Growing up, I did a lot of things with my older brother, Michael. He's got two years on me, so I was frequently wanting to hang out with him and his friends. We don't see each other much since he lives in Illinois, but he just came to Colorado for a visit. What do you I do with my guests when they come to town? Invite them to join me on my show, of course! 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

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 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

I had the pleasure of enjoying the company of my brother and his family this past weekend. They live in suburban Chicago, so it was a treat for them to come to the mountains and enjoy a little slower pace for a few days. By the way, you'll want to watch for my bro. He is a brilliant CPA with some keen insights into money management. I foresee a website and a book in the... Continue Reading

I've been pretty lukewarm about Google's referral products. They've been pushing them pretty hard but I haven't been impressed. I'm not convinced that the Google Pack contains anything worth writing home about. I don't care enough about Mozilla to recommend that everyone downloads Firefox. And the commissions that Google is offering for its downloads just aren't big enough to take up real estate on my Web pages. I'd rather put together a joint venture with... Continue Reading

I can't take it any longer. I've seen a few trends taking place in Internet marketing lately, and I don't think they are right. It's time to take off the gloves because I've got something to say. I'm throwing caution to the wind because I think someone has got to stand up and speak the truth. If I take heat for it, so be it. Here goes... Continue Reading

"It was a dark and stormy night." That may as well be the beginning of this newsletter, because I have started writing it five times now. I get past the first line, read it, and delete it. So I figure you just can't go wrong with "It was a dark and stormy night." Well, perhaps if I was writing fiction... The fact is that I've got a lot to tell you this week and I'm... Continue Reading

Andy Warhol once said that every person gets their fifteen minutes of fame. I don't know if that is true, but I do know that every person has a story to tell. I am in the process of writing a new book centered around Internet marketing and individual success stories... ... and I am looking for real life stories to include in the book! So what's your story? Continue Reading

Important. Urgent. Critical. Essential. Crucial. There are so many words I can use to describe how imperative it is that you read today's email, and listen to what I have to say... REALLY listen, because this comes from the heart. Continue Reading

Ever since Google changed its Terms Of Service to allow other contextualized ad systems on the same pages as AdSense, I've been busy taking another look at its competitors. And what I've found was that Kontera has been pretty busy. Kontera has created an ad system that turns keywords on a Web page into double-underlined links. When users mouse over those links, they get a floating tool box containing an ad. It's unobtrusive and looks... Continue Reading

Let's face it. Google's AdSense program is absolutely ingenious. It's not perfect, but it is ingenious. Occasionally, an ad will display that is not relevant to the content on the page. But more often than not, the AdSense bot knows what ads to show. This was never truer than the ad I saw displayed on my blog entry from yesterday. Continue Reading

Building a successful website doesn’t happen overnight. You have to create the pages, write the content, optimize your ads, drive traffic. You can be up and running within minutes but to earn the sort of revenues that make the whole thing worthwhile (and more) you’re going to have to invest time. And much of that time is going to be spent troubleshooting. A poorly-designed, badly-optimized site might make a little bit of money. A site... Continue Reading

Here are some quick answers to questions that have been recently submitted at AskJoelComm.com. I read in your book "The Adsense Code" about taking ebooks and making them as free content website(s) and adding Adsense to the pages. I have several books I have authored over the years. Should each book (topic) be its own website or is a one "master" website with pages or directory by topic okay? This is a great way to... Continue Reading

Last night, my family and I went to see Glenn Beck at the Mabee Center in Tulsa. For those not familiar with Beck, he claims to have the third most popular radio show in the country. I guess that would be behind Limbaugh and Hannity. I started listening to Glenn a few years ago when his program began airing on our local radio station. He says that you need to listen to the show for... Continue Reading

First you are born. Then you go to school. Year upon year upon year of the best public education your tax dollars can buy. After twelve years, you hit a fork in the road with a choice to make... Do I get a job or go to college? For many, the decision to go to college seems clear cut. After all, we're told that you need a college degree to get a good job in... Continue Reading

Google AdSense is currently the reigning King of contextual advertising services. But the King always faces challengers to the throne. Kontera, Chitika and Intellitext have managed to absorb a small piece of Google's market, but they've barely made a dent thus far. So who can take on the 100 pound gorilla? Only another gorilla. Enter Yahoo! Continue Reading

Ok, so Dick Cheney accidently shot a guy. The mainstream media has had a grand old time focusing on absolutely nothing. I figured by this weekend it would be over. Not so. Continue Reading

Is Ted Turner relevant to anyone anymore? Listen to what this buffoon had to say at the National Association for Television Programming Executives's conference Tuesday. "While FOX may be the largest news network, it's not the best." (sour grapes because they are beating Turner's CNN?) He followed up by pointing out that Adolph Hitler got the most votes when he was elected to run Germany prior to WWII. He said the network is the propaganda... Continue Reading

I'm getting real tired of the mainstream press and other countries telling the United States that we are stingy over the amount of support we are giving and bringing to the Tsunami victims. Granted, the irrelevant and ever-more annoying United Nations is backpeddling from their comments, but many are continuing this lament just the same. The fact of the matter is, the United States and our people are the most generous people in the world... Continue Reading

Here's an incredibly useful site for you. DictionaryWords.net is a fantastic reference resource. Do a search for a single word or term and it will pull up results from several sources, including The CIA World Factbook (2002), WordNet, Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, The Virtual Entity of Relevant Acronyms, The Jargon File, Hitchcock's Bible Names Dictionary, The Collaborative International Dictionary of English, The U.S. Gazetteer, The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing, Elements Database and Easton's 1897... Continue Reading

Here are some links to start your weekend off right... Relevant Magazine Online - Finally, a Christian magazine that "gets it". God is not stuck in time, and neither should we be. Learning how to relate God's truths to our culture requires being a participant in the culture, but yet not OF it. Great publication both on the web and in print. Where's George? - Play with your money. It's ok. George won't mind. High... Continue Reading

I came across Relevant Magazine online a couple months ago while doing a topical search. I can't remember what the search was, but I do recall being completely drawn in by this Christian magazine written for a post-modern generation. It breaks the mold of "traditional" Christian magazines by covering faith and spiritual topics from a fresh perspective. They are unafraid to tackle music, movies, relationships, politics and other issues by asking the questions many in... Continue Reading

'CBS Evening News' Hits Ratings Low NEW YORK - "CBS Evening News" marked a low point in a storied history last week - its smallest average audience in at least 10 years, perhaps ever. The evening newscast with Dan Rather, for several years third in the ratings behind NBC and ABC, has lately been losing even more ground to its rivals. Awwww... I feel SO bad for Mr. Blather and his liberal cronies that wouldn't... Continue Reading