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Why is this my final make money online blog post for now?

Well…

I have really enjoyed writing on this blog over the years. More than that, I have enjoyed all the friends and relationships I have built up over that time as a result of this blog.

However, it’s time for me to take a break from this blog. I considered many options that would keep this blog running smoothly without my interaction, but after a lot of thought and prayer I decided it was time for the blog to go on hiatus. If I decide to start it back up again, it will be a VERY different blog and by different I mean unique. But before I get to that I want to let you know some of the reasoning that went behind this decision…

Focus

My business success really turned around when my friend Austin Davis (of My Honest Mechanic) told me “You have to focus!” Austin is an extremely successful affiliate marketer who focuses on one niche and dominates it. He told me the secret to his success is focusing on that one niche and being the best in that niche.

Lately, I have been mostly focused on building our web design and web marketing business. We have had a lot of success due in large part to our focus on Mantyweb Designs and nothing else. However, with most of my focus on the web design business I just can’t put in enough effort to make this blog what I ultimately want it to be.

I strongly believe that focusing 100% of my efforts on Mantyweb Designs will pay off in a big way. While I did consider having someone else take over the day to day tasks of running this blog, it would still require some of my attention, which would have taken focus off my new business.

The Two Tribes

If you haven’t read Brian Clark’s post about the two tribes you should go do that now by clicking here and then come back to finish this post. The two tribes post on CopyBlogger is one of the best blog posts (if not the best blog post) that I read last year.

In the post, Brian talks about the two tribes in Internet marketing. I have struggled trying to placate members of the “cool kids” tribe, while knowing that the only way to make real money online was to do more of what the “internet marketing” tribe says to do. The truth of the matter is that I am not comfortable with EITHER tribe. I have tried finding a balance between the two, and it’s not easy. Some of my friends fall into one tribe or the other. There are some Internet marketers like Brian Clark and Michel Fortin who have managed to walk the tight rope that is the middle tribe (something Brian is now calling the “Third Tribe”), but it’s a very tricky path. You have to be careful not to swing too far in either direction. To quote Brian:

I wonder, though, if there’s any possible way a tribe could come together that was about building real businesses online without being cheesy, sleazy, or tacky? Could a tribe form around ethical business practices, effective persuasive communication that actually sells something, respectful relationships with customers, and a commitment to keeping the White Hat on at all times?

That’s what I have been trying to do and if I ever take this blog off of a hiatus, being part of the third tribe will be one of it’s primary goals. (Note, a few days after I wrote my initial draft of this message, I got a message about joining the “Third Tribe” membership site and have done so, although I have not had the time to see whether it is worthwhile or not).

Providing Value

I can’t provide you enough value right now, because I am focusing every spare minute on providing our clients value above and beyond their expectations. Which is one of the reasons I have to focus on our new business.

Where can you find me now?

Our blog:

http://mantywebdesigns.com/blog/

My wife Jill and I write about many of the same topics that would come up on this blog on our new blog. The focus is more on small business owners, but in my opinion if you are trying to make money online, you need to consider yourself a small business owner. In other words, our new blog is perfect for you. Click here to check it out.

My Newsletter

I will continue to give occasional tips on my newsletter and let you know when any good, ethical products come along. I won’t be promoting anything that I believe will be a waste of your money (in other words, I won’t be promoting a lot of stuff).

What would I do if I reopened the blog?

6-12 months down the road I may revisit the situation. If I do ever open this blog up again it will be for the right reasons. If I do re-open the blog it’s focus will be on making money online without compromising your values. It will also likely have an interesting twist and it is likely that I won’t be the main writer for the blog. The main thing is that I won’t re-open this blog unless I believe that I can bring a unique perspective to the make money online world. I do have a plan that I feel would do that, but it’s not the right time for me to be doing anything else other than growing my internet marketing and web design company.

Blessings to all of you,
George Manty

Just wanted to quickly mention that the 2010 Winter Olympics are about a week away from starting and my wife Jill and her friend from college, Sherry, are covering the Olympics on our blog:

http://winterolympicsnews.com/

They are both excellent writers, so if you are interested in a unique take on this year’s Olympic Games then click here to check them out.

Also, I wanted to let you know that I have a couple of important announcements to make in the next week or two. One of which is about the future of this blog… so stay tuned!

In case you missed it the last several times that it opened up to new members, it looks like there will be another chance for you to sign up for the Local Business Money Machine.

If you want to see our review of the program check it out by clicking here. And, yes our local Internet marketing business is still doing very well.

We will still offer you the same bonus if you sign up through our affiliate link.

If you buy the program, we’d like to help you use the program successfully. We’re offering you a Quick Start Blueprint— the parts of the program that we felt were the most critical for getting started, including our most successful networking tips and the tools (both paid and free) that we’ve found the most useful. And when you finish those trainings and have had a chance to get your feet wet, we’ll give you a 60 minute phone consultation at the end of your first month where you can ask any questions you may have.

To get our bonus for the Local Business Money Machine follow the steps below:

1. Click here on our affiliate link and sign up for their email list. Then when it opens sign up for the program (before it closes).
2. Email your receipt for the program to us at info @ mantywebdesigns.com with the subject line “Make Money Online Blueprint”.
3. After we have verified your sign up using our affiliate link then we will contact you about the blueprint.
4. After you have been in the program for 30 days and are ready to ask us questions, set up your free phone consultation.

My friend Daniel just opened his new Online Profits training course. This course is great for beginners who want to learn all the basics of Internet marketing. Click here to learn more.

And yes, Daniel is a friend, and yes that is an affiliate link and I do get paid if you click on it and buy his product. That said, I honestly believe that Online Profits is a good, solid training program for those new to Internet marketing. Click here to check it out.

PS. Only 300 memberships are being sold, so don’t wait go check it out now.

Hey… I just wanted to quickly tell you to go check out this great example of viral marketing my wife told me about by visiting our new blog:

http://mantywebdesigns.com/blog/2010/01/great-example-of-viral-marketing/

So, what do you think? Can you do something like this online? If so, then what are you waiting for?

My good friend Daniel Scocco of Daily Blog Tips has just released a new free ebook in preparation for the re-opening of his Online Profits course. Last year, I had the pleasure of interviewing Daniel about his program and you can read that interview by clicking here.

Daniel’s new ebook is called, “Ten Deadly Business Mistakes” and it’s both a very good and a pretty quick read. You can download it by clicking here and following the directions on his site.

Mistakes number 2 and 8 in his book are the biggest mistakes I have made in the past that really held back my business. Go read the ebook and let me know your biggest mistakes.

PS. Yes, Daniel is a friend, and yes most of the links in this post are my affiliate links that will pay me money if you sign up for his course.

Just wanted to let you know that my wife Jill and I launched our new blog http://mantywebdesigns.com/blog/. Check the site regularly for news about MantyWeb Designs, news from the Internet marketing and web design world as well as tips about creating a successful online presence.

I realize that our new blog covers a lot of the same topics that I cover here. The main difference between the two blogs is that this blog is aimed more at individuals and that blog is aimed more at business owners. Due to the success of our business I am brainstorming ways to change Can I Make Big Money Online next year to fit into our business plans and at the same time offer more valuable content for you.

So, click here to check out our new blog and let us know what you think about it.

In case you missed it last time, it looks like there will be another chance for you to sign up for the Local Business Money Machine.

If you want to see our review of the program check it out by clicking here. We will still offer you the same bonus if you sign up through our affiliate link.

If you buy the program, we’d like to help you use the program successfully. We’re offering you a Quick Start Blueprint— the parts of the program that we felt were the most critical for getting started, including our most successful networking tips and the tools (both paid and free) that we’ve found the most useful. And when you finish those trainings and have had a chance to get your feet wet, we’ll give you a 60 minute phone consultation at the end of your first month where you can ask any questions you may have.

To get our bonus for the Local Business Money Machine follow the steps below:

1. Click here on our affiliate link and sign up for their email list. Then when it opens sign up for the program (before it closes).
2. Email your receipt for the program to us at info @ mantywebdesigns.com with the subject line “Make Money Online Blueprint”.
3. After we have verified your sign up using our affiliate link then we will contact you about the blueprint.
4. After you have been in the program for 30 days and are ready to ask us questions, set up your free phone consultation.

I want to introduce you to something I like to call “hybrid domain flipping” as an easy and effective way to make money online. Basically it combines domain flipping and site flipping into one easy money making method. This isn’t exactly a new or unknown method but there are plenty of people who don’t know about it and it does work, so I figured I would share it with you.

Here are the steps to take in order to make money from this method:

1) Buy a domain that already has existing PageRank (PR).

There are plenty of places to buy domains for cheap that already have PR so this step is not nearly as difficult as it may sound at first. A good place to find them quickly and very low cost is the digitalpoint forums domain sales section. But you can also get them at sitepoint, sedo, the domain name aftermarket, and many other places.

The important things are that it has valid PR and is either generic enough to be used with any type of content or is niche specific so you can just put that type of content on it. I also wouldn’t buy one that didn’t at least have a PR3 unless it was a perfect domain in every other way. This is because you can get them for relatively cheap and the higher the PR the more value it will have in the eyes of potential buyers.

2) Put a blog and some content up on the domain.

You need to put content up on the domain in the form of a static website or a blog. I recommend a blog because it will be easier to update and will be easier to sell. You will also be more likely to get a higher amount of money for a blog.

If the domain you bought is generic then do some research to figure out what niches are hot sellers right now and build the blog and content around that niche. All you have to do browse around flippa.com for a few minutes to figure that out. If the domain you bought is niche specific then you obviously will want to write content based on that particular niche.

I recommend writing at least 10 high quality posts or pages of content. Put some time and thought into the writing because it will help a lot when you flip it. You’ll probably need to do some quick research online to figure out what topics on the niche to write about.

3) Do some marketing.

Since you bought an aged domain with existing PR it should already have some backlinks and maybe even some traffic coming to it. You don’t want to spend much time or any money marketing it because the point of this is to flip it and make money with the least amount of effort as possible. However, it will only help if you do some marketing. You could do a run of bookmarking it on several social sites and submit a few articles to directories with links pointing to it. Both of those are free and can be done pretty quickly.

4) Flip for profit.
Now it’s time to flip it to make money. Head over to flippa.com or another site selling marketplace and put it up for auction. I recommend keeping it for a couple months before you do this though. But make sure you continue building them during that time so you always have some ready to flip after the initial waiting period is up.

Some people will call this site flipping and others will call it domain flipping, I don’t really consider it to be either one but more of a combination of the two. Whatever you want to call it just know that it’s a great way to make money without spending too much time or effort to do so.

In 2009, my wife Jill and I launched a business that is, so far, surpassing our expectations. Here are three of the main factors that contributed to our success in 2009…

1. Commitment
Early this year (May) I was laid off from my 9-5 job. I had two choices at that point; go look for a job or start a business to make enough money to support my family. After much prayer and discussion with my wife, we decided to start our own business. Prior to being laid off I had been creating websites and marketing them in my spare time, but I never COMMITTED to making my business a success. I always had my 9-5 job to fall back on for money, which kept me from ever totally committing to the business.

All of the people I have known who have had a successful business online have committed to it. Many of them even quit their jobs before starting their business because they understood the importance of commitment. While I don’t recommend you leave your job, I do recommend that you commit yourself to making your business successful. Without commitment it will likely fail. Set some hard deadlines and stick to them.

2. Focus
I have talked about the importance of focus before (see this post). Until I focused on making money with one business (our web marketing and design business), success was elusive.

Now that my wife and I are running a successful business I don’t want to lose focus on that business or it might stop growing. Focus is one of the biggest factors in our success this year and it will continue to be one of the biggest factors in our ongoing success.

3. Time Management
Changing the way I managed my time has made a huge difference in my productivity. Now that I only check my email after I have completed 2 hours worth of important work, my productivity has greatly increased. I learned this and other techniques from various sources, including a very good book on the topic. If you are looking for great time management tips without spending a ton of money, I highly recommend the book, “Getting Things Done”, by David Allen. You can buy a copy at most bookstores or check it out for free at your local library.

One of the other things I did to improve my time management is to create a daily and weekly todo list. I manage the todo list with a very simple free online tool called Voo2Do. At the beginning of each week I create a new todo list with the highest priority items being done earliest in the week to make sure that they get done. In my case, that means that marketing tasks for our clients are done at the beginning of the week. You can also organize your days that way, with the highest priority items being done first and your less high priority items (like checking email) coming later in the day. I also leave some space towards the end of the week for those tasks that get bumped down the priority list by things that required immediate attention, like proposals for clients. Making good use of your time makes a big difference in your business success.

Now, there was a fourth factor that both Jill and I consider to be a bigger factor than any other factor… our belief in God. While everyone may not embrace this view, I do believe that prayer played an important role in our success.

Those were the three things that I did to have a successful 2009, what were the things you did to improve your business?

PS. This post was part of a my friend Daniel’s writing project (Daniel is one of those people I knew who quit his job before starting an online business). You can read all about his project by clicking here.