Aack! Missing Sunday once again!? I can explain. Sunday, I was a day late because of “Jimvesting’s Fight to End Poverty” contest that I am going to be running this month sponsored by Motive Interactive. However, over the past two days I was out-of-state at a conference in Washington D.C. But enough excuses, I am getting back into action this week… and going way way back to LAST week to run down some of the best posts for the week ending January 31, 2008:

• Tips From a Network Marketer – Are You an Effective or Defective List-Builder?
• Blogsessive – Use the AIDA Model to Sell Your Blog Posts
• SEO Revolution – Directory Update
• Winning The Web – How to Create Information Products that Sell
• Enkay Blog – Hiatus Vs. Selling Your Blog
  

We had some cool stuff come out this week, and one of my favorites was about selling your blog from Tips From a Network Marketer… who I believe is a first-timer here. Blogsessive talks about really structuring blog posts so that they SELL to the consumer. SEO Revolution put together quite the list of blog directories that is useful for anyone looking to boost Google rankings. Winning The Web talks about making info products that sell like hotcakes on the online market. Finally, Enkay get’s back to blogging… talking about taking a “hiatus” or cutting loose altogether.

Stock Market Update

Last week on the markets wasn’t much different from the general trend we have gotten used to seeing. Another period of “no news is good news” as more and more economic indicators came out negatively. One interesting tidbit was that 4th Quarter 2008 GDP for the United States fell off 3.8%, which was much better then the consensus 5.4% to the downside that was predicted. Other than GDP, the rest of the news was largely bad and didn’t help as the market fell considerably on the week.

We started out the new week to the upside, rallying 1.78% on the Dow Jones for no apparent reason. There is a lot of unease about the latest Barack Obama stimulus plan. After the nation rallied behind a president who promised to fuel our economy with massive spending plans in places like road infrastructure, electric grid reform and transportation efficiencies… we haven’t seen much more than bloated stimulus packages that target all the wrong areas (or so we think) and are being held very unpopular in legislature.

Blogosphere Update

Have you noticed pages loading faster around here? Well I made one of the craziest mistakes ever, and fixing it has jump-started my blogs speediness. The old Revver WordPress plugin that I had installed (and never used, because it is terrible) was really causing major slowdowns on my blog. This alone added around 5 seconds to the load time of the blog… which is a major no-no. After disabling and removing the plugin… it was still loading up with the website even though there was no visible code in the WordPress files. SO, I ended up manually going into my server and deleting the files… and now, problem fixed!

My good friend Ben Patton from Big Ben Patton has gotten back to blogging after an extended hiatus from the sport. Hop on over to his blog if you can, and show him some support! Make sure to check out “Jimvesting’s Fight to End Poverty” contest that I am going to be running this month sponsored by Motive Interactive. It’s going to be a very exciting competition, and I have decided to donate everything to Covenant House for solving the problem of poverty in America. If you are an affiliate looking to win some big prizes and feel good doing it… this is your win-win situation!

Interested in the stock market? Check out the exclusive offer that I have made for a package from a partner company of mine that has released an extensive report for the best stocks of 2009. This week, I am going to be looking to post about starting your own business. Additionally, I am going to hope to discuss my method for scoring top-placements in Google keyword SERPs. Finally, on Friday I have the exclusive report going out to everyone that has fulfilled the requirements as stipulated.

-Jimvesting

Good afternoon everyone…
It’s time for a little Link Love!

I just got back from my weekend trip where I was busy “canning” for THON! Did that not make much sense? Haha, well “canning” is what we refer to when talking about walking up and down populated streets looking for donations at stoplights. This is all donated to the Penn State Dance Marathon, or THON, in the end… so a lot of people do in fact donate money because they know where it goes! This tradition started all the way back in 1972, and has raised over $52 million to date (increases every year!). It’s all about helping out with the fight to conquer childhood cancer, and has become the largest student-run philanthropy in the world. If you’d like to donate, donate to the organization that I represent (“Nittany Lion Fund”) be going to the donation page. Now, on to the link love!

• Tips from a Network Marketer – How to Find Other Bloggers
• Pot Pie Girl – Why Isn’t My Squidoo Indexed in Google? How Google Indexes
  
• Conversion Rate Experts – 14 Free Tools that Reveal Why People Leave
• I’m Blogging That! – Ten Things to Remember When Buying a Blog
• Mr. Javo – How to Recycle Your Blog Articles

We start the week out with a first-time link love for Tips from a Network Marketer… a great write up about finding other bloggers in your niche to network yourself with for more popularity and eventual profit. Pot Pie Girl gets some more love with her latest impressive article on how Google Indexes pages. This one was magnificent, and I had no idea how the Deep Bot and Fresh Bot worked before, and interesting read! Conversion Rate Experts go forward with 14 free tools that you can use to analyze your “exit statistics” to improve your website. I’m Blogging That get’s us a valuable checkbook to buying a blog on a marketplace, and what to remember to look for. Finally, Mr. Javo talks about recycling your old blog articles, something I think everyone needs to learn how to do more effectively.

Stock Market Update
This was a pretty historic week with the inauguration of a new President of the United States, Barack Obama. The Inauguration went smooth as can be… unfortunately for investors, this week was terrible as the market dipped 2.1% (financial sector fell 7.1%). What’s the problem? The risk premium in equity (A.K.A. stocks) is still far too high. Even though things feel “cheap,” they can go much lower on bad outlook and missed earnings. We saw this as General Electric (NYSE: GE) missed their EPS (earnings per share) number by just a penny… and fell 10% on the news to a new historic low.

Are you a Mac, or a PC? If you are an investor… hopefully the former. Microsoft got CRUSHED after missing earnings, while Apple was up significantly after a good report. This wasn’t as bad as the financial stocks, as Bank of America saw it’s stock fell while it was busy firing the former CEO of Merrill Lynch, John Thain, after their merger with Bank of America. Additionally, Wells Fargo and State Street led the pack lower.

There was a lot of economic news this week, so I will hit on what I feel was the most important. The United Kingdom saw a decline of 1.5% in their fourth quarter GDP, the biggest since 1980. China saw their fourth quarter GDP slow to 6.8% to 9.0% in the past quarter. Now, we are seeing a possible delay in the stimulus package because of partisan political behavior in D.C. Next week, look out for the U.S. fourth quarter GDP report… expected to drop a whopping 5.2%.

Blogosphere Update
This week in the blogosphere, we’ve got a lot on our plates here at theNetFool.com. I am going to be putting together a report on starting your own business (LLC. or Inc.). I may actually consider compiling this in an eBook to give away. Additionally, I am planning on putting out my first password-protected post to give a little incentive to you readers that stick around and are more active on the blog. Finally, I am coming out with a fresh competition that will run through February. There’s a lot to do as the month turns over, so let’s get started!

Elsewhere in the blogosphere, more photos and blog posts about the Affiliate Summit West are starting to come out from people that attended… very interesting stuff and it’s always interesting to see the marketers and bloggers you are so used to hearing from in person. As a part of Bullish Bankers, a popular financial website that I have ownership in, we are releasing a report for the “Best Stocks of 2009″ which should be very interesting to ANYONE looking to get into the stock market.

Back into action with another steller week… so let’s get goin!
-Jimvesting

Do you think I forgot about LINK LOVE?!?!
Let’s get into this week’s run down!

This was honestly one of the longest weeks of my life, haha. When you have a combination of a two-day business trip and the first week of school back in classes getting things in order (and catching up on already missing school for a trip!)… it’s a deadly combo. Things may have taken a toll here, but that is out of the way and since I am in a competition with Cash Tactics… I need to get the ball rolling! But before we talk about that, let’s get into the best posts for the week:

• Blogtrepreneur – Make Money with Your Own Job Board
• SEO Revolution – 16 Steps to Dominate in CPA/Affiliate Marketing
• Smarter Wealth – The Importance of Having Banners
• Suite J – Are You Still on Track?
• The Money Making Blog – Tips to Make your Blog Stick Out!
  

We start out with an awesome tutorial on raking in cash from a “job board” website. Blogtrepreneur shows us some resources that you can use to house job boards on your website and profit on the traffic. Next, we have an awesome list from SEO Revolution that tells you exactly how you can dominate your way through affiliate marketing. My buddy Smarter Wealth posts a simple, but important post on the important of having banners for your blog or website… something too many people don’t do! Sweet Suite J gives what I felt was the best post of the week… and awesome motivation piece that has some killer advice, such as setting your desktop wallpaper for motivation (mine is a picture of Avril Lavigne… does that count?). Finally, the MM Blog runs through some great tips to make your blog stick out; just a few simple steps that can really enhance your readership.

Stock Market Update
It’s been rough waters out there in the markets. Now that we head into earnings season… we might get a fist-full of bad news, or some unexpected upward momentum? We’ll have to wait and see how companies report their fourth quarters before we lock in judgment on this one. It would seem that our bad opening to the new year just got quite a bit worse, as we again trended down on all of the major indices in the U.S. and around the world. Leading the charge? Financials! Down a whopping 16% on the week led by Bank of America and Citigroup.

We’re increasing the bailout plan??? Argghhh!!! President Barack Obama (will be signed in today) has continued to urge Washington to boost stimulus plan spending to get the economy growing again… despite the sizable amount we have already given. The new plan calls for $825 in stimulus (compared to President Bush’s $700b proposal), including $550b in spending and $275 in a tax cut. I know that bailouts make everyone feel good for the time being, but let’s get real here… we need to stop. This is getting out of control.

What’s Happening in the Blogosphere?
A lot of the small-cap bloggers are posting some great information nowadays… it’s nice to see those new years resolutions coming in strong! I made a couple of pivotal moves this week personally, including signing up for a new newsletter account on Aweber (the leading newsletter/opt-in service). I am hoping to capitalize on revenue here and possibly convert some new readers toward my blog. This is more of a long-term goal than anything else… but I wanted to have a system in place to start building a list.

Affiliate Summit West happened this week (January 11-13 2009) in beautiful Las Vegas. This is pretty much becoming the biggest affiliate convention in the United States, and hundreds of companies were represented in this most recent event. A lot of my friends went down to pick up new tricks of the trade, teach seminars and network with potential clients. Overall, it seemed like a solid event… and you can see some pictures and a quick recap here. This is always a huge commotion, and it seemed like a lot of fun. Next stop… Affiliate Summit East in New York City in August 2009!

I’m going to be looking for ways to branch out with my personal network, and wanted to get the ball rolling with a nice newsletter that can follow me around. One interesting tool that I have come across is called OptIn Comments by my boy Ian Fernando. I’m definitely going to be picking this thing up, as it can convert ANYONE that comments on your blog into a subscriber. By using Aweber in combination with OptIn, you could have everyone that comments automatically subscribed to your newsletter (following email confirmation of course), and can really boost your income as a result! I highly recommend checking this WordPress plugin out while it’s cheap.

Back to work, let’s keep positive and stay bullish on the net!
-Jimvesting

Blogging competitions are always fun, right? Well me and Kris from CashTactics.net are going at it… who can get the most RSS Subscribers before the end of the month of January?

While Jimvesting is a blog dominated by useful information on making money online, Kris has chosen to focus on lame internet marketing all of the time… providing useless information about a non-sensical subject that he likes to pretend actually works. I’m kidding of course, and Kris runs a great blog that has around 1,500 RSS subscribers.

Starting Lines:
-CashTactics.net = 1,530 RSS Subscribers
-Jimvesting.com = 819 RSS Subscribers

Since we are going based off of numbers, and not of percentage increases, it’s going to take some hard work on my end to beat him. At any rate, I’m willing to give it a shot… because the loser will have to eat at McDonald’s in a wedding dress! Okay, I’m kidding about that. But the one who loses will still need to post a corny blog post to worship the winner. That’s a small price to pay for a big “W” on this competition… so let’s get started!

If you like this blog and want to subscribe for FREE (and get a free ebook on creating a blog), click here!

-Jimvesting

Here’s to another great edition of….
Sunday Link Love at Jimvesting dot com!

From talking about a great way to start off the New Year by making some money with “best of 2009” lists, to an all-inclusive 2008 stock market recap to get everyone caught up… it seems like we really held some attention this week! Before we go forward, let’s do it like we always do and have a look back on what happened for the week, this time around ending January 10th, 2008:

• The Keyword Academy – 5 Places You Can Look for New Keywords
• Inspired Money Maker – Top Ten Real Reasons Why You’re Not Rich
• Frogstr – Will Businesses Have to Deal with Personal Branding?
• Linkers Blog – Taking Article Marketing to the Next Level
• Jim Kukral – Beyond the Website – Using Social Media and More!

We had some great material coming out this week… so let’s start with the Keyword Academy. This is a relatively new blog, but gives some great advice including their post on looking for keywords. My buddy Paul from Inspired MM wrote a very top-notch article on why you AREN’T making money online. The theory goes: eliminate the bad, increase your earnings! My man Ben from Frogstr wrote up a clever piece on the future impact of social media and what he calls “personal branding.” The crazy linker decided to run through, step-by-step, how to article market and make real profits off of it. Finally, online guru Jim Kukral brings you an awesome and motivational presentation video about using social media and the “whole web” to see things from a different view and get your business cookin’!

Stock Market Update
Could this have been exactly the fall I predicted last week? We fell 4.5% this week on the markets, with all ten sectors of the market in the red for the week. After a dismal (but expected) jobs report, it seemed that no news was good news for investors. This is what we should be expecting in a long market recovery. We were riding high on the past two weeks of gains heading into, and crossing over, the new year of 2009. However, the typical economic recovery from a recession is slow and steady… so we shouldn’t expect to rebound like crazy and make it out alive.

The U.S. unemployment rate jumped to 7.2% (up from 6.8%) on a report issued this week. I expect this to climb at LEAST over 8%, as companies are continuing to cut jobs and few are actually increasing hiring… to say the least. Industrial manufacturing giant Boeing (NYSE: BA) announced that they would indeed be cutting more jobs in its commercial airplane business, and oil & gas giants Schlumberger (NYSE: SLB) and Halliburton (NYSE: HAL) followed suit by announcing similar cutbacks.

Blogosphere Update
Is the blogging world really in a slump? One trend that I have noticed is that a lot of the “big bloggers” are slowing down in their writing efforts. On the other hand, I have noticed several newer bloggers making a stand and getting a nice boost in traffic. A New Year’s resolution to start a blog perhaps? I just wish that the more established writers would get back in their groove and write up some posts!

My buddy Ian Fernando is holding a huge contest for a new affiliate network called “Express Revenue.” I had to give him a hard time about the ridiculous prizes… but hey, it’s all in good fun when you are making money together. Derek from Click Consultants put up a new radio podcast show, this time about using affiliate marketing strategies.

If you guys haven’t signed up already, there is a great magazine out that is all about affiliate marketing and making money online. I’ve picked up a few tips and tricks that I love, and I feel that the magazine is especially beneficial to beginners or people new to the industry that want to get a taste of how things work. The magazine is called FeedFront, and is put out by the guys that run Affiliate Summit every year. Best of all… it’s free! Get a free one-year subscription by signing up here!

The Upcoming Week at Jimvesting.com
It’s going to be tough getting a huge week out… but I’m going to do my best! I’m actually going to be traveling on Tuesday and Wednesday for an interview with PNC Bank for a summer internship. Additionally, I’m traveling today back to Penn State for the next semester. So we could witness a late-week rally into the weekend around here… but you will get some great posts because I have ideas ready to go!

That’s it for this week… stay bullish on the net!
-Jimvesting