OK fire away.
Also if people could refrain from commenting on other peoples questions it makes it a lot easier for me to answer them.
Please no questions about AuctionAds and also please try to refrain from the “if you were broke and had to start tomorrow” questions…. been asked atleast 10x each round.
You guys tried to kill me last week with almost 150 questions. I am going to lock the post somewhere between 50-100 this week so post quick if you have a question.
Edit: Post locked pending questions answered (damn only took you guys 5 hours to post 100 questions)
David Wilkinson
A /GIANT/ cheeseburger is attacking you. What do you do?
Fable
Hi shoemoney,
I’d just like to ask: What is your usual internet routine? Which blogs and forums do you first visit when you go online and where do you go from there?
I hope this question hasn’t been asked before. I look forward to hopefully reading your response. 🙂
Steve
witek
Do you have any workers? Are they programmers, marketers, accounts?
lyzazel
Can you cry underwater?
dtadpole
Shoe,
Everytime I come to your site I am inspired by what you have done, and were you are today. Leads me into wanting to learn more, and do more in life. (Thanks for that!) My question for you is who inspired you most in the begining of your internet career / life?
Get 5000 Links
Hi Shoemoney,
How many hours on average do you work?
Mubin
1) Your mother in law is your business manager. Do you have a seperate person as your administrator to take care of your mail, phone calls, mundane stuff, or do you split it between yourselves?
2) I sometimes have had family members work for me, it has never ended good. How did you ensure that you have never had any problems with your mother in law? I know that she helped you get started by providing you that loan when you first started buying those computers and reselling on ebay but have there ever been any problems.
Judson
Quick 4 UFC questions. Have you ever bet on UFC fights? If so what was your largest bet? Who did you bet on? Did they win or lose?
Oh and speaking of which UFC 75 is free this weekend on SpikeTV. Go Houston Alexander… Nebraska in the hizzouse!
Hakukoneoptimointia
What is your ultimate goal in business?
Sean
I would like to know what is your number 1 method to building traffic and would you recommend Bum Marketing?
Thanks!
Mubin
Also do you tax yourself as a individual or a corporation?
JasonK
Here’s something different. You said that your wife gave you structure and helped you to become the Shoemoney you are today. If you haven’t met your wife, how do you think your life would have turned out so far and where do you think you would have ended up?
Jonathan Street
In round 3, responding to the possibility of being a keynote speaker at a conference in Bali, you said that you were not that good a public speaker. I’ve never seen you speak in person but from what I’ve seen from the videos you have posted I would say you seem increasingly confident and competent. My question is, beyond practicing, is there anything else you are doing to improve? What have you found to work and what have you found to be a waste of time?
Bonus question, when you sold AuctionAds, what sort of pen did you use to sign the contract?
Patrick Altoft
What is your favourite month & why?
Hawaii SEO
Starting PPC arbitrage: How do you budget or finance it properly?
(You pay for the traffic today but get paid for conversions a month later)
I imagine it’s easy to rack up a huge credit card debt as you learn the ropes and wait for the commission checks. Any advice for how to manage the cash-flow properly?
What sort of credit card or payment system would you recommend?
Should you pre-pay or post-pay?
How do you avoid paying too much in taxes on the earnings?
Anything else?
Sami
Hi,
1) I have a few a few website ideas. I have researched this a bit. I have used adsense for a while on a couple of websites. I found it hard to control what was advertised. Especially, when the topics are Biology related. I just wonder, is there an alternative to adsense, or is there a better of controlling adsense?
2) Is it a good idea to mention websites/projects on own personal blog?
Thank you in advance.
SaadAhmed007
Hi,
Do you submit your sites in web directories?
Nick Sullivan
What’s the best advice you could give to a newbie at Adwords. Someone who has never bought PPC traffic before?
Nick Sullivan
When starting a blog would you say it’s better to post a post or two a day to keep up regularity. Or just post as many a day as you can possibly do until the traffic is up there?
Hoo
What’s the best way to make // ‘earn’ money in your opinion?
Hoo
How much would you sell Shoemoney Media Group for?
jim
How are your companies structured? Are they all independent LLCs or are they subsidiaries of each other? Is there a benefit to either system?
dapyx
What is more important to you: your family or your business? What rips you the most time each day?
Seo Next
Hi shoemoney,
How to make sales from site ?, we have website and good USA traffic but CJ links are not working for us. Does editing content and cleaverly mixing products in articles will work?
rob stgeorge
Hi Shoe, I have been following your blog for a while, and thanks for all the inspiration. I have a simple question, would you describe yourself as a competitive person, i.e do you have to win at all costs ( apart from when racing your wife of course lol ), or are you happy to not always win as long as you still achieve your primary goals?
Thanks – I am just trying to figure out how competitive someone as successful as yourself is overall, or would you maybe describe yourself differently in regards to this personality trait.
Martin
How important is web design in your web pages? Do you create your own designs? Work with freelances?
Ari
Hey shoe-
How do you find people to hire – do you only hire locally? What would you do if you couldn’t find people to hire in your area – how would you test a prospective developer/designer etc in India or the Ukraine to know if they were good enough – do you guys outsource to these places?
thanks
ari
TheAnand
hi shoemoney, I was wondering what are the main things that build a brand. Can a single person start and build a brand all by himself. Have you concentrated on building a brand for your products? What are the essentials?
Anand
TrizzNizz
I run a moderately successful niche forum that Im monetizing with subscriptions, adsense, and auctionads. What is next in the linear progression of forum monetization from your view? Direct ad sales ala CPM? How do you find potential advertisers?
Andrew
After listening to a lot of your podcasts recently, it seems that it is just as imiportant to have a good concept as to network and generate some buzz around what you are doing.
For someone who knows nobody influential or even “cool” What tips do you have to broaden your social networks?
lyricsreg
What do you believe will be the outcome of google’s war against payed links ?
Peter
Hi Shoe, with all the self help for wanabie millionaires available, do you think the extra ingredient to be successful is actually unquantifiable. Why aren’t we all Richard Branson’s?
Lee
What kind of music do you like?
seofacile
Hi,
I’m glad you madke another Q&A round.
I’m interested in the nextpimp business model.
Ringtones are going down the toilet these days but I think that replicate (if it’s possible) the business model of nextpimp for the italian market it will be good.
So what I want to know is:
I see that you have a listen link that open a popup window where you can listen the ringtones, did the ringtones hosted on your site?
Is it legally allowed in the US? or do you have to pay some sort of tax?
What type of ringtones your users upload, in which format?
Thanks for your time!
Tom Wilson
Do you use Google Base at all in any context? If so I’d like to hear your thoughts on utilizing it. Also any comments product feed optimization?
DevDad
Where do I sent your t-shirt for a free t-shirt Friday? I’m trying to send you this damn thing!
Mike
Axxx
Have you ever been banned from AdSense or AdWords? What do you do if they ban you? Do you change names & IP addresses and sign up again?
Unjustified Motorsports
What is your prediction on the next big thing to hit internet advertising?
Jed Sanders
Who are you picking to win this weekend between Henderson vs Rampage? What can you tell us about your UFC projects?
Travel Notebook
What are some of the things that you like to do when you are not working?
Have you ever traveled overseas?
VaBeachKevin
When do you think you will retire? How much is enough?
Ron
When budgeting your PPC campaign. Is it better to use a daily budget
or the weekly of monthly budget?
Dave
when you decide to try an affiliate offer what steps are you taking? do you use always a dedicated domain or do you have a generic one where you trow up a landing page?
Ron
The new site is really cool. I like the transparent logo at the top and bottom of the page.
Dave Dugdale
How is your fathers fishing site going? My neighbor wants to start a fishing site and make a little money from AdSense.
ZZ
What happened with the cease and decist order from Nextel? How did you fight it and did it cost a lot?
Alex
Hi, you mentioned before that you have many other sites other than nextpimp and auctionads. I was wondering, have you been successful with these? What percentage of your revenue comes from sites other than your main ones. Thanks!
Josh
What do you think about the Million Dollar Wiki (www.milliondollarwiki.com), they seem to be doing a lot of improvements, think its worth the money?
Josh
What do you think about the Million Dollar Wiki (www.milliondollarwiki.com), I see that they are doing a lot of improvements, do you think that it is worth the money?
Ken Causey
You have $100 to advertise your new blog, what do you do? and how to you make money with so little traffic so that you can keep the ball rolling?
Alex
Hi, you’ve mentioned you have many sites other that nextpimp/auctionads. Have these sites been successful? What percentage of your revenue do these sites contribute? Thanks!
Modern Worker
How do you see net neutrality playing out in the coming years and do you feel that outcome will be positive or negative for online marketers?
Ron
Hey, Shoe, I have been looking into affiliate marketing. I have listened to several of your radio shows and researched several sites. Most have recommended the Super Affiliate Handbook. This seems to be just another affiliate program itself. Sorry to be so winded, I know that affiliate marketing isn’t your primary focus, but I was hoping you could point me in the direction of some “REAL” information about the ins and outs of affiliate marketing. Thanks for your time (I know it is limited).
mac26
When using Adwords, do you opt into the content network as well? Do you use text ads only or do use image ads as well? Is it worth it?
Geno
Shoe – How do you handle legal issues, do you have a lawyer you always use for everything or farm out stuff based on type of issue you are dealing with? How did you find your current lawyers?
Ryan
List a few of your favorite restaurants in Omaha and Lincoln. Don’t include big nationwide chains.
Chris Davis
Hi, your blog is blue…have you found this is the best color for a blog….or is it personal preference?
Chris Davis
Hi, your blog is predominately blue….is this the best color for a blog, or is it just persoanl preference, have you done any color testing?
matt
What do you think about using interstitial ads (like adbrite’s interstials) as a way to generate revenue when users just dont seem to click on ads or buy from affiliates?
Do you think that they detract from the user experience and turn users away, or does it not matter?
Randy
Do you have a dedicated graphic designer? What’s your recommendation on hiring one, like where to look for?
SeanIM
Would you consider changing a traditional front/static/index website with a /blog/ on a subdirectory into a root domain blog install? Reason I ask is that I’ve seen the benefits of getting shorter domain.com/yada-dir/file-name.html getting indexed quicker and easier than domain.com/blog/cat/yada-yada/whatever/ getting indexed…and before getting knee deep into transitioning was curious about your ‘take’ on it.
Tom Barr
Keeb seems to be too busy to do landing pages on a freelance basis. Do you have other recommendations?
dustin
How long did it take you to learn to program? What resources did you use?
Q
2 part question. I’m currently starting a website/company and have outsourced my initial programming. I’d eventually like to have someone in-house with an equity stake to take care of technical/coding needs rather than continually outsource every update. What is the best approach/websites to find good/hungry people? I was thinking of craigslist and college campus postings. Once I get interest and applications, how do i choose given the fact that I have no technical proficiency or barameter for quality of expertise?
Tim
How are you dealing with the whole Google Quality Score issue in terms of creative?
Why did you take the Creative Commons logo down? I thought that was a nice addition to your site. Great organization with top notch people.
Ricky....Ricky Tan
Waddup SHOE!
I would like to send you a shirt for T-SHIRT Friday. But in one of your posts you had mentioned that you don’t want to receive anymore shirts at the moment
“ShoeMoney: I have over 40 shirts in queue I meant to post for people to stop sending them but forgot.”
http://www.shoemoney.com/index.php?s=t-shirt+address
It says to get a hold of SUSAN and she will give the address to send, but when I hit “CONTACT” on your website, there’s no information 🙁
Holla Atcha Boy!
-R
Paul Kang
I’d like to buy you and your family dinner Shoe. Where would be the best? If we can’t meet up where is the best place to send gift certificates?
E1
Waddup SHOE!
I would like to send you a shirt for T-SHIRT Friday. But in one of your posts you had mentioned that you don’t want to receive anymore shirts at the moment
“ShoeMoney: I have over 40 shirts in queue I meant to post for people to stop sending them but forgot.”
http://www.shoemoney.com/index.php?s=t-shirt+address
It says to get a hold of SUSAN and she will give the address to send, but when I hit “CONTACT” on your website, there’s no information 🙁
Holla Atcha Boy!
-E1
Jay Tillery
Hey Shoe,
I run Gymtops.com, the martial arts apparel blog, and I want to know:
What are the rates like for sponsoring a UFC athlete? Has the return been worth it if you have ever sponsored an athlete?
I want to promote my web log and think this is one of the better ways to do it.
A Blog about Nothing
When you got involved with blogging, and your other businesses did you have a plan of attack and a specific goal or did things just kind of fall into place until one day you realized “Oh crap! I’ve got a business going here!”?
Derrick Shields
What do you think of this?
http://www.seo-blackhat.com – the article on you faking all the aucitonads stats
trigatch4
If I take a Hanes Her Way white undershirt and use black permanent marker to write my URL on the front… will you model it for Free Shirt Friday?
Israel
how did you lose the weight? please be specific, exercises, foods, etc etc.
OwnChicagoHome.com
are advertisers coming to you in order to advertise or have you sent out emails to them with advertising propositions?
Todd Mintz
Please explain the following statement:
“I HATE STOPPED USING FACEBOOK CAUSE IM NOT GETTING SHIT DONE.”
jared
Shoe, I heard you have one of the leet exclusive American Express “black” cards. Yes/No?
Christopher
If you and Bill gates were best friend since childhood, Would you end up working for him at Microsoft?
Electronics Reviews
How long did it take you to start making $50 per day?
Michael
In one of your “Net Income” shows you mentioned that you don’t have to spend any money on getting started with internet marketing. Can you please post the top 5 or 10 most basic steps to get started.
Thanks
Todd
Will you ever write a book?
Tob
Can you please give an in depth tutorial on how you structure your adgroups/campaigns?
Mike Mmirg
Do you find yourself less motivated to start new sites. I think as a web marketer it makes viable busienss models to start alteast 1 new one per year…But with SEO tough and SEM expensive, I am losing motivation…
Matt
Will you ever retire?
Joe
Were you single for a long time in those days before you met your wife, when you came home and played computer games?
Randy
Do you have an in house graphic designer? What’s your recommendation on hiring one?
Jacob
What is your favorite forum software?
andrew
Do you use data you have collected to make market predictions and use it to your advantage when investing?
Pong A Long
Who is your favorite UFC fighter in each weight class?
Jocko
Do you think John Chow will over take your Feedburner count?
devtrench
How much $$ do you make through the adsense revenue sharing program on the Digital Point forum?
TOMBALLTX
Hola Shoemoney –
This is a 2 part question.
1st: For your present business – how many domains do you have developed that you guys oversee and look after (total dom’s and then day to day maintanence do you have to oversee all of them – or do some require only weekly maintenance, etc…)??? Meaning by that – that you don’t just let sit as a parked page. I’m assuming you do not have many “parked pages” just sitting – that there are development behind each one.
2nd: What do you bring to the table in terms of your relationship with Dillsmack? Obviously both of you guys have your A+ qualities – his being programming – do you also do programming? Was that something you knew how to do before you 2 partnered up? I’d like to get into this game now – I’m undettered by the people who continue to tell me through posts and family that it’s too late especially for someone like me who can’t program or control the backend of things – i think things haven’t even started to get interesting and i believe the internet is dynamic and thus always evolving/changing…
Thanks for takin the time to answer – also on a sidenote you need not comment but i do read the blog daily – and i saw the weightloss page – a lot of pride goes into being able to accomplish something like that. I’d say that’s probably harder to do then what you’ve accomplished here on the web… sort of pales in comparision when you think about it.
Thanks,
TOMBALLTX
LightningCrash
How’s your Joe Blogger campaign doing? (I can’t remember what you called it, but it was the one where you start a blog from scratch and try to succeed again….)
Jake
Is Yahoo actually going to make a play in the ads market with their 2 recent purchases?
I see that you are running YPN ads a bit, how are they performing for you in comparison to Google?
DonnyC
What’s up with mobile? It’s supposedly the next big thing, yet I can’t figure it out. Will people really put up with spam/marketing messages on their phone? I see a lot of cell submit offers now and can’t figure out how people make money from it. The only thing I would ever use my phone for would be local search (finding close restaurants, etc) and maybe cell specific offers like ringtones or mobile apps. But will anyone really fill-out a mortgage form, sign-up for a dating site or the like? Perhaps you can shed some light? My wee little brain just can’t figure it out.
Jonathan Volk
How do you stay on track during work?
A lot of times I find myself reading DP and other forums and then going back to work and then doing something else, etc.
Do you have any sort of system?
Gecko Tales
What shows/conferences/exhibits will you be speaking at, and attending, this year?
I’ll be at Ad:tech NY and would love to say hello to fellow ShoeHeads.
I probably won’t be wearing the chicken suit.
Grivon
What is your favorite healthy snack food? What could you not live without while working next to the computer all day? I’m finding it hard to get proper nutrition in handheld form 😛
John
Do you have any comments about Rich Jerk and his products?
Carl Thomas
How do you determine ad prices on a site? Say you are making $1 ecpm for an adblock with adsense. Where do you price private ads to replace the block? I know the easy answer is anything above $1 but G is easy to work with . Do you have a formula?
Brian Mark
What should we discuss for NPMMO this month? 🙂
Stuart
1) Aren’t you getting sick of all the dumb questions???
2) I see on one of your sites you have music… what are the legal ramifications of this??? I thought this was against copyright laws. Did you get a Performance License??? Is one needed??? I want to add some music to a fan site of ours.
Roger Claborn
That is really interesting, You are an overly professional blogger. I have joined your feed and look forward to seeking extra of your great post. Additionally, I’ve shared your site in my social networks!