First of all, if you haven’t already, you need to read this post, which was the inspiration and the foundation for this method I still currently use to build links. And I’m not the only one doing it.

Trouble was, after I read that article, I was left feeling sort of confused still. How do I take a womens shoes site (or something like that!) and turn it into a piece of useful software? Well, one answer is in the title of this post, now isn’t it!?

Screensavers are usually in either one of two formats: .exe or .src. If you don’t already have the software to compile screensavers, you might want to “buy” some. I’m currently using a program called “Screensaver Factory 5 Enterprise”. If you already have some images, you can literally build and compile a simple slideshow screensaver in about 30 seconds. In the womens shoe site scenario, I would probably put together a nice little slideshow featuring the most sought after womens shoes. By default, the program adds little fancy transitions and what not. Not that they really matter too much. If you really want to get maximum benefit, you might want to watermark your images with your URL (yes, people actually download these things).

Distribution
Now, you’ve got your screensaver. It is time to distribute it. Just about every software download site has a submission area. At this point, if you’ve never authored/distributed software before, you might be thinking about outsourcing this part. Well, that’s not entirely necessary, thanks to a little something called a PAD file.

What the Shit is a PAD File?
I’m glad you asked! PAD stands for “portable application description”. Basically, a PAD file is an xml file that exists on your server (or wherever) that contains all the necessary information about your software such as size, version, links to download and more. The idea is that instead of having to manually make updates all the time when things change with software (like updates), you simply update one PAD file and the sites offering the software usually poll their PAD files regularly for changes. Now, the beauty of using the PAD file is that most of these software sites that accept submissions will ONLY ask for a link to your PAD file because it already contains all the information they need. This means your time spent on each site is quite minimal.

I Can Haz PAD File?
Yes, you can. I use a simple utility called PadGen that you can download here to create my PAD files. Keep in mind that not all fields are necessary so don’t spend all afternoon on it. Just get the important ones covered. Some sites do have requirements about what information needs to be contained in a PAD file before it is accepted for inclusion or review.

Hopefully I don’t need to tell you that you need to include your URL to the site/page you’re promoting in your PAD file.

How ‘Bout Some Sites?
Of course. I live to please you. I’m going to give you some master list of software sites that will accept your useless ladies shoe screensavers, but I will give you a few. They really aren’t hard to find, and there are tons of them. And of course many of them just scrape data from the other ones so there are plenty of links to be had, here. There are also distribution services in the business of charging you for distributing your software, but I don’t think they’re necessary for this sort of task. Now, about them sites…

1. Softpedia.com
2. Windows7Download.com
3. FreeDownloadManager.org
4. DailySofts.com
5. PCWin.com
6. FileBoost.net
7. FreeWareTown.com
8. Files54.com
9. A ton more…get your Google on

Alrighty. Have fun. Please don’t take my method (which is obviously just an interpretation of Eli’s Method) and run it into the ground. Thank you.

Warning: I will now use my blog for trivial and counterproductive revenge purposes.

Some time ago, ZenSix (a fine and respectable hosting company) sold all of their cPanel based shared hosting accounts to a company called VPSoutlet. This meant that the shared hosting account I currently had with Zensix became the property of VPSoutlet. What did this mean for me? Well, at the time, it appeared it didn’t mean anything except the annual invoice would have a different company name on it. Boy, was I wrong.

I use this account for a couple PhpBay sites and also for some software and a bunch of redirects. It is not by any means a hub for my primary web raping activity, but it is important to me, nonetheless.

I’ve had a support ticket pending with VPSoutlet since January. Priority: High. I have also attempted to email their support and have received zero response. Not even an automated response.

Naturally, there is no phone number listed. There is, however, a live chat button that always indicates live chat support available. Trouble is, the link doesn’t work.

Basically, you guys suck. Sorry to break it to you. You will get no link from me in this post, either. If you’re looking for a new, affordable shared hosting solution, look elsewhere. These guys are teh suck. I know it’s dirt cheap and I shouldn’t expect world class service, but there ARE cheap shared hosts in the same price range that actually know how to respond to a support ticket. Believe it or not.

Peace.

I am now home safe and sound from ASW in Las Vegas. Unfortunately, I missed the beginning of the show, but the time I did spend there was of course fantastic.

Were you there? Yes? No?? Well, I will now take you there. Here are some photos I took in the exhibit hall, for your enjoyment:

As you can see, the Exhibit Hall was alive with the hustle and bustle of the internet marketing community.

Here I am with Mr. Ralph Ruckman, co-owner of Convert2Media, a network you should already know about, if you know what’s what. Yes, those are complimentary beers in the background. Yes, I took advantage of this.

And here I am with Mr. Daniel Bisacco, my AM over at Copeac (one of my favorite AMs…don’t tell anybody). Please forgive the goofy look on my face. I was just that happy to see him.

All in all, although my time at ASW this year was brief, it was definitely a success. After dropping business cards in so many bowls in the exhibit hall, it is now only a matter of time before the phone calls to alert me about my prize winnings start rolling in. Actually, some dude I was playing roulette next to at the Rio won a Macbook Air at the conference. He must have cheated and dropped two cards.

Last year, I traveled to Vegas with my buddy Lucas and his cousin who was visiting from Argentina. This year it was just Lucas and myself. We managed to have a pretty good time in Las Vegas, despite the cold weather and generally quiet time of year. We drunkenly did so well on roulette and blackjack that in total we ended up only spending about $90 on the entire trip. Including this bad ass suite at the Luxor and the overpriced room service on the table:

Yes, I am cheers-ing him with a shrimp.

Remind me to write off that 90 bucks.

See you in New York.

Whether you’ve got a real-live e-commerce site packed with products that you sell or you just have a bunch of shady affiliate sites selling other people’s crap, read on for info on a little known place to get a bit of extra traffic.

I’m not going to put the name of the site in the body of this post because I fear they will discover my ramblings and then perhaps get a little stricter on the site approval process. In any event, the site + submission page in question can be found here (yes I have it redirecting twice including a double-meta refresh because I’m that excessively paranoid and ridiculous).

It clearly states that they don’t accept affiliate sites…but guess what? Every affiliate site I have submitted has been accepted. Every site gets a trickle of traffic from that site daily from shop-happy visitors. If you know anything about me, you know the vast majority of my shopping sites are built with phpbay. The only sites I’ve submitted have been phpbay stores (and they’ve all been approved).

Once your site is approved, your listings are automatically scraped from your site and included in the index of the shopping site in question (that which we do not speak of). Phpbay listings seem to work fantastically.

If you don’t already own a copy of phpbay, buy it here through my link because you love me.

You do love me, don’t you? Or was that all just sweet talk?

Warning: Inspirational rant for newbies to follow.

Since the new year is upon us, and many of you have goals related to growing and expanding your business, I would like to take the time to go ahead and offer a few words of encouragement for those of you just getting into the game of building and profiting from your own websites.

Having been doing this for a couple of years full-time now, in my opinion I have discovered that the single most important element in a successful SEO strategy is simply time.

I started out more or less broke. In order to fund my new efforts, I turned to content writing. I don’t necessarily particularly enjoy writing, especially for other people, but it was a way to generate an income from home while learning and attempting to build my own business. It was also an invaluable way to gain insight on what successful webmasters were doing. Of course there are other ways to make a quick buck doing client work and learn the ropes, such as coding or designing, but writing just so happened to be the thing I was good enough at to make enough to get started.

Since then, many of my friends have become interested in what exactly it is I do on the computer that allows me to spend most of my time screwing around and blowing money on crap I don’t really need. Often times that interest has turned into questions that turned into them wanting to build their own online business. Out of all the friends and acquaintances I have that asked for my help to get into this affiliate marketing business, all of them gave up or lost interest relatively quickly.

It doesn’t happen overnight. I’m now in a comfortable position where I have several diverse sites generating passive income. If I were to take the month of January off, I would still have an income. However, that nice cushion wasn’t just handed to me. It took months of building and optimizing to get those sites to rank and start earning me $.

The short version of what I’m saying is simply don’t give up. You may not see results in the first month or even the first six months. Any webmaster worth his or her salt will tell you it generally takes 6 months to a year for a site to realize its true potential. I know it can be discouraging to work your ass off on something and still not feel like you’re making any progress a month or two later, but if you’re serious about it, you need to stick with it. The people that give up and fail and then post threads about how SEO is dead and all that nonsense are the people that don’t have the attention span or the drive to really make their business thrive.

In the real world of making money online, there is no magical Google Success Kit that will hold your hand and walk you through the steps necessary to build a successful internet based business. There is no get rich quick formula. Like everything else in life, you’re going to get out of it what you put into it. That said, there is still phenomenal potential on the internet and new opportunities pop up every single day.

We’re still living in the wild west of the internet era. With a little creativity and a generous dose of patience, you may very well find gold in them internetz after all.

I wish you all a prosperous new year. Take care of your families, work your ass off on your business, and please, keep an eye on your girlfriends.

<3

So last night I was perusing Facebook and of course the ads displayed to the right to see what was being advertised to me…

The first ad was for an affiliate network…I thought that was pretty interesting since I don’t mention affiliate marketing at all on my profile.












The second one was for guitar strings…possibly my favorite brand…also quite interesting since I’ve been playing guitar for like 17 years yet do not mention this fact in my “activities” or anywhere else.

At this point I decided Facebook must know me perhaps even better than I know myself…and then I saw the third one…

If you have been following this here blog for a while, perhaps you already know what a great time I had last year at Affiliate Summit West ‘09. I intend to do the same at the next one in January. In fact, I intend to have an even greater time, if you can believe that.

Wanna come? This year, because I’m so awesome, I have a full pass. Pretty sweet. But the fact of the matter is you don’t really need access to all of the educational sessions and all that jazz. Sure, you can learn a lot in those sessions, but an upgraded (aka more expensive) pass is required to get in. However, what makes Affiliate Summit truly great (and anyone who has been will tell you) is the networking opportunities that are nothing short of abundant. Especially if it is your first Aff Summit, all you really need is a silver pass. A silver pass gives you access to the exhibit hall (where network owners will swoon you). The exhibit hall is where the (daytime) action is. It is your duty to find out where the dang parties are each night (and I might just be able to help you with that)!

Let me go ahead and detail what a silver pass gives you access to:

• - Affiliate Meet Market & Exhibit Hall
• - Keynotes
• - Affiliate Summit Social Network

How much does this silver pass cost, you ask!? Well, if you had registered super early (before Oct 19th) it would have been $79. From now until the event, a 2010 ASW Silver Pass can be snagged for $149. And if you somehow forget to register altogether and show up like some sort of vagabond affiliate with no registration, you can get a silver pass on-site for $249.

Or….

If you’re one of the first 5 people to register using the following code: ASW10JACK (that’s my name, silly), you can get a Silver Pass for FREE! Register here at once.

Wahoo!

I look forward to seeing you in Las Vegas. I’ll be the one getting his stomach pumped by a showgirl and simultaneously TwitPic-ing it.

It’s about time. My favorite registrar (as well as the favorite of anyone with any sense!) is finally offering an affiliate program. Sign up here.

The reason Namecheap is such a favorite among webmasters (in my opinion) has to do with the following:

-Free WhoIsGuard with every new domain registration

-They don’t spam the shit out of you (like a different registrar that rhymes with BlowCaddy)

-They’re cheap, as the name implies.

One thing that sort of sucks, though, is you won’t be credited for sales generated using a promo code. Also, the tracking cookie lasts for 30 days, but you’ll only receive a commission for the first sale generated by each customer (15% of it).

Speaking of coupon codes, “SNOWNEEDLE” is the one you want to use for the month of December to get the discount on new domain registrations.

That is all.

That’s right, I’m about to post something useful. Hold on to your off-white hat.

In our never ending quest to build links, posting comments on relevant (or even irrelevant) blogs with a link to your site is still a powerful tool. However, how many times have you stumbled upon a great post that is just BEGGING for your comment, only to discover that comments are strictly moderated? Or worse, they’re moderated AND the blog hasn’t been updated in forever, indicating that it may have been abandoned by the owner altogether?

Don’t give up. There is still hope.

When someone goes to leave a comment on a Wordpress blog, they are presented with four fields:

• -Name (Required)
• -E-mail (Required, not visible to anyone other than site admin)
• -URL (Optional)
• -(Comment)

If the site owner has elected to hold comments in moderation (many do), your comment will not appear immediately after submitting it. It will be held in the moderation queue. Unless, of course, you have had a previously approved comment and you use the same email that you used the first time. Raise your hand if you see where I’m going with this.

The Strategy

…Is simple. Check out the existing comments on the article. Find one with a hyperlinked name. Follow that link to that person’s site, and look for a contact email. Once you’ve found it, return to the article and use the same info to leave another comment. You are now impersonating someone with a previously approved comment. The comment field should allow you to use html. Go ahead and leave your link with whatever dang anchor text you want in there.

As you might have guessed, this will not work 100% of the time. The main reason being you have no way of knowing what email was actually used to leave the comment. However, in all likelihood, the person that left that previously approved comment used the same email that they display on their website. This method also of course depends on the fact that the site owner has a publicly displayed email address.

And now the FAQ…

What if I Can’t Find Their Email?

Move on. Find another comment leaver. Depending on how much you want that link, you may or may not want to spend 20 minutes trying to find one that works.

Is This Unethical?

Sort of, but  it’s not that bad. Actually I think it perfectly reflects the theme and intent of this site.

Will it Work with Other CMS’s besides Wordpress?

Do I look like an internet scientist to you?

Will this Post Upset the Natural Balance of the Wordpress Universe and Destroy the Internet?

Yes.

Will this Shady Shit Work Even on This Site?

Probably, dick!

No, this is not a paid review. Yes, I will be dropping affiliate links. To quote NickyCakes (via Twitter), “I always chuckle when I get accused of using affiliate links on an affiliate marketing blog.” Nonetheless, this is my honest review. Like it or not.

I opened a VPS hosting account with Jaguar PC about six months ago. Although their dirt cheap prices had me skeptical about the quality of service, I decided to give it a shot anyway (yes I realize that sounds like a scammy review site review comment). I needed a home for some new phpbay sites.

I was referred to Jaguar by a friend who told me they were the best host I would find at such a cheap price, even though his account had been terminated for some shady shenanigans. Because of this, if you’re looking for a new host to facilitate your unethical ebony hat business practices, I regret to inform you that Jaguar PC may not be your best option.

Not for Noobs

Although the sign up/payment/setup process was relatively easy, they don’t hold your hand and walk you through it. No colorful advertisements, no hard upsells, no laymen step by step tutorials, no GoDaddy.

I purchased the cheapest Linux VPS package with Fantastico ($2/mo) plus 5 additional IPs which runs me about 28 bucks a month. Right now, if you sign up for the same fully managed package using coupon code VPS10YEARS, it includes the following:

• Root Access
• Unlimited Domains
• 320mb Guaranteed Ram
• 25gb Disk Space
• Choice of cPanel, Interworx, DirectAdmin, Plesk
• Some other crap I can’t remember

Extra IPs are $1 a piece (billed annually) and come in blocks of five. There are plenty of other add-ons available as well.

Support

I was expecting support to suck ass because of the affordability of this host. They do not offer phone support, but they are pretty freakin’ quick when it comes to responding to tickets, and they seem to know what they’re doing. Most issues are resolved in 1-2 tickets (in my experience).

Customer Service

Fine and dandy. When an attorney from a rather large company contacted my host about one of my infringing sites, Jaguar PC was kind enough to contact me and let me know about the situation FIRST, before going and deleting my shit. I’ve had experiences with other hosts where they will not only fold like little bitches and delete my entire site and its associated databases, but they will also delete every single other site on the account. Since Jaguar PC was courteous about it and disclosed everything to me without revealing any of my personal info to the attorney in question, I went ahead and moved the site to a different host (overseas) to alleviate them of any further headaches. This extension of courtesy is one of the main reasons I decided to write this review in the first place.

Why You Need a VPS

If you’re still using shared hosting, consider that a problem. If you don’t want to spend the money on a dedicated server, VPS is the way to go.

The problem with shared hosting is that you are sharing an IP address with a bunch of random sites. If there are a ton of shitty spammy sites on the same IP as yours (which is very likely since you’re on a shared host), it is my belief as well as that of several other SEOs (first and last time I ever refer to myself as one) that Google penalizes all the sites on the IP it knows is notorious for bullshit. I’ve had legitimate sites that just couldn’t rank no matter what I did on shared hosting accounts that leaped to the front of the SERPs after moving them to a dedicated IP (or at least an IP I controlled with few sites on it).

Now that I think about it, this site (offwhitehat) is on an old shitty GoDaddy shared hosting account. There are probably tons of worthless sites on this IP. I just don’t really care all that much about it to bother moving it. Maybe one day.

Well, there you have it. That’s my review. I’m outta this nerd fest.


EDIT: I should also mention that in the six months I’ve been with Jaguar PC, I haven’t experienced any downtime whatsoever. Granted I don’t check my sites every 10 seconds, but there have been no major outages that I know of (or minor, for that matter).