Blogging Archives - Page 3 of 5 - The At Home Couple

Become A Ninja Link Master By Combining Social Bookmarking Tools

I’m sitting here waiting for my man D to come through so we can rehearse for our show tomorrow night, so I figured I’ll bang out a post while I’m waiting. If you guys don’t know Mark Hansen by now read through my 20 questions session I did with him, and visit him over at TheNicheStoreBuilder.com – Mark is the man when it comes to building niche affiliate websites, keyword research tactics and keeping the public up to date with eBay’s wonderful (sarcastic) affiliate program. Mark is usually pretty sharp in regards to finding out about cool little programs and services that make our lives online easier, and he recently posted up about another social bookmarking tool that I knew you guys would be interested in.

Remember when I introduced a few of you to SocialMarker.com and their awesome social bookmarking service? Well, take that concept but add the ability to securely input and save your account info, so you don’t have to manually enter it every time you want to bookmark something! Yes sir, OnlyWire.com does exactly this! I’ve just gone through the sign up process and after creating my log in it immediately took me to a page when I enter in my user/pass for 19 top social bookmarking sites listed as follows:

Backflip
Bibsonomy
Blinklist
Blue Dot
BookmarkSync
Connotea
del.icio.us
de.lirio.us
Diigo
Furl
Google Bookmarks
Jumptags
linkatopia
Linkroll
ma.gnolia
MyWebYahoo
Simpy
Spurl
Twitter

I could very well have hyper-linked each of those for you, but I think it would be safe to assume that the majority of you know these bookmarking services, and how to find them! Right? Right. Copy and paste the name into your address bar and add a .com at the end of it, and hit enter!

Now obviously you don’t have to fill in all 19 services for OnlyWire to work it’s magic, but if you really wanted to get 19 free backlinks in a few minutes than this site is the way to go. Combine the speed of OnlyWire with the selection of SocialMarker and you have yourself a well oiled social bookmarking machine! Talk about easy link building for new sites. Services like this really make what used to be such a tedious task easy enough that you could work it into your day without breaking a sweat.

I’m going to put together a short Camtasia tutorial once I get my accounts up and running – there won’t be much to it as the OnlyWire interface is super simple, and there’s not much to it at all. Put in your social bookmarking account info, save it, add the bookmarklet to your toolbar, and start bookmarking!

Take a peak and let me know what you guys think!

Cheers,

Elijah

UpstartBlogger.com Blasts The Four Hour Work Week

This weekend was Thanksgiving in Canada, and was extra special because it was the first time my grandparents met Veronica’s family. I lived with my grandparents for 6 years prior to moving out with Veronica, and they are some of the most important people in my life, so needless to say I was really looking forward to the gathering – and the food! We had our dinner on Sunday and Monday was the holiday so Veronica and I spent the entire day (literally) in bed watching television, with the occasional lap top session.

I really wanted to do some catching up on all of your websites this weekend, and while doing so I stumbled upon a post over at Ashley Morgan’s UpstartBlogger.com – which I frequent almost daily. Ashley recently wrote a post titled Deconstructing The Tim Ferris Four Hour Work Week, and to my expectations it was written in his opinionated, honest style of commentary which I’ve grown to appreciate him for.

Throughout the deconstruction Ashley openly bashed Timothy Ferris stating that his qualifications are deluded and that the book’s success is nothing more than marketing fluff from a persuasive fraud. Here’s a favorite line of mine:

Unfortunately it’s all a load of rubbish. Like most books of its ilk, The Four Hour Work Week is all about the dream, not the reality. All sizzle and no steak. Still a best seller though. Because blog marketing works.

No matter how much I enjoyed reading this book, I have to agree with his statement. Blog marketing does work, and even though I disagree with the open bashing of someone whom he’s never met or shook hands with, I do agree that a huge factor in the success and viral push behind The Four Hour Work Week is that Ferris utilized the power of blog marketing to capitalize on his interpretation of this “dream” we’re all chasing. On the flip side, I do have to disagree with one particular commentator crapped on Ferris calling him a liar and a cheat and getting up in the face of another person who jotted own their opinion. This really made me laugh:

Todd, you’re obviously a shill. And who the hell are those so called famous people. Doctor Phil? Doctor Phil who? Clean up your grammar next time as well. You wrote “couple famous people” when you should have written “a couple OF famous people”. Learn English for crying out loud. For someone who is claiming to earn over six figures with little effort you are coming across as an idiot.

When I read what this guy was yapping about I couldn’t help but start to chuckle a little! The reason I found this particular individual amusing was because I can tell he is the type of cat who will blast up forums and blogs telling people where to shove it, because he knows everything, but I can almost guarantee if he weren’t hiding behind his computer with a box of tissue and the little girls section of the Old Navy fall catalog open, he wouldn’t say shit. Here’s what I replied after reading his comment, and I pray he pays me a visit and reads this:

What really makes me laugh is how most of you guys sit behind a computer talking trash, but if you were to see the person you were talking trash about in public you would continue talking under your breath and not say a damn thing to their face, eye to eye.

I really hope he takes me up on my challenge. We’ll see how quick he is to open his mouth when Tim Ferris throws a round house to his temple – the last I heard he was a black belt martial artist! Good luck buddy! If you’re going to talk smack about someone, tell them directly – don’t be hiding behind blogs looking all tough and well read, because you’re the one that ends up looking like you ride on the special bus.

How do you guys feel about The Four Hour Work Week and smack talking on blogs?

Cheers,

Elijah

Should We Sell This Blog?

Veronica and I are at a point in our life together where things aren’t all peaches and cream – not pertaining to our relationship, which is the strength that drives me, but in terms of financial stability. Since I lost my job back in May and made the decision that I would do whatever it takes to be making enough income online to not have to visit my old friend, the cubicle, ever again – it’s been an interesting road. On a personal level, I haven’t paid my student loan or credit card bill in over 3 months, by choice, and that’s not what bothers me because I’m only 27 and credit can be repaired. On the flip side, Veronica has been working away doing her 40 hour work week and developing an increased sense of frustration towards the gutless operations of a major corporation – especially one that’s preparing for the Christmas rush.

Not only does her discontent break my heart because she has to put up with this shit, but it also keeps a constant flame under my white ass because I want to be THE man that can provide for her – and hopefully make enough money so she can leave her job by the end of the year, which is a goal of ours.

Where’s your head at?

Over the last month or so I’ve been feeling a strange combination of depression and desperation, fueled by an abnormal, almost mutated drive to succeed online. The desperation causes me to not sleep and spend 12-16 hours a day sitting on this lap top. The depression hinders my focus and ability to stay motivated when things don’t work as planned – like my latest site flip. The drive is something that I’m used to, especially when I have my back against the wall with nowhere to run.

Am I afraid of failure? Absolutely terrified. Am I dreading the thought of having to get another pointless job, and not being able to work for myself? Every single day. Would an immediate financial boost improve my current situation? Probably. This is where the thought of selling TheAtHomeCouple.com makes it’s entrance.

I was unable to sleep last night, and stayed awake until Veronica left for work at 7 am this morning. The thought of cashing out on all my hard work for a quick money fix was haunting me beyond belief. I began to think about how much this site would be worth on the market, and what I could allocate that extra money towards. I began to think of how much weight it would take off Veronica’s shoulders, and enable her to put some money aside for herself – which she hasn’t done in months, as well as my responsibilities being the man in our relationship, and the deeply rooted pride that is commonly associated with that role. I then asked myself a simple question that really helped open up my tired eyes:

Would selling this blog solve our current financial needs and increase the chances of us accomplishing our long term goals in life, and online?

Fuck no. Cashing out on this blog would be the biggest sell out move I’ve ever pulled in my 27 years. This blog is a symbol of the very goal we are trying to achieve, and not only would I loose the respect of my peers, which is everything to me, but I can almost guarantee that the new owner(s) would not have an easy time filling my blood soaked shoes. I woke up today around 5 pm, ashamed at the thoughts that were racing through my brain. I immediately felt a need to email every single subscriber we have and tell you how much we love you, and want you to succeed. How much your struggles and triumphs keep us going, and knowing that we’re not alone in this vast, cold world online makes all the difference. I realized how many amazing people I’ve met, and great friends I’ve made – and I could NEVER put a price tag on that.

Note: I just received an email from an Affiliate Manager at affnet.com, saying he’s been researching our site, loves what we’re doing and would like to talk about advertising on our site and other business opportunities. Ironic, considering what I was just finished writing about.

Cheers,

Elijah

Blog Report For September 2008

Another month, another stats report to add to the blogosphere! September was a weird month from several different stand points for TheAtHomeCouple.com – weird not being a bad thing, as growing up my mother always told me weird was good. The first thing that really caught me off guard was that the original 25 subscribers from our August blog report decided to stick around for another month despite my several attempts to be as inappropriate as humanly possible. Secondly, I’m still trying to grip the fact that I built and sold my first website in September.

Website flipping is talked about quite frequently on the Internet, and when I decided I needed to stop being afraid and start making money I had no idea that selling a website would be how that money was made – but it was! Lastly, in September I realized after hours and hours of sleepless nights that more work doesn’t always mean better work. When I heard my man Joe say that he’s thinking about taking weekends off and only posting on his site Monday through Friday, it was on! What a great idea…

September was also a big month for Veronica in the sense that she finally admitted to the fact that I’m not loosing my mind, and I actually know a thing or two about making money online. She has also taken on learning about blogging and WordPress into her own hands and came home one day with a “Blogging For Dummies” book! I’m not going to lie and say that I wasn’t turned on slightly – because I was.

Stats & Screenshots

Once again, I’m not going to report how much money I made online because this blog is about our adventure trying to quit our jobs, not our wallets. I will let you guys know that I did have a record month with Adsense and made almost $12, with TheAtHomeCouple.com contributing $4.44 to that total! Time to get me a movie ticket.

As I’m typing out this blog report, and infomercial popped on the television titled “Internet Shortcut Millions” with two busty young ladies talking about how if you can send an email you can make millions on the Internet using Jeff Paul’s 3-click system. I really wish you guys could see this… I’ve written down the number and plan to call and start asking the representatives about click through ratio and bounce rate – who the hell is Jeff Paul? lol.

As you can see in the screenshot above, there was a sexy increase in unique visitors to our blog in September. According to AWStats we had 2175 unique visitors with 16, 049 page views and an average of 3.49 pages per visit. That’s 805 more unique visitors than August!!! Sweet victory… The downside is that the page views and pages per visit had a slight decrease – but that could mean several things, and having a more established regular flow of readers probably contributed to that decline.

This is really blowing my mind right now – the above screenshot shows an average of 153.23 visits per day, with the most traffic on September 16th which brought in 519 visits! Who the heck are you people, and where do you come from? I know one of my strengths regarding website development is traffic generation, but 3 months ago I couldn’t even tell you what technorati does (I’m still not 100% sure, lol). Blogging rules, and that’s the end of that!

Here is my favorite number, and what ties everything together in the blogosphere – Our subscribers! We haven’t held a single contest, or posted anything insanely ground-breaking or controversial, and yet we’ve somehow increased our subscribers from 25 at the end of August to 67 at the end of September! I really don’t know what to say except thank you. I can only imagine what the response would be once Veronica has the time to get her crazy, beautiful, insanely smart ass up on here more often to mix it up with you guys and gals – I can’t wait!

Elijah, how did you get these numbers in 2 months?

I stopped caring about what the Guru’s are doing
I stopped reading and commenting on blogs where the favor is not returned
I stopped reading 37 ebooks a month
I stopped worrying about what to write
I started swearing in my blog posts
I started leaving demented comments on all of your blogs
I started linking to anybody or anything that I thought was cool
I won a Rastafarian plush doll at a carnival and made a dance video with it
I started sending questionable emails to Alan LeStourgeon, Paul Piotrowski and Mark Hansen regarding brown paper bags and dog poo
The most important factor that contributed to the quick success of this blog is that I stopped being afraid and started kicking ass. I stopped thinking about how I’m going to accomplish things and started to take action based on what I already know, and what I’m good at

We love you guys and can’t wait to have dinner with each and every one of you sometime within the next 25 years. I’m sure we will see some of you sooner, but that’s besides the point. I strongly believe that there’s a new wave of uber-talented, top-bloggers that are about to take over and kick some of these gassy Guru’s off their comfortable ladders. I can take a look at my blogroll and say, with confidence, that you’re all going to be big in your own way and we will all be around 12 months from now – whether it’s launching products together, or building a selling businesses online together. The future is being molded as we speak, and Veronica and I feel privileged to have the chance to be a part of this.

Cheers,

Elijah

Building Your Team Of Criminal Masterminds

There are two types of people in any work industry, whether it be online or in a cubicle: Those who work better alone, and those who work better as part of a team, and when it comes to blogging there’s really no choice for the earlier option – providing you want to be successful. Building a team of collaborators and joint venture partners is vital to the systematic survival of your brand and motion within the blogosphere. You need people to bounce ideas off of. You need a people to fill your weak spots and promote growth. You need to become part of something much bigger that your little blog.

Little blog?

Yes, little blog. I don’t care if you’re John Chow or Shoe-frickin-money, on the greater scale of all things Internet, we’re the equivalent to a gnat on a donkey’s ass. Pay very close attention to what I’m about to say: You cannot be alone in this vast domain.

I’ve read countless ebooks, hard and soft covers, journals, reports and manifestos in my year or so pursuing business online, and teamwork is the one element that 99% of them forget to include in their “Top 37 ways to make money online” or “secret formulas” and frankly I think it’s all a load of bullshit. If you remember my post on how the rich stay rich and why there will always be that divider between the top dogs and everyone else, it is their network that keeps them all on top. Everyone has a role to play in order to keep that network tightly knit and circulating. The bigger the network is, the stronger it becomes and the more influence it will have.

Let’s go back to the donkey’s ass for a second…

Imagine that across the donkey’s entire body there are one million gnats spread out individually, and in small groups. You could stand two feet from that donkey and not see a single one of them. You might even go right up to this ass with a magnifying glass and be lucky if you notice one or two of these little buggers minding their business. Now let’s imagine that a movement was spawned, and the gnats realized that the only way for them to be noticed was if they huddled closely together in large groups while screaming as loud as possible. What do you think would happen? I can imagine three possible reactions:

You would begin to think “what are those screaming dark spots on my donkey?”
Word would spread and the gnats would join forces to form even bigger groups.
Gnats on other donkey’s would notice as they pass, and incorporate this concept to continue the cycle.

I don’t know what just happened, but it made sense five minutes ago.

Even though Veronica doesn’t post on here, or isn’t as visible as I am online, she is part of my team. Every post I publish and idea I stumble upon is filtered through her first. I also have been building a team of other ninja marketers whom I communicate with on a daily basis. We have a brainstorm forum that provides a common place for support, resources and creative development. All of these factors will greatly affect my success as an online businessman, and in turn the people around me because this cycle is self sustaining.

Take a moment to think of the people around you whom you admire and the blogs you are inspired by, as these are usually the prime candidates for future joint ventures and diving partners off the coast of Costa Rica. Find people who share a similar status and take that chance because you never know who else was thinking the same thing that you were.

The number one way to make money online is by building a team. Period.

Cheers,

Elijah

Friday Night Smack Talk – Special Guest

Damn. I just spent an hour trying to get a friggin video site that works. I don’t know if it was my area and the bandwidth was just flooded, but I couldn’t get anything working. Finally TubeMogul.com came through after the 18th time attempting to upload. I wanted to do a little video update for you guys since it’s been a while and there have been some new faces showing up on the comments. Mad link love, mad updates with the blogosphere and all the craziness that’s been going on – I also have a special guest at the end, someone who I know all you guys have been wanting to see! Is it Veronica? No, she fell asleep on the couch as I was recording this. Maybe I’ll film myself putting backing powder in her hair and post that up tomorrow.. I guess you’ll have to wait and see. Have a great weekend everyone!

Cheers,

Elijah