Answers To Questions Round 9

So I stayed up until 2am (will post at 8am) to answer these questions... I got a bit cranky and short I am sure. Out of the 100 questions asked about 20 were repeats and 5 were just stupid. Brian asks:

What is the biggest reason that people are not successful in making money online?

ShoeMoney: lack of common sense.

Affiliate Confession asks:

Do you think Google has too much control over commerce on the net and are they inviting government intervention with their monopolistic practices?

ShoeMoney: I think Google is doing fine. Capitalism 4tw.

Pogung177 asks:

Hello Jeremy, 1. Why NextPimp using PostNuke Open CMS as the engine...? 2. How long NextPimp get 10.000 uv/ day since it launched... ?

ShoeMoney: When I launched nextpimp (half a decade ago or so) i was a very bad programer so postnuke was a easy framework that I could understand. It took maybe 6 months or so to get up to 10k uvpd or so... I am just guessing though.

FreeKill asks:

Hey Shoe, What is your opinion on Net Neutrality and how it might effect basically all of our ways of doing business in the next 5 to 10 years? Already companies like Comcast and others admit to shaping packets and artificially slowing selective traffic in what they say is to provide better service on their network but it more just to exert some control over their infrastructure. Already documents have leaked about potentially multi-tiered internet services where only select sites might be accessible for a certain price, similar to cable TV services right now. Do you think Net Neutrality should be implemented by law and do you think that it should be a priority of the next President?

ShoeMoney: I do not know that much about it.

David Andersson asks:

What ad network would you choose for PurposeGames.com?

ShoeMoney: Nothing comes to mind. Flash game sites even with shittons of traffic (hundreds of thousands of uniques per day) are hard to monetize.

Scorpion asks:

Hello, When you first test an offer. What do you ask the Affiliate Manager to provide you? In terms of stats?

ShoeMoney: I generally don't ask the affiliate manager anything I just test it and let the numbers speak for themselves. From my experience its a waste of time to talk to affiliate managers when you have not tested an offer. They are going to give you the standard bs they give every newb. Trust me they will see when you start testing and if they think you are driving quality traffic they will tell you what offer is best (almost all affiliate managers are on commission)

GSto asks:

A lot of people are talking about article marketing, and submitting to sites like ezinearticles.com . Do you think this is an effective method for SEO and building traffic? or has it become to bloated and spammy to be of any use anymore.

ShoeMoney: Waste of time.

J asks:

Hi Jeremy, Would you advise a fresh engineering grad who is very passionate about e-commerce to get a professional job first, earn decent money, and later invest into businesses he wanted to create? Or just find a mean to somehow sustain himself and jump in right now? Thanks!

ShoeMoney: Do what you have to do to support yourself (and family) and on the side jump in.

Omaha DBA asks:

Shoe, do you need a good DBA who knows how to solve problems?

ShoeMoney: The one thing we have always been pretty set on is database administration.

Big O asks:

Say for instance the mighty Google has example.com/page/users/ and example.com/page/users/index.php both indexed. Will this penalize the site and if so, what would you suggest to fix this if I would prefer to have the version without index.php in the address as the one listed in Google? A 301 redirect possibly?

ShoeMoney: I would not sweat it.

team ray asks:

which server language or programming do you build your bots or spiders, or automation tools? in affliate marketing is ppc a must if not any helpful tips for non ppc affliated marketers?

ShoeMoney: I am a really good shell scripter. I love to write bash scripts. I try to make myself code in php just because its so much cleaner and web ready.

Edgar Gonzalez asks:

Do you not like Boxing ? do you think MMA or UFC will be around for many years like Boxing ? MyBoxingFans.com

ShoeMoney: I grew up loving boxing but got very bored with it about 10 years ago.

Sean asks:

elgg or drupal or any suggestions?

ShoeMoney: I recently have been enjoying coding inside wordpress.

Paulo Faustino asks:

Hello Shoe. I'm writing from Portugal to ask you if you like soccer and what's your favorite soccer team. Keep up the good work!

ShoeMoney: Soccer was my favorite sport as a kid but I have never been able to follow it on television.

Website Reveiws asks:

I am still waiting to get into google admanager and I know you said you use it. Do you have a review of the service?

ShoeMoney: We wrote a review on it a couple months back.

Nick L. asks:

You've said in the past that you'd love to own a baseball team - Seeing as how you grew up in the Quad Cities area, does that make you a Cubs or Cardinals fan? Also, would you consider the purchase of a minor league team?

ShoeMoney: used to be a cubs fan. Work and family have take up most of my time now.

jagdeep asks:

is your reviewme price negotiable?

ShoeMoney: possibly

Glenn A asks:

Do you agree with the idea that, If you are a Web publisher and doing the work solo, you will never make any real money?

ShoeMoney: I highly disagree. Most web dudes I know with a net-worth over 50m have always been a 1 person operation. I consider that pretty real money... I guess it depends on what you consider.

Tailgating Dave asks:

Shoe, do you go tailgating? In that I do not mean following another driver too closely. I mean do you like to go to ball games early, set up the grill, have a few beverages and party in the parking lot? Me? I love it.

ShoeMoney: I like the idea of doing it.... just never find the time.

DotDriven asks:

Do you ever get bored making money and just think you have enough to relax? Besides your family and liking what you do, what keeps you motivated to work hard every day? I know I got a bit more lazy as soon as I was making enough to cover my bills...can't imagine having TONS of money in the bank...I'd probably have to hire someone to MAKE me work lol

ShoeMoney: I want to retire by the time I am 40 so I have no time to relax. Also I have several employees now that depend on me. Plenty of motivation to remain profitable.

Edgar asks:

Hi! I have $20.000 and 2 months to create an income stream of at lest $1000/month. I am a professional PHP developer and newbie in SEO/Marketing. What is my best shot?

ShoeMoney: goto vegas and try to win at blackjack. Much better odds then thinking you can create a 1,000$ per month income stream in 2 months with zero experience. (although you will have no shortage of people who will take your money and promise you it will happen.)

John Holloway asks:

How much would you pay me if I offered to wear a fighters.com t-shirt at UFC88 and had floor seats?

ShoeMoney: We will have probably 25 people already on the floor in fighters shirts.

Robert asks:

Sorry Shoe, you can delete this one if you like, but just thought of a different one altogether. I'm buying an IPodTouch. Hate the IPhone, but kinda like the idea of the touch. What do you think about them?

ShoeMoney: if ATT had decent coverage here I would consider a iphone. I am really happy with my palm treo for now. The touch is a cute toy but I think I would get bored with it after a few hours.

lawrenceq asks:

If you were going to put together an affiliate starter kit, what would you put in it?

ShoeMoney: experience.

Joe asks:

If you were making decent money but could use some more, would you work on a proj that would make real good money when finished but take 5 months to complete, and during that 5 months its not making any money, or would you go after something that would make less money but would only take 2 months to complete and would start earning money in the first 3 weeks (and you would have to postpone the big project)?

ShoeMoney: I would try to do them all. With everything being equal its hard to measure a opp until your ass deep into it. A lot of the time it will be more clear whether something is going to take off after you get going.

james asks:

What do you think about people copying things you do. Like Rand now doing open q&a and tons of people doing the free shirt friday?

ShoeMoney: Well I am sure I am not the first person to take quesitons on a blog or have free shirts... maybe just the most successful at it ;). I encourage everyone to do open q&a.

Mubin asks:

why did you take down the number of feed subcribers to this blog from the sidebar? Did you ever get the shoemoney finance thing off the ground? Could you setup below a buck for the UK? or release the script for it? not just for monetization but you know us UK peeps like deals as well...srsly

ShoeMoney: I took down the count because I personally quit caring. I am really compulsive obsessive... so when I setup feedburner last summer I wanted to see how many subscribers we could get in a year or something like that. I think its around 16,000 or so? Now I have more fun with twitter and after a couple months already have 3,000 followers and have tried to integrate that into the blog. ShoeMoney Capital has been incorporated and funded. We seeded it with over 1m in capital. We have invested in a few small things but nothing has really caught our eye or been a good fit yet. I do not know that we will be very good investors. For us to invest our working capital into a company or idea we expect returns as good as we get... and thats asking a lot. We are pretty conservative.

Regin asks:

Landing pages: Which factors do you find to have more relevance?

ShoeMoney: it helps if the words are relevant.

Terry Tay asks:

If someone needed to hire a coder for a site idea...do you have someone you would recommend? Also... Celtics or Lakers?

ShoeMoney: I do not know any php developers I would recommend off the top of my head. Most are either swamped with their own projects, work for a company, or are flakey as hell. Lakers

Jacob R asks:

How much do you benchpress?

ShoeMoney: I rep 145 not sure max.. maybe 185?

Justin asks:

How many servers are you running? What do they do? Specs? How much bandwidth do you use overall?

ShoeMoney: I think we have 19 servers right now. Various specs. We have 200mb of bandwidth allocated to our racks

Millionster asks:

How has your weight loss affected your business goals?

ShoeMoney: I lost weight before I started making decent revenue so its had zero effect on my business goals.

Lee asks:

do you think within the next 3 years there will be a rival to adwords/adsense programs? and would you ever consider playing in the WSOP or the World Poker Tour?

ShoeMoney: I do not think Adwords will have a rival until the government intervenes. I have attended the world series of poker main event for the last 5 years and played in the main event 3 years ago. I have a video of me from espn where I am playing at a table with annie duke and others.

corey asks:

hey jeremy, thanks for keeping the q&a opportunity alive. were you disappointed to see faber pullver go all five rounds? i was.

ShoeMoney: I was suprized. I thought pulver was better then that.

Wes asks:

Having your server go down due to a DDOSer can be very costly. (Especially if it is for a few days to a few weeks!) What do you use to combat a DDOS attack if one begins?

ShoeMoney: Totally and also very scary. I try not to upset any DDosers ;).

crash asks:

Have you ever thought to make SEO seminars around the world?

ShoeMoney: Yes I would love to...

Let Me Know asks:

Do you think watermarking videos with your URL really helps? or just helps people from not stealing your video?

ShoeMoney: Yes to both.

Zack asks:

Do you think there is a market for memberships sites with content aimed at traditional businesses, not IM's? How would you go about targeting the traditional businesses.

ShoeMoney: Yes and probably offline advertising... radio/print/US Mail/trade shows

Kiley asks:

Do you feel at all responsible for the clusterf@#k that is EPN? After all, you did put the bug in their (eBay) ear to start doing everything in-house.

ShoeMoney: Not at all. When we told the President of eBay that Commission Junction (reporting and payouts) was their weakest link I do not think anyone would say we were incorrect. Although as crazy as it seems we have already had 2 attempts by people to extort money from us saying we were responsible for that (how nuts is that?)

MyGoodFinds asks:

Do you have a pet?

ShoeMoney: Yes a dog - see gallery.

petnos asks:

For a web site or a blog what it the most important thing. Usability, Design, Content, SEO or all of them or there is another thing or things. Can you tell me?

ShoeMoney: Sure - in order - Functionality, Usability, Content, Design, SEO.

Ghaus Iftikhar asks:

Do you know if Federated Media is available worldwide or is it available for US bloggers only ? I cannot find it in Google, maybe you can help ?

ShoeMoney: I do not know.

mcQ asks:

recently (last night) one of the affiliate networks that you are a member of, provided links/web banners for (lets say --Toilet Paper ) with a conversion of ~ $7.50 ... now if a one page site is created, with a fancy Toilet Paper logo and in the middle - Click here to Get Your Free Roll .. where users are directed to advertiser and also this one page site is advertised through adwords ... in your perspective is this a common a way to make money off affiliate networks? And based on your experience, would it actually make money?

ShoeMoney: Its pretty black and white. Does the site have what you are saying it does in the adwords ad? If so then your fine. If not then your gambling.

Ravish Ahuja asks:

What channels do you suggest for buying and selling websites with an evaluation of six to seven figures? Any marketplaces, brokers or any other ways to find prospective buyers/sellers?

ShoeMoney: There are a few companies you can use to broker deals but most of them start in the 8 figure range (the well known ones) Also they will take a pretty huge upfront retainer. Your best bet is probably to ask the firm who gave you that valuation for a recommendation

Lumpy asks:

Did you get our L2 T Shirt? I sent it weeks and weeks ago.... Lumpy

ShoeMoney: I have no clue. I do not see the shirts until we take pictures.

VaBeachKevin asks:

What do you think of Gina Carano?

ShoeMoney: I think she is very talented. I met her a few times and she is really nice and down to earth in person.

Dom asks:

Jeremy, Would you ever consider teaching (beyond what's in your incredibly useful blog) a 15yo more about affiliate marketing for free? As in like 20mins a week giving tips and seeing how well that 15yo has got on based on your tips so far?

ShoeMoney: I have zero interest in that.

Blah asks:

If I'm doing arbitrage. What precautions should I take to be sure Google Adsense does not ban me? (Besides of course doing Adwords -> Adsense).

ShoeMoney: I am just gonna be honest. I have never heard of anyone (that I trust) who has gotten banned from Google AdSense. Like I said in the past on here and in my videos on contextual advertising if you keep a open line with google... let them know what you are doing and listen to them you have nothing to worry about.

Greg-J asks:

I've been trying to get ahold of you for weeks regarding past unfinished business and all my emails have gone unanswered. Should I take the hint or they getting filtered?

ShoeMoney: Email is the worst way to get ahold of me. My spam filtering is set pretty hardcore and unless I have specifically whitelisted you odds are I will never see it to my jeremy@shoemoney.com address. Even then I get over 100 legit emails a day. Mix that in with running 6 companies, having a marriage, working out 3 days a week, hanging out with my kid and taking care of my 8 month pregnant wife (and soon filming the top affilaite challenge) I just do not have much time for chitchat. I get requests all day people want to talk on the phone or on instant messanger... I just can't do it. So again best bet use the contact form where someone does monitor that and they will pass it on (but still try to be patient)

David Parkinson asks:

Best way to increase RSS subscribers?

ShoeMoney: Have a contest and incentivize them.

Kevin asks:

I've managed to earn $1000/month with Adsense with a second hand car classifieds web site, but I run out of ideas. Any suggestions on how to boost traffic/income?

ShoeMoney: If you have run out of ideas after only using Adsense then you need to read more of this site (and previous q&a )

Brian asks:

I am sure you get a lot of requests about how to be successful or make money online. What is the biggest reason that people are not successful in making money online?

ShoeMoney: Didnt I already answer this... hmm its 130am anyway.. Fear or lazyness

Lara Kulpa asks:

What's the weirdest, scariest question or request you've ever had? Any crazies out there?

ShoeMoney: Yea there are a LOT of weirdass scary people out there. Fortunately I live next door to the Attorney General for the state of Nebraska on one side and the Chief of Police for the city of lincoln across the street. Secret service is on detail within earshot 24/7. Probably the thing that scared my wife the most was when the guy tatoo'd my logo and animated char on himself (search google for free tattoo friday)'

Dom asks:

Also, what do you think of Kimbo Slice? In my opinion, he's damn tough but not a real MMA fighter yet - needs more training!

ShoeMoney: Umm he has had 3 professional fights... What do you expect. I think he looks really good for a guy who only a couple years ago was completely one dimensional.

Robert asks:

Have you every tried your hand and e-commerce? I know that the ringtone vert is kinda sorta e-commerce, where you pay for a service and so on, but have you ever tried selling something via traditional e-commerce site? If you haven't, would you be interested in it, and what market would you be interested in?

ShoeMoney: Sure I sell shirts - http://www.shoemoney.com/store/

Tom asks:

If you could only attend one conference for the year, which one would you attend and why?

ShoeMoney: Pubcon - not for the conference though... just because of the people.

Stak Loaded - How to make money doing nothing! asks:

Hey Big Shoe, I'm looking at starting an incentives site but as so many of them are scams, I'm trying to figure out a unique way to make sure people (most people) know it's NOT a scam, and that it actually is legit. Any ideas?

ShoeMoney: All incentivized sites are scams. They all play on the stupidity of man kind. Every site like it all plays on the fact that people will not complete the offers. If they did they could not make money.

Anil Gupta asks:

Hello Jeremy How we should show our affiliate links on our blogs? And what should be the percentage of Affiliate related posts to General posts?

ShoeMoney: Well I like in context text links and the ratio I guess would just depend on your readership.

ClockworkBlogger asks:

Since my question has already been asked I'll second james in comment #2 - "What do you think about people copying things you do".

ShoeMoney: The 1 thing you can count on is when you have success with something and people find out about it they will try to duplicate it. Its the double edge sword to showing your cards (checks) even if they are from 4 years ago.....

Hustle Strategy asks:

How would you try to convert traffic your site sees from Google Images search. I have an image that is number one for decent keyword, but I am not sure how to profit. My site is getting hits, but no converts.

ShoeMoney: I think it just depends on the context... for instance if you search for like... Adsense check you see a ton of pictures of... ya.. me. Now I have water marked all of those and it drives people here which people stick around and sign up... so it depends on your goal.

Michael D asks:

Been out of town, did your wife have a baby?

ShoeMoney: Not due for a bit

Sports Picks asks:

Are there any fighters.com banners? I can't find any to put on my site. Thanks

ShoeMoney: We have some somewhere. I will probably post some fighters stuff this week.

Nick Throlson asks:

Jeremy, Do You Think Plurk Will Replace Twitter?

ShoeMoney: No I think plurk is a piece of spammy crap. I have already blacklisted emails inviting me to follow them get like 30 requests a day its worse then facebook apps.

Melvin asks:

jeremy, looking at your itrader in dp forum I have seen a negative feedback from someone regarding selling websites... can you tell us more about that?

ShoeMoney: no clue. Being a mod I could just erase it... but I really could care. LOL looking now shawn (the owner) has some hilarious negative rep too.

Mark Blaszczyk asks:

Heya, what gives you inspiration in achieving your goals, (apart from $$ ofcourse) and how do you stay focused? I am a perfect case of being able program anything, however when I start my dollar making idea i lose focus and start on some other project that seems more interesting at the time.. I have over 30 unfinished projects all which I've spent over 100 hours on each, every time i try to revisit them I quickly lose interest and start a new idea.. It seems to happen every time I hit a constraint. It also effects me when i look into things too much, such as looking into SEO, I've read about it for the last 2-3 years but never put it into place, only recently have I setup a few sites and done a bit of promotion, but once again none of which are complete. I guess my question would be how do you manage your projects and your time. Thanks

ShoeMoney: What your talking about is the dip. Seth godin wrote a book about it. This is where most people fail or succeed is powering through to complete the project.

MyEggNoodles asks:

I've been toying with the idea of organising a Wordcamp here in Bangkok. What would it take for you to come over and do a session on a subject I know you are passionate about?

ShoeMoney: Wow.. probably if you would just pay for my expenses and also my wife to come that would be enough. My schedule until winter is pretty booked though.

Dwayne MB asks:

Hey Jeremy, before everyone knew who (or what ) a shoemoney was, what did you do to be taken seriously by movers and shakers in the industry you were targeting? Second question, will you buy a poor auction guy a beer at pubcon this year?

ShoeMoney: I never set out to impress movers or shakers. I guess mainly because I never needed them for anything. Your reputation will speak for itself.

Dan Schawbel asks:

What are your top 3 online networking strategies for meeting influencer's?

ShoeMoney: Goto conferences or events. People seem to think social networking like stupid linked in or leaving 10,000 blog comments a day is good to network... 1 conference is as good as a year of that stuff.

Text Lingo asks:

What would you do to make money if everyone stopped using the internet?

ShoeMoney: I would actually love it! It would be a great new opportunity for me. I have always wanted to try my hand at several businesses and now I have the capital to try it.

Instant Community asks:

What do you think of this site, www.instadigi.com? It is currently supporting more then 180 forums with its script that is generating content for forums so its much easier to kickstart a fresh new forum. Your opinion would be appreciated! Thanks

ShoeMoney: I have mixed feelings about forum posters. Sure it looks good to show that you have a active forum but that has a VERY limited shelf life. If nobody wants to post in the beginning its possible that having incentive posts will get you to that tipping point but again... very limited window of opp there.

Noel asks:

Hi shoe.. I'm a budding blogger and i'm searching for some good webspace provides to host for me. If You had to suggest me a webspace provider, who would it be and why....??? Also who hosts all your websites :)

ShoeMoney: Just for a blog I would say wordpress.com. Very inexpensive to host your own domain (if your just blogging). We host all of our own websites.

Leighton Scarlett asks:

If I send you a T Shirt that says "Save on Gas, Date Online" - CaribSingles.com. Would you feature on "Free T-Shirt Fridays"? :)

ShoeMoney: Answer

Rajaie AlKorani asks:

What do you think of my blog www.rajaietalks.com which I fully designed and coded? Given the fact that I'm 14 years old.

ShoeMoney: I gotta be honest. The fact you parade around (by your bold tags) you are only 14 really turns me off. Maybe if you said you were a black 14 year old girl you could get more attention? Maybe I am just up to late and cranky!

HipHoper asks:

Wazaaaap! First, what is your favorite Major League Baseball Team? Second, referring to the ppc to affiliate marketing strategy (arbitrage) I just found over the years that the best plan is to exploit and take the most money as soon as possible because I just found that when something is working then the advertiser just kick me out. What do you think?

ShoeMoney: Livelong cubs fan (and havent seen a game in like 10 years). Here is the thing with affiliate marketing. No company is going to kick you out of the program if you are sending quality traffic... That just defeats the purpose. So if a company terminates your relationship then I am guessing you were negative ROI for them.

PC Curb asks:

How many things do you own with the shoemoney logo on it? eg. drinking glasses, shirts?

ShoeMoney: A lot man....

Darren asks:

Is it better to get a loan from a bank if you are starting a small online company or try to get an investor? Say for the amount of 10k?

ShoeMoney: Depends on how much of a risk you think it is. For some ideas that are a 10% chance to succeed I will seek funding. But things I am very sure about I will invest my own money or get a loan from a bank if needed.

FastOPM asks:

Who do you think is going to win Quinton Jackson or Forest Griffin?

ShoeMoney: I really think Quinton wins that. I understand why Forest is getting the title shot but I think there are 3-4 LHW that are better then forest (and I just spent some time with forest last month at xtreme couture)

Melvin asks:

another question if you don't mind... is your blogroll section a set of paid links?

ShoeMoney: Its interesting this keeps coming up. None of the links in my blog roll are paid. Its amazing how the Google has everyone one such a edge lol..