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Quick update and a new feature

Tuesday, June 17th, 2008

Just wanted to mention that I’m busy working on an update to The Leap Guide to Mini-Sites this week. A lot of things have changed in how search engines are viewing mini-sites and weighing backlinks over the past year since I first released the eBook.

Along the way I’ve made some tweaks and adjustments in how I manage and market my mini-sites, and I’ve tried to mention these things in the monthly newsletter mailings but recently it doesn’t seem like that’s been enough to keep everybody up to date.

Feeling that at this point a good bit of the information in the eBook was outdated, but that the model of building mini-sites is still a very profitable one I didn’t want to just abandon the eBook by any means. So, I’m rewriting it from scratch, based on the very techniques I’m using today for building and marketing profitable mini-sites.

I had hoped to finish the rewrite over the weekend and have it ready for a Monday release, however with Father’s Day that just didn’t happen.

I will try to have it ready within the next few days though, so look forward to an announcement here shortly.

This is going to be big! (homage to a fellow Irishman who passed recently, Mr. Tim Russert)

It gets hard sometimes trying to keep straight who I’m talking with and what I’m answering in the email contacts I receive from readers here, so after talking with my “partners in crime” to make sure they would be onboard for some additional duties, I’ve added a forum to the Leap where we’ll all be sharing more information and resources, absolutely free as always, and better able to answer questions and hold conversations that others will be able to follow and benefit from too.

You may have already noticed the link for it at the top of this page, it’s just http://www.obannonsleap.com/forum/ and you will have to register with the forum in order to see all of the boards and participate in the conversations.

I’m not trying to be a jerk by making the boards invisible to non-registered users, however we will be sharing ideas, methods and tools on the forum that we certainly don’t want openly published. That’s how good things become abused quickly and we don’t want to help abuse anything around here.

Too often people grab golden nuggets like these from blogs or forums and turn them into $97 e-course PDF’s. I’m not going to charge fees for access or worry too much about people stealing what we share, but I’m also not going to make it overly easy for anyone either. If you want what we’re giving away free you’ll have to register and let us know you’re stopping in.

And just in-case you’re wondering, yes there will be stuff that good freely shared on the forums that you could turn it into a high-priced digital product and make a killing with it.

We’re hoping you won’t do that, but rather will use what we’re giving you to make big cash in niches that have nothing to do with making money online because there’s lots of gold in them hills to be mined yet… but if you’re hell-bent on making yourself the next Frank Kern or Yaro Starak without actually ever making real money for yourself online in other niches there’s nothing I can say to change your mind and I’m not going to put up giant obstacles to block you.

I’ll just say what I’ve said many times before, for every well known “Guru” there are a hundred people with names you’ll probably never hear that are making a killing online because they aren’t part of the “make money online circle-jerk” where everybody is just trying to sell to each other instead of carving out new niches in bigger markets.

And that’s all I’ve got to say about that… (homage to Forrest Gump)

Anyway, check out the forum. Register and feel free to post questions or suggestions for things you’d like to see us cover there.


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A Little Friday Hodgepodge

Friday, May 2nd, 2008

I have a few things to discuss briefly today, so hodgepodge seemed a fitting title–not to mention it’s just a fun word.

Neat Packages
I’m seeing a recent rise in what I call “Neat Package” online business promises out there. These are those “everything you’ll need in a box” type deals (often called cookie-cutter site/businesses because they turn out tons of the same exact thing over and over) that some Guru swears will allow even a monkey to make money online with ease.

I call BS!

Even if the people selling these products did have success with the templates and systems included, there’s a fade effect that’s going to occur once they start selling their “neat packages” to others. The templates are going to have footprints that search engines will pick up on and begin filtering sites using them, and with each person who buys and uses the system the effectiveness of what’s being done is going to drop.

That’s what happens online, period. That’s why so many “systems” become outdated so fast, and then you see so many version 2’s of popular systems come around.

I feel sorry for the people who get duped with that flip. You buy the exciting new system that everyone has been talking about (usually for paid compensation) just as it becomes obsolete and miss out on the “wealth and glory” that the buyers ahead of you supposedly got, but don’t despair because the Guru has been “working hard in the lab” and was able to come up with all new information and techniques that are sure to work for you now, just pull that credit card back out and purchase version 2 of his Instant BS!

To be fair and clear, I’m not harping on anyone who sells honest and valuable information in eBooks. I’ve done it myself and know there has to be some value placed on the time and efforts that go in to putting a real resource together.

I’m just saddened by seeing so many “Snake Oil Salesman 2.0″ taking advantage of enthusiastic–and often desperate–people who are just trying to get ahead online.

Pedomarketing
With the latest celebrity scandal that I’m aware of, though I don’t stay on top of celebrity scandals so this could be old news by now, concerning some risky business photos taken of Miley Cyrus this might be a timely point to make.

Every so often I get a free product from someone asking me to review it for them, and once in a while some service will send a goody-bag of stuff (usually hats or t-shirts or other similar things with their logos on them) and they may or may not ask me to mention them. I appreciate free stuff (who doesn’t?), so I have no problems with this kind of thing as long as there are no stipulations on what I might have to say about the product or service.

Now, I don’t get free stuff like this all the time, and certainly not as often as some bloggers out there do. That’s fine by me though, because when someone sends me something I feel obligated to try it out and talk about it, whether my impressions are good or bad (hey, I didn’t ask for it so don’t expect me to be gentle if your product sucks!).

The problem though, is if I was getting lots of stuff like some bloggers out there are I wouldn’t have time to write about anything else, so I’m cool with just getting the occasional mailing here and there as I do.

But here’s what I’m not cool with: don’t send me child-size ANYTHING and expect pictures of kids wearing your brand with smiles on their faces!

You’re essentially asking bloggers to pimp out their children by doing this, STOP THAT!

There may be special circumstances if your entire product line is for children, or you work in the marketing department of Parenting magazine… but if you represent an online advertising network or media group there’s no sane reason in the world for you to send bloggers child-size anything.

It’s pedomarketing and it’s disgusting.


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Only fools don’t use tools – part 3

Thursday, May 1st, 2008

I’ve talked about using tools to save you time online twice before (part 1 and part 2), and since today is RSS Awareness Day I thought it was a great time to revisit the idea of using tools wisely to save time, and specifically, the use of RSS Readers.

First, if you’re trying to start a profitable web site, whether your goal is to earn a little extra beer money each week or to build a full time business for yourself, you should be following blogs and news sources that cover your general topic to stay up to date.

The problem with that is you can quickly lose hours of your day going to each site and digging out the latest information. Or worse, you may visit some sites and find there’s nothing new for you there today… that’s wasted time and it does add up.

Here’s where RSS and readers really fill a need. By using an RSS Reader, you can have all of the latest stories from every blog and news site you follow collected in a single place for you, and only the latest stories will be displayed so you won’t waste time looking at anything you’ve already seen or read.

I’ve mentioned this here before, but I follow well over 100 different blogs every day. I also follow several dozen news and trade sites too. It would take me until lunch time every day to actually visit and sort through all of those sites each day if I visited them each individually.

But I use Bloglines and Google Reader instead, and only have to visit 2 sites to get all that information rather then hundreds. And again, because these only show me what I haven’t already looked at in them, I never waste time looking at the same stories twice unless there’s a specific reason I would want to.

I could even reduce that to one site, but I’m a little bit anal about organization and like to keep certain RSS feeds separate, that’s why I use both Bloglines and Google Reader.

Using RSS and RSS Readers, I’m usually able to get through all the sites I follow in under a half-hour each morning, and then through the day I’ll check for any updates here and there, which only takes a couple of moments. It’s a super time saver.

The folks at CommonCraft put a sweet video together showing the advantages and ease of use for utilizing RSS and a reader program, so check it out and then subscribe to my feed and start saving time:


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Work at Home Opportunities – Make Your Own

Friday, April 11th, 2008

There are a lot of people looking for work at home opportunities out there, and with the U.S. economy sliding backwards it seems like there are more joining their ranks every day.

I’m a big fan of small business start ups and encourage people to take control (and responsibility) of their lives and finances. It’s not easy–anyone who tells you it is is a liar!–but thanks to the technology and global marketplace the Internet provides it isn’t out of anyone’s reach either–if they’re willing to apply themselves. That’s my belief based on my experience.

Unfortunately, there are hordes of folks out there who take advantage of the desire (and desperations) of people who want to start their own online ventures but lack the basic knowledge and vision for getting it from idea to honest income. They create and promote garbage “cash systems” and “wealth building ebooks” that will give you some insights, but almost never provide a clear and concise strategy to follow.

If you’re going to work for yourself then you have to be a little creative. Starting an online business is no different than starting a brick and mortar business. You have to offer a product or service that people will pay for, and then be better than the competition so those people pay you for it. It’s the old “build a better mouse trap” theory.

I’d bet that 99.9% of the start ups out there aren’t unique or original ideas, the ones that succeed are just those who located a need that wasn’t being completely filled already; then packaged and presented their offerings better than everybody else was doing.

Think YouTube, MySpace or Facebook were unique or original? Nope. They’re built on the concepts of “online community” and “file sharing”, both of which are as old as the Internet itself. Long before web sites, as far back as the 1970’s, people were gathering together in online communities known as Usenet Newsgroups. In the 1980’s they began sharing files with each other there too.

What people are doing today on YouTube, Facebook and similar sites is just an expansion and repackaging of what folks have been doing online for decades already. They’re better mousetraps.

So, how can you apply this to your own situation? Just open your eyes and look for the opportunity you can leverage. Maybe you have knowledge on a topic that isn’t being covered well enough anywhere, that’s an opportunity for your own web site or blog. It’s also an opportunity to approach the editor(s) of existing ezines and communities in that field to become a content contributor.

Maybe you enjoy programming, and like me find the faults in every new software title you use. There’s an opportunity for your own program or to approach the developers of an existing program with a pitch.

Whatever your areas of interest and expertise may be, there are honest work from home opportunities out there for you, and you don’t have to buy anyone’s “system” or “plan” to find them. Be smart and creative, be proactive, be willing to create the opportunity for yourself.


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A Few Domains Up For Grabs

Monday, March 24th, 2008

With eBay leaving the Commission Junction network I’ve got to change a bunch of my projects and I just don’t have the time for everything right now, so I’ve decided to do a little Spring cleaning and offer a few of my under used domains to any of my readers that want them.

This isn’t an auction, I’m not looking to make a bunch of money from these and I won’t waste time on negotiating deals. I’m offering them for sale at $25 each.

Here are the domains I’m offering along with where they’re registered and when they expire (some of these have content on them but I’m not offering the content, only the domain names are included in this deal):

domains

Both GoDaddy and NameCheap provide free domain pushes so the buyer shouldn’t have any transfer fees.

The laptops domain gets a little traffic, the other 3 were going to be the start of an iPod niche network so there’s the idea for someone who wants to fly with it.

Like I said, this isn’t an auction and I’m not going to waste time negotiating prices. This is a straight sale at the prices mentioned and will be first come first served. Payment will be through PayPal.

If you want any (or all) of these domains just send me a message through my Contact Form and I’ll get back to you ASAP.


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