I am pumped for tonights UFC card. While its not a huge main card title fight there are tons of great match ups on the card. I am a pretty hardcore mixed martial arts fan and have been watching events for the last 10 years.

Randy Couture Vs Mark Coleman

I remember when Randy Couture came into the sport and people were saying he was too old.. Now at 46 years old he is still one of the best fighters in the world. But he has essentially lost his last 3 fights (depending if you think he beat Vera or not). Tonight Randy is fighting Marc Coleman whois pretty close in age. Both are UFC Hall Of Famers. Both have wrestling backgrounds but I really doubt if Coleman has the ability to finish the fight. Randy recovers very well if Coleman should land a good punch.

I predict Randy will win what most will consider a pretty boring fight

Frank Trigg VS Matt Serra

I really like Frank Trigg. I have met him several times and even spent some time at his house in Las Vegas. He reminds me of a lot of my friends i grew up with. Anyway he has his hands full tonight with former welterweight champ Matt Serra.

This is a really interesting matchup because Serra who is a BJJ blackbelt has not one a fight via submission in over 8 years. Trigg who is a very decorated wrestler has been winning fights with striking and submissions. Both men are near the end of the career but in order to win this fight they are going to have to go back to their roots.

I like Trigg to win this fight TKO ground and pound. He is a big underdog in this fight and I bet a couple hundred on him in vegas at +135.

Lots of great other fights on the card. What fight are you most looking forward to seeing?

Whenever people ask me what is going to be the next great search engine I always tell them… it’s over… Google has won and has made sure they stay on top.

How did they do it?

1) They built an amazing product that was so much better than anything else out there.
2) They bought market share by cutting deals with anyone that would let them be the default search engine. Deals were made with AOL, Apple (mobile and desktop browsers), Firefox and many others to be the default search engine.

Microsoft’s Steve Balmer has always referred to Google as a one trick pony, pointing out that almost all of Google’s revenue comes from blending in ads in its search listings and on people’s websites (Google AdSense).

Mr. Balmer is right about Google’s revenue stream and I have written many times about how interesting it would be if someone were to step in and outbid Google for some of those properties. I just thought that company was going to be Yahoo!

But it appears as if Microsoft is that company. This is going to be very interesting. I just finished reading an article in Business week claiming that Microsoft has come to terms with Apple and Bing will become the search engine on the iPhone (most likely OS 4.0 release). A deal with Verizon last summer made Bing the default search engine on most Verizon (non-Android) phones. In my opinion this is HUGE and a clear signal of Microsoft’s intentions.

Microsoft is a lion and they are relentless. They are the only company who have any shot at dethroning Google’s massive market share. They have the patients, money, and resources to do it.

Before you think I am too crazy follow me for a minute.

First of all Microsoft’s Bing is a really good search engine. I have started using it more and more… ironically the same way I started using Google. I was not getting the results I was looking for in Google so I tried it… and it worked. Then I started using it as my default search engine. It’s actually a good search engine.

Honestly I am not big fan of all the clutter Google has put in the results. I don’t like the real time twitter crap, images, news, blog posts in my search results. Maybe you like it? I just want what I am looking for. I started and continued using Google because it was amazingly lightweight and fast. Now it’s bloated with crap and its turning me off.

Maybe I am way off base but I think this is all the perfect storm for Microsoft to jump in with Bing and really make a run at it.

Can you imagine if Microsoft outbid Google to become the default search engine for Firefox, AOL, and Safari?

If you average out most places that keep track of such stats on browser marketshare you will find that Firefox, AOL and Safari account for about 45% of the browser market share…. THAT’S HUGE! If Microsoft can lock down deals with these companies then its fricking on.

Ok so how does Google fend off an attack like this? Well… imagine if they drop support for all browsers BUT Chrome…. Now wouldn’t that be something.

Imagine if you went to use your GMail, Google Docs, Google Maps, or any of the countless other “services I can’t live without” that Google produces and it only worked on the Chrome browser….

It’s going to be interesting how this pans out.

You know that guy in the club… who paints his fingernails black, has some crazy hair thing going on, and wears eye liner and girls jeans?   The weirdo who is on the dance floor cutting it up with the chicks while you and all your buds sit and laugh at him.  Who the hell does he think he is?  What really burns your ass is how the weirdo leaves the club every night with the hottest girl.

Maybe if you were not so focused on impressing your buddies with stories of how you beat up some nerd or downed a whole keg by yourself you would figure out what he is doing.  He is trying to impress his target… not his peers.

If you want to know one of my biggest secrets… that’s it.  I don’t care what my peers think.  I care about what my customers & consumers think.

When I first came into the SEO/Affiliate/Make Money Online industry I was hated by my peers. And still, very much to this day, unless people have met me or have seen my results they hate me for being the odd man out. But eventually people get to know me and ask me why I do some of the things I do and see the results. Then the hate either goes to enlightenment… or envy… BTW envy is the worst sin. Most of the other sins have at least some upside. Maybe I will do a post on that someday.

But I digress…

When we first announced the Elite Retreat, a conference that came with a $5,000 price tag per person, lots of our peers took shots at us…. We were selling out… we were exploiting newbies… blah blah… Yet the people that attended give us amazing rave reviews. Now the event sells out instantly after being announced.

Meanwhile the jackasses that took shots at us jerk each other off to try to hit the front page of sphinn to be recognized for their latest post about 10 things you didn’t know about X.

While the Elite Retreat was my first major real “product” it was not my last. And with each success brings more peer haters. AuctionAds, ShoeMoney Tools, ShoeMoneyX, and the new ShoeMoney System.

Trust me I know from experience… just look at our advertising page of all the places I have been featured.

I’ve launched a company on the front page of Techcrunch and while it got me a lot of atta-boy’s from my peers it didn’t reach the people that would turn into customers. But people like John Chow, Darren Rowse, and John Reese sent 10x more CUSTOMERS then the biggest blog in the world.

Actually John Chow is the perfect example. People rail on him all the time because he openly admits he makes money by talking about how much money he makes. John cares about 2 things. His readers and his bottom line. Hate all you want he is gonna stay true to what he wants to do.

A couple years ago I did a blog post about a new cool way to make money called triggit.

The day after the CEO made a blog post about how I sent him more traffic then all other press that covered their launch… including Techcrunch.

One of the best case studies is the milliondollar wiki guy who wrote about how 1 review of his product on ShoeMoney.com sent him over 40,000.00 in sales.

It always amazes me how people approach me with new really interesting products that I know my audience would love and they only care about hitting the front page of sphinn, digg, stumbleupon, or techcrunch/mashable. Why? While they will give you props from your peers they are not going to send you any customers.

I see this issue over and over again. Mostly with VC funded companies. They are sitting on a pile of cash and would rather get press that inflates their ego and gets them pats on the back from their peers then actually reach their customer. It’s so annoying.

So who are you trying to impress?