This is a sponsored review of the GWDish.com reseller of Dish Network services; payment has not influenced the opinion in this piece.

On February 18th, 2009, all full-power television stations in the United States will stop broadcasting in analog and start broadcasting only in digital. What does this mean for you? Well… you better find a better way to watch television FAST if you live in the United States. Although I do have a spot in my heart for antennae-based tv sets (heck, I watched some of the 2009 NLF playoffs on one), technology needs to take precedence as we blow by other nations in our broadcast capabilities.

Regardless of where you live, it is becoming a practical “status symbol” to have the best television and the most channels available. I myself use Comcast’s Digital Cable service… but it sometimes lacks in just what I can and can’t see. Because of this, I think that you should all consider a satellite tv service such as the popular Disk Network.

Getting Hooked Up With GWDish.com
If you are interested in unlocking more channels like more Sports channels and Movie channels, you need a more advanced connection made possible through a satellite tv network like Dish Network or Direct TV. GWDish.com wanted a review here for exposure, and they definitely have a great product to offer. But why would you order through GWDish.com instead of through the Dish Network directly? The answer is in customer service and ease of use.

I’m not going to lie, even I am very confused with how the whole satellite tv system works… but GW Dish is one of only 40 “top level” retailers (OE Partners) for the Dish Network. They are authorized to do business across the United States, and do everything from the installation, to customer service, technical support and billing.

The Best Deal Online?
I haven’t had enough of a research look to confirm that GWDish.com is actually the best bang for your buck… but they certainly do have a lot of advantages. A few of the features that they feature are:

• Free Equipment
• Free Installation
• Free Activation
• Free Home Protection Plan for 9 months
• Free Second Room Programming (with a phone line connected)
• Free HBO+Starz For Three Months
• One Year Cinemax For Just $0.01!  (Need to sign up for credit card auto pay)
• $50 credit to your first bill
• $60 check sent to you within two weeks
• (2-year contract required)

There are literally hundreds of combinations available, and tons of great offers. They have an extensive line up of HD channels that look absolutely incredible.. and GWDish.com will even hook you up with a DVR Recorder to boot. Understandably, the website design doesn’t have much in the way of “sex appeal,” but it gets the job done, eh? Because of this, my recommendation would be to proceed with a certain level of awareness and caution. From what I’ve seen so far, the customer service is top-notch and they are great to work with. If you are in the market, why not give them a shot!

-Jimvesting

Melvin is the owner of The Melvin Blog. A blog all about internet marketing and making money online. Follow Melvin by visiting his site and subscribing to his feed.

Nowadays, it’s no secret that you can make money online blogging. In fact, just look at how many blogs we have now talking about making money online. But anyway, most are just stupid to think that by talking about making money online, they can make money online. Honestly, if you look at most “make money online” bloggers nowadays, they just run a blog hoping to make money by talking how they can make money online… but the truth is they never have any idea how to really make money themselves. Sorry for ranting!

Now, I just feel that I have to talk about a thing that most people don’t really get about having a successful blog. By saying successful, it means that it isn’t just about the income it generates. If you look at the successful bloggers today, shoemoney, johnchow, darren rowse and etc, many like to duplicate what they have done and have those people as their inspiration. But how did they really reach that lofty stature? Ok, I hate to give thrillers and drumrolls… so I’ll say it, patience!

The Number One Quality in Successful Bloggers… Patience!
Of course there are other reasons like, expertise, humor, perseverance and more… but honestly, I am surprised at how many people don’t see the value of patience. Look at what all those bloggers I have mentioned have in common… it is that they are blogging for more than 3 and 1/2 years now. 3 years is a very long time, and they are still alive and kicking. Another thing is to try to look at their archives, let’s take ProBlogger for example. You can see that he has started out writing “high-quality” content, even when he was just getting started… but he didn’t have any comments for at least the first 100 posts. I mean, can you see it? I’m sure it’s hard to swallow writing a post for an hour or two… having no one care to say their piece on it. But taking this into account, look how famous he is now!

You can say the same with others. Shoemoney wrote about his ramblings before, and no one really cared about them… but now he writes his ramblings, and look at how many comments he gets! In all, it looks like sometimes… we just have to be patient with things. Most modern bloggers start their blog and get quite excited with it (which there is nothing wrong with). After three months, if they see that no one is interested in commenting and reading… then they might want to call it quits already! If your blog is not getting what you think it should be getting… simply work harder. It might not work for the first few months… but believe me, it will make sense for the long run. Sometimes, we all need to look past what is happening in the short term, and focus in on the long run. Besides, what do you think is the first thing that makes a site successful and popular? The answer is so simple. It is because they have been there, hanging in for a long time

-Jimvesting

This is a sponsored post of IronBlogger.com. If you are interested in your own sponsored post or review, please check out our Advertise page for stats and rates.

I’ve been in the blogging game for well over a year to this point, and have definitely picked up a lot of tips and tricks to get by. In the “make money online” niche, there are certainly a lot of competitors. In order to beat the competition, you need to have something that sets you apart from the pack. One of the best ones, in my mind, has been the fact that I am a student blogger.

In comes Robin Haney, a guy from CANADA no less, trying to take my spotlight with his increasingly popular blog IronBlogger.com. This is a website that talks about the web, technology, making money and even gags on the internet that are worth checking out. Don’t let the innocent air about this guy fool you, Robin rules the internet with an iron fist… and is soon to take you into his world. Believe me, this student blogger isn’t messing around. Because of this, I am declaring guerrilla warfare!

Why the Iron Blogger Needs to be Stopped!
Okay, okay, this post isn’t serious. My good friend Robin Haney came to me a few weeks back asking for a sponsored post to shed some light on IronBlogger.com and I whole heartedly agreed. In all seriousness, IronBlogger is a very cool website that talks about everything under the sun, and is a website that I love for some light reading in the morning as I’ll usually find something interesting.

I want to take this opportunity to talk about how to blog correctly, because I think that Iron Blogger is a great example of this in action. Too many people try to start a blog and be the best from the get go. This is the wrong attitude, as it takes time and patience to climb to the top. Sure, all of us want to be the “head honcho,” but in order to do so… one must first establish a brand name that people will find credible. The thing about “make money online” blogging is that it is all about establishing a sense of credibility between you and your readers. What Robin Haney has done correctly, is just this. While still a fresh blog, I could see IronBlogger.com potentially generating a lot of interest if things stay consistent.

Bringing the REAL story, one post at a time
Another thing that I really like about IronBlogger.com is that all of the posts have a very personal feel to them. Since it is a personal blog first, make money online blog second, Iron Blogger has posts like “Dell AC Adapters Suck” and “Create a Popup Form with Aweber.” With all of the variety, it’s not a bad blog to simply plug into your RSS reader in the event that what Robin is talking about today excites you. By posting every day, Iron Blogger has a ton of useful information all around the website. While I don’t like the fact that there isn’t a set “niche” about it, it certainly keeps you entertained when you are hearing about blogging income one day, and fixing a broken iPod the next.

Looking to Start a Blog?
If you are looking to start your own blog and want a second opinion on where to go, I’d definitely recommend subscribing to IronBlogger.com and asking for a helping hand. Other than coming to yours truly , Robin is a great option… and will be sure to guide you where you want to go. I feel like the best way to get your foot in the door is to mirror someone who has already gotten the train rolling… as is the case here. With over 100 subscribers and definite room to run, not to mention advertising that is very inexpensive for all you value guys, check out Iron Blogger for some ironic blogging tips and tricks that you can use for your ultimate success on the net.

-Jimvesting

P.S.: Sorry Robin for the “unexpected” intro, it was late and I was feeling creative, haha

The following is a guest post that was written by Caden Grant, who blogs about making money at CadenGrant.com. Caden is a fresh face in the MMO world… check him out!

Search engine optimization is very important for any blog right? The better your blog is optimized for search engines, the more traffic you get. The more traffic you get, the more money you make. There is a lot to learn about search engine optimization. Many bloggers make simple mistakes… so I’ve made a list of the most common search engine optimization mistakes most people make. Try to avoid these mistakes and it should help you out.

1. Not updating and maintaining

This is very important. Most successful bloggers or website owners do this, but if they don’t it will affect their ranking. If you don’t keep up to date with the new algorithms of search engines, your page will eventually drop in the rankings. Some people think that after optimizing their website, they’re done forever. Well, this isn’t true. Try to always update your web page and work on your search engine optimization. As far as updating and keeping up with the competition, it’s also important to update your content. Google likes updated content and will make your page rank better in the SERPs.

2. Wasting your time on the meta tags

This is another common one. People think that if you get your meta description and keywords tag right, it will help optimize your site to perform well in the search engines. Well, this also isn’t true. Nowadays, meta tags don’t really help at all, they’re mostly a thing of the past. Now, you don’t even need the meta keywords tag as it doesn’t have any effect on your rankings. Although, the meta description tag does come up as the description for your website in Google.

3. Not minimizing duplicate content

Duplicate content mostly refers to blocks of content on websites that match other parts of content on your website. Some examples are discussion boards like vBulletin that can show the regular version of a post and then a different version, WordPress, printer-friendly pages, etc. Some people will use duplicate content to try to gain more traffic from search engines, but it’s not necessarily good for your users… or even yourself. Google will probably think you’re trying to deceive your users, and it will hurt your search engine rankings or cause in complete removal in certain search engines. You can try to minimize duplicate content in a few ways.

1. You can tell the search engines to block certain pages through your robots.txt file.
2. Use a 301 redirect. A 301 redirect, (Permanent Redirect), will redirect your users and search engine spiders to the actual page that should be displayed. (Do this in your .htaccess file, look up 301 redirects)

4. Canonicalization Issues

Canonicalization is a term that means you can get to your website through different urls like for instance www.yoururlhere.com and yoururlhere.com and someotherurl.com. Decide on the link you want and use it. You can use Google webmaster tools to tell it which URL you prefer to be indexed and Google will use that link for future crawls. Another way to do this is in your .htaccess file. Use this code:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^example.com$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.example.com/$1 [R=301,L]

Replace it with your link details of course, then save it and upload it. That’s it!

5. Not using the HTML attribute rel=”nofollow”

As Wikipedia states: nofollow is an HTML attribute value used to instruct some search engines that a hyperlink should not influence the link target’s ranking in the search engine’s index. It is intended to reduce the effectiveness of certain types of search engine spam, thereby improving the quality of search engine results and preventing “spamdexing” from occurring. NoFollow is not meant for blocking content or preventing it from being indexed, but instead is meant for telling the search engines to not affect the pages PageRank. For instance, the “About Us”, “Contact Us”, “FAQ”, “Privacy Policy”, etc aren’t really important enough to have a PageRank.

6. Not using relevant keywords when linking internally

Try not to use the words like ‘click here’ or ‘here’ or anything similar when linking to posts or something within your website. Try to use keyword relevant links. Like if I was linking to 10 Ways to Make Money Blogging, I wouldn’t link to it saying “Click here.” Instead I would link to it using the words 10 Ways to Make Money Blogging.

7. Ignoring the <title> tag

The <title> tag of your website in the heading of your code is very important as it comes up in the search engines for the hyperlink to your website. Use relevant keywords related to your site in the title of your tag. If your website is about making money online, include those words in the title of your Web page.

8. Using JavaScript menus

JavaScript menus aren’t necessarily bad… but just know that search engine spiders cannot read JavaScript. So, if you can, try to stay away from them altogether.

9. Letting pages get indexed that shouldn’t be

There are certain pages on websites that shouldn’t be indexed in search engines. For instance, printer-only versions of web pages, or just content-less pages with no use to the user. Go to Google and use the site:link.com/page.php or whatever to check and see if certain pages that should not be indexed are indexed. If you find pages that shouldn’t be there, you can tell the search engines to block them using the meta robots tag in the heading of your website and the robots.txt file.

10. Not using SEO friendly URLS

Not using SEO friendly URLS is also another mistake bloggers make. For instance, if you have the link http://www.linkhere.com/page.php?id=3&blahblah=computercases it’s not very friendly to the search engines. What would be a better option is something like http://www.linkhere.com/computercases/ or something similar. In wordpress you have the option to change your “permalink” so that it’s more SEO friendly.  It should be under the permalinks option in your settings. Choose custom structure and put /%postname% in the field.

11. Using flash without HTML

Flash might look good but it’s not good for the search engines. Search engine spiders can’t read flash (yet). So either try to stay away from flash or as an alternative create an HTML version of the web page and optimize it.

12. Images as headlines

Some people think that images do better as headlines but it’s really better to use h1, h2, h3 and so on for headings. Images are good but text is great. Search engines love text. Although, be sure to use the alt=”" attribute when using an image to describe what the image is.

13. Lack of keywords in content

To rank for certain keywords, of course you have to have keywords in your content. Put them where necessary. Putting them in heading tags or in bold is really good. Just try not to make it look spammy. Write for people not for search engines.

So there you have it. 13 common mistakes most bloggers make when blogging. If you try to avoid these problems, they should help you in optimizing your own blog for success!

-Caden Grant

The following is a one week sponsored contest from The Ground, the makers of one ingenious tool… soon to become a golfer’s best friend on the links!

Jimvesting is writing about golf?! That’s right ladies and gentlemen, I’ve been known to shoot a round of golf in my day… and it’s a sport that a lot of people are big fans of around the world. Heck, we’ve even seen “Tiger Woods” being named as the greatest all around athlete of all time… so the sport has definitely become a household name despite its roots.

Chances are, you know somebody that is absolutely in love with this increasingly popular game. Maybe you are a casual golfer yourself, or perhaps you have a few friends that like to play every now and then. As the holiday season approaches, wouldn’t you like the chance to get yourself one awesome new golfing tool to use for yourself, or pass on to a friend? Shipping and handling is paid for, all you need to do is write a sentence or two to be entered… let’s learn a bit about our sponsor, shall we?

The Ground – First Class Club Holder

I remember a few years ago when I was playing more regularly, I used to bring my clubs around in my golf bag. The problem is, most golfers will leave their bags at the next hole on the course when they hit their balls to the green… bringing just a club or two with them to finish the hole. I’ve ended up losing two clubs simply by putting them down and completely forgetting I brought them with me! The Ground solves this problem in sweet fashion, with their innovative solution to golf stands!

The Ground keeps your clubs in sight and grips dry. With a wide array of color combinations to choose from, The Ground was designed to fit and look like one of the clubs in your bag. The patented foot press allows for easy insertion and removal from both your bag and the fairway. Essentially, it is a club-esque tool that you can carry around and create an instant golf stand to put next to the green when you are trying to make your putts and (hopefully) finish under par. This is a relaly cool idea, because it will fit naturally in your bag and you can conveniently bring it along with you… using it amongst your friends to keep clubs safe and secure.

That Sounds Cool! How Can I Get My Hands On One?

Sure, The Ground sounds like an awesome gift idea for a friend, or a practical piece of equipment for your golfing arsenal. If you’d like to learn a bit more about it, feel free to read the full description on their website.

How To Enter For A FREE “The Ground” Club Holder

1. Step One – Visit The Ground’s website and check out the club! In order to win the contest, you need to have a good idea of what the club looks like and how it is useful in a golfer’s set
2. Step Two – Post a comment saying who you would like to give the club to! This could be a friend, a role model or even a relative! The choice is yours, and the most creative answer will win
3. Step Three – The winner will be announced by email on Friday, December 19th. This means that if you want your entry to count… you better include an email address (not shown publicly) in your comment!

So there you have it, all you need to do is write a comment talking about who YOU would give a free The Ground… and you can win a free professional club holder worth an estimated $30.00! Have you ever seen an easier prize to win? I think not! Get your entries in now, because the doors are only open until Friday, December 19th at 11:59pm EST. Oh, and Merry Christmas!

-Jimvesting

The Ground’s Christmas Quickie is Now OPEN!