It’s Write Now!

I haven’t done a post about Vic yet only because I was waiting to give you some quantifiable results to see if following his advice really does work. The reason I don’t have those results yet is not because of Vic but because of me and time commitments.

I’m slowly but surely plugging away. But I tend to be one of those people that spend a lot of time trying to learn as much as possible before diving in. Plus I have other time commitments. I have a day job that not only tries to use all of my physical time but also seems to strive on being the most politically charged environment possible. Where even the simplest of tasks is made as difficult and stressful as possible.

Even my cats are working against me. Whenever I try to create a blog post or work on my BANS sites. They take turns alternately jumping on my keyboard, meowing and making other strange sounds, scratching on the door. Acting like they are going to die if I don’t immediately get up and; let them in, let them out; open a fresh can of food, talk to them, or take turns having a staring contest.

Even when I think their finally leaving me alone I’ll discover one on the desk just staring at my face. You’re a cat! Go take a nap, or have a beer, or watch TV or something. Your time is your own, leave me alone.

OK, back to the good stuff. Vic is the owner of Blogger Unleashed. He makes video blogs that teach methods for making money online. Using some of the simpler starting techniques such as BANS sites and AdSense niches. His focus is on generating targeted organic traffic. Using the right keywords, and linkbuilding in order to move up in the SERPS, all things that result in making money.

He just recently made  this Mission: Possible Blogging For Money Challenge 2008. Where he is going to help 100 blogger’s compete in a contest to see who creates the most organic traffic and wins an expenses paid trip to BlogWorld 2008 in Las Vegas.

In spite of my fear of commitment, I’m going to participate in Vic’s challenge. I watch all of his videos anyway and I would hate to miss out on some secret contest info. Plus lessons in generating organic traffic from the man himself. Bring it on Blogger Unleashed. Challenge accepted.

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I’ll admit I read a few self improvement blogs. One of my favorites is Dumb Little Man, and not just because men are dumb. Just kidding guys. The site has multiple authors and just really great articles, with over 58,000 subscribers I’m not alone with my opinion. Continued

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When I was younger I went through a period of time where I read all of the Anne Rice books. I was especially fond of the Vampire Lestat series. I even had the graphic novels which were like wonderfully illustrated comic books.

I remember when growing up in the 70s I graduated from Saturday morning cartoons to the scary movies you could see on Saturday afternoons. My favorite ones were the vampire movies. I also discovered that the really good vampire movies were usually on at 3:00 am.  Apparently the racier stuff was reserved for insomniacs.

I have recently discovered that there is a whole genre of books containing vampires, mysteries and cool heroines. I wouldn’t have known these books exist or which ones to pick without discovering Best Fantasy Stories. If your interested in this genre or think you might be, Best Fantasy Stories is definitely the place to start.

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photo credit: Mars Hill Church Seattle

The definition of a recession is when there is a decline in gross domestic product or negative real economic growth for two or more successive quarters of  a year. Some predictors of a recession are stock market drops and an increase in unemployment.

Experts argue whether we are in a recession or heading into one. Some even feel this is just a correction of the economy and housing market, resulting from the sub prime mortgage crisis. Never the less businesses are tightening their belts. Budget cuts and layoffs are all around us.

So what can we do? Well we could just keep on spending to stimulate the economy. Although I’d rather play it a little safer and use this as an opportunity to examine my financial habits. This might be a good time to take stock and spend a little less and try to earn a little more.

The free wheeling days of people taking equity out of their homes and buying things they don’t need may be gone. But there are still plenty of money making opportunities out there. Chad of CDF Networks recently created this post about CPA offers to run in a recession.

Hopefully common sense will prevail and this recession will just be a bump in the road and an opportunity for people to make better decisions with their finances in the future. Instead of panicking let’s focus on being a little smarter with our futures.

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New blogger’s usually dread it when new versions of WordPress come out. Because they are not comfortable with the upgrade process and it can be risky. I know nothing strikes fear in the heart of a blogger like making a change and your blog disappearing or becoming unreadable.

I don’t have this issue because I use DreamHost and they have easy one click upgrades. But I know other people have had these issues. I was recently reading Skellie’s blog, skelliewag and I found this great article 9 Things That Drive a Blogger Crazy.

One of the things she talks about is fear of upgrades; below is a copy of her guide:

Skellie’s thirty-second how to upgrade Wordpress guide:

• De-activate your blog’s plug-ins.
• Open the .zip file for the version of WP you want to upgrade to.
• Cut the WP-Content folder and wp-config-sample.PHP from the .zip file and Paste them to your Desktop.
• Save the .zip file and double-check those files are gone, then upload the .zip to your blog’s root directory, unzip and overwrite the files on your server with the files from the .zip.
• Upload the contents of folders wp-content, plug-ins and themes into the same folders on your server, but not the folders themselves. Uploading the folders will overwrite your theme, plug-ins and any customizations you’ve made
• After you’ve done that, visit this URL immediately and finish the process:

http://example.com/wordpress/wp-admin/upgrade.php    

Skellie is not only a prolific writer but both of her blogs are packed with some great information. If I were giving out homework assignments I would say to spend some time reading Skellies blogs, and taking note of her writing style and how she really goes in depth with each topic.

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When I first began blogging I did a post on Easy Favicon Creation.  Most agree that a favicon will add a professional touch and a little flair to your site.

Now adding a favicon to your site is even easier because Pawan Agrawal has just developed a WordPress PlugIn for adding a favicon to your site.

I haven’t tried it out yet, but I probably will on some of my niche sites. If anyone has tried it and has some input I would love to hear about it.

Here is the link from the WordPress PlugIn site.

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Gyutae Park from Winning The Web is having a huge contest with over 12,000$ in cash and prizes up for grabs. This contest will end with a drawing on March 31st, after which over 100 winners will be selected.

To enter this contest you need to sign up by email and RSS, and create a post about the contest. Then sign up for cash sponsors and leave comments on his site. Also from now until the end of the contest he is leaving posts with additional ways to enter the contest.

There are some pretty nice prizes up for grabs like cash, an ipod touch, and a full conference pass to affiliate summit east.  Lot’s of other cool stuff too. I’ll just list the prizes below.

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We all know that a positive attitude and believing in yourself are keys to success. Evan though these powerful principles are common knowledge we all need a little reminder from time to time. I recently found two great motivational videos reinforcing these facts.

The first one is by my favorite vlogger Vic Franqui with a message to believe in yourself. The second is from Jim Kukral of The Daily Flip. His message is don’t be afraid. If you aren’t regularly reading and watching these blogs your should be.

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I’ve had some good things happen to me lately. For starters I’m on vacation from my day job for 2 weeks. This is a much needed break I’ve been looking forward to for a long time. Ultimately I would like to create the perfect work from home income and not go back. But I’ll probably give that a couple of additional weeks.

I also won 100$ Amazon gift card from the Beta News and more recently 100$ PayPal cash from EZMoneyOn dot Net. So I thought I would share with you what I did with these prizes. I went to Amazon and purchased a Flip video camera. The same one that is so popular with blogger’s these days. Eventually you may see some video on this site.

One of the things I would like to start doing again is running. So I also purchased the new Nike + sport kit. This is a sensor that you can either put inside or on your shoe. It also has a receiver you plug into your ipod nano.

It’s a pedometer, stop watch, timer, and a trainer that talks to you. Then when you get home you can upload your workout on the Nike + website and keep track of your progress with graphs and cool stuff like that. It sounds like a fun little toy. Plus, I need as much motivation as possible.

Also this wasn’t a very expensive purchase. Because I already have an ipod nano. And instead of purchasing the special Nike + shoes, I just ordered a shoe pouch, which you can put on the top of any running shoe. My favorite shoe for running and just being comfortable is the New Balance 990 series, I’ve gone through at least 10 pairs since I discovered how comfortable these shoes are.

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