All Your Questions Answered! Round Three Responses Are Revealed!

29 Oct 2008

All Your Questions Answered! Round Three Responses Are Revealed!

Author: Jim | Filed under: Questions

We had a pretty good turnout for the third Q&A session run here on theNetFool.com. And now it’s time to get all of your questions answered! As promised, everyone who asked a question within the allotted time slot will be on the receiving end of a free link back in the answer replies. In addition, the best three questions (totally my opinion) are going to get access to my $15 premium eBook that can show you how to make money by writing effective material on the internet.

Danny from LinkersBlog.com asked:
“How many copies of ebook-rich have you sold?”

Well Danny, to be quite honest I do not track the total number of books I have sold since half go through my automated system and half go straight to my PayPal account. As far as a rough guess, I have sold about 50 copies of the book to date. Its been especially useful to give away as a prize in the competitions I run here as an added incentive though… so it’s definitely served its purpose.

Ryan from SmarterWealth.net asked:
“What is your number one affiliate marketing program? (IE: Ebay, Amazon, etc.)”

This is, in fact, a question that I do get answered a lot. In reality, I am not much of an affiliate marketer. I am the guy who goes around promoting different networks and trying my hand at some more simple offers… but I don’t even take in $100 a month in internet marketing. Simply put, it’s something that I am interested in, but not an active participant.

Don’t be taken aback, I understand how everything works and how you can get more revenue from your campaigns… all that good stuff. Really, I am (and have been) far too busy as of late to seriously get into campaigning different programs. If I had to answer, I would say that my top aff. marketing platform would be HostGator… since I have done a good job selling out hosting to partners.

Melvin from MelvinBlog.com asked:
“What do you think of your current affiliate marketing challenge?”

Things haven’t panned out the way they have for my Affiliate Marketing contest, and I am honestly very shocked that the turnout has been so poor. My basic thinking behind this is that everyone is already signed up to alternative referrers already. Market Leverage does a heck of a job promoting their company around the internet, and it is very hard to pick up any “super affiliate” that will earn you $1000s by waving a Nintendo Wii in their face.

Harry from TranHarry.com asked:
“What effect does the current economic crisis have on advertisers and the publishers ability to remain profitably sustainable in online marketing?”

Nobody on the online universe seems to know or care about the economic crisis, and this will be their downfall. The credit crunch is now internationally spread, and it will be effecting all industries for the considerable future. Google has already seen their earnings crunch effect the amount of advertisers who are putting money into the system, and there are honestly WAY too many affiliate marketing companies to stay profitable.

We are going to see online advertising companies cut their work force, and the entire industry is going to get more competitive. People will be less than willing to pass profits on to you, so all publishers will be feeling less profit margins on their internet marketing campaigns as we continue along. Again, this is a prediction and not necessarily truth. But I feel it is inevitable.

Nicole from GreatPricesHere.com asked:
“What is your take on Warren Buffet’s suggestion that we buy American stocks now?”

People put way too much trust into what Warren Buffett does. He might be a great investor, but as of now he is getting incredible deals on preferred shares of stock (not common stock like everyone else buys)… so his risk is a lot less than the individual investor trying to make some money in the markets. At any rate, I trust Buffet’s call to invest in American equities in 2008. Companies like General Electric and Goldman Sachs have fallen off the map, and don’t deserve to be so cheap. If you invest now you will make money in the long run… it just might be a bit too risky to jump in right now.

Yan from ThouShallBlog.com asked:
“Who is your biggest inspiration in blogging? and why do you usually share all your secrets?”

My biggest inspiration in blogging is probably John Chow. Let’s be honest, the man is good at what he does. If I could get my blog to the level that John Chow has his… I’d be quite satisfied, haha. On the subject of secret-sharing… I typically give everything away just because, well, I don’t care enough. People that horde everything for themselves are all concerned about keeping their profit margins high. I am only a marketer on the side, so my focus isn’t there. Because of this, I can share everything I learn without regret!

Ganesh from BlogSmartly.com asked:
“What should I do to increase my RSS count?”

Increasing your RSS count is one of the harder things to do when you are first starting out as a blogger. I would recommend going all out during your first few months of operating. This might be a pain, but by going around and commenting on other blogs every day, posting comments in related forums and making sure that your presence is felt you will eventually get your solid footing in the niche. My best advice is to never give up, because you WILL have a breakthrough sooner or later.

MomsCashBlog.com asked:
“Which is more important money or Page-rank?”

Money.

Sherry from NameSherry.com asked:
“How do I avoid spam comment when commenting?”

When you are commenting, you might get labeled as spam by Akismet (the most common spam filter) if one of the following applies to you: 1. You have been filtered as a spam comment before; 2. You have included a link somewhere in your comment; 3. You wrote a very long (75+ words) or a very short (>5 words) comment. That’s pretty much all the advice I can get you on that. You can actually email Akismet at their website and ask to be “white listed” if it is continuing to happen.

Emma from GettinPersonal.net asked:
“With the way the economy is going and the USA and the way it is effecting neighboring countries, what do you think will happen to blogging?”

“Blogging” itself is a pretty recession-proof industry. The one thing I would be concerned about is the possibility of lower ad revenues if you happen to maintain a for-profit blog. People spend less, you get less… that’s the bottom line. As far as blogging goes, you’ll be fine.

Shawn from theBrokenBox.net asked:
“How will each candidate affect the online income I make?”

Minimally. The effect you are going to see is in the taxes. Under the Obama campaign, you are going to see higher capital gains taxes on a good bit of your income. I’m actually not quite sure how this will play into online earnings… since a lot of what you make online is under the table and the IRS can’t really get a hand on the records very easily. John McCain will probably be keeping the taxation on your earnings more or less where they are now.

Simon from Otooo.com asked:
“How do you block an IP address from commenting?”

I have had some pretty annoying commentators here at theNetFool.com, people that post trash all day and it is clearly the same person time and time again. WordPress actually has blocking built right into the system. Log in to your Dashboard and head to “Settings” –> “Discussion” –> “Comment Blacklist” and enter the IP addresses you would like off your website!

Najat from MiniSiteSpot.com asked:
“Who are your favorite online money making gurus?”

My favorite online money making gurus are Derek from ClickConsultants.com, and Jonathan Volk from JonathanVolk.com. These guys both have pretty loyal blog readerships, and have a good amount of influence around the internet because of their talent.

Jackie from GetAngryWithMe.com asked:
“I’ve been reading a lot of posts lately that say micro-blogging sites like twitter are about to kill traditional blogs. What’s your take on that? And do you twitter yourself?”

Eh, I believe that micro-blogging has its place. It’s more of a medium for communication than anything else… and I doubt that they will ever replace the obvious function of blogs. Bloggers write to educate others around them and make the world a more opinionated place. Websites like Twitter simply help us bounce ideas off each other faster. And yes, I do Twitter!

Brad from BradBlogging.com asked:
“When internet marketing, do you suggest starting out small with smaller websites (via advertising) or going big with larger websites (via advertising)?”

When you go about internet marketing, you HAVE to start small. Too many people start out with big ideas and can’t contain themselves. I’ve wasted literally weeks of my life trying to do everything myself. The fact remains, you have to start with a set niche goal in order to dominate and profit in this business. Especially with internet marketing, you want to target a small niche… and over time expand outwards to a more profitable area.

OKAY! Whew!!!!

We’re all done with the third Q&A session and I hope that you were all satisfied with the replies I gave. As I have said before, I can’t devote an entire post to every one of your questions. However, if you shoot me an email with anything extra… I wil lbe more than happy to give you a more personalized response to get you making money in a flash.

The winners (best three questions) of my eBook are:

Jackie from GetAngryWithMe.com
Harry Tran from TranHarry.com
Yan from ThouShallBlog.com

Shoot me an email to claim your prize! And to the rest of you… thanks so much for participating. I hope that you all have a great week… and stay BULLISH on the net!

-Jimvesting