Hey folks! I figured it was time for me to blow the dust off this old blog of mine and let everyone know a couple of things.

First, I’m still here! If memory serves, I think I’ve said that before when I had a long dry spell between posts. I guess my attempt at continuing with that momentum kind of dwindled, but my heart never left.

What have I been up to? I’ve mainly been focusing on brushing up my niche marketing skills — creating a handful of niche blogs and promoting them. I’ve been keeping up with the latest tools and advice on several blogs I have on my must-read list. At the same time I’ve been continuing writing reviews on my review blog. Over time, you can make some decent money doing reviews, which is why I’ve kept it up while I reinvest that income into other endeavors.

The second thing I want to bring to your attention is that a good friend of mine, Mark Mason of Masonworld, has a contest where three winners will receive copies of Jonathan Leger’s latest Internet marketing creation: Instant Article Factory.

Mark Mason is one of the few people I trust in the IM world. He provides information that helps people like you and me who have a day job and a strong interest in IM at night. When he says a product or service does what it’s supposed to, I take him at his word and I haven’t been disappointed.

So what is this thing called Instant Article Factory? Simply put, it’s the quickest way to create an article. Seriously. If you watch Jonathan’s demonstration video, you’ll see how he creates a 300+ word article in under 5 minutes! You have a selection of article templates to start with. All you have to do is choose one, enter a few fields of information and click the “Create Article” button. This tool also supports spinning, which multiplies the benefits several times over.

If you’re into article marketing like I am, then you need to consider all your options that give you an advantage over your competition as well as make you as productive as possible.

Check out Mark Mason’s site to enter his contest. You just might be a winner!

Remember me? Yep, I’m still here.

It has been WAY too long since I’ve posted here on MeAndMyDrum, but I haven’t been sitting on my thumbs the whole time. I’ve been busy developing niche websites and increasing my affiliate sales. More on that for future posts, but right now I wanted to break my silence by informing you of a great opportunity to learn from a successful Internet marketer that you should not miss.

I’ve told you before about Josh Spaulding. He’s so good at what he does that he doesn’t have the traditional day job. Nope, his income is all coming from his online efforts. And he wants to help you do the same.

He will be closing his doors tomorrow, October 14, to his successful Coaching With Josh forum for good. This is not some marketing tactic devised to get you to buy into his community. He’s one of the very few people I trust online, so when he says he’s going to close the doors for good, he means it. But that doesn’t mean he’s shutting down the community. He’s just going to make this a private community and no longer accept new members.

What this means to you is that you’ll have direct access to an experienced Internet marketer. Additionally, you can brainstorm with all the other members (including myself) who want to be successful online. I’ve been a member for over 1.5 years and I can honestly say Josh and other members have helped me expand my knowledge that I use to help me create income online everyday.

If you use this link and this coupon code (099AF877AD), you’ll be just a click away from tapping into a wealth of information found in the 18,000+ forum posts. I’m NOT into hype! It sounds this good because it truly is. And to make the deal sweeter, Josh gives free membership to members who make 500 posts. That means that by the end of this year — maybe even sooner — you could be getting all this for FREE!

Yep, I’m still here! Though I have taken a break from posting here, I’ve been quite busy doing other online things. One of those things is getting to know WPNow, a great new resource for some beautiful and functional WordPress themes. You can currently find five very reasonably priced premium themes they’ve produced, all of which provide the eye candy and features you’ve been looking for.

As you can see below, there’s plenty of space allowed for graphics to be incorporated into the posts and thumbnails on the home page for each. And depending on the theme, there’s also space for advertisements, either Google Adsense or 125×125 blocks. They have price packages to suit your needs and budget, too, ranging from branded single-use to non-branded multi-use.

I’m using one of these themes now (Triumph, see below). As I got into making the modifications I wanted, my journey could have been a little smoother had there been supporting documentation. At least in the theme I was using, there wasn’t a control panel to adjust certain features, but luckily, I had enough experience to find most of my way around.

But when I got stumped I either referred to their FAQs or submitted support tickets. The latter was the most effective, actually. They responded quickly and stayed with me until I accomplished what I set out to do. That is something rare you see these days, even with premium themes, so it was quite refreshing to know I had people to ask questions to.

WPNow is one to keep an eye on. More and more premium themes are coming out these days and it’s becoming harder and harder for theme designers to distinguish themselves from their competition. These guys seem to have no problem with that though.

Triumph

This theme is one I’m using on a phpBay site of mine. I really liked its layout, particularly the three modules you find on the front page. This made for a nice way to introduce my visitors to the three main categories I wanted them to visit. Plus, it offers space just below them for welcome text with even more links that lead deeper into the site.

Features:

• 2 column layout
• Adsense and widget ready
• threaded comments
• several templates
• five level dropdown menus

VintMint

• Adsense and widget ready
• multi dropdown menus
• several templates
• featured video space

Simplista

Features include:

• Adsense and widget ready
• several templates
• Javascript category menu
• Flickr photo stream

Elements

Features include:

• Adsense and widget ready
• several templates
• multi dropdown menus
• featured video space
• minimize/maximize sections

Bloom

Features include:

• 2 column layout
• Adsense and widget ready
• several templates
• five level dropdown menus

When you’re researching keywords to build your niche site for the purposes of making money with Google Adsense, it’s important to find keywords with a high cost-per-click (CPC) and relatively low search volume (low competition). This is the low-hanging fruit that I’ve outlined recently.

But what if the CPC stinks, but the search volume looks ideal? Do you build the site anyway and hope for the best? Well, you could, but you might make more money with what I’m about to tell you. Before I get to that, here’s a disclaimer:

If you are pregnant, thinking of becoming pregnant, or know someone who is pregnant, then inform your spouse immediately. Success may result if this information is used properly. If you experience profit for more than four hours, then seek the counsel of a financial adviser and invest responsibly. Dizziness may occur if you spin in place really, really fast. Do not operate heavy machinery after taking this advice because, well, this information has nothing to do with educating you on that.

Okay, good. Got that out of the way.

There have been many times when I’ve found keywords that fit this scenario. I tend to avoid CPCs lower than, say, $1.75. Not all the time; it could be lower or higher, and that could be based on my overall feel of the niche I’m researching or if it’s late at night and I’m just too darn tired to care.

But in either case, my eye naturally gravitates to the upward end of the spectrum and your’s should, too. We need to find a way to maximize our profits while minimizing our efforts.

So what can you do to boost your profits with these keywords?

If the niche interests you, but Adsense doesn’t seem to be the way to go, then why not build an eBay store using something like BANS or phpBay Pro? The money you’d make would then come from commissions made off sales or new customer signups. It’s like giving all that information you’ve collected a second chance, which can be very rewarding.

But don’t setup shop just yet! There’s more you need to know that could help maximize your profits even more. Details for that will be in my next post.

In the meantime, I’d like to direct your attention to a buddy of mine, Mark Mason. He’s put together a video on Josh Spaudling’s amazingly popular report called the $5 Mini-Site Formula. Both the video and report are free, btw. The video will explain in detail the process I use when building niche sites and profiting from them.

I love the thrill of the hunt — hunting for money making niches, that is.

Finding that corner of the web that has the potential to make me money is pretty cool. There are no guarantees, of course, but if you’re following someone like Josh Spaulding, your chances have increased.

By utilizing the techniques he outlines in his very popular $5 Mini-Site Formula (that’s a free report, btw), he demonstrates how to locate the low-hanging fruit of the Internet and turning it into profit. I’ve done that here in the form of free downloadable research to get you started.

Profit in shipping containers

Below is a screenshot of some keywords I found using Google’s Keyword tool and Josh’s techniques:

I’ll explain what you’re seeing here in future posts, but until then I really want to encourage you to download Josh’s free report to understand the mechanics of what you’re seeing here. In short, this is definitely a market I’d tap into.

How would you profit from all this?

By creating a blog specifically for this niche, putting some Adsense ads on it, and promoting it through the use of article marketing, you can lay the groundwork for visitors to not only learn from your content, but to click on your ads and putting cash in your pocket!

Those numbers in the far right column tell you roughly how many times those keywords are being searched for on a monthly basis. The CPC column (second from the left) is not what you’ll earn per click. Rather, it’s what an advertiser would expect to pay if they were bidding on those terms. But that means you get a cut of it, of course. So the higher the CPC the more money you make when people click on a related ad.

Here’s some more work I’ve already done for you — available domain names that match the niche:

BUY-SHIPPING-CONTAINER.COM
CLEANING-CONTAINER.COM
CLEANINGCONTAINER.COM
CONTAINER-BOXES.COM
CONTAINER-PRICES.COM
SHIPPING-CONTAINER-SALES.COM
SHIPPING-CONTAINERS-OVERSEAS.COM
SHIPPINGCONTAINERSOVERSEAS.COM
SPECIMEN-CONTAINER.COM
SPECIMEN-TRANSPORT.COM
SPECIMENCONTAINER.COM
STEEL-SHIPPING-CONTAINER.COM
STEEL-SHIPPING-CONTAINERS.COM
STEEL-STORAGE-CONTAINER.COM
STEELSHIPPINGCONTAINER.COM
STORAGE-CONTAINERS-FOR-SALE.COM
TUBE-CONTAINER.COM
USED-SHIPPING-CONTAINER.COM
USED-SHIPPING-CONTAINERS-FOR-SALE.COM

Here are the keywords in a text file for you to download: keywords.

Why am I doing this?

A number of reasons. By showing you what works, I hope to remove some of the mystery and intimidation that some of you may have with creating your own niche site. Hey, I’ve been there, too, but honestly, it’s not as hard as you think.

Second, I want you to get to know Josh. He’s one of the very few people who has held my attention for a while now. I’ve mentioned here before that I drop Internet marketers/gurus like a hot potato if they lose my trust or annoy me. Josh has never done that and I look forward to his advice each and every time.

If you like this kind of post, please tell me by leaving me a comment below. I have other batches of even higher paying niches if you’re interested.

The response to my contest has been great and it’s not even a day old yet!

I wanted to bring you up to date on some things I’ve added to the prizes and methods of entry:

• Ad placement on www.garryconn.com has been added to the Grand Prize Winner package thanks to Garry Conn.
• A hosting plan at HostGator (the “Baby” plan) has been added to the First Prize Winner package, thanks to Louis.
• Clarification to posting about the contest. In short, you can post to as many blogs as you like so long as they meet the qualifications I’ve outlined in the contest post. Please read them carefully and let me know if you have any questions before you take the time to post. Also, for those of you who have already posted about the contest, don’t worry about the list of prizes being out of sync. I won’t hold that against you. It’s up to you if you want to update your post with the list of prizes as they stand now.
• Prize sponsors are ineligible to enter the contest.

I’ll continue to update you should anything else need your attention. Until then, thanks to everyone who has entered so far, and be sure to tell your blogging friends!

I received an email today from Pepperjam about an affiliate who sells pillows. That got me to thinking about what that niche looked like so I decided to run it through the “drum machine” to see what I’d find. The results were pretty cool, but instead of keeping it for myself I thought I’d share it with you and let you run with it.

First, I went to Google’s Keyword Tool and searched on “pillow”. I added the CPC column and sorted on it in descending order. I usually look for keywords or keyword phrases that have a respectable search volume, are not too competitive, and have an average CPC (cost per click) that’s worth going for. Of course, the higher the CPC the better, but my threshold usually sits around above a dollar and change.

Here’s a sample of what I found:

So we have “mattress pillow” with an average search volume of 74,000 and CPC of $3.15. Now, that doesn’t mean that you are definitely going to get $3.15 each time someone clicks on a Google Adsense ad, but it’s a good indication.

I then took that keyword phrase and ran it through Market Samurai (one of the prizes I’m giving away in my contest) to see what it had to say about “mattress pillow”. The steps I take in determining a niche evolves constantly, but for now, if Market Samurai tells me that something isn’t worth going for, then I typically just let the keyword go and search for something else.

Well, this time Market Samurai told me in its own way that the phrase “mattress pillow” might actually have potential. See below:

The image above is a portion of a screenshot using the SEO Competition screen. It tells me the backlinks and PR of sites that rank for the keyword phrase I’m researching. For those of you who don’t have Market Samurai, I can tell you that green colored cells are good or “less challenging to dominate”, amber cells are slightly less than good, and red ones are indicators that you have a lot of work ahead of you if you choose to tackle that keyword. In other words, it’s probably not a good idea to spend your time on something that has a red cell.

Well, as you can see, there’s a lot of green cells for this one. So if it were me, I would decide to either write a post that’s rich with the phrase “mattress pillow” and its ilk or I might even register a domain with that as the name or something similar and build it to contain other related keywords. You know, your basic search engine magnet.

I want to help you make money. So I’m holding another contest that provides you with the tools to do that. No matter if you already have a blog or want to create a new one, these cool prizes can help you in several ways.

But before I go any further I wanted to make a request to anyone wishing to participate. While I welcome everyone who qualifies to enter the contest and earn chances to win, my preference would be that they be serious about creating blogs to earn money and NOT to just win something. The more people we have who enter who want to make a go of earning money online, the more likely the prizes will go to someone who will actually benefit from them.

Now on to the prizes!

GRAND PRIZE WINNER
One lucky person will win the following prizes:
1) One year free of the Swamp (Business) hosting plan (valued at $179) — sponsored by HostGator.
This is HostGator’s top plan and is loaded with features like unlimited domains just to name one!

2) A FREE developer’s license to either the WP-Vybe theme (valued at $299) OR WP-Mag theme (valued at $279) — sponsored by Solostream
This is a “winner’s choice” prize meaning the winner will choose only one of the above themes. What’s a developer’s license? Having this license allows you to use ONE of the two themes on as many sites as you own. You can even resell those sites that use the theme, but you cannot sell the theme itself independently. This is a very feature-rich theme that I’m currently using on MeAndMyDrum. It’s easy to configure and provides several color choices.

3) A FREE license to AceMoney (valued at $30) — sponsored by MechCAD
It helps to have something that you can use to track the money you make. I use this software and think it does a great job. Very easy to use.

4) A FREE license to StoreStacker (valued at $97) — sponsored by StoreStacker
This a great way to capitlize on your affiliate product promotions. With StoreStacker you can build complete sites with commission-ready affiliate products PLUS help you include relevant articles and videos — something no other affiliate software does.

5) A FREE license to Market Samurai (valued at $149) — sponsored by Market Samurai
I’ve posted about this super niche finder before. It’s something I use quite frequently to help me find the niches I want to profit from. It’s many tools in one: keyword research, SEO competition, find content, promote content, and many others! This will help you shave hours and hours off your niche research and help you slice through the competition.

6) FREE iPod Nano 4GB (valued at $95) — sponsored by Shawal
Will this help you make money? No, but it’s definitely something you can use WHILE you build your sites that will make you money.

7) Ad placement on GarryConn.com — sponsored by Garry Conn
Garry Conn has generously donated ad placement on his very informative and highly-trafficked blog, www.garryconn.com. The dimensions are 468×60 and will run for two weeks. This is a great opportunity to give your blog exposure to a wide audience. Thanks, Garry!

First place winner
UPDATED 10/29/08
1) One year free of the Baby hosting plan (valued at $119) — sponsored by Busby SEO Test
Louis is a very generous person and offered to donate this hosting plan to my contest right after hearing about it. Thanks, Louis! It seemed only fitting to add it to the first place winner prize.

2) A FREE Premium license to either the WP-Vybe theme (valued at $199) OR the WP-Mag theme (valued at $179) — sponsored by Solostream
This enables the winner to use the theme of their choice on as many sites as they own, but not resell the sites as long as the theme is being used nor can the theme itself be sold.

Second place winner
A FREE Basic license to the WP-Vybe (valued at $99) OR the WP-Mag theme (valued at $79) — sponsored by Solostream
Yes, Solostream is a very generous sponsor. This theme of the winner’s choosing enables them to use the theme on only ONE site that they own and cannot sell the site they use it on.

So you’re probably asking yourself how do you enter to win these great prizes.

HOW TO ENTER
This is a points-based contest, meaning the more things you do to earn points, the more chances you have of winning.

1) Subscribe to my newsletter (60 pts)
This is an important way to earn points because I will be announcing additional ways to earn points exclusively to my subscribers. If you’ve already subscribed, then I’ll say first, “thank you!”, then I’ll ask that you please comment below to let me know you are a subscriber who is officially entering the contest. Please use the same email address you used to subscribe in the comment form.

2) Post about this contest on a blog you own. (30 pts + 10 pts if you include the list of prizes)
UPDATE 10/29/08: It came to my attention that it’s not clear about the number of posts that can be made. As long as the blogs you post to meet the qualifications I’ve outlined already, then there is no limit to the number of posts you can make.
The blog must be 60 days old and must follow these additional qualifications which are subject to my evaluation. The post must include a link back to two places: MeAndMyDrum and to this contest post. Doing just that will earn you 30 points. For an extra 10 points, include the list of prizes using this code (links must remain in tact).

3) Subscribe to my RSS feed via email (25 pts)
Already subscribed? No problem, but please comment below so that I can have your official entry confirmation. Please use the same email address you used to subscribe in the comment form.

4) Buy your points (50 pts)
Yes, that’s right. If you just don’t have the time to do anything else, you can buy 50 points for $5 USD via PayPal. Maximum number of points is 50. You can pay more if you like , but it will only buy you 50 points total. Please contact me for my PayPal address.

WHEN THE WINNERS WILL BE ANNOUNCED
The contest begins today, October 28, 2008 and will end 12 p.m. midnight Central, November 18, 2008. The winners will be announced shortly after.

CONTEST RULES
UPDATED 10/29/08

I don’t know about you, but I love it when I get a response to tweets, comments or posts I make (hint hint ). But sometimes there’s no response. Not that anyone’s not listening or not reading, but sometimes people are just comfortable with reading such information and that’s okay.

I found a way (thanks to Paul Colligan) that enables you to obtain visible proof that someone’s actually paying attention. By using BudUrl.com and Ping.fm together, not only can you broadcast short messages to many social networks at once, but you can also track to some degree who is getting them and where they’re getting them from.

So I thought I’d send some link love for one of the posts at Masonworld. While viewing the post, I clicked on the bookmarklet for BudUrl which opened up a window providing me with a condensed URL already made and a box for notes.

Once I completed making the shortened URL, I then copied and pasted it over to my Ping.fm account where I had already entered login details for several of my social networks.

From that point, it was a simple matter of entering a small bit of text — just like a tweet — and off it went to ping my networks.

I then went back to BudUrl to check out the stats.

The page refreshed every 10 seconds showing me the IP address of the people who clicked on the link I submitted and when it was clicked on. And if it was possible, I was also shown the referring page or network in this case. It was pretty cool to watch the page fill up with data, which told me there really was somebody on the other end actually responding to what I had submitted.

Just think of the possibilities this could offer you. If you wanted, you could keep track of the pages referred most often, which would indicate the strong networks and the ones that you might not want to spend time on due to a lack of interaction.

Got an itch for a new niche? Me too. Lately, I’ve been spending a lot of time exploring new niche ideas to build blogs around. It has been quite a learning experience and a lot of fun. It’s the thrill of the hunt!

As I’ve gone through countless searches — and I do mean countless — I wanted to share with you some places you might look for niches that you might not have thought about. It’s surprisingly simple and soon you’ll find yourself getting hooked, too.

1. Just Brainstorm
Clearly, the most common method of searching for niches is just spending time thinking about it. However, it may be a little unproductive at times. Just like finding the inspiration you need to write your next post, so too can waiting for lighning to strike on that next money-making keyword.

But don’t fret. There’s something that will help. I carry a small notebook with me to jot down ideas. Sometimes I just create notes on my BlackJack II phone. Whenever I have an idea pop into my head, I jot it down. Whenever I see a product, name, object that might have potential, I write it down then and there to research later.

2. Google’s Keyword tool
A no-brainer, but I can’t tell you just how much this tool has helped me find more about what I was searching for. In fact, it has often been a waterfall of ideas for me. Not only does it tell me about things I typed in, but the other related keywords it produces have frequently spawned off other ideas, which I then investigate, and so on, and so on.

3. Google Keyword tool – Part 2
Don’t overlook the website content searcher which is the second radio button on the left! Let’s say you find a site that’s in a niche you’re interested in. You could brainstorm all day and hope to find untapped keywords, or you could let Google tell you what the related keywords are for that site. At the very least, you could end up with ideas you hadn’t considered before.

4. ebay Categories
Just like the previous two methods, ebay categories can help you avoid reinventing the wheel by showing you what someone else has already thought about. So if you’re interested in finding a product that has potential for you to create a niche blog on, I suggest you browse the categories to get your juices flowing. Making sure to check the “completed listings” will assist you in determining what are good sellers.

But don’t stop there. Still do your research on the products/keywords that show promise before deciding on which ones you should really go after.

5. Add pivotal words to your keywords
I call them pivotal words, words that can open up a whole new category simply by attaching them to your list of keywords. For example, let’s say you’re interested in the “real estate” niche. A pretty crowded niche, no doubt, but if you were to add some other words to it you might have something like “real estate software”, “real estate jobs”, “real estate supplies” you might be able to crack open a hidden niche.

6. Google Trends
Yeah, Google again. Using Google Trends can help you see what’s hot right now. What are people interested in at the moment? I’ve known people who’ve been able to capitalize on these hot topics, but you have to be quick and you’ll get better results if you respond on an established blog as opposed to building one for the sole purpose of what you find.

7. Resource sites
Probably not something that comes to mind for niche ideas, and personally, I’ve never used them for this yet, but I’ve heard that places like HowStuffWorks, eHow, Wikipedia even can help spark an idea. HowStuffWorks in particular I can see why because they have a “what’s hot” category.

What are some other ways that you use to generate new niches or keywords?