It’s another beautiful Sunday,
Let’s start the week with a look back
…and some Link Love!

This was a packed week for me, and definitely for the global economy. We now have our new president elect in Barack Obama… who edged rival candidate John McCain in a thrilling display of America’s desire for policy change in hard times. Congratulations to Mr. Obama, and best of luck as we head into some pretty dynamic markets that are in desperate need of repair after the recent (and ongoing) economic debacle. But let’s hold off on that news, and swing back into the groove with some linkage for the best articles on the net last week:

• Tushar Dhoot – NoFollow vs. DoFollow: Back Link Study
• Mom Gadget – When you don’t know what to do…
• Cash Tactics – Pay Per Click Case Study: Stats Recap and Going Forward
• Click Consultants – Don’t Cut the Long Tail Short!
• Striking Up – The Five Mistakes People Make when Starting a Business

Some good material all around this week. Tushar Dhoot released his pretty effective NoFollow v. DoFollow case study… which was pretty effective to look at blogging preferences. I had to include this post from Mom Gadget, a blog I don’t normally track, because it is a compelling story of a lady who saved herself from financial crisis with her blog. Cash Tactics put out the sixth part of their case study on PPC marketing… something I’d definitely recommend checking out. Derek at Click Consultants talked about the mistakes people make with long-tail keywords. Finally, Striking Up (a new blogger) wrote a pretty nice article on mistakes and “semi-mistakes” that people often make when starting a business.

Stock Market News
As previously stated, this week was a historical one in terms of politics and social history. To think that America was almost completely race-segregated just a few decades ago… and now we have our first African-American president in history. A good show of democracy all around, as John McCain conceded gracefully and Barack Obama politely complimented his former competitor.

Getting back on track, the United States economy is still in the garbage can, as earnings announcements continue to come in from major firms domestically an abroad. There have been a lot of mixed results, and because of this fair share of downward pressure on stock prices. We didn’t spend much time at all basking in the glory of a successful election, and actually traded down (the two worst days since 1987) Wednesday and Thursday following Super Tuesday.

Ending the week up 2.85% on the Dow was a helpful boost coming into the weekend, but there were many weaknesses in leading indicators that came out last week. Employment readings came out very negative, as an estimated 157,000 jobs were lost in October alone (biggest decline since November 2002). This came on the back of a higher-than-expected decline in employment, now revealing an unemployment rate at 6.5%. In addition, Britain and Europe lowered their interest rates dramatically on recession fears that have been expanded after terrible U.S. retail sales numbers and a forecast for economic contraction. Back to work!

Blogosphere News and Updates
As I said last week, the second ever Blogging Idol is now under way. This contest run through DailyBlogTips.com has been successful and widely talked about in the blogging universe. Another pretty interesting event that has gone on this week was the Ad Tech conference in New York City. I don’t absolutely love conferences (or anything close), but it’s fun to check up on the industry by following these. One of my good buddies Max from MoneyBites.com has had continuing coverage of the event, so check it out!

A lot of bloggers put out their earnings releases for October this week, which was definitely interesting to see. I have yet to do so because of work constraints, but should be getting around to it early this week. This month was rough for me, as OIO Publisher crashed and I had to restart all of my blog ads… something that is never fun to do. I’m trying to re-market my advertising services in general because of this. I did, however, see things partially offset by in influx of premium blog reviews that I ran. We’ll get more into that later.

A couple of bloggers (names remain anonymous) have been focusing far too much on promoting their own affiliate products, and I feel like this is hurting the overall community. I understand doing paid reviews time and again, heck, I do them too. But really, we shouldn’t be selling each other out for a chance to make a few sales off people that fall for products you launch at them. I have no problems making a logical tie in to a product… but doing this every day is a major problem, and it begs the question… “why do i still read your blog?”

The Week In Focus
This week, I am going to put out some more interesting content. I’ve had certain posts in the draft phase for awhile, and definitely have things to address. Of course, I need to get out my earnings report so you guys can track my performance. Other than that, I’ve had a few case studies started that I simply need to complete before I am comfortable with releasing them. In jest, I have a lot of material… and simply need some more time to punch out the details so you can enjoy all I have to say.

I actually spent this weekend on a service trip (of sorts) raising money for kids with cancer. The organization is called THON (from “Dance Marathon”) and you can donate to the project if you have a few bucks on their official website THON.org. Make sure to put in that you are donating for the “Nittany Lion Fund” THON organization if you do happen to make a small donation. It’s always good to spend some time working charity events to assist those that need our help. So if you decide to drop even $1 into the collection pile, a big thank you.

Stay classy, and stay BULLISH on the net!
-Jimvesting

One of the biggest trends in the online marketing arena that I have not jumped in on has been the niche store business… until now! It’s true, making your own store online to sell affiliate products is a lucrative business.

Think about this: if you have a store that people go to, and simply redirect them to a more reputable reseller like Amazon, eBay or Overstock.com… you have one heck of a profit margin. Not only do you get a fat commission check every time somebody buys through you, but you don’t even have to worry about shipping! It’s making money in your sleep, and its a smart idea that can easily net you $100s every day without touching a button.

Until now, the go-to solutions for anything niche store related has been the systems called BANS (build-a-niche-store) and PopShops. I’ve found something better, and it’s a company that you can work with to make a ton of money with niche stores online, StoreStacker!

Why StoreStacker WORKS
A lot of the systems out there right now are over-cooked and require a lot of customization. With StoreStacker, you get a highly flexible package that is more SEO friendly and more effective. Essentially, what StoreStacker offers affiliates is a super easy (and fast) way to promote affiliate products online. Typically, when you think of affiliate marketing… you think about popping up sites optimized with targeted traffic and a lot of messy business. With niche stores, you simply make it and forget about it… there is really no need to buy up expensive traffic to try and lure a few hits.

I’ve used the other stores (BANS and PopShops), but I have to recommend that if you want to make money with niche online stores… you need to trust in StoreStacker. Why? Again, more content, better optimized and greater reliability. You can literally dump 1,000s of products onto your website, with articles and videos that are already SEO’d and ready to work for you, in minutes! Better yet, it’s the easiest system to customize that I have come across… so you don’t end up with a trashy-looking generated website.

OrderYoga.com – My First Niche Online Store!
This isn’t some over-hyped sponsored post, I’ve actually put StoreStacker to the test… and I love it. While I don’t have much experience with the search trends in Google, I know that Yoga has been increasingly hot, and should only increase with New Years coming up (new years resolutions = exercise-crazy adults). This store was just recently set up and I am still working on putting in ads and working in content. From start to finish, this has taken about 30 minutes to set up and customize so far.

The real pull of the StoreStacker system is how they literally let you “stack” your options together. Because they let you import/export all of your options, you can make multiple niche-related stores and compound your actions together to form a “super network” of sorts with you making all the profits. I’m definitely going to try and do this with OrderYoga.com, so check back if you’d like to see my progress. At this point in time, when I have a free minute I am going in and adding products… where there are literally thousands I can import.

Currently, you can fetch affiliate products (and thus, profits) from big chain people like eBay, OverStock.com, Amazon, YouTube, HotelClub and RegNow. It’s a great program, and I have spoken back and forth with the owner who has been nothing but helpful throughout the process… bouncing ideas off me and helping with the initial learning curve. I love good management, and this product has it. But to be honest, you don’t really need it as there are plenty of tutorial videos to help you along your way, step-by-step, and the whole system is automatic!

How Much Can You Make from Niche Stores?
Plenty. I feel like I under-weighted the whole idea of making money by having a “store” online. Basically, it feels like you aren’t making real money when you are getting it in 15% chunks over and over and over and over again. However, I now personally know several people that are making $100s online through these niche stores… a theme that is definitely played out. It might be a bit harder to see the spending we’d like to see in a down economy; but overall, the industry is still thriving.

If you are a smart cookie, you WILL make money in this business. By choosing the right niche and getting that organic search traffic by using SEO’d webpages like those that StoreStacker produces… you will be able to beat out the competition and steal away affiliate commission from others. One thing I’ve learned is to never underestimate your ability to make money online. With a pretty small investment, you can turn profits easily with a $8 domain name and a pre-packaged niche store.

Bottom Line: I love the idea of making money online with niche stores, and I feel like StoreStacker is the one I want to recommend for you to use. It’s the most cost-effective, and is honestly the best in show without much of a doubt. I’ll be reporting back on the success of OrderYoga.com (or any other stores I decide to go through with) and let you all know how this business has turned out in my trial run. If you put in the time, you’ll make the cash… guaranteed.

-Jimvesting

Today is November 4th, also known as election day. While I had planned to do a write up on the candidate’s position on various things like taxation, energy and the War in Iraq… I have decided instead to share with you a completely free report that I have recently published as a newsletter giveaway for Bullish Bankers, LLC.

Why Is The Election So Important?!
This particular U.S. presidential election comes in the face of a global recession and a lot of problems at home. Many attribute this to the current presidency, but I say that it was, in fact, simple American Greed that got in the way of logic. Our federal programs like the Federal Reserve and the SEC had set up the market in such a way that people were buying. hand-over-fist, second-rate investments like home mortgages and grouped-debt we call “collateralized debt obligations” or CDOs.

This election is going to change the face of the stock market, there is no doubt about it. Whether this be the health care policy that will effect medical stocks, or the nation’s Defense Department budget that will effect aerospace & defense plays… it’s a big one. Of course, there are upsides to electing Barack Obama and there are upsides to electing John McCain. The choice is yours, but I believe that it is smart to have holdings on your portfolio that are resistant to the election.

Election Proofing Your Portfolio!
This November newsletter publication offered from Bullish Bankers, entitled “Election Proofing Your Portfolio” includes in-depth analysis from our firms’ lead stock analysts from each sector of the market. It’s a seven-page report… but honestly the thing has more content then you would find in a 50 page “ebook” that is put out by internet marketers in size 20 font.

What is most compelling is that you get 9 killer stock picks that are researched by professionals and that are picked to outperform the market in shaky times. These are companies that we have hand-selected that will outlast the election from each sector of the market. Believe me, I spent a LOT of time compiling this one… and it is definitely worth picking up to read.

Here is an excerpt from the newsletter to get you interested:

Healthcare Pick: Becton, Dickinson & CO (BDX)
“…One obstacle they have faced in the past few quarters is the rising price of oil, which increases costs of resin (part of their raw ma­terials for many products); however, BDX has managed the concern and does not feel it will significantly im­pact their margins. This part of their business is known as the Medical segment, and also includes, but not limited to, pre-fillable drug delivery devices, ophthal­mic surgical instruments and ACE brand elastic ban­dages. In total, the Medical segment represents 54.4% of revenue…”

I have full confidence that you will love and enjoy this release, and I feel like Jimvesting would better serve you guys by offering up such a report then by trying to overstep my boundaries and turn this blog into a politics opinion page. Many other bloggers have fallen into this trap, and I feel like I need to go against the grain on this one and avoid that stance… sticking to my style and content so as not to turn anyone off of my stuff if they happen to disagree with my thought on such a touchy subject.

You can get this premium report absolutely FREE when you subscribe to our newsletter through Aweber. Let’s face it, most professional sites make you pay $100s for lower-quality research on their membership-driven sources. We want to get you off on the right foot… and will never charge for anything in our newsletter. You’ll get NO spam, but will be able to receive premium content like this every month you come by.

Sounds like a good deal? Sign Up Below!

I hope you guys in the United States all come out to vote for your favorite candidate. Polls are still open, so it’s not too late! As always, I hope that you enjoy this great report that I have made available through Bullish Bankers. Have a great election day!

-Jimvesting

Another week gone by,
let’s get into that all important link love!

It’s been really busy all around for me over the past month or so, hopefully this week should present itself with a nice spot where I am free from mid-terms and available to blog. One of the most important things about this week has GOT to be the U.S. Presidential Election… so I might focus on that with a post about the two primary candidates… Barack Obama and John McCain. Before we get into all of that, let’s gear back and focus on the week gone by, ending November 1, 2008 (wow, November already!?):

• Blog Herald – Election Day 2008: The Best Blogs/Resources
• The Affiliate Toolbox – Combine Forces to Achieve More
• Suite J – Site Flipping: Hunting Down Buyers
• Terence Chang – Why Do I Like SPAM!?
• Zac Johnson – Five Ways to Cash in Big Before the New Year

Blog Herald kicks us off with a great look on multiple blogs and resources that can be used to track information about the presidential election, definitely worth checking out if you are voting. The Aff Toolbox gives us some great instruction on combining forces to boost profits. Suite J pulls out another great post, this time on finding buyers for your website flipping projects. Terence Chang wrote an interesting editorial on SPAM (and spam too!)… one of my favorite foods. And Zac Johnson wraps us up with an awesome write up on five ways you can cash in HUGE before the year is up.

Stock Market Recap
The month of October, a historically awful month on the markets, is finally over. People have really bad sentiment toward trading in October, and this month was no exception. With the S&P 500 Index down almost 25% before a late turnaround last week kicked in to recover some of our losses… a lot of investors are changing their minds about the investing environment. Yahoo Finance reports that we fell 16.9% on the month, which was apparently the 8th worst month in market history.

Something special happened last week. Despite a ton of bad news surrounding the United States GDP and other metrics of economic growth… we actually managed one of our better weeks to head things out into November. The Federal Reserve cut its target Federal Funds rate to 1%, not that it actually did anything. When you hear about a “rate cut”… it is actually just the Fed’s target. Unfortunately, we were already at 1% (or lower) prior to the rate “cut”… so it essentially did absolutely nothing. Still, markets responded nicely and we got a rally off our lows.

Blogosphere Update
The October Spectacular is still in progress, so get your entries in if you want a shot to win a Nintendo Wii, a Flip Mino or more! The top affiliate from Market Leverage who is entered will take in the first prize… so let’s get motivated and start earning some cash, eh?

We’ve got the second run of Blogging Idol off and running! This time, the big competition is all about making the most money from your blog with Google AdSense. If any of you think you are up for the challenge, I highly suggest that you go ahead and sign up for the contest… as it should be a fun time and a free opportunity for publicity if you do well. I now that applications closed as of November 1st, but you might still be able to get in if you are nice! Good luck to everyone in the competition.

The Week In Focus
I’m going to be expecting a lot of Barack Obama v. John McCain posts this week… so I might make a post myself. If I do write one, it will be supporting John McCain simply because so many bloggers out there are addicted to Obama and I don’t believe it is fair to always be hearing one side of the story.

Earnings for the month of October are going to be a bit trimmer than normal… this is mostly because I didn’t put ANY time into actively seeking out deals to make money through affiliates or whatnot. Whatever I earned this month is pretty much what I would be making with the bare minimum amount of work… so that might be interesting to see actually… haha.

Stay tuned for a jam-packed week of content… and stay BULLISH on the net!
-Jimvesting

The following is a paid review of MySuitNY.com, and has not been slanted one way or the other by virtue of payment… though it was very nice of them.

Everybody needs a good suit, especially in the world of business. I can’t tell you the number of “professional” men and women I have seen walking into interview situations under-dressed. You might feel more comfortable, but unless you are Steve Jobs… you aren’t getting the job.

The bottom line is that even if you aren’t in the corporate world, you are going to want to look your best for events like weddings, holidays and formal dinners. Nobody wants to be the “Joe six pack” sitting at the dining table, eh? One of the best suit stores that I have come across in my years is My.Suit… makers of made to measure professional custom suits at fantastic prices (something we are very alert to in today’s economic environment). Let’s explore some of there opportunities!

Made To Measure – Never Been More Cost Effective!
When you think of customized tailoring, you probably link this with high rates that only the wealthy can afford. I thought the exact same thing when I received this review, so I almost turned it down before I saw the bargain basement prices at just $495 to $2,000 a suit. This makes “off the rack” suits completely obsolete… as you’ll probably pay the same for a MUCH higher quality design! I don’t like to say “cheap” because these suits are very very nice, this is one business that knows how to play to the crowd.

Make no mistake about it, this isn’t your typical online store. The website is brilliant, yes, but once you have your suit in order you can schedule an appointment and come right into their New York office. Not only do they have bargain rates, but you get a fast 2-week turnover on every order… making My.Suit the single fastest and thriftiest tailor I have ever seen.

The My.Suit Experience
These guys really boast of their made to measure process, and I agree that it is something that really defines them. I actually went through the process of buying a suit myself… and I was thoroughly impressed with the options they had available.

This is essentially a three-step process:

1. Measuring
2. Styling
3. Fabric

You go through the measuring process and there are around 10 different measurements that they use. With that in mind, I know that it is going to fit like a glove and be ultra-comfortable. They have five unique jacket styles, from two-button to a nice 6-button double breasted look. TONS of styling choices anywhere from lapels to sleeve buttons to vents. And they round it out with pant detailing and fabric choices (I like the black/navy with quiet white pinstripes). Once you get everything in order, you can make an appointment and go get a professional to work with you to make your custom men’s suit perfect.

Jimvesting’s Recommendation: If you need a suit and are located in the New York area, I recommend taking the train in to check out the options at My.Suit. In all seriousness, there is nothing more essential to a professional wardrobe then a nice suit. If you can get a custom suit just like the big boys here, it’s worth a bit of a trip.

-Jimvesting