I hope everyone has a great new year!

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I recently just added the MyTopSpots widget. If you haven’t heard of it yet, basically you “tip” me to add your link, rather than buying it. It is a great idea, as the blogger will not get slapped by the Google PR stuff for selling links, as the links don’t count towards pagerank. My blog has no page rank as it was started just after the last PR update.

In the recent Entrecard post review, a commenter gave me a great idea. Since alot of people using Entrecard dedicate hours daily to dropping Entrecards on blogs, now known as “chain dropping”, I thought I would add the widget just below the Entrecard widget, allowing those chain droppers to see the links. I started using Entrecard about the second week in December, and have had around 400 cards dropped on me. So if you buy a TopSpot, you are bound to get plenty of clicks and for $2 a spot, you will get your money’s worth.

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If you haven’t read NickyCakes.com yet, you need to! It is quickly becoming my favorite blog. The way NickyCakes writes his posts makes them extremely funny. The best part is, he actually gives great valuable information. Who cares what anyone had for lunch? I personally consider it the Facebook ads bible. If you are looking for a blog that after you read it, you are better off, then NickyCakes.com is for you. Thanks again to NickyCakes for doing the interview!

Your blog, NickyCakes.com is an extremely fun blog to read, what made you start it?
Mostly because Nickycakes was tired of seeing so many garbage blogs and forums out there with tons of readers, packed with affiliate links, but providing no real information on getting started in internet marketing, and presenting no real innovative ideas.  The guys making a lot of money tend to keep their secrets to themselves, to make sure they profit for
as long as possible.  But let’s face it, working alone and keeping everything to yourself is for basement dwelling losers.  Plus it’s boring.
 

Is NickyCakes.com something you are looking to profit from in the future, or just a hobby?
The primary purpose of the site is to help the newbie and non-newbie alike with new ideas.  However, a brotha’s gotta eat, so you will see affiliate links from time to time.  What you won’t see are affiliate links for bullshit products that Nickycakes has not checked out himself and found useful.  The site has already made a small profit, but that’s just icing on the cake.  The Cakes, in real life and online, likes to meet new people and make (non idiotic) friends, and so far that has been
the site’s greatest success.
 

Would you be interested in sharing some of the things you were doing when you were wearing the blackhat?
Nickycakes doesn’t have to call his lawyer to know that he’d advise against it.  You can be sure it wasn’t the “blackhat” that’s thrown around on webmaster forums referring to guys running autoblogs and trackback spamming.  The wikipedia article on blackhat has a decent overview of what blackhat is.
 

You talk about internet marketing and affiliate marketing alot, what  aspects of internet marketing are you currently doing?
Right now, trying everything and seeing what sticks.  The stickiest so far has been facebook flyers which are both incredibly simple to understand and incredibly easy to “game”.  The Cakes is also starting a series of local niche business directories with multiple monetization methods, such as contextual advertising (adsense), affiliate offers (dating, software installs, whatever), and subscription services for the local businesses if they’d like sponsored listings.  It will be an
ongoing, documented process on the blog and hopefully will make a little cash.  Other than that, the only other internet business Nickycakes is currently doing are small coding projects upon request.  Mostly things like content scrapers.
 

What affiliate networks would you recommend to the new affiliate marketer?
New affiliate marketers should, no matter what, sign up for these two networks:

NeverblueAds -
For a newbie, this network is perfect.  They have great affiliate
managers to help you get started, the interface is really clean and easy
to understand, they provide you with detailed information on what each
offer requires to get a conversion, and they pay on time.

CPAEmpire -
While CPAEmpire’s interface leaves something to be desired compared to
Neverblue, they make up for it with customer service.  They’re super
competitive and willing to bend over backwards for their affiliates.
When was the last time you got a call from the CEO of an affiliate
network 2 weeks after signing up asking how he could help you make more
money.  They also do weekly payouts which is rare in the affiliate
marketing industry.

One of your more recent posts, “The top 10 worst sites for making money online”, was hilarious and I agree with you on most of the top 10. Why do you think some of these websites like JohnChow.com are so popular?
It’s really a great example of how many gullible retards there are out there.  Does John Chow make a lot of money with his blog?  Yes, presumably.  The guy is obviously good at marketing, but at the end of the day, he got most of his subscribers by gaming digg for frontpage stories 3 days in a row.  The truth is, the way many people think they can get ahead in life is by copying the lifestyle of someone who is already successful.  They see someone like Chow and think that if they don’t subscribe and read his blog every day, they’ll miss the day when he drops some mad knowledge bomb that will make them millions, but that day never comes.  And why would it come?  The day John Chow gives people enough information to get rich is the day that they don’t need to read his blog anymore looking for ideas to make money, and they certainly have no reason to check out his e-book or click any of his get rich quick affiliate links.
 

What blog or website does NickyCakes hate the most and why?
Honestly, Nickycakes finds it hard to hate anyone.  All those crappy make money online blogs are just other dudes tryin’ to make a buck or whatever, so no real hate toward them.  If the Cakes had to pick a website he hates looking at it would have to be his dad’s website.  His dad is a famous artist, but his website is written in notepad with code from like 1998 and he refuses to change it.  The art is beautiful but the site looks so damn ghetto you could cry.
 

You talk about facebook ads alot. Do you think that advertising on facebook is still profitable?
Think?  More like KNOW.  Go read Gaming Facebook Ads Part 1, and Part 2.  Pretty much everything in those articles still holds true and will make you money if you aren’t a complete retard.  Let’s put it this way, with just the tools in those two articles, Cakes is gettin more Cash than the “Walk the Line” sound track.
 

Any blogs you read on a regular basis and would recommend to others?
Eli’s Bluehat SEO, while not updated on a very frequent basis, is an incredible resource for anyone starting out.  You are doing yourself a disservice if you have not read every post on thatsite. Uberaffiliatehas some good articles and was my original inspiration to get into facebook ads. Smaxor is pretty much a genius with “creative” SEO. Maddox is always good for a laugh.

Thanks once more to NickyCakes for the interview. You def. need to visit his blog and subscribe right away!

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Popularity: 86% [?]

 

I found this video searching youtube for internet marketing videos. I think it is pretty funny, and original. I love how they copied CNN’s logo and the skits are pretty good. Check out www.internetmarketingnews.tv for updates and new videos as I think this might be one of the first, however I could be wrong.

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Happy holidays to everyone! I hope everyone enjoys their holiday and time off!

Personally, I have alot of goals going into 2008. Promoting my blog, launching some new campaigns, and trying to finally break into email marketing. One thing I am going to do differently is stop reading so many blogs and using my time more productively. Anyone else have any goals for 2008? I would love to hear them!

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“During ad:tech NYC, MediaTrust’s CMO Trip Foster recently spoke with Jay Moore, the VP of Marketing for Playphone about how Advaliant, MediaTrust’s pay-for-performance affiliate network extended the value of Playphone for their customers and about the value of partnerships.“

I found this interview from relevantlyspeaking.com. MediaTrust’s CMO talks with one of their advertisers about how the mobile market is changing, and how their experience has been with Advaliant, my personal favorite affiliate network.

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Random videos collected from tons of sites will be posted here. Well not totally random, however having something to do with internet marketing/blogging.

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I have been running the Entrecard widget on my blog for around three weeks now. I wrote a review when I first added it to what my initial impressions were, so here is what I think about it after running it.

Pros:

• It will bring you some traffic, and the traffic is free. However, most of the traffic seems to be from “chain droppers” who just go around dropping their cards on every blog running Entrecard so they can get enough credits to advertise on Problogger or John Chow. One idea that I read somewhere was that maybe Entrecard could disable the 125×125 block for like 10 seconds after you drop a card so at least the person glances at your blog.
• Small chance to advertise for free on some great blogs. John Chow, Problogger, and John Cow are some of my favorites that you can get 24 hours of free advertising on. The only problem is, catching the ad when the advertising is filled up is extremely rare. I have never been logged in when John Chow or Problogger widget is open for advertising.
• Entrecard is motivated! It really seems like these guys are just going to keep improving and getting better. I really don’t understand why there aren’t more blogs available to advertise one. Maybe they should start some marketing?

Cons:

• The traffic is mostly from chain droppers, people who just go to every blog and drop their card so they build up enough credits.
• Only one size you can use. Maybe they could allow larger Entrecards, and depending on how large it would cost more and more credits.

So in my opinion, the pros out-weigh the cons. You definitely need to put the widget on your blog! It is free traffic, and a chance to advertise on some blogs that don’t normally allow advertising.

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Check out the new theme! Personally I love it, and think Adii’s designs are amazing.

The blog really needed a new look, as the old one kinda looked like a 10 year old designed it. This theme has alot of really cool features on the back end for easy customization. Really helpful to me as I am retarded when it comes to coding websites.

Some new things are going to be in the navigation of the site. Under the logo, there are two categories right now however I am going to add an off-topic category and a videos section. The videos will be about internet marketing and will be collected from other sites. I’ll add a few random ones from time to time.

This is not a custom theme, it is one of Adii’s premium themes, however in the new year I am going to have a little customization done.

If you noticed on the right hand side, there are four 125×125 blocks for advertising. Rather than putting adsense in them, I am going to just give them away for free for January. So, if you want your ad in there for the month of January, contact me and send me your 125×125 ad, and I will put it up. (I am going to start an advertising campaign for the blog in the new year) Only one rule, it must be directed to your blog/website, no affiliate ads.  My Entrecard button has gotten 55 clicks and it has only been up for around 2 weeks. Granted, some of those are just “chain droppers” however still if I charged .20/click, that is more than $10.

Happy holidays, and let me know what you think of the new design!

P.S. For now I can’t get the built in feedburner links to change over, so if you would like to subscribe, use the link below.

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Nate Whitehill has owned and operated online based businesses for years. His most recent company, Unique Blog Designs has really taken off, and has become one of the premier blog design companies out there. Unique Blog Designs have designed blogs for some big time bloggers. Most notably, Shoemoney.com, JohnChow.com, and ZacJohnson.com. I’d like to thank Nate Whitehill for taking the time out to do this interview.

What got you started in the online blogging business?
I got started in the online blogging business from my personal blog, Nate Whitehill dot Com. I was amazed at how many new people were starting blogs everyday, and also how well bloggers connected together to form mini communities. There are 120,000 new blogs started everyday - clearly blogging is growing exponentially. I think it is also a great community of like-minded people - I have met many people who I am now friends with in real life thanks to blogging.
 

Why did you start Unique Blog Designs?
I started Unique Blog Designs because I wanted to help share the knowledge of blog design and development which I have learned over the past year. It has almost been a year since I have been blogging on my own blog, and I have learned a tremendous amount of useful information about blog design, layout, copywriting, setup, and marketing. To date, Unique Blog Designs has helped over 80 clients get setup with their own unique blog designs and the right skills and knowledge to successfully begin their blogging careers. We have also helped many seasoned bloggers relaunch their blogs through redesigns. Many of our clients have doubled their traffic since relaunching their blogs.
 

Unique Blog Designs is an amazing blog design company, why do you think it has been so successful?
Unique Blog Designs prides itself on excellent customer services and giving the customers exactly what they want. We also ensure that we will go the extra mile to surpass our client expectations. I can only thank its success to the tremendous amount of support we received from our clients and from the blogosphere in general. Of course, I work with an awesome team of several other highly dedicated individuals (Matt, Josh, Dave, Chris and Corry) who are also committed to helping bloggers be more successful online.
 

Any big future plans in the works for Unique Blog Designs?
Unique Blog Designs is less than days away from relaunching our new website AND a special affiliate program. We are also rolling out several other products and services over the next few months which we believe will be of tremendous use to both newbie and seasoned bloggers. Stay tuned for some exciting stuff from us here at Unique Blog Designs.
 

Why did you decide to start NateWhitehill.com?
I started Nate Whitehill dot com because I became fascinated with the blogosphere after discovering John Chow’s blog in late 2006. Only a month prior to starting my blog, I deleted my Myspace account, so I think I was looking for a new online professional outlet to share my thoughts, ideas, and hopefully help other people with the knowledge I have learned. Starting my personal blog was hands down, the best decision I have ever made.

Your blog is growing rapidly. Is blogging just a hobby for you, or for profit?
I never started blogging with the intention of making money, although “making money online” was the fad at the time (and still is). I started my blog to network with like-minded individuals. I guess you could say blogging is a hobby for me, because it is something I truly enjoy, but as of late, thanks to UBD, I have not had very much time even for my hobbies. Blogging is something which has brought my tremendous benefit which I strongly encourage everyone to try at some point in their lives. It just may change your life.

Many blogs fail, what tips would you give to the up and coming blogger looking to be as successful as you?
To the up and coming blogger looking to become successful, I would recommend a few things:
1) Understand that like any task at hand, blogging is hard work. Nothing worth having in life comes easy. That same principle in life applies to blogging - to develop any kind of credibility - one must blog consistently and with high effort for at least 3-4 months. After that, it’s even more important to give back to readers as much as possible. I found that after 3 consistent months of blogging, I KNEW a lot about blogging. I then used this knowledge to help other people become successful at their blogs.
2) Blogging for money will never make you rich. A blog is an excellent tool to network with other individuals, either for personal or professional reasons. Blogging is also a great resources to share knowledge you have learned in other areas of online business and then receive comments and feedback from the people reading your articles. Sometimes they may just thank you for your knowledge, other times they may tell you that you are wrong and correct you! You gotta love the blogosphere.
3) To be a blogger, you must have some passion for writing. I have always liked writing my ideas and thoughts down. Some people find it very difficult to write a 300-400 word article everyday. Blogging is not for everyone, but it is something everyone should try.

 Thanks again to Mr. Whitehill for the interview. If your looking for a nice fresh blog design, you have to check out Unique!

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