Whenever I attend a conference I always try to listen to as many of the other speakers' talks as possible. I can't think of a single talk that hasn't taught me something. But some of the most powerful and valuable information that I've learned at conferences didn't come while sitting in front of a professional marketer. It came while sitting in the café afterwards and chatting with my students. Continue Reading

I recently had the opportunity to do a book signing at our local Barnes & Noble store in Loveland, Colorado. The team at the store was very friendly and accomodating, setting up an area for me to do a couple presentations, interact with customers and sign books. They ordered plenty of copies of Click Here to Order and The AdSense Code, so there was enough for everyone. They placed a nice sign on the table... Continue Reading

Life must be hard for television executives. To decide how much to charge advertisers and whether they should commission another season of a show, they have to know the size of their audience. The only method they have to do that is by using a survey. The Nielsen ratings track what television viewers watch and then, based on demographics, make certain claims about what everyone else was watching at the same time. Those figures could... Continue Reading

I got an email from someone the other day asking me which "gurus" they should listen to. There are SO many people teaching how to make money online. How DO you know who to trust? Here's a checklist for you to help you determine the answer to this question: Continue Reading

It's an unplanned Joel Comm LIVE! featuring Internet marketing discussion, a new top ten list, and a reference to the new bacon-flavored spread. Joel's mom drops into the chat room and we talk about upcoming product launches. It's fun and games with a side helping of useful instruction. Check out this week's episode now! Continue Reading

Every Internet business -- every business of any sort in fact -- starts in the same place. In the future. Most entrepreneurs think first of how they want their business to look when it's all set up. They imagine the products prepared, the marketing streams in place and the revenue flowing in while they relax and cash the checks. Continue Reading

Steamboat Springs, Colorado has always been one of my favorite ski spots. Well, there's no snow... yet. But I am vacationing here with my family this week. After Elevate 2008, I needed a break, and this place is just what the doctor ordered. With that said, I took the Macbook on the deck to broadcast Joel Comm LIVE! The following videos are replays of today's broadcast. There are no flying monkeys or top ten lists... Continue Reading

There's a reason that online publishing is profitable. It's a fantastic reason and it's one of the things that makes earning income as an online entrepreneur so enjoyable. People want to learn. They want to know how to be a better gardener, a better dad, a better soccer coach, a better entrepreneur too. Anyone who can provide that information can make some money -- and help others too. And anyone can do that. You might... 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

Google AdSense. Over the years, I've generated hundreds of thousands of dollars in passive income with this incredible program. Believe it or not, there are a lot of people who have no idea what it is all about. The fact is Google takes in $15 billion (that's Billion with a B!) dollars each year in advertising revenue. The best part is that they are sharing a portion of that revenue to people like you and... Continue Reading

I don't go to the movies much. I enjoy movies, I just don't enjoy the theater experience. Why pay top dollar to sit in a crowded cinema with chatty teens and people noisily crunching popcorn and nachos when I can buy or rent the DVD for less and enjoy the peacefulness and comfort of my home theatre. I choose to go to the Metrolux today in order to get a glimpse of An American Carol... Continue Reading

I put Dan Nickerson under the gun and asked him to compose a Top Ten list ten minutes before our show today. He did it, and its pretty darned funny. On this edition of Joel Comm LIVE! we had a little bit of politics, answered questions, gave away some goodies and had fun. Ready for the replay? Watch below! Continue Reading

Recently, I wrote a post laying out what I think of multi-level marketing (MLM). I thought long and hard before I wrote that post. I knew that there would be a lot of people who wouldn't like it. I knew that some people might even stop reading my blog as result of it. And I also knew I wanted to write it. Continue Reading

Click Here to Order continues to sell very well and is showing up in more and more stores. I'd love to hear your CHTO Sitings if you spot it in your city or town. However, thanks to my friend Michael Copeland, I've discovered a way that you can read my new book for free and get some extra bonus material along the way! How can that be? Continue Reading

There are easy ways of bringing traffic to your website, and there are hard ways. Most people focus on the hard ways. They spend hours playing around with their keywords and their Search Engine Optimization. They spend vast sums on AdWords and other forms of advertising. And they send out email after email in an attempt to swap links and create exchanges. That's fair enough. It's all part of the job of being an online... Continue Reading

Everyone was talking about the Beijing 2008 Olympics this summer. Phelps and others stole the headlines with victory after victory. However, in the midst of this global competition, another competition was completely ignored by the mainstream media. It is now my pleasure to bring you exclusive coverage of the InfoMedia, Inc. First Annual Flying Monkey Office Olympics. The sporting world will never be the same... Continue Reading

Here's a cool find. Do the books your fellow countrymen are reading indicate which way their vote may be leaning? You'll be fascinated as you explore Amazon's Election 2008 Interactive map. Simply visit the site and you are presented with a United States map color-coded to the current political leanings, based on the titles that are being ordered by people living within each state. Red is for Republican. Blue is for Democrat. Continue Reading

When I was researching "Click Here to Order," there was a story I kept coming across time and time again. Marketers would tell me how they were down to their last penny, ready to throw in the towel, on their way to looking for a day job... when something happened. For copywriter Michael Fortin, who had already declared bankruptcy by the age of 21, it was the discovery of the power of a well-written sales... Continue Reading

There's nothing better than welcoming a new child into the world and your family. Being a father of two, I can tell you that the health and welfare of your children is the utmost priority. We had a bit of a scare when our daughter was born and spent the first few days of her life wondering when she would be able to come home from the hospital. It all turned out well, but some... 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

I was joined today by my friend, Nathan Anderson. Nathan is famous for developing MetaWebs.com and is now the owner of SEO Club. Rule #1 of SEO Club? Don't talk about what you learn in SEO Club! On today's program we discussed search engine optimization, answered questions and had a great time. Check out the episode below! Continue Reading

We had a great time in Glenwood Springs. From taking a Segway tour of the area and a day at the world's largest hot springs pool to downtime for rest & relaxation and a trip to a rain-covered Snowmass, my family and I enjoyed our brief vacation. I may put up some video once I get the chance. But I've had a lot of people curious about how the return train ride went on Amtrak... Continue Reading

When it came time to plan a summer vacation with my family, Mary and I decided we would just do a local Colorado trip rather than fly somewhere. I researched places that would be within driving distance and came upon Glenwood Springs, a popular tourist destination smack dab in the middle of the Rockies. They are famous for having the world's largest Hot Springs pool and it is a beautiful location. Instead of driving, I... Continue Reading

How do you become a recognized expert in your niche? I believe it begins when publish your own book. This is a key to increasing your credibility in the marketplace. On today's show, I was joined by my New York publisher, David Hancock. We fielded questions from viewers, discussed the entrepreneurial publishing model, presented a new Top Ten list and the monkey flew. Tune in for this replay below! Continue Reading

"You're a social media expert", he said on the conference call. I guess I hadn't thought of myself in that manner before. He went on to tell me that I have provided him with tons of advice on using social media to leverage his brand and increase traffic to his sites. I pondered for a while and realized that I had gotten so used to sharing my knowledge that I didn't recognize just how much... 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

While attending an Internet marketing conference in Chicago, I spent a lot of time networking with my peers. As I sat at the dinner table last night, I noticed that a bunch of us were twittering on our handhelds. Simon Leung, Donna Fox, Eric Farewell, Anik Singal and several others had their PDAs or phone out and were twittering away... sometimes to each other other, even though they were sitting across the table from each... Continue Reading

What do you do if you are 38 years old and told by a doctor that you have just one year to live? That's exactly what happened to my friend Sylie Fortin. Shortly after getting married, Michel and Sylvie were face-to-face with the horrible diagnosis of breast cancer. But if you know Sylvie, you would know that this is not something she would take lying down. She pursued radical treatment and is alive two years... Continue Reading

Today's show featured Jason West, my friend from the U.K. Jason has a knack for launching niche ecommerce sites and making great profits. In today's program, there is a Q&A with Jason, a new Top Ten list, some new toys, flying monkeys and more fun. Be sure to watch for the latest news about my new book, "Click Here to Order" Continue Reading

The long-awaited day has arrived. Not only is Apple releasing the brand new iPhone 3G phone, which promises to do everything but do your dishes, but they are also releasing the new iPhone 2.0 firmware which promises to bring new functionality to current iPhone hardware. I woke up early today and plugged in my iPhone to find that the 2.0 update had rolled out to my area. I told iTunes to download v2.0, backup my... Continue Reading

Do you know which Internet marketer used to be a vacuum cleaner salesman? Which one was a car salesman? Who was a youth pastor in their previous vocation? What was the first spam email? Who wrote the first ebook that taught people how to make money online? These and many more questions are answered in my new book, Click Here to Order: Stories of the World's Most Successful Internet Marketing Entrepreneuers. 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

I was in San Francisco last week and I had a great opportunity to visit with Sterling Valentine. Sterling is an former DJ who has become a great friend. And on this trip I also discovered that Sterling is a man of many talents. He is a singer/songwriter. So I asked him to pick up his guitar and play for me. He did. Here's a portion of Sterling singing "Someday". Oh, and somehow he got... Continue Reading

Have you ever wondered what people did BEFORE they become Internet marketers? It's pretty cool to see that the greatest success stories are people just like you and me. I will tell you this about me. I used to be a DJ. Yup, I worked in the nightclubs to begin with, but then the entrepreneur in me discovered that there was more money to be made in playing music at private events. So I started... Continue Reading

Question: What is the one of the biggest obstacles that people have to creating an online business? Answer: Building a web site! I have a confession to make. I am NOT an expert at building websites. In fact, I hire out all website design and creation. I am just not good at it. But what if you can't afford to pay someone to do it? Continue Reading

I've been frustrated lately. Here's the thing... As you know, I speak at a number of conferences. At these conferences, I teach people how to make money online and many of them purchase one of my products to help them build their online business. I know that what I teach works and that the products I offer have value. I know this because I receive testimonials from people all the time. But its the ones... Continue Reading

At 10:30 am on June 12th, Mary and I checked out of the Shangri-La Hotel in Sydney and made our way to the airport. Thirty-one hours later, we're finally home. We had a 3-hour layover in Fiji and a 7-hour layover in Los Angeles. So close, but yet so far! Anyhow, I didn't have problems with jet lag in Sydney, but everyone tells me it really hits when you get home. I can see that... Continue Reading

I need to back up a bit because I left out Sunday from my journal. On Sunday, I spoke at Chris Howard's "Ultimate Wealth Symposium" on the grounds of the Sydney Olympic Park. I had a fantastic time sharing my story with 800 or so people. I've got to say, the Aussies are a bit difficult to get moving, but I think everyone had a good time and learned a thing or two. I also... Continue Reading

We hopped a tour bus to the Blue Mountains on Monday. It was the Queen's Birthday, so the country was on holiday and the traffic was light. It was actually a small passenger van and there was only nine of us along with the driver. He was a very knowledgable and entertaining native who made the trip better by his presence. We stopped at a Wildlife Park, learned to toss a boomarang, toured the Blue... Continue Reading

On Saturday, we toured downtown Sydney on the bus, hopping on and off at will. These clips include shopping at the Queen Victoria Building, a ride up the Sydney Tower and a stroll through the botanical gardens. Continue Reading

I'm currently in Los Angeles for the annual Book Expo America, otherwise known as BEA. Why BEA? I have a book coming out on August 1st and I showed up to support my publisher and do some networking. Now I must confess. I am a trade show junkie. I love the vast conference centers with aisles and aisles of vendors hawking their goods and services. I'm especially a sucker for the freebies and swag. It's... Continue Reading

Time for another episode of Joel Comm LIVE! Chris "The Hand" Harper, our Producer, took ill today, so Dan and I were forced to muddle through on our own with today's show. We answered questions, did a new top ten list, played with the monkey and had a great time. Thanks to our sponsor, BeMyFirstSale.com Continue Reading

I boarded my flight from Dallas to return to Denver yesterday morning, hungry and certain that my first class seat would get me some sort of meal. As I boarded the plane, I asked the flight attendant if there would be food service. He informed me that there would not be and I quietly expressed my disappointment. I didn't really ASK for food, but I did make it known that I was hungry. Continue Reading

Around noon on May 22, 2008, I was at Denver International Airport waiting for a plane to Dallas. My phone rang and it was my daughter calling from her school to tell me that Loveland and northern Colorado was under a tornado warning. Apparantly a tornado had been spotted and they had the students go to the safest place in the building. A tornado? On the front range? I spent 21 years of my life... Continue Reading

What is it that makes successful people stand out from the crowd? Or perhaps I should ask the question this way... What are the things that successful people DO that everyone else does not do? I believe we are all dealt a hand in life. On very rare occassion that hand is stacked with a full house, but in most cases we're fortunate if we are dealt a pair of twos. And whether or not... Continue Reading

While speaking at Harv Eker's event, I wanted to demonstrate the power of the flip video camera. So I decided to shoot this brief video to show this incredible audience. I think they are a bit excited! Continue Reading

Several years ago, I had the privilege of meeting a gentleman who I have sinced dubbed "The nicest guy in Internet marketing." His name is Ken McArthur and he is the chief architect behind the highly successful JV Alert Live conferences. You see, Ken is incredibly successful because he continually pours himself into the lives of those around him. Whether it launching careers of other marketers or freely sharing his knowledge and expertise with anyone... Continue Reading

I am a PC user. I am also a Mac user. That's right. When it comes to computers, I enjoy the best of both worlds. In fact, I have used BOTH Apple and PC-based computers since they became available almost three decades ago! I am leaning Mac-heavy these days, but my home computer is still a PC. But when it gives up the ghost I will probably make the switch to Mac. Continue Reading

Dan Nickerson is on vacation, so today I was joined by my friend and joint venture partner, Eric Holmlund. We answered a bunch of questions about Internet marketing and played with our toys. Our sponsor for this week was KeywordExcavator.com Enjoy the show! Continue Reading

When Mike Filsaime visited last week, he suggested that I get a the DVD documentary, "The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters". It is the story of a the men who are completely dedicated to owning the world record for the highest score in the videogame, Donkey Kong. Yes, you heard me correctly. There are people who obsess about having the high score for a videogame. After all, there is an entry in the... Continue Reading

I'm going to let you in on a little secret... I can't write computer code. It's true... I can't code my way out of a paper bag. Well, maybe that's not a big surprise, but here's another secret... I can't do graphic design. That is, unless you count stick figures. I can draw those. May I tell you another secret? Continue Reading

Today's episode of Joel Comm LIVE! featured Internet marketer Rick Butts in an unusual guest appearance. We couldn't get Rick's audio on the stream, so he was forced to mime his communication. As usual, Dan and I answer questions, give away prizes and have a good time. Continue Reading

I remember seeing Ben Stein for the first time in Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Who could forget the monotone deadpan teacher repeating "anyone... anyone... Bueller... Bueller". And then there was "Win Ben Stein's Money", a campy television quiz show that demonstrated Ben's ability to stand toe-to-toe with the best of them. I sure would have liked to have seen him go up against Ken Jennings. As a columnist for the Wall Street Journal and a... Continue Reading

Shopzilla is one of the largest online shopping sites. You've probably used them before for their price comparison tool. Recently, Shopzilla has been beta-testing a contextual ad program that would allow site publishers to place Shopzilla ads on their pages and get paid every time someone clicked on an ad, in the same vein as AdSense. I'm impressed with their program and I decided to research them further. My research led me to write a... Continue Reading

Can I be honest with you? I have written the first few lines of this entry several times and I just can't seem to find the words to tell you what I want to tell you today. The fact is... I'm so freakin' excited about something I just came across that I couldn't wait to share it with you! I told Ken Burge, the President of my company, that I'd be sharing this with you... Continue Reading

While I'm still enjoying my family vacation here in Hawaii, I wanted to take a moment to let you know about a ground-breaking new tool that is guaranteed to increase your sales. Part of the reason I am able to enjoy vacations like this is because I've leveraged technology and employees to keep my business running, even when I'm away from it. Most people understand the concept of hiring employees, but many people don't understand... Continue Reading

What would you do if you were able to come to my home and office and ask me whatever you wanted? Would you have some questions for me? Dave Woodward did. A few months back, Dave contacted me and told me he was putting together a brand new series called "Legendary Marketers", and he asked if he could come visit with me at my home and office to find out what made me tick. Of... Continue Reading

What is the definition of true success? Is it having a large bank account? Is it having a garage full of cars? Is it having a mansion with so many rooms you can't fill them all? I would say that all of these material things are an indicator that a person may have succeeded in business, but without one key component I don't believe a person is truly successful. Continue Reading

Who would have thought the rock band KISS would have survived for decades? I remember when Rock n Roll All Nite came out. I was just a young teen. And yet, all these years later, KISS has endured. It only makes sense that there would be KISS cover bands. Why not, right? Grab your instruments, throw on some makeup, act like you are anti-establishment and find a guitar player with an exceptionally long tongue to... Continue Reading

It was fall of 2005 when I was scheduled to speak at Robert Puddy's Focus 4 the Future Internet marketing conference. It was the first time I had spoken at an event and I was on a roster with Mike Filsaime, Gary Ambrose and Craig Perrine. Yes, I was nervous. But why should I be? My AdSense ebook was a huge success and my name had begun to spread in the Internet marketing community. The... Continue Reading

In March of 2006 I attended Yanik Silver's Internet Marketing Underground seminar in Washinton, DC. It was a life-changing date with destiny, for it was there that I met my future JV Partner, Eric Holmlund. I was also impressed by the high caliber of people who attended this seminar. It seemed that there was an awful lot of success in the room filled with over 300 people. Two years later and Yanik does not disappoint... Continue Reading

Episode 2 of Joel Comm LIVE was an extra-long episode that went over one and one-half hours. Dan and I ordered in lunch and I pretty much made a pig of myself choking down a chicken wrap and french fries. We answer tons of questions from viewers and enjoyed up to 150 people streaming the video at one time. There were three giveaways and we put some advertisers URLs on the whiteboard. All in all... Continue Reading

Now this is incredible. And when I say incredible, I mean INCREDIBLE! Like most marketers, I have not been able to find an email solution that guarantees my newsletter will arrive in the inboxes of my customers. Even the best autoresponder service has problems getting my emails through to AOL.com, Yahoo.com and hotmail.com. That's why I am doing backflips over Instant Whitelist! Continue Reading

There are those who start at the bottom of a company with the aspiration to rise to the top, and there are those for whom the words upwardly mobile do not apply. I encountered Mr. Latter attending to the United Skycap station in LAX today. My associates and I bring our bags to the guy and we go through the regular procedure. "What is your destination?", "Show me your identification" and "How many bags will... Continue Reading

I'm not a big fan of the major airlines. In fact I have written several entries that demonstrated poor customer service by United and American. However, I had a uniquely good experience on United a couple days ago and wanted to share it with you. I was traveling to Los Angeles with Joel Ownby and Tim Prince, en route to Yanik Silver's Internet Underground conference in Los Angeles. The three of us board the 737... Continue Reading

Be careful... If you don't add the right amount of each ingredient, you could ruin the entire meal. Easy now... If you mix those chemicals incorrectly, it could be explosive. Watch it... If the calculations aren't perfect, the shuttle may never make it off the launching pad. Many things in life demand precision. There are some absolutes that do not allow for the least bit of give. One wrong step and the greatest ideas can... Continue Reading

I love to experiment with technology. And on Wednesday at 1 pm EST, I am going to give you an opportunity to experiment right along with me! You've participated in teleseminars... And you've participated in webinars... But now I invite you to join me for the very first "Joel Comm LIVE!" TV show streaming direct to you over the web! During this one-hour program, I will be answering questions from viewers in real time. Simply... Continue Reading

I've got a pretty colorful past. I got my first job when I was fourteen-years old, working behind the counter of a fast-food restaurant at Northbrook Court shopping mall in Northbrook, Illinois. After all, I needed to save up money to buy a TRS-80 Model I computer from Radio Shack! Once I acquired my driver's license, I worked in the health & beauty department at Venture. Yes, I was a stockboy. At the age of... Continue Reading

Just got a fun email from the Google AdSense team. They have printed up a batch of AdSense stickers and are offering them for free. All you need to do is send a self-addressed stamped envelope to them and they will drop a sticker or two in it for you. AdSense has been good to me, so I'll probably find a good place to put my sticker. Would it be sacrilege to deface my Macbook... Continue Reading

I just uploaded a new video to my YouTube channel, designed to encourage people to subscribe and follow my latest videos. Go to my channel and watch the one-minute featured video on the main page. Check out the very cool video production in the middle. You'll know it when you see it! Mad props to Chris Harper, my video producer. :-) Click here for my YouTube channel Continue Reading

Last summer, Revenue Magazine did an interview with me to discuss The Next Internet Millionaire. Lisa Picarille put together a great piece that you can read here. But one of my favorite things about the article were the photos taken by Alison Rose Williams of Fort Collins. Revenue hired her to come on location and take some shots of me for the magazine. While she was there, I asked if I could pay her to... Continue Reading

Here we are knee-deep in the political season. Who will be the next President of the United States? Regardless of the results, you can rest assured that the political discourse will not cease. I used to spend a good deal of time discussing politics online. But I had a hard time finding sites where people would not flame each other. Continue Reading

Behind closed doors. It's terminology that says "you weren't invited and you'll never know what was said." That's too bad, because some of the biggest secrets are spilled behind closed doors. No one likes to be shut out, but that is precisely what happened to me. Continue Reading

I'm currently in Atlanta for Matt Bacak's Marketing Madness conference. I'm set to speak to 150 or so people tomorrow. So Dan Nickerson and I are in our hotel room right next to the airport. I mean DIRECTLY next to the airport. Our balcony overlooks all the runways, so we've enjoyed the sights and sounds of planes continually taking off and landing. But as we were coming back from dinner tonight, I noticed lightning in... Continue Reading

So I've got this great idea for a screenplay. The story goes like this... Due to severe beatings she had received as a child, a thirty-something year old woman develops a strange phobia and doesn't leave the bathroom for two years. I know, bizarre, yes? It gets more interesting. The woman spends the majority of her time on the toilet. Yes, on the toilet. In fact, she spends SO much time on the toilet that... Continue Reading

I try to be very transparent about the ways I make money on the web. It's really no secret and I've nothing to lose by sharing this information with you. I don't like to hold back as that doesn't contribute to your success at all. So I'm about to reveal one of my biggest secrets for profiting online. Ok, it's really more along the lines of "incredibly obvious", but I'm amazed at how many people... Continue Reading

Google is a behemoth that continues to swallow everything in its path. Back in April 2007, Google offered Doubleclick over $3 BILLION to buy them out. Today the transaction is complete... I received this email from Kim Malone at Google today... Continue Reading

I'm about to share a hard truth with you. I hope you are sitting down, cause here we go... Most of the people reading this newsletter will never make money online. Ouch. Sure, read it again. You heard me right. Now before you go questioning me, calling me insensitive or flat out cursing me out, let me say this... Continue Reading

I have a confession to make. I love shopping online and I love using online coupon codes. I've been doing online shopping online since Amazon.com launched in 1995. In the early years, merchants would regularly offer fantastic discounts on merchandise in order to get new customers to their stores. For example, Reel.com (nbow defunct?) used to offer $10 off coupons on a regular basis. So I would buy DVDs for approximately $5 each. What a... Continue Reading

Wow, what an incredible day! Wait until you hear this. I thought it was going to be a day like every other day. But you never know what kind of curve balls life is going to toss your way. Here's how it started... First of all I wake up and find this email in my box from a producer at a MAJOR cable network ... "Congratulations on your show, 'The Next Internet Millionaire.' We've reviewed... Continue Reading

Do you ever go to Google to search for your name? A search for David results in 719,000,000 web pages. Zoiks! A search for Brenda presents 31,500,000 results. And search for Fred will get you 120,000,000 results, including a stock chart for Fred's, Inc, whoever that is. Last year, I Googled my name to see where I came up in the results. Continue Reading

You can have a great idea for a web site. And developing the site can be a very rewarding experience. But without one thing, it doesn't matter how nice your site is... That thing is traffic. Traffic is really the "life blood" of our business. Without traffic you can't make sales, you can't generate affiliate commissions, you can't build a list... (you get the picture). So today I want to focus on traffic, and tell... Continue Reading

I've just spent an incredible three days in Las Vegas at the Affiliate Summit. This gathering of nearly 3000 people was one of the largest concentrations of affiliate marketers in history. While I did enjoy some of the workshops, the greatest benefit was from networking with others in the industry. I finally got to meet famous bloggers such as Amit Mehta, John Chow, Andrew Wee and Zac Johnson, just to name a few. All these... Continue Reading

I've been wanting to meet Jason Calacanis face-to-face for some time. For those that don't know, Jason is the co-creator of Weblogs, Inc., which was sold to AOL for $25 million. I'm at Affiliate Summit in Las Vegas where Jason Calacanis delivered the keynote address this morning. I really didn't know anything about Jason as a person, so I was looking forward to an insightful talk with fresh ideas. Wow, was I in for a... Continue Reading

I'm in Las Vegas for Affiliate Summit and am looking forward to the a few days of networking and learning. And while I have nothing to say about the conference yet because it hasn't started yet, I do have an experience to share with you. As you know, I enjoy blogging about my customer service experiences... especially the bad experiences. Why do I do this? I place a very high value on customer service and... Continue Reading

Admit it. You are passionate. Oh, I don't know what you are passionate about. But I guarantee that you are passionate about SOMETHING! You may be crazy about parakeets. Or perhaps you know more about bonzai trees than anyone on the block. Maybe you are one of the world's leading experts on Mt. Everest. Or it could be that you make the best french silk pie in the hemisphere! The point is that everyone is... Continue Reading

A few months back, I launched this groundbreaking Internet marketing course to the world... The Secret Classroom ... and the feedback has been fantastic! I regularly receive emails from people telling me what an impact this course has had on their online business. I wanted to take a moment today and share one of these emails with you. I think it says way more about the value of The Secret Classroom than I could ever... Continue Reading

The Pink Floyd classic album, Dark Side of the Moon, is though to be the greatest rock album of all time. I might support that assertion. If you listen all the way to the end of the album, Roger Waters says, "There is no dark side of the moon. Actually, it's all dark." I know, it's profound. Still, the album is an absolute classic and one for every music-lover's collection. And speaking of the moon... Continue Reading

I am finding Facebook to be a great tool for networking and connecting with people. Since I started using last fall, I have connected with old friends, family members, new associates and some pretty big names. With Facebook, you can make contact with people who might otherwise be very difficult to reach. I've added over 1000 friends, started a handful of groups and have discovered how to post items so others can see what I... Continue Reading

Last week, I sat down in my office with several members of my team and we began doing a brain dump of all the great ideas for sites, services and products that we had. We filled my fairly-large whiteboard in no time at all. The fact of the matter is that we have more ideas than we have time or manpower to accomplish! But ideas are not exactly in short supply, are they? There are... Continue Reading

World of Warcraft has now occupied a part of my life for three years. No, I am not one of those people that plays hours each day, let alone every day. But I do enjoy the game and am eagerly anticipating the next expansion set titled "Wrath of the Lich King". Apparantly I am not alone. There are now over 9,000,000 people around the world who play World of Warcraft. Continue Reading

My new blog has been up for over 24 hours now, and the verdict is in! Visitors to this site overwhelmingly approve of the look and feel of the new JoelComm.com. In fact, many people are asking me questions as they want to know how I put this new site together. Well, I've got nothing to hide and I will tell all... Continue Reading

I'm a big fan of Amazon.com. I spend far too much money there but they also give me a fair bit of money too through book sales and affiliate links. I think they've done a fantastic job of selling products online and helping website publishers earn from their content. They might be the Walmart of Internet retailing, but they're definitely not the Apple of whiz-bang gadgetry. Their new Kindle book-reading machine is a great idea... Continue Reading

I've had several people ask me what I'm going to be up to in 2008. I'm very excited, because this is going to be a breakthrough year for many people who will increase their online revenue. AND, I am excited because I am going to be doing several things that have never been done before! That's kind of a mantra with me. I don't like to do what everyone else is doing. You have to... Continue Reading

In November of 2005, I went to Armand Morin's Big Seminar for the first time. My eyes were opened to brand new possibilities, and I can say without reservation that it was one of the most significant events of my life. Since that time I have gotten to know Armand as a friend and a mentor. I've been a guest speaker at Big Seminar, he has been a guest teacher on The Next Internet Millionaire... Continue Reading

Blogging is a huge opportunity... and a lot of people are missing out. They're missing out for one reason. They don't believe they can write. They might have slept through their English classes at school. They don't know what a semi-colon is for. And since entering the workforce, they might never have had to write anything longer than a grocery list. And now I'm telling them that they can make their living -- and more... Continue Reading

I make no secret of it. I am a 43-year old man who loves playing computer and video games. And why not? I was a teenage when Space Invaders, Asteroids and Centipede took over the arcades. I was sixteen when I bought my first computer, a TRS-80. It was great for primitive gaming. And I've got a great collection of old computer software in a special room in my basement. Perhaps I'll do a video... Continue Reading

Which of these would you say is true? A) Google Knows All and Sees All B) Google Will Not Rank Duplicate Content C) You Must Get Links From Related Subject Sites to Rank D) Your Site Must Focus On One Subject To Rank E) High PageRank Means Good Rankings F) To Maintain Good Rankings, You Must Add New Content G) Ranking In Google Is Hard! H) All of the above I) None of the above... Continue Reading

Before we left Oklahoma, we used to eat at Moe's, a tex-mex fast food joint. It was pretty good. I especially liked the way they trained their staff to yell out "Welcome to Moe's!' every time someone walked in the front door. It made for a friendly environment where they recognized every customer on every visit. As a sidebar, Moe's only played music featuring dead musicians in their restaurant. Interesting... But when we moved to... Continue Reading

I've been paying close attention to customer service wherever I go these days. In my business, I tell my support team to go the extra mile when assisting customers. I believe this pays off big time in the long run. But I am amazed at how many businesses do not pay attention to the simplest of customer service details. In the past few days, I have made observations at Best Buy, Gamestop, Qdoba and... my... Continue Reading

I'm at a loss for words. I've started this newsletter half a dozen times trying to find the right way to share some information with you. Sometimes the words don't come. Eloquence doesn't seem to be in the cards for me today. It's not that the topic isn't interesting. It's just that I've got writer's block. Has that ever happened to you? There are days that I am able to create new content for my... Continue Reading

At conferences, you can spot them a mile away. They're shaking hands with everyone they meet. They're passing out business cards like they're free hundred dollar bills. They attend every talk and scribble notes furiously through each of them. And you can bet that when they go home they'll spend every waking hour -- which might be twenty in a day -- sitting in front of their computer working on their site, building traffic and... Continue Reading

Happy New Year! It's officially 2008, and you know what that means. It means I'll probably mess up a bunch of checks by writing 2007 as I get used to the idea of the new number! But it also means the holidays are over. Time to get back to work. It's a good thing I enjoy my work! How about you? Maybe you've bought revenue-generating training material and software but you aren't using it. Is... Continue Reading

Well, here we are on the brink of another New Year. I've recapped the highlights of 2007 on my blog As we enter 2008, I am more committed than ever to provide you with the best content... the best books... the best software... the best reviews... the best sites for making money online... the best of everything! 2007 was a groundbreaking year in many respects, but 2008 is shaping up to be even bigger. I... Continue Reading

I'm at Will Rogers airport in Oklahoma City, getting ready to make the trek home to Colorado after a week of visiting with family and friends. I've had some time to reflect on the year and would like to take a stroll down memory lane. The year started with a crazy idea. I knew that others had dabbled with the idea of doing an Internet reality show, but no one had really taken the concept... Continue Reading