I’ve recently launched a local promotion for my company Prevail PR, and expect some really exciting things to come out of it by year’s end. I’m also in the process of creating my very own local newsletter for downtown SLO, a move which in time I expect will earn rave reviews as well as an additional ad revenue stream for Prevail. Both Prevail and the newsletter are being run with a definite eye towards the future, possibly to be branched out into their own franchsises or at least parts of each business being franchised.

I’ve also got my hands in some other blogs that I’m looking at spinning off into their own blog network, another move that if executed correctly, can have terrific benefits for all involved. I’m still in the very long process of finding and building a team to start work on NQBAIT, a service that would truly be my dream job for the next decade or so. In the next week or so, I should be securing two new accounts for Prevail that may very well be the two biggest clients I’ve ever had and that could really help put my company on the map. It is going to take a lot of dedication and hard work, but there are so many opportunities involved with each of them, they will be getting the very most out of me.

Lastly, I have great friends that have also become quite enterprising individuals on their own. Jonas and I are inquiring into the possibilities of joint venturing with African tour guides to handle their marketing, something that will take us from local to international businessmen. Jonas also has another great opportunity for us, but I can’t quite comment on this one yet. If you are interested in fronting some start up money, however, please contact me ASAP and I will go over some of the details with you. It’s pretty exciting stuff.

Jerry is taking his first foray into the world of Internet marketing, and hopefully together, we can take some big steps in helping both of us secure our roles as work-at-home-fathers (Myla is so #$@%ing cute by the way).  Internet marketing is never an easy thing to do, but with some insight, a little bit of cash and luck, and the right keywords, hopefully we’ll be brigning Jerry home very soon.

I’ve probably got another 15-20 projects of my own on the sideburner right now and a few others from friends and family that aren’t quite serious enough to take any action yet, but in these days where talks of recession are more prevelant than those of opportunity, I just wanted to show you all that if you keep your mind’s open, you can actually become recession proof.  As always, if you have some technical, marketing or creative background or have an idea you need help with, stop procrastinating and get ahold of me.  (I’m talking to you, Public Defendaz!)

Does opportunity really knock if no one is there to answer the door?

This site is only going to get more popular over time, so your best chance of winning is to join now and give your idea a headstart.  Your idea is eligible to win every month is remains posted, but votes are cleared at the beginning of each month.  If you happen to stop by and don’t submit your own idea, please feel free to give me a thumbs up and hopefully if my idea wins, it can help make your idea become reality some day soon.

For you marketers out there, take notice of how a good contest idea can even place a credit card company in a positive light.

Blogging is now my full-time hobby, if not my full-time job, the benefits of which you just can’t get on a hosted platform. If you don’t own your domain name, you don’t own any of the content on your blog, and worse, someone else is making money off of the content you do publish. On MySpace, there are little Google ads next to each post that contain some information related to the topic of the blog post. When someone clicks one of those ads, Rupert Murdoch gets paid half and Google gets paid the other half. If for no other reason than YOU could be making money from those clicks, taking control of your blog should be an immediate priority.

Where Are Blogs Headed?

Blogging has become the new media, whether people want to admit it or not. Each of us is an expert on something, and the aggregation of all of our expertise far outweighs the supposed expertise of traditional journalism. I have a degree in journalism and know very well that I’m a far more effective communicator when I’m knowledgeable and passionate about the information I’m sharing. When that information is restricted to a specific topic instead of as in journalism, a different topic every day, the information takes on life.

Because people can create their own publishing platforms and establish themselves as leaders in a specific niche, they can command advertising revenue. Therefore, there is an incentive to offering the most thorough content possible. According to a recent poll on Problogger, 18% of the 2490 readers polled were making over $1000 a month from blogging, and 7% were making over $10,000 a month.

In October, How Much Did You Earn from Blogging?

 

• I don’t make money blogging

  658 26% of all votes

• Under $10

  454 18% of all votes

• $10 – $29

  204 8% of all votes

• $30 – $99

  244 10% of all votes

• $100 – $499

  341 14% of all votes

• $500 – $999

  155 6% of all votes

• $1000 – $1499

  81 3% of all votes

• $1500 – $2499

  63 3% of all votes

• $2500 – $4999

  67 3% of all votes

• $5000 – $9999

  47 2% of all votes

• $10000 – $14999

  19 1% of all votes

• Over $15000

  157 6% of all votes

Total Votes: 2490 Started: 11/7/2007

Poll Courtesy of Problogger.net

The thing is, these bloggers are publishing in any number of niches, from making money online to celebrity gossip. It doesn’t matter what topic you pick, what’s important is that you are passionate about the topic you pick and that you improve on your research and organization skills so that your writing will continue to improve. With the right combination of time, effort and passion, you can turn any blog into a money making venture.

What Else Do You Need To Know?

Hopefully by now, you believe you can make money becoming your own publisher, as well, but there are many other things to think about and learn before that will ever become a reality. Most of these things took me more than a year of consistent blogging before I even knew what they were and truth be told, I learn something new every single day. To get started though, let’s keep it to a short list of must knows.

• An understanding of Search Engine Optimization – READ This Book ASAP…You’ll Save Yourself A Year
• An understanding of HOW to make money with a blog – Check out this post for 60+ great blogs on the topic
• An understanding of the different blog platforms – Read this article to help you decide
• An understanding of social media – Read this article to see how to use social media to bring new traffic to your blog

Like I said, there are literally a million other things to learn about blogging, but those are the basics. It requires little to no understanding of HTML, can earn you money, build your reputation, establish you as an expert and replace all your current hobbies. If you aren’t blogging, start. If you’re blogging on MySpace, stop.

You deserve more.

I’m a natural born teacher and nothing is more gratifying to me than to teach my children about the world around them and letting them live their lives and make their own choices. I want my daughters to be strong women that make good decisions in life, and they can’t do that if I make them all for them. More and more, they make decisions that make me proud to be a part of their lives.So who are these amazing people?

Shawna – I can’t believe my oldest daughter is already 11. She is my mini-me and just reminds me so much of me as a child that it teaches me new things about me all the time. She’s a great student, an avid reader, an awesome gymnast and a pro with many Web 2.0 applications.

Alexia - Lexi recently turned 9 and is growing in leaps and bounds. She looks and acts just like her mommy and plays all day long with her dog Snoopy. She’s a tomboy (for now) and loves to show the boys they don’t have a monopoly on any activity and finds a new hobby seemingly every day.

Jessica - At 6 1/2, Jessica is the baby of the family, but boy does she have big spirit. A true free spirit, she isn’t much like me or her mother. On of the girliest girls I’ve ever met, Jessi loves to play dress up, pretend she’s a princess, primp herself with tubs of makeup and most of all, TALK.