Great round of questions. There were about 7 that I took out cause I think they are a blog post in themself I will be putting up soon so if you do not see yours thats probably the case.
You guys asked like 75 questions in a few hours pretty impressive 😉
Also a lot of times I get emails why I do not linkout and its really nothing to do with linking out but more to do with speed in answering questions. I try not to spend more then 30 mins on it and looking up urls sucks. I wrote a script to harvest the questions and format them for speed and I will continue to do this on sundays as time permits.
Now onto the questions!
jtGraphic asks:
When you played MMORPGs, which ones did you play primarily? I attribute much of my interest in the internet to MMORPGs; same for you or no?
ShoeMoney: I started playing Everquest the day it launched wasted 2 years of my life or so in that game.. then camelot then eventually World Of Warcraft. I quit playing a couple years ago when I read about parents neglecting their kids for online games and I was worried I could be that guy so I quit 6 months before my daughter was born havent really cared about playing since.
Stak Loaded – How to make money doing nothing! asks:
Do you like my site? www.stakloaded.net 🙂
ShoeMoney: Sure looks like a decent start.
Think Like An Sob asks:
I remember a while back you started a bans store (I think for shoes) how is that doing?
ShoeMoney: As asked 3 other times before I canned it. It was fun to play with and I know a lot of people do well with them its one of those things that I wish I had the time and resources to do.
Collin LaHay asks:
Are you a gamer? 😛
ShoeMoney: Yes although my passion and time for video games is fading with age and responsibilities. I bought grand theft auto the day it came out and its till in the wrapper (no joke)
Amit Bhawani asks:
Shoe i have got couple tiny questions for you.
1. Do you think Blogging has a future for making serious money?
2. What would be the best business for Indian’s – Would it be eCommerce, Affiliates or Blogging depending on the future since ringtones, affiliates dont work for indian products/networks.
3. Why does Johnchow.com blog offer other than his food related posts, self promotion & freebies posts which he get! 😉
1. Do you think Blogging has a future for making serious money?
2. What would be the best business for Indian’s – Would it be eCommerce, Affiliates or Blogging depending on the future since ringtones, affiliates dont work for indian products/networks.
3. Why does Johnchow.com blog offer other than his food related posts, self promotion & freebies posts which he get! 😉
ShoeMoney: 1) For sure blogging has a future for a select few to make money. 2) Being I am not a Indian or in India I have no qualification to answer that question. 3) John Chow’s blog is a blog about him and his interests. I think there is both an educational value and an entertainment value.
Martin asks:
when was your last time in europe?
ShoeMoney: I have never been to europe
Cannabis Junction asks:
have you ever smoked weed ?
ShoeMoney: Yes
Bob asks:
Hey shoe! i am very new to blogging & have came to know about you & your site just now a days , i wanna know about the history of your almighty Blog, How does it get started , please give me a brief answer if you can?? PLZZZZZZZ….
ShoeMoney: Sure. I started a personal blog where I could vent my frustrations and views on the industry.
Alojate asks:
When you create a PPC campaign, do you create a landing site for each adgroup?
ShoeMoney: I try to taylor the page as much as possible dynamically for the keyword/adgroups
Nick Throlson asks:
What is ShoeMoneys fave thing to eat ?
ShoeMoney: Hibachi Steak and Scallops
Dave asks:
Who will win? BJ Penn or GSP?
ShoeMoney: GSP
Jackie asks:
Is affiliate success all depends on PPC marketing ?? Can a blog earn from affiliate ?
ShoeMoney: I was very successful in affiliate marketing before I knew what PPC was. It was purely organic and yes a blog can earn from affilaites
Real RT asks:
Has Google changed the way they are indexing sites? My traffic has dropped from 3k to 100 visitors per day on one of my other sites and I can’t figure out why.
ShoeMoney: Google is always changing.
Ray asks:
What would you regard as the essential tools for any blogger ?
ShoeMoney: A working computer, internet access, keyboard (mouse opitional)
Robert asks:
I’ve always wondered, as a succesful publisher, do you concern yourself with the advertising success (roi) of your advertisers, or you do just think of yourself and providing a good clickthroug rate?
ShoeMoney: Honestly I do not concern myself with either. I just keep doing what I do on here and being we have about a 85% return advertiser rate I would say its a great ROI for them.
Adergaard asks:
What’s your advice for monetizing a site that has quite a lot of traffic and good rep but very little text content getting very poor context matching from google ads.
quite a lot of traffic = approx 1,000,000 pageviews / week, PR5, Alexa:120,000
if you feel this is too generic a question to answer, please do tell what’s missing from being able to at least say where to start. Thanks.
ShoeMoney: umm try something other then adsense? Without knowing the site its hard to say.
Website Reveiws asks:
When starting a new blog, what criteria do you consider before choosing a niche?
ShoeMoney: Is it a needed service, can it go viral, eventual profit model
health news asks:
do you link build? or does somebody do it for you?
ShoeMoney: I dont link build instead I try to create content people link to naturally. (I know crazy isnt it)
kim asks:
why do you think traffic is dropping so fast to shoemoney.com I also noticed johnchow.com dropped fast, I dont think it’s due to summer being here.
ShoeMoney: I cant speak for John Chow but our traffic is up about 30% since the first of the year.
Sheamus asks:
Why do you think that, more often than not, the quality of content in the massively popular blogs seems to have deteriorated exponentially with their success? Is it that our expectations have been raised, or that their motivations have changed?
ShoeMoney: Sure I think their motivations change. For a lot of the big blogs its their main source of income so they bring in more writers or whatever which brings more content and pageviews but does mess with the “secret sauce” a bit.
Big Money asks:
When you developed Nextpimp, was it just you who developed it at the time or did you hire a team. If it was just you, what type of programming/design did you use to develop such a massive site and how much experience did you have with that programming/design?
ShoeMoney: To start with it was all me with help occasionally from friends. I bought books on PHP/MYSQL and CSS and larned as I went.
Joe asks:
Which site that you’ve developed are you most proud of and why?
ShoeMoney: I think auctionads.com was pretty impressive but I am more proud of the success we are having with fighters.com. Dominating in new markets is very difficult. Auctionads was not that big of a stretch for us being we already knew everyone in the advertising space and had a incredible reputation with them. Fighters.com we dunno hardly anyone so being we are a force after only weeks in I am pretty proud of that.
Best Videos asks:
What are the side-effects of blogging ? How many hours per day you work on net ?
ShoeMoney: people misunderstand you. I am always connected and working or available.
T asks:
what was your biggest mistake while working on the web?
ShoeMoney: running aim or twitter while trying to be productive.
ShoeMoney Suport Line. haha asks:
I have site www.OutdoorSporting.com
Have built it up to be a comparison shopping site portal/affiliate site for Camping, Hunting and Fishing Gear.
I’ve built this site plan in hopes to have a lot of fun in what I enjoy and know about, but also with plan to make money and build a huge traffic portal for this category.
Have built it up to be a comparison shopping site portal/affiliate site for Camping, Hunting and Fishing Gear.
I’ve built this site plan in hopes to have a lot of fun in what I enjoy and know about, but also with plan to make money and build a huge traffic portal for this category.
Plan on ways to make money on this site is:
1. Affiliate network of all retailers sales referrals: (thinking if I list all top retailers and price for that product, doesn’t matter where they buy I get credit) example www.outdoorsporting.com/family/8140/display.html
2. Google Adsence
3. Sell banners to Manufacturers once I get traffic levels up.
ShoeMoney: These type of sites used to do really well back in the search engine arbitrage days but since they are pretty hard to monetize. I am not that familiar with the outdoor sporting niche but there are a lot of affiliate programs for it on CJ. Wish I had a better answer =(
Michael D asks:
Besides Warren Buffett, if you could build a business centered mastermind group of 4-6 individuals, who would you choose?
ShoeMoney: This will sound cocky but I would use our current team. I doubt warren buffet knows jack about what we do. Our team grows with experience on each project and we already have experience very few in the world have and I look for that to continue.
Jehzeel Laurente asks:
20 years from now, (In your own opinion) what will happen to the blogging industry? Will it still exist? or extinct?
ShoeMoney: no idea
Dustin asks:
Outside of MMA fighting, what are your other favorite sports to watch? Favorite Teams?
ShoeMoney: I like watching poker… does that count?
Tom asks:
Since I run a real estate site, do you recommend using subdomains to target micro-niches off of my main site or use their own domains?
ShoeMoney: I would probably use their own domains
Dexter asks:
When the do you think is the best time to start affiliate Marketing, Any Tips ?
ShoeMoney: When you can give your users still a great user experience but make a profit at it.
noemi asks:
How can I make my personal blog gain more traffic?
ShoeMoney: Build your reputation (long lasting) or buy the traffic (short term)
Mark asks:
Wanna come to Australia for a beer?
ShoeMoney: Sure (and thats the 4th time thats been asked)
Sulli asks:
Which pant leg do you put on first in the morning? The left or the right?
ShoeMoney: Left
User101 asks:
Which is better text links or banners, or does it depend on your niche?
ShoeMoney: It really is more about the implementation. Text links can be more effective then banners depending on placement (for affilaites)
Simon asks:
How many employees do you have, have you had to do any firing of staff and if so, did you do it or did you get someone else to do it for you?
ShoeMoney: We have 4 employees now. I have fired people in the past and it was always done by me.
Cooper Murphy asks:
You said recently that you have advertised on radio for fighters.com. Do you think this will yield an ROI? Other than editorial, what features will you be adding to the site?
ShoeMoney: No I was hoping to lose money… ok duh yes I think it will yield ROI. We have a ton of features (keep in mind we are only about 6 weeks into it). I think the biggest will be the social network aspect.
Joe asks:
Did you see the new indiana jones movie? What did you think, if you did?
ShoeMoney: Have not seen it but want to.
Devil May Cry asks:
Hi shoe,
Quick question: What inspires you? Me, personally, I have my incredible wife and daughter to thank for helping to inspire me. Is it the same for you?
Thanks for your time. I look forward to hearing from you.
Steve
ShoeMoney: Yes same for me.
browie asks:
I have a long term goal in mind. By the time you’re ready to get rid of it I may have reached my goal…. wanna sell me your used H2?
ShoeMoney: Sure its currently a Lease but its looking like I will buy it out.
Michael Grimm asks:
Explain to us the difference in productivity you are seeing in a Home Office vs A real office out of the home. It has a lot to do with growth and earning in the decision to when the consultant decided to go office, but I have done so in a small exec suite and I can’t say enough about it. Just curious if you are one of those people that are just as productive in the home?
ShoeMoney: Getting out of the house has been really awesome. I am totally more productive. We just signed a lease on a new bigger office with 7 offices a bathroom and kitchen that is 100% ours and I am super pumped for the expansion.
Joe asks:
Is it a given that, if you create 1000 aff sites you will make a living? Or, will the management, hosting, dev, etc costs outweigh the profits?
ShoeMoney: If you know nothing about affiliate marketing and create 1000 I guarantee you will lose money.
Chetan asks:
I am always stuck with this one, which is the best ppc network according to you?
And if one more, who is your favorite blogger?
ShoeMoney: Google has by far and above the best quality PPC network. I dont really have time to read other blogs but I think michael arrington (techcrunch) is pretty damn good.
devtrench asks:
When you started NextPimp.com what did you find was the best way to draw traffic to it? Was it easy to get traffic to the site because of the service you offered? Lastly, do you compensate the forum moderators, and if not, why do they do it?
ShoeMoney: Word of mouth was the best way. At one time I could go to any nextel store in the country and they would know about nextpimp. Their are 4 forum moderators and they recieve 100% of the income from the Forum.
David Parkinson asks:
Best way to increase traffic?
ShoeMoney: Buy it (short term) have good content (long term)
Pyjammez asks:
What percentage of your day is spent doing what? For example, how much time do you allocate to health and fitness, how much to eating, how much to playing with family, how much cleaning the house, how much to thinking of new ideas, how much to working on current ideas.
I ask because I feel I’m not putting in enough concentration to certain parts of my life and I’d like to know how someone who is as successful as you does it.
Thanks Jeremy.
ShoeMoney: I work out lifting weights for 2 hours monday, weds, friday and do Brazilian Jujitsu on Thursdays. I just started running in the mornings and hopefully I will continue that trend. I am always thinking of new ideas. I hire people to clean the house and do the lawn. I spend as much time as possible playing with my family.
Mike1115 asks:
Are you going to Affiliate Summit in Boston?
ShoeMoney: No
Big Money asks:
Another programming question: what is the proper programming language (php, asp, coldfusion) for building a dating site or a facebook? and what is a good book or resource to learn about it?
ShoeMoney: php and I dunno if there is a good book for making facebook apps. We outsource all of our facebook apps.
Dan Schawbel asks:
ShoeMoney, what are your thoughts about how search engines will impact one’s personal brand in the future? If an individual doesn’t have a unique name such as Mike Smith, do they have a chance at being found?
ShoeMoney: Sure.. I mean if you look at me I have branded myself as shoemoney. Just make up something.
MoneyBites asks:
What is the number one thing in a pitch that turns you off it? (in terms of the job done by the presenter)
ShoeMoney: any pitch in general turns me off
Gyutae Park asks:
What kind of market research do you do for your sites and what is the process you go through before starting a new one? Especially for your authority sites like fighters.com.
Keyword research for SEO/PPC?
Throw it at the wall and see what sticks?
Surveys and interviews?
Keyword research for SEO/PPC?
Throw it at the wall and see what sticks?
Surveys and interviews?
ShoeMoney: Really we just try to provide a service we feel is not there. In nextpimp it was user generated ringtones, For auctionads it was getting great payouts from the eBay affiliate program in a easier to use system, With fighters.com its providing great news/videos/pictures and social network for MMA fans. I mean the concepts seem very simple to us. Its a site we make because its a service WE want to use.
Binary Ant asks:
Nowadays you have employees but you started alone, right?. When did you realise you needed them?
ShoeMoney: Dillsmack and Susan both kind of proved themselves before I hired them so it was almost like I could not afford to hire them. Tigh was the first actual employee I interviewed that worked out. I knew I wanted to do the Elite Retreat again.. this time full on shoemoney style but I also knew someone needed to be in charge of that. Tigh had previous conference management experience and also has a degree in statistics. I basically figured if I could pay for his salary for a year from the elite retreat then it was worth it. It was.
Sean asks:
How many domains do you manage overall(approx. number ok) and do you speculate in domains at all(buy and resell)?
Thanks
ShoeMoney: We do not do as much with domains as we used to. We used to make a killing off of mass registering expired domains but Google has made some serious improvements in that area.
Lawrence asks:
…what kind of car do you drive?
ShoeMoney: h2 hummer
blogstheme.com asks:
Are you building/working on any social media / web 2.0 websites?
ShoeMoney: fighters.com the social stuff is coming down the pipe.
Corey asks:
What will it take for you to mentor me? 😀
ShoeMoney: I get asked to mentor people all the time… honestly I dunno what I would do. I don’t have time to meet with my own employees let alone mentor or teach someone.
Entertainment News asks:
what percentage of your visitors come from “social marketing” advertising? We are launching a huge campaign at this market as of June and am just wondering what your experience with this growing market has taught you? Thanks.
ShoeMoney: It really depends on the niche and site. Like lets say fighters.com makes it to the front page of digg with a mma store. ESPN is much more likely to contact us about the story then if our domain name was like mma$insertnamehere or with tons of dashes or whatever. If I can assume you have a very brandable legit domain and site (not with hyphens and spammy keywords) I think social media will help cement you as an authority in the space
Text Lingo asks:
How do you think gas prices will affect ecommerce / online sales for clothes?
Will people buy clothes online more because they don’t want to pay for gasoline or do you think they will shop at the local stores to avoid shipping charges?
ShoeMoney: I think you will see online shopping increase with or without gas prices. More people are getting online and shopping everyday and customer confidence they are getting the best deal and their data is secure is growing also.
Sean I. Mitchell asks:
For client sites that need RSS & ability to easily update/publish…
a) Joomla
b) Drupal
or
c) WordPress (static index or /blog subdir implementation)
-S
ShoeMoney: I would have to yield to Matt Cutts answer of /blog/
ROW asks:
When you started with your “money making online” journey, Which was the first job you outsourced and why?
ShoeMoney: I hired a monkey to help me take apart and put together computers I was selling on eBay.
JB asks:
what keyword research tools do you use?
ShoeMoney: Our in-house developed tools. Being we have internal search on our niche sites we have better data and more up to date then any research tool could possibly provide.
Scorpiono asks:
Shoe, I have a kid at my school that looks 99% as you when you were a bit fat, where should I send you the pic ?
Best wishes,
Scorpiono
ShoeMoney: not sure why you would send me the pic…
team ray asks:
why my post never seem to get posted?
ShoeMoney: Not sure…
Frederick asks:
How many shirts have you received from Free Shirt Friday? Do you wear them? Can you show us how do you store them?
ShoeMoney: Its really beyond count.. maybe 250? I do wear them if I like them. I did a video not to long ago might have to search for it.
Chris Edwards asks:
In your “As Success Grows Opportunities Shrink†post you mentioned that there are an extraordinary amount of opportunities to make 100$ per day and that you can think of 50 off the top of your head. Could you at least share the top 10 for all of us wannabes?
ShoeMoney: No, that was the whole point of the post.
Hyder asks:
Name one thing you did terribly wrong before you got successful on the net?
ShoeMoney: I waited way to long to have weight loss surgery.
Dom C asks:
Would you ever try your hand on a show like “the apprentice”? How well do you think you would do if you went on it?
Do you think any UFC fighters are taking any sort of illegal performance-enhancing substance? Which fighters/what substances do you think?
Thanks 😀
ShoeMoney: The fun side of me would love to compete on the apprentice. The business side says wtf you only make like 110k/yr and work 9-5 if you win so…..
Samir asks:
In your opinion, what is the most important thing for a new blogger to do to make their blog successful?
ShoeMoney: Write good, opinionated, original content. If you are writing from experience and can quantify what you are talking about all the better.
Chris asks:
Is it OK to give the impression that your new website is run by a team of people when in reality it is just yourself sitting in your basement?
ShoeMoney: Absolutely
soo asks:
Do you still do ringtones through PPC?
ShoeMoney: Sometimes. Its complicated but to answer your question yes.
Mitchell Blatt asks:
Why do you pick questions that you don’t have an answer for when you do q and a sessions?
ShoeMoney: I try to answer all questions. If I dont know then I say I dont know in hopes someone wont ask it again.
Charles Williams asks:
How do you anticipate Fighters competing with firmly entrenched giants like MMA.tv and sherdog’s afterbirth of a site? OK, mainly MMA.tv… sherdog is a pile…
ShoeMoney: I am not that familiar with mma.tv (domain forwards to something else?) but looking at their alexa its not much more then this blog. I think there are a lot of good quality MMA sites out there but with our marketing and development I don’t think we will have much competition. Last weekend at UFC84 all these big sites were just asking me how we have grown so fast in only a couple weeks. I tell them just wait till we hit our stride!
Tim asks:
Many affiliates still report huge tracking issues with EPN especially with ACRUs. Many of them have revenues much less than what they had with CJ! I’ve seen some members on DP blame you for their losses. What do you think about all of this? Are you in position to let the right people know about this problem, so that it actually gets fixed?
ShoeMoney: After we sold auctionads (last july) we moved on to other projects. We were way over our head with Auctionads being it was just me and Dillsmack running it and we recognized it and sold it. I have had little to no contact with the eBay affiliate team since the sale
Thanks!
have you ever smoked weed ?
ShoeMoney: Yes
—-
Did you inhale?
Sorry…I know it’s an old joke but had to ask that considering it’s still election season in the USA 😉
~Terry
Thanks for answering Shoe 🙂 Btw i was amazed to see that you answering the pant wearing question from someone too!
Hey Shoe, you missed my question. Would you ever consider hiring someone who didn’t live in Nebraska if they were willing to move?
I’m not that tech savvy. I have a blog and a webseries that is humorous. slice of life. I wanted to know what you meant when the guy asked how to up the traffic for his personal blog and you told him to “buy traffic?” what does that mean and is it possible to find someone who can do it for me? I live in L.A. and live at the MAC store.
nope re-read the post… some i pulled out to be answered in their own post
Sorry about that, I wasn’t even thinking that applied to my question. Cheers!
i didn’t think he would have answered it.
Shoemoney, so why did EPN turn out even worse than CJ for many affiliates? :/
I bought GTA the first day as well, put about 10 hours in it in the first 2 days, and havent touched it since. If it were 5 years ago I would have put 100 hours in it by now. :X
My GTA has about 3 hours logged into it. I am just too much of a slacker to put the effort into it that is needed!
“Buy traffic” means marketing on Adwords/Facebook/etc. You can also buy links and/or ads on other sites, or pay an SEO to help you with your search engine traffic. Visit my blog if you have any questions (sorry for the shameless self promotion, Big Shoe 🙂 )
Thanks for your answer jeremy …. thanks a lot! so you started this blog as a personal blog & it transformed into a Big Money Maker ….. WoW!! that’s AWESOME ….
yay! even if you don’t have an idea. .thanks for answering the question 😀 yay!
Shoe Money, I like your answers regarding social media and marketing (for Entertainment News). I think producing good content is more and more important in social media, along with a good distribution system. Your work is an excellent example of informative and attractive information that is well distributed. I guess that’s why you attract people interested in being mentored;)
The answers were straight forward actually,
Thanks for the COOOOL Answers shoe 😉
i like honesty
Answers to the point, Very good job !
Thanks for the reply…
When will the Questions Round 8 Begin ?
Why are you bald..are there any pictures of you with hair…Are you bald by choice?
Read up above. He said he is going to try to do this every Sunday! And I for one, hope he does! I love this part of the blog!
hey J … I keep forgetting to ask you a question. Is there a way to improve adsense eCMP? … Last week I saw a picture of your Adsense break down from 2006 or 2007, with page eCMP of $20+ (for some days). Is it purely luck – based on what google shows on a site, or did you optimize your site for better eCMP?… I am very confused and lost about it ‘cuz when my site traffic goes up, my eCMP drops to $1 … when traffic slows down, eCMP goes up to $3 ……. thanks !
Thanks for answering my question 🙂
Shoemoney, i admire your patience 🙂
How is the online play/games. I have seen them but haven’t gotten into them. Looks like there is potential.
I will have to think of a few for the next period.
I should have been clearer with my question about ROI. I was asking whether radio advertising would provide a direct return, or whether it was more for branding purposes. I don’t think it was a stupid question.
Gonna have to try Hibachi Steak and Scallops thanks for the answer shoe.
Wow you brought GTA 4 an its still in the wraps? wow I would have play asap 🙂
eCPM tells you how much you’re getting paid per 1000 impressions (visitors). If your traffic is high and CTR is low compared to low traffic and higher CTR your eCPM will be decreased, even though you could be making more money.
[…] blogs is a set of posts where the owner of a particular blog answers questions from their readers. Shoemoney did this recently and I enjoyed reading the responses and Trent from the Simple Dollar answers a […]
Dude, you need to go to Amsterdam so you can smoke weed and see Europe at the same time. It sucks that’s the only thing 90% of the world know about Amsterdam.
Thanks for the answers. I really love reading these posts.
Agree, I want to ask, but trying to make sure it is valid and word it in such a way it gets a valid answer.
Yes, this time Jeremy answred all the questions, He used to ignore stupid questions ! lol
I am going to sign up for your RSS feed so I can get a question answered.
[…] the $700,000 CJ screenshot (hit the “continue reading” link to see it), recently had a “Q&A” session where you could ask him whatever you wanted and he’d give you an answer. I of course […]
Good answer Shoe. I forgot they changed to mixedmartialarts.com. It was originally the old submission Fighting site from way back, then when the .tv craze hit, they bought mma.tv, and now they are the new site. Theyve been an MMA forum since 97 or so, and were the Combat mailing list before that. Huge forum with over a million posts, thousands and thousands of members, including many pro fighters…
Sure, most of there stuff isnt even indexed by Google because of their lousy forum software, but it is a good idea to know your enemy, even if you can develop and market better…
just a quick heads up, bro! 🙂
Interesting that you’re doing this more and more. Ever think about summarizing them later on to a “Best of” series?
I didn’t think he would have either.
I know questions are closed, but I am dying to know if you predict Amazon will end their affiliate program in NYS now that NY is making Amazon pay NYS sales tax because of it.
WOW… thanks for posting this SHoemoney! I always learn new stuff from your blog!!!!
Haha, I used to play WoW. Wastes so much time.
shoe, really appreciated what you said about not neglecting your family priority for games. Funny how you get out of it that it doesn’t matter as much. It’s almost like an addiction, huh?
I think he is not addict
Good answers to good questions. 🙂
Good to know 🙂 …