Shoemoney - Skills To Pay The Bills

---

iAcquire Thinks They Are Way More Important Than They Really Are Posted: 31 Jul 2012 07:16 AM PDT So whether you were at MozCon or not, you probably heard that Michael King timed the big news perfectly that iAcquire has been blessed by Google and is now back in the index.  Ho hum.  Sure, they got banned by Google for buying links for clients, but so did a lot of other people.  And sure, it was noteworthy they were back in and it probably warrants an addition to some of those original news stories and blog posts that they got back in, and there were some people tweeting about it. But apparently Michael King didn’t feel enough SEOs were paying enough attention to him and blogging about their reinclusion (talk about poor reputation management much?).  Well news flash, the main reason is because it’s not really news.  But Michael and iAcquire obviously thought it was.  So what’s a now-Google-blessed company to do when no one cares that they paid their dues for getting caught with their hand in the cookie jar? Well, if you are going by the handle @ipullrank and with the very immature name MyCool King (seriously, that is the name he uses on Twitter, representing a company and speaking for them, when it really belongs on MySpace with glitter pony graphics), the obvious answer is start bitching that no one is covering the amazing news story that they cleaned their shit up and are back in the index.  Seriously. Cry me a river much?  Well I hate to break it to you, but getting into the index isn’t news, especially when you aren’t detailing HOW you got back in (like all those “How I got back into Google after Panda/Penguin”).  And when whining without tagging people didn’t work, he started complaining to @DannySullivan instead. I don’t know about you, but my opinion of iAcquire and Michael King has dropped significantly with this latest temper tantrum. Skitzzo also jumped in with the primary reason a lot of people were looking at this as “Hey, Iacquire wants you to write this great story about how we are awesome at SEO again!” Which is true, when you look at their blog post titled “Thanks Google – Glad to Be Home“.  Talk about spin doctors!  Be sure to read the circular comments made by Joe Griffin as well. Then Michael King decides to jump on Aaron Wall of SEOBook.com who called out that the fact Iacquire cleaned up and got back in the index as being a non-story.  I get that people have Michael’s back, judging from the mob mentality of SEO I wrote about earlier with certain members of the SEO community defending him vigorously (most of which were pretty silent about promoing his reinclusion into the index), but seriously, how does he think that attacking a well known industy celebrity will make things BETTER? Can anyone else just picture him stomping his feet and saying “But Moooommmmm, it’s not fair, how come I don’t get a story written up about my site getting back into Google the way J.C. Penney did?” Well for starters, Iacquire is no where near the same brand power as J.C. Penney, even in their dreams.  Then he has the nerve to call out industry people for not writing about it the instant he made his big announcement as SeoMoz – not to mention the fact he was hanging out with Moz’ers and going to the movies, yet he expected others to drop what they were doing on a Friday night to blog about it.  And the funny thing is that iAcquire had been back in the index for 2 days, but he chose to make a big deal out of it getting back in at MozCon instead, for the biggest bang – on a Friday afternoon (and evening for East coasters). Danny did do his article about it, and you can’t help but wonder if he amped up the degree of snarkiness a bit because of Michael’s self deserving attitude (although I probably would have written it with a little more SEOBitch to it, or the ever eloquent says-it-like-it-is @Skitzzo.  In other words, don’t piss off the people you want to say nice things about you, because you catch more flies with honey.  Although Danny does say he will do another post about Joe Griffin’s comments that they are still cleaning up some items (but please, someone find out what they are really trying to hide, no I mean clean up). After this latest spectacle, I am kind of hoping that iAcquire gets busted for something else.  But I assume that because Aaron Wall was one of his rant targets, that people are going to start going over things with a finetooth comb to call out Iacquire on more dirty SEO practices.  And I can’t imagine they will get away with a mere 2 month penalty next time around. #SEOBitch Looking for an SEO service that won’t get you banned?

@shanknapp Invicta Fighting Championships boss’s marketing indirectly lead to ShoeMoney traffic spike Posted: 30 Jul 2012 01:47 PM PDT I know 99% of my audience is not interested in Mixed Martial Arts like I am… but that is not really what this is about. Its another great lesson in psychology and… marketing psychology (albiet unintentional). Invicta Fighting Championships is really awesome if you are a mixed martial arts fan. It is the first 100% female fighting organization. First let me say I really hope they succeed… This is not about bashing them. I am a huge fan of everything mixed martial arts. I have sponsored over 20 fighters this year a long (5 on major cards) and I love to support the smaller local fighting organizations. Anyway I missed the live stream unfortunately last saturday. But I heard it was a great card. The card was streamed live on the internet and was 100% free. Awesome. Here is where it gets interesting. On my favorite MMA Forum, The Underground, every thread about the Invicta Fighting Championship had the same couple people spam it with how it got hundreds of thousands of views (which later turned out to be associated with the event (*shocker*) …. Now keep in mind this is their second ever show… I ask a couple of them if they have any source for these numbers… nadda… Then on the best MMA personalities out there – Bloody Elbow’s Stephanie Daniels – @CrooklynMMA, Gets an exclusive interview with Shannon Knapp in which she discloses that the first show did over 233K views and the 2nd one (last saturdays) was better. Now look I TOTALLY get the whole fake it till you make it. C’mon you all know me =P. She should have said close to 1 million =P (close is very subjective LOL). So anyway after being totally annoyed to death with the constant threads about how this show got hundreds of thousands of views I made one about how I will offer FREE video streaming using our media servers (10k value AT LEAST on 300k simultaneous users) if they would let me fully disclose the numbers. Response? – Well the one shill said I could not possible know whats involved with that. REALLY?!?!? UMM we use Akamai streaming server which can support easily 1 million users at once (not that we have ever used that). But whatever you all know my credentials so I am not even gonna digress into that. So this morning a Tweet from Shannon: At 10:40 this morning Sharon updated her twitter saying they will not be releasing their numbers… gee wonder why ? (sounds like someone might have gotten a talking to). Ok but here is the best part. After I made that thread on the underground… not mentioning anything about me other than my company would stream the event for free, I came under total character assassination. People posted how I was trying to get attention to my blog… (which is not linked anywhere… but they linked it). Then people started posting pictures of me with the Adsense Check from 2005… then people started making references to the 5 companies I have sold in the last 5 years for over 10m, how I have over 170k twitter followers, 20k facebook fans, and on and on… Now I know these people had bad intentions… And its fine if bashing me gives them a reason to live… But in the end I got a huge spike in traffic and exposure to a enourmous new audience. Our contact form was ABSOLUTELY flooded with people saying not to pay attention to the haters on the UG and how they were all retards and what not… Plus we had a record number (about 10x whats normal) signups to our newsletter. Now in the past I have got into arguments with a lot of high profile people… Mark Cuban probably being one of the biggest but this UG crowd is amazing to bait… I didn’t even mean to… I can see why SO many trolls roll there. Here are some of my favorite responses: Authority Figure: by the way, the whole point of this thread is index “shoe money” into Google. It’s not about the discussion, whether this guy actually owns servers, or streaming tech, or knows jackshit about hosting a stream for 277K worldwide viwers. Its about what all his threads are about – using high traffic websites like the UG to index his name deeper and deeper into Google, which is a key element of his online business model. OMFG that is loltastic. No really… my business model is to post on high traffic websites (without linking to my site) to get my name “shoe money” into Google. Holy balls these shills… RyannVonDoom: lol Good for him to make it.. he spends it on stupid shit. gets a lot of his cash from the first of the month, all the rappers on welfare. Seriously I can’t make this shit up… Even Dana White’s personal forum monkey (CindyO) joined in: you should be banned because it makes you a fake ass forum member and a waste of time for anyone interacting with you. Go be a ho on someone elses MMA message board Winning ? I am done posting in the thread… So Shannon – lesson here is if your going to make shit up and have shills post it everywhere don’t be annoying… or at least be believable. Also stick to your guns. Its so obvious when all of a sudden you retract… Trying to increase your Google rank that is like no other?

You are subscribed to email updates from ShoeMoney Internet Marketing Blog To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.	Email delivery powered by Google
Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610

Valuing Your Blog Like Online Real Estate - DailyBlogTips

---

Valuing Your Blog Like Online Real Estate Posted: 31 Jul 2012 04:39 AM PDT I often say that in order to be a successful blogger you must treat your blog as a business. However, I also like to think of my blogs as online property assets and you should too. Most people would agree that real estate is one of the most solid assets in the world. Real property is a tangible asset that has the ability to make cash flow and increase in value. Your blog is also real property with the same attributes. In fact, there are a handful of entrepreneurs who successfully make money by buying and flipping online properties like blogs and domain names. Property investors usually fall into three categories; developers, renovators, or landlords. Bloggers can fall into similar categories, as some build websites from scratch and others buy seasoned domains or old blogs to renovate them. And some maintain blogs for their cash flow, like landlords. The typical exit strategy for developers and renovators is to flip (sell) the finished product for profit. Landlords handle the maintenance of their property and are rewarded with cash flow and appreciation. I’m a landlord who rents space on my blogs to direct advertisers and other forms of rent payers. Sometimes I must evict an ad because it isn’t paying and solicit new tenants. And I’m always in charge of maintenance because I know that all my improvements just add to the value of the asset. What gives your blog value? There are many technical factors that contribute to the value of a blog. The strength of the domain name, its age and Google PageRank, number of social media followers, overall traffic, the Site Authority score which is heavily based on backlinks, and appearance (curb appeal) are just some of the metrics used to determine what your blog is worth. Other factors may include how competitive or targeted your blog subjects are, how much quality content is on the blog, how dependent the blog is on your personality, and how much content development is needed to maintain and grow the site. But cash flow is by far the most important metric to determine the value of a blog. In a sense, cash flow is a reflection of all of those other factors. If your blog makes solid consistent cash flow, then there’s a good chance your technical stats are impressive. What are blogs worth? There are some online calculators that use different algorithms to determine the value of websites. They’re fun to play with but none of them are good enough to be called the industry standard. There are simply too many variables involved to reach an accurate value, but especially because there is no way for them to know correct earnings figures. When a landlord decides to sell his property, the standard price of the asset is usually 10X annual earnings. In other words, if the property makes $50,000 a year, then a fair market value for the investment property is $500,000 give or take depending on other variables. Websites and blogs aren’t usually worth that much because they’re a virtual asset as opposed to a tangible asset. However, a website that performs an important function or provides a virtual service of some kind to users may sell for many times more than earnings because of its potential. Blogs are a bit easier to figure out the value because they are mostly based on technical metrics. When the immensely popular blog, The Huffington Post, was sold for $315 million to AOL, it was almost exactly 10X the $30 million in revenue Huff Post made in the previous year. Incidentally, their history and brand recognition is stellar and their stats are off the charts. So, it’s safe to say the high target for a blog’s worth is about 10X annual earnings. Younger blogs will generally be worth less than seasoned blogs with good domain recognition. Yet, if the niche is clearly trending upward (think natural health), it may give newer blogs an additional edge in value. In general, however, the age of the blog will have a lot to do with its popularity and technical strength and, thus, its value. Ultimately, though, your blog’s value is determined by what a buyer will pay for it and what you’re willing to sell it for. How do you improve the value of your blog? Isn’t it obvious? You need to make more money! Since cash flow is basically a reflection of your technical statistics, you should work on building more traffic, more followers, and more backlinks. Start with a good blog strategy, or blueprint. Then create as much awesome content as possible and share it far and wide. Set aside time each day to engage in your social media networks to help grow your loyal followers. Along the way, learn the finer details of monetization and SEO for blogs. Test different ads to see which ones are performing the best with your readers, and adjust your blog to be as SEO friendly as possible. As a final tip, if your exit strategy is to sell your blog, do not make it too personal. A potential buyer may be turned off that the value rests more in your personality than the metrics. Whereas if your plan is to keep the blog forever, letting your audience get to know you will likely speed up the growth of your follower base. What to sell your blog for? As mentioned before, some people are flippers. They buy or build blogs for the purpose of reselling them. Typically, they’ll find a blog with a good Google PR and decent domain name that is undervalued, add some value to it, and then flip it for profit. A blog flipper may only be seeking to double or triple his investment in the short term which may or may not coincide with site earnings figures. Flippers tend to view a blog as an investment and do not get attached to a website, where a blog founder may place emotional value on a website. Personally, because I’m a landlord who covets cash flow, I would never sell a blog for less than 8X. Of course, I’m a developer who only blogs about my passions, so maybe I overvalue my creations. But imagine you have a blog making $24,000/year ($2000/mth) with only a few hours of maintenance required per week. Even if you think you’ve maxed out the potential of the blog, what would be the point in selling that blog for $120,000 (5X annual earnings)? You’re making 20% of that price every year from this blog. And with minimal effort (1-2 quality articles per week), that blog is likely to continue steadily growing. Purely speaking in terms of investment, it would nearly be impossible to invest the lump sum profits from the sale to make a 20% annual return. A price of 8X earnings ($192K using the example above) drops the return to 12.5%, which is still a solid investment for a passive buyer and a price worth selling a cash flow asset, particularly if you have other online assets to tend to. Certainly a blog flipper could use the proceeds from the sale to buy and flip many more websites and make a much higher return. So every single situation will be different and personal preferences will always carry some weight in the valuation process as well. In conclusion, thinking of your blog as an asset allows you to envision a long-term plan for your blog. It will help you stay focused and motivated while doing the tedious tasks necessary for improving your blog. And know that each little improvement you make and each task that you do contributes to the overall value of your asset. And before you know it, you’ll have a nice property to rent out or sell. J.P. Hicks is an info-activist and pro blogger, editor of BlogTips.com and author of The Bloggers Secret. Original Post: Valuing Your Blog Like Online Real Estate

Become A Blogger Course is Re-Launching Today Posted: 30 Jul 2012 11:29 AM PDT As some of you will remember, a couple of years ago my buddy Yaro Starak launched a video course that aimed to give you all the information you needed to start a popular and profitable blog. The program was called “Become A Blogger”, and it was very successful from what Yaro told me. Yaro will be re-launching that video course next week, and today he’s starting the promotional campaign. Even if you are not interested in purchasing the course itself I think you should take a look at the launch campaign because they will be offering four videos with a lot of useful content, and you don’t need to pay a dime to watch those. You just need to sign-up to the email list to get access to the videos. Here’s the link to the official page where you can sign-up: Become A Blogger Free Video Series. Here are the topics covered in the first video: The three deadly mistakes new bloggers make, and how you can avoid them A proven and tested system for long term blogging success A practical step-by-step plan for getting started with your very own blog today As I said, the content of the videos should be pretty interesting, so check it out. Original Post: Become A Blogger Course is Re-Launching Today

You are subscribed to email updates from Daily Blog Tips To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.	Email delivery powered by Google
Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610