Two New Post Categories for the New Year

Those of you that have been long-time readers probably know that I absolutely love the financial markets. I’ve managed a $400K stock portfolio to a 18.5% outperformance over the S&P 500 in 2008 (nearly a 40% nominal gain), worked in investment banking at a major bulge bracket firm and presided over a mutual fund with assets under management (AUM) of over $4 million. On the side, I manage my personal portfolio which continues to beat the overall markets year after year… and I think that I want to shine a light on my stock picks when I buy and sell.

Additionally, some of my older posts are sportsbook recommendations and gambling picks every week. While I am more successful on NFL Football games than anything else (and the season it winding down), I am going to pick up in 2011 and begin sharing my thoughts on weekly props. In particular, I’ve had records over .500 for quite some time, and if you can manage this kind of track record you will make money over time if you bet proportionately. Therefore, I think this fits well with the investment theme and I would like to start to keep a running tally of my successes and failures on the blog.

Is this going to change everything?

I wouldn’t worry about this blog changing too heavily from what my core competency is. The goal here is to diversify what we are talking about… as I believe having numerous ways to invest is key in this economy. And heck, I really enjoy writing about the stuff.

Hope everyone has a great New Years… tons of great material to come in 2011!
-Jimvesting.com

Related posts:

1. Jimvesting’s Five Contrarian Market Predictions for 2011
2. 2011 NFL Football Picks – Playoff Week #1
3. Ten Things to Blog About… When You Don't Know What to Blog About

After being out of commission for the summer and these most recent months, the time has come for me to resume blogging and get you that information that you crave. My apologies for my disappearance, but now that school has resumed I am prepared to deliver on some new excellent content that will get you back off your feet making money online in no time.

Wait… You Were Gone This Summer!?
Yes! I actually used a ghostwriter all summer to fill in for me and keep Jimvesting populated with articles. Because I used a freelance writer, I told him that I wanted to have him put information up about the merits of freelance writing, as that was a topic that I haven’t hit on much and is certainly a valid way to make money online in your spare time.

Who did I use? None other than Chris from Chrisblogging.com. Chris and I had a good arrangement over the summer to blog, and I think that he did an excellent job writing convincing content that was intellectually-stimulating to boot. When I accepted an internship offer in New York City over this past summer, I knew that I would need a writer if I wanted to keep things running. Chris is actually one of our readers here at Jimvesting.com, and because I knew he was interested in my blog I figured that he would be a good candidate to help out. This just goes to show that the relationships you form on your blogs can carry you through your online careers.

What I Did This Summer

Over this past summer, I worked at a major investment bank on Wall Street. I interned in the investment banking division as a summer analyst and will be returning full-time next year as an analyst. At the bank, I was given the opportunity to work closely with CEOs of several multi-billion dollar companies, created valuation models to pitch new investment ideas to our clients and even got to work on one of the largest M&A (mergers and acquisitions) deals of the year.

When you hear about investment banking in the news, it sounds like a completely different industry than blogging… but I think that you would all be surprised as to just how many synergies there are between the two. One characteristic that allows people to excel in banking is an entrepreneur attitude: the ability to think outside the box, deliver quality work and be as efficient as possible. Needless to say, anyone who has a positive work ethic and can deliver creative solutions is fit to work in many industries outside of the online realm if they so choose.

Regardless, I am back at the helm at Jimvesting.com and ready to put more awesome material into your inbox every morning. Stay tuned for updates, and thank you for sticking with us!

-Jimvesting.com

Related posts:

1. Jimvesting Resolutions — New Blog Additions in 2011!
2. All About Jimvesting
3. Make Money Online with Freelance Writing

We’re transitioning our old blog located at The Net Fool to our brand new website at Jimvesting.com! Why the sudden change? Well there were plenty of pressures pushing me toward re-branding, and I think there are going to be numerous benefits involved with making the switch. Sure, there will be an initial knee-jerk reaction to switching over cold turkey, but it is a move that needs to be made!

Major Advantages of Moving to Jimvesting Dot Com:

• “Jimvesting” is a more recognizable/brandable name than “The Net Fool”
• The added professionalism provided by the Jimvesting name will add to the overall credibility of the site’s content
• Our new theme will allow for more streamlined content, better monetization and a renewed focus on content quality over aesthetics
• A fresh new look should encourage a renewed surge in participation and interest. The old theme & brand had gotten a bit tired… and Jimvesting.com is a great solution to start things up again!

One of the biggest changes here is dropping the old theme and adding this new one. I think that I will be selling the rights to the old theme, as it seemed to be quite popular. However, I think that one of the disadvantages of that theme was that it took too long to load and see the actual content — the header was so large you could hardly see the first post when you loaded up the page!

Our new theme, based on a design from ProductiveDreams.com, lets you see the first post as SOON as you load up the page. There is plenty of advertising room to work with, and there is much more of a social media presence all across the site. As the web is evolving, we want to move with it… so while the old theme was certainly “fun,” Jimvesting’s new look will allow us to deliver a better experience and Search Engine Optimized performance. The advantages are real, and the design is still just as slick, sexy and original!

Welcome to the new website, let us know what you think below!
-Jimvesting Dot Com

Related posts:

1. Jimvesting Dot Com Earnings Call (April 2008)
2. New Web Hosting! Jimvesting Dot Com Gets a Performance Boost & Upgrades
3. Net Fool Forums Open – Win $10 By Posting

Want to Start a Blog, but Don’t Know How to “Get the Wheels in Motion?”
Introducing Jimvesting’s “Blogger Stimulus Package!!!”

I believe strongly in lending a helping hand to others who are interested in starting their own online ventures, but just don’t have the “know how” to do it all themselves… at least, not without burning a LOT of time on learning how. Therefore, I am reinstating my previous “Blog Domination” package, but I am UPPING THE ANTE and making the deal even sweeter. Now, not only will I design your blog for you… but I will personally go out and buy you any commercially available “premium” theme that you want… for free!

What you get in the Blogger Stimulus Package:

• FREE Premium Theme from the website of your choosing
  • Try Unique Blog Designs, WP Theme Designer, WooThemes or Elegant Themes to get your hunt started
• FREE Custom Logo designed by me to fit your blog style/niche
  • I’ll whip up a high-quality logo made custom just for you
• FREE Copy of Jimvesting’s Blogging eBook
  • Get your blog off the ground with this easy to understand tutorial!
• FREE Blog Consultation from Jimvesting!
  • I’ll talk you through the process of blog ownership personally to get you on the right track to making money online

Sounds like a great deal, eh? I’ve had many satisfied customers in the past, and I hope that you will be one as well. You may be asking what you need to do at this point to get eligible to enter into this promotion… well there is really only one requirement for you:

REQUIRED: Sign Up For HostGator Webhosting Using This Link!

HostGator is the web’s premier web hosting company, and has literally millions of websites hosted on its servers… including mine! My website loads very fast considering that it is built on almost 100% images, and I have the speedy servers at HostGator.com to thank for that. By signing up for web hosting under my name (do this by using the link above), you will be telling HostGator that I sent you, and it becomes a win-win situation for me to provide you with all of the set up on the front end. There are no hidden “gotcha” costs involved, I act as an affiliate for companies like HostGator that like to see steady business… and heck, you get a new blog designed by a pro!

Jimvesting’s Blogger Stimulus Package: We will be running this offer for a limited time… so be sure to get into it as soon as you can if you are interested. All you have to do is sign up for hosting using this referral link and then shoot me an email (or drop a comment on this post) to let me know that you are in. No gimmicks, No fuss!

Stay Bullish on the Net!
-Jimvesting

Related posts:

1. The Fool is Working Hard – And We're Launching Another Stimulus Package!
2. The Fool's FREE Blog Domination Package
3. INSANE Hosting Deals on Black Friday — Want to Start a Website? Check this out!

While it may be an overstatement to say that theNetFool.com is now sporting the greatest header that has ever been created for a weblog (and I do this simply for a great post topic ), I’ve made some more changes that I am sure you have noticed by now. By adding a clever opt-in newsletter subscription box, and in a very aesthetically pleasing manner, I will be boosting the amount of turnover this blog generates… and we all know that more subscribers = more POWER.

The Inspiration for Change?
My inspiration was actually a video I saw a week ago from one of the most famous MMO bloggers of all time, John Chow. Now, John takes a lot of heat from people who claim that all of his material is either 1) fluffy and unimportant; or 2) wrong or misleading. I feel that most of this is coming from the fact that he is a top dog, and people love to hate the champ. In summary, the video is about how he makes money blogging… and a lot of his success revolved around the fact that he used his blog as a machine to capture email addresses. I noticed that I wasn’t doing this currently, and I have decided to make a change by becoming more newsletter-centric. Check out his post here!

Let’s Talk About the New Header & the History

My old header originally just had the logo and a whole lot of eye candy. About half a year ago, I decided that I should be “USING” that space for something… so I took down the papers and such that I had on the bulletin board in the logo and darkened the color of it so that it would look like a chalk board. Now that my bulletin board could be “drawn” on in “chalk” (yes, I have fun with it!)… I downloaded a font called “Eraser” so that I could put up different versions of my header to promote new happenings on my blog.

The next “phase” of the header was when I decided to monetize it. I thought that this was a great idea, and it turns out that it was a major flop. What I did was add a few programs that I used often to generate money on the right side of my header. The problem here was that the affiliate links simply weren’t being clicked because they were not being seen by people using the blog… and were very transparent and small in the corner of a very large landscape heading.

CURRENT: Now, I have changed focus and totally integrated an opt-in form into my header. Not only this, but I have a very neat dynamic drop-down system that I custom programmed to deliver one of 3 eBooks with a subscription to this blog as a bonus. I don’t know ANY other blog that allows you to choose from multiple “gifts” upon registering to a newsletter… so I think I have a great system in place that will work for me well into the future.

Jim, that is indeed the best header ever… how did you do it!?

Ah, calm down a little bit… I will explain how it works! The first move on my end was to have different products to offer my readers. Many bloggers haven’t been around enough to have their own eBooks and such that they can hand out, so this was a bit of a leg up from the get go. I have a lot of content and much of it gets buried, so this is a great way to get things back on the frontpage that I’ve worked hard on!

In Aweber, I knew that there was a way to give a blog broadcast to people that subscribe with a digital download… but there is no way to do it for multiple items in different scenarios. Therefore, most of the scripting is actually run through the confirmation page when you first hit “submit.” By creating a unique variable for each offering (for example: “gift1″ and “gift1″), you can match that selection to a file name (i.e. “gift1.pdf”) and feed that to the subscriber once they confirm their subscription! It’s a bit more complicated than that… but the jist of it is creating a new variable for the book choice that Aweber (fortunately) let’s you pass on through the system!

The final piece of the puzzle was actually coding it in. I had to tear apart my existing header for this… and splice it into numerous images so that I could place a form on top of it (the thing used to be 1 big image). Then, with some clever CSS implementation for styling (example: the selection boxes highlight when they are active ), away we go!

Now I can capture more leads… and maintain a pretty sweet looking header!
-Jimvesting

What Do YOU Think About The New Header?

Related posts:

1. Build-A-Blog Workshop Day 11: Modifying Your Blog’s Header to Perfection
2. Jazz Up Your Blog With Floating Attention-Grabers! Boost Subscribers With STYLE
3. What Spoof Do You Want to See?

I’ve been working on a brand new method to net you $75-$200 (depending on how often you use it) repeatedly with absolutely no potential for loss and no risk. This is something that I have done personally with great success, and I am 100% confident that any one of you can exploit this trick that I have developed over the years and trust completely.

What’s The Catch?!
Well normally, I would sell this book to hundreds of people and then sell my website for another quick collection… but this time I am going to give the book away to my readers FOR FREE! Why? Well, I haven’t been so active lately, so I want the only term for this offer to be that you must be a registered subscriber of our newsletter to get the book.

Keep in mind that you will never see a deal like this, and I know people that are charging you upwards of $100 for books like this that reveal less powerful secrets. I can personally guarantee that anyone who reads this book will be able to make in instant $75… or I will pay YOU $75!

I WILL be moving this offer to a paid promotional the week after I release it here… I’d be a fool not to! However, be advised that anyone who is subscribed via the newsletter (link below) will be on the list to get it for free.

eBook Being Released NEXT SATURDAY
I have the book I am preparing staged to launch next Saturday… and it will only be available for my subscribers. All you need to do to qualify is sign up to the Aweber Newsletter that I have set up. You will receive absolutely no spam, and will get a few updates every now and then from what is happening at Jimvesting.com. It’s completely free too, so you have nothing to lose! Let’s call it my Christmas gift to all of you.

Remember to check back next Saturday to receive your free book… and we will certainly be emailing a unique link to everyone on our email list to let you know where you can go to download the book. We don’t mess around with spammy offers here at Jimvesting, and you can be sure that a simple click on the “Submit” button above will get you a free book with no questions asked and no strings attached.

Have a great weekend… and a happy new year!
-Jimvesting

PLEASE NOTE! THE OFFER PERIOD IS NOW EXPIRED!

Related posts:

1. Earn The Easiest Cash With Early Bird Referrals
2. Jimvesting Is Dead
3. Jimvesting's Big March Contest – Win Prizes!

As it turns out, my registrar was sending “domain name expiration” notices to an old email account of mine that I had completely forgotten about (heck, who uses Yahoo Mail anymore anyways? ) and my domain name expired on October 11th because I didn’t notice! Luckily for me, it seems that Name Cheap, the guys I work with, have a holding policy and I was able to smooth talk my way into extending the term of my registration out another year without any penalties.

Site Owners: Make sure that your emails are current! EVERYWHERE!

The lesson really isn’t to make sure your domain names expire, because any registrar will send you updates up to wazoo… my problem wasn’t that I wasn’t getting the alerts, but that I wasn’t “getting” the alerts.

At the very least, it was definitely a wake up call for me as to how much I really didn’t want to let this thing go… so I’ll be posting more often from here on out. I have a few plans in the mix, but I will round out the longest 30-day blog building challenge in the history of mankind first and foremost. Stay bullish on the net!

-Jimvesting

Related posts:

1. Build-A-Blog Workshop Day 2: Registering Your Domain Name
2. Build-A-Blog Workshop Day 4: Linking Your Domain Name to Hosting Account
3. The Underground World of Domain Hijacking, and How to Protect Yourself

What will happen on Day 25 of the Build-A-Blog Workshop?

Possible Theories:

• Jimvesting will be taken over by the U.S. Government
• Cash will spill out of your floppy disk drive (you still have one… right?)
• Jim personally delivers you a fruit basket for all of your waiting
• You reload the website, and your computer is infected with an incurable virus
• Jim makes good on all of the money pleas on the “Beg for Cash” post
  (seriously, look at all these)

Well, we will get back to work on Saturday, August 22nd… so stay tuned,
because when have we ever kept you waiting?

-Jimvesting

Related posts:

1. Extending the Deadline! Jimvesting's Build-A-Blog Workshop Starts Wednesday
2. Jimvesting Dot Com Earnings Call (August 2008)
3. Jimvesting Dot Com Spoof Week… Prepare to Get Burned!