DraftStreet.com is a skilled gaming website where people can compete against each other in fantasy sports games. They have competitions with all types of draft styles, formats, scoring systems, and number of users, in professional baseball, football and basketball, and they recently added hockey. Definitely a site worth wasting a little time on.
Read more on “Draft Street – Free Shirt Friday” »
Here is the replay of the webinar I did last Monday. The max cap for gotowebinar is 1,000 people and we maxed out quick. Sorry if you did not make it.
I gave out some free stuff to those in attendance. Make sure you dont miss our next webinar!
I think this new series that the affiliate summit is doing is awesome. Keep a eye out here for details on other Affiliate Summit webinars.
Don’t miss this special webinar tomorrow, April 26th at 10am PST (Noon CST) hosted by Ads4Dough.
https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/172592603
As you know Ads4Dough is always trying to help you grow your business and make it more stable. We’ve been getting tons of questions about the latest FTC actions and as you know we’re not legal counsel. However we have a great team that handles all our of internal compliance.
And guess what?
They’ve volunteered to do a free Q&A webinar with you, about the current events.
So if you:
Have questions about the recent FTC news…Join us Tomorrow Tuesday, April 26, at 10am PST for a FREE webinar.
Rob Berkowitz will be talking about how we can stay compliant and still convert within the FTC guidelines. He’ll also have some practical real world insight into what has changed.
But because this webinar is about you; most of the time will be dedicated to answering YOUR questions.
To get even better answers to your questions Rob has requested you send in any questions you have in advance. Please email them to RBerkowitz@CoastLawGroup.com , that way he’ll be able to get some examples and screen shots for the discussion in advance.
We look forward to seeing you on the webinar tomorrow morning.
This week’s Free Shirt Friday is Nerdy Shirts. Their website sells funny and unique t-shirts, hoodies, and belt buckles for tastes of all kinds. I also have to send out a special shout out, because they provided our shirts for Elite Retreat last year and they were the best shirts we have had for the event yet, very high quality. So if you ever wondered where someone got that great graphic T that made you laugh out loud check out nerdyshirts.com.
These are just a couple of my favorites
If you would like to see your website or company featured on Free Shirt Friday click here
Probably the last webinar people would expect from me is one about “How to do SEO”. I don’t study Google Patent’s and I don’t know many cutting edge theories on how to dominate the search engine rankings. I have never charged for SEO services and don’t consider myself an SEO Expert by any means.
What I can do is share with you exactly what I have done from my first days optimizing my website to present day.
I will share with you how I dominated my competition and made 4 to 7 thousand dollars a day IN PROFIT off of a couple keywords.
I will also show you the exact tools I use to know which internal tools I use to know which ones to optimize for.
I will also show you why I block some of my content from search engines.
And most importantly I will show you how I track the value of keywords so I know exactly which ones are making me money and which ones are wasting my resources.
The webinar is is a first in a free series being produced by the Affiliate Summit. 1 hour long and is Monday the 25th at 1pm Central (2pm EST).
There is a 1,000 person limit so make sure you get registered for this today!
I get asked a surprising amount what items I have on my bucket list and what items I have already crossed off. For those who don’t know a bucket list is all the items you want to do before you die (or kick the bucket).
This is by no means a complete list but its what I thought of off the top of my head.
Buy A Baseball team – I have always been a huge baseball fan. I guess probably cause its the one sport that I played more than any other. Baseball teams really can’t lose money with revenue sharing. When I lived in Moline, IL (309 represent) I was a HUGE Chicago Cubs fan but after migrating west, married, and having 2 kids I am just happy when I have time to watch any game at all.
Knighted by the Queen of England – Ya I know… I have to be a citizen of the UK to be knighted. I could always get dual citizenship. Or would that count? Sir ShoeMoney has such a nice ring to it.
Receive an honorary doctorate by a college – My wife is a real MD who earned it through many years of college. We have an on going debate about whether I could use the title of Doctor if given an honorary PHD from a university. All doctors say no everyone else says yes. Much like with getting knighted either I deserve it or not… but that’s up to the university right?
Join the Mile High Club – This is probably the easiest one to cross of the list. I could just get a ride on a private plane and do the deed with my wife. Or would that be cheating? Who cares it counts. But here is a question. What constitutes joining the Mile High Club? Just the tip? Or full consummation? It seems to be about 50/50 between people I have asked so far.
Retirement – Hah ya its on my list. Retirement sounds awesome. I don’t think it will ever happen though. My work is not only my career, it’s my hobby…
L.A. Movie Premier & Awards Show – I have always wanted to go to the Oscars or a high profile Movie Premier in Los Angeles.
Walk both my daughters down the isle – ya I know it’s corny but I have known too many friends who fathers passed away to early and they missed their daughter’s weddings… It goes for grandkids too… but hopefully that is a WAYS down the road.
Presidential award for technology – Most people probably don’t even know this exists… and I would not either except that ShoeMoney Media Group, INC was eBay’s nominee in 2007 for our AuctionAds product. We were one of 5 nominees but lost to Mark Zuckerberg for this stupid thing he made that went nowhere called Facebook.
Write a book – I have been working on the ShoeMoney playbook…. For uh… 5 years now. I keep updating it as my thoughts keep changing as my education and experience in the industry keeps improving.
Take a year and travel the world – Sadly I have never been outside of North America. I would love to take a full year to travel the world with my wife. There is so many things I want to experience in person. This is realistically not going to be a possibility for at least 15 years until both my children are out of the house. Geez I will be 52 years old…
Things on bucket list that have been crossed off:
This is a guest post from last January’s Affiliate Summit West contest winner – Vinay Patankar. Vinnay not only won an all expense paid trip but also took home $4,000.00 in our blackjack contest AND a trip to the Epic PlayBoy Mansion party in July. I asked him if he would do a guest post about it and he agreed.
Many people come into the online world with pipe dreams of waking up in their underwear, working for a couple of hours then spending the rest of the day beating little kids in COD or defeating the Lychee King in WOW. Chuck in a high class escort every now and then as the only form of human interaction and life is good, no?
The truth however is far from the above twisted fantasy. Not only is this a sad and lonely existence but it’s also not conducive to making any real money.
The real secret, the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything… Well at least success in business, is people. We’ve all heard it before, “it’s not what you know, it’s who you know” and the reason we’ve all heard it before is because it’s true.
That’s why I pushed so hard and did everything in my power to win Shoemoney’s Crazy Affiliate Summit West Contest! It wasn’t because I wanted a free flight or money to bet on blackjack, it was because of the people I knew I would meet.
I remember a discussion I had with Jeremy during the conference, he was so surprised at the lack of effort that people had put into the contest, with some people submitting single paragraph, thrown together entries… Not only did I spend a good 6 hours on my entry post, 3 days of nonstop bugging people for votes plus other questionable tactics, but I also got a frikin tattoo!
I did all of this because I understood the value of the prize, and not the upfront value, but the residual value.
Before heading to Affiliate Summit, I didn’t know many people in the industry. I had a small operation of my own going on, but the fact that I wasn’t based in the US and am in a perpetual state of travel meant it was hard for me to meet any of the big players in the industry.
After winning Shoemoney’s contest, I instantly had a connection with everyone I told my story too. This gave me a huge edge over the general attendee as I was able to strike up conversations with many people I otherwise wouldn’t have been able to hang with.
The Result from my Trip to Affiliate Summit?
Oh and don’t forget that I got to go to Affiliate Summit for free in the first place, and Iwon $4k cash and I still get to go to a Playboy Mansion party…
Not a bad deal huh?
Now do you think any of this would have been possible if I had just continued to work my few hours a day on my own? Sure my life was a little better then video games and hookers as I was travelling and got to see the world, but I wouldn’t have had the opportunities I now have if I didn’t get off my ass and focus on networking.
So for all those who are looking to get into internet marketing or having trouble scaling their operations and don’t know why, my advice to you is get out there. Go and meet as many people as you can. Learn how to network and practice every day. Read books, get drunk, add value, be stupid, whatever it takes just do it.
Conferences are not an expense, they are an investment and if used correctly can be the most valuable investment you ever make.
So now you know the secret of life, all that’s lefts is acting on it! See you at the conferences!
After Barman declined to debate me or back up his words at Affiliate Summit West last year, he resorted to talking smack about how he would rather kick my ass or smack me.
Well since hearing that I have been working to accommodate him on that.
So we can do that too. That would actually be more fun.
So here is my proposal to you, big baller, gangster, and all around tough guy.
We will fight at the Xtreme Couture gym during Affiliate Summit West, under UFC rules (basically anything goes besides strikes to the groin and kicks to the head of a downed opponent) that will be guest referred by UFC Hall Of Famer Randy Couture.
We will each put $10,000 on the line and the loser will donate the $10,000 to Randy Couture’s Wounded Warriors Foundation in the winner’s name.
I will not require Barman to make a certain weight. I am well aware he is much larger than I am.
We will stream the event live on pay per view and all the money will go to the Affiliate Marketers Give Back Foundation.
So say you Barman?
To be clear this event is not endorsed by the Affiliate Summit or the UFC.
Keyword Rockstar has created a fantastic lineup of software that will help anyone get their campaigns built quicker and more efficiently, so they can focus on the marketing message rather than the mechanics of creating the paid traffic campaigns. Including the Banner Ad Rockstar Software which includes the ability to generate multiple ads at once, WYSIWYG Editing, Ad cloning, and Multiple Image Format Output, totally worth checking out!
If you would like to see your website or company featured on Free Shirt Friday, click here.
I recently had a interview with Mark Jacobson, CEO of FreeSeoReport.com. FreeSeoReport has been paying out 100% commisions and working on some big things. While I don’t run FreeSeoReport I am a significant investor in the company so I asked Mark questions that I have been getting.
ShoeMoney: Hi Mark first thing that comes to my mind and probably many reading this – why would you pay out 100% to affiliates. Obviously you are encoring expenses so how long can you possibly continue to pay out all the income you are getting to affiliates.
Mark: As of right now about 75% of our paying customers are coming from affiliates. With those 25% we are able to pretty much break even. We see a much larger value in growing the user base than profitability right now.
For the second part of your question… We currently plan to keep paying out 100% until the first of the year.
ShoeMoney: then what is the normal payment?
Mark: 50% lifetime of the customer.
ShoeMoney: can you explain how you are tracking users for affiliates. With ShoeMoney offers I know we have a 60 day cookie but what if users switch computers or sign up after that 60 day period?
Mark: Good question. When someone signs up under your id it is stored in his or her account. No matter when they convert to a paying user you will get commission for the lifetime of the customer.
ShoeMoney: Speaking of converting the users to paying users I know your current conversion rate from free to paying is not that great. What are you planning to increase this?
Mark: Our conversion rate improves every month and we have some really big announcements coming up.
ShoeMoney: Pardon me but that sounds like some corporate bullshit. What exactly are you doing that you are not doing now that would make people want to promote it. I want to know as an investor and an affiliate.
Mark: Wow you were not kidding when you said you were going to be frank.
You want a no bullshit answer? Ok here it is. When we first launched FreeSeoReport we went with the freecreditreport.com model of one free report then a one-time price for another report or a monthly free for unlimited reports.
This was a good initial model but as you said the conversion from free to paying was not that great.
What we have developed here at FreeSeoReport is amazing; there are countless stories about people out there creating their own business from it. Some making thousands of dollars a month generating there own white labeled company reports for their clients.
Our retention for paying customers is really good but getting people to recognize the value of subscribing and getting unlimited reports has been our biggest challenge.
So starting next week (we are shooting for Tuesday) we are going to implement a one month trial for only $1 so that people can really see the power of being a FreeSeoReport.com member. Then if people choose to continue it will re bill at the normal price.
When this launches affiliates who already have lots of users should expect to see a ton of conversions. Overall if we don’t double our existing subscribing user base I would be completely stunned.
ShoeMoney: Well a trial and rebill will definately help get new people in the door but since you brought up retention obviously you are going to see a lot higher percentage drop off who are just testing the $1 trial.
Mark: This is true however we are rolling out more tools for our pro accounts in order to keep the retention rate high. Tools like keyword trackers, backlink analyzers, and other easy to use valuable SEO tools.
ShoeMoney: Well sounds good and I am sure affiliates will be thrilled to hear you are not only continuing to pay out 100% but also going to drastically improve conversion.
ShoeMoney Offers (our affiliate network powered by HasOffers) has the exclusive on this offer. We pay out net30 for balances under $10,000 per month. Over 10,000 per month we can do net3 weekly wires.
Go here to sign up for the Affiliate program and be instantly approved.
Full Disclosure – As mentioned above I am an investor in Free SEO Report.
Jeremy is out on vacation this week, so I thought I would jump in and share 2 big “Ah-ha moments” with you that helped me go from “down and broke” to having a very successful 6 figure online business…
These were a few of the “eye-openers” that I was always missing out on, but once I realized them, a lot of stuff changed for me…
Read more on “2 “Ah-Ha Moments” That Boosted My Business Past $100k” »
I am traveling from yesterday until the 20th of April.
On the way out here I read Enchantment by Guy Kawasaki. What a great book for marketers. Especially list owners. I highly recommend it.
I also started reading the Greatness Gap by Michael Sprouse. Super inspirational. I have known Sprouse for many years and its great to see his inner thoughts on success on paper.
I will write more on these in the future and my exact bullet point takeaways.
I already started re-writing some followup copy after being inspired by Enchantment.
Good stuff.
