The Thirty Day Challenge is officially over as of September 1, 2007, Hawaii Time, which is now. The past 31 days went by incredibly fast.

A number of people have won the challenge, most of them making their first $10 on the internet. I wish I could shake each of their hands, because truth be told, they’ve probably made more than 90% who have attempted to earn money online, ever. And they didn’t have to spend a single cent to do it.

I hate picking favourites, but Bruce on the forums has inspired me to keep going on into September. For those who don’t know, he made over $14 000 using the Thirty Day Challenge techniques on his own existing site. He also restarted part way through the challenge.

I had the goal of earning $100 online using the Thirty Day Challenge’s methods and I also had a mini goal of earning $1 a day, every day. If Ed Dale and Dan Raine could almost guarantee that a complete newbie could earn $10, I could probably do that and then some! So I upped the challenge to $100.

Oddly enough, I failed. Both goals were not met and I have yet to make that “first sale.” I made nothing, and I’m sure I’m not alone, but I did learn a few tricks (notably GTrends) that I will take with me on future projects.

What makes this even funnier is that I did make $114.06 this month, but not by using the Thirty Day Challenge techniques. This was also the largest sum of money I’ve ever earned in a single month, a personal milestone. Seeing how successful others have been and seeing that I can get the rankings and at least some of the traffic (I’ve yet to hit #1 in Google, but I’m in the top 10 for most of my niches) I will keep going on into September. What’s nice is that Ed Dale and the gang will keep the 30 Day Challenge active indefinitely, periodically adding more content and keeping the forums active due to the immense turnout they had this year.

I’m keeping the same goal, $100 by the end of September. I’m also adding a second goal of hitting $200 in my other online ventures. This will be a bit tougher since I have classes this fall, but some things are happening soon where I’ll be receiving tons of traffic in one of my projects, so I should be able to hit the $200 mark. If the traffic converts well, I may even reach my goal in the next week!

This was a great month for me online, and I hope 30 Day Challengers and other aspiring internet marketers and bloggers continue to charge into September, sword in hand!

Technorati Tags: Thirty Day Challenge, 30 Day Challenge, TDC, 30DC, Goals, Failure, Online Earnings, Making Money on the Internet, Internet, Serious Business, Disclaimer, New Exploits, Optimism

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I made close to $40 yesterday, bringing me to an unprecedented $102.97, and almost all of it is going to be in my hands sometime in September, plus the $60 I earned last month. I’ve earned more in the past two months than I have in the six months prior. Things are slowly starting to pick up.

If I play my cards right, I’ll also have a juicy $100 ClickBank cheque. Unfortunately, I’ve made zilch in the 30 Day Challenge thus far. Now, only a very, very few have made anything, and we’re still only a couple days into the traffic/conversion phase, but I’ve yet to receive any SE traffic, let alone make a sale. My deleted tumblelogs are still listed in the top 10 on the SERPs *smacks forehead* and all except one of my new blogs aren’t listed, period.

Perhaps I’m a little impatient, but I have to hit this goal and time is running out. I’ve already surpassed this goal with what I’ve already been doing with my other blog projects. Something tells me I should just replicate that, But I’m not even sure what I’m doing that’s suddenly putting money in my pocket. My traffic is only marginally better than it was three months ago. This blog has enjoyed a nice surge in traffic in the last month, but what I’ve earned from Life Conquest is only a mere microscopic, tiny fraction of my total earnings.

I’ve got a birthday to attend later today, so that should give me some time to clear my mind a bit and start thinking about what to do after the 30 Day Challenge, assuming it doesn’t work out the way I had hoped.

Technorati Tags: 30DC, TDC, Thirty Day Challenge, 30 Day Challenge, Earnings, Online Income, Goals, Zero, 0, Zip, Zilch, Bupkis, Naught, Goose Egg, Diddly Squat, Nil, Nothing

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… from a blog which is not affiliated with the 30 Day Challenge.

This is one of the reasons why I love internet marketing: your blog or website works and earns while you’re not around, even when you sleep. The other reason is that I can work on said blog or website in nothing but my underwear and a T-shirt.

This not only increases my August earnings to over $60, but I’ve hit my minimum payout for this unnamed affiliate program and should be expecting a $120 cheque in the mail in 2-3 weeks! This is my second cheque from online wheeling and dealing and it’s over four times bigger than the last one! I really, really, really, really, really hope that I keep getting cheques (sorry, I’m Canadian) in the mail each month, and I’m not just getting lucky. The thing is, traffic hasn’t increased much in the past few months, but I’m making more money. (Note that my 30DC goal is to make $100 solely from the 30DC, so this doesn’t count towards it.)

I’m earning more money with my other blog projects that I’ve put on the back burner since starting the 30 Day Challenge. It’s too early to say I’m disappointed in the 30 Day Challenge, because we’re just starting to get into the meat and potatoes of it.

But not everybody has been pleased with the way the 30 Day Challenge. Mark at 45n5 criticized the challenge for using parasite SEO and not really working to create something sustainable. I agree with him that what we’ve done so far isn’t really sustainable, but we’ve just started, and Ed has mentioned that there are still more things to do. Mark suggests to “Do what they do, not what they say,” but I think we are building up to what they really do, which is create and sell (or get others to sell) your own info product.

I’m going to chug along with the 30 Day Challenge, and if I don’t end up making anything, I’ve only lost a little time.

Technorati Tags: TDC, 30DC, Thirty Day Challenge, 30 Day Challenge, Parasite SEO, Online Earnings, Internet Income, Making Money Online, Making Money While You Sleep, Tumblr, Tumblelogs, Tumbleweed, Tumblespam,

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I’ve picked my final six niches, but I’m going to focus most of my efforts into the best three over the next few days. This is because most of my niches have two keyword phrases pulling 40+ searches a day. At 3 mini articles per phrase (6, actually!), that adds up. But hey, when I get back later tonight and start on these mini articles I may end up speeding through them and catch up entirely.

Today’s video taught me nothing new, but I loved the teaser at the end showing Ed’s Tumblr blog as eighth on Google. I checked it a few minutes ago and it’s sixth. Not bad indeed.

I smiled when he was going through ClickBank. I’ve used it in the past and made a few sales, but never made the minimum five sales, at least one with Visa and one with MasterCard, that you need to make before ClickBank can start sending your cheques. Below is an actual screenshot, only edited to make it fit the blog post. Yes, these are my actual ClickBank earnings.

Note the “LOL.” After a few months of no sales activity, ClickBank starts removing $1.00 every pay period. Perhaps after this month I’ll have better success with ClickBank, using FREE traffic. I spent (i.e. wasted) almost $50 in PPC ads. Nowadays I never use paid advertising. After I make some more money, I’ll reinvest it in some PPC arbitrage projects.

I’m already tinkering with the idea of using the “GTrends” technique to identify keywords that I could use to get more search engine traffic to my other blogs. Currently, they receive very little SE traffic, and in the case of two of my other four blogs, they get nothing. I could do this with maybe two of my blogs which are very “niche.” Tomorrow, when I make updates for my other blogs for the next week (takes a few hours for all of them) I’ll do some keyword analysis.

Technorati Tags: 30DC, TDC, Thirty Day Challenge, 30 Day Challenge, Affiliate Marketing, ClickBank, Earnings, LOL, Funny, Actual Screenshot, GTrends, Google Trends, Technorati Tags

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I was perusing through the warrior forum when I saw a thread on making $1 a day. I was inspired to set up a new mini goal for August, which is to consistently earn $1 a day online by August 31. The key word there is consistent. I might be able to make a sale with one of my sponsors, giving me $30 and giving me an average of $1 a day for a month. But I want to actually make $1 a day, every day.

This is will probably be even harder than earning $100 online in the whole month because the goal is to keep earning. Maybe the 30DC can help me reach this bonus goal, but I won’t limit myself to just 30DC techniques and income strategies.

Why only $1? Because it’s a very small number, and because it’s so small, I may be able to set up a system that generates $1 on autopilot, or with very, very little maintenance. If I can set up a $1/day autopilot system, then who is to say I can’t build 99 more autopilot systems, earning me $100 a day? I’ve been looking into click arbitrage or autopilot pay-per-lead (from sponsors on CJ) although I have no idea how to actually get down to setting up the latter.

Now I’m just waiting for Day 3’s podcast and videos!

Technorati Tags: Online Income, Internet Marketing

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It’s August. The 30 Day Challenge starts very soon. What are my goals?

Earning $10 online in a month should be fairly easy for me, so what I’m going to do is increase that to $100. By the end of August, I want to earn $100 solely from my 30 Day Challenge activities. That means the $7.94 I earned a few hours ago (although technically that was in July) doesn’t count. I will still be continuing my other internet marketing projects in addition to following the 30DC protocol. I may even use what I learn to enhance my earnings in my other online pursuits. But the $100 has to come from the 30 Day Challenge. Seems kind of high since I am making less than $30 a month, and that’s only in the past three months. But you know what they say, aim for the moon and if you miss, at least you’ll be among the stars.

My second goal is more long-term. Whatever I earn, whether it’s $10 or $1000, I will meet and exceed in September. I’m going to have class so it will be a bit harder, but since I would already have done the 30DC and seen some success, there is no reason I can’t repeat it. That’s the beauty of earning money online, especially with no costs. If I can make $100 in a month, what’s stopping me from making $100 every month? And if I can make $100 every month, who is to say I can’t make apply the same techniques to generate $100 every week? Or $100 every day?

So here it is, my 30 Day Challenge goals:

• earn $100 by August 1 using 30DC techniques, income from other online projects doesn’t count

• meet and exceed whatever I earn in August, whether I hit the $100 mark or not, in September

Technorati Tags: 30 Day Challenge, 30DC, Thirty Day Challenge, TDC

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I’ve made over $100 online since I started getting “serious” (not really) about internet marketing eight months ago. Pretty pathetic by most internet marketers’ standards, but I earned it. It’s mine. Well, sort of. As I stated in an earlier post, I just recently hit the minimum payout for a sponsor (actually, CCBill). I got the cheque in the mail today. After processing fees, it came out to $25.78 USD. After exchanging the currency it came out to… a little over $25.78 CDN.

Suffice to say, I was fucking excited. Sure, I could’ve made that much in a couple hours at a menial job, but where’s the fun in that? Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture in the style of Shoemoney. Actually, I didn’t forget. I decided not to because I would probably embarrass myself if I posted it! Still, even if it were a $1.00 cheque I would’ve been just as excited getting it. I felt even more excited than when I made my first sale. I was actually holding the money in my hands. Great feeling!

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This post was inspired by a guy who is hell bent on making money online - even if it puts him on the street. On one of the internet marketing forums I frequent, there’s this guy who is desperate to make money online. He pleads for advice, usually ignores the advice he’s given, and then pleads for more advice. What is he trying to do? He’s looking for something that will guarantee profits. There is nothing that will guarantee you anything in this business, and only those who will profit from the advice they give you will tell you otherwise.

You know what worries me about this guy? He’s quick to buy suggested products, pay for futile AdWords campaigns for sites that he has to set up on a free host because he has so little spare money. According to him, he needs to desperately get enough money to pay the rent.

Now hold on a damn minute! This guy is trying to muster a few hundred dollars in less than a month so he can pay his rent? Many internet marketers make this money in their sleep, but this guy is just getting started in this business. I’m not exactly an IM hotshot but I know that this is NOT the way to go about making money online. The only people who are going to make money are Google, AdSense publishers (if he’s using the Content Network), and e-book peddlers who hold the secret to online wealth.

I would never suggest to someone barely hanging on to put what little money they have in the stock market. The stock market is a bit different from internet marketing, but AdWords, hosting, buying traffic, etc. are all investments. And at this point, if you’re barely scraping by, they’re risky investments.

So how do you start making money online if you have none? The easiest way to get started is by blogging. I set up my free hosted blogs on Blogger. You could also use WordPress. I have no experience with WordPress hosting, but their blogging software, which I’m using here, is great. But Blogger is probably easier to use if you’re new to blogging.

Pick a niche for your blog. There are different ways you can find a niche. They’re everywhere. I’d personally use a combination of the keyword tool at SEO Tools or SEO Book, search results, maybe ClickBank or another affiliate marketplace to see what’s selling in different niches, AdWords keyword tool to see advertiser competition. Note, you are not using AdWords, just using the tool so you can gauge how popular or competitive a certain niche is. You can also get some idea of the cost of different keywords.

Update your blog daily. This one hasn’t been updated every day, but I’m not expecting to make much from it. You can and should make more than one. Use some SEO techniques on your blog so you can rank high on the search engines. SE traffic is some of the highest quality traffic you can get. And it’s free.

Promote your blog. Submit it to blog directories. Build Hubs and Squidoo lenses. Make link trades with other blogs. Put your blog in your signature on forums you frequent (if it’s allowed). Carefully spread your links on Google, MSN, and Yahoo! Groups if you can wade through the spam. Never spam your blog and avoid making it even look like you’re spamming your blog at all costs. Submit your blog or blog articles to social bookmarking websites. I put up a list of them a few days ago. Put your blog in your email signature. Depending on your niche, you could find many other ways to promote your blog. Is it a gardening blog? Try answering a gardening question on something like Yahoo! Answers and link back to your blog or a blog post containing relevant information about the question! Be creative, but avoid spamming!

Monetize your blog. Place AdSense ads on it. Plug affiliate products in your posts, but don’t be a complete affiliate whore about it.

Keep updating your blog. You don’t have to update it daily, forever. But the more you update it, the better.

As people visit your blog you will get clicks on your AdSense ads and make money. AdSense earnings are a function of traffic so the more traffic you bring, the more money you should make. Affiliate sales are also great, especially if your blog is matured and trusted.

Once you start making money, reinvest it. But take it one day at a time. You won’t make a million dollars by tomorrow, in fact you probably won’t even make $1000 by the end of the month, but Rome wasn’t built in a day.

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