answers to yesterdays questions - 7-30-2007

omg I never expected 40 questions in 2 hours =P Sorry for the bad formating and lack of links. I am working on a script that will generate this for me and blockquote and link properly (without nofollow) to those who asked the quesitons. I will try to call for sunday quesitons from now on Comment by Bryan G

I am in the process of starting a blog I have probably 20 draft posts up but Im curious do you think the location of the blogger is important? Im from Dubuque IA which is like a 45 min drive from where you are from. Do you think someone from California will have a better chance or do you think content could still pull a kid out of the cornfield into internet stardom?

I think location has nothing to do with it honestly. You could be on a 14.4 modem in India and have the same chance as someone right in the middle of silicon valley. If you have quality content and keep blogging overtime (which is really what it takes) eventually you will get noticed. Keep in mind I really am a crappy blogger in terms of a traditional blogger. I don’t spell check my posts or even check them for grammar. Maybe that is what sets me apart? I dunno… all I know is I never set out to be a blogger in fact I always used to make fun of my friends who had blogs. Basically the point is just have fun with it and keep it real. Either people will connect with you or they wont ;)

Do you golf?

Yes but not very well. Comment by Jack hottest girl on LOST? I swing between Alex and Claire.

I actually think kate is the hottest ;)

Comment by Omar Where do you do keyword research for your PPC campaigns?

90% of our keywords come from our own internal data.

Comment by Affiliattack.com Can you tell us how you upload 100,000+ Keywords into your google accounts for PPC quickly? What tools do you use along with adwords editor? I’ve got 150,000 keywords I am trying to upload, but the time consuming process is organizing them effectively and avoiding the campaign limits I keep running into on Google. Any advice you can give is appreciated! Thanks!

Using the API I think the default limit is 60,000. You can get this upgraded my contacting your representative. Using the api it does not take long maybe a few minutes to add/edit/delete and other features using the adwords api.

Comment by Tony

I know your daughter is a bit young but are you planning on building any kid safe sites in the future for her to play on? My daughter is 4 years old and loves the internet but there is no kid safe sites around where they can just click and play without ending up on some advert and taking them to another site all together.

I really have not researched kid friendly websites. My daughter is only 13 months old and working on walking right now ;) Comment by mac26

What blogs/sites/forums do you read on a daily basis? The limited amount of time I spend on forums is usually at digitalpoint where I moderate the affiliate section.

As for websites in my rss reader: Ufcjunkie.com – best 0-second ufc news site out there. Davidnaylor.co.uk – DaveN rocks. Thesuperficial.com – gotta keep up on celebrity gossip Problogger.net – the best resource for any professional blogger hands down. Mattcutts.com/blog – gotta keep up with the man ;) Dellanave.com/blog – dillsmacks blog (even tho he is kind of a piker blogger posting like once every other week. Now I have a lot of other sites in my reader that is more industry related but these are my regular rss everyday read when they update them blogs. Comment by mahdi yusuf

i would like to ask, who’s your daddy!?

Robert Schoemaker Comment by Paul Porter Do you use any tools other than the Google AdWords Keyword Tool to generate your keywords? I like to keycompete and inventory.overture.com. keycompete seems to be going downhill pretty fast though. Comment by Adnan How much work, and what type of work does it take to launch an internet company and then be able to sell it a few months down the road?

Crazy amounts of work and the type would be hard.

Comment by Chris

Whats next or are you taking a big break after a sale like that?

No breaks for us ;). We are working primarily in the mobile space. Currently buying up some websites in the mobile industry. Comment by Jason Bartholme

Do you use any software/tools for managing your time and resources?

Nope just a yellow legal pad ;) Comment by Glen

How and where did you meet Dave Dellanave and can you give us a hint on some of the new things you guys are working on?

Its been over 10 years since I met Dave on IRC. He must have been about 11 at the time… he was a super cocky kid schooling all these guys on Perl code. Comment by Glen

Oh and sorry whens your new ACS blog design going to be going up? I remember seeing the trial and it looked awesome, was a few months ago though…

Thanks! It just needs a few tweaks and I have not had time to even think about it =(. I do plan to use it eventually. They did a really good job. Comment by Luis |Edit This

Wordtracker or keyword discovery? or any other?

I have never used either…. That I remember. Comment by Wicked Keemo

If someone had a really cool idea for a site and was looking for some help (and maybe some investment!) from an internet expert such as yourself, how would one go about doing that?

I think it would be impossible. We have so many ideas we think are good in que that we really have no time =( Comment by jmsmckwn

if a business is right, would you take a percentage on it in return for access to your contacts and leverage of your name.

very doubtful. I get atleast 1-2 offers a day for “partnership” or “investment” in a idea and as I said before we have so many things going on internally that we are trying to find time for. HOWEVER even with that said the best way is just to email me and cut right to the point… don't email and say “hey can I ask you a question?” Comment by Ari Shohat

Hi, here’s a question! What are your favorite conferences from the recent past? There are so many, and with a limited budget many of us could use reading your thoughts on which are the best for networking, and obviously for the conference lineup itself.

I recently did a radio show with Neil patel I think it was about 2 weeks ago. We covered every conference and the positives and negatives of them. Give that a listen. Comment by Jerky Beef 2007-07-29 16:39:10

Shoe, have you contributed to other blog’s success?

I don’t think so. Comment by J.F. | You mentioned you had lots of different jobs, and stayed at most of them for less than a year I believe. From the vantage point of somebody who has “made it”, how did you know that what you are doing now was right for you? I can’t speak for others but I know I pursue one thing, only take it so far, and then move on. Should we man up and just complete something no matter what, or should we just trust that the “right thing” will come along eventually? Don’t mean to go all self help on you, but there’s lots of lame b.s. advice on the topic. Thanks Jeremy.

I was always frustrated because I was held back. The corporate wheels go SO SLOW. Also I knew exactly (or I thought I did ) how to fix all the problems that were wrong in the companies I worked for but the process to fix them took literally months when I could have done them in 2-3 days. Basically I was always frustrated to the point I just gave up and did not care. But I still never had enough confidence in myself to actually persue doing my own stuff until my wife encouraged me to go for it full time.

Comment by ismar

okay serious question… would you recommend building websites from scratch and concentrating on building value and long term income, or something that’s quick but has no long term security like advertising affiliate programs through ppc…

I think both. That is what I have always done. You can even leverage your longterm site by using your internal search data then applying it to your ppc campaigns. Comment by Jason |

Do bloggers/marketers usually make more money selling their own products than with affiliate programs or PPC? And why?

Hmmm well I dont sell any products other then shirts and that is definitely not cash positive. I do ok with selling direct advertising space. Maybe you are asking just in general and not to me? I think the value of selling your own product is that you retain the person as a customer for future purchases (the long haul) and not just for the quick buck affiliate money. Comment by Mubin

1) How often is your head shaved. 2) Is it shaved with the same frequency as your shave your face. 3) Have you ever waxed your head 4) Have you ever put a shopping bag on your head and poked people of the oppisite sex yelling “Im a big condom” These are the questions everyone wants to know.

Wow ….. ok I shave my head at the same time as my face. Sometimes 2x a day if I am going out or something. I have not tried the good old “Im a big condom” trick but I will keep that one in mind for the next affiliate summit =P Comment by SonicReducer

Ha, I had a hair question too. Even on the old pics you are bald. What do you have against hair?

When I was 17 years old my hair started to recede and I even had/have a gray spot the size of a quarter on the side of my head. I decided to just start shaving my head. Back then though NOBODY did it and people always thought I was some nazi skin head =( Comment by Greg |

Yea and how do you do it, I always cut my back of my head when I do it have you just been doing it so long you are good at it?

I use a electric razor… I will do a post on the kit I send friends when they take the bald dive. Comment by printnpost

I’m trying to really get into affiliate marketing and curious would you consider a decent conversion for testing. I know you have to trial and error products but from your experiance what is a realistic conversion. 1% 2/ less then 1?

Hey congrats more spelling errors than me ;) Basically that question is pretty impossible to answer without specifics. In the ringtone industry I used to expect 12-18% depending on company. That has changed a lot though. Expect a lot more focused ppc posts now that I have time to get back into that. Comment by eTown Landlord

What are your favorite PPL companies and which offers do you see being the next big thing? The market is so saturated and it’s tough to find a good entry niche for an intermediate marketer.

Sorry not sure what you mean by ppl company? Comment by Jonathan Volk

How do you deal with google’s quality score when promoting your landing page?! I cant seem to coerce that beast. Got any tips?!

I have always nofollowed/indexed and masked links through internal redirects as I advised over a year ago. I have never had any issues. I also think it has something to do that currently the only sites we are doing ppc on also rank very well organically and that plays a huge role in the “quality score” Comment by Get Featured

What’s the best way to start a career in web development without much capital?

Search for how to do html and start doing it you don’t need any capital. Comment by Greg |

Could you maybe do a little bit on your development equipment, hardware and software? I know you are a mac guy but I would like to hear more about the tools you use.

Sure. I really need to update my office pictures. I now have a dual quad core mac with 2 30” monitors I will get some pics later next week. Comment by Davebo |

Shoe- I run a few different ecommerce stores that do pretty well, enough for me to do full-time with but I still keep the 9-5 job. Anyways, seems like you are pretty solid with programming and then you brought Dillsmack in who helped bring everything to the next level. Do you think finding a good programmer should be the first step in growing your internet empire? Also, if I don’t know ANYTHING about programming, should I either learn just enough to be dangerous (is so, which languages and so on) or should I just tell them what I want to do and let them figure out how to get it done? Congrats on the sale by the way, Dave

Well in my case I knew enough to get the job done. I just needed someone who could make it secure and scale. If you have never done any coding then it will be probably pretty hard to comprehend whats going on. Also I'm kind of control freak and I like to understand the code. I always dive into dills code and ask him why he did stuff a certain way and stuff. It might be a good learning experience for you. Reply to this comment Comment by adamz |

When are you getting liposuction on that neck? I figured id ask you a stupid? Haha

I am guess your talking about the turkey neck... I am not sure. I should probably get it zapped at sometime but who knows. Comment by Tye

Have you made enough $$$ to retire and live comfortably for the rest of your life? If so - then why do you still work?

I think my wife and I could both never work again and maintain the lifestyle that we have... however I think I would be really sad and end up doing exactly what I do right now for fun... again... The thing is its not really work for us. In fact I kind of look at it like I have been retired for years. The income allows me to give back a bit to local charity's, friends, and family when I can. We really have only been doing well for the last 3 years and I have much bigger visions for ShoeMoney Media Group. Comment by boyboy |

I just started a blog and I’m wondering how to change how my posts are shown on the main page. It shows the full post, but I would like to only show an excerpt, and to have “continue reading…” at the bottom of the post on main page. I’m using wordpress and can’t figure it out thanks

Sorry maybe someone else can answer. I dunno.