Free Arbitrage Tool!

That’s right, the free arbitrage tool I mentioned a few weeks ago is up and running!

Here it is: http://www.swaroo.com/index.php?arbi

I dabbled in arbitrage and made some profit for a couple weeks but, after reading post after post on maximizing profits, I decided to put arbitrage on hold. Why? Because to get the biggest bang for your buck and spend your time most efficiently, it was constantly stated that “automation is key”.

Unfortunately, I can’t code a lick of PHP/MySQL or anything of that nature. Heck, the code in PHP Redirects are foreign to me! So, I partnered up with a good friend of mine who is a really good PHP/MySQL programmer and we talked about partnering up on arbitrage by using an automation tool. After talking for a couple hours about our strategy, we came to a realization… there are hundreds of people that were in my shoes as well on WickedFire alone! Why not make this tremendous tool available to all of them via a website? They wouldn’t even have to deal with importing MySQL databases from a free script they recieved. All they would have to do is login to the website and automatically generate arbi pages using their own account.

You can find the tool here.
The tool is currently in “beta” and we’ve only opened registration to a select group of WickedFire members so we can get feedback and make this tool even better. All you have to do is type in some keywords and a page is automatically generated using the domain format - http://www.swaroo.com/member-name/your-arbi-page-with-keywords.html

That’s right… you don’t even have to buy a domain or worry about hosting your pages. A user control panel allows you to view/delete the pages you’ve created. Over the next week, we’ll be adding numerous templates so users can try different ones out to see which works best for their campaigns. There is one very small catch to this: 1 out of every 20 page impressions will feature our adsense info. But, we think it is a very small price to pay for the ability to use this tool. We’re also looking into ways to reward people who send the highest quantity and most profitable traffic to the arbi pages but this is a tough feat to accomplish. Because only you can track your adsense earnings, we have no way of tracking this data (except for gross impressions). Any/all comments, suggestions or advice on this or any other feature of this tool would be greatly appreciated.

I know this tool will be tremendously useful for me and I hope it helps everyone else too. To get an account you’ll have to be a WickeFired member and PM the e-mail account you’ll use to trigatch4. Unless you’re an asshat, I’ll add your e-mail address to be “accepted” for new registration and you’ll be good to go. Because we’re in the testing phase we’ll be limiting the number of people that can sign up, so shoot me a PM on WickedFire asap!

We’d also appreciate if you’d include a review of the site on your blog if you have one. They say any press is good press, so feel free to crap on us if you want, but we think we’ve made something very useful for the non-coding webmaster world. We’re really excited about this and I can’t wait to hear what everyone has to say!

5 Things You Didn’t Know About Me…

I was tagged by my good friend Jan and I’m FINALLY getting to writing this post.

  1. I’m a procrastinator.  I tend to really enjoy the analytical thinking, research and idea/thought process behind successful business models but absolutely hate the nitty gritty down in the dirt trench work that will make it successful.  I guess I’m  victim of the entrepreneurial “think big” philosophy and it bogs me down.  I’ve got tons of amazing ideas (I think) and I’ve got them all started to some degree, but completely following through with all the minor details is a tedious procedure I do not enjoy as much.  However, I realize I’ll have to overcome this to be successful!
  2. I’m a blackbelt in Ninjitsu.  I haven’t practiced for a decade but I also trained for close to a decade and I was passionate about karate.  My particular school focused more on self defense and although we did spar, we didn’t have competitive tournaments.
  3. I wrestled in high school.  My mom saw me watching highschool wrestling on a local cable channel when I was in 8th grade - I liked the one on one combat as I was already a fan of boxing (and karate of course).  I was also getting kind of bored of my karate school as I also played soccer and baseball and liked the competition they provided.  One night, my mom told me she signed me up for a wrestling team and just drove me to the practice.  I ended up being Varsity Wrestling Captain in High School for two years, placing 3rd in the region my senior year.  To be honest, I don’t think it’s that great and I think I underachieved but I loved and love wrestling to death.  I hope to coach one day.  And, I still wish I could be a professional boxer but so many things are holding me back from competing… that’s for another conversation.
  4. I’m a screenwriter.  I’ve got about 3 movie scripts halfway done.  Again, I suppose I’m a victim of too many ideas at once and not being able to complete one project before I start another.  The majority of writers, of any format, will likely tell you it is wise to work on one project at a time.  Getting into the characters head and placing yourself in their shoes becomes easier and if you switch and toss between multiple stories and situations and lifestyles then you can dillute and mix up your content, dialogue and character personalities.  Bah humbug!  One day you’ll see a movie I’ve written on the big screen - one of many difficult lifetime goals I intend to achieve.
  5. I know the world is in trouble.  For two reasons…. first, I WILL BE SUCCESSFUL at this web thing and every bar in the world is going to see the wild crazy fun version of trigatch4 that only a few people know.  In addition, I think the world is headed in the wrong direction.  It’s amazing that it was less than 50 years ago that African Americans had full freedom in the country that is supposedly the most free in the world.  Meanwhile, we’re failing miserably in crime, drugs, education and terrorism.  I respect all points of view but I think the two party system is failing the United States and hope to start a forum soon that will allow people to discuss the pertinent topics.  Even so, it’s educating the people who think they know it all, or don’t want to be educated, that is the challenge.

Success with Press Releases (Part 1)

There are millions of webmasters all competing for awareness, backlinks, clicks and ultimately - traffic. It’s especially frustrating when you’ve spent countless hours and invested financing into developing a credible resource for web surfers and still struggle to capture your fair share of buzz. I’ve struggled with this as well, and I think it’s about time to explore a white hat art of the traditional advertiser - Press Releases.

I have a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing and I believe writing a press release would come naturally. However, even the most beautifully written press release is a miserable failure if nobody ever reads it.  That being said, you do need a press release before you can get it into the right hands.  Lets quickly review a few key points to keep in mind when writing your short news grabbing article:

Alright great, now you’ve got a wonderful newsworthy press release that you’re ready to tell the world all about. How do we get it into the right hands? How do we do this in mass quantity? Often times, this means hiring a professional who has a systematic list of contacts to whom they can mass distribute information. These folks can listen to your objectives and devise a plan to get your Press Release into the hands of 1,000+ media professionals for about $150 a pop - and the price can go up to the thousands of dollars depending on the extent of your goals and finances.

Many businesses turn to Press Releases because they’re viewed as “free advertising”. How do we reach these key media professionals on our own? It can be tremendously challenging, so I’ve composed a list of ideas and resources to get you started:

So what’s the best route to follow - hire a pro, buy a database, build a list yourself or try to hit a few homeruns with some big names? To be honest, I’m not exactly sure and that’s why we’ll be testing (hopefully) all of the above methods to provide you with first hand results, experience and recommendations.

To conduct this experiment, I’ll be looking to obtain a free consultation from a Public Relations professional who would recommend a plan of action and submit my Press Release to thousands of media outlets. I would also buy a database of e-mail addresses and personally mass distribute the press release via e-mail. I’ll also e-mail press release to contacts I find on my own.  Next, I’ll try to make a few “big splashes” with creative packages sent to targeted media outlets. Then, I’ll return to provide you with my report.

Sit tight while I do the dirty work and give you the low down!

Not One To Complain

Just posted this for the folks on WickedFire talking about the war in iraq. I wrote and recorded this in early 2003 and think it still holds weight. I don’t know what to think about the war anymore… I only know how I feel… dissappointed, depressed and saddened that this is the reality of humanity. That there are terrorists who dedicate their lives to killing people? It’s disgusting.

PS: I buried this with a timestamp as I don’t want it on the front of my blog.

Arbi App Update & More

So my partnered project for an automated arbitrage internet application is almost complete.  I’ll be ‘testing’ it myself, we’ll be working the kinks out over the weekend, and I’ll likely be launching it by Monday.  We’re still debating whether or not to limit this to a certain amount of users who will “test” it for us before opening it to everybody.  If we decide to test it first, it will likely be opened to WickedFire members who have a postive reputation (but not necessarily positive reputation points).

Other Updates
Things remain slow here and 2007 hasn’t ‘kicked off’ as I’ve hoped.  As usual, I need to put more projects in the funnel, so to speak.  I am in the process of launching a few wordpress blogs and I am considering naming them here so you can follow their progress.  All these blogs will be things of personal interest to myself and I’ll be providing the bulk of the content myself.

That being said, I won’t name drop just for the sake of name dropping, but if you’re interested leave a comment or shoot me an e-mail and I’ll probably let you all know.

I don’t have too, too much to talk about because - as I already mentioned - things have been too slow for my liking.  I may try to unload some of my unused domains and use the proceeds to purchase an existing site that pulls in some bucks.  The main goal would be to improve the site, optimize advertising and build traffic but at least I wouldn’t be starting from scratch.

Something else I was thinking about today was domains that don’t attempt to monetize their sites at all.  How great would it be to find and buy existing content sites that webmasters have made simply for the fun of it?  These webmasters probably don’t know the true value of their domain name, traffic and niche and you could probably find some excellent deals.  Problem being, these diamonds in the rough are likely very hard to find.  However, maybe I’ll do some digging around in my spare time and see what I can come up with.

Alright enough frustration… it’s time to put the pedal to the metal and make an absolute KILLING!  Here goes nothing…

Google PR Updates

Well google did their periodic PR update and I’m proud to say EurekaDiary.com is now PR4!  Other than that my sites didn’t do much of anything.  I guess it goes to show that I really need to focus on building back links.  My affiliate rap song helped with that a bit on this blog and hopefully I’ll continue to generate back links by posting unique, interesting content that readers enjoy.  I’ve really got a ton of work cut out for myself and to tell you the truth, I’m looking forward to doing it.  I have Monday off for Martin Luther King Jr. national holiday so I’m looking forward to getting a ton of stuff done.  But, it will be hard with a ton of playoff football and my precious Baltimore Ravens playing Peyton and the Colts.  I guess that’s what laptops are for!

Free Arbitrage Tool Up & Coming!

That’s right folks, I’m finally contributing something to the world!  It may be a week or more before I roll this out but I want to give everyone a heads up.

In actuality, I’m not the brains behind building this tool.  I have partnered with a friend from high school to work on arbitrage - him being the automater and myself being the niche/keyword research man.  Well, we figured out a way to set up shop not only for ourselves but for EVERYONE out there like me: you’ve got all the knowledge and you’re rearing to go but the big thing holding you back is you can’t automate… what a bummer.  Pretty soon you’ll be able to so stay tuned for the announcement.

My Losing ASW Essay…

Although I lost the contest, I thought this would make an interesting read for those of you wondering a little more about who I am. If you really like my essay, maybe you’ll donate a few bucks so I can pay to get to Affiliate Summit West! Otherwise, I’ll have to make a fortune in 2007 and see you in 2008… (I’ll pay you back in 2008 after I make my fortune anyway!)

MY WICKEDFIRE ASW ESSAY
I’m an Account Executive (Sales) for one of the largest “traditional” Advertising companies in the United States. It’s funny how with sales, the more time you put into your work the more (commissions) you get out of it. The same slogan rings true for Affiliate Marketers. So, spending an 11am - 4pm lunch break building my portfolio of websites probably isn’t the best career move… I can’t help it.

Since grade school I’ve had that “tick” inside of me. That entrepreneurial bug that begs to push the limits. Dozens of ideas boiling at the brim with one simple factor holding me back: financing. I like to think big.

Welcome to the Internet. Where else can you spend only a few bucks (on a dot info and cheap hosting) and start a legitimate business? Nowhere. Affiliate Marketing has the potential to help me capture my dreams of owning my own business, being my own boss, building a successful business empire and loving every second of hard work along the way.

One reason I’m particularly enthralled with the Internet Marketing industry is my direct experience with Advertising in general. In Television, Radio, Newspapers, Magazines Billboards, you name it… the same complaint haunts me over and over and over again. Clients spend tens of thousands of dollars in a couple months and can’t attribute their success or failures to these sources. When they are doing well they have no evidence to give you credit. When they’re tanking, it’s “look how much money I spent and business is terrible.”

My company has rolled out several internet based advertising solutions that I simply don’t understand. Clients will ask me, “Hey, I heard about these great new Internet opportunities you have, can you tell me about them?” And my response is, “I’ll tell you so long as you promise not to buy them.” At this point, I explain our advertising opportunity. Then, I introduce them to Adwords and show them, “look, for such a small weekly price I could get X amount of visitors to their site.” At this point, they want to know more about Adwords.

In sales, most people make the big bucks by selling whatever garbage they can to clients. I can’t do that – often to my loss – but doing so would make me feel like a bad person. I tell my clients the truth, and in turn, they value my opinion and suggestions. If I were them would I want to be lied to? No. In the long run, I get more sales because I’m looking out for the best interest of my clients, and they know it, because most salesmen don’t tell their clients, “I’ll kill you if you buy this!” I’m an analytical numbers guy and both my clients and Internet Marketing eat, sleep and breath ROI.

Compared to other industries, Internet Marketing has relatively few barriers to entry. If you’ve got the drive and desire, some smarts and wits and the ability to fall down and get back up, you can make it work. Personally, I’m convinced that it’s only a matter of time before I make it work. I demand that of myself. Still, I’m doing everything I can to speed up the process because I want to make it work yesterday.

With rent, car payments, Christmas gifts, groceries, credit card debt and every other bill in the box it’s tough to invest money in my personal ‘business’. Ironically, it’s even tougher not to. The countless hours of reading books, blogs and forums have given me a great depth of knowledge, but my lack of designing/coding skills often prevent a professional execution of my plans. Big ideas and marketing concepts are my strengths so I focus on these; designing and coding are my weaknesses so they are outsourced. This way, everything gets done to the best of its ability.

To outsource, I dug deeper into debt and spent a few thousand dollars to have a couple forums and websites developed and promoted. One is up and the rest are “up and coming”. In the meantime, I’m grinding out Wordpress blogs, MFA mini-sites and PPC to the best of my ability. I guess you could say I’m “diversifying my portfolio”.

As of now, my success hasn’t been tremendous monetary gain but in huge knowledge growth. My payout hasn’t been in dollars and cents but in architecture and infrastructure. I’m in this for the long haul and that’s how I’m preparing.

I’m very competitive. I want to win this contest. I want to make earn lots of money. To get to my destination, I’ll probably need a few ‘breaks’ along the way. This is one I’m hoping to get. Right now all I really give out is a few newb tips on WickedFire, a few bucks to homeless guys and a few hours/week of community service.

So what will I give back to the Internet Marketing community when I make it big? I guess it all goes back to that word community. The biggest assets of any communities are its citizens. Being a good citizen doesn’t come with a quota or list of requirements. It can’t be measured in dollars or descriptions. In this community, it’s about realizing that behind computers sit real people – people who need breaks and people who have given breaks (and often both). So maybe you’re a novice whose only resource to share is a smile. Maybe you’re a big earner and experienced veteran with tools to share and wisdom to spread. Being a good citizen is about helping people, giving “breaks” just because you can. Giving them breaks because, without other people giving you breaks, you wouldn’t be where you are. Without this dynamic of open dialogue and giving there would be Internet Marketing but no Internet Marketing Community.

The Internet is young and has tremendous growth potential. I feel the same about my position within the Internet Marketing Community. Hopefully we’ll fulfill our potential together and I’ll meet some great friends along the way!

EDIT (Case and Point): I just finished this essay and was checking WickedFire and signing up for Copeac so I could submit this entry. I posted a “Cool Wordpress Plugins” thread and someone was having the same trouble with the Lightbox Plugin that I had earlier in the day. I’m pretty sure I solved the problem (link: http://www.wickedfire.com/shooting-shit/6214-cool-wordpress-plugins.html ). Let alone the fact that it’s now about 3:30am EST and I’ve got to get up for my “salary” job in three hours! It’s pretty obvious that this “hobby” takes precedence over my career. I want it to be the other way around, and the only way to make that happen is to make it big… here goes nothing!

New To-Do-List

I have a new method to keep myself on the ball: I made a Microsoft Excel document listing every domain I own.  I apply a ‘priority rank’ 1 to 5 for each domain name (1 being the highest priority) and then I sort them by priority rank (most important on top).  Next to each domain name I have a separate column labeled “To Do” which include goals for each domain for the given week.

I have printed out this list, which consists of about 50 domains, and posted it on a bulletin board beside my desk.  Each day when I come home from work, I’ll go down the priority list accomplishing everything I need to do for that week.  On Sunday, I will re-evaluate the list, priority level and things to do for each domain; then I will reprint th elist and the process will begin again.

Only about 6-7 domains include priority level #1 - these are domains of utmost importance where I HAVE to get work done.  However, some of my favorite ‘domain names’ are listed as 5 priority simply because I don’t have the financing to launch a new project.

Some of my goals for this week include writing 7 comprehensive guides to a business website I am launching, launching 3 new wordpress blogs, having my designer FINALLY get up the 2 sites he owes me, posting once a day on this blog and spending an hour building links and posting on my current vbulletin forum.

2007 is Year-eka

New Year’s resolutions are made to be broken so I won’t make any. However, the practice of making New Year’s resolutions based on self reflection and in hope of self improvement, can be very useful. I’m simply of the belief that calling them “New Year’s Resolutions” means they will not be ‘resolved’. So, let me re-iterate, these are NOT New Year’s Resolutions. They are resolutions for 2007… the year of Eureka… self proclaimed Year-eka.

Business Goals

  1. Aim to post daily on EurekaDiary.com
  2. Spend 1 hour every day writing unique content
  3. Spend 1 hour every day building links
  4. Spend 1 hour every day researching new markets and opportunities
  5. Compose more detailed ROI analysis and implement changes based on find
  6. Keep a list of all of my websites and domains hanging on my wall and make sure to somehow add value to each one every single week
  7. Make lots and lots of money and put as much as possible in the BANK

PERSONAL

  1. Excercise and eat healthy (cliche, I know, but it’s a must)
  2. Save lots of money in hopes of buying a house in 2008
  3. Finish movie script and start a novel
  4. Get glasses or contacts or lasik eye surgery (I pretty much walk around blind)
  5. BE ORGANIZED… use a daily planner and make lists and follow them

I waste way too much time doing stupid things and that’s one huge thing I want to reduce.  One thing that has helped is constantly thinking to myself, “Is what I’m doing right helping me be successful?”  If not, do something else.  Granted we all need down time but you get the point.

Alright, time to get moving I’m waaaaaaaaaaay behind and I’ve got to get rolling!  I NEED THIS TO BE A HUGE YEAR… Here goes nothing.