will try to post soon, but it keeps cutting out.  Sorry about my lack of posting lately.  When I get a better connection, I will get posting.
Reid

Normally I am the primary content writer over at Big Ben Patton’s Place. I like to think that I can live up to the very large shoes which Reid has left empty for me today, so if you like what you read please stop by and say hello. I will also take this time to plug Big Ben Patton’s Contest Extravaganza. My sponsor’s have offered up over $2000.00 worth of wonderful prizes. Stop by today and check it out. You have nothing to lose and some pretty nice prizes to win!

Four Crucial Things You Need To Do To Build Your List:

Online marketing may have developed a sudden surge these past few years, but many in the know have felt its rise even from way before then. As more internet based businesses are put up, the need to develop new marketing skills and knowledge based on this new medium have arisen. More and more marketing strategies are being discovered and developed to cope with the changing face of business the business world.

The demand for online marketing tips and strategies have drastically grown and a new form of business has been born, internet marketing strategies. While there are companies that are all too eager to help your site and business build a clientèle for a fee, there also many ways that can spread the word about your sites subsistence in a more cost free way. One of these is Opt-in email marketing, also known as permission marketing.

Opt-in marketing requires the permission of a willing customer to subscribe to your marketing materials, materials that take form in newsletters, catalogs and promotional mailings via e-mail. The more opt-in marketing mail is sent, the more chances there is to bag sales and more sales. To do this, you must build a list of all those who wants to subscribe to your opt-in marketing list.

From your list, you will get your targeted customer, this is a good list since they already have shown interest in what you have to show and sell since they have willingly signed in for your list. These are the people who have liked what they have seen in your site and have decided they want to see more and maybe even purchase what ever product or service your company and site has to offer.

Many people would think that building their lists would take hard work and a lot of time to build and collect names and addresses. This is not so, it takes a bit of patience and some strategies but in doing this list, you open your site and your business to a whole new world of target market. Take the effort to take your business to a new level, if traffic increase and good profits are what you want, an opt-in list will do wonders for your business venture.

There are many sources and articles in the internet available for everyone to read and follow in building a list. Sometimes they may be confusing because there are so many and there different ways. Different groups of people would have different approaches in building an opt-in list, but no matter how diverse many methods are, there are always some crucial things to do to build your list. Here are four of them.

1) Put up a good web form in your site that immediately follows the end of your content. While some may say this is too soon to subscribe for a website visitors application, try to remember that your homepage should provide a quick good impression. If somehow a website visitor finds something that he or she doesn’t like and turns them off, they may just forget about signing up.

A good web form for subscribing to an opt-in list is not hard to do. Just write a simple short statement about how they would like to see more and get updated about the site. Then there should be an area where they could put in their names and e-mail address. This web form will automatically save and send you the data’s inputted. As more people sign in, your list will be growing.

2) As mentioned in the first tip, make your homepage very, very impressive. You need to have well written articles and descriptions of your site. Depending on what your site is all about, you need to capture your website visitor’s fancy. Make your site useful and very easy to use. Do not expect everyone to be tech savvy. Invest in having good programming in your site, make your graphics beautiful but don’t over do it.

Don’t waste your time making the homepage too overly large megabyte wise. Not all people have dedicated T1 connections, the faster your site gets loaded, the better. Go for a look that borders between simplicity and sophisticated knowledge.

3) Provide good service and products. A return customer is more likely to bring in more business. Even then and now, a satisfied customer will recommend a business always. Word of mouth and recommendations alone can rake in more business than an expensive ad. As your clientèle roster grows so shall your list. With more members on the list, the more people will get to know about what you have new to offer.

4) Keep a clean and private list. Never lose the trust your customers have entrusted you. If you provide e-mails to others and they get spammed, many will probably unsubscribe to you. Remember, a good reputation will drive in more traffic and subscribers as well as strengthen the loyalty of your customers.

If you can follow these tips you should be able to make your stake in the email opt in list marketing niche today. Enjoy.

 Now here are the winners matched with their prizes.

Please click the image to view it full size.

Thoughts from the contest:

I certainly thought this contest ran well.  For my next contest I will be changing a few things.  First of all I would like to run a longer contest, I believe a month would be a fair length.  Secondly, for the drawing, you can see this time some people won more than once.  I think for the next contest, a one prize per person limit should be setup to keep certain people from winning a lot of prizes.  Lastly, I hope I won’t be so busy during the next contest so that I will be able to post daily during it. 

Over all, I really thought the contest went smooth.  I would like to congradulate all the winners and thank everyone for participating.  I would like to send a special thanks out to the contest sponsors; this contest would have not been possible without your support.

On a side note, I am working on my first major project, I will be talking about that soon.  Secondly, I will be on vacation from the 10th to the 19th.  If anyone is interested in guest posting, please contact me.

Could all the winners please comment here to claim your prize within 7 days. Unclaimed prizes will be redrawn out to the people who entered.  I will email you the details!