The One and Only True Form of Passive Income

The One and Only True Form of  Passive Income

Passive income. It's been something I've chasing for going on seven years. It's the holy grail of making money online. We all want to setup that passive income stream to where we can just sit around in our underwear and watch the money roll in.

I think I've always known that idea of passive income didn't exist. I'm a big believer in the old addage, if it sounds to good to be true it probably is.

That said almost every Clickbank Product, and every online money making guru is hocking some program that promises their software or system will make you money while you sleep.

I watched a video from Alex Becker, last night. He's one of my favorite online Guru's and a very successful SEO and online marketer. I watched a video of his last night where he compares the idea of chasing passive income to someone wanting a diet where they eat Arby's all day and get fit and wind up with a six pack. It's just not going to happen.

As I said, I think in the back of my mind I always knew this, however none the less, it's something I've been chasing for years and to some extent something I've been frustrated I've been unable to achieve. For me I bust my butt everyday. Everyday is a grind. No money making venture I setup is ever good forever, earnings slow down and I'm either forced to abandon a project and move on to something else, or at the very least, I'm forced to tweak my methods and re-strategize and change my plan.

As much as I would love to find this holy grail of passive income it was somewhat of a relief to find out from someone I look up to and admire, and who's efforts I respect, to hear him say, essentially, this idea isn't profitable.

The One and Only True Passive Income

If you're looking for the one and only true form of passive income it's essentially making enough money that you can hire someone to manage that money for you and earn you say 15%. Then you can sit back and do nothing and just collect interest and enjoy. This is basic the concept of "FU Money". Having enough money that you don't have to listen to anyone, you don't have to work for anyone, and you can live your life on your terms.

Now before you get discouraged this amount you need to earn probably isn't as large as you think. No you don't need to be a billionaire. Assuming your willing to live reasonably and not run around buying Rolexes and Ferraris, you can probably do this with about a million Dollars. Now that's no chump change, don't get me wrong. But that said don't set a goal of I want to setup this income stream for life that requires I do nothing and just continues pooping out money for the next 30 years.

The internet is constantly changing and you need to constantly change and adapt your business to continue making money, that's just the reality of it. If you're chasing a business model where you can setup a website, an online shop, etc and just have it spit out money forever your going to be frustrated and sorely dissapointed.

My Experience Chasing Passive Income

So when I first started affiliate marketing and making money online I wasn't necessarily chasing a passive income, I was looking to make money on the side to supplement my day job.

You can't help but get hooked on the idea of passive income however as every single make money online program promises you riches while you do nothing. Youtubers show themselves holding up 100k Adsense checks that they received for doing supposedly nothing.

Every penny I've ever made online has been a hustle and a grind. I'm happy that I've figured out how to crack the code and make money online, but heck, it's a lot of work, and I want that passive do nothing income. The truth of the matter is it doesn't exist and I'm actually relieved to find that out.

Yeah it kinda sucks to have that bubble burst and truly realize I'm not going to be able to sit back around playing with my dogs, watching Judge Mathis, and vacationing while money rolls in, but it's a relief to realize that basically I am doing something right and I'm not doing something wrong because I actually have to work for my earnings.

Why Passive Income Doesn't Work

I've had some forms of income over the years which I have to some extent considered passive. A couple years back I got into Kindle Publishing. I was working a Saturday shift at my job at the time, typically a very slow day. I decided to write an e-book about making money with Storage Auctions like the television show Storage Wars. Storage Auctions were something I was involved with and making money with at the time and it was a very popular thing with that television show on tv.

I thought Kindle Publishing was going to be the holy grail of passive income. I sat down on this Saturday afternoon and pumped out a 50 or 60 page ebook on the topic. I got a cover made on Fiverr and published it on the Kindle Marketplace and began selling it on Amazon.

Money started rolling in. Not a ton of money but a couple hundred bucks a month. Slowly over time however my monthly royalty check from Amazon got smaller, and smaller, and smaller, until the point when I was maybe selling a handful of books a month pulling in maybe $20 to $30.

Now this was partially due to people losing interest in storage auctions as a whole and just a decline in the niche, which in itself proves that passive income doesn't exist as fads and interests wane and change over time.

Another important factor in the decline however is when I had just published my book, I went on a tangent online promoting the book. I advertised it on my blogs, I paid bloggers to read and review my book, and overall just did a lot of promotion of the book. As soon as I decided to sit back and turn it into a passive thing the money dried up.

Sure to some extent you can write a Kindle Book and it's forever going to be on Amazon available for purchase and technically can bring you in a "passive income" forever. That said you'll find that as soon as you stop promoting a book the sales will also slowly stop. This means this is not a passive income stream as it requires constant attention. Now that's not to say this isn't a good money making method, it's just not that completely passive holy grail everyone is searching for.

The same can be said of blogs, e-commerce or anything else. I've had some blogs which began making a couple hundred bucks a month. I thought to myself, if I can get one blog to make $300 a month, what if I start another blog then I have $600 a month. And if I start a third I have $900 a month. Essentially I would abandon a successful site to move on to the next. Well the fact of the matter is readers like fresh content as does Google. So as soon as I would move on to a new blog leaving the old one behind, the old blog which was making say $300 a month would slowly continue it's decline to bringing in only $10 or $20 a month.

Almost everything requires attention. As great as it would be to setup some type of blog or online business which grows successful and stays that way without any effort, as great as that would be, it doesn't exist. The internet is constantly changing, whether it's a Google update that changes search algorithm ranking or just a change in people's interests, everything changes and nothing is going to sit there pumping money out forever without any attention or modification

Setting Out Seeking Passive Income is Setting Out Not To Work

Setting out seeking a passive income is essentially setting out looking for a method to be lazy and not work yet earn money. If you set out looking for passive income I can almost gurantee your setting out for dissapointment and failure.

Realize that anything good requires work and effort and ongoing work and effort. Now that doesn't mean that you can't work smarter and not harder and that doesn't mean that some income streams or money making methods aren't more passive than others. Nothing however is going to be something you setup in a couple hours which will produce money for the next decade to come.

I have to say I've always known truly passive do nothing income didn't exist but it's thrown in our face on a daily basis so at times I tend to get down on myself that I can't crack this passive income thing and make money doing nothing. I really have to bust my but and grind for my money and everything I do and always wished I could have this easy money.

In watching Alex Becker's video he says do you want to spend $1 and make $2? Do you want to spend $1,000 a day and make $8,000? He basically starts to go into how you can essentially "invest" money in Facebook advertising and make 8x your money back. For a second I got excited like he's going to give away this secret I've been searching for for years. However he quickly says, yeah we all would like to run a FB ad and make 8x our money back, it's not going to happen, at least not anymore, and goes on to tell why making money requires work and how the internet is always changing and you need to be adapting to that change so your income doesn't dry up.

What This Means For You

Quit chasing the easy buck. Quick looking for some $47 system you buy that pumps out thousands of Dollars a month until you retire. You'll wind up throwing a lot of money down the drain wasted on online marketing courses and softwares.

Don't set a goal of setting up one passive income stream that makes you money while you do nothing. Learn to work smarter and not harder. Try new things, if they are a failure drop them, if they are a success rinse, repeat and scale.

Keep multiple income streams so when one dries up you have 3 more going and another 3 in the works.

Amazon Tap - Play Music, Get the News, Order a Pizza or Call an Uber

 Amazon Tap - Now Available On Pre-Order

Okay so this typically isn't the type of stuff we talk about on this blog but as I was stumbling around on Amazon today I came across the coolest new gadget / product I've seen in quite some time and it's called the Amazon Tap.

The New Amazon Tap - Play Music, Get News, Order A Pizza or Call an Uber

This thing looks absolutely AWESOME!!! Not only is it a music player which plays music from your voice commands from Amazon Prime Music, Spotify, Pandora, iHeart Radio, and Tunein. It also has a protective case, a cool hanging strap, and not just that. This thing is way more than a music player.

This cool device uses Alexa voice service to do a variety of activities from reading the news, asking questions, getting the weather, or even ordering you a pizza or calling you an Uber. Best of all, you have over 9 hours of play time.




Here's a little more about this neat little gadget...

• Just tap and ask for music from Prime Music, Spotify, Pandora, iHeartRadio, and TuneIn
• Uses the Alexa Voice Service when connected to Wi-Fi or a mobile hotspot to play music, read the news, provide weather reports, and even order a pizza
• Streams all your music via Bluetooth from your phone or tablet
• Delivers crisp sound powered by Dolby, with dual stereo speakers that provide 360º omni-directional audio
• Provides up to 9 hours of playback
• Always getting smarter and adding new features and skills
• Includes Charging Cradle

And a bit more...

Size	Amazon Tap: 6.2" x 2.6" x 2.6" (159 mm x 66 mm x 66 mm); Charging Cradle: 0.6" x 2.6" x 2.6" (15 mm x 66 mm x 66 mm)
Weight	Amazon Tap: 16.6 oz. (470 grams); Charging Cradle: 3.8 oz. (109 grams) Actual size and weight may vary by manufacturing process
Battery Life	Up to 9 hours of continuous playback. Battery life will vary based on device settings, usage, and environmental factors. Actual results may vary.
Wi-Fi Connectivity	Supports public and private Wi-Fi networks or mobile hotspots that use the 802.11b, 802.11g, or 802.11n standard with support for WEP, WPA, and WPA2 security using password authentication
Bluetooth Connectivity	Advanced Audio Distribution Profile (A2DP) support for audio streaming from your mobile device to Amazon Tap.  Audio/Video Remote Control Profile (AVRCP) for voice control of connected mobile devices. Media control over AVRCP is not supported for Mac OS X devices.
Audio	Dual 1.5-inch drivers and dual passive radiators for bass extension
System Requirements	Amazon Tap comes ready to connect to your home Wi-Fi. The Alexa App is compatible with Fire OS, Android, and iOS devices and also accessible via your web browser. Certain skills and services may require subscription or other fees. When tethering to a mobile device hotspot, standard data rates may apply.
Warranty and Service	1-year limited warranty and service included. Optional 1-year, 2-year, and 3-year extended warranty available for U.S. customers sold separately. Use of Amazon Tap is subject to the terms found here.
Included in the Box	Amazon Tap, Charging Cradle, microUSB cable and adapter, and quick start guide

*** CLICK HERE TO PRE-ORDER TODAY ***

Hover Boards Banned In The UK

Hover Boards Banned In The UK

Chances are you're familiar with what a Hover Board is. Though these don't actually hover, and bear no similarities to the Hover Boards from the "Back to the Future" movies we grew up watching as kids, these boards are incredibly popular and are generally referred to as Hover Boards; while others refer to them as monorovers, single manned transportation devices, and swagboards, among other names.

Hover Boards Banned In The UK

These are however banned in the UK. They are not illegal to import or own, however they are illegal to ride in public as the British Police reminded the public of yesterday saying that it's illegal to ride "one of these" in public.

Will the US be next to regulate these futuristic and newly affordable form of transportation. The Metropolitian Police pointed to the United Kingdom's Highway Act of 1835 and specifically section 72 which categorizes "personal transporters" which would include things like Segways and "Hover Boards" as motor vehicles which are subject to road traffic laws. This m eans you would need a license and registration to ride one on public roads and I guess they are also saying in public in general. Some say it makes sense as some people are scared by them, while others view them no differently than a skateboard, bike or wheelchair even.

Though these Hover Boards have been around for a few years, they are just now starting to really pickup and gain popularity and they are now becoming very affordable as well. Though sites like eBay and Amazon sell these boards for upwards of $500, you can buy direct from China for as little as $150 to $300.

It will be interesting to see as these become more and more common if more cities and more countries will begin either regulating or banning these cool futuristic devices.

Do you have a Hover Board? What do you think? Leave a comment below...

Hover Boards A Hot Selling Product But Is It Worth The Risk?

 Hover Boards A Hot Selling Product

I work with a lot of eBay sellers, Amazon sellers, and e-Commerce business owners who hire me to help them find hot selling products as well as suppliers.

Recently one of the hottest new trends is "Hover Boards". Hover boards are very similar to a Segway which you are probably familiar with, however unlike the segway which has a handle for the rider, the hover boards are just a platform you stand on with no handle bars.

If you browse the internet you'll find hover boards ranging as low as $160 to as much as $1600. The crazy thing is all of these are essentially all the exact same item, comming from a handful of the same factories, in the same city, in China.

The ones at the higher end of the price are often "Private Labeled" or "White Labeled". All this means is that some buyers pay the factory an extra buck or two per board to print their name or logo o the board. This gives the impression of it being different from the rest and adds a perceived higher value. Many Amazon and eBay sellers do this same process with everything from phone cases to yoga mats, and many other products. At the end of the day however, that seller is selling a $160 board for $1600 and the only difference is the logo.

Getting back to these Hover Boards being hot selling items. They are the rage on Youtube with almost all the videos getting hundreds of thousands if not millions of views. Many of the Youtube pranksters are using these in their video. They are a hot selling item on eBay and Amazon and there is definately an opportunity to make money with these.

Personally I'm selling hover boards on Craigslist and I can't get them in fast enough to fill the demand. They also sell very well on both eBay and Amazon, however every one on both sites is being dropshipped from China which means the lead time is well over a month.  If someone were to actually stock these in the states and was able to ship out quickly and have them delivered quickly they could make a killing. Everone would order from the person with the shortest lead time as nobody wants to wait a month to get an item like this, they are anxious to get it. If you had these hover boards on Amazon FBA for Prime Shipping you would dominate the market. I would wager that you'd easily do a couple hundred thousand Dollars a month in sales on either platform, eBay or Amazon. 

The Risky Part Of Selling Hover Boards

Selling Hover Boards could be incredibly lucrative, but also very risky; and let me tell you why.

These Hover Boards are awesome, there's no denying that. The problem however is how well will they hold up? They are relatively new so they've only been in the states for a few months and there's been a very small number bought here in the states thus far so we really don't know how well they will hold up over time. If you read product reviews on Amazon or sites like Alibaba, DHGate, or AliExpress there's many rave reviews, however there are also plenty of reviews saying how it was awesome for a week or month; but then stopped working.

When you sell on a platform like eBay or Amazon, customers typically have anywhere from 90 days to as long as 6 months to file a claim against you for item not as described. Even if your selling on your own website customers can do a credit card chargeback for up to 6 months. If you sell someone a hover board and 5 months later it breaks, many people who dropped $500 or more on a hover board are going to file a credit card chargeback against you. You will inevidibly lose this dispute and you are out a hover board plus the money the customer had paid you. Now granted on the wholesale level these boards probably only cost you somewhere between $160 and $260 depending upon how good a price you negotiated and how many you ordered but a few chargebacks could add up pretty quickly. Not only do you have to worry about the hover boards holding up to normal use, but some customers who "abuse" them, or not follow instructions, and will still file chargebacks and want their money back.

Add to that, that though not likely, potentially someone who busts their head open riding a hover board may come after you to try to sue you. After looking at all these complications and risks of selling hover boards on eBay, Amazon, through a website, or even private labeling and wholesaling them, I've decided it's not something I want to venture into.

Hover Board Scooters

It is and would be EXTREMELY lucrative, but to me the risks outweigh the rewards. You have to judge for yourself whether you feel the same way; or if you'd like to make a go of starting a hover board business.

Now I should add, I do think buying hover boards wholesale and selling them on Craigslist for cash is not a bad business model. It's more time consuming and harder to scale than doing a similar thing online. You will also be limited regionally to people in your area since your not accepting cards and shipping, however as it's a cash transaction there's no credit card disputes or chargebacks to worry about.

That's that, just wanted to bring to your attention this new hot selling product and lucrative opportunity. It's up to you as to whether the risks outweigh the rewards or not. I'm curious to hear your guys opinions? Are you selling these online or do you plan to? What are the biggest challenges? What's your experience as far as how boards are holding up over time?

How Bloggers Get Free Products To Make Unboxing Videos

Have you ever watched Youtubers who make unboxing videos? You may have noticed that many of these Youtube Channels will feature video after video of a vlogger unboxing product after expensive product.

You may wonder, does this guy really spend $1,000 a week buying new laptops to review, or whatever product they may be reviewing?

Chances are they are not. There's a couple ways vloggers get free products to review. Some vloggers have relationships with companies who will supply them with a product to review or sometimes give them a free product that they can then review.

Other vloggers however will by products off of Amazon, review them and return them. Personally I don't care for this method as they are wasting sellers money and giving sellers headaches forcing them to waste time, money, and effort on returns just so a vlogger can do a review. This isn't fair and also drives up prices for the rest of us as sellers have to build in the costs of waste and fraud when pricing their items. Personally I'm not a fan of this method of reviewing.

Lastly, there's also many websites out there where vloggers and bloggers can signup to be connected to companies where bloggers and companies can work together to promote products.

Watch this video to learn more.

Location Independence - Living Where You Want, On Your Terms

Okay guys, so I'm sitting here on the porch in beautiful Charleston, South Carolina. I'm seriously considering moving down here.

I've considered doing the same thing in Playa Del Carmen, Mexico. The problem with Playa however is due to the nature of my business; ecommerce; I need to be in the USA as living outside of the USA would make shipping not only not economical but a huge hassle to manage.

The one nice thing about Charleston, it's in the USA. It's in a fairly major city. I suppose Charleston isn't a major city, but at least large enough to get decent mail service and have regular Fedex pickups. For my business it may actually work out as a lot of my customers are out of South Carolina, Texas, Tennesse, etc. The only real hiccup in this plan is my business partner is out of Chicago. Sure it would make communication a little more challenging and mean we weren't working out of the same office, but it could work.

Anyhow, my point today is to introduce you guys to the concept of Location Independent. What does location independent mean? We'll explain below.

Location Independent

Location Independence is freedom. It's being able to live or move to wherever you like; and as long as you have an internet connection you can make a living.  It's being able to live on your own terms.

 

Location Independence is exactly what's described above. It's having a skill-set or knowledge that allows you to make a living anywhere you have an internet connection without anything tying you down to one particular location; and ideally not tying you down to a schedule if possible. Not to say you don't need to put in hours and you dont' need to work, most people certainly do unless you can really create some passive income streams that require little to no maintenance; however that's hard to come by. Ultimately though, it's just being able to live where you want and work remotely from anyplace.

What Type Of Jobs Are Location Independent?

 

Hypothetically any job can be location independent. Even corporate jobs if your allowed to work remotely. That said typically working for someone else or for a corporate job you will still likely have to go check-in, or go to meetings on a quarterly basis or as needed which is why most location independent people work for themselves.

This could include anything from web design, SEO, various types of consulting. To things like selling digital products, selling gigs on Fiverr, oDesk, and eLance among many other sites. You could publish ebooks, or even sell items online, although ecommerce and having to physically ship items can somewhat tie you down. A solution to this is drop shipping, although if you've read my previous posts you know I'm not a huge fan of the drop shipping concept for a variety of reasons.

How To Become Location Independent?

Becomming location independent typically isn't something that's going to happen overnight. For most people it's a journey. They start a "side hustle" making a little money on the side while still working a full-time job. As you grow your business and grow your skill-sets you may find that you can make a full-time living without your previous full-time job working for someone else.


If you plan on trying to become location independent I would recommend start expanding your skill-sets. Start to learn SEO, learn how to write a well formatted interesting blog. Learn how to use softwares to make money whether it's a software that automates a process for a customer, automates the posting of blog or automates social media processes. Anything involving automation can be a hot selling, hands off, and very profitable gig on Fiverr or other freelancing sites.


I would also recommend starting a blog or Youtube Channel to showcase your skill-sets and establish yourself as a knowledgable expert in some field or area. Once you start doing this you'll notice people will begin contacting you asking for help and advice. You can parlay this into consulting where people actually pay you for your knowledge and advice.


Stay on the cutting edge of new social media platforms, new technologies and any current events in your industry. 


* As a side note if you're interested in learning more about location independence; or if you're interested in talking with people who are already living this lifestyle I'd recommend checking out RooshVForum. Yes I know lots of people view it as a "pickup artists" site or forum, however that's only a small part of the site and restricted to the "game" subsection. There are a lot of really talented guys and entrepreneurs on that site who are location independent and are living life on their own terms. Checkout that forum to pick their brains, ask them questions and read their advice.

Learn What Periscope Is And How To Use It In 11 Bullet Points

Chances are you've probably heard about Twitter's new live streaming app called Periscope but you may not have downloaded it or tried it out yet. Here's a quick 10 points to tell you a little about the app and what it does...

1. Periscope allows you to stream anything live from anywhere right on your smartphone. It allows you and your phone to become a broadcaster.

2. Titles are uber important. Your title is basically the only thing you have to attract watchers to your broadcast and tell them what it's about.

3. You may notice while watching others broadcasting that if youu tap your screen there's some fluttering hearts which will float up the screen. This had me confused at first as to what the point of these are, however I've learned it's essentially like giving the broadcaster an applause and letting them know you enjoy their content.

4. These hearts mentioned in number 3 are used as a measure of popularity on Periscope. Think of these like a thumbs up on Youtube.

5. The chat box allows you as a watcher to communicate with the broadcaster and you as a broadcaster to also communicate with your viewers.

6. Acknowledge your audience. If someone asks you a question respond to it. If someone asks to look in your fridge don't ask why just open your fridge and show them. Don't ask why there's this wierd thing about looking in peoples fridges trend happening on Periscope.

7. Once you end a stream an analytics box will pop up. This box will show you your number of views, retention rate, duration of video, and the number of hearts you received. This is how to rank your channel by doing good in these scoring areas.

9. When you complete a stream you will also have an option to save it to your camera roll which will save it to be viewed later. People who follow you will be able to watch your past streams similar to how on Youtube your vieos will always be up to be viewed.

10. Privacy... before you start a broadcast you will see 3 little icons. One icon on the left is the location icon, one for privacy and one for Twitter. The location icon if clicked will show people your location. If your doing this from your house you may want to hide the location privacy as this will show people on a map literally right where you are. A a public event of on the streets of a big city you could probably leave it on without concern. The lock or privacy button allows you to ;ive stream only for certain people. If you want to stream an event and only share it with certain people you can do that. Lastly is Twitter, if this is turned on a notification will be Tweeted out on your Twitter profile saying your currently streaming. If you Periscope a lot maybe don't do this for every broadcast as you may overload your followers with notifications.

11. When watching a broadcast if you want to follow someone swipe to the right and their profile will show up. You can see their profile photo and follow them if you like.


Periscope is a fairly new app and there definately still working out some kinks, however I'm super impressed thus far and see this becomming huge. Get started now and be an early adopter as this is going to blow up and this will give you a legup on others. LIve streaming takes engagement to a whole new level for marketing.

Samsung Galaxy S6 Review - I'm Not Impressed

I just picked up a new Samsung Galaxy S6 3 days ago. After a few days of using the phone I'm not all that impressed. The new Samsung S6 has changed some features. Now everytime I get a new phone I always seem to hate the new layouts, and functions, we get used to something and like to stick with it.

A few changes Samsung has made is back to the tiles they used to have on the early Galaxy models. Some people like this as it acts as a task manager and allows you to close apps and web pages. This feature may actually wind up growing on me, however initially I'm not a fan.

Other things just as far as how to delete apps, how to layout your pages, etc are things I don't like. I'm also not a fan of them adding a tab for Flipboard which I hate and do not use. You can not delete it without rooting your phone, however you can turn off that page so it's not one  you flip through.

Samsung S6 Review

Samsung has also limited the number of screens or pages you have to organize and layout your apps. On prevoius models there were almost too many pages. On the new S6 however you have a home page, a Flipboard page and two other blank pages loaded with bloatware, most of which you can delete but I was surprised by how little number of pages they have. For someone who has lots of apps and doesn't want to have to flip through all apps to find one, you will probably not like this feature.

I havn't really had time to dig into all the features, more casual use, listening to some music, playing some games. I do use my phone for business but havn't had much need to use it for extensive e-mailing or anything lately.

Thus far I'm relatively unimpressed and will most likely be returning this phone and swapping it out for a Samsung Note 4. I was initially very interested in the LG Flex 2, however have heard nothing but terrible things, which is disapointing as the phone was supposed to be a great improvement over the previous LG Flex. Just incase your wondering which phone I was comming from prior to getting my S6, I had the Samsung S4 and prior to that the HTC Evo.

Driving Traffic Isn't Rocket Science - Two Simple Ways Beginners Can Drive Massive Traffic To Their Websites

I've been blogging for years and always thought driving traffic was dependent on complicated SEO strategies like link building, keyword density in articles, article submissions, and lots of stuff which quite frankly I felt was over my head.

For years I've been hearing people say content is key, don't worry about gaming the system and playing games with search engines, just come up with good content and the readers will come.

Recently I've finally accepted this concept and found some great success with just a couple very simple things even a beginner blogger can do. Here's what they are.

3 Easy Ways To Drive Traffic To Your Blog

3 Easy Ways Beginners Can Drive Massive Traffice

Content

Content is key. Come up with well written and concise articles which people are interested in reading. Provide some value, teach people how to do something, explain something, answer a question many people have. Providing good content doesn't require any specific knowledge of SEO, just write good stuff and readers will come, others will pick up and syndicate your articles and you'll drive traffic. Believe me, don't get all hungup on complicated SEO strategy, worry about providing quality content.

Consistant Blog Posting

Years ago I worked really hard at my blogs. I wrote a lot of articles and began getting frustrated the traffic didn't come. This led me to do something stupid for years. Instead of focusing on building a lot of quality content on one blog, I began setting up dozens of blogs, throwing up some poorly written content or even PLR articles and hoping that quantity over quality would make me some money. This strategy definately did not work for me. I have many blogs I havn't touched in years which are getting no traffic so clearly that strategy failed.

Recently however I've been focusing on this blog, which has pretty much been sitting idle for a few years. Just for the past week or two I've been trying to post good quality and interesting content on a regular basis and honeslty after only a week or two I've noticed a pretty good spike in traffic.

Now don't just start churning out garbage articles just for the sake of posting, but if possible try to do an experiment for me, if your frustrated with the traffic your getting. Set a goal for a month to post a blog every day. After a month come back here and leave a comment and report back to us how this has worked out for you. I can't gurantee you a million hits a month, however I can gurantee you'll see a significant spike in traffic and readership.

Social Media Posting/Bookmarking

You may hear people use the term social media bookmarking. This basically just means sharing your posts on social media. So why is this a good thing? Well first it can lead to backlinks. It leads to potentially other people on sical media sharing your post with their family and friends and potentially bringing you all new readers, and lastly anyone who sees your post has a chance at clicking your link and visiting your site and/or reading your article.

This does require a bit of work on your part. First you should setup social media accounts on every major platform such as Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, etc. You should also engage with others on those platforms, ideally people with your same interests or in your niche so they are interested in the stuff yo upost. Enagage people. What I mean by this is either start a Facebook group or Join one. Interact with others, have debates, discuss things, and not only will this give you ideas for articles you can write but if you post them in those groups those people will likely be interested and give them a read.

This is a great way to introduce people to your blog or website and a great way of sharing and getting others to share your writing.


As I stated at the begining of this post. This is not rocket science. YOu don't have to be an SEO expert to do these things, any beginner blogger should be able to do these simple things and I think you'll be amazed at how much more traffic you get to your site implementing these simple things.

Wondered How To Get A Job In The Medical Marijuana Industry? Ataraxia In Illinois Is Hiring Trim Technicians & More

Ataraxia, a medical marijuana cultivation center in Southeastern Illinois is looking for candidates.

Have you long wanted to get into the legal medical marijuana industry? This is your chance. Ataraxia, a medical marijuana company located in Southeastern Illinois is currently hiring for the following positions...

Apply For the Following Medical Marijuana Jobs...

Position Applied For
General Manager
Assistant Manager
Lead Grower
Grower (I,II,III/Cleaner)
Cultivation Generalist and Maintenance Technician
Trim Technician
Dry/Cure and Harvest Quality Assurance Supervisor
Dry/Cure and Quality Assurance Specialist
Inventory & Tracking Technologist Supervisor
Inventory & Tracking Technologist
Assistant Manager Production/Extraction
Production Formulations Specialist
Production Technician
Extractions Technician
Cloning & Propagation Technician
Information Technology Technician

Apply For A Medical Marijuana Job In Illinois

The company will initially hire up to 30 employees to staff the facility which is planned to be a 50,000 square foot facility in Albion, Illinois. The company already has over 100 employment inquiries, but it's not too late to apply.

The company says it expects to provie training in Denver for many of these future workers. The website lists many position openings which are listed above. Everything from trim technicians to lead growers and other supervisory positions. There is a job fair scheduled for April 1, which will be held at Frontier Community College in Fairfield.

Illinois, unlike many other states has awarded only 18 corporations which were chosen by the State of Ilinois to grow medical marijuana under a 4 year pilot program. The Illinois Department of Agriculture oversees the cultivation side of the marijuana program. 

If your interested in applying for one of these jobs you can visit the companies website HERE or go directly to the application which can be found HERE.

Blogger Blogspot Platform SEO Tricks & Tips 2015 - Beginner Guide To SEO Your Blogspot Blog

Are you a beginner blogger? You probably got the hang of blog posting, your comfortable monetizing your blog, but have you taken the time to SEO your blog? In the past in order to SEO a Blogspot blog you had to have coding knowledge to go into the code of your theme or template and optimize your website for search engines.

Somewhat recently Google has added some new features to the Blogger platform which allow you to easily SEO your Blogger blog. Blogspot blogs are somewhat SEO'd out of the box, however there are still some small tweaks and changes you can make such as adding a description to your blog, adding custom robot text, meta tags, submitting a sitemap and more.

I know as a beginner Blogger it can be overwhelming and daunting and even scary making these changes. I often would worry I would make a mistake and mess up my blog beyond repair. These tips and tricks to SEO your Blogger blog are very easy and are explained in a step by step video walk through which you can watch below.

Whether your already blogging on Blogger or plan to in the future this is a must watch video. We'll embed the video below. If for some reason the video is not visible you can also CLICK HERE to watch the video.

What Is Article Spinning? Should You Spin Articles? Two Types Of Spinning

What is article spinning?

Article spinning is what some may refer to as plagarizing. Article spinning is essentially taking someone else's article or content and changing out words and sentences to make the article different enough to pass as your own. Some writers may object to this, while others think it's a quick easy way to multiply content. Article spinning isn't even necessarily just stealing other peoples work. Say you write a quality article on a topic, by spinning your article you can turn it into 4-5 other articles you can either republish or submit to article directories.

Should You Spin Articles For Your Blog?

Should you spin articles?

This is a choice you will have to make for yourself. Some people love article spinning and find it a quick and easy way to multiply content or use others content. Many writers however may consider this a cheating practice or even plagarism.

Here is my take on article spinning. Spun articles sometimes do well on search engines and sometimes you can make some money with spun articles so it's not all bad. That said spun articles are not enjoyable to read, it's typically not quality content and you most likely will not get people coming back to read your website or blog.

If you're writing about a topic your not passionate about or not informed about and strictly trying to make money by all means try article spinning and see how it works for you. On the other hand if you have a quality blog you've been writing on for a while with all unique content I'd recommend not getting into spinning. If you have a following, even a small following, you will most likely lose them by doing spun articles. Articles don't read nicely, the words and word choices often don't make sense and sentence structure is oftentimes off. You don't want to tarnish the repuation and brand of a quality blog by adding spun content if you have a quality blog with original content.

Two Types of Spinning?

There are essentially two types of article spinning, manual or automated with the assistance of a software or website.

Manually to spin an article you would basically either re-write an existing article or in some cases people will even copy and paste someone else article and just swap out words, maybe re-arrange a few sentences, etc. A better way to do it is just to completely re-write the article, however this will also be more time consuming. In many instances it's even more time consuming to spin an article than it is just to write your own article as spinning is thinking and re-arranging someone else's work while writing has more of a flow to it.

The alternative to manually spinning articles is to use a software or website to spin content for you. This is quick and easy, however also sacrafices quality. Same way voice recognition software and other softwares are not perfect, neither is article spinning software. Automated spun articles are difficult to read, oftentimes don't make sense and the software often selects poor choices for replacement words.

What's the verdict?

So what's the verdict? Should you or should you not spin articles. This totally comes down to personal choice. If your an SEO wiz and know your way around getting sites and articles indexed, ranked and searched for maybe you can do okay and make some money spinning articles.

If you actually want to grow readership, grow a brand, and engage with your readers I would advice against spinning articles as people do not want to read them.

It basically boils down to, do you want one time visitors to your website who maybe accidentally click an Adsense ad of yours, or do you want a following and do you want to have an engaging blog which people come back to check and read more of your content.

Sure there are shortcuts to those who are SEO Guru's, however for the rest of us unique quality content is the best way to attract readers and visitors to your blog.

Article Spinning Should You Do It? Spinning Articles Versus Unique Quality Content

 What is an article spinner?

What is article spinning? Article spinning is basically in my opinion another word for plagarism. Sure you tweak the text or "spin" someone else's article but essentially all your doing is changing a few words or re-writing someone else's work.

Should you spin articles?

So should you manually spin articles or use an article spinning software? That is completely up to you, however something to keep in mind is that spun articles typically are not articles that someone wants to read. Spun articles may play well in search engines and may get you some traffic but realize most readers will not continue comming back to read spun content, at least personally speaking I would not.

If you have a website or blog which is purely a money making venture on a topic you are not knowledgable about or passionate about sure spin articles as that's probably the only way you are going to come up with content. You may get some search engine ranking and even make some money but realize you will not have returning visitors. I also feel like if you have a blog with quality content which you actually write do not use spun articles. Because it's easy and people are lazy you will probably wind up having 10 spun articles for every legit article. Your readers will write off your blog entirely, even the quality articles because of all the spun content.

How to spin an article?

Manual Spinning Vs. Software?

So how does one spin an article. Some people will just copy and paste someone else's artilce and start replacing words, maybe occasionally re-writing a sentence here and there. Others will copy and paste an article in, but instead of using the article and replacing words will basically paraphrase and re-write the entire article. The last way of article spinning which is by far the quickest and easiest but also the worst in terms of quality would be actually using an article spinning software. I know some people rave about article spinners but personally I've never found one that actually put together readable articles or at the very least didn't make tons of mistakes, gramatical erros and just replace words that don't even fit the article or make sense.

In my opinion though article spinning software or websites may be quick, if you actually want quality content your going to spend almost as much time, if not more cleaning up the poor content and poor word choices to put together a readable and quality article which at that point why even use the spinner as your not saving time.

Overall here's my opinion on article spinners. If your writing about a topic  you don't care about and just trying to slap together a blog on a profitable keyword by all means go for it. Personally to me this is not a recipe to success but if you can make some money this way more power to you. As most people will tell you quality content is key. Whether you have to pay an article writer or take time out of your day to write articles, you should be writing quality content, it will get you much farther than spun articles will.

50 High End High Paying Affiliate Advertising Niches - Get Started Making Money Online Today

So you're a new affiliate marketer and trying to make some money online. The first thing you need to do is select a niche. A niche is a subset of a larger market category.

The reason you want to select a niche is because first off, a large general category like Motorcycles for example is just too large. Some people are searching for motorcycle helmets, other people motorcycle repair, so you're not targeted enough to get someone to want to visit your site or read your blog.

50 High End High Paying Affiliate Niches

The second reason you want to narrow your niche is to compete better against the competition. If you were to go after a term like iPod you're competing against a million other people for that highly desirable keyword. On the other hand if you were to target something like iPod workout gear and more specifically armbands, you have a much better chance of ranking high in Google and other search engines, and also you're search term is more targeted so people actually searching for armband accessories for their iPod will appreciate it and be more likely to by.

Below we'll give you some examples of narrowing down several niches...

Motorcycles > Motorcycle Helmets > Motorcycle Helmets With Bluetooth Communication

Ipod > Ipod Accessories > Ipod Workout Accessories > Ipod Armbands For Working Out

Now that we've covered what a niche is, explained why you want to narrow down your niche, and gave you some examples of what it looks like to narrow down a niche, we are now going to give you a list of 50 High End, High Paying affiliate niches. These niches are not only high end in temrs of the products and the incomes of the peole searching these out, but also because these are higher end products and/or services the affiliate commisions will reflect that.

Now because there is money to be made these are more competitive niches, however if you learn how to narrow these down you can have some success targeting these niches and making money with them. Just to give you a better idea of how to narrow these niches something like "surgeons" or "hospitals" which are on the list we are about to give you can be narrowed down very simply with location. Sure many people may be targeting surgeons, but think about how much smaller that list gets when you narrow it down to Charleston, SC surgeons. These niches can also be narrowed down in more traditional ways such as...

Surgeons > Plastic Surgeons > Nose Job Surgeons

or

Surgeons > Plastic Surgeons > Plastic Surgeons Charleston > Nose Job Plastic Surgeon Charleston

50 High End High Paying Affiliate Niches

1. Surgeons
2. Hospitals
3. Construction Companies
4. Micro Lawyer Niches 
5. Financial Professions
6. Wedding Rings
7. Ophthalmologists
8. Paving Companies
9. Oil, Gas, Energy
10. Meidcal Equipment
11. Air Conditioning
12. Contruction
13. Mining
14. Plubing
15. Mechanical Engineering
16. Commercial Real Estate
17. Industrial Equipment
18. Soda Machines
19. Cars
20. Automation
21. Assembly Companies
22. Metal Investments
23. Luxury Landscaping
24. Luxury Yachts
25. Party Planners
26. Wedding Planners
27. Luxury Real Estate
28. Commercial Real Eastate
29. Water Damage
30. Advertising Funnel Design
31. Awnings & Patio Design
32. Architects
33. Supplement Manufacturing
34. Private Charter Jets
35. Private Mansion Rental
36. Luxury Vacation Homes
37. Custom Guitars
38. Homeowner Association Management
39. Real Estate Management
40. Property Management
41. Carpeting
42. Luxury Rugs
43. Rare Sports Memorbilia
44. Arcade Machines
45. Home Theatre
46. Mommy Makeover Surgery
47. Emergy Dental Repair
48. Collision Repair
49. Luxury Automotive
50. Finishing Basement 

Now you could attack these niches as is, or if you don't mind putting a bit of work in doing some keyword research you can narrow down these niches even further. We'll give you a few examples below...

Emergecy Dental > Emergency Root Canal > Emergency Root Canal Charleston SC

Private Mansion Rental > Private Mansion Rental W/ Pool > Chicago Mansion With Pool Rental

My Review Of Super Affiliate Machine (SAM) Automated Money Making Website Builder/Ranker

If you're into Affiliate Marketing I'm sure you've probably recently seen some type of advertisement or promotion for the (SAM) system which refers to Super Affiliate Machine.

Essentially this Super Affiliate Machine is marketed to be an all in one website builder, keyword finder, niche picker, and affiliate plugin all in one. The system advertises a 4 step system in which even a monkey can click a few buttons and build a website in 5 minutes or less. If you watch the video below you can see another users walk through of the system as well as review...

I was on the fence about purchasing Super Affiliate Machine but on the last day before the price hike decided to pull the trigger and spend the $67 for the unlimited version of SAM. You also have the option to buy a version for $47 in which you are limited to three websites.

I bought the program. I'll admit I missed the webinar and didn't do a ton of watching videos or educating myself but typically a plug and play system like this is something you can pick up on the fly just playing around.

My personal opinion was that this system was not as easy or user friendly as advertised. I'll be the first to admit I probably need to put some more time and patience into educating myself and learning how to use it but initial impressions are I'm not super impressed. The website builder isn't nearly as easy or user friendly as they make it out to be. The prewritten articles aren't very good and definately need to be at the very least spun if not completely re-written. They do have a one click button to add pics and videos but again, I didn't find them to be that contextually relevant and finding pics and vids is the easy part of putting together a website, it's the other stuff I would need help with.

I wasn't super impressed with their affiliates on board and was a bit confused how to even signup or plug their affiliate links into the website. This isn't a huge deal as I'd probably prefer to use Clickbank or Amazon or eBay partner network instead anyway.

My last beef with the Super Affiliate System is the biggest and this is when it comes to ranking on Google. Where as the system is advertised as being one 4 easy automated steps, the last step is not automated at all. The last step which is the most challenging and the one where automation would be most helpful is really nothing more than educational material on how to rank websites, how to leave banklinks, etc. This really was the one element that I was looking for when I bought the program and feel misled about this part.

Overall I can't knock Super Affiliate Machine too much as I havn't fully put the itme and effort into learning but my initial impression is not that impressed. I missed the online conference and walk through the other day but plan on watching the replay online today and will give it another try.

I'll report back on what I think of Super Affiliate Machine after I give it another try.

Why Fincen Ruling Bitcoin Companies Money Transmitters Isn't The Big Deal People Are Making It Out To Be...

So recently Fincen has made an administrative ruling that Bitcoin exchanges and Bitcoin companies fall into the category of Money Transmitters and must Register with Fincen as a MSB or Money Services Business. I imagine if you're reading this article you already know about this, however if you don't, the best article I've read on the subject was featured on CoinDesk and can be found HERE. GIve this article a read as it lays out what this ruling means and the headaches this presents to Bitcoin companies.

Sure this adds a bit of Red Tape and extra reporting which is a hassle and will probably cost companies more money, however this isn't the death blow many people are talking about. Many of the articles talk of how regulation kills the soul of an entrepreneur, and though this is true, this ruling isn't the deathblow many articles are making it out to be.

Filing with Fincen as a Money Transmitter isn't a big deal. It can be done in less than 10 minutes, to my knowledge there is no approval process, it's simply filling out the form. By filling out the form you are agreeing to follow certain reporting requirements and agreeing to keep records for a specificed amont of time, typically 5 years.

The larger issue and the one this article is really getting at is the State regulation. Where as filing as a MSB-Money Transmitter with Fincen takes just minutes and costs you nothing, typically each state requires their own license. The Fincen regulation is about stoppoing money laundering where as the states registration is about "consumer protection" as the state would call it, but is essentially just a money grab. 

For a Bitcoin business, they are most likely going to operate in all 50 states. I belive all but 2 or 3 states license or regulate Money Transmitters. This means you must get 46 or 47 different licenses for each state. The application fees alone can run anywhere from a few hundred Dollars to as much as $2500, and that's just to apply, no gurantee you will even get the license.

On top of the license; you typically also need to have an audit done on your financials, an audit done on your AML or anti-money laundering policy, as well as creating an anti-money laundering policy if you don't already have one. This will run you a few thousand Dollars.

Next you typically need a bond in each state to be a Money Transmitter, a bond in each state will typically run you a few grand per million the bond is for, again, that's if you can even get a company to give you a bond because you deal in Bitcoins. Many will flat turn you down.. Typically most states bonds will cost you 2k-5k.

Most states also require you show a certain amount of money in the bank, liquid cash. This could be something like $35,000 on the low end all the way up to hundreds of thousands of Dollars, another hurdle to keep upstarts and anyone but a large well funded company out.

And once you jump through all these hoops be prepared for the various states licensing departments and regulators to either loose your applications a few times, or tell you the supporting documents and audits you supplied are not sufficient, and require you to pay more money to get more done.

After jumping through all these hoops you may be lucky enough to be licensed as a money transmitter in a state. Good news, only 45 left to go.

So where is the bright side you may ask? The bright side is that the Federal License or Money Transmitter MSB filing with Fincen is the most important part. The states money transmitter licensing is for lack of a better word a $h!t show. Typically the regulators don't even know the laws of their own state. The laws are actually not even really relevant as regulators often choose to either ignore their own laws or require stuff above and beyond what the law calls for and there's not really anything you can do as they are the regulator and have the final say.

The good news is that in most states the department which issues money transmitter licenses also isues licenses for dentists, cosmotoligists, food service workers or sanitation licenses among others.

On top of that most of these states have literally one or two guys handling the licenses for all theses areas which is why the CoinDesk article was correct in stating it can take as much as 18 months or longer to get a license.

What does this mean for Bitcoin businesses? Many lawyers would probably urge Bitcoin businesses to go the route of asking for forgiveness rather than permission. What does this mean exactly? It basically means ignore the states laws and licensing and run your business until a state finds out about you and comes after you.

Because the states departentts are somewhat of a joke and understaffed; assuming you don't have any complaints against your business; they probably will never wind up comming after you. If they do, you deal with it when they come after you and work out a settlement with them, and work on getting your license from that point. Keeping in mind the process will probably drag out for months or even years before you actually have to pay a fine.

Although many Bitcoin businesses are startups without a lot of cash, even large companies struggle keeping up with these regulations and licensing. Square Payments up until recently and possibly even still to this day has Cease and Desist orders against them from various states, and somewhat recently had to pay a large fine in the state of Florida.

Though I havn't verified this story for myself and am having trouble finding documents to back this up, it's been rumored even Paypal who today is a giant company didn't even have all their licenses at the time of their IPO some years back.

Moral of the story is if large companies can't even keep up with licensing and regulation how can a small upstart? It's also unreasonable that a small business would need to have probably at a minimum a half million Dollars just to get everything in line and apply for a license to run an internet business which served every state, and after spending all that money there is no gurantee you will get all those licenses.

Hopefully the increased popularity of Bitcoin and Bitcoin businesses will force states to offer some type of streamlined licensing process or at the very least force states to offer receiprocity meaning if you get a license in your home state other states will honor that license and save you the time, money, and hassle of doing the same thing 45 more times. This would be the smart common sense way of doing things but seeing as how government avoids intelligent common sense decisions like the plague it probably won't happen so for the meantime Bitcoin operators pretty much have two choices, close up shop or ignore state registration and licensing and operate their business until states find them and seek them out.

In all honestly banking is going to be a much bigger problem for these Bitcoin companies than state registration or licensing is. If anyone doubts this I challenge you to pickup the phone and call a few banks and ask if they offer MSB or money service business accounts. They are all but non-existant these days which basically leaves Bitcoin Companies, Check Cashiers, and Currency exchanges among other businesses pretty much without any options for banking. That's the next bridge Bitcoin companies must face, however seeing as how Bitcoin is being accepted by more and more companies these days that may not present a problem for them.

FInal Thoughts...

- Fincen isn't the bad guy here. It's the states over burdensome regulation that is the issue. Fincen is simply trying to stop money laundering and terrorist financing.

- The states do this in the name of "consumer protection" however they didn't seem to worried about consumer protection when it came to the big banks, predatory lending and the housing crisis so why get in the way of entrepreneurs and innovation since they don't do their job anyway.

- Hopefully this will spur some discussion and get states to offer reciprocity in their money transmitter rules/laws.

- And lastly, hopefully this opens up banking to a huge sector of the economy which currently has few if any banking options.