Round 12 ShoeMoney Answers

Storm asks:

Aside from great content, and if you had to pick one, what would you choose to concentrate more on in an effort to build traffic. Similar site backlinks Core SEO (page descriptions, tags etc) Social Networking (Digg, Stumble,Twitter) Cheers, Storm

ShoeMoney: I would probably say the next priority would be getting people in front of the site. I would say social media.

Dom asks:

hey Jeremy, If you bought a site from someone, would you think it more beneficial to: a) have a homepage with a high pagerank, and very low/0 for other pages b) have a homepage with a lower pagerank but other pages with a decent pagerank and why? Thanks

ShoeMoney: Site links to all the pages, then I would hope the page rank would flow to those. If they aren’t doing interlinking, then I would hope the main page would have high pagerank.

Joe asks:

What are some good verticals that have your attention right now?

ShoeMoney: UFC mixed martial arts, mobile, and international mobile. Dating, etc.

Bulbboy asks:

How many pairs of shoes or footwear do you own? I have about 10.

ShoeMoney: 2

Allen asks:

If you simultaneously became bankrupt and where then told by the doctor that you can only work for 2 hours per week or you will die, what would you do?

ShoeMoney: I would basically call up any company in the space and tell them I would do consulting for two hours a week. But if I went bankrupt, then what I’m doing isn’t really working, and I’m not worth anything. I would just do consulting or just blog.

My Awesome Blog asks:

If you had to start an online business completely from scratch with a maximum $5,000 budget, do you think you could get the business up to $100 a day (I know, the magic number)? If so, what would you recommend for others to do the same?

ShoeMoney: Yea of course.

Jeff asks:

Are you a Husker fan? I'll assume you said yes.... Do you have a sky box or do you sit with the rest of us? I'll assume you said yes again. Can I hang out in your sky box for the West Virginia game?

ShoeMoney: No. I have actually had tickets one time, but never made it. I like to tailgate, and that’s it. I used to be into sports in my early 20s, but not anymore.

Keyword Anchor and Do-Follow Blog asks:

In your opinion, is it still possible to make a lot of money online? Thanks Shoe!

ShoeMoney: Yes.

Michael D asks:

What methods do you engage to keep yourself and your crew focused on achieving goals and not getting burnt out on the dayd to day activities of your sites?

ShoeMoney: 1. We choose to do things we are excited about, and feel we would use ourselves. Like fighters.com site, we are huge fans of the sport. 2. We feel it’s a service that is badly needed. We are creating what we want, as fans. Basically we are building our own house, and selling it to everyone else. With shoemoney tools, we have used and are using now, and building it for other people. You can avoid a lot of those pitfalls, by hiring people that aren’t in it for the money so much, but more in it because its what they want to do. Its what they are interested in.

Giles asks:

- From starting an unknown site to one that pays for itself, how long would it take you (without publicising it on SM) - What do you spend your money on?

ShoeMoney: We do a lot of things with no budget, that I never talk about or wouldn’t talk about on shoemoney.com. From way back when I first started, it took me 3 years. Now with the experience, I think with in a couple months I would be able to create a pretty profitable site. There are many opportunities now, like with wordpress you get free hosting.

Greg asks:

Shoemoney, you said in a previous post that one of the keys to your success was creating great content -- and making it easy to share. What are the best ways to make it easy to share, and how do you encourage people to share?

ShoeMoney: Give them an easy way to refer it to friends. And also with news readers and twitters, stumble this, dig this. Create those buttons and make it easy for people to share.

JBagley asks:

Hey Shoe, Ever been to South Africa? Yes or No, what do you think of it?

ShoeMoney: No

Nick Throlson asks:

Hey shoe what is your opinion on Market Leverage where do your see them in 5 years?

ShoeMoney: As far as personalities go, they seem very aggressive. They seem to understand how to get their name out there. From talking to some of the people behind the scenes, they are working on some really revolutionary things in the space. They got their name out there which is key, now they just need to back up everything they have been talking about. Which they are doing a great job at. They seem to be dominating the buzz throughout the blogosphere.

JumboCasher.com asks:

looks like... from the quality of posts comming around!

ShoeMoney: Pass

Joe asks:

Which fighting discipline do you think is the best to take and why.

ShoeMoney: I’m a big fan of jujitsu or judo. They are kind of closed combat styles. Odds are most fights if somebody would attack you, it will end up on the ground. Some form of advanced wrestling would be the most helpful.

Paulo Faustino asks:

Hello Shoe, I would like to ask you what is your favorite sport of the Olympic Games, and if you think that China could beat the USA in the medals board, this year? Bye :)

ShoeMoney: I don’t think China will place in the top 50%. I don’t know, but I love watching basketball. The USA team is the most incredible allstar team assembled. Watching Lebron and Kobe is like watching the Harlem Globetrotters playing around with their opponents.

Andrew asks:

I was reading your post about the robot.txt file and I notice with your robot.txt you have User-Agent: Googlebot listed twice, along with several identical disallows like /page/ , /feed/ and /category/ listed twice, is that how it should be?

ShoeMoney: Probably just a mistake.

Ricker asks:

I hope I can squeeze TWO easy/shorties in here: 1) What are your best methods you use to get a user to share your site with someone else ? 2) How many active websites (making money) do you own ? Thanks.

ShoeMoney: I think you need to have something worthwhile to share in the first place. Great content to start with. And a method to share. More than I can count. A lot of them don’t make much, and some don’t make anything. This is more of a question for a one person operation, which I used to be. But now I just look at monthly reports.

Dexter | Tech At Hand Dot Net asks:

With reference with your experience as an Affiliate MArketer, What kind of product would you believe that there are lots of opportunity of earning online.. Ie, Computers, Camera, Service, E-bok etc..

ShoeMoney: I would say all of them. There is opportunity in all of those areas. The ebook thing is probably less than any of them, but its pretty saturated.

Paul U asks:

I want to buy a website but I don't know a thing about it. What is a BIN? How does it works? ShoeMoney: BIN in an auction setting, is Buy It Now. You just stop the auction now for a set price.

zxj asks:

I want to know more about how to make advertiment. I am a new learner here.

ShoeMoney: Pass

Ganesh asks:

What is the biggest disadvantage of being a teen entrepreneur?

ShoeMoney: I was never a teen entrepreneur. I was busy sleeping in and playing video games. I would imagine most of them have trouble dealing with companies because they aren’t 18. If you are a teen, go play, don’t be an affiliate marketer.

netmeg asks:

Pardon me if this has been asked before, but who created your avatar? I've admired it for some time.

ShoeMoney: Dave Naylor. He’s an artist and really good friend of mine.

JumboCasher.com asks:

I would think it is more because of the content and the daily blog readership, rather than just the RSS count. BTW the RSS count can be jacked up anyways...

ShoeMoney: Pass

Ari asks:

where do you go to fix bugs in your wordpress blog? sometimes I get SQL errors or plugins that I want are acting up and conflicting and I don't want to remove them, I just want them fixed!!

ShoeMoney: Most of the plugins I have written myself, or hacked. We have modified all the plugins we run, to do what we want. Between us, we squash all the bugs.

Dave asks:

GSP or Penn? And are you the webmaster for matt hughes? I read you guys were working with him, then Dellanave said he lost him as a fan, then hughes gives you two a shoutout on his blog.

ShoeMoney: GSP wins that fight.

We’re not his webmaster. He has a guy named Nathan Rosario. We just host his site, provide the bandwith. Matt Hughes is an interesting guy, and recently gave us a shoutout on his blog. Which was cool.

nkog asks:

I'd like to know what was the fastest you ever gotten a page to #1 search position in google? and how much work did it take you to get there. whats the first thing you should do to market a new site.

ShoeMoney: Its probably happened a lot faster than I’ve noticed it. Especially since Google has their minty fresh indexing. I’ve written things on my blog that have ranked number 1 for a pretty competitive phrase. As far as a new site, with our McLovin ID generator, it was ranking top 1 to 3 for McLovin and still does.

Shanker Bakshi asks:

Hi Shoe, In his recent post John told his readers that how you surpass his RSS readers counts in a contest held in October 2007. Is that true, did you really use "that" evil way to cross his RSS mark by creating fake number of 4000 RSS subscribers in a single day. I guess you haven't told anything about that yet. Would you like to answer it now?

ShoeMoney: Even John doesn’t know exactly how it happened. I waited till the last day and exploited a small thing in feedburner. I did email feedburner, and told them what I was going to do, and got a reply from the vice president that said it was ok. It was a small hole in the way they verify emails. And they asked me not to talk about it, until they had fixed it. And last I checked, it still wasn’t fixed. There are quite a bit of holes in feedburner that are being exploited now.

ShoeMoney Suport Line. haha asks:

Wanting to add a blog to my existing e-commerce site. A. is it better to put a blog on it's own domain or does it matter. can I put it as a sub domain off my e-commerce site? which is better as we get a lot of traffic to our main domain, but not sure what is best for adding a blog. adding a navigation tab for the blog off the main site, or starting with a new domain that the main site points too.

ShoeMoney: I would yield to Matt Cutts on the subject. You should always do it as a subfolder of the website. Like http://www.mattcutts.com/blog. For an SEO purpose many people will link to your main url and your blog url. From a navigational perspective, you should only use sub domains, if its clearly a separate part of the site.

JC asks:

Shoe, have you ever flipped a house to make money?

ShoeMoney: No

Jonathan Villiard asks:

Mr. Showmaker, for the very first time, I will meet a big client (a bank) for a SEO proposal. I am very excited and stressed about all this. Would you be so kind as to wish me good luck? Thanks Jonathan

ShoeMoney: Good Luck.

Israel asks:

How often to you workout, and what do you do specifically during those workouts...cardio, lift, etc. Eating wise, are you a stickler for what you eat or do you eat anything (limited due to the surgery you had)?

ShoeMoney: I haven’t worked out for over a month. But I am going to get back into the routine starting today. Partially due to my new kid being born. Mondays I do chest, benchpress, overhead press and a few other exercises. Wednesdays we do legs, mostly walking lunges, squats, and straight leg deadlifts. On Fridays we do back, which is pullups, and seated rows, etc. Cardio is kind of hit or miss, try to run twice a week. I don’t really have a restrictive diet. But I try to keep away from the fat, because with the surgery I had my body doesn’t absorb fat.

wesley asks:

Name a niche you are wanting to get into.

ShoeMoney: We pretty much do anything we want, so…

Jerry asks:

Shoe, How would you advise new bloggers on gaining back links? What are some of the techniques you would recommend?

ShoeMoney: Write passionately. The more you can write honestly and from the heart, people will want to link to your content. For one it will be original, because its your own thoughts. For the most part, be you. If you are just trying to write for money, you probably won’t get anywhere. I wrote on shoemoney.com for a year and half without ever thinking I could make any money off of it.

Melvin asks:

Jeremy when do you consider nofollowing or dofollwing a link on a blog post? any explanantion?

ShoeMoney: Its almost like an endorsement, so sometimes when I want you to easily get to the site but I don’t want to be associated with them I will use a nofollow. It tells the search engine that hey I’ve met this dude, but I’m not vouching for him.

Johny B asks:

Adwords question - if some of my keywords become inactive due to google required minimum bid becoming higher than my maximum bid - what should I do with them? Delete, pause or something else?

ShoeMoney: If you aren’t going to change anything else, I would delete it. If you are going to change the ad copy to get a better click through ratio, you’re going to have to pay more for a while. But eventually it will come back down. If you can pay more, then do it. The only thing that is going to bring down the quality score is spending more money to get that click through ratio to get your price down, or improving the user experience to get the quality score up.

Myron McDaniel asks:

We are launching a new site and need some sponsors. The site is hbcuighlights.com we links open for podcast, blogs, partners section. Would you like sponsor our site with fighters.com or another one your properties?

ShoeMoney: Possibly. Demonstrate what is in it for us and we’ll talk.

River Girl asks:

When and where is the next elite retreeat?

ShoeMoney: I don’t think it makes sense to have it anywhere other than San Francisco. Unless somebody wants to put up the money to do it. We sold out the last one in San Fran, but we don’t have any plans to do another one. But I get asked once a week when the next one will be. I think it will sell out in 48 hours. It would probably be next Feb – March, in San Fran. Unless somebody wants to put up some money and have it somewhere else. We could try it in Vegas, but you want people actually at the event. We’ll have more on that at the end of this year. I know there is a big demand for it. I don’t know that we can top the last one, but we could definitely still do it.

Jim asks:

besides craigslist, what job listings boards have you found to PERSONALLY work for you for recruiting employees? Please do not answer with monster.com, hotjobs, etc where the fees are in the hundreds. These cannot be virtual people, like elance etc, but professional (i need teachers) in the US?

ShoeMoney: Husker Hire Link

zxj asks:

why can not I see my comment?

ShoeMoney: Read my post on comment spam and the comment system. If you have never commented before, it will be in the comment moderation cue.

David G. asks:

Shoe, Your recommendations 1. Wordpress or Blooger or Other. 2. The Best Web Hosting Companies. 3. Any Recommendation for Auction Software for web based auction. 4. Did you check out PicLens? Thanks

ShoeMoney: Wordpress We haven’t used a web hosting company for years No No idea what piclense is

SalutaryBlog asks:

Would you recommend stealing videos and branding them as your own?

ShoeMoney: Obviously no. But I think on the other hand, you see a lot of people stealing my content and branding it as their own. You want to always respect copyrights of everyone.

Robert asks:

What did you think of how TAC (top affiliate challenge) came out?

ShoeMoney: I think based on the fact that they had absolutely no money to spend on it, the producers. Thor didn’t have a very extensive marketing background, and a company that produced wedding videos. It has gotten more buzz than anything that I can remember. There are a number of things that need to be improved. People always bring it up. I know they were happy with the amount of revenue that the producers got out of it, and the winner got out of it. I don’t know that I’ll be apart of it again, time wise, it was just taking up a lot of time. I’ve been approached about it, but I’m kind of saying no for now. It was pretty successful. I haven’t seen past the third episode, but people will ask me about it, and tell me that it gets so much better. It received a lot of negative press, but they had a lot of how they would do it differently. So I don’t know that it was that negative. They have kind of volunteered to help out with the next one. I agree there was a lot of room for improvement, but at the same time it was one of the biggest success stories we’ve had in a long time.

Ted asks:

Shoe say you have a website selling a physical product. What do you think a manufacturer/wholesaler of said product wants to hear in order to give you the best discount (and thus a greater re-sale margin for you)?

ShoeMoney: I think the representation of the product is a big thing. If you can show you have a budget for advertising, they will give you a better margin. If you have a reputation in the space for sales with similar products, and showing you are not just going to waste their time. Will all result in a better payout.

browie asks:

if you had the name browie, what would you call your new company when you started to bring in enough revenue?

ShoeMoney: Something else, I would call it something else.

George @ Micro Marketing asks:

If you can start all over again... would you still build a blog or go for the static webpages... here's another question... which utility o software you will not be able be without or lose its application... which is the most important to you?

ShoeMoney: I would start my blog again. Terminal, without terminal I would be in deep trouble. With no access to command lines, it would be a real issue. I use skitch a ton as well.

James asks:

Do you have a dog? If so whats the dogs name and male or female.....

ShoeMoney: Baxter, male

Victor asks:

Can a blogger starting now possibly have the same kind of success you and John Chow have had, with all the competition today?

ShoeMoney: Yes. I think it depends on what you determine as success. As far as the blogosphere, John Chow and I are both in the top 100 Technorati. We are just regular guys. I think anyone can do it. I graduated with a 1. Something GPA, anyone can do it. I write anything from how I used to be fat, meeting paris Hilton, and people find that interesting. So you can do it too.

mr K asks:

What are the 3 biggest mistakes you've made in your online marketing journey?

ShoeMoney: 1. I had an oral contract with a company, and they broke the agreement and there was nothing we could do about it. 2. I’m a horrible manager, so I should have hired a CEO a while ago. I’m a marketer and some what of a programmer. For me to be a CEO and run all of these different sites and do marketing, but I think I still should hire a CEO to run all of these companies. 3. Newsletter. I should have started a newsletter years ago. And people tried to tell me, but I never listened.

Justin asks:

How is Below A Buck doing? Traffic? How many successful bids/ACRU is it doing in per a month?

ShoeMoney: Belowabuck is a site that we created in less than 24 hours. We did it on less than $500 budget. In the first month it did a couple thousand dollars. But we haven’t even changed the links to the new CJ links, so it does absolutely nothing. Its actually blacklisted in google, because another site was causing a duplicate content issue. We’re actually trying to get that cleared up.

Mike asks:

How do you usually start driving traffic with new projects or affiliates and how much money do you usually take in the hand?

ShoeMoney: Organically is nice. Usually I use low hanging fruit. So if I know someone in that space. Say we have a baby product, I would ping a lot of the mommy bloggers. Just go after low hanging fruit.

Glenn S. asks:

What do you consider the best pay-per-lead affiliate programs?

ShoeMoney: The poker industry, if its legal for you to do so, still has incredible payouts per lead. Mortgages pay really really well if you have quality stuff. Financial industry. It depends on your quality of leads, and how you build the leads.

Ryan asks:

Sometimes I find myself in a "mental block" when trying to think "outside the box" to come up with new keywords. What tips can you provide us with, to allow our minds to break free from the block?

ShoeMoney: I did a post one time on harvesting your own internal data. For instance on nextpimp, which is our mobile community site. People will type in artist names, and typos. And then bid on that in our keyword set. We have our own keyword generation tool, and keep them fresh all the time. You can subscribe to shoemoney tools, for $100 per month right now in the beta. The only thing you can do unique, is your own data.

JumboCasher.com asks:

how would it feel to ask john ths question?

ShoeMoney: Pass

Dave asks:

If you had a full-time job (that you don't hate) and your online income was about 1.5x what your job makes, would you quit or stick with it? On the one hand, I could probably grow it quite a bit since I'm only spending about 8 hours a week on it now. On the other hand, when I don't rely on the online income as much I outsource more (less work for me), save more, and spend more on fun stuff. Think if you didn't get fired you would've kept your job?

ShoeMoney: If they are happy, just do what makes them happy. There is a certain level of security with working for someone. And having benefits. Most people want to know at one point should you quit your day job and pursue. I think it just depends on how much you believe in what you are doing.

Reid asks:

Shoemoney- Did you ever have a time in your life where you wanted to give up on your internet ideas, or what gave you the push to become a successful internet entrepreneur?

ShoeMoney: I never wanted to give up. Its like a hobby to me, to try different things. Like playing the game of life. Being that it doesn’t cost anything to do it. The push really to do it, was a position of opportunity meets preparation. I basically got fired from a job, and my girlfriend at the time had decent enough income to support us as I tried this.

JumboCasher.com asks:

How would a search engine rate a single landing page against a small say 10 page website?

ShoeMoney: If all the links are going to the primary page and isn’t linking to the internal pages then it doesn’t matter. If all the links are going to an interior page, than that main page isn’t going to rank as well. I’m not an SEO.

terminator69 asks:

What is the coolest thing you have with the shoemoney logo on it? (excluding the swimming pool).

ShoeMoney: When I was 12 years old, I took a fluorescent plastic that goes over light fixtures. I did that logo in duct tape, and then spray-painted it. So when the light was on, it would shine through the logo.

Craig asks:

If timing was different how do you think you would have done on the TAC, it would have been really interesting to see all 3 gurus battle it out.

ShoeMoney: It wasn’t a battle between the gurus. We were there as just a resource for the contestants. It would have been interesting to see if we had a competition between us 3 gurus.

Geiger asks:

What's it take to get to the top of the Free T-Shirt Friday Queue?

ShoeMoney: I don’t really see the shirts, till Tigh hands them to me. So maybe a $20 to Tigh and Susan.

Bryn Youngblut asks:

Are you less motivated with your blog lately?

ShoeMoney: The thing with my blog , is its my blog. So if I want to write, I can. If not, then I don’t have to. I’m more excited about the blog than ever. But unfortunately the blog has always taken a back seat to our other company stuff. The company is definitely low on the priority list. We do have a new design that will be rolled out this week.

JumboCasher.com asks:

Shoe, what are the 3 biggest mistakes that you have made on this blog!

ShoeMoney: 1. The newsletter, not having one. 2. Redone the URL structure. But I like the way it is now, and by the URL structure you and tell by what dates the post was made. 3. I wish I would have implemented some of things I do now earlier. The behind the scenes thing, those are fricken awesome. Absolutely love doing those. Wish I would have done that earlier, and we have quite a waiting list of companies that we’re doing. I think I just took too long doing something things.

Mitchell Blatt asks:

How does it feel to have a Wikipedia page about yourself while John Chow doesn't?

ShoeMoney: I actually have a huge list of all the things I’ve done that John Chow hasn’t. I actually didn’t even know that he didn’t have one. And my page lists me 2 years older than what I actually am. I’m not going to lie, it is cool to have a wikipedia page. But I still have to work tomorrow.

Martin Muehl asks:

You once mentioned that you track your website traffic with your own analytics tool. Do you track any key metrics other than the usual?

ShoeMoney: Depending on the site and the goal. For instance on our webmasters tools stuff. We track what tool people use, and devoting the most amount of time on what people are using.

samn asks:

How do you get a "Great" quality score on a single page landing page.

ShoeMoney: Click through ratio has to be very good. The user experience is very vital, and so the user doesn’t immediately click back right away. As much as you can answer the keyword, and your ad copy has a lot to do with it. Read some of my old posts on paperclick.

Mitch asks:

Whenever I try using an image ad (CJ, Common Connect, etc) on the side panel of my Wordpress blog (my server, but their software), that entire side is suddenly at the bottom of the screen on the browser instead of on the right side. What could the issue be?

ShoeMoney: Sounds like you have a fixed width issue. Your website is a fixed width, and that image is too big.

Coaster asks:

I am new to this site. Where should I start reading on your site? It seems to be a bit all over the place to me and I don't know what to read first!

ShoeMoney: At the bottom is a previous questions and answers, there are over 1,200 Q&A’s. I would start there.

Chris Edwards asks:

Can I become a rep of yours someway over here in California (Los Angeles)?

ShoeMoney: Absolutely.

team ray asks:

auctions ads how long did it take you to put it together and in what programming language did you use?

ShoeMoney: Dave Dellanave wrote it in a couple days, for the core of it. Maybe less than a day. It was derived from a product called Shoemoney Ads. PHP

mcQ asks:

Do you think Bruce Ivin's is the anthrax guy? or he is being used as a scapegoat?

ShoeMoney: Not familiar. Sure.

Geiger asks:

Choose one... Rock, Paper or Scissors?

ShoeMoney: Rock. Because I’m built like a rock.

JumboCasher.com asks:

nice question!. I have about 14 and counting...

ShoeMoney: Pass

elsewhen asks:

i presume that you are well connected to people who have successful internet businesses. can you disclose the annual profits (not revenues) the top tier are making in different internet business categories... like people who specialize in running adsense sites, affiliate marketers, people selling digital goods, i am not asking you to disclose names, just something like, i know three guys making approx 1.5million/year with adsense or whatever. thanks!

ShoeMoney: I know 3.5 million guys making a dollar a day. If they just want to be inspired, I saw a guy log into his CJ account, and he was doing 2 million a month. That is pretty impressive. The adsense question is interesting, because most of the people making money from adsense, don’t know any better yet. This excludes digg, myspace, etc. Adsense is a great starting point, but it leads you to other things. It lead me to affiliate marketing. We were doing 100k’s per month, and led us to affiliate marketing years and years ago. I don’t know a lot making much with adsense, because it’s a little embarrassing that they are making much. I don’t know anybody making over $5 a month on adsense.

JumboCasher.com asks:

making a little money is one thing... what about sustaining that income over a long period of time.

ShoeMoney: That would be good. I agree. That’s how I started with adsense and paperclick stuff. You are rich, and you’re poor. We have grown the staff and entered more stable markets.

Lawrence asks:

I have a number, it's in the range of 1-10....make a guess: I want to check if we see eye-to-eye

ShoeMoney:5

Mark - The Niche Store Builder asks:

If you had a stellar idea for a new website... what are the first 5 things you would do? AND, if you were somewhat new... where would you turn for guidance?

ShoeMoney: Turning for guidance, go to my site. We have 3 core things we look at: 1. Business model, is there a way to make money. 2. A needed service, is it something you would want to use, and going to use 3. Is there a viral component, will it grow without spending money. If they aren’t there for your stellar idea, you should probably can it.

Kacper asks:

What is your biggest online success so far in this year?

ShoeMoney: The Elite Retreat was big. We launched Fighters.com. I guess it depends on what is “success”. We are hitting all of our goals with fighters.com, but we’re just not profiting. I would say fighters.com is our biggest. Or the tools system, I’m really impressed by how many people have signed up already. We have a great feedback thing now, where people can submit suggestions. And we let members vote on it, and if everybody wants it, then we’ll build it. Its still too early in the year, we usually do the best in the 4th quarter. The 1st and 2nd quarter we suck. 3rd and 4th look very promising.

Dan Schawbel asks:

How do you charge advertisers on your blog? Is it by the number of RSS subscribers you have?

ShoeMoney: No. We charge, because we’re capitalist pig, we basically let the market set itself. The advertisers are locked in at that price, but when they stop advertising we charge more for the next advertiser. We increase the price 5% each time, until nobody wants to advertise then we’ll bring the price down.

BigPappa asks:

Can I buy you a beer next time I am in Lincoln?

ShoeMoney: Probably not. Only because between work and family, I can’t remember the last time I went out to a bar in Lincoln. Except for one night with the TAC. I can’t even name a bar in Lincoln.

JumboCasher.com asks:

what according to you is going to be the next big thing about the internet?

ShoeMoney: The internationalization of the internet will be the next frontier. When you look at the market, and many people use the internet in other countries. If affiliate marketing is there, then adsense will be there. There are just so many people that aren’t on the internet yet, and the mobile, international stuff. Most people in other countries use their phones more than their computer to access the internet.

Charlie asks:

Would me buying at a great hibachi grill here in Vegas be a fair trade for some time to discuss a couple projects I have been working on? And when are you going to be in Las Vegas again? (pubcon I assume)

ShoeMoney: I’ll be in Vegas for the DMA, in October. Taking me out for dinner, I just don’t have time for that. I appreciate the offer, but I just don’t plan lunches and dinners. I usually just go with the posse. Unless you want to buy dinner for 20 people. Usually Neil Patel buys for everyone. I’m free to talk, just tag along with.

Joe Hall asks:

Best online business: subscription based service, or for sale product? And i also want to know what your thoughts are on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, but if i have to choose, I want to know about the online business first.

ShoeMoney: Subscription is the win. Ongoing subscription is timeless. Blockbuster and netflix monthly subscription models, they absolutely kill it. With some of our sites , we have subscribers going back 5, 6 years. That’s awesome revenue. Even with our shirts, we lose money on the shirts. The shirts cost us $7, and $5 to ship. So we lose money on them. We have people call about wrong sizes, or shipped to wrong address. I’ve never cared to actually have a physical product. I think they’re cool. They don’t have to dress up, they just have their shell. Each has their own specialty.

Allen asks:

If you had very limited time and resources, what would you do to make money in the least amount of time? So let's say you wanted to make $50/day and had 8 hours to set it up what would you do?

ShoeMoney: I would probably put $10,000 and 5% interest on that. Whatever would give me $50 in interest, I would put that much money in the bank. By the time you get all the paperwork done, it would take less than 8 hours.

meethere asks:

why dont you post a monthly income report similar to johnchow :D ?

ShoeMoney: Honestly, because I would just be guessing. I actually run several other companies and projects. I’m not that guy sitting at home in his underwear anymore. I have one person does all accounting, Tigh does all the operations, and Dave does all the programming. And I do the marketing. I know we do good revenues. The blog should bring in about $300k, $400k this year. Probably 90% is profit. Most of the advertisers don’t want to share, and some have a good rate, some don’t. We have to make $1,400 just so we’re in the green, because we have employees. And in some projects we have investors, which would not want us disclosing the financial info.

TEKFIRM asks:

- Content is king - Viral - Service

ShoeMoney: Pass

TEGS asks:

Hey Shoe, I sent you a picture of me and a affiliate check but you never posted it! I'll admit it was a little over the top and not like the rest of the images in the gallery but I was kinda disappointed. Didn't you think it was inappropriate or did you just not receive it? I bet you get allot of spam. Either way, love the site! And thanks for your insights. Thanks!

ShoeMoney: Send in a pic of yourself with a check. And people started sending in pics with their dog and a check, car and a check. And it might have just got tagged a spam. Send it again.

Geiger asks:

How does one start their own ringtone site?

ShoeMoney: A lot of affiliate companies have API’s that you can start right away. Years and years ago, people could generate their own ringtones upload and share them. That would be hard for you now though. I’m assuming you don’t have a very good marketing team, programming team.

corey asks:

the website that is the most enjoyable for me to run and create content for is in a niche that is not a huge affiliate arena. only a few of the online stores have affiliate programs. have you ever motivated a company to start a program? is it a lot of trouble for a seller to get setup with one of these networks?

ShoeMoney: We have motivated and written affiliate programs for companies. If this company has something you believe in, have them contact us and we can implement one for them. They can go with CJ, they charge like $5k off the top, and hold $5k. We custom write them, and the way we do it is pretty slick for SEO value. It has better tracking than most affiliate companies. And its more hands on. When people are blocking CJ cookies, and links. You won’t be affected by that.

Andrew asks:

Do you have a college degree? Is it valuable these days for someone who aims to live off the internet or is it a waste of precious time ?

ShoeMoney: Like Tigh, he has a 4 year degree in Mathematics. But he is also from a very small town. When people are from small farming communities are usually very hard workers, and good work ethic. That combined with his education was hard for me to ignore. I don’t have a degree, I just don’t learn very well in an educational setting. I learn better from experience. If you are already doing this, and learning, and getting experience from it. I don’t know what school is going to do for you. But if you want to be an accountant, or marketing wise you can learn a lot from school. I benefited greatly from classes I took like business law and marketing. More key classes, and less degrees. I’m not a degree person.

Melvin asks:

when you started out putting ads on this site, whats the average price of an adspot?

ShoeMoney: I think around $200 a month.