Stan Seaton asks:
Hey Shoe,
Got a couple of questions, hope you don’t mind:
1) I spend half my life looking through analytics reports. How do you gather stats? Do you have any automation techinuqes for pulling reports from GA, since they don’t have an API?
2) What movies get you pumped for work? just finished Wall St, Boiler Room and Glengerry Glen Ross… wondered if I’d missed anything…
3) Same for books.. I know you did a post on this a while back, but I wondered if you’d read (or heard) anything good lately?
ShoeMoney: We have our own inhouse tools. GA is a good start but you need to make a custom solution tailored to what you really care about and then have it delivered to you automatically. Your other 2 questions – just search for them already been posts made.
DJJB asks:
of these 5 Producer Beat makers who is your favorite? Please list them in order of your favorite on down….. Dr Dre, Pete Rcok, Just Blaze , 9th wonder , or Timbaland?
ShoeMoney: Justblaze, dr dre, timebaland no cue who the others are off hand.
DC asks:
you mentioned in a recent post that you’ve run the same offer through different networks with very different results. i’ve had this happen to me as well. same offer, same keywords, same search engine – 40%+ difference in conversion rates. do you think this is due to a crappy pixel or is it deliberate? it’s interesting that the network with the highest payout for an offer is usually the one with the lowest conversion rate….
ShoeMoney: As I said in the post mostly due to crappy tracking, isp black lists, anti-spyware programs.
Ravish Ahuja asks:
Do you prefer to buy websites with traffic & revenue or almost dead websites for domain & Search Engine authority?
ShoeMoney: I would much rather buy a site that is completely nowhere to be found on google but has revenue and great word of mouth traffic vs a site that has great search engine authority but makes no revenue.
Rajaie AlKorani asks:
Why do you have your blogs logo at the bottom of your pool?
ShoeMoney: Its not my “blog logo” its a logo I have been drawing since I was 10 years old. Its somewhat my identity and something I am really proud of.
WPblogger asks:
Have you ever thought of doing a Shoemoney membership site that would teach aff marketing, arbitrage, etc?
ShoeMoney: Yes
JB asks:
Did you ask Dellanave to stop blogging about the business?
ShoeMoney: I did… his walkthrough about how how we made $10,000.00 a day while sitting on the beach was just too much had to cut him off. Errr no.
Luke asks:
I have Adsense on my sites and it does well – but still only pays pennies a click. But cause of my big traffic numbers it adds up and i do nicely. I cant seem to get anything else to pay higher though.
What would you test instead of adsense, if you were me? What ad networks do you recommend? I heard you say some sites charge $15/cpm for banner ads – id be happy with $10/cpm?
ShoeMoney: No clue without seeing the site.
Stak Loaded – How to make money doing nothing! asks:
Does having your keyword in the URL help at all with SEO and if so is it significant enough to justify doing it?
ShoeMoney: Yes
Chetan asks:
Haven’t you tried Entrecard yet? Or tried and didn’t like it?
What would be the best applications that i should use in my mac?
ShoeMoney: I used entrecard for a while. I just did not have time to keep up with approving sites and all that stuff. I think its a great thing for people looking to expose themselves. Hmm apps for the mac? I really like skitch. I use terminal, mail.app or firefox 90% of the time
Altek asks:
did you sell nextpimp? and if not how much would you sell it for.
ShoeMoney: No comment.
Craig asks:
Where do you see Google heading or at in the next 5 years?
ShoeMoney: Continuing to land grab properties to put advertising on.
MusicRoadMan asks:
What music do you have on your iPod???
ShoeMoney: A lot of mid-late 80’s early 90’s rap mixed with some top 40
Brian Cox asks:
Right now, what is your biggest income from the web and what type of work are you doing to promote this?
ShoeMoney: Currently its not something I want to disclose but I will post about it later this year.
Pyjammez asks:
When starting a new website idea, what are the important steps to take, starting from the initial idea and all the way to the official launch of the website.
The answer I’m seeking would be similar to something like:
1. think of the idea 2.define the purpose of the site 3. write a list of all the features 4. determine target audience 5. draw a draft layout 6. think of marketing ideas 7. who will design it (if not yourself) 8. where to host 9. write 30 days worth of content to make sure you don’t run out…. ETC ETC.
So in other words, is there a general system you use or know is the best for constructing a website from start to finish?
Kind regards,
James.
ShoeMoney: http://www.shoemoneyplaybook.com perhaps someday.
Cheng-Hao Liang asks:
which field should i focus more on..? Affiliate Marketing, Blogging, or E-commerce ?
which one do you think will make more money?
let me know thanks
ShoeMoney: Find something your passionate about and like doing even if it makes zero money
Kristi asks:
Given a newbie with a $100 budget and a goal to make $1000/month, how would you suggest they start?
ShoeMoney: I would probably buy/sell on eBay. If you know a certain niche well its still IMO the easiest way to make money.
MoneyBites asks:
Do you like a h ands on approach (do it yourself) or are you more inclined to let your employees do it now that you have them?
ShoeMoney: hands on
Jagdeep asks:
are you coming to any uk affiliate events?
ShoeMoney: I would like to its just never worked out. And currently nothing planned
Justin asks:
On your last Shoemoney show you were talking about subscriptions and you mentioned something about a book. I’m in the process of creating a site that deals with subscriptions and I would like to know; what book(s) do you recommend to learn more about subscriptions?
ShoeMoney: Read everything Seth Godin has ever written.
Dan Schawbel asks:
In terms of making money by blogging, what do you think the greatest source of income is? AdSense, Amazon, Yahoo, Banner ads or indirect sources such as speaking engagements and consulting fees?
ShoeMoney: Indirect sources. This blog makes decent money but the opportunities that have opened up because of it are worth a 1000 times more.
Alex asks:
How large is Shoemoney.com? Your Advertise page says 20,000 unqiues a day, but your stats from last year say 4000 per day http://www.shoemoney.com/2007/12/30/2007-blog-statistics/
ShoeMoney: GA last year was just on certain parts of shoemoney.com (just in index.php I think) so none of the gallery/forums/single article/marketplace/serps hits were recorded. The pages the banners are on get between 20-25k uniques a day.
Vince Liang asks:
yea because um.. i own a blog/forum for webmasters at http://millionwebmasters.com i am thinking of referring users to affiliate programs.. so i earn their percentage.. do you think that will make more then affiliate marketing?
ShoeMoney: No to be honest. The big secret about affiliate networks is that only a small few make the majority of their income. You can either spend all your time hoping 1 newbie affiliate signs up through you and you make 2% of what they make OR you can try to do something yourself.
Tim Linden asks:
How do I make money online? J/K =P What do you dislike about blogging? (besides people asking that question)
ShoeMoney: For me I love to be transparent. I love to share how stuff works. The only issue is a lot of times people will take what you say out of context (see question about stats up above)
Josh asks:
How do you scale a $1000/profit day affiliate business to $10,000-$30,000/day?
ShoeMoney: Attend the elite retreat.
Trizzo asks:
Can we get a video tour of the shoemoney offices and shoemoney estate?
What are your plans for monetizing Fighters.com? Will you be sponsoring any MMA fighters?
ShoeMoney: When we finish the new shoemoney offices we will probably do a video. I doubt I will ever do one of my house. As far as fighters.com goes we are sponsoring events and fighters.
Mitchell Blatt, JSB asks:
Does Commission Junction suck, and if so, why?
ShoeMoney: It all depends on what you are doing. I have had bad experiences mostly due to their horrible reporting.
Jason asks:
What area of Des Moines did you live in?
ShoeMoney: On grand street downtown I forget the cross street (it was like 6 years ago)
uGuX SEO asks:
“There are an extraordinary amount of opportunities to make 100$ per day. I mean I can think of probably 50 off the top of my head.” – (http://www.shoemoney.com/2008/05/16/as-success-grows-opportunities-shrink/)
How would you mind sharing these ideas on your blog since you won’t be using them? 😉
ShoeMoney: already answered like 20 times
D Wills asks:
Are there really 1932 “current users online” on fighters.com 🙂
ShoeMoney: Actually right now 2319
Jim asks:
Why do you keep posting about how much you hate SEO? Do you keep retrying because you never make a convincing case?
ShoeMoney: Probably because people like you who are confused and think I actually hate SEO when I have never once said that. So many thing skin SEO people are like “OHH LOOK ANOTHER I HATE SEO POST” when they don’t even read it. Just listen to any of my shows when people call in and want to argue with me about SEO but they never dispute 1 thing I say ever in the articles…. As far as convincing.. Since most of the respected SEO’s have agreed with me I think that speaks for itself.”
Remember the silence asks:
As I understand from your previous posts you also had MFA sites (arbitrage). Well, I did and of course I got the letter from AdSense last year and got kicked out of adsense (I wonder if they would allow me back now that one year has passed). My question is, have you ever been banned from AdSense or AdWords? How did you get back in?
ShoeMoney: I have recieved several warnings from Google Adsense but never been banned from AdSense or Adwords (and the warnings were not for arbitrage). I still continue to arbitrage on a smaller scale and have never had any issues.
Sulli asks:
For a media business (i.e. internet marketing, etc) will any CPA do? Is it important for a CPA to have specific knowledge about your industry? Any specific questions that should be asked when interviewing a CPA for your media/internet company? Any pointers are appreciated.
ShoeMoney: I think its important to get a accountant who has experience with e-commerce. Things like paypal and stuff can be very confusing
Dan asks:
Are there any networks that buy business leads for non-financial products, e.g. someone looking for an accountant, looking for a building contractor etc
ShoeMoney: I am sure there are.
Brent asks:
Do you follow WEC? Faber or Pulver?
ShoeMoney: Faber. This fight is a joke Pulver will get destroyed.
Tim asks:
What are your opinions regarding the pros cons of lead generation CPA offers with fixed payouts vs pay per sale percentage of commission? Which do you favor (do you even favor one over the other??) and why?
ShoeMoney: I prefer whatever one converts at a higher margin.
jim asks:
Give any more thought to your paintball and petrol idea? you have a bit more capital nowadays, perhaps it’s time to give it a go 🙂
ShoeMoney: If I really thought I would ever do it I would have never posted it publicly.
themonkeyone asks:
Is it now ok to forget about users with 800×600 monitors, and just design sites for 1024+ ???
Cheers.
ShoeMoney: Yes. The stats on lower res windows are greatly influenced by popup windows and stuff like that.
carl asks:
Do you have a formula or a system of when to drop a project? I mean, have you ever worked on something you thought was going to be a windfall and it turn out to not even be worth the effort? Most of us are one man shows and we can’t keep dumping good money and time after bad. How do you know when to cut and run?
ShoeMoney: Yes totally. I think when it becomes apparent that its something you can’t be the best at then kill it.
Dustin asks:
What do you feel about the Elite XC mma fight going prime time last night on CBS? Good for the sport or a joke with Kimbo Slice being the headliner?
ShoeMoney: I think its great for the sport. All fighters should be thanking kimbo for helping them get better future paydays.
Simon asks:
Why do you think fighters.com has so much traffic already? Any marketing secrets? Or just a great interactive website?
ShoeMoney: We have done a lot of grass roots marketing. Sponsoring fights, fighters, events, radio ads. A lot of offline advertising.
Michael Grimm asks:
What would you do with an extra 100k in your pocket? Invest in website, business, etc or diversify with real estate or such?
ShoeMoney: put it in the bank until I want to buy something with it (like acquire websites or something). I absolutely hate the stock market and would much rather invest in myself.
JB asks:
What do you think is the best (free?) tool for tracking affiliate sales/leads? Do you think a (part-time/small fry) blogger trying to monetize with affiliate links should get into the stats (what pages converted, bounce rate, etc) very heavily, or do you think it is really only PPC people that should worry about it?
ShoeMoney: Google Analytics is the best free one. I think everyone should be interested in their stats.
hoodmonkey asks:
Someone told me they might have saw your pool logo while flying out of LNK.. I will try to get a picture.. but was that a ploy to get a place mark on Google earth?
ShoeMoney: The current Google earth picture of my house is from 7 years ago. I doubt they will update it because I now have a removeable shoemoney logo.
Devil May Cry asks:
How many vBulletin powered forums do you own? Also, any chance of having them all listed, too? Just curious!
Steve
ShoeMoney: I think we have 14 licenses.
Michael D asks:
What ad platform do you currently use on your site and how did you decide upon what banner sizes to offer?
ShoeMoney: We use Google Ad Manager. I try to offer sizes that do not hurt the user experience.
What time were the questions asked?
\
Thanks for answering my subscription question. I did a quick search on amazon and found that Seth Godin published a lot of books(142). Is there a couple of books that stick out in your mind that I should start with?
Thanks!
Love that you take the time to do this. One of the best features of this site and it’s great how you get it done so quickly.
Hey, Great blog. I know you are planning on releasing http://www.shoemoneyplaybook.com soon, and the website says it is coming out this “spring”. Almost summer… lol. Seriously though, what do you plan to do price wise on the playbook? I am looking forward to digging into it. Keep up the good work.
Malcom Gladwell – Tipping Point
Seth Godin – All marketers are liars
Seth Godin – The Big Moo
Seth Godin – The Dip
Dale Carnegie – How to Win Friends & Influence People
Seth Godin – Small is the new big
its done usually on sundays… sometime then as soon as it gets to 50 or about I close it.
The book is pretty much done… Just needs to be put together. Its on the list of stuff to do. I know i should be gathering emails to spam people for when it comes out… thats on the list too =P
totally forgot question round was today, damn it!
[…] in as a thank you for learning how to blog at StartBlogging.net. Maybe you too can become the next Internet superstar. Oh, and if you liked this post and want to learn a little more about blogging, subscribe […]
Late again. Had a question about Kimbo but you basically answered it. Uhmm. I’ve got a question maybe you could hold for later, or whatever. All the seo, googlewatch, searchwatch blogs have been going nuts over local search. Have you looked into it and if you have, are you trying things out on it or would you rather focus on national “larger” web traffic?
haha next time I will work on a question that doesn’t trigger your bipolar!
I am starting to like sundays more and more each time!
This was a pretty good round, thanks for posting. Still tired of seeing the same ol’ ones asked though, so you probably are too. 😛
Your logo on the bottom of your pool is pretty cool. I have a ShoeMoney T-shirt and wear it to the gym a couple of times a week. Imagine all that branding I’m doing while on the treadmill…
looks like you got cut off there in the middle of a question
I always seem to miss out on the question post as I come late to the party.
But I always like to read your answers to the questions. It’s like picking your brain from another part of the world.
~Terry
I totally agree. Plus there was an added delay because I use Google Reader for new post notification.
Either way, it’s still pretty cool! (The drawing at the bottom of the pool)
I missed it anew… im very busy every sundays…
Read Dale Carnegie whilst still a child, some of the pearls of wisdom imparted has stuck with me for the rest of my life….
This would definitely be worthwhile spam though! Please don’t include any penis enlargement offers with the book though!
What time zone are you running on, Jeremy? Mine is GMT+2, and I keep on missing out on these Q&A sessions of yours, so would like to log on during your time online next Sunday! Cheers everybody, have an awesome week!
Great answers, Shoe, When Can I ask you questions 🙂
I missed some q’s but i will check now. some peoples are using left and right Brain technique in answers of the questions but i like it and i learned lots of things from shoe money’s Q’ and Answers
presently it a challenge to manage GA for new and old sites but but its not tuff we can do easily for web stats reports.
You can now ask questions from Rand Fish as well!
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/qa-through-the-blog-round-2
Don’t be late.
Thanks for answering Shoe 🙂
Btw it might be really nice if you share a good list of apps that you use in your macbook. Could you?
I missed the question asking.
But nice reading them 🙂
Did you ask Dellanave to stop blogging about the business?
Solid answering, thanks for answering mine buddy.
man how long must it take you to pick and answer all these ?! Hat off to you !
a great way to communicate with your followers. you answered all the questions with a honest way.
the dale carnegie book is timeless.
I am thinking I need to go to the elite retreat next year!
Petnos this is not the first time he answered them.. Every week this series appears and i run to ask what i have in my mind.
DAMN!!! i missed round 8 …
Dr Dre is better than Just Blaze…
[…] was browsing my friend Jeremy’s site last week and saw that he had already reached Round 8 in his Q+A series. I’ve done it once before here at SEOmoz – Questions Here and Answers Here […]
Shoe why not answer atleast 5 questions from the 50 in separate posts.. explaining the answers very well? 😉
[…] on the topic of your blog, there will often be events or meetings that you can sponsor. Shoemoney recently mentioned this type of promotion as a method he has used for his newest project, […]
i hear it over and over that passion is a must at what you do, and shoe is absolutely right. It doesn’t matter what it is b/c the more passionate you are about something the more work you’re going to put R&D into it….as a result you are going to go far….it has to. Well, unless you need capital and your short of some funds
Solid answerings…
Thanks for answering 🙂
how i can win a lot of maney by google ,and augment the visitor to my site
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I have a notable analytical attention designed
for detail and may foresee issues just before they happen.