The things which distract you from practical endeavors like making money are usually the things you’re the most knowledgeable about. These are the things you drive your friends crazy talking about. If they don’t want to hear your commentary– It’s their loss. Just tell the whole world instead, and get paid for it. That’s right, you can earn a living (a pretty nice one at that) showing what you know about your favorite topic.
Blogs are the no-brainer web platform.  They are basically plug-and play. You don’t need to know HTML, Javascript, or CSS. All you need to get
started is a template and an idea. Blogging for profit is becoming big business, and you can cash in on it big-time.

If you’re thinking about throwing a few PPC ads on your personal blog forget it. You’ll make a few cents. If you’re really popular, you’ll make afew dollars. The best money, and fun, in the blogosphere is in reviews – this is becoming one of the most common internet marketing practices. There are many websites and companies that pay bloggers to feature their products and services.

MAKING A BLOG THAT CAN MAKE MONEY- Your blog needs to be popular. You will be paid good money for posting reviews – if 10 people read them it’s not profitable for the advertiser.

The first mistake people make is looking for the most profitable niche.  Common wisdom is: find something with a relatively high number of searches, and low number of results. That’s crap. Ignore it. The simple fact is, the law of supply and demand applies to websites and blogs. You won’t find a topic not covered, and the more searches it gets, the more blogs and websites are there to answer the call.  Sure, you’ll need to throw in a little SEO, but internet marketing isn’t about fancy HTML and slick tricks to elbow the other guy out of the way. You can’t get an exclusive on the market; you’ve got to be the best. That’s why you start with a topic you know and love.

You could research and blog about anything, but you can’t blog with passion if you don’t have passion for the topic. When you pick something you know and love, your readers will identify with you. You can offer informed opinions. Don’t be afraid of controversy, say what you really think, back it up with good reasons, and defend your stance. Controversy is sure-fire publicity. Just don’t make an ass of yourself giving a so-called opinion about something you don’t really know or care about. Stupidity is sure-fire loss of readers.

Your passion and perspective on the topic are the hooks that draw readers in. Your knowledge of the topic (and readership) is the hooks that draw advertisers in. This is another reason for choosing  something you know well, do regularly, have experience with etc. If you picked a good topic, you should know a little more about it than the average blogger who read a Wikipedia article and a couple of opinion columns. You can offer tips, tricks, techniques, advice, warnings, and instructions that aren’t found elsewhere. This is what establishes you as an authority in the field, making your endorsement valuable for products, services, and websites related to your field.

TURNING YOUR BLOG INTO BUCKS

Set an advisory tone from the beginning. You probably think you know better than anyone about your topic than anybody else – don’t be afraid to let it show. . Go ahead and strut your stuff. Your readers should be accustomed to your blogs endorsing ideas, methods, and products. This way, it won’t look like ‘selling out’ when you start posting review and endorsement blogs.  It keeps your readership loyal, and lets advertisers see your readers do take your advice. That makes your product endorsement that much more valuable.

If you’re not keen on bragging up a crappy product, don’t worry. Not all reviews have to be endorsements. In fact, most blog-review services stipulate that you provide an honest opinion. These companies are looking for the exposure of being featured on a popular blog in their niche. It’s effective internet marketing -remember, any publicity is good publicity.

Once your blog is established, you’re ready to monetize. You can try marketing a brand new blog, but won’t have much success at first. When you’ve been online for at least three months, and gained a page rank of at least 1 you can probably start gathering customers. At first don’t expect too much – about ten dollars a post. However, if you do it right your traffic and page rank will steadily increase. The more popular you are, the more valuable you become.  You can easily work up to $100 – $200, and if you build up heavy traffic you could be making upwards of $500.00 per review. Did you ever thing you’d be raking in hundreds of dollars for telling the world your opinion? Could there be a better job than internet marketing the right way?

Justin Bieber is currently one of the most popular entertainers in the world today with having sold several million albums and a popularity that most entertainers or politicians dream to own. But why is Justin so popular? Is it actually his soft mellow notes and lyrics that are rich to the younger culture?
We think it’s probably because of his hair and some of our famed celebs and politicians seem to be catching on fast as to what makes “the Biebs” so great.

Barack Obama in this picture if he was also sporting the Bieber look:

Could sporting the Bieber style hair-groove help Obama chance to get re-elected President? It would be interesting for sure.

In an effort to do fair and balanced comedy, we have to include Newt Gingrich:

Will Justins hair help Newt possible to become the next president?

Not surprising that the awesome star of Mission Impossible, Tom Cruise will still look just as dashing with Bieber’s hair style:

Tom looking so dashing and an outstanding actor - would having Justin Biebers hair to wear make his "Mission Impossible"?

Ellen Degeneres is also a top entertainer known for her daytime talk show. Would she consider wearing the Bieber look to her next red carpet event with Portia?

Would Ellen still be loved as much if she had the Biebs look? We think she definitively would.

Even the Bruce man himself, Bruce Willis who is the man’s man of action adventure movies could handle the look of the “Bieber Man”.

Does having Justin Biebers hair makes him less "Expendable"?

Last but not least, the king of radio and TV, Larry King if he had a Bieber-top:

Larry King has the voice that's awesome and is a top newscaster no matter what kind of hair would display.

One of the features of the facebook website that we’re all familiar with is the “Like” button. The like button is a little benign link that gives us all that small orgasm of “hey, I am somebody”, and makes me feel important that “I just got a coffee at Starbucks!”, or “Whoopie made a LOL on The View”. Taking a closer look at the facebook like button, I can see many facets to why I think people click on that little bitty damn thing, and the results are interesting if not revealing. The following is some of the reasons that I think people love the like button, and what I ponder is going on in their head.

• I really like the content – this means I appreciate what the status update said, and I want to express this to all of my friends, sealing my own glorious stamp of approval and say vigorously to the world, “you ok dude”.
• I’m taking a crap and using a cell phone that sucks – I really can’t type a status update because of the tiny useless keyboard, and I don’t want anyone to know this so I will “Like” a bunch of post in my news feed.
• I’m on a booty hunt, and trying to hook up – They will facebook stalk a person to the end of God’s green earth(?) and “Like” anything they post. For example, if someone post “I have a hernia and convulsions tonight, and my house is burning down”, they will always get a like from this person.
• I’m waiting at the doctors office and board – I’m afraid to touch the magazines because it looks like some form of dried fluid is on the covers so I’m really not reading any of the status updates closely, and just clicking the like button randomly.
• I’m pissed at my significant other – (also see the booty hunt)I just got into a juvenile argument with my mate so I will find a friend I know that he or she is psychotically jealous of and “Like” all of their post.
• I hate the class I’m taking or asking for exam answers – If I can only figure out if the Tyrannosaurus Rex is asexual(not a pretty picture otherwise by the way), I might make it out of this stupid class with a C-.
• I had too much caffeine and can’t blink my eyes – I will like anything on facebook at this point including the fan page devoted to the sexual mating habits of the tyrannosaurus rex, possum behavior, or whatever.
• I’m extremely happy and don’t give a damn what I like – Self-explanatory.
• I’m extremely sad and don’t give a damn what I like – Same.
• It’s 4AM and I need a hug – I’m hoping if I like someone’s status update then they will like mine. This is also know as a “reciprocating like”(when you blog, you get to pretend to be an authority, and can make up terms).
• The “Like Orgy” – That’s when a bunch of friends get together, and like the hell out of any status update posted, or comments on the post. “I just flossed my teeth” – “lol, I love that”.
• I hate you like – that’s when I really don’t like you so I will “like” every comment on the page but yours.
• The football or sports like – I see a post about anything positive about my football team, and will “like” it like a hungry zombie looking for brains.
• Friend obsession like- (see football or sports like).
• The sympathy like- I really feel sorry for this poor SOB because their post never gets liked, and will find something on their usually warped page to “like” and make them feel better. “Milking Laboratory Rats Just Got Easier Through New Technology” – “Like”…you get the picture.
• The drunk like – I hammered so bad my eyes are crossing and can barely make out the like button so I press it on about anything.
• I just broke up with you like – It’s kind of like mercy sex, but you don’t need to have that “can’t we get back together” conversation after you’re done.

If I really thought about it, I bet there’s some more likes than the ones listed here. I have to wonder if this short link is not only an expression of human behavior on facebook, but actually an expression of our human characteristics of the real offline world too.

The Dreamer- It reminds me of when I was young and smoking pot with friends, and coming up with an idea. “Yeah man, and then we can…”. As you can imagine, no call to action with any of these “brilliant” ideas, and the dreamer loves to spend hours expanding on anything that gets everyone’s attention, but when it’s time to get work done, the dreamer always has an excuse why they can’t or won’t be able to get it completed.

The Delegator- This person has ideas and a plan, but refuses to work as a team because of course, no one else can understand their plan or they don’t have to share it. The delegator does not have to do work because they are a self-proclaimed boss.

The Splitter- They always have excuses to do other things, but thrive on conflict and when they can, and will create it to take attention off the goal and it just makes the job easier when you are fighting instead of actually doing work.

The Needy- This person always has a “special” problem that prevents them from performing the task at hand. Their “issues” are always on the forefront  of each and every meeting, and everyone needs to walk on egg shells to be around them. They have to be understood on their terms, and will choose how much work will or should be done, and how it will be done if acceptable, or not.

The Shark- A deadly critter to have on your team because they only want to exploit the job itself and really have no plans of working to any extent to start with. They may engage in inappropriate relationships within the organization, and argue points of insubordination. They will engage in conflict, but unlike the Splitter, they are working on promoting their own agenda which is to NEVER perform at any cost, even knowing the business will eventually fail from it.

The best way to counter this I found is to make sure the information to complete a desired task is clear, and is “doable”. Stay in contact with your team, and offer assistance if necessary to make sure a task is completed.

Buzzom .com

Question 1- What gave you idea for Buzzom?

Bhupendra: InRev started as a MIS Reporting and Analytics Company and built product for Web based reporting named Scoop. The sales were low for Scoop as it hit the market in Feb 2009 which was mid-recession period.

We then shifted our focus to B2C(business to consumer) through an Economic Reporting Portal for the United States. The product used the Scoop Engine, and it included fantastic statistical and forecasting reports of the US Economy. The product was called FCube (Forecasts for FREE). The data was taken from public sources like BLS(Bureau of Labor Statistics), and the BEA(Bureau of Economic Analysis)etc.

The marketing budget for this venture was low so we shifted our focus on the use of Social Media and this brought the creation of the Twitin applications for our own use. Twitin worked great for us so we decided to bring it to the market. It changed our fortune as people loved the product and we rebranded the product as Buzzom.

Question: 2- What was the largest challenge that Buzzom faced?

Bhupendra: The biggest challenge has been with catering the increasing demand for infrastructure. Buzzom is loved by most of its users and the acquisition and retention rate of users is great. But we never had the liberty to go more aggressive, which we wanted to do.

We are offering opportunities for investments in Buzzom and when we reach our goal, we plan to go full scale to the social media market and try to gain the maximum share in of the SMM and Engagement Space.

Question: 3- What is the future plans for Buzzom?

Bhupendra: We are bringing Social CRM(Customer Relationship Management) Suite in next 6 months. The first release is planned in 2 months, and it will have Social Marketing Campaign along with basic Social Brand Management features.

Buzzom.com will have more FREE features too. This includes basic status message scheduling and some facilities for social networks like LinkedIn, MySpace, Youtube and Google Buzz.

We are also doing some research on bringing Social Bookmarking within the Social Marketing Campaign framework of Buzzom.

Question: 4- What are your personal projects?

Bhupendra: I have deep interests in integrating World data, and FCube was my pet project in the company. I have stopped all my personal projects now and am fully focused on the current company works, but at the right opportunity, I want to bring FCube back(may or may not from InRev). Next time when FCube comes, it will be for all Global Public Databases.

Internet radio is also great for affiliate marketing and local businesses because you can add your own commercials to the streams.  For search engine position and optimization, realize you can have ID3 Tag data (your song name and Band title) appear on your site from the player you’re using.  It’s is a great way for increasing your SERP(search engine results page or where you site gets listed) and Search Engine Optimization with content always switching on the page of you internet station, and band names always support key word searches. Tip for community based internet broadcasting websites:  let people know events, offers, or specials they might overlook through your stream and have this information somewhere on your page. Marketing in your media stream and on your page doubles the conversions/success. For affiliate marketing and businesses this is a way to reach customers who will listen to your ads if the radio programming is good.  Remember, you can advertise anything through your stream.

A few Trololo facts:

• It first appeared on ‘You Tube’ in November 2009 and was posted by user ‘RealPapaPit’( credit http://www.youtube.com/user/RealPapaPit) .
• The video clip was entitled “I am very glad, because I’m finally back home.”
• It has since inspired a number of video derivatives, as well as a Single Serving Site http://trololololololololololo.com/ created on February 26th, 2010.
• There appears to be no real audience. We don’t see them. We don’t hear the audience, but Edward appears happy and friendly and trying to relate the emotions of the song to this non-existent audience with his facial expressions and arm gestures as he sings and moves about the set.
• Edward appears to be trying to convey the story and emotions of the song but the song has no lyrics with which to convey them. The audience can only speculate what he is singing about and why he is feeling as he is.
  And to make it even stranger, Edward Khil poorly lip syncs a vocal track of his very own making.
• The stage is empty except for some metal scroll work. Stark and cold. The set does not even match the singers emotions nor does it give any clue as to what the the song is about.

In an interview,  Khil stated it was universal in all languages, and that we agree with.

Internet  advertising

When companies start an advertising campaign, they assume it works like offline advertising, and manage it in ways that washes them away in a pool of all but non-existent listings that prove unsuccessful. Below are a few misconceptions about internet advertising.

1- Build it and they will come-Fail. For internet marketing like the movie “Field of Dreams”, there is a beautiful story about hope with a playing field where suddenly a baseball team appeared. If you depend on this happening with a business strategy, you need to rethink a bit.

2- Online Advertising can not produce revenue for local business-Fail . This concept actually will make a business profile look less than operational these days. One of the local Omaha businesses I affiliate advertise for receives hundreds of calls each month with thousands of dollars in revenue. If I had a percentage of what they made, I probably would not be blogging right now(on an island somewhere).

3-I can find one online formula and my company will be number one-Fail. Several SEO(search engine optimization) and web design components are in an online business campaign. The tricks to get website traffic(appealing as they are) is usually junk traffic, and will not produce results. You can either learn web design skills or hire someone, but using online marketing techniques is not to be taken for granted.

4-Business can buy a single page from a site and be ranked-Partial Fail. A single page can produce some results and it depends on how the web page is promoted, but many sites that offer single pages use poor SEO strategies that will not rank high on Google, MSN, and Yahoo so it is strongly suggested that you also have a website for your online business needs.

5- Businesses only need their name and number on the internet and people will find them-Major Fail. I see this in the Omaha and other cities a lot, and look at those niches as an opportunity to promote a business and make those companies look like rock stars. Unless your company is the only one in town in your market(still may not be the best way), having just a name and number will be a miserable failure to your business strategy and potential revenue.

If you are trying to spread the word in Omaha, Nebraska, smaller or larger cities, your advertising presence needs something that stands out from the rest of the other companies, and those companies that make those act silly when making poor decisions about their online marketing techniques WILL lose company revenue and customers to their competitors.

1. H1<h1> HTML Tags – Search Engines often put a lot of Weight on the keywords located in the H1 tag. If your site does not have a H1 tag, it would be worth adding.
2. Keyword Weights – It’s a common mistake with SEO to make a site sound ‘spammy’, or unreadable because of adding too many keywords. A good rule according to current standards is not to have the keywords greater than 6 percent, and no less than 1 percent and remember, no optimization should ever override user experience.
3. Domain Name- The domain name choice with the keywords you use makes a difference with the search engines. If a site is about puppy care, it helps to have the keywords ‘puppy care’ in the domain name.  It also makes a difference with your URL(web address) and that’s why you see things like ‘yourdomainproduct.com/puppy-care-with-new-born.html’, instead of  just ‘/page.html’.
4. Page Title- On your pages, using keywords in the title does make a difference, but again, you don’t want the page title to sound WEIRD.
5. Image Alt Tags- Keywords for the page your creating should always be placed in alternative text to make it more readable to the search engines.

The above is some of what are my personal top picks when building a website, but is not to say that those are the only rules for good SEO, nor do they all have to be strictly enforced. If your site name for example is without keywords, it’s still ok, but these are tips for maximum optimization.

The year was 2005. I searched for software to build a website. There was plenty out on the market like netobjects and such, but I wanted something simple that I could be creative with. I didn’t know any HTML or Search Engine Optimization. A friend of mine found Coffeecup. I would go to their forums and ask what I thought was silly questions about web design, but folks like Adam and Inger never belittled me and everyone was always supportive.

It’s real! Promise.

Over the years I’m sure CC has had their struggles I’m sure, but have continued to improve their products. Today I work with scripts like jquery, ajax, and Joomla, WordPress, but I still love to build sites with my first program from Coffeecup, Visual Site Designer. Sometimes I publish, and sometimes it’s my personal whiteboard to layout the design for other platforms.

Coffeecup just won the About.com award for the best web design program, beating out the all so famous Macromedia Dreamweaver. Even though programs like their flash form builder are very sophisticated with a MySql interface option, they are still built with new users in mind. The people on the CC forums have not changed one single bit. Always supportive, and always friendly.

Now web design and e-commerce has come to it’s rightful place in the spotlight, and CC is paving the way by not only offering information about their software, but how to design sites integrating with WordPress, Joomla as well.

All of the above I just said was true, and thousands of members, Ambassadors, and users will back me up on it.

Oh, one last thing…coffee??? Love it.:)

To take a lookie at the Coffeecup website— Coffeecup.com