We knew it would happen. It always happens. Not long after Twitter's popularity hit the stratosphere, the spammers began swarming. Now direct messages boxes are packed with Mafia invitations, follower lists have been infiltrated by pornbots, and I had to put up with dozens of impostors trading on my name before my verified account was able to show who's really me. Whenever something gets big and successful on the Internet, you can bet that there... Continue Reading

Hardly a day goes by that I don't hear about a new Twitter app, web tool or other utility created to make the use of Twitter easier or more interesting. It's pretty hard to keep up with them. And it's pretty rare that I endorse a tool or app. Just as I wait to see new sites pick up steam before jumping on board, I usually don't start using new tools until they demonstrate widespread... Continue Reading

I seem to spend a lot of time on the road these days. I've been up and down the country, backwards and forwards, and from state to state. I've even been to the other side of the world and back. It's hard work, with lots of jet-lag and too much time away from my family. That always hurts. But I enjoy it. I like speaking. The people I meet at events and conferences tend to... Continue Reading

Last week the FTC dropped a bomb on the marketing world. They released new guidelines for the use of testimonials and endorsements in marketing. I immediately contacted my attorney, Kevin Houchin, to get his take on the latest guidelines. With Kevin's permission, I am republishing the entire text of his interpretation. It is essential that all marketers, online and offline, pay attention to this content. And understand that if you have ANY questions, you should... Continue Reading

Alright, so maybe it wasn't the legal dispute of the century. But you've got to admit, for two little iPhone flatulence apps, we sure did make a stink! As you may recall, the fun and games began when Air-O-Matic, the creators of Pull My Finger, contacted me with a demand for $50,000. Why? They claimed that my use of the phrase "pull my finger" in a small portion of our online marketing campaign was responsible... Continue Reading

Big changes don't usually happen overnight. There are usually a few quiet moves first -- little tweaks and adjustments that no one really notices. And then suddenly, one more little change makes a huge difference, pushes it over the tipping point and forces everyone to pay attention. Continue Reading

Twitter looks so easy, doesn't it? You don't have to plan and research like you do when you're writing a blog post. You can write whatever's on your mind and hit the Update button. Random thoughts make for perfectly good tweets. You don't have to think about search engine optimization. Tweets do turn up on Google but links in tweets don't count towards page rank and there's no way - or reason -- to optimize... Continue Reading

There are about seven billion people on the planet. Every one of us is different. Every one of us has opinions, tastes, inclinations and preferences. And every one of us is difficult to please. If you work hard at marketing your website and your products, you'll be able to put them in front of a few thousand of those people. Work really hard and build successful products, and maybe millions will see them. Continue Reading

Apart from Twitter's own terms of service which prohibit obvious things like harassment, transmitting viruses and spamming other members, there really aren't many rules to the site. You can essentially use Twitter however you like. However, for people and businesses who want to use Twitter successfully (eg: build a following and grow their circle of influence), there are a number of best practices that can be observed. I cover many of these in my book... Continue Reading

Have you ever asked a child what they want for Christmas? They'll tell you exactly what they want, describe it in glorious detail, even point it out to you in the store so that you don't make a mistake and come home with the wrong version. Then on Christmas morning you get to see their eyes light up as they open the wrapping. It's a thrill... until New Year's Day when the toy is lying... Continue Reading

I'm scared of change. There, I said it. It's not big news though. Everyone is scared of change. Change is a scary thing. It means giving up what you have now for something better that you can only hope you'll have in the future. It's risky. It's dangerous. It's disruptive. It's also thrilling, exciting... and inevitable. Continue Reading

I've been an Amazon.com Associate since the beginning. I'm not sure when they started their program, but it's been over ten years that I've promoted Amazon's products and services. Imagine my surprise when I received an email from Andrea, an Associates Account Specialist (is that for people who can't get jobs with the post office? I'm kidding.. relax...), that informed me my account was being closed. First of all, let me say this. I am... Continue Reading

A recent question in USA Today by Steve Strauss in the "Ask the Expert" column asked the question, "Should Entrepreneur's Twitter?" Mr. Strauss answered the question with a definitive "No" and gave several reasons. One must wonder how someone who so clearly does not understand Twitter was able to speak as an "expert." As a true expert on the subject, I wish to set the record straight and dissuade entrepreneurs from acting on Mr. Strauss... Continue Reading

There are times when I've sat in a conference, looked around a room full of bright, hopeful entrepreneurs and wondered how many of them will become successful. I don't mean how many of them will be successful this time next year or how many will be millionaires in five years' time. I mean how many will be successful at all. Continue Reading

I've seen some really clever things done with ads on the Web. I've seen some pretty dumb things too, like whack-a-mole banners and flashing skyscrapers that make you want to look anywhere but at the ad. But some of the ideas have been incredibly creative. When Kontera first wheeled out its system, I loved the fact that its ads were so unobtrusive. When Chitika created its eMiniMalls and then its Premium ads, I thought the... Continue Reading

Few Internet companies have succeeded in seizing mindshare more than Zappos.com. One of the truly great ecommerce success stories, Zappos has built an incredible brand based on a culture-centric philosophy. They believe that their company culture is what drives their employees to provide premium customer service. And you know what? They are right. It works. Continue Reading

My team and I came up with the idea for an iPhone fart application in summer of 2008. We knew it would be a hit. We just needed to develop it. We took great pride in developing iFart Mobile. It was more than another iPhone application. It was a true entertainment machine with a unique interface. It didn't LOOK like an iPhone app. When we submitted the application to Apple, it was put "in review... Continue Reading

Did you ever walk into one of those old mom-and-pop hardware stores, the sort of place where piles of dusty boxes filled with metal things are stacked from floor to ceiling and nothing's got a label on it? You walk up to the counter, explain what you're trying to do and the store owner nods, starts bringing down boxes and in no time at all finds exactly the widget you were looking for. Those people... Continue Reading

This is a hugely exciting time to be an online publisher. It used to be the case that if you wanted to earn from ads on your website, there was only one thing to do. You signed up to AdSense, pasted in the code, optimized the units and brought in traffic while following your stats. You still have to do that. But these days that's just the beginning. Continue Reading

There are millions of blogs on the web, but there are only a handful that are creating content of value. I learned about Tyler Cruz a few months back and have been paying close attention to his latest projects. One recent project is proving very useful to those in the affiliate marketing industry. It's called Publisher Spot and it is a directory of Internet ad network companies. It is a valuable resource because it provides... Continue Reading

Google. Amazon.com. eBay. Yahoo! MySpace. Facebook. Everyone has heard of these Internet giants. These companies have generated billions of dollars in revenue and made their founders multi-millionaires. The mainstream media talks about them religiously. But ask yourself a question... Continue Reading

Social Media is all the buzz right now. It started with MySpace, continued with YouTube and has brought about Facebook, Twitter and a host of other sites promising the help people interact in new ways. These sites have become very popular and two were purchased for a tidy sum. Rupert Murdoch's News Corp purchased MySpace for $580 million and Google bought YouTube for for $1.65 BILLION. I'm sure the boys from Facebook and Twitter have... Continue Reading

Thor Schrock is catching a lot of heat over his online reality program, The Top Affiliate Challenge. I remember when Thor first told me about his idea for the show. I encouraged him to do it, but I warned him that it would take a miracle to pull off a quality show on a daily basis. When Eric and I produced The Next Internet Millionaire, we filmed for two weeks straight and had a two-week... Continue Reading

Everyone has heard of Chicken Soup for the Soul and the zillion titles that were derived from this massive best-seller. What you don't know is that I am friends with the man who helped make that series so huge! His name is Rick Frishman and he knows a few things about getting attention. ;-) Rick has just released a new book of his own called "Where's Your Wow?" that reveals 16 ways to make your... Continue Reading

Whenever something big happens in the world of online advertising, I'm left scratching my head and wondering what it means for me. It doesn't get much bigger than Microsoft offering tens of billions of dollars for Yahoo!. So what does that mean for me... and for you too? At the moment, nothing. Yahoo! has rejected Microsoft's bid and probably holding out for more money. If the deal goes through, it won't happen overnight. Even then... Continue Reading

I'm a huge fan of developing online communities for revenue generation. The wonderful thing about community sites is that the members create the content for you. However, it can sometimes be tricky to kickstart your forums in order to get people posting. If you launch forums and people visit only to find that there is no activity, odds are they aren't going to register, post or return. This is the primary reason most forums don't... Continue Reading

A few months ago I wrote an article discussing why I dislike network marketing. One of the main reasons is because many organizations suggest that you recruit your family and friends to join you in your quest to get rich. Bah. I just don't like that. BUT, as I mentioned on my blog, the Internet now affords an opportunity to get involved in network marketing without having to sell to your "warm" market. Continue Reading

What if I told you could pick the brain of a former Google employee for $100. Would you seize the opportunity? Frankly, I can't imagine anyone with even the slightest curiousity not taking advantage of that offer. What if I told you that this person was on the original Google AdWords team? I don't know about you, but I'd pay over $1000 to hear what this person has to say! Well, I've got some bad... Continue Reading

I know I am opening myself up to criticism for this post, but it's been on my mind and I really just want to put it out there. I dislike the way multi-level marketing has been done by many companies. I don't dislike multi-level marketers, mind you (well, most of them anyway). I just think that business model has proven destructive to many individuals and families. Continue Reading

OK... We all know most people are concerned about hackers and the safety of shopping online. And we all know that trust seals can help. But is there a best seal program to address this problem? Are there any real, proven benefits of one over the other? HACKER SAFE is proven to be the most effective trust seal... Ever! Think about it for one minute... * Used by over 75,000 websites * Seen on over... Continue Reading

I love the way Google works. The company has created a fantastic system for turning space on Web pages into fat checks. Even though it's got a bunch of competitors all with their own methods of delivering contextualized ads, Google is still top of the pile. But not everything Google does is as big a success as AdSense. Its referral programs, for example, never brought me a great deal of revenue. I haven't heard of... Continue Reading

So when was the last time you checked AdSense's TOS? I know, I know, it's all small print. It's boring. It doesn't change very often. And when it does change, the changes don't mean anything. Right, right, right... and wrong. Very, very wrong. The Terms of Service of any program, especially contextual ad programs, might be about as fun to read as the ingredients list on a TV dinner but they're important. They're important to... Continue Reading

Change. It's one thing in life we can depend on. And it can be the thing that frightens us most. I've known people who don't like the least bit of change in their lives. They are most comfortable in keeping the status quo. Change implies risk. And risk... well, sometimes things don't turn out the way we hope they will. And sometimes they do. Continue Reading

Internet entrepreneur Joel Comm and his new book: "The AdSense Code: What Google Never Told You About Making Money with AdSense." reveal how anyone can generate passive income on the Internet. Since only those books that appeared on Oprah ranked higher, Comm figures Oprah and her audience would find his Internet income strategies the real story. Read on for today's news release... Continue Reading

There are so many ways to promote business online. Adsense is a focus for me, because it has been so lucrative, and because there are so many businesses building their brand through the Adwords program. What's very interesting is that there are entire worlds of promotion outside of the Adwords Pay Per Click model. "Sponsorship" type programs are one example, which can bring traffic to not only your web site, but to your brand, through... Continue Reading

There's only one thing I hate worse than email spam. It is junk fax spam. I got a fax machine so that I could send and receive important documents for my business. I use it for this purpose maybe once each week. But my fax machine is active far more frequently due to fax spam. I HATE junk faxes! So I decided to do something about it. Continue Reading

Clever copy and limited supply is the modus operandi at Woot.com. I wish I had thought of this concept. But I didn't. Instead, I am a customer. Woot.com features one product each weekday. They have a limited supply of these products and they offer tham at a great price. But the coolest part is the witty copywriting that accompanies the product of the day. No reason to copy their text here. It is fresh every... Continue Reading

Random thoughts for today... I'm finally starting to see through the scam known as "insurance". What ticks me off most is health insurance. It doesn't matter how healthy you are. Once you are accepted by a company, they religiously increase your rates every premium period just because they can. So what to do? Change insurance companies. My premium got cut in half when I did this. Of course, in just a few years, it will... Continue Reading

It is true. I am an Arbonne consultant. (Actually, that may be past-tense by the time you read this...) For those unfamiliar with Arbonne, they are a fast-growing company focused on health care and skin care products. They claim the products are all natural and most of the people who try them truly love them. The downside is that they are ridiculously expensive. Still, you get what you pay for. For the record, I have... Continue Reading

I love my Tivo. I have owned one for over five years and I have charmed many friends with live demonstrations of what Tivo can do. Unfortunately, Tivo has not been able to accelerate their subscriber base enough to become profitable. The word on the street is that Apple is interested in Tivo. Of course, the companies aren't responding to the "rumours". But I think it would be a perfect match. Tivo is the Macintosh... Continue Reading

And so, the litigation hounds once again are unleashed on the prescription drug community. This time it is over Vioxx, an anti-arthitic drug manufactured by Merck. Research has long pointed to the fact that long-term use of Vioxx may contribute to heart attacks and strokes. Perhaps the FDA didn't study the drug long enough. Perhaps the pharmaceutical companies are only interested in money. Perhaps people don't read the warning labels. And perhaps some were willing... Continue Reading

Charles Krauthammer, writing for the Jewish World Review, has come out with an article that precisely nails down the problem with John Kerry and John Edwards. Highlights from Krauthammer's article... This is John Edwards on Monday at a rally in Newton, Iowa: "If we do the work that we can do in this country, the work that we will do when John Kerry is president, people like Christopher Reeve are going to walk, get up... Continue Reading

Do you have a fax machine? If so, has your number been released to the spammers of the fax world? Once it has, your fax machine will never be the same. Junk Fax has cluttered my fax machine for nearly two years. I get several junk faxes a week, promoting the latest penny stock, travel club or health insurance scheme. I have been throwing away the faxes as the removal numbers at the bottom seem... Continue Reading

Teresa Heinz Kerry has put her foot in her mouth again. Liberals are always accusing conservatives of "hate speech". According to a story in the Associated Press, Teresa Heinz Kerry says "only an idiot" would fail to support her husband's health care plan. But Heinz Kerry, the wife of Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, told the (Lancaster) Intelligencer Journal that "of course, there are idiots." Kerry's proposal includes health care subsidies for children, the unemployed... Continue Reading

There has been a great deal of talk about outsourcing jobs to other countries recently. I never thought that I would have an interest in the topic, but I was wrong. I have been looking for a talented programmer and web designer to tackle some new Internet projects. I found a site called elance.com, a fairly comprehensive site for finding professionals to do just about any computer/internet related job. Logo design, web design, programming of... Continue Reading

I hate dealing with insurance. When you pay a premium, you are betting that you will need to make a claim. With health insurance, you are betting that you are going to get sick! About eight years ago, I bought a policy with Fortis, one of the world's largest banking and insurance companies. At that time, we decided that all we needed was a major medical policy. So we choose a $2500 per person deductible... Continue Reading

Interesting things you find online. Ever heard of a structured settlement? Lets say you had a large sum of cash due you from a lawsuit or personal injury case. A structured settlement is "An agreement in settlement of a lawsuit involving specific payments made over a period of time. Property and casualty insurance companies often buy life insurance products to pay the costs of such settlements." Receiving large sums of money at once can be... Continue Reading

This just in from the Washington Post... Recording Industry Sues File Swappers The Recording Industry Association of America (news - web sites) (RIAA) today said it filed lawsuits against 261 people accused of trading copyrighted songs on the Internet. The group also said that it would not sue file sharers who promise in writing not to do it again. The lawsuits, which were filed in federal courts across the country, are the RIAA's latest tactics... Continue Reading

Ever been to Blogshares.com? From their site... BlogShares is a simulated, fantasy stock market for weblogs where players invest fictional money to buy stocks and bonds in an artificial economy where attention is the commodity and weblogs are the companies. It's really a great deal of fun! This Blog is now listed and the price is skyrocketing. There are a few shares available, so enter the game and grab yours today. Click here to get... Continue Reading

Come and listen to a story of boom and bust. A tale of exhuberent highs and devastating lows. A yarn so dramatic, so engaing, so tragic... wait... wrong story. This is about my experience with the Internet and how I rode the wave from the beginning, only to end up here. Ready? Come gather 'round... Part I: I can do that! I have always been a computer freek. Since Radio Shack launched the first TRS-80... Continue Reading