So those of us who have been following Vic’s online business ventures and learned from his training know that targeting long-tail buying keywords is a way to earn consistent money online. If you can pick a keyword and build a site around it and get it to $1 per day for $30 per month, then you have hit a homerun.

Now I know that many of you think a $30 per month site is worthless, but that’s because you have a misinformed way of going about the online and internet marketing game. You see, very few of us will ever achieve success with just one or two websites. Instead, we play the numbers game, trying to hit 100 small winners. You may have to build 1,000 sites in order to find 100 that will make $30 per month each, but that is “OK” because you can always find a use for the 900 others that don’t produce income.

Anyway, it is helpful to know what “modifiers” work well and I am of the belief that “last minute” is a solid one that dictates a buyer’s mind. See my screen shot below (I hope I didn’t violate any Chitika guidelines… if so, let me know)

You can see that the clicks on Chitika don’t pay a lot. In fact, Adsense pays double for the particular keyword. However, with Adsense, this same site’s click thru rate plumeted to just under 3% when i tested it. With pretty Chitika, you can see I get just under a 15% CTR!! Wow! (the screenshot is just for one site using the “last minute modifier” for the month of September).

You can also see there are quite a few people searching for this particular “last minute” long tail keyword. Of course, my site sits number one on G, so I must assume sitting anything lower would give me much less traffic and income. That’s the other key to making money with micro niche sites like this: you have to sit #1 in order to get enough traffic to make money.

For this site, I am using an ugly Blogger blog with the Minima theme. I use a Chitika 500×250 Mega unit at the very top of the site, just above the post title. The site has one single post of 2,000 words focused on the keyword, that’s it. I have experimented with placing an additional skyscraper in the sidebar also, and it got less than a 1% CTR so I removed it.

The idea is to pick a super long tail using the “last minute modifier” and then use Chitika for the monetization method. Use a very plain, ugly template (I said “white on black in the vid, but it is actually black on white). Chitika will be the prettiest thing on the page, drawing the clicks and that elusive $30 per month for the site. Then you walk away, accept your passive income and start again on another!

UPDATE: Oct 31st, 2009 — look at the picture below. This is from my Google Hot Trends gadget on my desktop. Look at the number 5 search in all of Google… it has a “last minute” as a modifier.

I have to admit, that as I type this, I am quite buzzed up. Only because I video blog and drink at the same time, and this time I drank a wonderful IPA from an American Craft Brewer while I mixed and mastered my video telling you guys about my disdain for Monster Energy Drinks and their parent company, Hansen’s Beverage Company. You see, I originally told you guys how Monster Energy Hates America when I posted about the Rock Art Brewery and their Vermonster beer attack. But I did not really give you the spirit of Allyn Hane like I do in the vid that follows: … this is the most fired up I have ever been online.. vid here, Fuck You Monster Energy… (video contains foul and vulgar language hurled in the heat of the moment,, NOT safe for work)

long story short, the guy in Vermont, Matt from Rock Art Craft Brewery is a real American who has worked his way from basement to  success and in my opinion, the dick-lickers at Monster Energy and Hansens “we don’t give a shit about our roots” Beverages are out to get him for no good fucking reason. Fuck You Monster energy your shit is piss anyway!!!!

Us REAL beer drinkers don’t give two shits about your pee-pee. You guys would rather exploit women and draw in young pre-teens with your ads of half-naked adult women anyway (please correct me if I am wrong). I dunno what your “brand manager” does in his personal life, but to me, it is wrong to use adult women in bikinis to market your drink to young teens and kids. If I am wrong about your marketing strategy, please, correct me… as a member of the drive-by media I am always willing to learn from you and be fair and balanced. Your comments are welcome, please leave appropriate links so we can verify.

Us (we who are over 21 yrs old) we love craft brewers like Matt. We like the fact that he and his peers will work hard to give us something original and unique that we ADULTS can enjoy. If he uses the name VERMONT in his beer, all the better, that’s AMERICAN. I love VERMONT!! They have a beautiful leaf change in the fall and his beer might reflect that! I hope he can send me some to let me know.

But you, MONSTER energy drink have nothing to do with me and my beer. You are the schoolyard bully, nothing more. You have forgotten your roots. Who are the Hansens? What do they think? Are they ‘ok’ with half-naked women on their ads directed at pre-teen boys and girls? Do you honor your founder with these boobs and G-string-laden-butts? Let me know as I am curious.

You see, craft beer tastes good because it is brewed with artistry and originality, not because exploited women promote it,,, at least that’s how craft brews are marketed.Monster energy, Hansen, what say you?

To ALL viewing: I realize that my delivery and personality are somewhat hard to stomach.. so please watch anyway and take my points and use them for the good of the USA. I love this country and I want you to support good people like Matt at the Rock Art Brewery, despite my foul language and blunt delivery. Please. comments welcome on both sides of the issue…

Here is the link to his original YouTube video, vote it up

Video below illustrates why I hate corp America so fucking much! I will do my own vid about this eventually, but I truly need to calm down first,,, I am really pissed about this (speaking of piss, that is what Monster Energy tastes like In My Free Opinion)

real quick, I am no lawyer, but if the Monster Energy Drink Mother Fuckers have a problem with this, does that mean then that their drink is for people over the age of 21 then? Hmmm, looks like we need to ID the people buying the shit then.

I contacted the Monster folks thru their gay website and this is what I sent them:

you guys are messing with a craft beer brewer in Vermont and I wrote a post about it at http://bloggerillustrated.net/
you guys should back off seriously and quit hurting small business. I await your reply before I launch a real diatribe about your piss-tasting bullshit liver rotting fuck drink.
allyn hane

we will see how they reply and that will dictate how my next video goes. Those of you who know me know just how much i HATE big corps and you also know what I can do to rank for keywords when I ask for a little help from my friends.

If you guys want to support this post and the one that will follow (the one where I am going to rant and rave like never before) feel free to send links with anchors “fuck you monster energy drink” and “monster energy drink sucks” and “monster energy drink hates America.” … that should be a good start.

Here is an updated video on Monster Energy Drink and Hansen Beverage that I did. Rated R

You need to watch the vid, but I use a recent guest post from his blog as a launch point in illustrating his deceptive nature. The post is Blogging And The Wizard of Oz and it is Total Bull Shit! It is written by a guest blogger who has swallowed Darren’s poop completely and she uses very well crafted analogy and allegory to demonstrate her points. Her name is Kelly Diels and she is a great creative writer. (see that, Kelly, that is a link that helps you with SEO… Darren, on the other hand, gave you a “Fuck You, thanks for the free content” link by just anchoring your name. FYI)

I, however, being the sharp video blogger that I am, will give you the truth in this vid..watch it…

This little chick (who posted on a “make money blogging” site but admits she makes “no money” with her site) says you should be a Red Shoe Blogger and use Darren’s techniques (like Tweeting and Digging), but also ensure you have “content content content” to back it up… and if you do this, the money will follow. I say, however, that if you follow Darren’s fluff, you will be nothing more than a Mad Hatter blogger: stuck at 6PM for life reciting useless riddles and drinking tea with a stupid rabbit. (yeah, how’s that for some fackin’ fluff?)

The fact that Darren says he does not believe in SEO means that he is brutally deceptive. Off-page SEO or “backlinks” are extremely important in telling the search engines what your page is about, and how important and relevant your page is… Unless you have a site with hundreds of thousands of incoming links like Zen Habits (an ‘authority site’), you NEED to get some links to your posts to help them rank. Anyone who tells you differently is either a freaking idiot or a liar! True internet marketers know that incoming links equate to targeted traffic. Get this: Some internet marketers are bloggers, but most bloggers are NOT internet marketers.

Now it has occurred to me that I used the “India accent” in this vid. That is because, first off, I am drinking an India Pale Ale called “Mad Hatter.” But, secondly, and more importantly, it is because my great American big corp that I work for has recently outsourced all technical support to India. Yeah, I am really proud of that! /rollseyes. I actually respect Indian workers a great deal… they are really talented, hard-working folks.. but my big corp I work for tries to hide their hypocrisy and I find that “interesting” to say the least.

Anyway, whenever I have to call for tech support, I put on my Indian Accent because those hard-working folks over there can understand me better if I speak like them… FWIW …I also used that accent because the Zen Habits dude has an Indian sounding name IMO; dunno if he is from there or not, matters not to my drunken ass-hat self anyway… I picture him with a red dot on his forehead… but why does he care, he just posts and diarrhea happens.

Long story shortened, Darren of Problogger offers some great info when it comes to general shit like creating backup files of your blog, or how to structure your blog’s categories. But anything outside of that is either straight up bullshit or out-and-out deception, and he knows it. Shame on you Darren, a former preacher no less.!!! Should I quote some Bible verses that talk about liars?

…so this vid was dedicated to Chewie who teaches folks how to make money with Search Engine Optimization over at his blog. He is a top notch dude and gives very straight forward advice you can trust.

Now back to the post: first off,,, do you like my singing (sounds like a Flock Of Seagulls right)? Honestly, I wanted to see how the music would play in with the vid and the beer.. as Griz says “experiment, experiment, and experiment some more.” BTW- you can be friends with Griz on FaceBook! yeah, no shit, find him here.

Secondly, you gotta really block out and GUARD your time online when you are a part time internet marketing guy like I am. I just don’t get as much time as others, so when I do sit down to build sites, create content and get links… I gotta make sure that NOTHING distracts from that end!!!! I need to be my own “decision engine” to quote the Bing guys.

It also occurs to me that I mentioned “spending too much time in the forum” on this post, and I AM NOT referring to the TAA forum on this one. I am talking (preaching) to myself because I recently joined the Warrior Forum and wasted an entire Sunday on there arguing with people over Adsense clicks…; to no avail. My friend and yours, Frank, from how to earn cash online pointed out to me that I was not making any headway over there; just sucking time. Thanks Frank; you were right!

Ok, to the really important stuff… so that very very good India Pale Ale I drank is really buzzing me up right now as I am on #5 (but at home and never drive). I HIGHLY recommend this brew for it’s complex flavor that really does get better after each gulp (we gulp here, not sip). I love to drink October Fest beers this time of year, but this IPA takes it a step further in the malt and hops category… awesome with a Chicago Bears game on TV (we won BTW). This brew will be one of the first I review on the Beer Blog. (once Vic, Dave and Rob approve it LOL)

Pick some up or check out their website here.

BTW–to you Barley Island folks, if you guys want a real freaking website, hit me up and I will make some free reco’s.  No shit, your brew deserves a REAL web presence, not that fake BS you got going now. WTF eh? You must have spent years perfecting your craft and yet you have a free hosted platform on the internet to display it? C’mon, you deserve better!!!!

Comments friends? … lots to Chewie on in this one… pun?

Important point here, however: once you start earning some money in your business, and have a solid marketing strategy, it is really a good idea to set up a sales plan and budget to track your Profit and Loss (P&L). I mean, if you plan to increase your earnings over time, getting organized now will save you many headaches later, trust me.

I kinda got some of the idea from this vid from Steve over at Bloggerlens because he talked about some of his past. He wondered what he’d be doing now if with his drive and determination, he had applied himself to internet marketing 3 or 4 years ago. Steve is not lazy, he just did not know about IM back then.

Anyway, you should take your ideas and get something online to the point where it can build some type of aged authority. That is the point here. I wonder how many of you have sites up that you started 3 or 4 years ago, and those sites are ripe and ready to grow now? I wonder how many of you could take some sites that may have been “dudds” but with your newfound knowledge, they could not be winners? But if you never start them, they will never be either one. Thoughts?

…I am inspired by you guys all the time. Lis talks about how she would never go back to her corporate job, and I respect that. If I may say so, she is one Ballsy (bullocks?) Australian Shiela! (ha, not all anchors have to be targeted lady!)

My good friend Steve who I mention in the vid is also a full time internet marketer (and helluva creative video master) and he is just in the infant stages of defining what his blogging business will look like in the long term… talk about balls! (in need of Bag Balm)

These folks and many others have taken the leap of faith to define their lives on their terms. I sit back and wish that I could do that, and my taking on a different job within my company is the first step (some have looked at me with the “stink eye” for making this move).

No more do I have to worry about what the big payroll corporate hacks think of me. I don’t have to worry about them critiquing the creases in my pants, or the shine on my shoes, or how long my sideburns are. (even though I could take them all to school in that dept, I can be ‘ate up’ with the best of them in the ’style’ department)

Now I get to work with the ground -in my company… the guys and gals who sweat for a living and make things happen on the front lines. I love that!!! I love these people for who they are and what they do, but most of all, I love the fact that we all have the same goal, and that is the goal of earning a living so we can go home and be with our families! You could say that it is the “real world.”

My manifesto, or defining statement would read something like this:

“Allyn Hane is a great husband and step dad who works hard to earn a living so he can be a better husband and better step dad.”

If I was to think about this in terms of a country music song (yep, I love me some country music) it would be something like:

“I want to work to live instead of live to work” …How about you guys???? What defines you?

… here is the article that I mentioned in the video that Matt (we are on first name basis) wrote.

So anyway, I think that your friends are a very important element in your online success. Afterall, earning online cash is harder if you are a lone wolf. Now some of you may wonder what the best way to help your friends and readers by linking to them, so I did a short video giving you a basic definition of back links. This vid is much more tame that most.

The great thing about passing along natural links is that you can help your friends get number one search engine rankings while at the same time, helping your readers get better and better information that relates directly to your content — naturally, you want to accomplish both of these goals. Ramble ramble ramble, you get it right?

Oh yeah, here is the triad, trinity or whatever of internet marketing gurus that are kinda the “leaders” of the community I am a part of. Please, join us if you wish!

Court Tuttle over at Make Money With TKA

Vic at BloggerUnleashed Online

Griz at Making Money Online For Beginners

I naturally want to lead ya’ll to folks who have helped me greatly.

Well, some of you are gonna need to look up that last word there in the title, but it is really the only technical way I can describe some of the “sucking off” that I see on the net these days. Now, this post actually has some great content (which usually we just drink beer and say the word “shit” here) but today I tried to utilize a few brain cells in the making. This vid was inspired by a series of events that started with Griz’s recent take on Building a Better Blog and then concluded today from a post by my bud Steve over at Blogger Lens called I have a Man Crush On Griz. (Steve also did the vid intro you will see below with the sea turtle ROFL)

To break all this down for you (and I also break it down in the vid, but Blogger Illustrated lacks good writing content so I am building that up today as well)

Here is the back story: Griz wrote a most excellent post explaining why Darren Rowse is pretty much just full of fluff, and that, indeed, Griz himself is NOT a blogger even though people call him that.

That post inspired me to do a spoof vid while I was in Cancun about Darren Rowse and Sea Turtles. In turn, Griz recognized this and did me a huge spiffy by giving me a front page review on his site saying that I was Taking On ProBlogger.

From that I got ass-loads of traffic to this video blog.

Now, another cool thing was happening at the same time and that was that Steve had done a Chris Brogan Trust Agents Spoof Vid. Now, Steve is very much of a dead-pan humorist. I liken him to Bob Newhart. Well, Brogan did not see the vid, but someone on his staff did and they went ahead and posted the vid and a link to Steve’s site on the front page of Chrisbrogan.com.

So here is the scenario: Allyn Hane gets front page press on Griz’ site, and Steve gets front page press on Chris Brogan’s site… can you see the match up now?

In the vid, I talk about the traffic levels and video views comparing my front page appearance on Griz’ site, with Steve’s front page appearance on Brogan’s site. Keep in mind that Brogan is Mr Social and Griz is Mr Organic traffic… but as you will see, it is Griz who is really the social expert…watch the vid… a little graphic this time…

You see guys, the problem is that the social media gurus are NOT true leaders. A leader is “someone who inspires within the heart of the follower, a desire to follow.”

Chris Brogan and others like him do not inspire anyone to do anything. They are being followed, but not because they are good leaders. They are being followed because people want to try and suck out some of their spotlight or “be a part of the cool crowd.” The problem with that is it is hollow and useless, as evidenced by the few people who actually “trusted” Brogan and visited Steve’s site or viewed the video. It is also evidenced by the very few comments he gets on his blog. And the fact that Brogan does not take the time to interact with his very few commentors anyway!

Now Griz, on the other hand, is a true leader. People read his content and he interacts with them and helps them and teaches them and uses links from his blog to help people. THAT is leadership, and that is why when I got front page on Griz site, more people took action by trusting him and going to my site. Thank you Griz!

It is further illustrated by the number of people who take time to comment on Griz site and that he is interactive and answers back.

I could go on with this all day, but I am going to leave you with this: The social media gurus have it ALL WRONG. They drive traffic and develop relationships FROM Twitter TO their Blogs. That does not work. However, Griz drives traffic (targeted traffic) FROM the search engines TO his blog, and then, those who choose to engage can use RSS or Twitter to keep in contact, but THEY FIRST came from search engines and NOT from Twitter (quality wins over quantity). In addition, those same people are more trusting of him, so when he says something like, “Go check out Allyn’s cool blog” or “Go learn SEO At This Site” people trust him and in turn, a friend of Griz is also elevated! That is community folks!!!!!

How is this good? (most) People finding you FROM Twitter are looking to suck you off, but really don’t give a rat’s ass about what you do. People coming in from search engines need what you offer, and when you give it to them, they gain respect for you and look for ways to continue to stay in contact with you… they truly WANT to follow you on Twitter or or take your email updates and RSS.

Lastly, I mentioned Perry Belcher near the end of the vid. He is a perfect example of how much bullshit there really is in social media. This guy has had the government cease on of his online businesses and shut it down. He could not get hired at McDonalds because of it (gotta disclose that stuff in the real world). Yet, because he has 105,000 followers on Twitter, he is now able to sell his crap all over the internet, and even get an endorsement from Frank Kern, ROFLMAO!! Here’s the thing guys, in my opinion, Perry Belcher is still a sheister! I have worked with sales people on the South Side Of Chicago now for 12 years and I have seen his type come and go. I can read them like a book… it is in their facial expressions and voice inflection. Mark my words, Perry Belcher is not to be trusted. Here, I will let him tell you himself. See if you can smell the shit he shovels as clearly as I can. Sorry Perry, you just can’t be putting lipstick on a pig and expect everyone to wanna kiss it…

Perry is now selling some social media success kit thing for a couple grand… and one of the “upgrades” you can buy is that he will Tweet you out to his 105,000 followers. Sounds like some real c0ck sucking whoreishness to me! I am usually skeptical of people who find “jailhouse Jesus” when they come from prison… but this guy takes it to a new level saying that social media saved his life. More like “social media gave you new suckers to prey on.”
(Brogan and Belcher are not tied in together as far as I know… just two separate examples of the way NOT to use social media) ok, I hope I have made all my points on this now… what say you drunkards and friends…