Answers to Questions Round 6

Elyse asks:

Where do you see the future of the MMA industry in the next 5 years? More specifically, do you see it continually dominated by the UFC, or do you think other promoters will overcome their current financial struggles to share some of spotlight? Along with fighters.com do you see your own role in the industry growing?

ShoeMoney: I see it growing. I think you need to do a little more research on companies involved in MMA. Golden Boy/Affliction, Strikeforce/elitexc, and Mark Cubans/Mark Ecko's invested organizations have quite a bit if not more money then the UFC

Mike asks:

If you were to look past Web 2.0 into the near future (Web 3.0?), what kinds of marketing, technology, and services do you see emerging?

ShoeMoney: Honestly I still have not really embraced web 2.0... Have you seen my sites ? =P

Dexter asks:

any tips on How to earn using twitter followers, or the tweets itself.. any idea ?

ShoeMoney: Well.. twitter has now become the 4th largest source of referral traffic to this blog so that in a round about way would I guess contribute to monetization. I have seen people spam affiliate links and stuff so I am guessing that works too...

Collin LaHay asks:

Do you outsource any of the work / tasks you need to do, or does it mostly go to the Shoemoney employees?

ShoeMoney: We outsource just about everything at one time or another just depends. We have always outsourced graphics.

stan asks:

What is the biggest referrer for fighters.com?

ShoeMoney: Right now radio ads

Todd Mintz asks:

Have you seen Redbelt yet (http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/10008741-redbelt/#synopsis) ? If yes, what did you think?

ShoeMoney: I have not seen it.

Dot Com Mogul asks:

How do you feel about deceptive marketing practices such as the ones frequently used in "free ringtone" deals or ads that offer "free samples" only to automatically enroll you in a membership program? What are the best ad networks in your opinion that have profitable ads/companies that aren't scams? Do you have any advice (other than huge volume of traffic) for getting big Adsense checks like the one in your photo? :)

ShoeMoney: I kind of came into the whole ringtone industry as the "free ringtones" stuff was really being regulated. The government goes after people pretty hardcore who deceptively market as has been written about on this blog many times (see azoogle, cpa empire, etc etc) I am guessing you are going off of rumors of the affiliate industry as far as it being "shady" but *most* offers have conditions that you have to clearly state the payment and terms on the signup pages (not buried in the TOS) so I guess I feel the industry is pretty regulated. If you want to offer out some specifics I would be happy to give my opinion on them. There is such a fine line between creative and deceptive marketing. Currently Television and Radio advertising has much less regulation in regards to Ringtone marketing (ever seen ads on mtv for ringtones?)

mcQ asks:

Do you use doubleclick performics or cj in any of your ventures? Also, i checked fighters.com and using alexa.com, I noticed that its traffic is dying. any ideas why?

ShoeMoney: We were forced to use cj with auctionads, nothing good to report. Traffic to fighters will go way up and down as we play with various marketing. The site is 45 days old. We really don't put to much stock in alexa but rather how many new users per day we get to the site... how active users are with the site.. bounce rates.. etc.

Craig asks:

How excited are you about the iphone sdk? Do you plan on developing any apps for mobile?

ShoeMoney: Exciting. We are working on some apps currently that will be announced shortly

Tim Chapins asks:

Who made shoemoney playbook ebook graphic....can you open source photoshop/graphics program file?

ShoeMoney: Nate Whitehill of Unique Blog Designs made it and sent it to me one day in a email (unsolicited)

Think Like An SOB asks:

Are you promoting fighters.com via ppc or is the traffic surge organic, word of mouth and from this site? The traffic graph is impressive for such a new site. Would love to know what you used to get that surge.

ShoeMoney: Thanks! We are experimenting with promotions, sponsorships, advertising, ppc, and other stuff. I will continue to talk about various efforts on here.

Me asks:

How can we jump to the top commentators area and whay profiles are disablied in the comments area ?

ShoeMoney: click on the ? at the end of the top commentators

themonkeyone asks:

1. How much is fighters making you? how much has it cost so far? 2. Once you have a gastric bypass, are you limited to the amount of water you can drink after exercise? (Can you rehydrate quickly?)

ShoeMoney: The site is less then 45 days old and surprisingly we are not making a profit (lol). Seriously we do not expect to profit for at least 18 months. 2 - I did not have the gastric bypass so I cant really comment on that. I had the DS procedure and I have zero issues with hydration.

Bathroom Hero asks:

How can we use our influence and income to help people in need?

ShoeMoney: I dunno

G. Sto asks:

You always say that the best thing to do to make money online is to write good content. Could you elaborate a little by what you consider "good" content? What do you think makes some articles stand out from others more and gain more backlinks / popularity?

ShoeMoney: In my opinion good content is something people would naturally want to link to or bookmark for future reference.

Kathy asks:

What is your best advice to sell advertising on a new blog?

ShoeMoney: dont

Lawrence asks:

Are you replying to these questions via the emails, or publicly?

ShoeMoney: Publicly

MoneyBites asks:

What do you look for in a new project as a way of telling if it's worth it to invest in?

ShoeMoney: Reputation of the people running it. Odds are they know a lot more about what they are doing then I do so I would rather look at their previous track record in building companies/sites.

Mark - The Niche Store Builder asks:

My question... Has the "Fun Factor" that makes a sales/affiliate marketing juices flow, faded with the added responsibilities of running your growing business? I know that surrounding yourself with the right people is key, so you can focus on what YOU do best, but how much has the business ops cut into the creative process that enabled you to get where you are?

ShoeMoney: Sure while I try to hire people that can manage themself no doubt I have had to take on more of a management role as we hire more employees. The fun factor is present now more then ever.

Mubin asks:

I've had this bugbite for a while now, it wasnt really a problem at first but than it started gowing. It was never really painful just kind of annoying anyway last night the damn bump started pulsating and eggs falling out. I have just been burning them as they fall out but dont want to do anything else as to anger the mother. What would you do?

ShoeMoney: I would probably feel really sad that I had nothing better to ask then try and make some weirdass joke.

Joe asks:

What is your favorite way to market a new project? (SEO? PPC? Social Media? etc)

ShoeMoney: Word of mouth

AussieWebmaster asks:

What is the history of Fireboy?

ShoeMoney: I have heard rumors it was started by an australian webmaster and his fantasies about young men dressed as firefighters.

Kevin L asks:

I noticed on Shoemoney and Fighters, you serve Google ads but they do not have branding PLUS open in a new window. Excuse my ignorance but do you have a high-level account with them or are you bending the rules? I am jealous.

ShoeMoney: Its just Google Ad Manager. It rox!

Steve asks:

How many bedrooms does your house have?

ShoeMoney: 5 I think

Ricky asks:

What do you do for hosting (vps?, dedicated?,colocated?,etc?) all your sites? What is your monthly hosting bill?

ShoeMoney: We have our own rack with 200mb of bandwidth at great hosting facility. I do not know our exact bill off hand.

Nick Throlson asks:

Kinda Serious Question Would You Ever Run For President Or Vice President Of America? ~Nick~

ShoeMoney: No

Pam Hoffman asks:

How can I unlock my paypal account? Started working with a new business partner recently and the money came thick and fast. Two (2!) people from paypal called and I thought we were good. Then they wanted a bunch of questions answered (how do i provide a tracking number when someone paid ME 38cents????). They recinded the transfers then the removed them completely while they 'investigate'... Like this NEVER happened to paypal OR anyone they have provided service for. Anything you can tell me I can use. This is frustrating since everything is locked up and we have a LOT more business in the works AND we need this to keep going to save our house! Thank you, I'm very grateful for any input into this little bump in the road. Pam Hoffman http://seminarlist.blogspot.com

ShoeMoney: I dunno.

Joe asks:

Are all your projects self funded, or have you ever gone out looking for start up capital? What do you recommend for a small biz looking for start or expansion capital? For attracting great employees, do you recommend giving equity, rev sharing, or base salary or combo of these?

ShoeMoney: We have taken on private investors on some projects. We currently attract employees just because of our reputation first and foremost. Since I wrote on this blog we were hiring I have interviewed at least 10 people a week. If they are the right fit usually its a fair base salary... then down the road profit sharing and father down the road equity opportunities. Course only dillsmack has come that far ;)

Josh Wexelbaum asks:

When you look at offers on CPA networks, how much weight do you put into the EPC numbers your affiliate manager gives you? Have you ever run offers when you knew there was a network low EPC on the offer?

ShoeMoney: On most networks I do not trust affiliate network managers unless they have proven to me they have a good track record. I will try a offer with a network low if I feel I have a unique angle that others are not trying.

affstarter asks:

how much did you pay for the fighters.com domain?

ShoeMoney: If you asked me this question at a bar I would tell you but not in writing on my blog ;).

Jagdeep asks:

how long is the free shirt friday queue?

ShoeMoney: Longer then the day before unless you pay the expedite fee

Lee asks:

Would you actually suggest using the Build A niche site program or did you only promote it for the $$$;?

ShoeMoney: Well I tried it and made some money with it and I feel its for sure one of those things that could easily make 100$ per day but like those things they just do not make business sense for us to continue on at this point.

thebboss asks:

shoemoney, are you going to buy an iphone 2.0 in june?

ShoeMoney: No, the next phone I have will be Andriod powered on the sprint EVDO network.

Jojo asks:

How many visitors are many visitors?

ShoeMoney: ????????

Will asks:

What are your impressions of Powerset.com? How can a brand new search engine possibly compete in this climate?

ShoeMoney: sucks. they cant.

VaBeachKevin asks:

Do you have any tattoo's? If not do you plan on getting any?

ShoeMoney: I have never had something be important enough to me to make me want draw permanently on my skin. Perhaps someday though.

big money asks:

General Business Question: How do you get in contact with or offer your services/product to major companies such as comcast.com for example? Where does one even start in getting ahold of the right person when making a sale with such a large company? Didn't you get in contact with Ebay for your Auction Ads or did they contact you first?

ShoeMoney: Ya eBay came to us to build AuctionAds. Once you build a reputation for yourself and your company people are more likely to return your phone calls.

John asks:

Often making money online is about the bottom line and making profit; but what basic attributes would you say any successful entrepreneur needs in order to be a success?

ShoeMoney: Basic Attributes? Good work ethic, being driven by passion and not money.

Ray asks:

What's the best way to monetize the mobile market today? And where do you see the future of mobile marketing going?

ShoeMoney: The best way would be just to acquire mobile users to market to when technology allows it... although that is not really profitable in the short term.

RightStarter asks:

Jumping on an emerging technology / product / topic in it's infancy can give you a huge advantage when developing blogs and forums - much like you did with NextPimp. What are some resources you utilize to determine what will be a hot market next year or 2-3 years down the road?

ShoeMoney: I think you give us too much credit. With nextpimp it was pretty simple. We wanted to have ringtones on our phone and did not want to pay for them so we created that service. With Auctionads we wanted to display Good looking ads with items on eBay and leverage the highest payout. With fighters.com we want to build a great 1 stop shop for news, video, pics, forums, social network related to MMA. I think the one thing you will find in all of these is they were all things that made sense to us were very needed services and ones we would/do use ourselves.

stan asks:

I've just got a mac pro - what are the top programs you use daily that I need to install? Also, how much do you use automator and/or applescript? In your opinion, is it worth learning applescript?

ShoeMoney: Firefox, Skitch. Since OSX/Rhapsody came out I have not used applescript but bash/php instead.

Jehzeel Laurente asks:

What's the brand and the specs of laptop/notebook/desktop that you are using right now? :)

ShoeMoney: Macbook AIR

Entertainment News asks:

how can "seos" charge so much with google constantly tweeking how they rank sites?

ShoeMoney: Well its a nice security blanket for most people to have a SEO they can call when changes do happen. I dunno about charging so much.... Most of the bigger names in SEO (greg boser, david naylor, etc) have moved on to other business areas last I heard.

Scorpiono asks:

Can you describe a normal day ? From AM to PM ?

ShoeMoney: Check last round of q&a

Keith Cash asks:

What are some of your top traffic affiliates on shoemoney

ShoeMoney: I don't really have affilaites cause I dont sell anything (besides shirts) here.

Lee asks:

I've betted on Wanderlei Silva and BJ Penn in their upcoming fights at ufc84 - have I lost my money?

ShoeMoney: This has not been my year for ufc betting... I like the silva bet but not so hot on the Penn bet.

Symone asks:

You you were a nut, why kind nut would you be?

ShoeMoney: Chest

Cigar Inspector asks:

When you say that SEO is dying, do you mean that tricks like using nofollow to distribute google juice on the site, optimizing titles & meta descriptions, etc. are bound to become inefficient? Or it only relates to 'spamming' = massive link building, anchor-keyword spamming?

ShoeMoney: Nope

Phillip asks:

Do you spend a lot of time using social media for marketing your projects and does it convert in the end?

ShoeMoney: Good question. In the past when we have gotten some great results but our goal was to get mainstream press and interviews... thats what we have mainly used it for.

Jenstar asks:

What are your latest Lost conspiracy theories ;)

ShoeMoney: Its frickin me out about Jacks dad and claire in jacobs cabin wtf?!?! I only have questions!!

thebboss asks:

what is the best way to obtain mydomain.com when i now only have mydomain***.com? the people who have mydomain.com are not talking to me and i think the are holding out for $10,000 or some crazy number! :rolleyes:

ShoeMoney: being your not disclosing the domain or your budget I have no clue.

Craig asks:

When will the shoemoney playbook be available?

ShoeMoney: Honestly its probably even money by 2009

MouthyGirl asks:

Do you visit mobile web sites? If so which are your favorites and are they worth time to create and try to monetize?

ShoeMoney: I use twitter on my palm and also visit thesuperficial when I am bored. I have not played around with making mobile versions but I think thats a good call.

Tom - StandOutBlogger.com asks:

I noticed that ProBlogger just released a book. Will you be following suit?

ShoeMoney: I would like to someday. I have a few I have started

james asks:

id be curious to see a list of some or all of those 50 ideas to make a $100 a day. You could probably sell it for $100 and make at least a sale a day...

ShoeMoney: Ya see that was kind of my point.... I don't know how to answer that question cause I am not in that position.

Michael D asks:

Didn't get an invite to Google's new ad management platform. Would you suggest running OpenX (phpAdsNew) for a niche network of sites or go with some other alternative?

ShoeMoney: I would try again. It seems to be very random. I know several people that got accepted but I did not. Then I pinged jensense and she hooked me up! Its good to have connected friends! As far as alternatives really there is nothing that compares. I have heard bad things about pubmatic and still not been able to use the rubicon project (although looking forward to someday.) If you have the time, resources and technical ability to install openx on your own server then I would use that.

Thanks!