A brief history of the viral internet, new SEO tool released, and a top ‘about’ page

Here’s a nice little article chronicaling the top 9 internet phenomenon that have entertained/annoyed almost a billion people over the last 2 decades.

http://www.cracked.com/article_16248_9-most-obnoxious-memes-ever-escape-web.html

These so-called ‘memes’ are a testament to the power of the web as a marketing tool, and in their own funny way provide inspiration for budding entrepreneurs out there looking to make it big on the internet.

Those guys probably had never even heard of SEO (search engine optimisation), but in reality it can make or break your website. There has been a buzz going around the blogging for money community recently about a site called StomperNet who has just released a powerful tool that helps to identify how you can best optimise your website for search engines such as Google. Their SSS (Stomper Site Seer) reporting tool analyses the content of a page, checking your targeted keywords, meta tags and so on, and provides a series of bespoke videos that should help you get your website further up the rankings. The tool is completely free, and I recommend you have a look at it at http://www.stompernet.net/goingnatural3/ and make sure that your site can kick ass in the battle for top ranking.

Finally, I have spent much of this evening reading some of Yaro Starak’s archived posts at http://www.entrepreneurs-journey.com - one of Australia’s premier blogging for money websites, and one of my personal favourites. If you are new to the idea of blogging as a way to make a living, I suggest you check out his ‘about’ page and read about how he built his blog from nothing to a money-making machine that pulls in over $20,000 a month. It just goes to show that it’s possible to make good money if you pick something you enjoy, work hard and think creatively.

Popularity: 37% [?]

Entrepreneurship Vs working in the City

Recently I have been partying with people who I haven’t seen for over a year, friends of friends who I don’t regularly see and who do not know that I dropped out of University to pursue entrepreneurship. It has been an interesting experience filling them in on how I came to decide I wanted to make money for myself and forgo the ‘trappings’ of a career in the City. Many of these university friends have gone on to work for prestigious banks, law firms and consultancies, and at times it’s difficult not to be jealous of their healthy salaries, job security, ongoing training and clear career path. So here is a nice big list of reasons why anybody with entrepreneurial aspirations should avoid working in large financial institutions like the plague, and work for themselves… More »

Popularity: 45% [?]

New blog design

Regular readers will notice that my blog now looks completely different. I hope you like it. I know I do - there are more prominent slots for Google Adsense and other advertising, an improved comment form, better SEO and lots of other little improvements over my last design. If you would like to use this free Wordpress theme for your blog, head on over to http://www.dezzain.com/featured/dezzain-free-wordpress-theme-timeline-digest/ where there are one or two other interesting themes that caught my eye.

Let me know your thoughts on the new look, and keep checking back for updates - I am planning a series of posts covering business/blog planning over the coming weeks, so stay tuned!

Popularity: 34% [?]

Google’s Friend Connect set to revolutionise money making online

Google is set to launch its new ‘Friend Connect’ service for webmasters and money makers looking to add social networking elements to their websites. Following announcements from Myspace and Facebook regarding their new ‘breaking down the barriers’ approach to sharing profile information across numerous sites, Google has introduced a series of easy-to-implement gadgets that are sure to be a hit with site owners.

The new products essentially amount to a handful of plugins which can be integrated into a site with a simple Ctrl-C of some code. The idea is that by making the web more social, Google can drive more traffic to your blog or website as people with similar interests drive their friends to sites of interest. We have already seen this with apps such as BlogCatalog and MyBlogLog, but Google’s offering goes beyond a simple connecting of communities. Features such as ‘walls’, comment gadgets, activity feeds and dynamic quizzes provide a richer user experience, and should help to forge communities on niche sites where a simple message board is impractical or hard to implement.

Perhaps the most interesting element of these new gadgets is their integration with existing social networks such as Facebook and Orkut, which allows users to invite their friends list to join a site they may be browsing. All this potential targeted viral traffic has got me very interested indeed….

For more information have a look at Google’s Friend Connect Preview.

Popularity: 32% [?]

Vloggers’ ultimate gadget: The Flip Video Ultra

For readers of top money making blogs such as johnchow.com and problogger.net, video blogs are nothing new. Both sites supplement their written content with more in-depth (and in the case of John Chow, occasionally inane) videos that cover a specific topic. Whilst the equipment these guys use is not advanced, a new gadget has recently hit the market that makes it even easier for bloggers to produce, upload and share video posts with their audience.

The Flip Video Ultra is an inexpensive digital camcorder designed to be taken almost anywhere in your pocket or briefcase, ready to shoot at a moment’s notice. With up to 2GB of flash memory, you can take up to 60 minutes of fairly high-quality video with audio - perfect for blogging on-the-go. The device has a built in USB extension, making uploading a breeze, and combined with an ultra-portable laptop such as the Asus EEE PC, it becomes the ultimate tool for mobile media gurus.

Popularity: 43% [?]

Custom job boards for your site that make you money

I have recently been toying with the idea of creating a niche job board for nicksmithblogs.com to provide a steady stream of entrepreneurial jobs and internships to my readers, and a bit of extra revenue for me. Interestingly there are several options out there for bloggers such as myself who want to quickly and easily implement a custom job board based around a particular requirement from a readership base.

Have a look at this fantastic post over at blogtrepreneur.com for an overview of the options that lie out there for bloggers and webmasters alike.

Popularity: 53% [?]